This past week, though a little quieter than I'd like on the blogging front, has been warlock week for the deckbuilding department housed between my ears. The good people upstairs put in some overtime, though, and finally churned out a deck that I'm been more happy with than the other card-born manifestations of the Warcraft universe these now long-gone few days have seen me trying to build.
And I've been trying a lot.
I think a lot of people feel now - myself included, though I'm trying to fight it - that most of what are sure to be the strongest builds in this format are already out there. At the very least, the basic structure that a particular deck of one kind or another must take in order to be competitive seem to be pretty well established. You can do at least nine different versions of the Myriam Starcaller with protectors and Inspire build, but ultimately they're going to feature a lot of the same now well-established ally cards. Making a weapons solo? Here are your daggers:
Enjoy.
***
Now the great thing is that the field of competitve decks is relatively vast. There are certainly a couple archetypes that stand out above the rest as the decks to beat (Runetusk, Desecrator, Lionar and Aleyah). The problem is, for deckbuilders, this is one hell of a tough gauntlet to go up against.
Is there another Tier 1 deck out there? Maybe. Actually, probably. It's just going to take a good amount of effort and innovation to find it (or maybe the opposite, maybe it's staring everybody right in the face and all it will take someone to look up and see it).
Objection, your Honor, conjecture!
Alright, alright, so I have a tendancy to dawdle through introdutions... and also apparently to have conversations with myself as if I were at least three different persons in a court of law.
Let's get to the deck list then. Keep in mind, it's only a week or so old and as such hasn't possibly been testing in every match-up that I'd like to have it done in as many times as I'd think I'd like it to have been. But I figured, take them what you've got and they'll probably show you what you've missed. This one has had some pretty decent results in the games I've played with it so far.
Warlock Week Results Pt. 1: Appetite for Destruction
Hero
Pagatha Soulbinder
Allies (11)
4x Vexmaster Nar'jo
3x Sha'kar
4x Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy
Abilities (31)
4x Immolate
4x Incinerate
4x Eye of Kilrogg
4x Corruption
4x Shadowbolt
4x Shadowburn
4x Shadowfury
3x Invoke the Nether
Equipment (3)
3x Bringer of Death
Quests (16)
4x Orders from Lady Vashj
4x Solanian's Belongings
4x Counterattack!
4x Forces of Jaedenar
***
The reason I've been looking at warlock is because outside of the Ripped deck warlock builds have been pretty scarce. Destruction was actually the last of the talent specs I went too after sputtering out on Demonology and Affliction (though I'm still working on both). It's got an abilties suite half a deck wide with three varieties of Shadow.
Some of the card choices are obvious, but I can talk a bit first about what I didn't decide to include, before I move on to some of the less opaque decisions and their relative whys and how comes.
I played Death Coil in there for a while, but with the bevy of Horde allies that affect the game when they enter play, I went instead with Shadowbolt instead that, like Corruption, can generate some extra card advantage if the timing is right.
Pure removal effects like Shred Soul that I tried didn't quite seem to fit either, because they couldn't double as damage when needed.
Fel Fire I ran for a while, and will probabaly try again because
it makes Incinerate and Sha'kar all the more likely to go down big, but because it wasn't instant I was never quite happy enough with how it played. Corruption does a bit more of number on ally rush decks and protectors like Antikron so it's just always seemed to come more in handy.
Shadowfury does a nice turn stall against Myriam, if you're on the play. It exhausts protectors and can trade three or four for one with rush. It's a shame it doesn't target heroes as well, but nonetheless, like BoD for solo, it's a necessary four-of in this build.
Hellfire is fun. It's a lot of fun, as a matter of fact. Highlights include a turn six unanswered Ras'fari followed by a turn seven Hellfire with Ras swinging in for eight, and then an almost high-five the nearest stranger moment against a mage player with two
Zandar Shadesprockets out, although sadly he had a Nether Fracture in hand. And played it, which in my view is a disservice to posterity.
But I actually decided to cut it.
Invoke the Nether proves better in most match-ups, up to and including red pally control. If the Destruction deck were faster than it currently is, or faster or as fast as other decks in the meta, Hellfire might be a better way to clear up the board towards the end of the game, and deal the extra little damage in the process to put the opponent closer to death.
But, I don't think the builds perfected yet. I don't know whether I should include a late drop like Varimathras or not (doesn't seem like it), whether I should go pure solo or switch over to Alliance, which are things that'll take more time and fiddling, but the Horde version I feel is already off to a very nice start.
***
During the writing of this, I also thought of a few other ideas to try out in this deck. They're all wands, actually. I'll post them below as I sign out.
Wand Numero Uno. It's basically just another way to do a little more damage. The upshot is it will enable Sha'kar, though it won't work with Incinerate to make the 2-coster deal 4.
Nummer Zwei: Now one just looks like it's going to be broken one of these days, though not in this build. Nonetheless, if you can pull an Incinerate for four on a hero you'll be able to plug away on some allies and pull some serious card advantage out of this thing. I've never seen it used in any other deck before and I'm wondering if it might have a place here.
Numero Trois: Nothing much interesting to saw here. If I ran this I'd definitely be putting in Swift Discipline as well were before I was on the fence about its necessity.
-Ryan
"Fast, cheap and good... pick two. If it's fast and good, it won't be cheap. If it's cheap and fast, it won't be good. If it's cheap and good, it won't be fast."
- Jim Jarmusch
Tags: Warcraft
