We're leaving the the double-digits after today in the countdown to the Sneak Preview and our first crack at the Hunt for Illidan. Most eyes, including my own, are stabbing daggers at WoWTCG.com daily, watching for the next preview and for hints in the forums of other cards previewed on other sites. Then there's the crafting cards coming up too... it seems there are fresh winds of change a'blowin' over the World of Warcraft TCG and those winds smell like newly printed cardboard goodness.
If you haven't had a chance to keep track properly of all the new previews, here's a handy little link that should bring you up to speed:
HFI/Crafting Previews Omnibus
With that being said, before the sun sets over SotB, I want to take a last stab at a priest build that was always right there in front of everybody but never made it in the way other archetypes did: like the lightning fast, multi-threatening Form of the Serpent druid or the dastardly draw-block of Voidfire priest.
If you're feeling like the game's gotten a little stagnant in the last days before the new release with everybody playing one form or another of the same old decks (I know a few people who are), take a look at this. It's fun, I promise you that, and though it has it's weaknesses I guarentee you that you can net a couple wins with it too.
It's name comes from the fact that an earlier build ran four-ofs of the Gingerbread Cookie from the Feast of Winterveil and though the Gingerbread was later removed the name was cool enough to stick.
Ladies and gents, the Gingerbread Eclipse:
"It's a cookbook!"
HERO
Bloodtusk
ALLIES
4x Vexmaster Nar'jo
4x Shadowfiend
3x Gur'zuk
2x Doshura Risestrider
2x Warlord Kalithresh
3x Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy
2x Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider
ABILITIES
4x Melt Face
4x Shadow Word: Death
4x Binding Heal
4x Greater Heal
4x Eclipse
EQUIPMENT
2x Whitemane's Chapeau
2x Headmaster's Charge
2x The Bringer of Death
QUEST
4x Forces of Jaedenar
3x The Name of the Beast
4x Thwarting Kolkar Aggression
3x Information Gathering
SIDEBOARD
2x The Bringer of Death
3x Silea Dawnwalker
3x Absorb Magic
2x Doshura Risestrider
* * *
This is basically a tempo/mid-range deck with an Eclipse-driven combo finisher. While you're focusing on answer your opponent's threats and getting an initial 5-10 damage on his hero, you're quietly bidding your time for a turn five EoT Eclipse.
The neat thing about Eclipse as a finisher (aside from it rather epic to heal your opponent to death) is that two-thirds of the combo pieces serve a double function as a heal to keep damage off your hero so you can work towards the end-game. Binding Heal especially is a huge health-swing when you have Eclipse on the table.
I could've made this deck a more single-minded Eclipse rush, going for a plausible turn six kill by trying to load fourteen points of damage on the opponent as quickly as possible for the win. But I don't that approach, because it's got one way to win and if the rush is stalled it's scoop. Such decks too are rather boring.
This particular build doesn't even need the Eclipse combo to win. You can win with a turn nine Prince Kael'thas, or a unanswered damage rush with Ras'fari and Warlord Kalithresh.
There's a few old faces in there you might be wondering about in here. Top of the list is Whitemane's Chapeau.
Whitemane's Chapeau is the poor man's Solanian's Belongings in this deck - or should I say poor troll's. The ability retrieval quest is one of the reasons you see a lot of ability based Horde control decks sticking to blood elf characters. True, Bloodtusk is Horde so I could technically run the quest anyway, but the Chapeau is honestly much more efficient. It has that all important one armor against Voidfire Wand decks and it's an easy sacrifice to Tatulla.
Which brings me to the epic HoA staff.
It fills the role of what I'm calling the Five-Cost Draw Engines. These are the cards that you see control decks playing to generate the card advantage they need to be able to stall out and answer every threat you play until they can reach the critical resource count to play their finisher. Bloodrage and Blessing of Wisdom are the two principle examples, but Headmaster's Charge is a just as playable third that I've personally only ever seen played in a tournament decklist once.
Against a warrior, you probably want to side it out, because it's much more vulnerable in that match-up because of Smash and Puncture then Bloodrage and the Blessing are. But with exactly a third of this deck being abilities, it can net you quite a few extra cards if it goes unanswered.
The Bringer of Death is an important card against rush and solo match-ups. This caster-class board wipe is an incredible boon for the lower-health heroes of the game.
The sideboard shores up what I believe to be the more difficult match-ups for this deck (mage can still be tricky with Fizzles and Counterspells and is a bit hard to tech against), namely solo and rush. Doshura, Silea and an extra two Bringers often will more than do the trick, especially against an opposing rogue.
* * *
Traitor warrior control is the most difficult match-up for this deck, in my experience. The damage output in this deck is strictly, with one exception, ally based and the amount of targeted removal and insta-kill is rather daunting. The best bet is to try and whether the storm as best as possible. Kael'thas provides a good method to win, but they might just tick themselves into Eclipse range with Bloodrage as well...
Mage can also be a little tough for the Eclipse win-condition. The best bet here is to go for an ally based victory approach.
Red paladin control with its never-have-a-bad-match-up attitude finds itself again without a bad match-up here. Siding in Absorb Magic will fight off those Blessings of Freedom and Wisdom, however. Don't forget the former is on-going!
If you draw one or two heals, rush and rogue solo are both very managable match-ups. Of course, there's always the potential to simply lose to a nuts draw, but your chances of winning with Bloodtusk are definitely there.
Tags: Warcraft
