Most of the time when playing an epic it's all about healing, because as soon as the game starts they are going to have a target on its back to get a big lead early when it comes to vp's especially when it comes to low honor parties. So lets use this knowledge to our advantage and if we are lucky catch our opponent off guard. After reviewing the map for worlds I notice like most two things right off the bat. First, there are 15 tiles of terrain which affect movement and line of sight. And secondly, based on the rules of the scenario you have to choose a party with a goal to capture the flag or a party to go for kills. The best party will probably do both or be able to prevent your opponent from doing so. As Corle Hoffman stated in a previous article that people will be looking for creative ways to prevent flag capture and vice a versa, lets take a different approach...

One thing that I like for this scenario is that it forces your opponent to come to you either for the flag or for kills. So in order to use it to our advantage, lets make a team that benefits from adjacency. Next, some of the best defense is a solid offense so we are going to need a weapon to generate our kills. And last but not least a way to setup our kills and control the flow of the game.

As for team building lets start with our weapon and build from there. Since our overall goal is to rack up kills as quickly as we can we will have to balance speed with power. That is why I chose Cairne Bloodhoof as our main weapon with his ability "sent packing" and at T3 for P7 its a good start.

Now we need to enhance his attack with adjacency and find a way to setup his attack for some guaranteed kills or as the case maybe both in one form, sort of. I was thinking Morova of the Sands would be so perfect for this job why not use two. With combined power of two Morova's we can create a decent wall, wear down our oppenant, and setup for the kills with board control all in one. Even with all her talents she can't do it alone, so she will need some help in the form of two ABC's Moonkin Form, to enhance her attack along with Cairne's and provide some defense at 3A,3R,8H she approaches haruk's toughness. And Secondly, Entangling Roots, to lock down your opponents and allow you the time needed to setup Cairne for the kill. Some other points for entangling roots is that it works perfectly with Morova in that it is a balance abilty and it costs T2 to allow her crit to ready it as needed and work with her starburst ability to gain a tick advantage from the start. Another thing is that it give the pair of druids some range (R3, equal to the range of Vashj) against their opponents that try to ware them down from afar.

The overall gameplan is to use the great wall of Morova to block line of sight to Cairne and use entangling roots to control your opponents positioning while setting up Cairne for the kill. As for Cairne's ABC's you have plenty of options. Since our Morova's are set a two abc's a piece, that leaves us with five ways to improve Cairne's chances. First up we have Cairne's Thunderclap a T1 ability that deals 2 damage to each adjacent character, can be good for dealing with pets and totems, also a way to get through tough armor. Next we have Sunder Armor, an instant ability that deals with high armor, paladins, and everybody's favorite Bulwark of Azzinoth, by lowering their armor you increase you attack power and getting rid of a pesky equipment like a crimson pair of boots is just icing on the cake. The next two abc's are equipment and while they help with our goal they also add to the overall honor total which in turn adds more to the number of kills needed to achieve victory, Nightmare Blade reinforces Cairne's crit and adds a reroll (T3R1P7 that crits on 9 and 0 with a reroll, not bad) and the second might be a bit of a wild card but given the scenario add mobility can't be too bad since others are boasting about beast with 3 move, is X-52 Rocket Helmet. By gaining flight, it allows you to ignore all 15 terrain spaces and move through enemies to get the job done. As for the last slot you have many options: Charge to increase move, Cleave to double the Sent Packing ability, Execute to finish off a troubling opponent that wont die, or one of my favorites if used correctly Hamstring. Either way you slice it your in for ruff ride and fun time. Hope this helps, in prepairing for worlds and pm me if you give this bunch a try. Thank you for your time.

Batters Up: 24-27 honor
Morova of the Sands
Moonkin Form
Entanling Roots
Morova of the Sands
Moonkin Form
Entangling Roots
Cairne Bloodhoof
Cairne's Thunderclap
Sunder Armor
Nightmare Blade
X-52 Rocket Helmet
Cleave, Charge, Execute or Hamstring

While navigable it is worth noting that if a character has root tokens left after they take damage from Cairne, they can NOT be moved via sent packing.

Before writing this article I scoured the rules forum as for a Clarification on how Entangling Roots really works when it comes to damage and counters. Please correct me if I am wrong but it seems that the character is debuffed and three counters are added, either at the end of that characters turn or when it receives damage a counter gets removed. Therefore, it doesn't mater if it's one point of damage or three points of damage only one counter will be removed.

It does say in the rules forum that you are correct in that even if there is only one counter left, "Sent Packing" is negated. But all that means is that we wait until there are no counters or have the Morova's deal some damage to speed things along. The great thing about the twin Morova's is that you can use the starburst ability and play it free the first time then have 2 chances to ready it with the crit ability of their main attack (T2R2M4 and crits on 9 and 0) while their opponents are stuck to the board. With careful planning you could permanently lock down a single character like Vashj or lock one or two down to allow mismatches like 2 on 1. With entangling roots each you cast it, it resets to three counters again. That way you can keep things lockdown until you are ready for Cairne to send them packing, and if your are lucky you might be able to lock all three opponents down then hit them with his thunder clap followed by two wrath attacks by the Morova's and end with Cairne for the kill. (cleave anyone?)

Lastly, I was thinking about Cairne's Last Abc and worst case scenario you could always throw in a Silk bandage for those knock down drag out fights. Have Morova's lock down the enemy while Cairne's in the back channeling is heal all the way back to 11H.