Despite today not being Halloween, today’s column will focus on Demons of all shapes and sizes. Our most recent missive from the Office of Achievements included No Rest for the Wicked, which requires that we win a game with a Demon hero. Coincidentally enough, that list also included Menagerie, which asks that you control three pets at the same time. Those two leave me staring real hard at Obliveron. And now, for the piece de resistance, let’s go for No Mana. Who needs Form of the Serpent? Oh, and in case you were wondering, this deck will have Not Trusted covered by default.
So we’re definitely building everyone’s favorite pit lord, Obliveron. As a refresher, let’s go over his deckbuilding restrictions. You can have multiple pets in play at the same time, but you can only play Demons, neutral quests, and Traitor cards. When you add on our self-imposed restriction of no abilities, that leaves us looking at a very small set of options. Even so, our allies are going to be incredibly powerful! That’s always been a defining characteristic of Obliveron builds, including those seen wandering around at NACC 2009: combining under-costed allies with some really good removal. If the thought of giving up Sudden Death and Gut Shot makes you cringe, then feel free to add them yourself . . . but there’s no better opportunity than now to get No Mana done. Who wouldn’t want to forgo abilities when you can only use about twenty anyway?
To start off, let’s make sure that we’ve got enough pets in the list. A few of these little balls of evil will be very familiar, while the others are serving as ersatz abilities. A playset of Apocanon is essential; his rocky 4/4 body for 3 is incredibly efficient. Thulthun is another familiar face in the same vein, as a 3/3 for 2 with very relevant text. Since we won’t have any ability-based spot removal for opposing allies, it’s important that we can get them with our attacks. Blood of Gladiators gives us four Phase Hound, the next logical choice in the world of absurdly-sized allies for cost. All of these allies are staples in Obliveron lists, but the next few may be showing themselves for the first time.
We’ll start at the top, plugging in four Dread Infernal. The 5/5 is a gigantic, peasant-cleaning machine! Way below him on the curve is Velnoth, a plucky 1/4 for 2 with the ability to heal himself while also protecting his true master. Cheaper still are Gakmat and Gobloz, both of whom will do very little on their own. They'll just just hang out next to Obliveron until the time is right, at which point Gakmat will explode upon some unsuspecting ally, and Gobloz will ping away in an artillery role when our other allies are dealt damage. The ever-popular Hesriana will be our one-stop shop for direct removal, of course. Gakmat and Hesriana will both be four-ofs, while I'd advise only running two copies of Gobloz.
Pets are done! Time to diversify our ally base. To flesh out our army of 1-cost demons, I’m turning once again to Sister of Pain, a pleasantly aggressive 1/2 beater. We’ll also call on Warbringer Arix’amal, another Obliveron favorite, and the only unique one of the bunch. Remember, with Apocanon in play, he gives his bonus to opposing allies as well, so be careful! To wrap up our suite, we’ll bring in four Priestess of Dementia, the only answer 
we have for opposing equipment and abilities. I think we should round things out with two Bonechewer Behemoth. All of these Traitor cards are sporting strong effects that earn their hefty costs, which will help us continue to affect the board if the game goes long. The big men will also serve to clear the way for the cheaper Demons, so that they may continue spreading mayhem unimpeded. If you want your version to be more aggressive, you could probably afford to ditch two Priestess of Dementia for two more Bonechewer Behemoths. I’m biased, though—Bonechewer and I go way back.
That brings us up to 44 of our most appealing and versatile allies. Quests are also a pretty straightforward decision, with eight of our sixteen ready-made for Demon heroes. You Are Rakh’likh, Demon is your own personal Rise and Be Recognized, and What Illidan Wants, Illidan Gets provides some cheaper draw. Speaking of Rise and Be Recognized, we can certainly afford to bring along four of those, since we have no reason to hold resources open on other players' turns. To round out our quest base, we’ll add two each of Falling to Corruption and the ever-popular Orders from Lady Vashj. These are two of my favorite “reload” quests, and they're also the cheapest. Other options include Proving Grounds and Outland Sucks!, so feel free to experiment. I’m a little leery of Orders in this deck, but I think it will be decent if we only run a pair.
List’s up!
Hero: Obliveron
Allies: 44
Quests: 16
Voila! One swarm of feisty demons eager to cook, clean, and fight . . . wait, no! Those are peasants. These are the minions of Obliveron, and they’re chomping at the bit to get out there and achieve for you. You’re guaranteed to have yourself a demonic time with these guys, so give it a shot at your local store and let me know how it goes!
