The World Championships have come and gone, and I can only hope that I’ve posted a respectable finish. Team Ooga Booga, the online group that I worked with for the 2009 NACC, tried to cover all the angles of the format. The group I worked with combined two potent teams of player: the RIW guys and the Northeast guys. The latter included two-time Realm Champion Andy Farrell, DMF stalwart and NACC Top 4 competitor Andy Hoang, DMF Charlotte Champion Rob Victory, and retired-then un-retired-then retired again-then un-retired again powerhouse Charles McArthur. The RIW Group should be familiar names from my previous reports, and included everyone that qualified at Gen Con: Dan Clark, Basem Alsalah, Paul Nicolo, Dan Overbeek, Jacob Gillham, and Jason Newill. Michael Jacob also joined the group, as he was qualified for Worlds on rating. There was some overlap, with Basem and Paul joining in on the forums and the MWS battles, but generally both groups operated independently. Overall, it was a pretty good setup, and everyone involved in the partnership benefited greatly.
Of course, teaming up for an event comes with a non-disclosure agreement attached. I’m sorry if I’m bursting your bubble, but it's just part of the game. At the same time, I have always tried to write my 
honest evaluations of formats, decks, and so on. “But Phil,” you may ask, “how do you reconcile those two competing goals?” A good question. The balancing act hasn’t been particularly easy, but I’ll stand behind everything I’ve written pre-Worlds, and I assure you that I was not intentionally distributing misinformation. If I was wrong, or missed something, it was a genuine error! My reputation is worth more to me than any potential edge I may or may not get by disseminating misinformation—I would much rather give it to you guys straight. My previous articles did not include technology discovered by my teammates and deliberately did not discuss in detail the decks we were most interested in.
Speaking of decks we were interested in, the first deck is something of a staple in the format: Mage with Everlasting Cold and Blizzard. In case you don’t recall, I had that particular combination in my second draft at the NACC this year, and it won me three of six games all on its own. Powerful stuff, and I’ve always felt that the best Block Constructed ideas come out of those memorable, synergistic Draft decks. In fact, I freely discussed the potential of that combo at the NACC, and I’d like to think that Corey Burkhart founded the genesis of his format-defining Velindra build on our brief discussion at Gen Con. I posted my first build to our forum on the Monday after Gen Con.
Hero: Nicholas Merrick
Allies: 23
4 Gromble the Apt
4 Cymbre Shadowdrifter
3 Adam Eternum
4 Consul Rhys Lorgrand
4 Woodsie Leafsong
4 Weldon Barov
Abilities: 22
4 Everlasting Cold
4 The Taste of Arcana
4 Spell Suppression
4 Blizzard
3 Combustion
3 Mystic Denial
Locations: 4
4 Eye of the Storm
Quests: 11
It’s worth noting that I thought Call to Arms: Eye of the Storm could be completed at any time, and not only on your turn. I also excluded Mikael the Blunt deliberately, but he was added after only a few games. His power had great synergy with Everlasting Cold and the exhaust effects, adding “offensive superstar” to his list of desirable qualities. A few days later, Rob Victory posted his first build of this deck.
Hero: Nicholas Merrick
Allies: 24
4 Gromble the Apt
4 Mikael the Blunt
4 Elder Achillia
4 Consul Rhys Lorgrand
4 Woodsie Leafsong
4 Weldon Barov
Abilities: 22
4 Everlasting Cold
4 The Taste of Arcana
4 Spell Suppression
4 Blizzard
4 Combustion
2 Heartburn
Locations: 3
3 Twin Spire Ruins
Quests: 11
Cutting Adam was an experiment we tried, because Eye of the Storm did not play well alongside a Blizzard, while Twin Spire would let you recur all sorts of nastiness. Our interest in this deck waned as we moved onto the non-Mage classes. After we saw Corey Burkhart’s list from that first RCQ weekend, we put together our own Horde version.
Hero: Velindra Sepulchre
Allies: 20
Abilities: 22
4 The Taste of Arcana
4 Everlasting Cold
4 Blizzard
4 Brittilize
4 Heartburn
2 Mana Ruby
Equipment: 2
Locations: 4
4 The Circle of Blood
Quests: 12
The Circle of Blood was another Victory suggestion, and I loved it. Not only did it play nicely with Taste, as leaving the location unexhausted seemed innocuous enough, but it also allowed you to actually build up pressure with Blizzard in play. I mentioned before that the best Block decks often originate in Limited games, and the addition of Circle reminded me of a game at DMF Charlotte. I had taken control of the board, and had three large allies while my opponent had none on the board. I had more cards in my hand than my opponent as well, and was feeling pretty good about my chances to win. Then he played a Blizzard. His The Circle of Blood was already in play, and with only one card in his hand, those two cards represented a lethal clock My memory of that game was enough to get me to try the Circle, as the synergy seemed powerful. I was not disappointed.
We also favored Johnny Rotten over Corey’s Keldor the Lost. Keldor seemed like too much of a liability, as a Hesriana player with Eye of the Storm would get too much of an advantage if we played him. Johnny Rotten doesn’t give up value like that, and he can beat up Dimzer the Prestidigitator and Hesriana all day thanks to Shadow Resistance. The power often shot the opposing hero directly, as they were forced to attack due to Everlasting Cold.
The deck stayed close to that list for the next few weeks, and I played it in several Battlegrounds tournaments in order to understand it better. After that experience, I posted an updated deck.
Hero: Velindra Sepulchre
Allies: 16
Abilities: 22
4 Everlasting Cold
4 The Taste of Arcana
4 Brittilize
4 Blizzard
4 Heartburn
2 Mana Ruby
Equipment: 6
4 Arcanite Dragonling
2 Tempest of Chaos
Locations: 4
4 The Circle of Blood
Quests: 12
I tried out plenty of cards in the side deck, such as Talisman of the Horde, Ice Lance, Wub's Cursed Hexblade, and so on.
Arcanite Dragonling took the place of Nathaniel Voran, as the 2/3 had a dangerously low power level. Dragonling had a couple of key advantages. It could attack through a Blizzard or an Eye of the Storm, dodged Mikael the Blunt, and gave me an additional 1-cost play. The first time I opened a game with turn one Everlasting Cold, turn two Arcanite Dragonling with 1 resource
up . . . well, I smiled.
The Tempest of Chaos didn’t end up playing well for me. In fact, there was a little misunderstanding about the rules that had convinced me to play it in the first place! It was very bad against Weldon Barov, Adam Eternum, and the entire Escape Artist crew. Did you know that if you randomly target an ally with Escape Artist, and they return it to their hand, you don’t get the counter because the entire ability does not resolve? I didn’t. After some quick changes over the next day or so (-2 Tempest of Chaos, -1 Johnny Rotten, -1 Proving Grounds, +3 Spell Suppression, +1 Mana Ruby), the decklist began testing in earnest. It tested very well for all parties involved, and most of the group began touting Velindra as a legitimate choice for Austin.
While everyone in the group was getting more and more excited about Velindra, I was thinking about other angles for the format, such as solo. As I said in my solo article, I think that archetype's success is often based on its perceived popularity. While I think the Paladin lists are generally garbage, the solo Warrior deck I presented in that article was the culmination of many discussions with Michael Jacob and several MWS testing sessions.
Hero: Chloe Mithrilbolt
Abilities: 20
Equipment: 26
Locations: 2
Quests: 12
The numbers are off, but the basic principles are sound. The goal is to set up an armor wall with Defiance and protect it with interrupts until you can kill them. The biggest issue I faced was that the early weapons were pretty ineffective late in the game, and I had a hard time getting offensive. Once McArthur worked with the deck a little bit, it became obvious that Vengeful Gladiator’s Bonecracker solved those issues nicely. It worked early to chop down threatening allies, then segued into an endgame powerhouse with frightening speed, combining well with Merciless Gladiator’s Battlegear and In Defense of Halaa. I played this deck at a Battlegrounds event, and did a bunch of testing over the last two weeks before Worlds. Here’s the list I did the bulk of that testing with, only a few cards different from the above:
Hero: Chloe Mithrilbolt
Abilities: 22
Equipment: 23
3 Cloak of Darkness
2 Bonefist Gauntlets
1 Tankatronic Goggles
1 Amani Mask of Death
2 Boots of the Resilient
2 Slayer’s Waistguard
3 Berserker Bracers
1 Merciless Gladiator’s Battlegear
Quests: 15
Concerted Efforts is my favorite little piece of technology in this update, as it hits 32 cards in the main deck. Compare that to the numbers that One Draenei’s Junk . . . hit at Worlds 2007, and you will see just how awesome Concerted Efforts is in here. The matchups against the big decks broke down like this:
Against blue Warlock, the games generally revolved around whether or not you could resolve Owned! on their Pappy Ironbane. If you can, you win; if not, you lose. That means you need to use your interrupts and card draw to keep them from emptying your hand. Once the Pappy hits, if you can Owned! with any sort of board presence at all, winning should become academic—they can no longer make any threatening plays. Suspended Curse can kill some random stuff, but it should rarely matter so late in the game.
Alliance Rogue was slightly worse, as Deadliness is obnoxious, and Detect Traps is very threatening early. However, the only card that will actually beat you completely is still Pappy, so make sure to keep Owned! at the ready. I expected Rogue to be the less-popular Gnome deck.
Red Mage was a favorable matchup. Sure, they have Brittilize to pop off some armors, and Spell Suppression to neutralize your Defiance, but overall it's very much in the Warrior's favor. Amani Mask of Death is an absolute all-star in this matchup, taking out all sorts of problematic ongoing abilities. Mostly, I try and save it to kill two Spell Suppressions in one shot.
Red Priest, on the other hand, is a downright miserable pairing. Your inability to prevent the damage from Searing Light means you have to try and race them. This is an impossible task without an early Bonecracker, and it's difficult even then. Emek suffers from a worse matchup against the blue decks than Velindra, and I expected it to be the less-popular of the Dethvir decks.
The solo “mirror” is enormously in your favor. While you are both doing essentially the same thing, you have interrupts to keep their best cards from landing. On top of that, Merciless Gladiator’s Battlegear is almost insurmountable for them and will keep them locked down until you can get around to killing them.
For a minute, we were scared of Ossus the Ancient + Arcane Warding, but then we realized that Goggles + Owned! would handle that particular issue. Their interrupts, however, could be problematic.
After some additional testing, I went back for one more round of changes. I didn’t find the Cowering Shouts to be particularly necessary, although they were reasonable against a wide array of opponents. I also found myself losing more games than I felt I should simply to not seeing an Owned!, which made a fourth copy a natural addition. I cut the three Shouts and added two Shield Walls as well. I also fixed the quests, by dropping a clunky Soup for the Soul for the last copy of the sleek and awesome Concerted Efforts. The two Shield Walls were nice with Berserker Bracers, as they made it easier to take the minimum amount of damage per turn, but the anti-synergy with my Amani Mask of Death and Talisman of the Alliance was awkward. After a few games, I decided to switch them out for Absolute Poise and Keys to the Armory.
Hero: Chloe Mithrilbolt
Abilities: 22
Equipment: 23
Quests: 15
Side Deck: 10
While I was testing Chloe intensively, my teammates made a breakthrough with Velindra. See, you don’t necessarily have to play with The Taste of Arcana in order to force your opponents to play around it, and that’s the most powerful part of the card. Cutting Taste gave us room to put Ice Barbs in the main deck, and it really slowed most opponents down. It's great against Backlash, Victimize, and all the other Warlock draw. It's equally great against Mage’s Mana Ruby, and it also shuts down Warrior’s Bloody Ritual. Toss on the fact that it hurts quests and exhausts 1 opposing resource per turn, and you have a strong ongoing. It's perfect for a tempo deck like Velindra. Here’s the final list that they arrived at for Velindra.
Hero: Velindra Sepulchre
Allies: 15
4 Dark Archon Farrum
4 Sivandra Darklust
3 Johnny Rotten
4 Dethvir the Malignant
Abilities: 26
4 Everlasting Cold
3 Spell Suppression
4 Brittilize
4 Blizzard
4 Ice Barbs
4 Heartburn
3 Mana Ruby
Equipment: 4
4 Arcanite Dragonling
Locations: 3
3 The Circle of Blood
Quests: 12
In addition the Taste gambit, this list features a new side deck and some cleaner numbers. Once again, I find myself in a classic dilemma: I have two decks that I like for this format. Which one should I play? In my head, the debate raged:
Battlin' Phil: “ Warrior has a very solid game plan against the field, and some auto win matchups, whereas mage has a lot of grinding matchups!”
Controlling Cape: “Mage is the deck I’ve tested more with and feel more comfortable playing.”
Battlin' Phil: “But then again, my opponents are less likely to have tested against Warrior, making play more difficult for them.”
Controlling Cape:“However, the Warrior deck will probably go to time a lot more often, making my tournament day longer and more mentally taxing.”
Battlin' Phil: “The Mage deck has a big weakness (Talisman of the Alliance) and no good answer for it.”
Controlling Cape: “The Warrior deck still feels like it’s a few cards off optimal, while the Velindra list is very tight.”
As I'm writing this, I don’t know which path I will choose, but I’m confident that I will make the right choice. I hope everyone had a great time at Worlds, and congrats to our new champion!
