It’s that special time of the year for World of Warcraft TCG players. Tomorrow, legions of competitors will descend upon Austin, Texas in pursuit of glory, big money, and that elusive Championship trophy. As a community, we've done our best with the Drums of War Block Constructed format. The early RCQs were wide open, showcasing the best elements of an unexplored format: it was unpredictable, fresh, and full of innovation. As the season wore on, results became harder to interpret and less list-oriented—players were stockpiling technology for Worlds. In spite of those limited results, I think we’ve been able to get a pretty good handle on the metagame.
At its core, the format revolves around the classic struggle between Alliance and Horde. The Alliance ally decks come in a couple of flavors, but Ryno the Wicked has risen above the rest as the Alliance deck to beat. The biggest thing these decks share is the Gnome champion, Dimzer the Prestidigitator. Dimzer is a huge threat that is difficult to answer. When left unchecked, Dimzer turns all of your allies into card advantage machines that keep you chugging through the deck. Similarly, the Horde has rallied around a racial champion of their own: Dethvir the Malignant. Team Undead has proven resilient to the Vanquish effects that litter the block, and Dethvir’s power can protect other Will of the Forsaken allies from AoE damage, keeping your team safe and swinging. These aggressive red drops tend to pop up in Mage and Priest archetypes, but Rogue and Warlock are very realistic options. It appears, based on the consensus builds available, that Priest beats Mage, while Mage is stronger against the Alliance decks.
The solo decks reside outside of this petty faction conflict. These archetypes don’t care which side they are on and will switch factions for something as simple as Divine Favor or Pappy Ironbane. As I said in a previous article, these decks can spring up and bite you if you’re unprepared, so don’t ignore them.
There are also a couple of fringe strategies, including Orcs. Orcs, fresh off a finals appearance at the NACC, seems like it should be a big player in Block. However, the loss of its best early allies has combined with the power of Vanquish-type effects (Hesriana and Wub’s Cursed Hexblade, specifically) to rob the deck of its essential aggression. Furthermore, the classes that can play Kazamon Steelskin tend to be reliant on some sort of weapon, such as Rogue with Black Amnesty and Blackout Truncheon. That significantly weakens Munkin Blackfist, one of the best Orcs in the deck. I’ve tried these decks, and they always seemed too easy to answer and too slow to be competitive. If the trend towards WoTF-friendly removal continues, Orcs could be a real player, as some decks will be unable to remove Kazamon Steelskin. Still, I expect that Orcs will have a small part in the drama of Worlds.
Speaking of removal, Hibernate is an awesome ability in this format. Not only can it deal with Dethvir and Weldon, but it hits Pappy Ironbane before he can even disrupt your board! It’s somewhat surprising that Druid hasn’t really made waves in the metagame. It has all the tools to wreck team Undead, with cheap, value-laden answers. Druid is also packing the only true board-wipe in the Block: Utopia. I’ve tried several different builds with varying degrees of success, but the constant issues seem to be a lack of card draw and difficulty dealing with opposing discard effects. If Druid had Innervate, I think it would be a major contender, but without it . . . Druid remains a fringe strategy. I really do hope that someone shows up at Worlds with an awesome Druid control deck and shows us all how it's done!
I think almost all of the classes have been well-represented in the metagame. As usual, Hunter is a better choice for Day Two than Day One, but even Death Knight has gotten a little bit of play. Andrew Trebing’s version, showcased on this site a few weeks ago, had some interesting things going on, but missed the power of Blood Presence. Whether you are playing fair with Diseases or trying to “go broken” with Foam Sword Rack, Blood Presence is one of Death Knight’s most powerful abilities. There are always a few innovative deckbuilders in the crowd who will try to stand out by playing something crazy, and I think Death Knight will be that deck this year. It’s actually competitive to boot!
Overall, I’m predicting (roughly) the following:
Blue ally Decks (Ryno, Gyro, etc.): 35%
Will of the Forsaken ally Decks (Emek, Velindra, etc.): 35%
Solo based on Jin’rohk, the Great Apocalypse (Paladin and Warrior flavors): 10%
Random/rogue decks: 20%
Also, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Pappy Ironbane is the most important ally in the Block. He may even be the most important card!
At this point, I’m most excited to see what makes up the unknown decks, as I’m sure there is some great innovation out there. With nearly two weeks until the start of the tournament as I write this, I’m still looking at every random rare and hoping that I will be the one who discovers a great piece of technology for Worlds.
Sorry for the short article, but there really isn’t a ton to say until after Worlds. Good luck to everyone this weekend!
