Today, I'm discussing one of those options. Marlowe Christophers was one of the figures that excited nearly everyone when Spoils of War was first released. A poll of the top players was conducted at the Charlotte Darkmoon Faire as to which new Spoils character was the most powerful; Marlowe won it hands down. Here was a playable Warlock for just 4 honor, and he could even use Shadowburn! All sorts of good ideas for playing Marlowe danced in our heads, such as running mass damage over time—double-dotting the enemy's entire team and winning on tick 10 with three easy kills. Other Action Bar cards besides DoTs also look good with Marlowe: Shadowburn, Death Coil (it heals 2 with Fel Armor!), Summon Santuria, and so on.

As it turned out, Marlowes nearly vanished from the meta upon release. Players tested Marlowes against the rest of the format for Realm Championships, and they were found wanting. Tank parties could survive the DoTs with healing and Cleanses. Kialas could beat them with higher resist. Vashj teams could speedily one-shot the Marlowes before they even attacked. Zoo’s pets can rip up Marlowes in a quick minute. Later, Mortimer bands emerged as the party of choice for Warlock aficionados. Marlowe was put on the shelf as a figure that was good in theory but really couldn’t make the top tier cut. High-honor bands that could outlast and kill the Marlowes became the order of the day.

Let’s dust off Marlowe Christophers and give him a look—he could be ready for center stage in Austin. One might wonder why I would say that, given that Marlowe's predators are still around, and Marlowe himself lacks the mobility needed for flag captures.

However, there are many things that play in Marlowe’s favor. Twelve honor is good on the Worlds map—it’s three kills, pure and simple. A team with mass DoTs, high attacks, and a +2 damage crit has a chance to do that fast. One issue that has disappeared is the Marlowe threesome's difficulty fighting for central VPs—doing so would usually lead to their instant demise. On this map, Marlowes can be as chicken as you’d like them to be. At 12 honor, every party out there is going to have to come to you. Another subtle reason Marlowes have more potential in Austin is that Warlocks as a whole seem unpopular. There are a couple of reasons: 1) Warlocks don’t have advantages that suit them to this map, and 2) the top Warlock party, Mortimers, doesn’t get to use its big ability, Demonic Circle: Teleport.

The mere absence of other Warlocks is good for Marlowes, because Jhuroons and other Warlocks’ higher resist make them a very hard matchup. More subtly, the expected absence of Warlocks could mean that other parties will include less hate in their Action Bar cards—you probably won’t see a lot of people running double Cleanse. This is a good thing for the Marlowe player, because mass DoTs become more viable.

There is also an opportunity here for Marlowes to use the versatility of Warlock Action Bar cards to their advantage. For instance, a couple of Santurias could be extremely useful, and not just to tick up your opponents over time. The traditional way to play Santurias is to keep them safe behind the Warlocks, usually Kialas or Bleakhearts, so that when the battle starts, they can come out, attack, and tick up the opponent afterward. It usually takes a while to kill Kialas and Bleakhearts, which guarantees the Santurias will live long enough to do a lot of ticks. Marlowes generally aren’t as effective alongside Santurias—with their low armor/resist/health, they die too fast for the Santurias to do much damage.

There are other ways to use Santurias. You can keep them near or even in front of your Warlocks, aggressively threatening tick-ups. Your opponent, who must aggressively pursue you in order to make up the honor difference between parties, is thus threatened with damage on the approach. The opposing models will have to kill the Santurias on the way in! Good tactical play with your Santurias will force the opponent to do this on your terms, which will allow your Marlowes to get their DoTs and/or first shots in on the closing figures after they’ve ticked up to get rid of the Santuria(s). Your Marlowes are going to die—your job is to make sure you’ve laid out enough damage through your DoTs and attacks to make that sacrifice worthwhile. And of course, Shadowburn and Death Coil are good options—it’s often worth having a “finisher” with one of your Marlowes.

A triple Marlowe party can run its Action Bar cards in a variety of ways. I would probably take a lot of DoTs, Santurias, a Death Coil or Shadowburn, and maybe even a Fear for this particular map—it can sure mess up an enemy flag carrier!

If you want to be really original, there are other figures you can play alongside Marlowe. A team of two Marlowes and a Yanna Dai’Shalan is a perfectly reasonable choice, for example. You still have that 12 honor party, and with Moonkin Form on hand, those +2 damage crits are going to get pretty reliable. Roots tends to be a very solid second Action Bar card for Yanna in a party that prefers to keep its distance from the opponent. Tranquility provides amazing healing with Fel Armor, but don’t forget, as I did in my first test, that it can’t be used while the Druid is in Moonkin Form.