The Last Quest in the Chain

If equipment, allies, and abilities are the pretty dressing of a deck, the quest base is the backbone. Quests allow us to restock your hand, refuel our board, and get ahead in the battle. Despite how important quests are, they are usually best picked last. The reason behind this is that different decks have different needs. When it comes to fulfilling those needs, different quests are used to fill the job. For example, you wouldn’t use Torek’s Assault in a control deck, just like you wouldn’t use In Dreams in a rush deck. Both decks want to draw cards, but they obviously want to do it in different ways.

This brings us back to our deck. As it currently stands, we have many big allies, some sturdy equipment, and a few methods of recursion. We primarly want card draw from our quests. Aside from giving us more options, it gives us the ability to generate more resources. We want to generate more resources to actually play our big guys. The question is, which card drawing quests should we use?

Corki’s Ransom always has been a reliable method of drawing cards with the Alliance. However, it’s not something you want to use early. Corki’s directly deters the growth of your resources. Still, Ransom is a good draw mechanism for getting to gas in the late game. In this regard, we’ll include Corki’s, but probably not a full play-set of four due the needs of the deck. To compliment Corki’s, Gahz’ridian fills the role of a quest that won’t stunt our resource growth. It’s not quite as cheap to use, but it gets us the cards we need fairly early.

Those two quests come fairly easy, but we still want a little more in the ways of drawing cards. Sadly, there aren’t many cheap quests that let you draw two or more cards without requiring certain conditions. Obviously, the Defias Brotherhood doesn’t work well due to the expected deaths of our allies. However, Totem of Coo seems to present a workable option. Granted, you need either another Totem of Coo or Gurok the Usurer to make it work, but the benefits can’t be denied. I would prefer to avoid Gurok if possible, so it would just be relying on the Totem. That’s where Crown of Earth comes in, helping us find more Totems. With all that said, we’ll consider Crown of the Earth and Totem of Coo as our other draw outlets.

Aside from drawing, it might also be a good idea to have some recursion built in our quest base. With that in mind, the mainstays of Sunken Treasure and Chasing A-Me 01 join the roster. I don’t believe they need much of an explanation; they’ve been helping players get back their win conditions since Heroes of Azeroth. However, due the presence of some graveyard hate, we might avoid putting in whole sets.

Review Time

With all the card choices in mind, it’s time to finalize the numbers, right? In actuality, it is best to do a final evaluation of a deck’s contents before jumping right into building it. What seemed like a good idea in the beginning could end up being subpar come play time. By evaluating the deck at this point, you ensure that you have only what you need and what works. We will determine the numbers during the evaluation.

Everybody Loves a Winner

The first order of business is the win conditions. In our last look at the deck, we decided to consider Lady Vashj, King Magni Bronzebeard, Myriam Starcaller, Felsteel Reaper, Sulfuras Hand of Ragnaros, Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, Givon, and Lady Katrana Prestor. This is a diverse selection of win conditions. If we were to put four of each of these in a deck, that would leave us with 28 slots for defense, answers, and quests- not a very pleasing prospect. Luckily, we can properly deduce what threats to eliminate and what ones to add based on comparisons, opposing cards, and collection limitations.

To begin, I only have one Lady Vashj and one King Magni. They also generate their own built in armies, meaning they can win the game solo. Furthermore, these two allies are hard to kill with the damage-based removal that dwells in my group (five damage may kill most threats, but not all). All of these factors lead to them taking up two of the sixty slots.

As for our three big pieces of equipment, they seem to be duplicates of each other. Felsteel Reaper can hit a hero for a massive amount of damage. However, Thunderfury and Sulfuras do about the same job, but usually with better results. Part of the reason is that the two do more damage unless you play more resources to fuel the Reaper. The other part is that they can hit allies without engaging them. In support of the Reaper, it does swing for free which is something that can’t be neglected. I’ll only be running one Reaper since the others tend to do a better job. Owning only one Thunderfury, it also makes the deck. As for Sulfuras, I have several. The thing is though, I don’t want too many expensive win conditions, so I’ll only use two.

Givon’s primary use is for defense, so I won’t make too much a case for him. Still, even compared to opposing Ras’fari’s and Dread Infernals, he’s more than willing to enter the fight. This duality in combining win condition and defense makes Givon invaluable. As such, we’ll probably be using four of the Druid unless our overview of the defenses shows otherwise. As for the other Druid, Myriam can be devastating. Her stats are good, especially since she can’t be removed with targeted removal. The best part is that she can avoid those nasty protector wars and just nail them directly. Nothing is more satisfying that avoiding Guardian Steppestriders and Steelhorns to kill your opponent.

This leaves us with Ms. Prestor. She’s naturally weaker than the other win conditions unless you have the resources. If you do have the resources, she can be an auto win. However, due to her overall nature and her ease of being dealt with, we will only use one in the deck.

Homeland Security

There are many threats that appear in a multiplayer game. Identifying common threats allows you to determine if your defenses will hold in the fight. The first contestant up is Antikron the Unyielding. Nothing kills him except when you let him die or your opponent shoots him. However, he is rather weak, only wounding our enemies instead of killing them. This can be especially bothersome with opposing allies like Ras’fari. Still, his low cost makes him valuable to our limited number of protectors, as does his versatility. We’ll use four of him in the deck.

Kulvo is also one of our other cheap cost protectors, but is he worth it? At the three drop, the biggest threats he’ll be seeing are Apocannon, with whom Kulvo can trade with. He’s a little depressing on the offense, but he’s good enough on the defense that it’s worth his inclusion as a four-of.

Mageline Prideheart and Justicar Brace are similar allies. Their powers are slightly un-synergistic, but they do work well with some of the others like Antikron. The real question is if it’s worth it to run both. Mageline has many of the strengths of Kulvo, just at a higher cost, while Brace can take down bigger allies. When faced with threats like Groundshaker Earnheart and Gabble, Brace does a better job of bringing them down. However, the majority of threats like Bloodblade and Norrund Grovewalker tear through either protector with ease. As such, we will go with three Mageline. Part of the reason is that I value what little healing Mageline can provide. The other part is that Brace’s stats are comparable to Givon, and it turns out that the Night Elf is a better protector.

As for Givon and Weeble, it’s an interesting story. Givon, as I’ve expressed before, is quite capable of taking out allies he has no business of killing while living in the process. Weeble, on the other hand, is just another more expensive version of Kulvo. Don’t get me wrong, the cards she draws are nice, but I believe the quest base should provide enough extra edge without her. So, we have four Givons and no Weebles.

This leads us to the equipment defense. Given our low amount of protectors in the early slots, it’s best we focus on filling those spots. This isn’t to say we can expect early attacks, but rather as a build up precaution for later attacks. Girdle of Uther is still very useful come late game when we need to wrap things up. It’s not so great that we need to run four copies; one should suffice. As for Lionheart Helm, damage prevention is only occasionally relevant. Because of this, we’ll only run one. As for the early pieces of armor, we’ll play single copies of Cloak of The Pit Stalker, Herod’s Shoulder, and Master Cannoneer’s Boots. As stated before, we don’t want overlap equipment slots as to avoid dead draws. Finally, we’ll run two Legguards of the Shattered Hand. It may not be Constructed worthy, but its high defense and built in removal are invaluable in multiplayer.

No Wrong Threats

This current tally gives us 28 cards left to work with. Assuming we’ll be using 16 for quests, this gives us 12 cards for utility and answers. We have the Legguards of the Shattered Hand to help us out, but we need a little more than that. In order to deal with equipment, Puncture is going to be in the deck in some number. However, we also want some Kavais as well since she deals with abilities too. And then there’s Sudden Death, the pinnacle of efficient removal. Yet, what about Deafening Shout? Didn’t we also mention recursion with Tink Master Overspark and Medoc? As all these questions come to the forefront, the answers are a little simpler than they appear.

Multiplayer is all about the long game. You know this and I know this, but it’s the most important thing to keep in mind when building a deck for the format. As effective as Sudden Death and Puncture are, perhaps they are the wrong train of thought. Ideally, our big weapons can do their job, along with the Legguards. This brings to mind a multiplayer favorite of mine: Halberd of Smiting. The polearm is a piece of removal and a weapon built into one, but its ability only works once. With this in mind, two should suffice since we have other weapons. This means we have ten cards left. Lafiel, while good, is sometimes slow, so we will only run one copy of her. The same applies for Borovon; when you need equipment dealt with fast, he’s not the answer. This gives us eight cards left to work with. Kavai will take up three of the slots. With four slots left, we will devote one to Overspark, one to Medoc, and two to Deafening Shout. The reason we don’t put too many of the recursion allies in the deck is that they are dependant on the graveyard. Due to the existence of graveyard removal in my group, it is best to minimize their impact by running only a couple of the recursion engines. Likewise, quests help with this as well. As for Deafening Shout, it’s very good at keeping you free from harm and ruining an opponent’s day. However, it’s expensive and one is generally enough to turn the game into your favor.

The Return Quest

We’re finally back where we started. Unlike when we began, some of the deck’s dynamics changed. It still has the same goals, but the machine we began with has been modified. In order to accommodate this change, we need to do a little work with the quests.

Gahz’ridian and Corki’s Ransom are still both contenders for the deck. They offer effective means to draw cards. Just as before though, we only need a couple of Corki’s since we don’t want to be bogged down by extras. Gahz’ridian will be a three-of; it’s a nice and easy package for two cards.

As for the other quests, some new ones come to mind. In particular, The Missing Diplomat is the perfect way to tutor up many of the single allies in the deck, ensuring we see them when needed. Due to the expensive cost of the quest, two is the right number. Crown of the Earth provides a very nice way to look for an ally as well. We’ll use four.

This brings us to the final five cards of the deck. Due to our focus on allies and equipment, I’m suggesting some number of Chasing A-Me 01 and Sunken Treasure. We can expect your equipment and allies to die, but sometimes we can reach victory simply by bringing a card back. Due to the larger amount of allies, we’ll do a three-and-two split in A-Me’s favor.

Putting it All Together: The Deck List

Hero:
Fallenstar

Quests (16)
4 The Crown of the Earth
3 Gahz’ridian
3 Chasing A-Me 01
2 The Missing Diplomat
2 Sunken Treasure
2 Corki’s Ransom

Allies (29)
4 Antikron the Unyielding
4 Kulvo Jadefist
4 Givon
4 Myriam Starcaller
3 Mageline Prideheart
3 Kavai the Wanderer
1 Lady Vashj
1 King Magni Bronzebeard
1 Lafiel
1 Vindicator Borovon
1 Medoc Spirit Warden
1 Tink Master Overspark
1 Lady Katrana Prestor

Abilities (2)
2 Deafening Shout

Equipment (13)
2 Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros
2 Legguards of the Shattered Hand
2 Halberd of Smiting
1 Girdle of Uther
1 Felsteel Reaper
1 Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
1 Cloak of the Pit Stalker
1 Herod’s Shoulder
1 Master Cannoneer’s Boots
1 Lionheart Helm

After several weeks, we finally have our deck. The important part of this exercise was not the deck itself. Rather, it’s the thought processes that go toward building an effective deck are the lessons to gain from this experience. So, the next time you go to build a deck, take a little more time to consider what you’re actually building; your deck will come out better in the end.