Icecrown Previews: "Make yourself useful and help me out on this one!"

September 12, 2010

Warlocks and their pets appear to have quite the subserviant relationship. It’s much less a “best friend” connection and more like two frenemies chained together for life. Even the mouthless voidwalker doesn’t take his life of servitude well. “Cannot resist,” moans the Voidwalker as he takes your commands, informing you that he won’t be attending your character’s birthday party unless required by law or formal invitation. The Imp don’t take no guff either, but he’ll do as you ask as well. While Pinprik may be the only imp who has seen tournament play—and he doesn’t even count as a pet—you can bet Jaktip will be showing up in many Limited lists.

You’ll always be able to get two shots out of your new pet, so long as your hero isn’t busy bashing with some Zombie Finger or healing wand. He’s shooting off fire damage, which has no liability in the Wrath of the Lich King block. There are plenty of Warlocks to ready him as well, like Azamoth Deathfang. Though most of the Warlock allies are aggressive in nature and you’d rather see them attack, you can clear the way for their attacks on the turn they come into play with a 3-damage shot from Jaktip. Also, many of the Warlocks deal shadow damage and Jaktip can help bump off any shadow resistant opposing allies off the table.

If you want to try this monster in Constructed, feed him some Signet of Manifested Pain tokens, Wondervolt allies, or the like.

In this current format, Jaktip is the best “long range” weapon available to the Warlock class. You’ll always get at least two shots with him, and you’ll never have to take a point of damage to do it. In that, manipulating their Warlock master to fuel their own barrage, Jaktip may be flipping the script on master/servant roles. Who’s really serving whom, here? Shuffle him up and find out!

-Shaqattaq