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Putting the Fear of Death (Rattle) in Your Opponent

September 21, 2010

“Let them come….Frostmourne Hungers…” - Arthas, the Lich King

Icecrown represents one of the most exciting and complicated sets in the history of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.  Normally new heroes potentially open up new race/class/spec combinations, but Icecrown turns that theory completely around.  Not only do we have the five exciting dual class heroes that alone open up a plethora of deck design decisions each, but an entirely new “reputation” that can only be used by a subset of the new Scourge heroes.  I cannot hope to scratch the surface of the potential combinations that exist for these dual class heroes in a single article, but the thought of them has awakened my creative deck building spirit.  It is not these new strategies I am here to discuss, but a twist on an old one: the return of the all out aggro deck and its new best friends.

After the release of Servants of the Betrayer and the introduction of the Traitor heroes, aggressive decks became the dominant archetypes in the metagame.  It was not the Traitor allies that caused the shift, but the powerfully cost abilities and flips that these heroes had access to that sped up the metagame.  As time went on, several powerful control (ie. Mage, Warrior, and Weldon Barov) cards were printed, and the metagame shifted back into control’s favor.  In today’s pre-Icecrown Core environment the only aggro deck that exists is Kuma, and it is falling out of favor to the dominance of mid-range and outright control decks.  Well, in my initial assessment, the death of aggro is highly overstated, and should return in undeath.

Icecrown introduces a new twist to aggressive strategies: the all-in deck.  Since the beginning of competitive play, aggressive decks have benefited from emptying their hands onto the table.  As the power of area of effect abilities increased, aggro shifted focus to the Desecrator Stormcrow/Kil’zin style of deck; attacking you on three fronts: abilities, efficient allies, and weapons.  This allowed the powerful card draw of Orders from Lady Vashj to dominate the tournament scene, allowing the aggro decks to continue to pressure their opponents at all stages of the game.  As aggro shifted towards Kuma, the ability to play Akama’s Promise gave these decks additional cheap card draw.  So, aggro decks have always benefitted from playing as many cards as possible, with the ability to easily refill their hands, but now there is another way to get your hand size down: discarding.

When Death Rattle was introduced in Scourgewar it was obvious that as time went on and new cards with the key word were printed, it was possible to convert card advantage into aggressive tempo.  Wrath Gate built upon the Death Rattle theme, and now Icecrown puts the finishing touches on the strategy.

Before looking at the new Death Rattle cards I want to mention probably the most important cog in the “all-in Scourge” wheel:  Babagahnoosh the Grumpy.  Sure you lose all these already mentioned quests, but you gain a huge ally and an enabler for all your Death Rattle cards.  Remember, the strategy here is to be as aggressive and “all-in” as possible, and you cannot be much more than losing your hand and quests for the sake of a 5/5 for zero, right?  

If you are discarding your hand anyway, you need to gain value out of it, and Death Rattle is perfect for this situation.  Orbaz Bloodbane is probably the weakest of the Death Rattle cards you will find for the Scourge, especially in a deck that has no chance of paying his massive cost. Shade of Arugal is the real reason to even play the deck as Scourge, upgrading one of your early Marauding Geists into a 5/3 that just keeps coming back.  His real benefit early is providing a huge upgrade to Overlord Drakuru.  Normally the Overlord has a paltry 3 attack on your turn, upgrading himself with Assault 2.  With the Shade you are looking at a virtual 5/4 for 2.  Underking Talonox should usually be at least a 4/4 to 5/5 for 3 resources; not bad for your basic three drop, but there may not be enough room for him in the end.

The real decision comes with what class to play, since that will drive the decision of which Death Rattle equipment to suit up.  You want access to the Horde allies for Uruka the Cuthroat and Broderick Langforth, so the dual class heroes are out.  

That leaves us with Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior.  From a Death Rattle perspective, the plate classes give you access to Hailstorm to clear out opposing small allies and Legplates of the Endless Void to finish the Babagahnoosh trigger with a card in hand.  The casters gain Shawl of Haunted Memories, which will help allow the Geists to attack, and Iceshrieker’s Touch to reflip your hero (should be easy for the Mages and Warlocks).  Hunters get Frost Bound Chain Bracers (assuming you can fit the Envoy of Mortality in your 60 cards) but access to Buzz and Deuce for additional “discarding for fun and profit.”  Finally Rogues can wear Gloves of the Frozen Glade and wield both Hailstorm and Stormstrike Mace, in case protectors are some how a problem.  They also gain Belligerence to find these useful weapons.  Do not forget that since you are planning on having no hand anyway, you probably want to load up on the Preparation cards for each available class, which will be most useful for Hunters, Warriors, and to an extent Warlocks.  

So we have our shell:

4 Broderick Langforth
4 Uruka the Cutthroat
4 Babagahnoosh the Grumpy
4 Shade of Arugal
4 Overlord Drakuru
3 Spectral Kitten
6-8 Marauding Geist
2-4 other Horde Allies (Gora, Bloodsouls for Warlocks)

(4 Prep Cards)
4-8 other Death Rattle Equipment
4-8 Class Cards

4 Orders from Lady Vashj
4 Return to Angrathar
2 That’s Abominable!
2 The Ring of Blood: The Warmaul Champion

I will work on trimming the specific numbers, but overall this seems like a powerful way to start the aggro decks.  I will test this strategy out over the next couple of weeks, but if you are also testing, let me know how that goes for you and we can work on it together.  Next week I will update you on changes I have made to the lists, which class I found to work best (along with the best class card make up), and another potential “all-in” deck, this time featuring our spidery Nerubian pals led by and old Shaman friend of mine…

The time is right for aggro to take its rightful place alongside the control decks…or as Arthas once said: “Illidan has mocked the Scourge long enough. It's time we put the fear of death back in him.”

-Scott Landis