If your Dad doesn't have a beard, you've got two Mums. Two beardless Mums.

In which we discuss blue beards.

By blue beards, I do mean Alliance flavoured Dwarves. Because it's not a day unless I blog about WoW cards. Though do check out the video. The Beards are extroidanarily good.

So. Beards DWARVES are the theme for todays deck. The original deck was created back in the Drums/Scourgewar/Worldbreaker days of core constructed, before the switch to a 2-block system. I also can't take credit for the deck, it was the concoction of a friend of mine.

The theme is simple, use Magni, the Mountain Beard for his effect and a Beard Warrior Hero to get access to all the delicious plate armour. Utilising Polished Breastplate Of Valor and various stash cards to keep adding armour and health and Bloodied Arcanite Reaper to keep adding damage to their face.

So, decklist:

Hero:
Stromdak of Ironforge

Master Hero:
[2] Nozdormu the Timeless

Allies:
[4] Magni, The Mountain King
[2] Mekkatorque, King of the Gnomes
[3] Jerrak Krandle
[2] Vandos, Herald of War
[2] Kentro Slade

Abilities:
[2] Enraged Rengeneration
[1] Bladestorm
[2] Augment Steel
[3] Brutal Strike
[2] Shockwave
[2] Twisted Rampage
[3] Whirlwind

Equipment:
[4] Polished Breastplate of Valor
[3] Bloodied Arcanite Reaper
[2] Warmace of Menethil
[1] Wild Hammer
[1] Triton Legplates
[2] The Horseman's Horrific Helm
[2] Bloodbane's Fall
[4] Gravitational Pull
[4] Dread Pirate Ring
[4] Swift Hand of Justice

Quests:
[4] Seeds of Their Demise
[2] Grimtotem Weapon


Like my other decks, this is a bit twisted and not very stable (Little draw power, for example). Mostly due to a lack of rares, partly due to time constraints for writing this list and not playtesting it yet.

Regardless, I'm going to tweak this deck overnight and then debut it at my local Love Is In The Air event tomorrow night. I might even actually write up the event for once.

Crown Of The Heavens: Or How I Learned To Stop Drafting and Start Loving Rogues

In which I blog about WoW cards again.

The second set in block 6 of my cardboard-crack addiction came out yesterday. Since I'm flat broke, I only picked up 1 Epic Collection and 9 boosters, not including sealed and prize stuff. As much as I'd love to type about how I pulled 3 epics and some decent rares, I thought I'd turn to my sealed event instead.

So, I headed down to my local card pit, GTG Games & Hobbies, for the Crown of the Heavens release party. I'm not normally one for sealed events due to my horrid levels of sucking at deckbuilding, by which I mean: I can't build decks to save my life.

Well, I'm not exactly terrible, but I do need time to look over a deck to spot my mistakes and in sealed events, I don't have that time available to me. Using the spoiler available here I had an idea of what commons I'd be using, but the deck would come down to the rares.

In 4 Crown boosters and 2 Throne, my rares came down to Tristani the Sunblade, Crown of the Ogre King, Preserve and Protect, Hagtrix the Mindsifter, Severed Visionary Tentacle and Unleash Inferno.
My commons and uncommons were fairly unimpressive.

I did have an overwhelming number of Alliance allies in comparison to Horde, but the Horde rares I pulled were what made me decide to go with the red option. There were more than enough neutral allies to pick up the slack.

Choice of hero came down to Warrior/Paladin/Death Knight so I could make use of some equipment. I went with Paladin since I already had Rohashu, Zealot of the Sun sleeved nearby and it could work with Preserve and Protect in case I might need some quick protectors.

So, with little time to go, I hastily threw the deck together with the final list being at 33 cards (Erk!):

Hero:
Rohashu, Zealot of the Sun

Allies:
[2] Jadefire Scout
[1] Murloc Coastrunner
[1] Izzy Quizfiz
[1] Abasha Windstorm
[1] Horngrim
[1] Thespius Bloodblaze
[1] Drotara the Bloodpoint
[1] Icaros the Sunward
[1] Jadefire Hellcaller
[1] Thunderpetal
[2] Jumahko Thundersky
[1] Tristani the Sunblade
[1] Hagtrix the Mindsifter
[1] Drak'narr
[1] Jadefire Felsworn
[1] Torr'nag

Abilities:
[1] Preserve and Protect
[1] Face of Fear
[1] Strength of Will
[1] Essence of Focus

Equipment:
[1] Bottled Cunning
[1] Belt of Absolute Zero
[1] Crown of the Ogre King
[1] Mandible of Beth'tilac

Quests:
[2] The Battle Is Won, the War Goes On
[1] Signed In Blood
[1] Black Heart
[1] Reoccupation
[1] Seeds Of Their Demise

I took first place which netted me 2 more Jadefire Scout promos and 2 extra Crown boosters. In retrospect, these were the best allies I pulled (Few low cost cards was a real pain). I probably shouldn't have included the non-rare equipment since all I did was resource it rather than use it.

I'm vaguely annoyed that in all 3 games I didn't see my Crown of the Ogre King orTorr'nag. On the other hand, Tristani the Wincondition and Hagtrix the Mildannoyance pretty much won me all 3 games. Jadefire Felsworn and Drak'narr managed to create lots of threat in the end game but my abilities rarely saw play until game 3. The third game I basicly one with a Jadefire scout buffed up with both Strength of Will and Essence of Focus.

Plenty of fun was had. I would type more but I have an Alliance deck to build at last.

Rush me to the emergency room, I appear to have embedded a Dragon in my foot.

I AM THE MOST PRO.

My previous deckbuild had a couple of major flaws. For one, the Hero card was incompatible with the only ability I had in the deck; The most important ability: Grand Crusader. And whilst I moaned about lack of drawpower, I completely forgot that Etched Dragonbone Girdle exists.

Anyway, I've made some revisions over the week to try and improve on my monstrosity of a deck.

Hero:
Amah the Sun's Grace

Allies:
[4] Emerald Captain
[4] Bronze Drake
[4] Bronze Warden
[4] Ruby Stalker
[2] Azure Magus
[4] Drax Felfuse
[2] Emerald Soldier
[4] Ruby Flameblade
[2] Telor Sunsurge
[3] Trade Prince Gallywix

[4] Exxi the Windshaper

Abilities:
[4] Grand Crusader
[4] Censure



Equipment:
[4] Etched Dragonbone Girdle
[4] Bottled Light



Quests/Locations:
[4] Challenge to the Black Flight
[4] Dragon Unchained



There are a million-and-one things I'd like to include in this build but just can't get my hands on at the moment. Above all; Twilight Citadels.


It's a bit of a mess, considering I'm lacking some of the power cards I wanted for this build (i.e Cairnes, Sava'gins, Mazu'kons), and the equipment I intended to use is elsewhere. I tried filling in the gaps with a few extra dragons, but they had no place at all. I settled on Gallywix (Cost 2/Works with Drax kindof), Exxi (Double attacking Drax/Combos with Gallywix) and Telor Sunsurge (See keyword).


I need to get into the habit of building decks 7 hours before my train...

Next week on my totally-not-a-tcg blog, Dwarves. Dwarves. Dwarves.

Become stronger, juggernaut.

I built my deck on the train, didn't playtest and ended up going 2-4 yesterday.
That is how pro I am.

Final decklist ended up slightly different to the planned one. I only had 3 Exxis and no Cairnes (I derped and forgot them) and I substitued the spare slots with Zudzos instead.

I figure that the deck has potential, it just needs some tweaking. And possibly ran out of something other than Shaman.
Now that I know what Grand Crusader does, I have a theoretical deck in mind.



Hero:
Rekwa Proudhorn

Allies:
[4] Emerald Captain
[4] Bronze Drake
[4] Bronze Warden
[4] Ruby Stalker
[2] Azure Magus
[4] Drax Felfuse
[3] Emerald Soldier
[4] Ruby Flameblade
[2] Emerald Tree Warder
[2] Sava'gin the Reckless
[2] Ruby Blazewing
[4] Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen

Abilities:
[4] Grand Crusader

Equipment:
[3] Devout Aurastone Hammer
[2] Polished Helm of Valor

Quests/Locations:
[4] The Seeds of Their Demise
[4] Challenge to the Black Flight
[4] Twilight Citadel

For this, I need Cairnes, Twilight Citadels, Grand Crusaders and Sava'Gins.

To the trademobile!