Does anyone have any ideas what they think they or others will be playing at Realm Champs? Its only 3 weeks away and with a new set out there are a ton of possibilities.

Telrander looks like it could make a come back
Daspien looks stronger
Kil'Zin is still about the fastest deck out there
Mage has some new good stuff with the counter lock
Rip & Flip still has hand control and alot of potential
Myriam still can be pretty dumb obviously as well
Bo'Jo comes across as a distinct possibility because it dominated the environment

Give me some of your thoughts and lets keep them constructive and try to give factual advice for your thoughts.

Telrander might come back, but as Maleo the Blur. Readying for 3 is great, but with Maleo you play 4x Rak and have a free cat form.

And do you think blue Bear Control is being talked about? I haven't seen it, but I haven't really been looking.

Also, I'm scared to death of Kil'zin.

A few decks I've been considering to mess around with that I think could have some potential:

Blue Bear Control: Feral Charge looks like a really good card and the fact the new druid gives you free bear form for a turn, I'm seeing this paired up with a Myriam Win Condition.

Blue Human Retribution Paladin: Sancity Aura + Light's Justice + Champion Zosimuss + Medallion from BT. Each one of those cards are good by themselves, but you start adding them together and they make for some rediculous combinations. Add in the new Diplomacy Blue Ally guy and Stormwind you get a lot of bigger allies quicker and given paladin's history in the past this looks really good.

Desecrator Stormclaw: This deck was a T1 deck during constructed and I continue to see it being that. Lots of good allies added to the mix combined with War Stomp allies, Thunder Bluff, ALAMO, Staff of Twin Worlds (Maybe) or stick with the tried and true Twig...Lots of good things can come from this.

Here is a deck I thought about toying with. Berserking Troll Warrior: Indalamar with Kray'zin, Warcaller Zin'bawa, a few other "Berserking" allies and then combine it with the new warrior card War of Attrition. Could make for some interesting combinations with that.

Finally, I see Warlock and Priest Discard being played heavily going for the Voidfire lock. Lots of good discard cards for both classes. So don't be surprised to find a few of those.

Dave

Dave are you qualified for Realm Champs yet?

I was thinking Telrander with the new form that puts you in cat on your turn and Bear on theirs with some Feral charge. This gives the rush a counter that doesn;t hurt the deck and allows him to smash in every turn still. I would play untargetable allies and Elusive ones. This way those allies are almost garaunteed too attack at least 1 time.

I am not sure if Desecrator got anything new worth mentioning but it is still a strong deck. But I think it is weaker than Kil'Zin

Kil'Zin can play some of the berserking tricks that just came out. The 3 drop 0/5 protector that gets bigger can potentialy attack for 9+ on turn 4 with that new 4 drop 0/10 with berserking, if i read the cards correctly of course. This gives Kil'Zin some new tricks for people to have to learn answers for. no one clears out protectors like Kil'zin for them to get through.

Now I have not play tested any of this but these are my reasons for being interested in these decks.

Heya bro...

Answer to the question: Yes, I'm qualified so yes, get your dice warm because if we have to face each other, it'll come down to who wins the die roll as usual :)

As far as druids go though, I'm thinking Thangal over Telrander and here is why:

While with alliance you get access to Elusive and Untargetable, unless you run allies that give both aka the new Shadowmeld, you don't have a 100% chance you get to swing with them. If they are untargetable, they get swung into and elisuve can get targeted with removal.

However, Horde's keyword give them a guarantee swing. Ferocity. Granted, it may not always get through, but you know you get at least one swing to cause disruption.

Now a couple more reason I'm favoring the horde druid over the alliance kitty is first off, they get access to Thunder Bluff. I know it's all Tauren get +1 Health but for absolutely nothing. So now my hero goes from 28 health to 29 health. Then comes one of my favorite new allies...ALAMO. ALAMO gives all friendly druids +1 FITE / +1 HEELTH or +1 Atk / +1 Health. This is to include your hero. And the beauty of it is, it's not only when attacking. So basically you have cruelty for your hero in the form of a 3 drop ally. Oh yeah, he's a Tauren so he gets the added benefit of Thunder Bluff making him a 3/4. Just out of reach of those nasty Kil'zin spells. Now, you add that in with a few staple cards like say Rak Skyfury to give you the extra swing, and you got yourself the making of a pretty solid druid deck.

Now the final card I want to add into my personal Thangal deck would be Staff of Twin Worlds. Take all those cards giving you buffs and double them. I like the potential that has.

Now, as far as Kil'zin goes, Yeah that 3 drop 0/5 protector + Kray'zin is Krazy!!! however, I think the better deck with him is a warrior with War of Attrition (Put as much damage on allies you control. Your opponent puts the same damage on allies he controls. No more than fatal damage can be applied).

Turn 1 drop Whispering Blade of Slaying

Turn 2 drop the 0/5 berserking ferocity

Turn 3 dorp the 0/5 protector

Turn 4 drop Kray'zin

Turn 5 drop War of Attrition, put 17 damage on your allies make them do the same and then swing for 9 + 4 + 13 on turn 5 with pummel back up...

I know sounds kinda cheesey more of a combo style win I guess, but warrior does give you some strong cards. Puncture , Pummel, etc...

Anyway, just food for thought...

Talk later...

Dave

You make some fine points and I have heard other people talk about the horde druid as well. I think it can work just fine and might even be very good. There are so many viable decks at the start of a new season that we just need to pick one we are very familiar with and go to town on some faces.

That being said Rush is going to dominate the field at Realm Champs so your deck needs to be fast. I know this because at the start of every season when decks are new and no one has seen many people always lean toward a fast deck that will tear some faces off before they see what a deck can even do. This being said I suggest playing a deck that can keep up or heal through the problem turns early on.

Based on testing I've done,

Horde Feral Tauren Druid abusing tauren and druid allies. It's probably one of the best midrange decks out there right now.

Alliance Dreanei Holy Paladin, It abuses Shadowmeld, inspire, Tinker Bixy Blue ( Paladin's Voidfire Wand ), the various instant tricks paladins have access to to net better trades etc. Seems really solid.

Vor'na and Arcane based mage are both pretty strong control decks. Mystic Denial is just beastly.

Druid Midrange

Warden Stormclaw

4 Outland Sucks!
4 Thunder Bluff
3 Akama's Promise
3 Chasing A-Me 01

4 ALAMO
4 Quakelord Razek Warhoof
2 Doshura Risestrider
3 Bhenn Checks-the-Sky
3 Sarn Earthtrembler
4 Lifemender Dorn
3 Tatulla the Reclaimer
4 Snig Feralsnout
3 Edward the Odd

4 Ferociousness
4 Master Instinct
4 Chew Toy
4 Feral Charge

Side

1 Tatulla the Reclaimer
4 Barkskin
2 Hibernate
3 Owned!


New Desecrator Rush

Desecrator Stormclaw

4 Orders from lady Vashj
3 Thunder Bluff
2 Outland Sucks!
4 One Draenei's Junk

4 ALAMO
4 Rak Skyfury
4 Marksman Glous
4 Snig Feralsnout
4 Lifemender Dorn
3 Bhenn Checks-the-Sky
2 Doshura Risestrider

4 Twig of the World Tree

4 Wrath
4 Form of the Serpent
2 Ferociousness
3 Cyclone
3 The Natural Order

Side
1 The Natural Order
3 Invigorating Touch
4 Barkskin
2 Doshura Risestrider

I heard after some play testing that the Mid-range is not godo against Solo. Bearing this in mind it makes it a bad candidate to play for any major tournament. I have not heard much about the Rush one.

Does anyone have any thoguhts or tried it out ro anything like it?

The midrange deck gets really really good if it sides Edward the Odd and main decks Band. This gives it plenty of play against solo on the cheap.

It weakens the game against Solo/Pseudo Mage, but Feral Charge and Barkskin in the side make that a much more winable match.

I think it needs to run Flamebender in the main as well or there are several ongoing abilities that rock its world.

seems like some fair judgements. But i may be asking much too late for thoughts.

I am not sure with only a couple weeks left if the non-rush decks are worth working on. I think if your control/midrange deck doesn't already work it prolly too late to work at making it better. So I will look to rush I think. Vorna looks like it might survive the new set and stay a possibility for some of the players at Realm Champs. The deck is strong with Mystic Denial and Spell suppression making their ways into the deck.

However I still think people will be focusing on rush, and maybe some Rogue at Realm Champs.

We also need to look at traditional trends... the guys from OK and Kansas will be playing wonky control.

They played Prot Warrior with Spirit Healer as well as Red Paladin at the last realms and brought Fire Mage hard Control with Spirit Healer to US Nationals. I do not see anything here that will buck the trend.

My guess is that they will be playing Mage Control maybe Warrior Control. While ally based rush is probably dead against Warrior Control, solo should be ok.

I am really thinking a back to what we discussed with some other decks that midrange Tempo should be the way to go.

I have ideas in my head but since I don't play on MWS I don't have much practical testing done.

Right now based upon what I have seen, Priest Discard could be the bomb diggity.

What makes you say that? Anyone playing Kil'Zin or Desecrator are going to be big trouble for the deck. even warrior control running pummel and absolute poise seem like problems for that. I am not saying your wrong just not sure if there is enough evidence for me to support that idea. I think rush and hard control will be very popular at Realm Champs. Rush being the dominant construction.

The guys from OK and that do ok with their jank decks but they never dominate a tourney with them so I am more interested in the bulk of players that will be showing. Its a great observation however. I never paid enough attention to them to remember what they played.

I'm not talking the speed discard like runetusk. Something more midgame.

Lose Control, and the Discard 2 heal for the amount is very very strong at ripping cards mid and light game.

Priest never had much issue with fast rush since it has plenty of removal and healing.

The guys from OK took five of eight top eight slots at the last realms. I think it would be silly to discount them. In a small tourny like this realms will be (I imagine no more than 20-25 players), then we have to be really careful with the jank.

I'm expecting hard control from them, but they might surprise me. I have a feeling Brian Lyons is going to be in Druid Midrange either Traitor or Non. If Tim Batow shows, I'm expecting Shaman from him.

Discard Priest from Louisanna, and Rogue from Mitchell.

I think we should prepare to deal with rush, but not expect it in the hands of the best or most acomplished players.

I was expecting 45-55 players for realms. If its as small as you say then the matchups will be alot different than i was thinking. Mitchel is not even qualified yet. but yes he will run daspien. But i am not going to decide what to play based on one guys deck. If we go with standard strong decks from the past we should do just fine in this tournament. I am not looking for anything new. I am going to play something I have experience with and that has been tested and tried in the past.

Hell i might play Gorebelly rush if it looks like the environment will be hard control.

There will be a maximum of 34 people qualified.

Of those I expect close to 10-15 to either not be there or be there but not playing.

was there only 17 tournaments played in this realm for qualification?

According to Jennifer that's it.

Just seems very low. If I get time i will look through the tournament lists.

Ok i did a real fast scan count and i saw at least 20 tournaments in our realm. There may have been more that i missed. so thats a minimum of 40 players qualified. So it could easily end up 25-30 people if it was only 40 maximum qualified. some of the farther places will not want to drive to this. We'll see i guess.

At least two of those events were canceled too.

I also don't think she took into account that there is an LCQ.

ok, well either way the LCQ i think is for 4 people. This could be wrong. Either way its definitely less than i thought it would be. the environment is a little tougher this way. This being the case I feel I want to play something I am familiar with and that i know worked in the past.

Desecrator and Kil'Zin seem like good options to me. I will think on it some.

Honestly, after testing, i'm seeing a control trend out there. How this will play out at realms I'm not sure. But i'm leaning towords more of a 50/50 split between rush / control type builds. At the moment I'm leaning heavily towords running Arcane mage control which is just amazing agains tother control decks and has potential to handle the rush. I'm also looking heavily at stormwind rush, because it is soooo damn explosive. Turn 1 - 1 cost human , turn 2 - Consul Rhys, Turn 3 - Weldon Barov / myriam + a 2 cost ally.. can be even worse if you run priest w/ shadowfiend etc... on the nuts draw this deck is incredibly fast.

You know I thought I posted this list of what I was play testing with. So far against rush decks, this deck dominates and while not fast in the front, it's a speedster in disguise. I've calculated I have the potential of 30 damage on turn 5 with a free and clear board on my opponents side. Yes it plays with the Troll Berserking theme, but I think it works real well in conjunction with new warrior cards. So far I've only play tested against a balance druid rush build and I crushed it severely. Anyway, here is the list I'm tweaking...

Qty Name
1 Indalamar

3 Hellfire Citadel
4 Forces of Jaedenar
4 Demonic Contamination
4 Minions of the Shadow Council

3 Brok Bloodcaller
4 Kray'zin Firetusk
4 Jee'zee
4 Vexmaster Nar'jo
3 Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy
3 Warcaller Zin'bawa

2 Felsteel Reaper
4 Vindicator's Brand

4 Puncture
3 Finishing Shout
4 Pummel
4 War of Attrition
3 Smash

Sideboard
4 Spell Richochet


Now I just need to shore up the sideboard and MWS the crap out of it, and get the cards I need to finish it LOL especially from the new set...

Anyway...
Happy Hunting...see you guys down here on the 22nd

Dave