So here I am less than a week away from the first Durotar Realm Championship Qualifier and I still feel clueless as to what I should play. I’d like to think that my skills have improved since this time last year and I’m fairly certain they have, but there’s always still that self doubt that always hides in the deepest parts of my mind. There are defiantly a variety of options of decks out there to play; it’s just finding one that fits my play style the best, so let’s look at what we have.
Shaman – I feel like this is a utility deck that uses Ancestral Awakening to pull up whatever ally you need the most, whether that be King Varian Wrynn or Iravar, for the current situation. It also abuses the crap out of Adam Eternum, Tuskarr Kite and Crusade Engineer Spitzpatrick to draw a heck of a lot of cards. On top of all of that you have Wind Shear and the ever so annoying combo of Squall Totem and Wavestorm Totem to back you up until you can pull Highlord Tirion Fordring for the win. Oh and did I mention the inclusion of Voice of Reason, a nasty little shield that gives you hero Mend 2 for every five damage on your hero, more or less negating any sort of aggro / rush deck.
Worgen – This deck was previewed on a meta site as a druid deck, but in my honest opinion it works best as a warlock deck. The premise is pretty simple; dump a lot of worgen dudes with aberration and attack! Attack! Attack! Then you get King Genn Greymane who becomes a totally fatty from whatever worgen you have on the board, plus you hero and plus any dudes you’ve made with Signet of Manifested Pain. The main reason I feel that the warlock version of the deck is stronger is because of Hesriana who has the power to take out another King Genn in the mirror match as well as King Varian Wrynn. Another strong point in the deck is that you can play Engulfing Blaze to wipe out an army of ghouls and not worry about your aberration worgen taking any damage back.
Control Warlock – What can I say about this deck that hasn’t already been said. You get an undead destro-lock and throw in cards like Dethvir and Nathanos Blightcaller for some protection. Combine that with Backlash, Dreadsteed, who alone is can be pretty powerful, and a Tuskarr Kite, you have a pretty massive card drawing engine to get you to Kel’Thuzad. Oh yeh, did I mention you have Hesriana in the mix too?
Death Knight – Duh, it’s a DK. You roll in some fan favorites like Corpse Explosion and Army of the Dead with Dethvir and Nathanos and a Dreadsteed to help you deal with aberration allies and you’re more or less good to go. There’s some other stuff in this deck, but I’m not going to really get into as this deck has been so widely discussed that I’d be wasting my breath if I were trying to add anything new to the discussion.
So there you have it, a little preview of the meta you’re likely to see at your local Realm Qualifier. There are probably other decks out there that I’ve neglected to cover here out of sheer laziness (i.e. Koo’zar and Druid shenanigans) or ignorance of their existence, but hopefully this will be a good start for you if you’re still trying to decide what to play in order to conquer your realm.
