Articles

Timothy Rivera

It's preview time and today brings the next generation of Alliance allies. Alliance has been on the back burner lately in Core Constructed. Today's previews will change that.

First off, we have Gerrunge the Sadist.

For all those masochists out there, Gerrunge the Sadist is right up your alley. And here I thought allies were supposed to be friends. Gerrunge the Sadist reminds me of the big bully in school that did not have boundaries. He would take a shot at one of his friends and think nothing of it.

Gerrunge the Sadist is truly the big bully because he is bigger than all the other kids for his cost. There are few allies that match up to him for only three resources, allowing him to take out most early allies without going down himself.

Some of you may wonder, “Why would someone hangout with a bully if they also get hurt by him?” There are benefits of hanging out with the biggest baddest bully in school, usually in the form of protection. To make up for hurting his friend, Gerrunge the Sadist offers a form of protection. His second power is, “Whenever another ally you control is destroyed, this ally heals 4 damage from your hero". That sort of makes up for the beating Gerrunge the Sadist just put on you. This power is very useful. With a number of aggressive decks in Core, having an ally that can trade for two of theirs plus heal damage from you hero is a good bonus. The best scenario will be when you find yourself laying Gerrunge the Sadist on the table right before you trade allies with an opponent. Imagine sending a few tokens into the opponent's army and netting a ton of healing out of nowhere. You won't even notice the pain Serrunge will inflict on your hero.

The next card we have today is the best Alliance ally we have seen as of late. Looking at Tyrande, High Priestess of Elune can be a little intimidating, I mean, look at how small that text font is. This nice thing about small text, however, is that it often means there's a lot going on with this card. And Tyrande is no exception.

Tyrande sports the a good size body for her cost and she has Elusive. These stats alone mean things start off on the right foot.

To start off, Tyrande is the bringer of the second coming. Breathing life into once fallen allies, Tryande is is the commander of a Wisp army.

If you have been following Core Constructed lately, I bet the wheels have started turning in your head. All of the tokens that Tyrande creates are zero cost nature attack allies. I think that Aspect of the Wild is looking forward to adding Tyrande to the Hunter's arsenal, as she summons up an ton of 2/3 Wisps. That card is already at the forefront of Core, but I think Tyrande will make new cards popular. Cards like Seal Fate and Dark Embrace jump to mind. Not only does Tryande bring the second coming with the Wisps, she is going to breath fresh life into deckbuilder’s minds.

As if bringing an army of wisp was not enough, Tyrande has one more power. The next line of text is “At the end of your turn, for each Wisp you control, Tyrande deals 1 nature damage to target opposing hero and heals 1 damage from each hero and ally you control.” This power is the one I get most excited about. You create a small army, then you get the effect immediately of dealing damage to your opponent while healing your entire team.

After seeing Tyrande, my mind started thinking about how I could make the biggest army with her. I started dreaming about creating an army of 100 wisps, even though I knew I would never play a deck with that many cards. Pushing my dreams aside I did think it was reasonable enough that I could make an army of ten to twenty wisps if I could somehow put a large number of cards from my deck into my graveyard.

I cannot really emphasize how powerful this card is. After a long drawn out game, Tyrande might be able to finish off your opponent without even needing to attack. Even early in the game, with one or two Wisps, the healing will make an impact on the board.

After the previews have finished, Time is Money will continue with some help on how to prepare for the upcoming Sealed Pack Realm Championship Qualifiers. Until then, have fun checking out all the new cards.

-Timriv (tim@dailymetagame.com)

Discuss this article in our forums!