Articles

Timothy Rivera

Hey everyone. As mentioned yesterday by Drew Walker, today is the day to see what cards Alliance fans can look forward to in Betrayal of the Guardian. You’re here for some new cards, so let’s jump into that immediately. Let’s start off with Archdruid Fandral Staghelm.

Archdruid Fandral Staghelm was one of Malfurion Stormrage's top lieutenants and trained his fellow allies in the art of war. The card version of Archdruid Fandral Staghelm does not disappoint. If you are looking for a leader to take your other allies into bloody combat, I think Archdruid Fandral Staghelm would be at the top of the list.

My first reaction when I read Archdruid Fandral Staghelm was excitement. He is hard to kill, and he makes every ally card in your deck insanely powerful the turn you play them. I don’t know about you, but I hate having to stand in line and wait more than anything. How do you think your allies feel when you put them into play? They get the call into action (when you play them), but then they have to sit there and wait a turn before they can start bashing into other characters. No longer will they have to sit and wait.

My next reaction was, “Well, no one can outrace you once you have him online.” The fact that every ally you play after Archdruid Fandral Staghelm can attack the turn they come down, attack twice, cannot be protected against, and will heal your hero for the amount they dealt makes me believe no one will ever be able to beat you if they want to go blow for blow attacking each other’s heroes.

My excitement turned into daydreaming. I imagined Archdruid Fandral Staghelm standing in front of his army, giving a great motivational speech. A speech so good that his army was pumped up past their normal limits that they were all ready to give more than 100%. Once the daydreaming ended, I started to think about how I could abuse Archdruid Fandral Staghelm in a deck. This guy makes every ally in your deck absurd, so I wanted to a deck that could get him into play the earliest possible. I decided I liked the idea of a Night Elf deck. Here is my first look at using Fandral for the new Core format.

Hero: Sylvanas Windrunner

Allies:
4 Nalisa Nightbreeze
4 Tharal Wildbreeze
4 Tarwila Gladespring
4 Faenis the Tranquil
3 Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest
4 Delinar Silvershot
4 Archdruid Fandral Staghelm
4 Eldre'Thalas Sorceress
4 Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage
1 Tessa Black

Abilities:
4 Concussive Barrage
4 Blitz
4 Obliterating Trap

Equipment:
4 Legguards of the Legion

Quests:
4 The Well of Eternity
4 The Opening of the Dark Portal

I wanted to have eight ramp allies (Tharal Wildbreeze and Tarwila Gladespring) to play so that I could get Archdruid Fandral Staghelm online as quick as possible. On top of that, both of the ramp allies are Elusive, so they are easier to keep in play to enable the Haste allies in the deck. Legguard of the Legion is an additional card that helps play allies faster than normal, plus it gives a nice attack bonus with the deck being full of Night Elves.

With every ally being able to gain four sweet powers, I feel that the deck will be very good at racing your opponent. The abilities in the deck ensure you would win any race. While this deck is sweet, there are two more cards you still haven’t seen yet.

The second preview for today is another great leader. General Turalyon led the Alliance to a victory over the Horde in the Second War, and I believe he will also lead many World of Warcraft Trading Card Game players to victory as well. For the cost of eight resources, you can get two allies, both of which have an immediate impact on the board.

Having eight resources in play and using my entire forearm to exhaust them all at once sounds cool, but I like to do things against the grain. I like cards that bend the rules of the resource system. I could spit out a Devout Aurastone Hammer deck, but if you are anything like me, you want to do something new. Today I present my reanimation deck.

Hero: Trilik the Light's Spark

4 [Top secret preview card coming to you soon!]

Allies:
4 Tania Falan
4 Ellie Tinkervoid
4 Jaina, Lady of Theramore
4 General Turalyon
2 Zalabar the Dark Tinkerer
2 Cho'gall
4 Nightbane

Abilities:
4 Shadow Word: Despair
4 Shadow Word: Death
4 Dark Deliverance
4 Divine Fury
4 Vigil of the Light

Equipment:
4 Bottled Knowledge

Locations: 
4 The Deadmines

Quests: 
4 The Path to the Dragonsoul

I know you guys are going to hate me, but there are four cards in this list I cannot share with you. I don’t want to spoil a future preview card, so you will have to wait for it to be revealed. Besides not knowing that one card, the deck utilizes early removal to stop your opponent from killing you. Then it has multiple discard outlets to get a huge ally into the graveyard. Once there, the Vigil of the Lights allow you to get that ally into play for less than its normal resource cost. Unlike all the other Resurrection type abilities, Vigil of the Light does not have a resource restriction when it brings allies back into play.

But wait! There’s more. There are two locations in this set: one belongs to the Alliance, and the other to the Horde. Today, we bring you the once-great Human kingdom, before the time of Arthas’s dire actions and the Forsaken’s occupation of what is now referred to as the Undercity. Feast your eyes on Lordaeron!

This is one of the best locations that the game has ever seen. With more Human options coming out in Betrayal of the Guardian, there will be more options for your Human deck. More Humans will make Capital City, Lordaeron, an already powerful location, even more powerful. For me, there are multiple decks that this little beauty can be played in, but for me a Grand Crusader deck jumped to mind.

If I had gone to Worlds, I would have played either the Alliance Grand Crusader that Tim Batow piloted or the Aurastone Shaman deck that won the whole thing. Capital City, Lordaeron would have been an auto include in the Alliance Grand Crusader with a little reworking of the allies in the deck. I imagine it would look something like this:

Hero: Anaka the Light's Bulwark

Allies:
4 Magni, the Mountain King
4 Stormwind Summoner
4 Scarlet Renegade
4 Aaron Goodchilde
4 Jeishal
4 Timewalker Lightsworn
6 Timewalker Guard
4 General Husam

Abilities:
4 Grand Crusader
4 Glory to the Alliance!
4 Blessing of the Kindred

Equipment:
4 Scimitar of the Sirocco

Locations:
4 Capital City, Lordaeron

Quests:
4 Seeds of Their Demise
2 The Battle is Won, The War Goes On

Capital City, Lordaeron reminds me of a more powerful Twilight Citadel. With Twilight Citadel you might a few have a few Black Dragonkin and some of the dragonkin equipment, but you rarely built your deck around the one location. With Capital City, Lordaeron, you take the opposite approach. You will look for ways to ensure that you will always have Unity so you can always activate your location.

All three of the Alliance cards are very powerful. If these previews are any indication of the power level of Betrayal of the Guardian, all of us are in for quite a treat. Stay tuned tomorrow for a look at what the Horde has to offer!

-Tim

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