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Corey Burkhart

Finishing up the Core decks that managed to make a splash at the 2012 World Championship, I want to focus on the man that narrowly squeaked into Sunday play: Seth Miner. While most of the players that made the Top 16 were running around with their different variations of Hunter, Rogue, and Druid, Seth took a very different approach by playing Augh.

Augh is one of the decks that consistently smashes me because I don't play again it enough, and it seems it did much of the same for Seth. The deck preys on opponents who are unsure of which version of the deck you are on, because there are tons of different ways to build any particular Augh deck. I had a control Augh deck in my test gauntlet that had tons of Overloads and card drawing, but Seth chose to go a whole different direction, and beat opponents down. His deck is much more than a normal aggro deck however, as it uses both Boundless Rage and Monstrous Frostbolt Volley, two cards that allow they deck to act more as a combo deck instead of a simple beatdown strategy.

Here is Seth's Core deck:

Hero: Augh

Allies: 24
4 Jadefire Scout
4 Gilblin Deathscrounger
4 Child of Agamaggan
4 Neferset Champion
4 Pygmy Firebreather
4 Pygmy Pyramid

Abilities: 24
4 Glacial Tomb
4 Flame Lance
4 Frost Blast
4 Boundless Rage
4 Monstrous Frostbolt Volley
4 Legacy of the Legion

Equipment: 4
4 Sorrow's End

Quests: 8
4 Seeds of Their Demise
4 Wake of Destruction

It shouldn't be that surprising to see Augh do well at high levels of play. Augh was one of the best choices for Block Constructed at the State and National Championship, and Core Constructed for Worlds was just adding War of the Ancients to that Block Constructed metagame. This deck really didn't need much help, but it did get a really awesome card in the form of Legacy of the Legion, which gives you an endgame plan in case you draw quests in the middle of the game, and both are Monster ally tokens which works excellently with Monstrous Frostbolt Volley and Wake of Destruction.

Monstrous Frostbolt Volley is a card I've been a huge fan of and written a ton about in the past. This deck thrives on exactly the kind of allies you want to have to turn the volley on, those with large ATK monsters to make it a board wipe, and those that are resilient, like Gilblin Deathscrounger and Legacy of the Legion. The other awesome thing this deck can do with Monstrous Frostbolt Volley is turn it into a giant burn spell when paired with Boundless Rage.

Boundless Rage will give one of the allies you control +ATK equal to your resources, and then Monstrous Frostbolt Volley checks the new ATK of the ally you gave the Boundless Rage to. This allows for a one-two punch that allows this deck to act as a combo deck, giving your Pygmy Pyramid token on turn 5 a bonus 5 ATK, and dealing six to all opposing heroes and allies with that volley is devastating, as you still can attack with that token as well! Boundless Rage wasn't a consideration for most of the Augh decks I built, but after seeing Seth's version of the deck, and getting smashed by the card in Contemporary Constructed, I have a new level of respect for the ability. In a world full of on your turn removal like Bottled Spite, Poison Bomb, and Moonshard, Boundless Rage is well positioned in the current metagame to be an amazing kill condition whether it is paired with Monstrous Frostbolt Volley or not. The other awesome combo that Seth's deck had with his Boundless Rages is Neferset Champion. Neferset Champion is used to finding buffs in the form of Power and Shadow Word: Corruption when played in Limited, but in Constructed, pumping the Champion up to a very scary 6 ATK or greater that gets to attack twice thanks to Sentinel is serious business.

Having 25 health can be a big drawback for most decks, but the amount of early game removal that the deck has along with some Monster Protectors allows the deck to battle with the dedicated aggressive decks of the format. Neferset Champion, while being excellent with Boundless Rage also has Protector and 2 ATK, which is perfect for dealing with most the early threats in the format. Pygmy Pyramid falls under the same category with its ability to protect, and it has Mend 2, so it can heal some damage off your hero, but the big differentiation that comes in this list from other dual class Monster heroes are the removal abilities. Flame Lance has already proved to be the one of if not the best ally removal ability printed for its cost ever. In the current environment, it's killing allies of costs upwards of four which is insane for a card that costs one and is instant. Glacial Tomb is very powerful right now as well. While it does leave Monster allies in play for Monstrous Upheaval and Montrous Frostbolt Volley, being able to lock down an opposing Furious George, Thadrus, Shield of Teldrassil, or Daedak the Gravebourne highlights the power of Glacial Tomb at every point through the game. As long as allies are involved, Glacial tomb is a reasonable card to be playing in your decks, and right now Core is stock full of them. Lastly, Frost Blast was actually one of the cards I nearly gave up on, but in a tight race, or against an army of tokens that come from the Alliance Rogue and Alliance Druid strategies, Frost Blast is a must. It doesn't kill many allies on its own but in pairs Frost Blast can team up to kill many of your opponent's allies. Especially in this deck, it is used more as a tempo play to keep your allies alive and get in an extra attack hopefully pumped by a Boundless Rage.

While the endgame is highlighted by the power of Legacy of the Legion, one card that I particularly love, and the reason for playing Seeds of Their Demise, is Sorrow's End. Sorrow's End is as difficult now as it was in Block Constructed to deal with, as not much has been printed in the way of efficiently removing weapons, and most of the cards in this deck make the weapon a 3 ATK mace with no strike cost. With Seeds of Their Demise you can keep a three cost card on top of your deck for some extra damage. When combined with Boundless Rage, Sorrow's End help explains why this deck wants Seeds of Their Demise instead of If You're Not Against Us. . . as this deck is looking more for its spot to break the game wide open rather than grinding out hard to earn points of damage.

Seth's deck just goes to show that all the classes are pretty viable right now in Core constructed, but your deck needs a plan to deal with the big players in the format. In this deck, to make sure you beat the Distraction Technique decks, I'm pretty certain the deck needs some number of Miniature Voodoo Masks, but adding them to the deck cuts off some of the explosive power the deck has. Becoming more reactive to the field is not what the deck wants to be doing, but is something it may need to do in order to beat some of the strategies that are more reliant on abilities and equipment and not so much on allies. Share your thoughts on Augh in the forums!

-Corey

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