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Timothy Rivera

I cheated. Well okay, it's not cheating. This past weekend was the Betrayal of the Guardian Sneak Preview. On Friday, when the spoiler was posted on Facebook, I spent a good chunk of time building a Betrayal of the Guardian spoiler for Daily Metagame. So when I say I cheated, I mean I looked over all the cards before the tournament. I don't like to look over an entire spoiler before a Sneak Preview weekend, but this time I had to. I find that reading the spoiler before a Sneak Preview tournament is like going to a movie that you already read about the ending. In the end, you already know what is going to happen and it takes away from the whole experience. Anyways with the spoiler built, I knew what all the cards did, but I would forget a few here and there because I only looked them over once.

Our Sneak Preview had 17 people. 17 seemed like a great turnout considering four of our usual ten-man Daily Metagame crew was unable to attend (a special congrats goes out to Jeff and Cassie on the new addition to their family. I guess I'll give you a pass this time for not coming). Below was the contents of the six packs I received to build my deck. Take a moment to look over the pool and determine how you would build it. Afterward, you can scroll down and see the decisions I made:

Death Knight Abilities
Hand Of Dread
Timeless Undeath
Timeless Undeath

Druid Abilities
Thorns Of Nordrassil
Timeless Bounty

Hunter Abilities
Bitey
Intervening Shot

Mage Abilities
Arcane Shock
Flame Volley
Secrets Of The Ages

Paladin Abilities
Light Of Dawn

Priest Abilities
Dark Deliverance
Dark Deliverance

Shaman Abilities
Magma Blast
Timeless Winds

Warlock Abilites
Fel Inversion
Timeless Shadow

Neutral Abilities
Sigil Of The Legion

Alliance Allies
Human Darkweaver
Human Footman
Human Footman
Human Knight
Human Operative
Human Sniper
Night Elf Arcanist
Night Elf Arcanist
Night Elf Bladedancer
Night Elf Bladedancer
Night Elf Grovewalker
Night Elf Moon Priestess
Virendra Moonglow
Xander Blackcrow

Horde Allies
Farseer Horgath
Korah Icefang
Korah Icefang
Orc Blackblade
Orc Grunt
Orc Grunt
Tauren Lightcaller
Tauren Plainsrider
Tauren Plainsrider
Tauren Sunhoof
Tauren Sunhoof
Zafira Ragebolt

Dual Faction Allies
Bianca, Timewalker Mage
Bianca, Timewalker Mage
Moro, Timewalker Druid
Timewalker Smasher
Timewalker Smasher
Timewalker Vanguard
Zorka, Timewalker Shaman

Monster Allies
Arcane Anomaly
Arcane Protector
Blackfang Tarantula
Doomguard Soldier
Durnholde Tracking Hound
Eredar Deathbringer
Felguard Annihilator
Ghostly Charger
Highland Lion
Karazhan Concubine
Ravenous Furbolg
Servant Of Terestian
Shade Of Aran
Shivarra Deathspeaker
Shivarra Deathspeaker
Spawn Of Hyakiss
Voidshrieker
Wildhammer Gryphon
Wrathguard Defender
Wrathguard Defender

Equipment
Don Carlos' Famous Hat
Time-Bending Gem
Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch
Despair
Lothar's Edge
Millennium Blade
Time-Shifted Dagger
Vagaries Of Time

Quests/Locations
The Fall Of Lordaeron
The Black Morass
The Black Morass
Escape From Durnholde
Escape From Durnholde
The Master's Touch
Medivh's Journal
Medivh's Journal
Medivh's Journal
The Opening Of The Dark Portal
Tarethas Diversion

Selecting Quests

It would seem weird to start here, but I like to have 5-7 good quests in any of my Sealed decks. I think it helps to look at your quests first. My priority list for quests in order is draw cards/reveal cards to get one, quests that smooth out draws, all then all others. I do not like to play quests that fall into the their category unless they fill a specific role in my deck.

The number of quests you are going to play can matter. If you only have 5 playable ones, you would might want to look to play a faction that provides more allies. If you are forced into a faction because of powerful cards and that faction is shallow, you might be forced to play a second rate class. You might play that second rate class with more cards but with less powerful cards than another class, just so you can get to 30 cards. Typically knowing you quest count does not matter, but I like to know where I stand plus it is easy to get out of the way.

In this pool I had 4 quests that I deemed playable. I decided I would play The Fall Of Lordaeron as my fifth quest as I felt it had the most upside of the quests that fell into the “other” category if I played Horde. Otherwise I would play a copy of Medivh's Journal.

1 The Fall Of Lordaeron or Medivh's Journal

2 Escape From Durnholde

1 The Master's Touch

1 The Opening Of The Dark Portal

Selecting a Faction

With the allies being the most important part of your deck, you need to pick what you feel is the best faction to give you a good curve. When I talk about a curve, you need to make sure you have enough allies with different costs, so that you can typically play an ally with cost equal to your resources every turn from turns 1-5. To give a broader example, say you had a faction with no two drops. If your neutral allies only had 2 two drops, you would be a little short on you two drops (I prefer to play 4 or 5 two drops in this format). This would be an indication that you need to look at the other faction instead.

Finding the right faction can be a balancing act. I find that no matter what faction I go, I usually have some holes in my curve. This is exactly what the neutral allies are for. For the most part the neutral allies will be slightly weaker than the faction allies, but sometimes you find ones that are on par or better. When deciding on your faction makes sure you pick the faction that offers you less risk. Sealed is all about consistency. I decided to play Horde. I had so many good Horde and neutral allies that I decided to play more allies than I normally would. Knowing that I only had 5 quests I felt that I could play more allies and look for a class with not so many abilities.

2 Korah Icefang
1 Orc Blackblade
2 Orc Grunt
2 Tauren Sunhoof
1 Zafira Ragebolt
2 Timewalker Smasher
1 Timewalker Vanguard
1 Zorka, Timewalker Shaman
1 Durnholde Tracking Hound
1 Felguard Annihilator
1 Karazhan Concubine
1 Ravenous Furbolg
1 Spawn Of Hyakiss
1 Voidshrieker
1 Wildhammer Gryphon
2 Wrathguard Defender

Have Some Class

At this point I needed three class cards to build a 30 card deck. If I wanted to play a class with more cards I would cut down my allies a bit since I was pretty heavy handed on them during that selection process. I fell in love with Despair when I first read it, so I knew I wanted to play a class that could play it. I could have opted to play Priest for its good removal, but I wanted to play with rare weapon. Warrior was out of the selection, because I had no Warrior cards. If I played Death Knight, I had two Timeless Undeath and a Hand of Dread. If played Paladin I would get a Light of Dawn. I decided to go with Paladin. I felt it had a better flip, it had the right amount of cards if I wanted to play all the allies I selected, plus the two Timeless Undeath are mainly just more copies of allies, which I don't really need more of.

Light Of Dawn
Don Carlos' Famous Hat
Despair

Final Deck

Hero: Alundra, Sin'dorei Timewalker

Allies:
1 Farseer Horgath
2 Korah Icefang
1 Orc Blackblade
2 Orc Grunt
2 Tauren Sunhoof
1 Zafira Ragebolt
2 Timewalker Smasher
1 Timewalker Vanguard
1 Zorka, Timewalker Shaman
1 Durnholde Tracking Hound
1 Felguard Annihilator
1 Karazhan Concubine
1 Ravenous Furbolg
1 Spawn Of Hyakiss
1 Voidshrieker
1 Wildhammer Gryphon
2 Wrathguard Defender

Abilities:
1 Light Of Dawn

Equipment:
1 Don Carlos' Famous Hat
1 Despair

Quests:
1 The Fall Of Lordaeron
2 Escape From Durnholde
1 The Master's Touch
1 The Opening Of The Dark Portal

I ended up second after the swiss rounds at 5-1. I ended up having to leave before my semi-final match because of prior arrangements, so I wound up in 3rd place. I feel that Betrayal of the Guardian was a great set, which will compliment War of the Ancients well. Even though I had read the spoiler before the tournament, I had a lot of fun. I don't think reading it ruined my experience like I thought it would. I look forward to drafting this set when it officially comes out. I'll start my draft reviews next week.

-Tim Rivera

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