by Mike Rosenberg

Looking for a change of pace? Can't get enough healing goodness? Are you someone who enjoys making it practically impossible for someone to push damage through to your hero, while you get to a late game that consists of gargantuan Tigers and other assorted late-game goodies?

If any of these apply to you, then you may want to keep tabs on one of the four players from Santa Clara, California. Eric Jonas, David Jacques, Norvic Santos, and Patrick Sarmiento have brewed up the ultimate healing deck! Their hero of choice? Sumi’jin, Guardian of Cenarius.
 

Hero: Sumi'jin, Guardian of Cenarius

Allies: 17
3 Scarlet Commander Renault Mograine
3 Neptulon the Tidehunter
3 Alecia Hall
2 Alana the Woebringer
3 Gnash
4 Sava'gin the Reckless

Abilities: 21
4 Nature's Focus
3 Rejuvenation
3 Energize
4 Flourish
3 Entangling Roots
4 Avatar of the Wild

Equipment: 15
4 Staff of Ammunae
3 Corrupted Egg Shell
4 Bottled Life
4 Ring of the Great Whale

Quests: 7
4 Seeds of their Demise
3 What's Haunting Witch Hill?

"We started coming up with this deck about two months ago in our private team forums," said Patrick, one of the originators of the deck. "The thread was titled 'don't laugh'."

The team jokingly tossed the deck around a bit, but started to see that there was something in the combination of cards. Here's a quick run-down: Staff of Ammunae makes tokens that can heal your hero each turn. Your hero flip lets you get immediate healing whenever you get a token from your Staff. Ring of the Great Whale makes all of that healing better. The result? You end up healing little packets of damage with each attack on your hero, and if they don't deal with your tokens, then you heal even more!

But what if they don't attack with heroes and allies to trigger Staff of Ammunae? Rejuvenation also does work in this deck, healing your hero each turn. Multiple Rings start to make things ridiculous, giving the Druid player plenty of time to draw cards, place resources, and build up to an end-game of cards like Avatar of the Wild or Scarlet Commander Renault Mograine. Corrupted Egg Shell serves as both a trigger for Sumi'jin's flip and a win condition. Neptulon the Tidehunter does the same, healing your hero to full while being an Elusive beat-stick.

The deck can be very difficult to deal with, especially for decks that lack proper answers to equipment. Even Obsidian Drudge isn't enough sometimes, as it's fairly easy to rebuild your board. Some decks, such as Poison Tipped Murlocs, have nothing on this deck. They simply fold.

The biggest strength to the deck, by far, is its surprise factor. Players have no clue what this deck is doing in the early game, and the X-factor that it represents has been its biggest factor to success today. Two of this deck's pilots, Eric Jonas and David Jacques, have good records going into the last third of the tournament.

Will Sumi'jin see play on the Sunday stage? It's possible! Check back at the end of the day to see!