One Card at a Time: Chief Apothecary Hildagard

How many allies kill a hero upon dealing combat damage to it? If you answered the last one to attack it, then congratulations, smarty-pants, youre quite the international wit—and you may have a future in blogging. If nothing really came to mind for you, take a moment to acquaint yourself with our new friend from Hunt for Illidan Chief Apothecary Hildagard. Though her name might denote a healers hands, Hildagard is not your typical friendly nursemaid.Simply turn Hildagard sideways, navigate through any potential protectors, and hit home for the win. Voil! That seems easy enough—its a downright deal for only 7 resources. Of course, you need a little bit of help to get there: Hildagard has 0 ATK. If youre going to trigger her power, you need a way to boost her stats. You dont need to make her big, and +1/+0 will get the job done well enough. You just need to get there.There are cards, such as last weeks Trueshot Aura, that beg to have decks built around them. And then there are cards, such as Chief Apothecary Hildagard, that cause you to tilt your head and wonder Could I make that work? Is it even possible? Cards like that are fun to play and worth their weight in bragging rights when it comes to throwing down at the local shop. Taking down a single game with such an unlikely kill can make all your other losses worthwhile. Its a point of pride to force cards like that down victory lane.When I first started contemplating Hildagards hurdles, a few options popped up. When I started making a dedicated effort, I found Id bitten off more than I could chew. My Firefox tabs filled my screen for some distance, all showing a variety of cards that interacted favorably with Hildagard. I realized at that point that theres not just one deck here. Hildagard is viable in a minimum of five classes, possibly more if you want to make a real effort.If youre looking for the road less traveled, then youll need to know the generic abilities and Horde Allies that help your cause. Lets cover the trick shot first: giving Chief Apothecary Hildagard ferocity to permit a surprise attack. This is a resource-intensive route. Youll need 7 resources to play her, and a variable number to give her ferocity and some ATK. Still, its a worthwhile avenue to explore because fewer opponents will see it coming—and besides, itll be really awesome when it works!Planting Gahrunt Foulfang on the field beforehand will give you a source of ferocity for 0 resources—if you can keep him alive. Thats easier said than done of course, but the free factor makes Foulfang pretty tempting. Looking at more resource-intensive options, we add Into the Fray to the mix for a cheap 1 resource. Its not exactly your typical Constructed all-star, but it gets the job done. If you really want to go for the gusto, you could try Famish the Binder as your hero. Hes a dangerous choice (albeit a viable one) because he cant play any of the class abilities. With Famish giving you ferocity when you need it, youll just have to turn to some other options for ally boosts. So, whats available?Former Draft stud Zorm Stonefury is tiny and innocuous, at least until Hildagard storms the gates for lethal damage. And your opponent may let him stick around just because hes not worth killing! If you go for a big gun, the forgotten Warchief Thrall will provide the necessary boost in addition to making any of your other tag-along allies significantly stronger. Hes expensive, but his effect is worth the price. On the non-ally front, For the Horde! should work out, and it requires no investment on the field beforehand. You wont have to complete it until the attack is clearly hitting home, and if you use any tricks to grant Hildagard untargetable, youll still be able to work your magic with the quests pump. While Hidden Enemies is probably most useful for Orc heroes, if youre in the market for a quest to double for draws and wins, you can use Hidden Enemies with any Horde hero. Rally the Troops works with any hero, as does Furious Resolve. Youre scraping the bare minimum with those cards, but its useful to see what you have to work with before you begin looking for improvements. After all, you have to know the worst-case scenario before you can figure out whats best!We already talked about looking toward Famish the Binder for help, but what are some other classes that have heroes that give you a boost all on their lonesome? Well start with Hunter at the top of the list, thanks to the shiny new Orc Koth, Caller of the Hunt. His flip power will give you the boost you need when you swing for game, and its never useless because it helps your allies trade up. The class has a number of helpful abilities, all in the flavor of a predator-prey relationship with the hero. Marked for Death and Run to Ground will grant you extra ATK when dealing with an opposing hero, although Run to Ground is also useful at other stages of the game against allies. If you want to use Rayder to help duplicate this sort of effect, you can, but there are better Pets to run. I would stick with the ability base if you want an assist-enhanced Hildagard. Honestly though, if you set up the game around your lady, flip powers may often be enough.Next up is Shaman. Ringleader Kuma, another Hunt for Illidan hero, grants a similar tactic for boost. I couldnt dig up much else in the Shaman court to back you up, unless you want to recruit Bloodlust. Bloodlust basically duplicates Kumas power, so if you want that, you know exactly where to turn. All of these options are a tad expensive though, which means Shaman isnt an optimal choice. Youll probably be relying on some generic stuff and the same Horde base that any hero could run.I think the class that most players jump to when thinking about how to design around Hildagard is Druid. Druids are well known for the buffs they can attach to allies and for the party-pumper Gift of the Wild. An ideal series might be end-of-opponents-turn Gift with Gahrunt Foulfang already in play, followed by Hildagard on your own turn to mash for victory. Not bad, and this strategy could even be added to a conventional aggressive Horde Druid—most likely a Balance Hero to leverage Force of Nature—aiming to abuse Gift.Going with a smaller focus leaves Mark of the Wild and Earth Mothers Blessing, miniature buffs that only help Hildagard. The brand new Brace or Mace is in the same vein, though it has some modular applications to help broaden its scope. The ability you choose to run is entirely up to taste and design. Its questionable how many would be worth including if you were already going the Gift of the Wild route, but I imagine a couple are worth trying just to improve your odds. Druids have been having loads of success on the Darkmoon Faire circuit this year: winning three in various iterations. The class certainly has pedigree, so it probably merits the most serious attention.Warrior actually has a lot of the same benefits as Druid, with a few others along for the ride. You can go Gorebelly and gain the Orc power for Hidden Enemies, a decided plus. Either Battle Shout or its big brother, Finishing Shout can sub for Gift of the Wild. The latter has been receiving a bit of chatter since Hunt hit. While the boost up and the opposing boost down are small, added together this creates a stats discrepancy similar to Gift of the Wild for one less resource—oh, and its still an instant. Tack on that it outright kills some protector punks like Antikron the Unyielding, and I think well be seeing some loud Warrior action in the near future, whether its in this deck or not. Both of these abilities will make Hildagard just big enough to crack the opposing hero.You can add Intensify Rage if you want an attached boost available, but it will put Hildagard on a short lifespan. Warrior has a ton of removal, and you can use Lionar the Blood Cursed (still Orc!) to make protectors less problematic. Proving itself in tournaments time and again, Warrior is an all-around great class choice.My favorite choice for Hildagard has thus far been ignored: Paladin. Paladin is a good class for people who love to have all the answers and for people who like to play really long games. Love it or hate it, Paladin is always a contender thanks to the power and variety of the class. I happen to like them a lot; I love playing the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, so why wouldnt I want my games to take as long as possible? Kidding aside, Paladins have a lot to offer a strategy based around Chief Apothecary Hildagard.For one, Paladins have Redemption and crew. Most of the aforementioned classes will be forced to rely on Chasing A-Me 01 to recur dead Hildagards, but Paladins arent shackled to that single answer to ally removal. If just using Redemption doesnt satisfy you, Full Circle will also keep your attempts to kill the opposing hero going strong. Paladins are excellent at preserving their ally friends, so when one is the lynchpin of your strategy youd be wise to look toward the golden hammer. This is a decided plus, but it gets better.Blessing of Divinity and Blessing of the Martyr are the only Paladin-exclusive ways to empower Chief Apothecary Hildagard. Theyre both resource efficient, and Martyr will even bring back Hildagard if your opponent manages to kill her off (Paladins are persistent that way!). Blessing of Freedom will help Hildagard stick around once you drop her, but youll have to play it tricky to get one of your pump Blessings on Hildagard beforehand. You dont want your opponents attempts to remove her to come back in response. If that happens, your own Blessing of Freedom will interrupt the pump, and youll have an untargetable 0/1 on your hands . . . hardly desirable. Unconventional win conditions are a nice way to break the monotony of stuff like Form of the Serpent and Myriam Starcaller at the local tournaments, and theyre a great way to draw attention to some innovative deckbuilding. I dont know if well see Hildagard taking down the next Darkmoon Faire, but she can certainly stick it to the local competition!—Glenn Jonesmagicalweasel on the forums

Limited Advice: Gen Con 2008

It was one crazy weekend. If you got lost in the whirlwind that was Gen Con Indianapolis or didnt have a chance to make the trip out, let me break it down for you.World of Warcraft Miniatures Game—The game was so popular that when a friend of mine tried to get a demo at noon on Saturday, the sign-up sheet was already full. Players love their World of Warcraft TCG characters in 3-D! If you havent already done so, you should try out thedownloadable demo at WoWMinis.com. Youll find that the games basic play is incredibly simple, yet the games strategy element is satisfyingly complex and the games customizable element—the Action Bar card—even makes mirror matches unique. If the convention circuit is any indication of the games popularity, you should preorder your World of Warcraft Miniatures boosters. Remember Heroes of Azeroth selling out within days of release? You dont want to experience that heartbreak again, do you?Feature Match Area—As you can tell from the coverage, the World of Warcraft TCG feature match area received a huge upgrade for this years big event. Giant LCD TVs allowed spectators to watch the whole game without having to crane their necks over the folks in front of them.North American. Continentals—If you play Warlock every time, it has to pay off sometime, right? All kidding aside, watching Matt play was quite a treat. I think he, as did David Bodimer, visited the Priest trainer and trained in Mind Control.What I most enjoyed about the event was the fun that everyone had playing the World of Warcraft TCG—even in the most competitive events. Cards like Lady Katrana Prestor are good enough to win a spot in competitive decks, yet theyre so fun that you feel like a winner whether you win or lose to the Onyxias Lair Raid Deck.Darkmoon Faire—Jimmy Choi hit the ground running, going undefeated in the tournament with Kilzin of the Bloodscalp. While the Shamans success is no surprise, its now anybodys game as the metagame is completely defined. Who knew that healing would be so good in a format? Is it time for a deck to truly heal face and beat the burn decks? Finally, if you want to hear the story of the greatest comeback ever, check out his finals match—Crackling Purge for the win.Side Events—The beauty of the Darkmoon Faire design is that players dont have to play in the main event to have a great time. Spectral Safari, UDE Bounty Tournament, World of Warcraft Miniatures Sneak Peeks, LAN events, and infinite other side events ran all night. If you wanted to keep things more casual, you could easily join in a game of Big Stack with some of the big names in the World of Warcraft TCG. Prizes ranged from booster packs to uncut sheets, so there were plenty of great items to win outside the main event.I didnt think any event could top U.S. Nationals last year, but adding another continent to the mix doubled the fun. To all the Montreal players, come October in Paris, Ill be relying on you. I hope to see you all there!Now for something completely different . . . There was still a little time left in the Burning Crusade Block in Booster Draft, so I was able to talk to a lot of the pros at the event and compare notes.Third Times the CharmThe one thing we all agreed on is that Hunt for Illidan is the most important pack in the draft. Its not an altogether unfamiliar phenomenon—Fires of Outland was the most important set in the last block. There were also players last year, like German Stefan Urban, who liked the underdrafted classes. Urban embraced the Priest, while there were plenty of players out there who wanted to draft Shaman and Rogue based on pack 3.Dirty TricksBefore Hunt for Illidan was released, the World of Warcraft TCG was all about Sacrificial Poison. The uncommon ability completely dominated any game when it hit the table, and making the ability stick wasnt too difficult with Diversion and Obfuscate. Now, the class has a little more depth. If you end up with a couple of On the Brinks or a dagger in March of the Legion, Feint and Sap allow you to control combat. Perhaps the best bonus to drafting the Rogue class is that so few people are familiar with the classs combat tricks. When comparing the way Americans and Europeans draft—which is a topic Ill cover in an upcoming article—Feint is insanely good on this side of the Atlantic, as players typically battle to get the first 2-for-1 in an attempt to dominate the board.Mighty WarriorBefore I got the set list, I could only assume that losing a pack of Puncture would make Warrior worse. Dont worry, its still insane. I dont think there has been a time when Warrior has ever been bad. How can 30 health ever be wrong? I was astonished as David Bodimer tabled Finishing Shout in his last draft pod to make Top 8. He should be happy that winner Matt Markoff wasnt sitting at that table—the man hate drafted the Warrior ability in a different pod third pick without blinking.Pinprick always at least 2-1s—John TattaIm a little too conservative to draft the Imp Lord, but Tatta knows how to make it work. He drafted the Demon hero in the WoWTCGScrub draft on Thursday. As Pinpricks worst matchup, Mage, is already taken care of since you have all the fire-based damage abilities in your own deck, its not bad when it comes together. Just hope that no one else plans to draft Mage or Pinprick, or else youll split those fire cards and end up with only fifteen playable cards. Some decks will sign the match slip as soon as you sit down, but most classes have a way to beat you. That auto-scoop factor is a big advantage, but plenty of classes have ways to beat it, including some hero flip powers. Buyer beware!I think this Booster Draft format is a milestone in the World of Warcraft TCG, because every class has the potential to be good in a Booster Draft, even without uncommons or rares. I think a player can realistically go into a draft with the idea of drafting any class. Classes with early-game strong abilities usually end up a quality quest or two short of perfect, and classes with strong abilities in the last two sets typically have better overall quality—albeit in smaller card pools—as drafters end up drafting the class uncontested.If you didnt catch the coverage of the North American Continental Championship or Darkmoon Faire Indianapolis, hit the links. Congratulations to not only Jimmy Choi and Matt Markoff, but also to all the players who won last weekend. Players who made the Top 64 walked away with at least an iPod Touch, if not a Playstation 3, Loot cards, or a trip to Paris. How many games let you win trips that take them around the world? Not many! I hope you all enjoyed the coverage of the event and the little nuggets of Booster Draft knowledge. Take care until next week!

One Card at a Time: Sek Grimlash

Anyone who knows me, knows that Warlock sits at the top of my class preference, and it always has. It doesn't matter if I'm shuffling up sixty or forty cards: I like knowing versatile cards like Eye of Kilrogg and Invoke the Nether have my back, and Warlocks have strong flip powers to boot. I haven't played the class into the ground like Matt Markoff, but I can honestly say that he's one of a small set of people I know who may have more experience in the Purple Hand Club than myself. So when I say that I always keep my eye on what Warlock can do, I mean that I have a tendency to examine the class's options in serious depth. Those decks just tend to rest nicely in my comfort zone.At Darkmoon Faire Seattle, I saddled up with a Warlock deck built around Demonic Knowledge. My deck was composed of a hybrid between the Darkmoon Faire Lyon decks of Jeremie Tiano and Romain Dubois with a pinch of my own cheeky fun slapped in. One element that I tried—and eventually sliced—from that deck was Sek Grimlash. Romain Dubois ran the underappreciated 6-drop in his Top 8 build, and it has a pretty neat effect. When Hunt for Illidan rolled in, I knew I'd want to take a second look at this particular ally.Once Sek Grimlash hits the field, 2 resources and an ally on the board will give you the ability to play some serious Demon tricks from the graveyard. If you can get one Demon in play and another in your graveyard, you can create a loop. The most impressive loop that Dubois's deck could perform was a Dread Infernal tango that let you pay 2 to deal 2 damage to everything on the field, as many times as you had a pair of ready resources so long as you were past turn 5. Four Blast Waves each turn seems pretty good; they should wipe the field and put significant pressure on your opponents hero's health.Dread Infernal is one of my favorite Demons, thanks to his aggressive stats on a 5-drop frame. And his stats are pure gravy when you add in his effect and his ability to wreck aggressive decks. But he's hardly the only Demon available for that sort of trick—in fact, he might not even be the best one! If you need spot ally removal on a stick, a discarded Razorsaw will turn any spare ally on the field into a Lightning Bolt, which is a nice trick to have at instant speed. But my favorite Demon is a new epic from Hunt for Illidan: Collidus the Warp-Watcher. I first saw this guy played at the Sneak Preview, and he was pretty amazing. Collidus impacts the board in a huge way, and he also gives you the ability to reload guys like Tatulla the Reclaimer and Doshura Risestrider. Plus, with Sek's ability, you can put an activation of it on the chain for any big Demon, then before that resolves, activate it with another ally for Collidus. That will leave you with Collidus and a second big Demon on the field while your opponent's defenses bounce right back to his hand.While Razorsaw and Collidus the Warp-Watcher arent Warlock Pets, most of the more obvious Demon targets are. The standard who's who of quality mid-range protectors occupy those slots, and they guarantee you playables. You get the new Velnoth at 2, the ancient Sarmoth at 3, and Hukkath at 4. If you go for a Demonology hero, which seems like the obvious choice, then you also get a chance to play Haaroon. He's a much more dangerous protector if he can exhaust, dish out 6 to the attacker, and then (if alive) trade for a fresh copy from the discard. Demonology Warlocks can also use Soul Link, which has great synergy with Sek Grimlash. Each turn, simply pile damage on an ally equal to its health minus one, and then swap it to the yard for another dude. You can pull that off over and over for each pair of ready resources you possess (as long as you have enough resources in play), permitting you to prevent a lot of damage at minimal cost. Toss in Velnoth and you can do that combo in miniature without involving Sek Grimlash.Another potent form of removal is former One Card at a Time feature Demonfang Ritual Helm. Whenever you design a deck around an engine that involves multiple allies dying off per turn, it's worth it to consider a caster hero in order to leverage the Helm. Because Sek's ability can be activated at instant speed, the Helm becomes even more impressive and difficult to handle without direct removal, such as Shattering Blow, on hand. Any opponent hoping to win with an ally-based assault will be forced to get rid of the stupid thing pronto. Control decks don't like it too much either, because it lets you constantly answer their incoming fat guys. It doesn't matter if they play Exarch Onaala or The Abominable Greench, all are equally vulnerable.The measures mentioned thus far have been mostly defensive in nature. Obviously there's a lot of room to get aggressive when Demons are in the mix, mostly because they don't play nicely. There are some cute buff effects available. Malistra the Demonmistress gives your Pets some ATK pump and doubles as a cheap ally, and Warbringer Arix'amal does a slightly better trick for the same price. If you start flooding the board, then Sarlia can keep opposing allies like Brok Bloodcaller from trading with your other allies. Plus, shes a large, untargetable beater. My favorite shenanigan is even cuter. I once saw a player toss out Sek Grimlash on turn 8 with two Varimathras in the discard. He made a Bhenn Checks-the-Sky on the end step, exhausting his opponent's protector, and then he readied and resourced. The guy played Tarn Darkwalker from the hand and then turned Bhenn into a Varimathras via Seks power. The now-ferocious Varimathras attacked . . . and then became the other Varimathras, which attacked . . . and then became the original for another assault! At the end of turn he dealt 5 to his opponents hero, and that was it. A full 33 damage from Varimathras courtesy of Sek Grimlash and Tarn Darkwalker. Tarn and I may have our issues (see the DMF Seattle Gadgetzan coverage), but he seems like a versatile pony in the Sek Grimlash lineup, capable of some creative scenarios. Varimathras is less versatile, but more awesome. He tends to find a home in the Demon decks for obvious reasons.Sek Grimlash represents an engine that requires an investment to function. You have to get Sek and an ally on the board to get it going. We saw in the above example how helpful instant-speed allies might be, because they keep that little guy safe long enough to let you ready with some resources. Another key aspect of the engine is keeping card advantage in the mix. Romain Dubois used Demonic Knowledge, and I can also heartily recommend the card. It's cheap, kills off your Demons, and does some serious digging. There are other choices of course: You Are Rakh'likh, Demon will give you some pretty consistent draw in the quest department. It won't be hard to stick a Demon to the field in this sort of deck.You could also try a different sort of engine. Ulrac Bloodshadow can return a Demon ally to hand for every turn he gets to attack. While fragile, hell give you an added utility when Sek is unavailable. Cheap allies like Bhenn are great for Sek because they don't represent much of an investment on your part when traded for a big Demon. You can increase their usefulness with Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service! or create a similar effect with quests that make tokens, such as Are We There, Yeti? and the like.On the other end of the spectrum, one expensive ally might be a cool choice. Masten Everspirit costs 5 resources, but, thanks to Sek Grimlash, he'll give you any Demon from the yard each turn. If you're playing other effects that involve killing off your own allies, he won't be bad there either. But a similar, yet stronger, option takes the cake in my book. Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire was a big deal when it came out and had a surge in popularity as part of the PX-238 Winter Wondervolt combo deck. The Grimoire can pump out an ally to throw away each turn, and it can play great defense by protecting and then getting destroyed before damage is dealt to become a more threatening Demon from the discard pile.These are all cute ways to make Sek's power cost you less to activate turn after turn. One more way to leverage his effect is to use allies that grant you additional bonuses upon going from the field to the discard pile. The most prominent set of allies to offer such powers has to be the McGillicutty family from March of the Legion. Known for their solid Limited uses, the best of them offer some specialized destruction upon being destroyed, forcing your opponent to play around them carefully. Acid Hands McGillcutty and Fungus Face McGillicutty number among my personal favorites. Don't discard Spider Legs McGillcutty, though: he's cheap and shuts down two attackers for a single resource by protecting and then dying to exhaust the second. If he helps you to establish board control via a Grimlash loop, then he's done his job well.Beyond that group, there are a few other standouts. Arnold Flem can mimic Dread Infernal upon death and is pretty aggressive, as long as your opponent doesn't have a 1-drop to trade him with. I like the 3-drop Boneshanks better, thanks to his ability to wreck allies regardless of size—plus, hes not too shabby when combining him with Chasing A-Me 01 or the like to make those plays a little better. Ethereal Plunderer could improve on the Acid Hands model and lets you thieve troublesome equipment from your opponent for your own purposes. But my favorite has been featured in this column a number of times: Vindicator Zalreth. He's great for some double-Demon action when you have Sek Grimlash action play. Of course, he's great even if you dont have Sek, because he can resurrect a dude all by himself.I hope you've had some fun walking on the infernal side with me. Sek Grimlash is just one dismissed card that we could be seeing more of in the coming months. The neat thing about narrow cards like Sek is that he will only get better as more Demons are debuted and made available. Different loops and chains will turn Sek into an even more dangerous machine than ever, and I'll be keeping my eye on him for some time.—Glenn Jonesmagicalweasel on the forums