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