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