A Snapshot of Core
/
Your company is welcome, WoW TCG fans! With Reborn Louisville just around the bend I want to take a moment to publicly ponder the Core format. From where it was, to where it might have been going.
Continental Championships
The last full size hyper-competitive tournaments we saw in Core were the three Continental Championships which took place in Asia, Europe, and North America - more specifically Beijing, Prague, and Las Vegas. We don’t have all the data for each but we have some numbers we can run and some insights we can glean about where the meta stood in this pre-Reign of Fire Core format.
But before we proceed, I’d just like to take a moment and give a shout out to Richard Kämmerer for keeping up wowcards.info for all these years! We’re pulling the data on these events from Richard’s site. In addition to events, wowcards.info also features a card database and provides the images for frogwow.me the deckbuilding site for Tabletop Simulator. Wowcards.info is a major community boon so thanks, Richard!
North America
The first Continental Championship we’ll have a look at is North America due to it taking place before the other two. 254 participants showed up to the Las Vegas venue to battle it out in the best-of-one arena of Murlocs, Medivhs, and Master Snipers - the Core format. After two days of intense game play and Tim taking down Matthew in the finals, the results were as follows:
Not exactly the most diverse cut in WoW TCG history. The Top 8 was half Alliance Hunters, three Horde Grand Crusader decks, and a lonely Horde Mage. Zooming further out there were a lot of Medivh’s that fell just outside the Top 8. And then it was a couple more Horde Mages and a fun-of Rawrbrgle and Harmonize combo deck defying the odds. Striking is the mere two green banners in a format where the Monster faction had been making a case both through card design and solid finishes for being an official third faction and tournament contender.
Europe
After the dust settled and North America crowned its champion, Europe was on deck for their Continental Championship. Slightly larger with 292 participants, everyone baited their breath in anticipation of the results of EUCC. Would it be a repeat of NACC with four decks dominating the Top 16 or would the regional differences show through and yield something different? The results were surely surprising to some:
Imagine being told there were four tier 1 decks in the meta and then seeing standings like this. Everyone’s perception of the format changed. This Top 8 only had a pair of Alliance Hunters (with no more throughout the Top 16) and half the Top 8 decks waved the Monster flag. Rawrbrgle showed up in Prague in full force while Medivh forgot to even attend. This time around the fun-of’s were a solo Monster Rogue and Horde Warlock deck and Monsters boasted 10 out of 16 of the Top 16 decks while Alliance only managed to squeeze in a mere two decks!
Asia Pacific
Last but not least was the Asian Pacific Continental Championship with slightly more players than Europe at 301. After NACC the WoW TCG world had been told it had four decks to choose from. After EUCC the WoW TCG world had been told it could be whatever it wanted to be. Even a meme dream like Murlocs could come true for many pilots. Asia looked to give a third and final opinion on the format and its results would be somewhere in-between:
We got from Asia exactly what many Westerners would expect: the unexpected. Asia and the West have never seen eye-to-eye on what the go to strategies are in most any format. Even the texture of a format as meat-and-potatoes as Core appears starkly different between the Eastern and Western communities. Half of the Top 8 consisted of Monster Warlock, a quarter of it belonged to Augh, a rando Mogdar managed to Top 16, and only a single Horde deck made the cut. A meta was there and I guess to some degree it was a combination of EU and NA with lots of Alliance Hunter and lots of Monster Warlock. But the APCC definitely put its own twist on things.
Continental Takeaways
Putting it all together we have the following as a sort-of Core format meta snapshot coming out of the Continental Championships:
Factions:
Monster: 22 decks total.
Alliance: 15 decks total.
Horde: 11 decks total.
Classes:
Warlock: 13 decks total.
Hunter: 10 decks total.
Warrior: 8 decks total.
Paladin: 5 decks total.
Mage: 4 decks total.
Druid: 3 decks total.
Dual-Class: 3 decks total.
Rogue: 2 decks total.
All of the decks in each class were virtually the same except for Dual-Class, Mage, Rogue, and Warlock. Warlocks were all over the place from trying to burn the opponent out with Medivh to trying to make them discard their hand with Tyrus. The Dual-Class decks were of course different due to the class combinations. The two Rogues were totally separate with one looking to win via Mazu’kon and Daedak and the other being a solo deck run out of Monster just to utilize Illidan’s hero flip. The Mages varied in whether they were running the Monstrous Frostbolt Volley package or not. Otherwise this was the meta. Monsters were on top, Warlock was the class to beat with Hunter snapping at its heels, and Rawrbrgle was consistent and powerful despite anyone’s thoughts or feelings about the deck. But this meta had an important component missing that will be present in Louisville and in the Core format moving forward in the form of an entirely new set: Reign of Fire. And while we will never know to what degree Reign would have shaken up this post-Betrayal of the Guardians meta, it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t have had an impact due to the unusually high power level of the set.
Starcity Games WoW TCG Core Circuit
The game died just a month after the last of the Continental Championships. Boom. Three days before it died, however, Starcity Games announced that they were going to pick up WoW TCG as a Sunday format at their Open series. With the first several events already on the calendar, SCG and Warcraft Gaming Center decided to just go ahead and run those initial events anyway. The turnout was abysmal. But the format was new and exciting for those interested in that sort of thing. The powerhouse set Reign of Fire was in the mix and it was hard to trust one of the meta decks from the Continental Championships to lead the way.
We won’t go over each SCG event individually, but they were Baltimore, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Worcester. All Core format obviously. And even though the competition wasn’t as stiff as the Continentals, there were still some above-average players showing up for their shot to take down the last competitive WoW TCG events, secure a Baby Murloc playmat, and win a Ghostly Charger loot. And this means they likely brought out the deck they thought would give them a shot. Let’s breakdown their Top 8’s the same way we did before:
Factions:
Monster: 12 decks total.
Horde: 12 decks total.
Alliance: 8 decks total.
Classes:
Paladin: 5 decks total.
Rogue: 5 decks total.
Warlock: 4 decks total.
Warrior: 4 decks total.
Death Knight: 3 decks total.
Dual Class: 3 decks total.
Mage: 3 decks total.
Hunter: 2 decks total.
Shaman: 2 decks total.
Druid: 1 deck total.
This doesn’t mirror the CC’s hardly at all. Grand Crusader battled back through the Bottled Light ban to be one of the most represented decks. Rogues found that their control tools were perfect for preying on the ally-heavy format. Warlocks and Murlocs both showed that they weren’t edged out by the new cards and strategies. Death Knight came out of left field and Shaman poked its head out of hiding and even took down an entire event. I’ll let you go back through the wowcards.info links above for the Continental Championships decklists, but as we wrap this overview up I want to highlight a few lists from the SCG Tour that were only enabled due to the printing of new Reign of Fire cards!
The New School
Let’s check a couple of these newcomers to the Core format out:
Hero: Barador Wildhammer Timewalker
Allies (26):
4 Thrall the World-Shaman
4 Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest
4 Naisha
4 Edwin VanCleef
3 Aggra
4 Vanessa VanCleef
3 Archimonde, Hand of Sargeras
Ability-Allies (8):
4 Magnetic Totem
4 Tidal Totem
Abilities (15):
3 Legacy of the Horde
4 Frost Arc
4 Earthquake
4 Call of Lightning
Equipment (7):
3 Kaz’rogal’s Hardened Heart
4 Doomhammer
Resources (4):
4 Seeds of Their Demise
Scott Landis took this list to a win at SCG Baltimore battling what looks to have been an extremely diverse field. The new Reign of Fire cards that made this deck possible are Naisha, Magnetic Totem, Legacy of the Horde, and last but not least Doomhammer. In fact, I’d go as far as to call this deck “Alliance Doomhammer.” You have 34 allies that benefit from Thrall’s signature weapon and most of them just happen to have already been established as some of the best cards in the format. Allies like Edwin Vancleef and Thrall the World-Shaman were format staples while Naisha and Magnetic totem were just great when they showed up at the right time. Overall while I’m surprised - and somewhat relieved - at the lack of Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, I think this deck looks really solid and is a great example of what could have been with Reign of Fire in the mix.
Hero: Deathbringer Kor’ush
Allies (13):
4 Valeera
3 Pygmy Pyramid
2 Vilegut
2 Neltharion the Earth-Warder
2 Commander Ulthok
Master Heroes (1):
1 Thrall the Earth-Warder
Equipment (13):
4 The Last Relic of Argus
3 Necrotic Boneplate Gauntlets
3 Bottled Spite
3 Mask of Death
Abilities (11):
4 Despair of Winter
4 Blood Parasite
3 Call of Yogg-Saron
Resources (22):
4 Seeds of Their Demise
4 Wake of Destruction
4 Escape from Durnholde
4 The End Time
2 Terror of the Tides
3 Thieving Little Pluckers
1 The Scourge of Lordaeron
This was Pat Eshgy’s winning list from SCG Worcester. In case it’s not readily obvious, it’s a combo-control deck that stalls the game out with sweepers and healing until it can win with one of the Earth-Warders. Either Thrall for his ability to close out the game with damage and allies or Neltharion in conjunction with Call of Yogg-Saron. The latter removes your opponent’s deck from the game and then destroys the Call of Yogg-Saron that gives them a replacement draw effect. The end result is that they go to draw a card at the start of their turn and fail to do so concluding in a game loss. The newcomers for this deck? Nothing much, just their game-winning combo piece. Vilegut, Mask of Death, Terror of the Tide, The Scourge of Lordaeron, and Call of Yogg-Saron all come from Reign of Fire. Pressuring this deck is hard due to the massive amounts of healing The Last Relic of Argus enables and the presence of sweeper effects in Despair of Winter and Bottled Spite. Even Mask of Death makes flooding Coastrunners risky. Overall this is a really weird take on the format which is always refreshing. A deck that primarily wins without ally combat. Sign me up!
Hero: Ghoulmaster Kalisa
Allies (30):
3 Anub’arak, the Traitor King
4 Daedak the Graveborne
3 Gnash
4 Kahul the Sunseer
4 Mazu’kon
4 Rampaging Furbolg
4 Seres, Timewalker Assassin
4 Vilegut
Abillities (20):
4 Despair of Winter
4 Festering Disease
4 Howling Blast
4 Numbing Cold
4 Will From Beyond
Resources (11):
1 Legacy of the Damned
4 Path of the Damned
4 Terror of the Tides
2 The Essence of Enmity
This last one comes from SCG Cincinnati and its pilot, Bob Hannum, had to battle through a fairly aggressive field to secure his spot in the Top 8. This deck has a whopping 32 Reign of Fire cards in it - over half the deck! It’s built on such an odd axis that we hadn’t really seen in Core before due to the card effects not supporting this kind of strategy. It’s using mill-for-profit enablers like Path of the Damned and Festering Disease with pay-offs in the form of Anub’arak, the Traitor King, Vilegut, and Numbing Cold. But that’s just a third of what this deck is doing. The second synergy in this list involves revealing cards from your deck with your quests in order to hand out free effects like equipment destruction and +10 health and Protector to your hero. This was a sort of a built-in theme of Reign of Fire - revealing for profit with the Warp cycle of cards. Lastly, this deck plays some good stuff. Despair of Winter, Kahul, Daedak, and Mazu’kon are all powerful “known” cards. Needless to say, without Reign of Fire, nothing close to this deck can exist.
Looking to Louisville
So that’s where we’ll leave it today. What’s my hot take on the format? Honestly I don’t have one. Looking to Louisville I don’t know what to advise you to do. The format seems quite open with the inclusion of Reign of Fire. You’ll probably want to pass the aggro test (Grand Crusader, Rawrbrgle), have some interaction for equipment (solo decks, build-arounds like Doomhammer), keep Call of Yogg-Saron in mind, and be ready to face a slew of midrange decks packing some of the best allies ever printed. Or find something more powerful than all of those and just ignore what everyone else is doing.
But other than that I got nothing. I’m realizing more and more that people are capable of bringing anything to the table so I guess my advice would be to play what you like. With so little WoW TCG being played anymore you have less chances to enjoy yourself at a dedicated event. Why get stuck for six hours piloting a deck you don’t enjoy? But with that said, there will be prizes and I think the playmats are worth aiming for so make sure to balance your fun with the ability to win some games. Whatever you decide on you’d better make it quick as Reborn Louisville is just over a week away! What deck are you excited about trying? Let us know on our socials @wowtcgreborn or the Facebook Page! Until next time, may your nets always be full!