Hey everyone! My name is Corey Burkhart, and this is my first article with the Run Good Club.
I am known as a constructed specialist, as I've done very well on the first day of multiple-day tournaments, but have failed to back up my constructed performances with solid draft finishes. Currently I'm 1-1 on day 3 appearances. Why am I known as as constructed specialist, you may ask? I'd argue that it's because I often play off-the-radar decks.
Playing a deck off the radar simply means playing a deck not currently in the metagame so that nobody can hate it out. You plan to surprise opponents and take the game/round/tournament by storm before they know your entire strategy. Seems great, right? There are flaws to this strategy and things you need to consider when building your deck for any big tournament if you don't want to see yourself in the side events area the next morning.
The Pros of playing off the radar decks:
The pros of this strategy are fairly straightforward and simple, but they're still the reasons to consider when going with an unexpected deck choice.
1) Opponents Mulligans: In the WoW TCG, every mistake, whether big or small, tends to be very brutal. You only have one mulligan each game, and with only 12-18 face-up resources in each deck, many players use their mulligans to just find their resources. The surprise factor of an unexpected deck or hero will mess with an opponent's mulligan decisions, making it even harder to keep no-quest hands that look amazing. Some of them probably are amazing against your deck, but they'd prefer a more consistent hand to battle you when going into an unexpected match-up. Other times, players will keep hands thinking you are a control deck, only to find out you are an aggro deck, or visa versa. Playing with off-the-radar decks makes these decisions for your opponents harder than normal, and running with an unexpected spin on an established deck with a certain hero can really mess with their mulligans.
2) Resourcing Face-down: Beyond the mulligan, opponents won't know your exact list, which will give them an even greater headache on what to place face-down in their resource row. Playing a warlock and not drawing an Eye of Kilrogg or a Lesson of the Nether is very painful, because then you are just like everyone else, fighting in the dark, trying to figure out what to resource because you don't know what your opponent has. Off-the-radar strategies punish your opponent for not having vital info on what cards you may be running. I can't count the number of times I've resourced something only to get blown out on the next turn because I resourced the wrong card.
Playing a deck off the radar simply means playing a deck not currently in the metagame so that nobody can hate it out. You plan to surprise opponents and take the game/round/tournament by storm before they know your entire strategy. Seems great, right? There are flaws to this strategy and things you need to consider when building your deck for any big tournament if you don't want to see yourself in the side events area the next morning.
The Pros of playing off the radar decks:
The pros of this strategy are fairly straightforward and simple, but they're still the reasons to consider when going with an unexpected deck choice.
1) Opponents Mulligans: In the WoW TCG, every mistake, whether big or small, tends to be very brutal. You only have one mulligan each game, and with only 12-18 face-up resources in each deck, many players use their mulligans to just find their resources. The surprise factor of an unexpected deck or hero will mess with an opponent's mulligan decisions, making it even harder to keep no-quest hands that look amazing. Some of them probably are amazing against your deck, but they'd prefer a more consistent hand to battle you when going into an unexpected match-up. Other times, players will keep hands thinking you are a control deck, only to find out you are an aggro deck, or visa versa. Playing with off-the-radar decks makes these decisions for your opponents harder than normal, and running with an unexpected spin on an established deck with a certain hero can really mess with their mulligans.
2) Resourcing Face-down: Beyond the mulligan, opponents won't know your exact list, which will give them an even greater headache on what to place face-down in their resource row. Playing a warlock and not drawing an Eye of Kilrogg or a Lesson of the Nether is very painful, because then you are just like everyone else, fighting in the dark, trying to figure out what to resource because you don't know what your opponent has. Off-the-radar strategies punish your opponent for not having vital info on what cards you may be running. I can't count the number of times I've resourced something only to get blown out on the next turn because I resourced the wrong card.
A recent occurrence of this happened to me in draft at Worlds when, in my first match for Saturday, my opponent Niles Rowland used the Holy priest hero, Durzion, Champion of A'dal. The hero flip is so bad that I assumed Niles was playing it to bluff a combat trick, and just had no reason to be playing the other hero for three points of burn. On turn 4 I played a Rhuunom face-down as a resource, and then Niles played Devouring Plague. His choice to play that hero over the clearly better alternative made me forget to consider Devouring Plague when placing my resources. While the mistake is fairly subtle, as most people would see the correct play as rowing a 1-drop on turn 4 in order to save all of their more expensive allies, his off the wall hero made me forget to consider Devouring Plague. It cost me the game, possibly the match, and possibly a shot at a top 8. Mistakes, no matter how large or small, quickly add up and can shoot down your chances at a tournament victory. Having the unexpected hero or deck increases the chance your opponent will make a mistake, giving you a better shot at winning each game, and potentially each match.
3) Game-Play: This year at Worlds, there were many different decks, but the decks that really stood out were the mid-range options. These decks can either take the role of the aggro deck or the role of the control deck depending on their draw and the opponents deck. These decks are best suited for well defined formats, where the player feels they will know when to take the lead and be the aggressor and when to play for card advantage and be the control deck. If they end up playing against you and you chose something off the grid, they won't a clue whether to trade their Mikeal the Blunt for your Marksman Glous, or to just attack you. Once they attack you, you may slam down your Dethvir the Malignant, which could have your mid-range opponent talking to himself or herself about how Mikael should have just traded with Marksman Glous. Playing an unexpected deck, as emphasized above, can increase the number of opportunities for your opponent to throw the game.
The Cons of playing an off the radar deck are as follows:
1) Knowing the Format: In order to play a deck that's off the radar, you really need to know what the big decks are, and what specific cards people will be looking for in order to shut those decks down. Recently at Worlds, one of the big decks going into the event was Death Wish Warrior. That deck packs a variety of very powerful equipment, efficient ways to find them, and of course the namesake Death Wish. The deck's key issues are when its namesake ability is kept offline or when it can't get a weapon to stay in play. There's nothing worse than a Death Wish deck that cannot land a weapon or threat of any kind, and all it is doing is preventing some damage each turn. Some key cards that people were looking at to counter the deck with were the Talisman of the Alliance, Talisman of the Horde, and my personal favorite, Pappy Ironbane. Knowing that people would be packing their ability and equipment hate for this event, I would not have chosen to play another solo archetype that relied on getting weapons into play and attacking with them. Daspien Bladedancer and Ressa Shadeshine, while both very strong decks, were not off the radar decks for this reason. They get hit by the same powerful removal cards that the Death Wish deck is already going to be targeted for, meaning that while they would have been unconventional choices, they were still utilizing similar strategies compared to the Death Wish deck and would have suffered from the same hate.
2) Time: This is probably one of the biggest things to consider with off the radar decks. It includes time to brew the list, time to gather the cards, but most importantly, time to test the deck. Off the radar decks need to be tested against all the main decks in the metagame. You have to make sure that you can beat them, or at least have a strategy to fight them with. After testing all the main decks, you then need to test the decks you have designed to beat the meta decks: in other words, the decks that you feel people will be bringing to counteract the known archetypes. Because these decks tend to be very unique, the builds tend to change to counteract troublesome cards, and with each change that is made to the deck, you will need to go back and test it through the gauntlet again. Even changing just 3-4 cards in the main deck is a valid enough reason to go back and test 10-30 games against each deck in the gauntlet once more, as you figure that you'll draw one of those cards in each game you play. These decks consume a ton of time in testing, so if you are a busy person, don't have a solid play-test circle, or don't want to play your deck somewhere where the entire world may find out about it, I'd shy away from playing an off the radar deck.
Hopefully this was insightful to everyone out there. The theory behind off the radar decks is very appealing to me, and brings another interesting element to competitive card games. I feel that while there are cons to the strategy, you can always come up with a very solid off the radar option that has game against every major deck, along with most the other decks designed to fight the major archetypes. If you can find one of these unexpected decks, I'd recommend giving your off the wall deck a spin at an upcoming Darkmoon Faire event. You never know! You could find yourself winning a big event with something no one has ever seen before!
Until next time. Keep brewing up some spicy lists!
~Corey Burkhart
3) Game-Play: This year at Worlds, there were many different decks, but the decks that really stood out were the mid-range options. These decks can either take the role of the aggro deck or the role of the control deck depending on their draw and the opponents deck. These decks are best suited for well defined formats, where the player feels they will know when to take the lead and be the aggressor and when to play for card advantage and be the control deck. If they end up playing against you and you chose something off the grid, they won't a clue whether to trade their Mikeal the Blunt for your Marksman Glous, or to just attack you. Once they attack you, you may slam down your Dethvir the Malignant, which could have your mid-range opponent talking to himself or herself about how Mikael should have just traded with Marksman Glous. Playing an unexpected deck, as emphasized above, can increase the number of opportunities for your opponent to throw the game.
The Cons of playing an off the radar deck are as follows:
1) Knowing the Format: In order to play a deck that's off the radar, you really need to know what the big decks are, and what specific cards people will be looking for in order to shut those decks down. Recently at Worlds, one of the big decks going into the event was Death Wish Warrior. That deck packs a variety of very powerful equipment, efficient ways to find them, and of course the namesake Death Wish. The deck's key issues are when its namesake ability is kept offline or when it can't get a weapon to stay in play. There's nothing worse than a Death Wish deck that cannot land a weapon or threat of any kind, and all it is doing is preventing some damage each turn. Some key cards that people were looking at to counter the deck with were the Talisman of the Alliance, Talisman of the Horde, and my personal favorite, Pappy Ironbane. Knowing that people would be packing their ability and equipment hate for this event, I would not have chosen to play another solo archetype that relied on getting weapons into play and attacking with them. Daspien Bladedancer and Ressa Shadeshine, while both very strong decks, were not off the radar decks for this reason. They get hit by the same powerful removal cards that the Death Wish deck is already going to be targeted for, meaning that while they would have been unconventional choices, they were still utilizing similar strategies compared to the Death Wish deck and would have suffered from the same hate.
2) Time: This is probably one of the biggest things to consider with off the radar decks. It includes time to brew the list, time to gather the cards, but most importantly, time to test the deck. Off the radar decks need to be tested against all the main decks in the metagame. You have to make sure that you can beat them, or at least have a strategy to fight them with. After testing all the main decks, you then need to test the decks you have designed to beat the meta decks: in other words, the decks that you feel people will be bringing to counteract the known archetypes. Because these decks tend to be very unique, the builds tend to change to counteract troublesome cards, and with each change that is made to the deck, you will need to go back and test it through the gauntlet again. Even changing just 3-4 cards in the main deck is a valid enough reason to go back and test 10-30 games against each deck in the gauntlet once more, as you figure that you'll draw one of those cards in each game you play. These decks consume a ton of time in testing, so if you are a busy person, don't have a solid play-test circle, or don't want to play your deck somewhere where the entire world may find out about it, I'd shy away from playing an off the radar deck.
Hopefully this was insightful to everyone out there. The theory behind off the radar decks is very appealing to me, and brings another interesting element to competitive card games. I feel that while there are cons to the strategy, you can always come up with a very solid off the radar option that has game against every major deck, along with most the other decks designed to fight the major archetypes. If you can find one of these unexpected decks, I'd recommend giving your off the wall deck a spin at an upcoming Darkmoon Faire event. You never know! You could find yourself winning a big event with something no one has ever seen before!
Until next time. Keep brewing up some spicy lists!
~Corey Burkhart
Corey Burkhart has been playing TCGs for a number of years. His breakout performance came in summer of 2009 where he won the WoW TCG North American Continental Championships. He has since made strong finishes at many events following, including solid money finishes at the 2009 and 2010 World Championships, as well as top 8 at the 2010 North American Continental Championship.
I don't quite understand how the choice of Durzion made you forget about Dev. Plague.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you expect him to play?
Holy could mean Spirit of Redemption, but that's hardly a T4 play.
If thinking about weird hero choices makes you forget bomb cards like that, I think you should obsess a little less about your opponents hero :-)
The idea of using a different hero than is normally used in draft got me thinking, why would he play this hero. I knew the holy card he could play was spirit of redemption, and I had never played against that card before, and with my lack of removal for the power word:sanctuary combo it would be difficult to defeat. The reason I forgot was I began putting him of different things, such as bluffing a combat trick. I eventually decided that he just didn't have any priests, and he was using the hero as a bluff to side track me, and was playing with the two dark penances I shipped his way, and any of the 4 freights I had passed up.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't think devouring plague is that big of a bomb. Yes, I should have thought about it more before resourcing rhounnom, that one of the options was devouring plague, but I became inthrawlled in the idea that he was using the hero as a bluff, picked up the late dark penances and freights I sent his way, and moved into priest. It also crossed my mind to try and play around those two penances, and the only way to do that was to protect my hand of 4 drop, 4 drop, and 2 five drops.
But I do agree I probably should have payed less attention to the hero and played more around the ability. It is my mistake, and hopefully it doesn't happen in future worlds drafts =/.
~ Corey Burkhart