So, the big question on everyone's mind is what is the META going to be? Well, instead of giving you a single team to work with this week, I wanted to look at giving you several teams that I think personally, are going to see the most play, and why.
First, let's look how things have evolved a bit. Everyone was clamoring about what was going to happen with Worlds. Would Souls of Vengeance be out by then (which we now know unfortunately no), would there be a special map, why even bother anyway as Mortimers will run the gamut... just what was going on? Then we found out that it WAS going to be a scenario and got the first glimpse at a map that looked amazingly fun with it's "No Morts" rulings in play!
Then the playtesting started. In my local group it's been a bit of all over the place. We started with some base teams and tried some new ideas, and for a while, this was the team that a few of us were messing with:
Midnight Beatings:
Goblin Shredder
Rethilgore
Felguard Legionnaire
The basic idea here was to use Lycanthropy on the shredder, and pack Swiftness Potion and Fog of War with the mecha-monster to speed up flag captures.The Felguard was packing an X-52 Rocket Helm to keep him in the mix of things, and the Dark Portal, to allow for even faster flag captures. The Goblin Ingenuity allows you to keep readying the Swiftness Potion or the Fog of War as situationally needed, and should, with Lycanthropy, allow you to move fast once capturing the flag. At 19 honor (18 + 1 for the Helm) it moved very fast and was fairly successful, even beating Vashj Teams.
However, it lacked something. We tried switching out some characters like Felguard out and Grimdron in. All that did was solidify our hatred of Grimdron. He's nice, but can't pack a punch at all. We put in a Frostsaber Prowler instead of Felguard too, and this build, while a bit faster, still lacked something in the mix so we started looking elsewhere:
Jaina Zoo:
Lady Jaina Proudmoore
Vindicator Kaustron
Vindicator Kaustron
This team has been written about so many times, it's crazy. Still, it has it's merits on this map. It has 4 range on two of the fastest hunters in the game. Sure a 3 tick attack isn't fast, but until you have played with Kaustron, and see the tricks he can pull with his furry friends, you have no clue how fast he really is.
For example, in one of our games, Kaustron is on tick 8, and tickes to tick 1 to attack. He crits and lowers his Fury from tick 9 to tick 8. Both attack on tick 8 now and are at tick 1. End of Tick 10 happens and Kaustron readies his ABCs. On Tick one, Fury attacks someone. Then on Kaustron's Tick one he summons Fury again as it's ready, and since it's an instant, Fury is now on tick 1 again, and can attack again! Plus, Kaustron can attack!
I won't even get into how Jaina can abuse this with the Greater Water Elemental when it readies on tick 10, but it's just like, WOW, you CAN do that!
This team is high honor at 26, but packs a significant punch and can bring a ton of pets to make it very viable, not for capturing the flag, but for destroying your opponent outright!
Next we switched to the old faithful:
Dark Water Shammies:
Lady Vashj
Crushridge Ogre
Rethilgore
Corle loves this team and has posted on it's merits so I won't go into it to much here. I will say this, I do think that Vashj will be played by a good majority of mid tier players. I think several folks have seen her power of the last several months and her good showing at Nationals, and will look to capitalize on that. She is powerful, and she is a good team, however, there are things that wreak havoc with her an she is not unbeatable.
The biggest problem with Vashj, is you have a lot of things all over the board and not a lot of synergy to keep your people together. I think a lot of people are going to be playing "pack" type teams (think Thangal) and if Vashj gets separated from her friends, it can turn ugly if she's by herself with no one block LOS. I think Vashj success will be had by those MOST familiar with her and her strategies and not just by someone thinking, I'll use her as she's super powerful. Being powerful is one thing, knowing how to use that power is another.
So what comes next? I was listening and reading and saw some Cairne builds, which seem good, but not all powerful and unstoppable. Saw some ideas around Morova as well. I love the idea of Morova with Mana Pot, that seems like a cheaper Tinker combination and a lot of fun with Moonkin on the table.
No, next we saw an old friend, with some new, well, old, friends... or should I say, Pfriends?
Retribution's Light:
Highlord Bolvar Fordragon
Phadalus the Enlightened
Phadalus the Enlightened
Again, this is a team I've written about a bit myself. Pojo brought this to our weekly battleground and pretty much wrecked face with it! It's got massive damage output, healing galore, and the ability to capture multiple flags when played right. This could be a solid team at Worlds and wouldn't surprise me at all to see it in the top 8.
Finally, in all this, we came to my personal favorite:
For the Horde!:
Magistrix Kiala
Thangal
Haruka Skycaller
This was last week's WWW and has seen some growing popularity. It's tremendously versatile, and over two weeks now of testing, I wanted to shed some more insight on it. First, find a way to work in Curse of Agony. While this team is compeitive already, and can stop flag capturing teams in their tracks completely, it has a hard time against Zoo or Epic teams with healing (ie Bolvar or a Velen build). The Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Lacerate altogether will pretty much wipe out any of those pesky epics though. It's a tough call to not put Piztog in when he's so valuable in this build, but trust me, work in COA and you won't be disappointed in those match ups.
Secondly, playtest this team if you are thinking of playing it. You really have to learn how to maximize Pixtogs potential as a flag blocker and a terrain blocker, as well as learn when to curse, attack, and/or Fear with Kiala.
These are just a smattering of the teams waiting for you at Worlds. There will be many others. Before leaving, I'd like to leave you with some random thoughts about the upcoming tournament:
- Just because teleporting isn't allowed, doesn't mean Irana and people with those type of abilities won't see the board.
- If you think Kiala is good, what makes you think people won't try to use Mortimer? Sure he doesnt' teleport, but he is a solid character at 6 honor, and can bring the Jhuroons!
- Don't get hung up on capturing the flag, remember, this is war, and sometimes, that means you have to kill someone too!
- Keep moving. Literally, don't sit on one place on this map. Furthermore, don't use minis that tick up an insane amount of times, ie Savin. Sitting still kills you on this map in my opinion and I think teams that play Savin will be in for a sad day if they don't utilize him well and not tick him up a lot
- Healing wins this thing. Well timed, well packed heals, will win this entire event in my opinion. Who knows, maybe the Silk Bandage will become the MVP here?
However this week turns out for you, we hope you have a lot of fun in Austin (as it is my hometown) and again, if you can't make it, check back here for pics and updates!
PS - Thank you UDE! This is a tremendously fun scenario and something that brings a fresh perspective to the competition. Great job!
