Battle of the Aspects has been released, and hopefully you've read Ben's awesome review of the abilities, allies, and equipment found in the Treasure Packs. I believe almost all of his evaluations are spot on, including my favorite card in the set, [Ambassador Chromie]. I love me a [Chromie].

I was the kid at Battlegrounds years ago running around with the [Medoc Spiritwarden], [Seraph the Exalted], [Breanna Greenmother], [Chromie], and [The Missing Diplomat] do-nothing deck. Sure, I died to [Omedus the Punisher] every single time, but if I ever faced a slower deck I got to go infinite (or in this deck's case) with five turns. The only problem with this new [Chromie] is that [Ambassador Chromie] has to attack to gain you an extra turn. Normally, I would consider this an upside, but considering her stats, and how the format has shifted to play multiple Protectors, this can become an issue. Despite these flaws, or in this case the work we have to put in to actually gain our extra turn, I think [Ambassador Chromie] is the real deal and I've been working on two different decks to take advantage of her ability. The most obvious is Death Knight, and the other, Warlock.

Here's the Death Knight's angle: [Scimitar of the Sirocco]. Everyone on the forums mentioned it, [Scimitar of the Sirocco] is not some new piece of technology everyone is going to have to run out and find, but it is a very solid card. The reason I chose to play Death Knight over Paladin and Warrior is for the hero flip [Zin'sul] has to make striking with the weapon free. For reference, here's the first draft of the deck:

Hero: [Zin'sul]

Allies: 37

4 [Bronze Warden]

2 [Bronze Drake]

4 [Jex'ali]

4 [Thrall the World-Shaman]

4 [Ambassador Chromie]

3 [Obsidian Drudge]

4 [Daedak the Graveborne]

3 [Gargoyle]

4 [Edwin VanCleef]

2 [Vanessa VanCleef]

3 [Aggra]

Abilties: 8

3 [Chains of Ice]

1 [Frost Fever]

3 [Death Strike]

1 [Withering Decay]

Equipment: 8

4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]

4 [Scimitar of the Sirocco]

Quests: 3

3 [Signed in Blood]

Locations: 4

4 [Twilight Citadel]

This deck is really explosive which I found surprising when building it. [Thrall the World-Shaman] was honestly not a card I was excited about until I talked to deck builder extraordinaire Kyle Mcginty, and we went over the possibilities. The [Scimitar of the Sirocco] and [Thrall the World-Shaman] was not one of the combos we discussed, but it is disgusting to say the least. Another thing I didn't see until playing around with Thrall is how awesome he is versus opposing [Edwin VanCleef]s. Thrall can kill both Thug Tokens and shoot the opponent for three or heal for three, and threaten on the following turn to kill the Edwin on his own. With some assistance from a [Bronze Drake] or a [Withering Decay], Thrall can actually force the trade to happen.

Forget trading with the major player in the format. Let's think about killing people now. Once [Zin'sul] is flipped with a Scimitar in play, a turn 6 Thrall is a minimum nine damage on its own (6 from attacks and 3 from readying once), or 15 if he's already in play. Once combined with [Daedak the Graveborne], that's a really quick kill. I'm afraid to admit it, but [Thrall the World-Shaman] is a real card, and I wish I pre-ordered them because he is insanely powerful and I can only expect him to get better once Worldbreaker, and the Hunter menace we currently know rotates out of core.

Further into this deck though, the main design is to be as aggressive as possible in the mid-game after flipping your hero on turn 2, and crushing opponents with an army of ferocious allies. Sure, [Ambassador Chromie] gaining you an extra turn is sweet, but running her out there without a board is crazy. One thing I learned from playing that super slow combo deck back in the day with [Breanna Greenmother] was that I needed to have at least one threat in play dealing damage before I went off with extra turns. Even if the threat is [Etched Dragonbone Girdle], drawing two, four, or heaven forbid six cards while your opponent sits there should be enough to win you the game.

I'd still prefer to have a real ally in play however, as the deck does not currently have the room to be playing [Mazu'kon] as a finisher, and while you could fit it in a few of them I feel the deck doesn't need them. The deck is designed to put pressure on your opponent with one mid-game threat, and then use its weapon and [Ambassador Chromie] to kill opponent. In short, flip your hero, find your weapon and play allies with Ferocity, it's unsurprisingly a good strategy! Do note [Ambassador Chromie] is actually a Dragonkin, so if the opponent tries to kill her in response to the attack, you can sacrifice her to [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] to draw a pair of cards which actually makes her even better than I initially thought.

The deck's removal suite needs some work, and I haven't figured out what I want exactly. [Boomer] is an issue for this deck, as is the entire Alliance Hunter deck in general. [Chains of Ice] is awesome, but it doesn't deal with the Bat completely, and something like [Frozen Core] doesn't really answer any threats in the format any longer which is why [Sava'gin the Reckless] is seeing hardly no play. [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen] is an actual removal consideration, but I decided to not play it because your hero is not a Tauren, and thus doesn't have War Stomp. Cairne is awesome at 6/7, but every time I've wanted to play the giant cow I'd much rather just have an 8 ATK [Aggra] to kill my opponent's with by overpowering them with awesome allies.

The Death Knight is clearly the more obvious idea, but it doesn't have the tools the deck I loved from back in the day had with search effects. The ability to search your deck for whatever tool you need for the situation is just absurd, and if you could search your deck for an extra turn, you would do it, right? I would, and Warlock actually gives you that option, but you have to work for it a little more than you do in this Death Knight deck. Here's the current deck I'm working with:

Hero: [Victor Baltus]

Allies: 37

2 [Crime Scene Alarm-o-Bot]

4 [Sardok]

2 [Jeishal]

3 [Loriam Argos]

3 [Aaron Goodchilde]

3 [Ambassador Chromie]

3 [Ruby Enforcer]

2 [Sarmoth]

4 [Faenis the Tranquil]

4 [Edwin VanCleef]

1 [Trista, Herald of the Fel]

1 [King Genn Greymane]

1 [Vanessa VanCleef]

1 [Aggra]

1 [Dulvar, Hand of the Light]

1 [Soridormi]

1 [Al'Akir the Windlord]

Abilities: 12

4 [Nether Vision]

4 [Summoning Portal]

4 [Banish Soul]

Equipment: 6

3 [Miniature Voodoo Mask]

3 [Winter Veil Disguise Kit]

Quests: 5

2 [Signed in Blood]

3 [Far from the Nest]

I know this deck is much more all over the place, and it's a first draft. The deck is still interesting though. I went Alliance for the [Crime Scene Alarm-o-Bot]/[King Genn Greymane] and the [Winter Veil Disguise Kit] combo. If you've read Stuart Wright's article from last week you could just play a bunch of extra [Sarmoth]s and try and run it in a Horde version of the deck as well, and it's something I'm considering doing with this deck after reading his article.

This deck feature a crazy amount of allies that you can find with both [Nether Vision] and [Summoning Portal]. At any point in time you can always go find an ally to combine with your [Winter Veil Disguise Kit], or set up for the best possible following turn. For example, many turn 1 [Nether Vision]s will grab a [Lorium Argos] or [Faenis the Tranquil] to help deal with oncoming pressure, and in the late game they are generally used to find any of the awesome threats the deck has access to. In those threats comes the other Ferocity combo for [Ambassador Chromie], [Ruby Enforcer].

I'm a sucker for the Dragonkin allies, as I'm always the one building [Azure Skyrazor] decks, and I've played a bunch with [Ruby Enforcer] to give those allies Ferocity. Here, the Enforcer has the job of giving our [Ambassador Chromie]s Ferocity, and letting us gain an additional turn. The reason why this deck can even win a game is that [Ambassador Chromie], unlike her first version, is shuffled back into your deck rather than removed from the game. Therefore, you can always go find her with another copy of [Nether Vision] or [Summoning Portal], and is part of the reason why I only have three in this deck. This deck, much more than the Death Knight, needs to go “infinite.” It's pretty difficult for this deck to play a fair game of cards and actually win the game. Most of the cards in the deck just don't hold up to the power level of the Monster or Horde cards, but they do add for more interesting combos if you can find the time to play them all.

Other ideas I've had for the [Victor Baltus] build include playing [Torch of Retirbution] to reshuffle all the [Nether Vision]s and [Summoning Portal]s into the deck so you can continually draw them. I've considered dropping the whole Alliance dream, and moving to Monster where you get to search up [Pygmy Pyramid]s, [Commander Ulthok]s and in general just bigger threats. [Shroud of the Nethermancer] is another possible card to play, but since it can only search up Demon allies, it loses a lot of its luster compared to the actual search effects. I feel Warlock has the tools to actually play [Ambassador Chromie], and I see it coming in the form of [Ruby Enforcer], but as this deck stands it's some work away from actually utilizing my new favorite Dragonkin ever.

Let me know your thoughts about [Ambassador Chromie], and both of these decks I've started working on, and what suggestions you have for her in Core!

-Corey