I’m glad to be continuing my series on drafting March of the Legion. I participated in my first March of the Legion Draft at Worlds in an iPod Draft event. It was a very difficult drafting experience for me, as I was seeing all these new cards for the very first time. I spent a lot of time reading them. After a couple of packs, I was familiar with most of the cards and could tell the difference between the ones I wanted to draft and the ones I didn’t want to bother with. I thought I ended up with a pretty good Draft deck, but I found out during round 1 that it wasn’t as good as I thought—I lost to a Horde Warlock deck. This past week, I participated in another draft and went 3-0 with a fast-paced Warlock deck.
As I can’t seem to get away from Warlock decks in March of the Legion Draft, I decided to do my first Booster Draft article on Warlock cards in the set. Here are all the new cards March of the Legion has to offer Warlock:
Commons
Thulthun
One of the best 2-cost allies to have in Booster Draft. This past week, I was lucky enough to grab three of these during the draft and was thrilled with having a turn 2 3 ATK / 3 health ally in play every game. Thulthun’s power of shutting off the elusive keyword on opposing allies is also very helpful, allowing you to attack an opposing Zandar Shadesprocket or even Tarwila Gladespring. This Pet may be the sole reason to draft Warlock in March of the Legion Draft.
Soul Inversion
Cost-efficient ally removal is something that I hold in high regard in Booster Draft. Soul Inversion is not only capable of killing an opposing ally for just the cost of 1 resource point, but it can also be used on one of your own allies (if it has enough health to survive it) to deal an extra 2 damage. Sure, Soul Inversion will mostly be used on opposing allies, but having the option to deal an extra 2 damage makes the card even better, especially for Limited play. Most of the time, Draft is all about tempo, and Soul Inversion can go a long way toward destroying an opposing ally so that you can keep attacking the opposing hero with your allies.
Swallow Soul
This is a card that I have been waiting for. I’ve always been a fan of Pagatha Soulbinder’s flip power, and now we’re able to play four copies of it for the cost of 3 resource points. I’ve created a game scenario to demonstrate how you can best use Swallow Soul. It’s turn 5 or 6, and the board position is slightly in your favor, with you having one more ally than your opponent, or just one ally to their none. You don’t have an ally to play that will maximize the use of your resources in your turn, so you just play a 2- or 3-cost ally and turn it over to your opponent. On your opponent’s turn, he or she plays Magdeline Prideheart or Groundshaker Earnheart, and the board position slips away from you a little, making it about even. With Swallow Soul, you can simply pass the turn without playing an ally and interrupt your opponent when he or she plays one, keeping the board advantage in your favor. Swallow Soul is very comparable to Shred Soul, but both have advantages and disadvantages. You don’t need to keep resources ready to destroy an opposing ally with Shred Soul, but Swallow Soul has the advantage of not allowing that ally to ever hit play. Swallow Soul denies your opponents the use of their allies’ “enter play” effects (take that, Weeble and Doshura Risestrider!).
This scenario could come up many times, and deciding whether to lay out your ally and not keep resources ready for Swallow Soul could change the outcome of the game. Overall, I like the card a lot and think having one or two of them in a Draft deck is fine. Plus, I’m more comfortable knowing that I can deny my opponents their best allies, making it easier to keep control of the game.
Curse of Contagion
This card is capable of wiping out an entire party of opposing allies over time. Now, if Curse kills the last ally in your opponent’s party, you don’t have to put it on one of your own allies, as it says you may play it. The card is an instant, so the best scenario for playing Curse of Contagion is when your opponent has two allies in his or her party and one of them has 1 health left, which is the one you attach the Curse to at the end of your opponent’s turn. When the ally dies at the beginning of your turn, you place it on the second ally in your opponent’s party. Your opponent will try to attack differently with that ally knowing that it needs to have at least 2 health for the ally to survive and attack again on the following turn.
Uncommons
Rulrin
There is really no place for him in Limited. He has 0 ATK and doesn’t have a useful power like Brother Rhone. Rulrin may be useful in a Warlock / PX-238 Winter Wondervolt combo deck as a free ally to destroy to Ritual Sacrifice, however.
Banish
Similar to Rulrin, Banish will not see play in Limited, not because of what it does, but because there is only one other non-epic / rare Demon or Elemental ally in March of the Legion. This could see play in a side deck for Warlock decks in Constructed.
Warlock Training
Finally, an uncommon Warlock card we can use. I’m not usually a big fan of abilities that attach to my allies, as it puts a big bull’s-eye on them—“Hey, look at me. Why don’t you 2-for-2 me and gain card advantage? Come on, just for fun!” As I mentioned earlier, Booster Draft is mostly concerned with tempo, and Warlock Training gives you a huge advantage in the tempo department. While going second in a game will oftentimes put you behind a turn, Warlock Training can change that by returning an opposing ally to its owner’s hand and undoing everything your opponent just did during his or her last turn. If you’re first in a game and your opponent tries to turn the tempo to his or her favor, you can use Warlock Training to ensure your opponent stays behind, and possibly falls further behind, because they’ll have to deal with your ally first. It also gets around protectors, making sure you can return an ally with protector when you attack and keep getting damage through to the opposing hero. Warlock Training will work better on an elusive ally so any opposing allies with ferocity can’t attack it. Overall, it is a very strong card, as most of the Training abilities are.
Rares
Invoke the Nether
If there is a bomb rare to open when drafting, this is it. A Legend of Mount Hyjal for only 6 resources, Nether ensures that all allies destroyed in this way never return. Invoke the Nether can turn a losing game into a winning one in a second. Your opponent may overextend and play out more allies to deal you more damage faster. Invoke the Nether leaves your opponent’s party empty and forces them to catch up on the card advantage and board position that they’ve lost. A well-planned Invoke the Nether can be a devastating blow to an opponent and can win many games for you.
Siphon Life
Siphon Life works best when it’s attached to an opposing hero. Similar to Curse of Agony, it costs the same to play and the damage is the same, but it heals damage from your hero at the same time. A 4-point swing every turn is too much for any opponent to catch up to. While Siphon Life is a good card, it does have a restriction: it’s playable only if you draft Horde. If you’re lucky enough to open one, though, you’ll probably be fine restricting yourself, plus it lessens the brain squeeze of deciding which faction to draft. Keep in mind that your opponents may gain board position when they play 5-cost allies or weapons and you have to use 5 resources to play Siphon Life. But I think after a few turns, if your opponent doesn’t immediately deal with the rare, you’ll notice that the game gradually turns in your favor.
Drain Mana
I’m not so sure what to think of this card, as I haven’t yet had the chance to play with it. It does, however, seem like a card that isn’t good if you’re in a losing position. I could see it being used for a few turns to draw three cards while making your opponent discard three cards. After you get the card advantage from it, you can start to regain the board position you lost while paying resource points for three turns. I’m not so sure of the quality of the card in Booster Draft, but I can see it being brought in from the side deck after game 1 or 2. I can definitely see the potential of Drain Mana being used in Constructed Warlock control decks.
Haaroon
Only 5 resources for a 6 ATK / 6 health ally?! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an ally this big at a cost this low—and it has protector. It’s an awesome ally to fill up a slot in your curve, but it does have the restriction of drafting Alliance. Usually, the draft dictates which faction to draft, but in March of the Legion there are so many good cards in each pack, you’ll more than likely dictate which faction you draft by taking a lot of Alliance allies and hoping to get a bunch more in the next pack, since you can cut the faction the best you can from those to your left.
Equipment
Before I get into strategy, I want to go over some of the Warlock equipment that can have a huge effect on Booster Draft. Viable weapons and armor are something that spellcasters did not get a lot of—or any at all—in the first three expansions. Because weapons are a huge part of Draft, not seeing any traveling around the table could make it seem like a big disadvantage and dissuade you from drafting Warlock, Mage, or Priest. That’s all changed with March of the Legion and the few pieces of good equipment that Warlocks can now use. Both Crimson Shocker and Wand of Eternal Light are excellent weapons to have in Draft. Both strike for a low cost, and both can keep your opponents from trying to swarm you with a few small allies. Crimson Shocker also has the benefit of killing opposing allies as soon as it comes into play.
Another weapon that really caught my attention is Runesong Dagger. It costs only 2 to play, and every three turns (at the most) you can kill off an opposing ally for just 1 resource. Runesong Dagger not only gets a counter for the one card you draw at the beginning of your turn, but it also gets counters from drawing cards for completing quests, making it viable to kill an ally in one turn when the Dagger had no counters on it at the beginning of the turn.
The last equipment I want to talk about is not a weapon. It’s an armor that Warlocks can use. Devil-Stitched Leggings is an auto first pick. I have been on the receiving end of one and, believe me, it’s no fun to play against. The Leggings can destroy an ally every turn, and it prevents 1 damage from being dealt to your hero. Devil-Stitched Leggings also works nicely as a finisher if your opponent has only 3 health left: use its power on the opposing hero to win the game.
Strategy
Since I haven’t been able to participate in as many March of the Legion drafts as I would have liked, I’m going to talk about the strategy I was successful with this past week at my local card store. Focus on drafting a low curve with four to five 1-cost allies, preferably with 2 ATK each. Then, look for five to six 2-cost allies—this shouldn’t be terribly hard, as 2-cost Pets and low-cost allies are very accessible in this set. Choose up to two 5-cost allies and no more than one 6-cost ally. You’ll want to use cheap allies in combination with Soul Inversion to kill off opposing, small allies, and with Warlock Training to return opposing allies to their owners’ hands so you can continue attacking the opposing hero.
The following is a scenario of how the first three turns could go:
Turn 1: Play a 2 ATK / 1 health ally.
Turn 2: Play a 3 ATK / 3 health or 3 ATK / 2 health ally.
Turn 3: Play Soul Inversion on an opposing ally or Warlock Training on our 2-cost ally, and then attack. Then, with the remaining 2 resource points, play another 2-cost ally.
Your games aren’t always going to play out this way, but drafting a high number of 2-cost allies makes this scenario a little more likely. Swallow Soul is useful to interrupt big allies your opponent plays to disrupt your army of small allies. I was very successful with this strategy, and I plan on trying new strategies with various classes in the coming weeks.
