Sometimes it is tough to write up these articles. Not because I don’t enjoy it. They are fun to brainstorm and to put together. Not because there’s a lack of content. Believe me there are a million ideas I could put to pen and ink…or I guess 1’s and 0’s in this case. Really the difficult part when it comes to discussing decks is that they are always a work in progress no matter how many iterations I put them through. Think of it this way. If you see an awesome still picture of a sporting event, maybe an incredible catch or an amazing shot, there are likely an infinite number of related pictures that don’t get posted which display that person looking like a fool just due to the sheer physical mechanics of performing an action. Naturally no one prints those pictures but that’s what it feels like to put decks up here sometimes. Dropping the ugly part out for the world to see. But we persevere!
Not long ago I wrote a little bit about Mistress Nesala, or Mistress No-Fun as I affectionately call her. I wanted to revisit the idea since the initial draft was something I had sitting in my deck folder for a long time but never really hit the table. Staying true to her nickname the deck was no fun, unfortunately it was no fun for the pilot! It really didn’t come together at all. As a quick reminder here’s where we were starting from:
Hero
Mistress Nesala
Master Hero (2)
2x Kel’Thuzad
Abilities (27)
4x Banish to the Nether
2x Carnage
4x Drain Will
3x Eye of Kilrogg
4x Poach
4x The Promises of Darkness
2x Victimize
4x Poison the Well
Allies (11)
3x Dreadsteed
4x Hesriana
4x Sardok
Items (4)
4x Miniature Voodoo Mask
Weapons (2)
2x Voidfire Wand
Quests (10)
4x A Question of Gluttony
3x Junkboxes Needed
3x Signed in Blood
Locations (4)
4x Eye of the Storm
Total cards in deck: 60
The original goal was to try to win via Voidfire Wand/Kel’Thuzad, but really you fell behind pretty often and even Poison the Well couldn’t keep up. Many aggro decks are incredibly resilient in classic. Either you have recursion effects like Finkle Einhorn, or you have ways to utilize your hero as a threat such as Unholy Power, or you just push obscene amounts of damage with things like Dagax the Butcher. Coupled with a glaring weakness to specific card types *cough ongoings cough* it made for a rough ride. So back to the drawing board. A few comments on the deck suggested having earlier board presence and I agreed so I pulled one of the other 15 versions of the deck out of the folder and started sleeving things up.
Initially it was meeting the same ignoble end that the first version did but after some tweaking it started winning games. Granted all the games are by the skin of your teeth, but a win is a win.
Hero
Mistress Nesala
Abilities (17)
4x Banish to the Nether
3x Eye of Kilrogg
4x Poach
2x Nether Balance
4x Poison the Well
Allies (12)
4x Hesriana
4x Sardok
4x Neferset Scorpid Keeper
Items (9)
3x Signet of Manifested Pain
2x Miniature Voodoo Mask
4x The Last Relic of Argus
Weapons (7)
4x Felsteel Whisper Knives
3x Voidfire Wand
Quests (12)
4x What Illidan Wants, Illidan Gets
4x You Are Rakh’likh, Demon
4x Signed in Blood
Locations (3)
3x Eye of the Storm
Total cards in deck: 60
This version sports some additional allies, and just more early presence in general. Felsteel Whisper Knives has become a favorite of mine as I was testing Turov lists, here it serves a dual purpose of early game control as well as fueling other cards that we’ll discuss later on. You aren’t often going to win a race against other decks, especially aggressive ones but you have a number of ways to flip the game into your favor. While Hesriana, and Poison the Well turn the tables very quickly in a number of different matchups, their power levels aren’t exactly a secret. I really want to talk about a more subtle card that I’m including in a wide variety of decks. That card is The Last Relic of Argus:
The Last Relic of Argus
2cc Equipment Item
All Classes
You pay [1] less to complete quests.
When you complete a quest, your hero heals 3 damage from itself.
I imagine one day at the CZE office as they were designing cards someone just said “we need a neutral mount, like an actually good one” and that was how the relic was born. Mounts are truly powerful cards, well the good ones anyway. Quest reduction is shockingly strong and can completely reshape the way a game plays out. Now this particular one can be Miniature Voodoo Mask’d and also cannot be used to activate Tuskarr Kite, however it makes up for it by really stressing your opponent’s threats. Healing 3 damage may not sound like a lot, now 14 cards in your deck also have “heal 3” attached to them in addition to their normal effects. That’s 42 points of healing just by completing quests! Oh and by the way they stack so you can pump out a ton of healing if you are able to be that fortunate. Mage lists frequently include Conjured Cinnamon Roll so think of this card filling the same role.
Speaking of quests let’s highlight Signed in Blood for a moment. You could certainly run Cleansing Witch Hill or Taretha’s Diversion but there is something so nice about being able to play Last Relic and immediately complete Signed in Blood without paying any extra to shutdown your opponent’s quest base as well as heal some damage. Against more bloodthirsty opponents you are frequently pressed for time and walking a tight rope every turn even a single resource misused can spell doom. There is certainly an argument to be made for the other quest-hating-quests though. While Signed in Blood is clean and efficient, sometimes you really do feel the hurt of expending quest slots and not drawing cards. Topdecking Signed in Blood is a feelsBadMan moment when you really want to add to your hand. Taretha’s may not address that situation either but isn’t nearly as costly as Cleansing. While there are several locations that are annoying your focus is often on turning quests face down. For example if your opponent sets up an Eye of the Storm exhaust to prevent your Voidfire Wand attack they will get to draw a single card, so feel free to target it with Signed in Blood. However that Rise and be Recognized they may be sitting on represents 2 cards so that is likely a better target. Personally I prefer Signed at the moment as you can sneak it in more easily, but I can accept arguments to the contrary and reserve the right to shift gears later on.
Enough about the boring stuff, let’s focus on what probably drew a lot of eyeballs and that is Neferset Scorpid Keeper.
Neferset Scorpid Keeper
3c Monster Ally – Tol’vir Hunter Rogue 4/2
When this ally enters play, if you control an equipment, target opponent chooses and discards a card.
This is actually an ally I really love. I’d been trying to squeeze it into a lot of different builds and I think our 4 legged friend (with 8 legged friend of friend in tow) may have found a home here. The natural comparison is Jadefire Hellcaller and in truth the Tol’vir may not keep his spot in the starting lineup as a result, but let’s hear the opening arguments. The origin of the deck was “discard + Voidfire Wand”. As a result we want to shred our opponent’s hand, neutralize their quest base, and then voidfire lock them. Hellcaller can possibly help out with that strategy. The issue is we don’t apply the same kind of pressure that Tyrus does. There isn’t the threat of a devastating flip here and there isn’t the lurking apocalypse that is Unholy Power. Therefore our opponent can likely just eat the 4 damage and move on with their life. The damage is great but without the appropriate follow-up now you just have a 4/2 on the board that will croak when the enemy 1 drop so much as looks their way. The Scorpid Keeper instead will “guarantee” a discard. With several 2 cost equipment and Felsteel Throwing Knives you are likely to have one in play prior to this Tol’vir entering play on curve. Granted you are still left with the same 4/2 body, but this way you are disrupting your opponent.
On the flip side you could instead invest in the Hellcaller so as to be able to get free Lesson of the Nethers. Turn 3 Jadefire Hellcaller into lesson of the Nether can just break an opponent on the spot. I really, really, really, want to fit both in but that’s a ton of 3 drops at that point and additionally they are both frail bodies. He’s pairs very well with Bazul who happens to also be a warlock and helps address the low starting health of our succubus hero. So many options with so little space. For now I’m trying to make this specific setup work.
Each need to do more squats at the gym as the backside is lacking though.
The remainder of the deck is what you’d expect to round out this sort of list with a couple of decision points that favor the Neferset over Jadefire decision such as Eye of Kilrogg over Lesson and the inclusion of Signet of Manifested Pain in general to keep the cheap equipment count up (less than 3 cost equipment that is). Regarding the Signet though, this is another subtly powerful card, although it can be dicey with a meager 25 health. Another point in favor of Last Relic to assist digging you out of a grave that maybe you dug yourself. It is silly but the cohesion of the equipment with Scorpid Keeper makes me resistant to switching to a different variation. That’s not a great reason to keep a potentially inferior (still TBD) version of the deck, but it just feels right.
Essentially that’s the deck. Try to take apart their hand, then grind them out with Voidfire Wand when the opportunity presents itself. You do need to dance around some things such as Poison the Well hitting your own tokens (or Sardok), the delicate balance of making tokens against aggro decks, trying to gamble on the appropriate time to Signed in Blood. Currently it is performing reasonably well but I haven’t played enough games to comfortably call it good or bad.
In reality I have been splitting time between that version, and this one:
Hero
Mistress Nesala
Abilities (22)
4x Banish to the Nether
4x Drain Will
4x Lose Control
4x Poach
2x Victimize
4x Poison the Well
Allies (15)
4x Hesriana
3x Lord Jorach Ravenholdt
4x Sardok
2x Commander Ulthok
2x Aggra
Items (2)
2x Miniature Voodoo Mask
Weapons (6)
2x Terokk’s Shadowstaff
4x Voidfire Wand
Quests (12)
4x What Illidan Wants, Illidan Gets
4x You Are Rakh’likh, Demon
4x Signed in Blood
Locations (3)
3x Eye of the Storm
Total cards in deck: 60
Nether Balance was included in the preceding version as an admittedly kinda awkward Dethvir answer. Here we have an oldy-but-goody in Terokk’s Shadow Staff. In conjunction with Lord Jorach you can hopefully control the board to allow time for your discard to pave the way for Voidfire taps and slaps. Unfortunately the Dethvir answers in both situations have been clunky at best so that’s still an outstanding concern.
Moving beyond strictly reactionary cards, this build sports Aggra which is yet another card on my long list of “I just want to find a home for these cards”. Giving her Mend: 4 and Untargetable/Elusive can really put the brakes on aggressive decks or maybe if you want to close the game out Untargetable and Assault: 4 is a strong way to go. Combined with the higher level of discard abilities in this build you can really push your opponent into a corner.
Just like I started out with I have many other iterations of this idea that I am still working through but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. If only I could just play WoW all day.
Sigh.
So what are everyone’s thoughts on the succubus? Anyone else trying her out? She certainly has become a lot of fun.
Well at least for the Nesala pilot anyway.
Random('s) Thoughts 