Rook

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Rook's Nesting Grounds
Perfecting Druid Rush, Pt. 1
May 4, 2007

Hi, I’m Rook, and this is my first stab at a WoW TCG article here at Pojo.
I’ve been an avid CCG’er for a while now, and of all of the ones I’ve played, I’ve found that I enjoy the WoW TCG the most. There’s just something unique about it. It’s got the pace of Magic without the fuss. Anyhow, article time.

This is going to be the first in a series of three on a deck that I’ve been eagerly anticipating running: Telrander rush.

Telrander
Hero / Alliance / Night Elf / Druid / 27 Health
|3|, Flip Telrander  Ready Telrander. Use only while he’s in cat
form.

Before The Dark Portal, Druids weren’t exactly a feared class to go up
against. They lacked consistency, and never seemed to make a good showing at
a regional. The Resto-based Moonshadow didn’t have any cards that screamed
“win condition”, and Thangal, while potent, lacked efficiency because of the
hindrances that came with Bear Form. Now that we have Telrander and Cat
Form, it’s time to get to deckbuilding.

Over the course of the next two weeks, my goal with this series of articles
is to take a standard, stock Telrander build, see what works, see what
doesn’t, and go over piece by piece the intricacies of the deck, discuss why
things are being changed and what they are being changed into, and how to
counter what you’ll see if you decide that Telrander is the hero for you.

This is the build I have right now:

Hero: Telrander

=Allies= (18)
x4 Parvink
x4 Apprentice Merry
x4 Jeleane Nightbreeze
x3 Galway Steamwhistle
x3 "Chipper" Ironbane

=Abilities= (26)
x4 Cat Form
x4 Heart of the Wild
x4 Claw
x4 Predatory Strikes
x4 Nature of the Beast
x3 Rake
x2 Swiftshift

=Quests= (16)
x4 Kibler’s Exotic Pets
x4 Zapped Giants
x4 Crown of the Earth
x4 Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!

=Sidedeck= (10)
x1 "Chipper" Ironbane
x3 Innervate
x3 Cyclone
x3 Hannah the Unstoppable

=Ally Line-up=

I went with the standard low-drops for the format, the 1-cost Apprentice
Merry and 2-cost Jeleane Nightbreeze, as my main attackers. Untargetable is
a powerful card effect, effectively negating a lot of the non-warrior ally
destruction, such as the Warlock’s Shred Soul, most Mage non-AoE abilities,
the Shaman’s Searing Totem, and most Hunter abilities. Plus, with 2/1 and
3/2, both of these cards have the desired Attack/Health to suffice in a rush
deck. Expect these two to be staples in Alliance rush decks and a staple in
this deck. I don’t expect to be taking them out at all over the next few
articles.

The rest of the allies include Parvink, Galway Steamwhistle, and “Chipper”
Ironbane. Parvink is a common sight in most Alliance decks, simply because
she offers the triumvirate of Protector, an ally, and draw power. Ironbane
is in there because of his powerful destruction ability. Cat Form is a bit
unstable, and any non-feral ability will take Telrander out of it. Any
equipment and/or ability destruction has to be ally-based because of this,
or you risk losing Cat Form through Vanquish or Burn Away. “Chipper” does
the trick here, and if worse comes to worse, and your opponent is in a bind
with little to no equipment or ongoing abilities, you have a 3/1 body on a
2-drop.

The final inclusion is Galway Steamwhistle. He serves a dual-purpose: draw
your opponent’s attacks his way, and to serve as a constant threat when
coupled with Telrander’s insane attack value potential. If things go well,
Telrander should be hitting for 3-7 each turn, which when added to the power
of Merry and Nightbreeze, should serve for some amazing early-on damage.
Your opponent doesn’t want to be taking two shots of Telrander a turn, so
when this guy drops, you bet your opponent is going to focus on taking him
out as soon as possible. The longer he avoids going after Telrander, the
better. Plus, imagine the possibilities if you manage to strike with
Telrander for three times (once normally, another with Steamwhistle, and a
third with Telrander’s flip). If you’ve got a few Predatory Strikes or
Nature of the Beasts down, that’s some massive damage.

=Abilities=

The standard fare for most of the Telrander-based decks I’ve been seeing,
with a few noticeable changes. Four of each of Predatory Strikes, Heart of
the Wild, Cat Form, Claw, and Nature of the Beast. I went with only 3 Rakes
for right now, because in testing, I found that I wished they were something
else quite often, and I wanted to try and squeeze in more room for some
allies without pushing the deck size too high. The Swiftshifts are a bit of a
question mark in my mind right now, and I’m thinking that with the next part
of the article, I’ll probably go back to running 4 Rakes and no Swiftshifts.
It depends on how often I find myself having Cat Form or Claw in my hand or
within easy access. Test playing against myself this week has proven to me
that there are many cases in which Swiftshift has proved useful, but there
are others where it just becomes a resource.

=Quests=

Right now I’m running x4 of the ability-searching and the ally-searching
quests, Kibler’s and Zapped Giants, as this is what he deck is based around.
The other two, Crown of the Earth and Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!, are
there for more viable hand management. Crown of the Earth is the new Night
Elf-bonus quest that came out of The Dark Portal, and it serves to allow one
to recycle dead cards in-hand for ones that will work for you, and gives you
an additional card to boot, whereas Finkle is going to bring back a Merry,
Nightbreeze, Galway, or “Chipper” (especially a “Chipper”) to continue the
rush, and since those four allies make up five of the ones that I’m using in
this deck, why not?

=Sidedeck=

This is the biggest question mark I have right now, and one I’m sure will be
adjusted as time goes on. Hannah is in there to help me out against those
large protectors that the Horde can drop (namely the two Guardian allies).
Cyclone serves to take out opposing threats as well as allow for more time
to get your win pieces together (especially if you haven’t hit Cat Form yet.
Even if you have, having two free resources to just pick it back up at the
end of the turn will be worth taking out your opponent’s biggest protector
or keeping that solo warrior from smacking you for a few more turns).
Innervate is to help with the severe lack of draw power this deck is plagued
with, and often times, you’re going to get a Cat Form or Claw with your
three draws anyway, so breaking Cat Form isn’t too much of a worry. And the
final “Chipper” is in there for those solo decks as well as ones that
require a lot of ongoing abilities, much like this one.

I’ve got a local tournament this Friday, and it will be my first opportunity
to test this deck out. Right now, I see solo warrior, frost mage control,
shaman rush, and hunter rush consistently. I’m interested to see how the
deck and the deck-type itself stands up against some of the more popular
(solo warrior, shaman rush) decks of this format.

Here are the articles I plan on doing over the next two weeks:
- Perfecting Druid Rush, Pts. 2 and 3
- Horde VS Alliance: Allies
- Observing Allies: Guardian Steppestrider and Steelhorn
- Observing Allies: Long-Range Prowess
- Hands-On Heroes: Anchorite Kalinna, Draenei Disc. Priest
- Deck-Fix Pt. 1: [Your Deck Here]

If you would like me to do deck fixes for you, or if you have any questions,
comments, or just general banter, my e-mail is RookMaster@hotmail.com. I
look forward to hearing from you.

- Rook