Hey all. Sorry for the total lateness of this report. This is regarding the 7/21 San Diego regional. A whopping 30 people attended this one, making it the least attended Socal regional yet (unfortunately). Either people are waiting for the new set to start playing again, or the game's already having problems in San Diego (most likely the former, as this four months in between sets is brutal). The fact that a PTQ in Costa Mesa the same day was taking place didn't help, and cut a few entries from the tournament which would have brought it up to around 38-40 I'd imagine (Kelvin Young was busy winning the PTQ. Grats to him, btw).
Anyway, I went down there with two friends. One was playing Telrander because...well, it was a hell of a lot better than the guy's Elendril deck. The other was playing Phadalus. I was playing Anchorite Kalinna.
No, seriously. Anchorite Kalinna. I was going to try something else but said "oh what the hell" and brought Kalinna to test it out on the regional level.
Before going on, here is the deck list.
Hero: Anchorite Kalinna
Characters: 30
4 Kryton Barleybeard
4 Korthas Greybeard
4 Parvink
4 Warden Ravella
4 Vindicator Enkallus
3 Medoc Spiritwarden
1 Kal'ai the Uplifting
1 Lord Grayson Shadowbreaker
1 King Magni Bronzebeard
1 Lynda Steele
3 "Chipper" Ironbane
Abilities: 13
4 Shadow Word: Death
3 Power Word: Shield
2 Shadow Word: Pain
2 Heroic Pressence
2 Brainwash
Quests: 17
4 Rescue the Survivors
4 The Defias Brotherhood
4 Chasing A-ME01
3 The Missing Diplomat
2 Are We There Yeti?
It's basically a Medoc control deck. It's not meant to be rush, but it can deal some damage quickly with the right draw. The emphasis on lower drops is primarily to fuel Defias Broterhood along with survivors, while also allowing me to trade 1-drops with other 1 or 2 drops (important against untargetables).
Why priest though? Good question. The original reason to going priest was because of Power Word: Shield, which used to be a 4-of. It's a blowout card in just about every matchup, as it can wreck combat math and board positions easily while allowing you to maintain your own field. The whole idea was that it was the shield (heh) I needed to protect the Medoc engine and to get it online as it was cheap and effective. Then it became a three-of because I hated drawing it instead of an ally sometimes. Death is just good, and Pain is primarily a gameplan against other slower decks as, when combined with Kryton and Medoc, can lock an opposing player out of the draw phase and as such out of the game.
Heroic Pressence was because I need to win fast sometimes. I can stabilize a field and then not win for ages. Or I can draw a Pressence and deal like 30+ in one turn.
Anyway, here's a round breakdown (no names, sorry. I can't remember as I was not taking notes):
Round 1: Timmo Shadestep
Won this one 2-0. He got close game 2 but I was fortunate he didn't draw a way to burn me for a couple of turns as I widdled down his health. His deck was like a solo rogue strategy.
Round 2: Phadalus the Enlightened (ie Whatever)
This guy decided to add the trinity with his Diplomats to the Phadalus deck, giving him an aggressive opening and a ridiculous late-game. He won game 1 on the "I got lots of untargetables" draw and I couldn't deal. Game 2 he ran out Lady Jaina Proudmoore, which should be death for me as I have few ways to deal. So I play out a Korthas with another protector out there, count out my 6 resources for Yeti, and pass. He attacks with all of his guys.
Then I brainwash Jaina. Who needs Yeti?
He got close to killing Jaina but I finally drew a Korthas to protect her from dying to a Perdition's Blade ping, and he used all 4 Chain Lightnings at that point. He actually misplayed when I played Korthas as it was sick and could not activate the turn he drew Perditions. This most likely came down because we both had Magnis generating their 10th tokens, and it came down to the control-on-control status of the match causing him to miss a few details. I explain to him that I'll win when I draw a Pressence as I have around 8-9 attackers more over his protectors (including infinite tokens on each side), and that the pressence will push through well more than 40-50 damage in one turn. He opts not to concede, so I don't draw a Pressence until I have 5 cards left in deck.
Game 3 is on time, and he gets unlucky and doesn't draw a way to deal with my Kryon without Earth Elemental Totem, which gets Death'ed so Kryton deals the 2 damage needed to win. It's worth nothing he could have avoided this by conceding in game 2 when I mentioned the pressence. On one hand, he knew my deck is at a disadvantage in time, but on the other hand the time scenario is still heavily luck oriented and he chose to go with the latter choice.
2-1
Round 3: Human Warlock
My opponent was a friend I've been playing against often throughout my days of Vs System at the PCQs in Socal. His warlock deck was really nice too, but it needed a few changes to really be pushed over the limit as incredible. Great start though, and we discussed it afterwards. I got blown out by a Hellfire game one (oopsie. Forgot that existed. I'm sure a smart one), but managed to recover that game with a Magni I recall. Game 2 was him behind the entire time. Touch of Chaos was just too slow for him, which he ran as his winning card, and it's too fragile as well.
2-0
Round 4: Phadalus the Enlightened (Tym Bradley)
He's one of the friends I took down. As such, we are total assholes to each other because we love making jokes at each other's expense. The match is really sloppy with me conceding a turn early (though it didnt matter), the allowance of take-backs, etc. We both came to the conclusion that my deck is somewhat of a die-roll against Phadalus, as either deck with the tempo advantage of going first will have a much easier time winning. Though I believe I could have made a difference in the game had I bluffed Brainwash late in when I didn't have it (the importance of priest cards over warlock cards I've found is that the priest cards are bigger blowouts, so bluffing them can put your opponent on guard). Oh well. I learned something at least.
1-2
Round 5: Phadalus the Enlightened
Game one went to me. Game 2 he had two korthas with two damage on it and a Kal'ai in play. I shake my head and said go (five open, guess what?). He played another Kal'ai, I frown and concede a turn later. Game 3 we get to the point where he plays a Magni. I get to the point where I play Lynda Steele, pay 1 to make Magni attack into the Brainwash he now knows I have from game 1. He shortly loses after this play (this is the reason Steele's in there, as a weary control player will simply not attack with their big bomb into the Brainwash).
2-1
Top 8 features me, Grennan, Ruby Gemsparkle, Elendril, Telrander (my friend omgwtf how'd he do it), troll priest, and 2 Phadalus
Top 8: Grennan
I had an invitation but was playing for points towards worlds, so unfortunately I had to work as a dreamcrusher against a local from Chula Vista. The match went 2-1, ended up being close. Grennan has no answers main-deck to Magni, and I don't think he sided Vanquishes, which really hurt. Sorry man, but last regional I went 3-3 due to conceding to two people and lost 30 rating points. :(
So I top 4ed with Draenei priest. Cool, I guess. Troll priest top 4ed as well, and was a similar strategy to mine but was using the horde cards (protector heavy control with power word as a super-blowout card). While the priest is generally weaker in terms of abilities than the warlock, I've found that I actually prefer the priest to the lock since you can't really mind-game much with the lock. Their abilities are very generic and, while good, don't auto-beat your opponent other than Eye of Kilrogg at times. Shield, on the other hand, blows games out and wins games you shouldn't win. Same goes for Brainwash.
I don't know. I'm actually considering Priest for Nationals. If I do I'll probably be the only one from around here playing it, as my friends have been bitten by the shaman bug. I need to test variants of the deck for other classes, like Phadalus (because they have a real 2-drop protector), and Paladin (the Nimassus flip isn't bad and the pally cards are all right). We'll see.
I'll post more later concerning other decks I've begun to dismiss from my consideration for Nationals if I'm playing in it, including what its strengths and weaknesses are and why they were pushed aside.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Regionals in San Diego tomorrow
I'll be sure to have some content up Sunday or Monday regarding the WoW Regional in San Diego tomorrow, including top 8 breakdowns, decks, etc.
And this will be actual content. Sorry for not getting much up recently. I've been trying to get my epic flying mount in WoW. It's...kinda expensive.
-Mike
And this will be actual content. Sorry for not getting much up recently. I've been trying to get my epic flying mount in WoW. It's...kinda expensive.
-Mike
Monday, July 9, 2007
Paradise
This is just a little deviation from the WoW TCG, to get my mind cleared of stuff not related to the game before I get into a Starcitywow article.
If you haven't watched Trigun before (wiki it if you don't know what it is, though I'll be pretty surprised if you've never heard of it), it is a series that I consider is a much-watch. Anime fan or not, it's short and sweet at 26 episodes. This is probably the upteenth time I've seen the series now and am nearing the end again, with 3 episodes left.
The episode, Paradise, episode 23, is perhaps one of the best single-episodes for a show I've ever seen. Watching it just now reiterated that point to myself. On an entertainment perspective, it finishes off the storyline to one of the show's main characters and makes a lot of important ties to the rest of the series, and is seen as a solid climax and turning point in the series towards its conclusion. On a filmic level, it's pretty powerful too. Lots of really great long-shots and lighting drawn in by the animators here. It's really impressive scene guidance.
It is also one of those episodes that just chokes you up. Whether or not ice is pumping through your veins, it's pretty hard not to watch this episode without having a few tears form up and fall from your eyes. It is episodes like this that I enjoy the most, as it is a piece of work created for spectators to feel and enjoy so deeply to the point that they are emotionally impacted by what they see. It is the true sign that an episode did its job, and managed to achieve a level of greatness so high that it can impact someone's emotions in such a way. That is one true sign of a successful show, right there.
As said, Trigun. Go see it if you haven't because you're probably 1 out of a few thousand hermits who hasn't seen it if this is the case. Paradise. Watch through it, get choked up. Watch past it. Don't stop just because the emotion that will gloss over you is sadness. It's worth getting through those last episodes.
Next time: I'll actually have some WoW content. Probably on Wednesday or Thursday.
-Mike
If you haven't watched Trigun before (wiki it if you don't know what it is, though I'll be pretty surprised if you've never heard of it), it is a series that I consider is a much-watch. Anime fan or not, it's short and sweet at 26 episodes. This is probably the upteenth time I've seen the series now and am nearing the end again, with 3 episodes left.
The episode, Paradise, episode 23, is perhaps one of the best single-episodes for a show I've ever seen. Watching it just now reiterated that point to myself. On an entertainment perspective, it finishes off the storyline to one of the show's main characters and makes a lot of important ties to the rest of the series, and is seen as a solid climax and turning point in the series towards its conclusion. On a filmic level, it's pretty powerful too. Lots of really great long-shots and lighting drawn in by the animators here. It's really impressive scene guidance.
It is also one of those episodes that just chokes you up. Whether or not ice is pumping through your veins, it's pretty hard not to watch this episode without having a few tears form up and fall from your eyes. It is episodes like this that I enjoy the most, as it is a piece of work created for spectators to feel and enjoy so deeply to the point that they are emotionally impacted by what they see. It is the true sign that an episode did its job, and managed to achieve a level of greatness so high that it can impact someone's emotions in such a way. That is one true sign of a successful show, right there.
As said, Trigun. Go see it if you haven't because you're probably 1 out of a few thousand hermits who hasn't seen it if this is the case. Paradise. Watch through it, get choked up. Watch past it. Don't stop just because the emotion that will gloss over you is sadness. It's worth getting through those last episodes.
Next time: I'll actually have some WoW content. Probably on Wednesday or Thursday.
-Mike
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The state of the HOA-TDP Constructed Metagame
Hey there, first time readers. My name is Mike Rosenberg. If you've found your way here, chances are you may have read one of my articles regarding the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. I currently write weekly single-card-strategy articles over at http://www.starcitywow.com/, and I've also written on various topics at wow.tcgplayer.com. The other way you may have stumbled across this blog is through one of my forum posts at any of those sites, or from the official WoW TCG web site. Regardless of how you found your way here, welcome! I hope you'll come back often.
One of the big concerns I've seen recently on TCGplayer's site is the dominance that Phadalus the Enlightened currently has on the game. A lot of players are concerned that perhaps the alliance shaman rush is a little too good. In case you haven't checked it out, head on over there to read Bryon Lyon's article "Is Phadalus Too Good", and then check out the comments regarding that article on the message board. You can find that article by clicking here.
The first point that Bryon brings up is that Shaman was considered the deck to beat and yet it still won at Darkmoon Faire: Chicago. I feel this is a bit of an exaggeration, since it appeared the the decks to beat going into the event were Cruelty (the Austin Darkmoon Faire winner), Telrander (the Frankfurt Darkmoon Faire winner), and Gorebelly (which gained a notorious reputation for having some really stupid opening hands after its appearance in Frankfurt). Phadalus was indeed a competitor at this time and was considered a top tier deck, but in terms of power level it did nothing that was overly fast or overly controlling. The problem going into Chicago was that Phadalus rush just ran a lot of good cards.
What do I mean by good cards? Consider this. Telrander has what is probably the most consistent fast kill in the game right now. Gorebelly has capabilities of putting fatal damage on an opposing hero as early as turn 4 and can do so on turn 5, but its inconsistency is what makes it less reliant than Telrander. The goal of Telrander is that you can just play a Cat Form (or Claw), play a bunch of pump effects that remain as ongoings for your hero, and scratch your way to a victory on turn 5 by flipping Telrander.
However, if you are playing Telrander, do you actually ever like seeing Nature of the Beast in your hand? Isn't Heart of the Wild always a somewhat disappointing draw? What about Rake? Sure, it can take down a Parvink if played at end of turn, but it feels dramatically underpowered against the likes of a Guardian Steelhorn or, even worse, if you don't draw a form. There are a lot of cards in the Cat Form deck that actually aren't that good. The reason they are played, however, is that they have good enough synergy with the goal of your deck that they warrant an inclusion, even if you don't necessarily like them. I personally hate ever drawing into Heart of the Wild after turn 2, and I hate seeing Nature of the Beast...well, anytime. Telrander runs a lot of what can be considered "bad cards" to success because the strategy it possesses is so powerful.
The concept is that your hero is an extra resource that can be used throughout the game as early as turn 2. Cat Form is extremely efficient at turning your hero into an attacker, where you turn a trade in damage and a commitment to very few resources into a monstrous attacker with no strike costs. With only two ongoing pumps, including a Nature of the Beast, your hero can be attacking at a level only seeing by Twig of the World Tree at an extremely early point of the game. Realistically, the best way to achieve this critical mass of ongoing pumps is to have one ongoing be Predatory Strikes, and the other to be any card. This means you spend between two to three turns to make your hero attack for 4 or 5 each turn. If you didn't play any other ongoing pumps at this point, that's already incredible.
The reason for running cards like Nature of the Beast and Heart of the Wild isn't because they're good. They actually aren't. It is for redundancy. Predatory Strikes is the example card of what you want your deck to do. It is what you compare every other ongoing pump for a druid form to, as it provides the biggest benefit for the cheapest cost. It is an example of a good card, and as such, is one of the cards that is involved in blowing an opponent out if you draw two of them in the first three turns with Cat Form. Nature of the Beast is a weaker Predatory Strikes, but it still makes your hero a threat. You want to make your hero attack for a lot early, so you run four copies of it to "simulate" what Predatory Strikes does. This goes for Heart of the Wild too, as it is expensive but provides the same benefit of that benchmark Predatory Strikes. This redundancy makes Telrander consistent at what it does: clawing the opposing hero's face off fast. However, it also leads to bad draws since you run the risk of drawing too many of your "bad cards" (the natures and hearts). They aren't good unless your hero is doing something. Without a form, they're useless. Without the option of getting your hero through to the opposing hero, they're pretty terrible. They serve a specific role in the deck and aid in making the deck as fast as it is, but they aren't actually desirable cards that you want to draw.
Now let's return to the Phadalus Rush deck. It isn't as fast as Telrander. It isn't as controlling as the Cruelty decks, Azarak solo decks, or the Pagatha control decks. However, it wins games and thus, wins tournaments (like Chicago). Why is this?
The answer is simple: Phadalus Rush doesn't play any bad cards.
Think about this. Even if you draw an Apprentice Merry when your opponent has a giant-sized protector out, you're not really that bummed. This is because you know Merry can still serve a purpose. If that big protector goes down, she's a 2 ATK beater that can't be taken out by normal means. The Defias Brotherhood can sometimes sit on the shaman player's field and be uncompleted. In this case, it's not being used, but it's still not a bad card. The shaman player can know to hold onto any untargetable allies it draws in order to use them for a critical turn in which the shaman player puts the required four allies into play (untargetables first, followed by targetables) in order to complete The Defias Brotherhood. The opponent may appear ahead, but they can't relax and let the opponent actually complete that quest since it's such a cheap source of card advantage that it can bounce the shaman player back into the game almost immediately.
That's what Phadalus is all about. Efficiency. While the Telrander deck is busy being redundant, since that's what it wants for its game plan of having their hero attack things for a lot, Phadalus is about efficiency. It wants to run the best cards it can. As an alliance shaman, Phadalus the Enlightened offers the untargetable ally line-up, which is arguably the best rush line-up in the game. They're annoying to deal with and force more decisions into the shaman player's hands rather than the opponents, who don't actually have many options to deal with them. Phadalus plays Parvink, arguably the best character in the game for it's the one character you are never disappointed at drawing. Leeroy Jenkins, while vulnerable in a format of Intercepts and Rakes, is an option Phadalus has for the most efficient ferocity ally in the game. If the shaman player decides it is necessary, King Magni Bronzebeard is an option available to the hero as the game's best late-game ally (no questions asked on this one. If Magni stays out there for more than a turn, you already won, especially in a format devoid of Vanquishes because of its hefty cost). "Chipper" Ironbane is the game's most efficient answer to any reactive threat the opponent can play that isn't an ally. While it isn't the be-all end-all solution that players think it is in solving any matchup, it is still the most versatile non-ally removal card in the game and can also be an efficient beater.
Now look at the abilities Phadalus has to offer. The shaman is all about efficiency! Lightning Bolt is a solid 4 damage for 3 resources, where 4 is a number that is much more important to deal with with Through the Dark Portal out. It's also more damage than you sink resources into, making it efficient at being aimed at an opposing hero as reach damage in the late game. Earth Elemental Totem is a solid 2/2 protector for 2, at instant speed. The instant speed trick pushes this card over the top. Searing Totem is one of the most annoying burn tricks in the game, capable of earning two-for-ones like no other card (well, except for Parvink). Above all however is Chain Lightning, the ultimate shaman ability. This card is either a solid two-for-one for a mere five resources, a devastating three-for-one, or a two-for-one and 3 damage to the opposing hero. This card is almost always good no matter when you play it.
Even Phadalus, as a draenei, offers what is arguably the best quest in the game to this deck. Rescue the Survivors is up there with Chasing A-ME01 in terms of power level. While it's not bringing back bomb allies from the graveyard, it is almost always causing a two-card swing in your favor. Either you draw two cards with it, or you draw one card and your opponent plays an ability to cack the other token off. If it's only giving you one card, chances are the other token was the target of an opposing ally's attack that could have been better placed at another ally on your field. It's like you drew a card and made the opponent give up one of their attackers.
The Phadalus Rush deck isn't necessarily rush all of the time either. The deck can switch between being a tempo-mad rush deck or an attrition-based aggro deck that wears the opponent down with threats before putting an end to the opposing hero. It has fast tricks and lots of ways to earn barrels of card advantage. It's no wonder people think this deck can be too good!
Or maybe, just maybe, this is only an example of a deck that has lots of good cards and tools to use, and this is what you get for running them all together. Sure, this deck is consistent, it can do a lot of things, and it has a lot of solutions to lots of decks in the format. This is all true. However, it isn't doing anything that is actually degenerate. It doesn't really do anything fast either. For a rush deck, Phadalus Rush doesn't kill any heroes very quickly. Perhaps Phadalus Rush is better off being given the title of "Phadalus Goodstuff". After all, the deck is based on playing a lot of good cards. The good cards just happen to be the early-game stuff opposing players can have serious problems dealing with. While Phadalus is capable of explosive draws with multiple Apprentice Merrys and Jeleane Nightbreezes, it doesn't happen often. Most of the time, the deck simple out attritions players. Just look at all of the cards in the Phadalus deck. Almost every card in the deck offers both its user and the opposing player a ton of options. Rescue the Survivors is a mindblow. The player piloting Phadalus Goodstuff has to decide when is the proper time to complete the quest, whether or not it will be playing a weapon to attack with and considering this when removing survivor tokens, and what the opponent will do when the quest is completed. The opponent then has choices for what it can do to the survivor tokens. Is it correct to ignore them and focus on other things (which is almost always the correct choice), or do they deny the opponent an extra card and waste some attacks on the tokens instead?
Chain Lightning is another thinking-heavy card. How do you play this card optimally? Do you know all of the tricks to it? Do you know it only has one target? Does your opponent know this? There are lots of times when sending 3 damage to the opposing hero's face, and then taking out two allies is the correct play not only because of its ability to remove untargetable allies in such a fashion, but because it lets you maintain tempo by bringing your opponent's health closer to fatal damage. Even Chipper is a complex card, as it's not an optimal play to use Chipper when you are behind on tempo since you have no pressure to put the opponent under by taking away one of their non-ally threats.
Phadalus is a deck with a ton of decisions and a ton of options. It runs a lot of efficient and powerful cards, but at the same time doesn't do any one job better than any other deck. It just has the versatility of being a swiss army knife; it does lots of things and can do them well enough to get the job done. It isn't faster than Elendril or Telrander, or even Gorebelly, but it can certainly mount an aggressive start against the slower decks. It isn't as controlling as the warlock decks or as the solo equipment decks, but it can still win the reactive attrition war against aggressive decks with powerful board-clearers and card advantage shenanigans.
All in all, Phadalus isn't that bad of a deck for the format. The reason is wins games and, as such, wins tournaments is because the deck is good at adapting to an open format. There are a lot of threats available to play with in the current constructed format, and a good player piloting the alliance shaman has ways to minimize the damage these threats can deal against someone in a tournament. It is for this reason that the deck is so popular, not because it's too good, but because it offers its users the opportunity to outplay their opponents and to adapt under pressure. It still loses to the good draws from decks meant to do one thing extremely well, and it still loses to decks that are meant to control aggression if the shaman deck doesn't get an extremely good draw (which is harder for Phadalus to do since the deck is not meant to explode in the way Telrander or Elendril does).
You don't have to expect Shaman to be the only deck in the current constructed format. What you can expect is to see it played, and to see it contend for a few National Championship titles when piloted by good and adaptive players. If someone wins a huge event with this deck, think about all the decisions they had to get right to get that far and congratulate them for doing so well at navigating the tournament. It's not easy. Sometimes, playing bad to mediocre cards that work towards better synergies and strategies will simply be better than the deck that plays only good cards towards no real strategy. Sometimes strategies are more powerful than the cards themselves, but good cards played properly always give decks like Phadalus a shot at doing well.
One of the big concerns I've seen recently on TCGplayer's site is the dominance that Phadalus the Enlightened currently has on the game. A lot of players are concerned that perhaps the alliance shaman rush is a little too good. In case you haven't checked it out, head on over there to read Bryon Lyon's article "Is Phadalus Too Good", and then check out the comments regarding that article on the message board. You can find that article by clicking here.
The first point that Bryon brings up is that Shaman was considered the deck to beat and yet it still won at Darkmoon Faire: Chicago. I feel this is a bit of an exaggeration, since it appeared the the decks to beat going into the event were Cruelty (the Austin Darkmoon Faire winner), Telrander (the Frankfurt Darkmoon Faire winner), and Gorebelly (which gained a notorious reputation for having some really stupid opening hands after its appearance in Frankfurt). Phadalus was indeed a competitor at this time and was considered a top tier deck, but in terms of power level it did nothing that was overly fast or overly controlling. The problem going into Chicago was that Phadalus rush just ran a lot of good cards.
What do I mean by good cards? Consider this. Telrander has what is probably the most consistent fast kill in the game right now. Gorebelly has capabilities of putting fatal damage on an opposing hero as early as turn 4 and can do so on turn 5, but its inconsistency is what makes it less reliant than Telrander. The goal of Telrander is that you can just play a Cat Form (or Claw), play a bunch of pump effects that remain as ongoings for your hero, and scratch your way to a victory on turn 5 by flipping Telrander.
However, if you are playing Telrander, do you actually ever like seeing Nature of the Beast in your hand? Isn't Heart of the Wild always a somewhat disappointing draw? What about Rake? Sure, it can take down a Parvink if played at end of turn, but it feels dramatically underpowered against the likes of a Guardian Steelhorn or, even worse, if you don't draw a form. There are a lot of cards in the Cat Form deck that actually aren't that good. The reason they are played, however, is that they have good enough synergy with the goal of your deck that they warrant an inclusion, even if you don't necessarily like them. I personally hate ever drawing into Heart of the Wild after turn 2, and I hate seeing Nature of the Beast...well, anytime. Telrander runs a lot of what can be considered "bad cards" to success because the strategy it possesses is so powerful.
The concept is that your hero is an extra resource that can be used throughout the game as early as turn 2. Cat Form is extremely efficient at turning your hero into an attacker, where you turn a trade in damage and a commitment to very few resources into a monstrous attacker with no strike costs. With only two ongoing pumps, including a Nature of the Beast, your hero can be attacking at a level only seeing by Twig of the World Tree at an extremely early point of the game. Realistically, the best way to achieve this critical mass of ongoing pumps is to have one ongoing be Predatory Strikes, and the other to be any card. This means you spend between two to three turns to make your hero attack for 4 or 5 each turn. If you didn't play any other ongoing pumps at this point, that's already incredible.
The reason for running cards like Nature of the Beast and Heart of the Wild isn't because they're good. They actually aren't. It is for redundancy. Predatory Strikes is the example card of what you want your deck to do. It is what you compare every other ongoing pump for a druid form to, as it provides the biggest benefit for the cheapest cost. It is an example of a good card, and as such, is one of the cards that is involved in blowing an opponent out if you draw two of them in the first three turns with Cat Form. Nature of the Beast is a weaker Predatory Strikes, but it still makes your hero a threat. You want to make your hero attack for a lot early, so you run four copies of it to "simulate" what Predatory Strikes does. This goes for Heart of the Wild too, as it is expensive but provides the same benefit of that benchmark Predatory Strikes. This redundancy makes Telrander consistent at what it does: clawing the opposing hero's face off fast. However, it also leads to bad draws since you run the risk of drawing too many of your "bad cards" (the natures and hearts). They aren't good unless your hero is doing something. Without a form, they're useless. Without the option of getting your hero through to the opposing hero, they're pretty terrible. They serve a specific role in the deck and aid in making the deck as fast as it is, but they aren't actually desirable cards that you want to draw.
Now let's return to the Phadalus Rush deck. It isn't as fast as Telrander. It isn't as controlling as the Cruelty decks, Azarak solo decks, or the Pagatha control decks. However, it wins games and thus, wins tournaments (like Chicago). Why is this?
The answer is simple: Phadalus Rush doesn't play any bad cards.
Think about this. Even if you draw an Apprentice Merry when your opponent has a giant-sized protector out, you're not really that bummed. This is because you know Merry can still serve a purpose. If that big protector goes down, she's a 2 ATK beater that can't be taken out by normal means. The Defias Brotherhood can sometimes sit on the shaman player's field and be uncompleted. In this case, it's not being used, but it's still not a bad card. The shaman player can know to hold onto any untargetable allies it draws in order to use them for a critical turn in which the shaman player puts the required four allies into play (untargetables first, followed by targetables) in order to complete The Defias Brotherhood. The opponent may appear ahead, but they can't relax and let the opponent actually complete that quest since it's such a cheap source of card advantage that it can bounce the shaman player back into the game almost immediately.
That's what Phadalus is all about. Efficiency. While the Telrander deck is busy being redundant, since that's what it wants for its game plan of having their hero attack things for a lot, Phadalus is about efficiency. It wants to run the best cards it can. As an alliance shaman, Phadalus the Enlightened offers the untargetable ally line-up, which is arguably the best rush line-up in the game. They're annoying to deal with and force more decisions into the shaman player's hands rather than the opponents, who don't actually have many options to deal with them. Phadalus plays Parvink, arguably the best character in the game for it's the one character you are never disappointed at drawing. Leeroy Jenkins, while vulnerable in a format of Intercepts and Rakes, is an option Phadalus has for the most efficient ferocity ally in the game. If the shaman player decides it is necessary, King Magni Bronzebeard is an option available to the hero as the game's best late-game ally (no questions asked on this one. If Magni stays out there for more than a turn, you already won, especially in a format devoid of Vanquishes because of its hefty cost). "Chipper" Ironbane is the game's most efficient answer to any reactive threat the opponent can play that isn't an ally. While it isn't the be-all end-all solution that players think it is in solving any matchup, it is still the most versatile non-ally removal card in the game and can also be an efficient beater.
Now look at the abilities Phadalus has to offer. The shaman is all about efficiency! Lightning Bolt is a solid 4 damage for 3 resources, where 4 is a number that is much more important to deal with with Through the Dark Portal out. It's also more damage than you sink resources into, making it efficient at being aimed at an opposing hero as reach damage in the late game. Earth Elemental Totem is a solid 2/2 protector for 2, at instant speed. The instant speed trick pushes this card over the top. Searing Totem is one of the most annoying burn tricks in the game, capable of earning two-for-ones like no other card (well, except for Parvink). Above all however is Chain Lightning, the ultimate shaman ability. This card is either a solid two-for-one for a mere five resources, a devastating three-for-one, or a two-for-one and 3 damage to the opposing hero. This card is almost always good no matter when you play it.
Even Phadalus, as a draenei, offers what is arguably the best quest in the game to this deck. Rescue the Survivors is up there with Chasing A-ME01 in terms of power level. While it's not bringing back bomb allies from the graveyard, it is almost always causing a two-card swing in your favor. Either you draw two cards with it, or you draw one card and your opponent plays an ability to cack the other token off. If it's only giving you one card, chances are the other token was the target of an opposing ally's attack that could have been better placed at another ally on your field. It's like you drew a card and made the opponent give up one of their attackers.
The Phadalus Rush deck isn't necessarily rush all of the time either. The deck can switch between being a tempo-mad rush deck or an attrition-based aggro deck that wears the opponent down with threats before putting an end to the opposing hero. It has fast tricks and lots of ways to earn barrels of card advantage. It's no wonder people think this deck can be too good!
Or maybe, just maybe, this is only an example of a deck that has lots of good cards and tools to use, and this is what you get for running them all together. Sure, this deck is consistent, it can do a lot of things, and it has a lot of solutions to lots of decks in the format. This is all true. However, it isn't doing anything that is actually degenerate. It doesn't really do anything fast either. For a rush deck, Phadalus Rush doesn't kill any heroes very quickly. Perhaps Phadalus Rush is better off being given the title of "Phadalus Goodstuff". After all, the deck is based on playing a lot of good cards. The good cards just happen to be the early-game stuff opposing players can have serious problems dealing with. While Phadalus is capable of explosive draws with multiple Apprentice Merrys and Jeleane Nightbreezes, it doesn't happen often. Most of the time, the deck simple out attritions players. Just look at all of the cards in the Phadalus deck. Almost every card in the deck offers both its user and the opposing player a ton of options. Rescue the Survivors is a mindblow. The player piloting Phadalus Goodstuff has to decide when is the proper time to complete the quest, whether or not it will be playing a weapon to attack with and considering this when removing survivor tokens, and what the opponent will do when the quest is completed. The opponent then has choices for what it can do to the survivor tokens. Is it correct to ignore them and focus on other things (which is almost always the correct choice), or do they deny the opponent an extra card and waste some attacks on the tokens instead?
Chain Lightning is another thinking-heavy card. How do you play this card optimally? Do you know all of the tricks to it? Do you know it only has one target? Does your opponent know this? There are lots of times when sending 3 damage to the opposing hero's face, and then taking out two allies is the correct play not only because of its ability to remove untargetable allies in such a fashion, but because it lets you maintain tempo by bringing your opponent's health closer to fatal damage. Even Chipper is a complex card, as it's not an optimal play to use Chipper when you are behind on tempo since you have no pressure to put the opponent under by taking away one of their non-ally threats.
Phadalus is a deck with a ton of decisions and a ton of options. It runs a lot of efficient and powerful cards, but at the same time doesn't do any one job better than any other deck. It just has the versatility of being a swiss army knife; it does lots of things and can do them well enough to get the job done. It isn't faster than Elendril or Telrander, or even Gorebelly, but it can certainly mount an aggressive start against the slower decks. It isn't as controlling as the warlock decks or as the solo equipment decks, but it can still win the reactive attrition war against aggressive decks with powerful board-clearers and card advantage shenanigans.
All in all, Phadalus isn't that bad of a deck for the format. The reason is wins games and, as such, wins tournaments is because the deck is good at adapting to an open format. There are a lot of threats available to play with in the current constructed format, and a good player piloting the alliance shaman has ways to minimize the damage these threats can deal against someone in a tournament. It is for this reason that the deck is so popular, not because it's too good, but because it offers its users the opportunity to outplay their opponents and to adapt under pressure. It still loses to the good draws from decks meant to do one thing extremely well, and it still loses to decks that are meant to control aggression if the shaman deck doesn't get an extremely good draw (which is harder for Phadalus to do since the deck is not meant to explode in the way Telrander or Elendril does).
You don't have to expect Shaman to be the only deck in the current constructed format. What you can expect is to see it played, and to see it contend for a few National Championship titles when piloted by good and adaptive players. If someone wins a huge event with this deck, think about all the decisions they had to get right to get that far and congratulate them for doing so well at navigating the tournament. It's not easy. Sometimes, playing bad to mediocre cards that work towards better synergies and strategies will simply be better than the deck that plays only good cards towards no real strategy. Sometimes strategies are more powerful than the cards themselves, but good cards played properly always give decks like Phadalus a shot at doing well.
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