You¡¯ve put the decision off for a long time. You didn¡¯t want to pick a favorite, because once you did, you knew you¡¯d always feel guilty whenever the other was around. Well, it¡¯s high time you got your act together and decided whether you want to fight alongside the Aldor or the Scryers.

Magister Ashi has been hanging out with more aggressive friends, while the more diligent players have started to rely on Ishanah, High Priestess of the Aldor to seal long games. Aside from that, players have barely begun to scratch the surface of what it means to be Aldor or Scryer. With the second set of the Burning Crusade block, players are going to see the second act of the show that started with March of the Legion. It¡¯s time to take a look at the big guns that the two factions are about to pull out as the battle escalates and things become more treacherous with traitors lurking everywhere.

Sometimes It Pays to Be a Good Guy

Aside from having a lot of protectors, the Aldor are defined by two things: inspire and the assortment of ¡°lightning rod¡± allies that don¡¯t give opponents a choice in who they are dealing damage to. With those criteria in mind, let¡¯s check out Aldor¡¯s first offerings in Servants of the Betrayer.

That¡¯s okay. Take a minute. Breath into a bag if you need to calm down a bit. It¡¯s always been a popular opinion that just about any 3 / 2 body for 2 resources is worth running by some deck or another. Kalnuf Eagleheart and Gellrin of the Gallows have seen considerable play, and while they have some small perks, the primary reason they¡¯re played is for their stats. Marksman Glous throws all that out the window by giving you an ally that is a great deal for its price. He also shows you just what kind of brutally efficient inspire effects are coming in the new set.

Inspire allies in March of the Legion were fun, giving you occasional cute plays like readying your protector with inspire: ally, but in this new set, the gloves come off. Xavar the Resourceful was generally welcome in Limited decks due to his ability to give decks an extra resource every turn, and in turn letting players keep up with board presence while at the same time manufacturing more opportunities to sneak in some quest completions here and there. Marksman Glous takes this strategy to another level altogether. Take a second and think about the quests you want to use her with. Kibler¡¯s Exotic Pets, One Draenei¡¯s Junk . . ., and Pride of the Fel Horde, the list goes on for as long as there are 2-cost quests that can be used during the opponent¡¯s turn. All of them are essentially free after you play Glous. Simply play your new favorite 2-drop, ready the quest, and complete it by exhausting the newly readied quest. How lucky. Things get even sillier when you think about 1-cost abilities like Intercept and 1-cost quests like Forces of Jaedenar. An extra resource to play the Intercept and draw a free card? Thanks!

A Little More Protection

Thanks to cards like Bloodsoul, Shadowfiend, and other aggressive allies that have come out in the last two sets, it¡¯s never been a better time to go beatdown. The successful control decks are the ones that can deal with the early rush every single game, but even that¡¯s not always a guarantee thanks to cards like Morlug Soulslaver that give the beatdown players a way to finish off their opponents even after they¡¯ve recovered from the initial rush.

One way around this has always been sturdy protectors like Kulvo Jadefist and Guardian Steelhorn, allies that can take a couple of hits before they head to the graveyard. Well, Aldor has just the thing players are looking for to solidify the early game: