There¡¯s been a lot of talk in the forums and at premier events about equipment for casters. It¡¯s not like these guys run around naked and light people up with glowing magic hands, right? Casters in the MMO are typically squishy and like to attack from afar, so they¡¯re not the type to wield Krol Blade or Wraith Scythe while fighting in the trenches. The way they gear themselves for damage is different from melee classes. While melee-class damage is dependent on the quality of the weapon, caster weapons are just another cog in the wheel of more stats, damage, and useful bonuses that may come from very special equipment designed specifically for casters. 
 

So, while weapons are important to casters, their armor is equally so. Spell-slingers received their share of quality craftable epics from The Burning Crusade, and one of them was buffed to be one of the best damage belts available. Girdle of Ruination is here and ready to come off the waist and give a good lashing to the decks currently sitting atop the metagame.

In the online game, this belt is one of the best available as a tailor, and the pattern is a popular one at the auction house (fetching a pretty penny from anyone looking to craft one for his or her party). The two gem sockets made the belt great for dungeon raiding and PvP alike, allowing players to customize their particular piece for either more spell hit and damage or more stamina. Again, this belt echoed the best part about the expansion through crafting and the arena system¡ªgreat gear for all, whether you were a seasoned raiding veteran or just liked to play casually with friends. Now, in card version, how does this belt look to whip up the competition?

Phadalus the Enlightened, as Papa Smurf, has led his army of blue men and women to tournament success for quite some time since Jeremy Blair¡¯s second-place finish in the Dream Machine Championship at Darkmoon Faire Austin. The current form of the deck uses Rescue the Survivors! and King Magni Bronzebeard for token generation, but there are a few alternate versions that add in Mya, Dragonling Wrangler and Heroic Presence. Having this Girdle on the board with King Magni and friends keeps it clear of those pesky protecting tokens, leaving just the main man to deal with. Now he¡¯s just a big protector for a whole lot of resources, not the biggest block in the game since raiders got to meet Patchwerk in Naxxramas in the MMO. Oh, how it¡¯s not so good to be the king anymore! To quote Patchwerk, ¡°No more play.¡±

Okay, so destroying massive numbers of tokens with just one card is a great bonus, but who is really killing our Mage, Priest, and Warlock heroes in that army of smurfs?

Jeleane Nightbreeze and Apprentice Merry have been the bane of the caster classes since Through the Dark Portal hit shelves. All cloth classes could do is arm themselves with a herd of non-aggressive cattle or a party of pink, pigtailed protectors and hope for the best. Now you can take out a beatdown deck¡¯s entire army of 1- or 2-cost untargetables over a few turns. No army of protectors can save the opponent¡¯s untargetable allies now, and some (like Korthas Greybeard) will even go to the grave along with them. In just a few turns, the biggest threat to the Priest, Warlock, and Mage classes will be nothing more than dust.

The card works from the bottom up, punishing decks for their focus on early allies and equipment. Sure, if our allies are tied with theirs, then they all go to the graveyard, but as the controller of this epic belt, we have a few choices to get around that. Since we know when the Girdle is coming, we can curve out and play allies of different costs each turn. Also, we can pick and choose which opposing allies we remove with our targeted abilities, making the Girdle much more effective when it puts the squeeze on the opponent. If he or she refuses to put any cards into play to start forcing our deck into destroying our own cards, the already popular Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire from the Onyxia¡¯s Lair Raid Deck provides the answer. We can make a token at the beginning of our turn with the Girdle¡¯s trigger on the chain and kill off the token, keeping our board intact while we watch our opponents wince at our soft lock. If they play an ally that we want to kill and are able to destroy, it dies. If they don¡¯t, we destroy our token and move on.

Perhaps the biggest boon to this card is the lack of equipment in competitive caster Constructed decks. Can our opponents afford to bring in equipment removal from the side deck just to take out one piece of equipment? What happens if we don¡¯t play the Girdle on turn 6¡ªdo they place their equipment removal as a resource and keep live cards in hand, or are they forced to save the card in case we play it later? Even if we don¡¯t play the Girdle (which would be foolish since you¡¯re reading about how awesome it is!), all caster heroes receive the benefit from the card¡¯s existence, forcing opponents to play around it even if we¡¯re not packing it.

Girdle of Ruination is the equipment card that all the casters have been waiting for, and it¡¯s a huge answer to the very common question in the Constructed environment of how to deal with untargetable allies. Players caught unaware will see their entire army of 1-drops swept into the graveyard in a single turn, bringing their offense to a grinding halt and leaving them set up for a knockout. If the Girdle catches on in popularity, look for the game to slow down as beatdown decks diversify their ally base and add in even more equipment removal.

Now, hurry up and farm those primals, and get ready for this belt. I can¡¯t wait to add a few notches in it courtesy of Merry, Jeleane, and the rest of the beatdown offenders!