The Fires of Outland expansion blows my mind. There are tons of new allies, abilities, amazing weaponry, and sweet new heroes. I have only just begun to delve into the various builds that might arise from the infusion of new cardboard into our pool, but I am already off and running with some key ideas.

This expansion is going to cause a significant metagame shift. There are vast new options available for Alliance control decks. The 3-cost ally spot exploded with new options for a ton of Alliance decks. Parvink ruled supreme for months, but now she will have considerable competition. Both Kulvo Jadefist and Jubilee Arcspark have the potential to be bombs in certain types of decks. Imagine Tim Batow¡¯s Top 8 version of the Lady Kath Shaman deck from U.S. Nationals including a 4 ATK / 4 health protector to flank both Crazy Igvand and Vindicator Enkallus.

I had always been a huge fan of the Horde builds that sport both Guardian Steppestrider and Guardian Steelhorn. Each character is a total house at its respective drop and both beckon opponents to give the Horde player two-for-one trades. Now the Alliance is looking to add similar caliber characters to their roster, and I am thrilled.

Jubilee Arcspark builds on one of the most impressive themes introduced in the Dark Portal expansion. Untargetable allies were all the rage in Constructed decks throughout the last expansion and have certainly held their ground. Now we have the 3 ATK / 3 health Arcspark joining the untargetable blue army. Not only does she sport a nice frame, but also her game text may be randomly useful. If you are running over 30 allies in a deck, then utility search quests like Kibler¡¯s Exotic Pets often hit for an additional card thanks to Jubilee¡¯s trigger. The new quests from FoO pump up these quest types with the introduction of One Draenei¡¯s Junk . . . and To Serve Kum¡¯isha. All three cards might pair with other quests to reveal Arcspark for the occasional double draw. Two cards for the cost of 2 resources seems pretty strong. While it might not be consistent, it replicates the fierce draw power already found in Draenei-based decks. With an added bit of synergy, these decks have a chance at lightning fast draws and huge early beatings.

Many of you might remember that I am a huge fan of the Draenei related abilities, quests, and characters. I fielded the first blue Shaman build in the Dream Machine Championship at Darkmoon Faire Austin and have had fun making a ton of decks using the Draenei rush theme. Recently, Cory Jones took my favorite blue hero to a Top 8 finish at the U.S. National Championship and had favorable matchups throughout most of his Day 1 exploits thanks to the consistency of the deck.

Next Generation Draenei Builds

Kal¡¯ai the Uplifting seems like a really amazing character when you are able to draw a ton of cards, build a huge early board, and position yourself for brutal mid-game beatings. In prior articles, I wrote about the Shaman and Paladin token decks relying on Heroic Presence and token-generating quests and allies that build huge boards and pumped ATK values. This build is still a dark horse contender in many tournaments but is essentially bested by versions that include better early-game characters. Solid 1- and 2-cost characters make the build superior. The blue builds (or smurf builds, or whatever moniker you might choose) are really fun to play and allow skilled players to dictate the tempo of most games. The decks can speed to an early victory or can play possum until later rounds when they drop the ever-strong King Magni Bronzebeard.

As the card pool expands, the build is able to move forward in both directions. There are several options that may allow the Draenei builds to go late in the game, but I am most enticed by some options that speed up the beatings. Fast beats are my favorite and I am always looking for ways to finish games in the first five to six turns. I am thinking that the new additions from the Fires of Outland set may make a rush Priest deck viable.