Board Clearing…A-Bom Style!

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

We’ve all played against the Warlock Zoo and Hunter Aggro Decks.  There are SO many annoyances in them because the strategy of the decks are to play cheap minions and buff them up quickly.  As any other player, you’re constantly playing around Unleash the Hounds, Savannah Highmanes or Murlocs that continue to barf more Murlocs.  I’ve been working on a Paladin deck that counters these and today I’d like to share with you a card combo that really works well at clearing the board and some heavy minions.

Abomination + Redemption

Abominations are just nasty.  A 5 cost (which is a little pricey in my eyes) that’s a Taunted 4/4.  When it dies, it does 2 damage to everything.  That’s the minions, the opponent and most imporantly….you!  So use this combination wisely (a.k.a. not when you’re at 6 or less health).

On turn 6, if the board is becoming cluttered, drop an Abomination and Redemption.  What this sets up to do is take out or wear down bigger minions (since it’s capable of 4 damage) and then end with 2 damage to everything else.  With Redemption, once it dies and does 2 damage to everything else, it comes back as a 4/1, Taunted, and ready to shock the board with 2 more damage again while doing 4 damage to whatever else hits it.

The funniest thing I always see while playing this combination of cards is the fact that my opponent usually thinks it’s Noble Sacrifice.  They’ll rack their big minion into it (assuming they’re only going to take 2 damage from the 2/1 token that’s summoned from Noble Sacrifice) and instead, they just took 4 damage and nothing happened.  They might play their smaller minion that’s very disposable to pop the secret as well.  Either way it’s fine. So they attack with their minion and the 2/1 never came out to take the damage.  HHHMM…..what now?  What’s done is done.  If the minion they attacked with had 6 health or less, it’s now as good as dead.  If you’re able to do 1 damage to the Savannah Highmane ahead of time, not only will the Abomination kill it, but the 2 damage aftershock will take out the new 2/2’s that just landed on the board.  This assumes they choose the Highmane to attack with.

There are a few things that can happen once you lay the Abomination/Redemption combo out there.  They could Silence it.  If they Silence it trying to prevent the 2 damage to the board and then they kill it, Redemption will kick in and it will become a 4/1 Taunt.  If they Silence it and bypass it all together trying to wear your health down, well, you now have a 4/4 on the board.  TAKE NOTE:  If you kill something with your Silenced 4/4, it’s gone.  Redemption will NOT bring it back as a 4/1.  Your opponent needs to kill the Abomination for it to work.  Again, if it is Silenced, put something else valuable on the board since you still have Redemption active. Might I recommend a Sunwalker?  The Sunwalker will come back as a 4/1 Taunt WITH the bubble so you’ll still let that Redemption work for you.  It’s always nice to have a turn 7 backup plan.

Ultimately, you have the possibility of doing 8 direct damage to attacking minions and 4 damage to the board, your opponent, and yourself.  Again though, use it wisely and don’t play this if your health is low because 4 damage to you could be VERY hazardous against a rush deck.  But if you’re playing Redemption, you’re obviously playing Paladin. Perhaps you could throw an extra Holy Light in your deck for some insurance?  The choice is yours!