by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

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Written by [DKMR]Varranis

Welcome to this week’s “What Would DKMR Do?” Each week we’ll present an in-game situation and discuss the possible lines of play. Here’s the scenario for this week:

The first question to ask on a turn such as this is whether you’re the aggressor or the defender. More practically and specifically: would you gain any value from playing the Kor’kron Elite and attacking Malfurion? This is often a very difficult question to answer, however, in this case it is fairly clear we gain little by making such a play. We are already losing the damage race and making such a play would put us further behind. We also have Alexstrasza in our hand and nearly 9 mana. Alexstrasza will allow us to catch-up very quickly and threaten lethal on future turns without needing to worry about dealing damage currently.

Once we establish that we are not the aggressor, we should identify the most optimal means by which we can clear the board or set ourselves up to be in a favorable position on future turns. It’s also worth noting that we are at 26 health and should not have to immediately worry about losing to Force of Nature and Savage Roar. This gives us an opportunity to play Ragnaros. If we play Ragnaros, the best possible outcome is to hit the Keeper of the Grove. Hitting face is potentially useless since we have Alexstrasza and hitting the Harvest Golem does not improve the board state substantially. We can easily achieve Ragnaros’ best result just by playing the Kor’kron Elite or Whirlwind plus Fiery War Axe instead. There is some benefit to playing the 8 mana Firelord now as he will never be easy to play, but I believe we have much better options.

As previously mentioned, we can easily clear the Keeper of the Grove by playing Kor’kron Elite. This would leave the Elite with 1 health and an easy target for Swipe or Shapeshift. However, he will have already garnered some value and losing him is acceptable. If we want to completely clear the board, we can play Fiery War Axe and Whirlwind in order to clear the Harvest Golem as well. Just be sure to play the Whirlwind before the Kor’kron Elite! If you don’t want to trade the Whirlwind for the Damaged Golem, you can play Armorsmith or Armor Up instead. Playing Armorsmith before removing the Keeper of the Grove with Kor’kron Elite will also allow you to gain an extra armor. If this is your line, be sure to attack the Harvest Golem with Fiery War Axe first in order to preserve the extra armor for a possible Shield Slam draw or to make your Alexstrasza more effective if you end up needing it to reset your own health. Note that leaving a 4/1 Kor’kron Elite and a 1/4 Armorsmith leaves your board very susceptible to Swipe. Because of this, merely using Armor Up instead is possibly a better play.

We could play the Big Game Hunter in order to expand our board presence, but it does not trade exceptionally well with a Harvest Golem on the board and is our best out to an opposing Ragnaros. Since I don’t feel playing Big Game Hunter is particularly strong this turn and he has added applications as removal, I believe it is best to hold the Big Game Hunter.

The play I made in game was to play Fiery War Axe to remove the Harvest Golem, Armorsmith, and Kor’kron Elite to remove the Keeper of the Grove. I played the Armorsmith in order to gain an extra armor when my opponent invariably removed the 4/1 Kor’kron Elite and to trade more effectively on future turns. It could remove the 2/1 Damaged Golem or trade up alongside the second swing with Fiery War Axe to deal 4 damage. I valued this slightly more than my board’s susceptibility to Swipe, but Armor Up is a perfectly fine play instead of Armorsmith.

Next week we’ll be talking about the scenario below. What would you do?

[DKMR]Varranis streams every Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/varranis.

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