Joleera - Past and Future

What’s up, everyone!  My name is Phil and my old battleground is Kentucky where I was state champ in 2011. I traveled to a lot of larger Midwest events and am known for turning dudes sideways in every format. Today I want to walk you through the final moments of WoW TCG’s official life, showcase the deck I was on at the time, and review where the Core meta was settling in 2013.

Starcity Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

In early 2013, our game, the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, was going through somewhat of a resurgence in popularity. Sales were up and the player population was steadily rising. In light of this, the wonderful people at Star City Games and Warcraft Gaming Center announced what I felt was an absolute game changer: The SCG World of Warcraft Core Circuit.  

I personally sensed a buzz about the game that I hadn’t felt since I very first started playing at the Worldbreaker set pre-release. After the announcement, amidst the anticipation and excitement, we saw the release of Betrayal of the Guardians. Then sometime after Betrayal’s release people noticed a delay in Cryptozoic’s organized play schedule being released. The chatter grew negative. And then devastation struck. With the announcement of the release of Reign of Fire, it was also announced that Cryptozoic and Blizzard would cease production of the game. Possibly the worst part is that this death sentence came right before the start of the Core Circuit.  What would have been one of the single greatest boons to the game’s popularity had now devolved into the only way for people to play the game one last time - or so it seemed at the time.

For me, I had no choice but to make it to one of the circuit events. If this was the end of the road, I was definitely seeing it through and I chose to attend SCG Cincinnati. Cincy offered two things over the other SCG Circuit events: 1) it was the shortest drive, 2) I knew several of my friends would go as well. Before the end game announcement, I had been testing for the Core Circuit quite a bit and had settled on a deck I felt very strongly about and had a little history with.

How My Worlds Bubble Burst

Before I get into the decklist that I settled on for SCG Cincinnati, I want to take us back 11 months prior to Worlds 2012. I had settled on none other than Joleera for the Core portion of that event after seeing Norvic Santos play the deck to a win at Darkmoon Faire Indianapolis. The tournament started off rocky. I was winning some, sure, but I also lost a lot. When the dust settled and pairings went up for the final round of day 1 I found myself in a precarious position: on the bubble. My opponent? None other than Pierre Malherbaud from France who had won multiple DMF’s, EUCC, and was just an excellent player all-around. Piece of cake, right?

The best part about sitting down to play our game was that Pierre was on Rawrbrgle. For anyone who missed it, Murlocs was probably the simplest deck in that Core format. It was what you lent your younger sibling or someone who was just tagging along for the evening to your battleground - a deck where they could play the lottery and get an occasional win. But at the same time it was a really powerful tool in the hands of a good player and led many people to tournament wins or top finishes.

So obviously I wasn’t happy to face a strong opponent this early on and with a bubble match on the line. But I was happy to see his deck choice as it was something everyone prepared for in one way or another and Joleera gave me plenty of answers to the fishmen family. Poison the Well, Poison Bomb, and Carnage is more than enough counters to the Murloc swarm right? We settle into our game and sure enough, Pierre sees a turn four Unleash the Swarm putting a ton of Murloc Coastrunners and friends into play. I respond with a Poison the Well to clear them out. Whew! Close one. A turn or two later he fires off a second Unleash the Swarm! Aaah! I clean it up once again. A turn or two after that? Unleash the Swarm number three. My response? A grimace and a handshake.

The SCG Core Circuit Top 8’s

So during the preparation for Worlds 2012 and despite my defeat at the hands of Pierre, I had really grown to love the Joleera deck. Surprisingly, she didn’t lose a ton when Block 5 left the format. I don’t recall whether I put my own spin on some of the lists I had seen or if I found someone else’s Joleera and just piloted it. There was a fair bit of her played in 2013, especially in the various Realm Champs, and each list was slightly varied from one another. It’s actually made tracking down where my list came from a little difficult. Some people were running a few more weapons while others just shifted the numbers on certain cards up or down a few slots. I like where my list ended up and felt like Terror of the Tides, while only taking up two slots in my deck, was a great addition. Here’s the list I played:

2nd Phillip Stacy
Hero: Joleera

4 Jex’ali
4 Daedak the Gravebourne
3 Edwin VanCleef
3 Vanessa VanCleef
3 Aggra
4 Mazu’kon

4 Blackout Truncheon

4 Prey on the Weak
4 Poison the Well
3 Devious Dismantle
4 Helplessness
3 Fan of Knives
3 Legacy of the Betrayal
4 Poison Bomb

3 Shadowfang Keep
3 The Black Morass
2 Taretha’s Diversion
2 Terror of the Tides

This Joleera variant felt the strongest to me in my testing against what I perceived as a very aggressive metagame. Grand Crusader no longer had Bottled Light, but was still a contender. Murlocs were always a threat. There was various Night Elf builds that I knew could show up. I just knew I wanted all the cards that Rogue was offering. Though I will say at the time, I didn’t know about the Last Relic combo deck, so it was possible to have been blindsided by that. Had I know about that deck I would have probably made a few minor changes as concessions to that matchup. But even though this is five years later, I still wouldn’t change the overall deck choice. I did lose in the finals to Grand Crusader, but overall the deck did what I wanted it to and smashed all the aggro decks including beating another Grand Crusader build.

In total there were four Star City events, and they gave a glimpse into where the Core format might go. SCG Baltimore was won by Scott Landis playing a Alliance Shaman Midrange deck built around allies pumped by Doomhammer, a weapon that came out in Reign of Fire. The rest of the top 8 consisted of 2 Solo Rogues, 2 Midrange Red Mages with Monstrous Frost Bolt Volley, 1 Murloc Aggro, 1 Night Elf Hunter, and 1 Tyrus Blackhorn Midrange Warlock.

Cincinnati’s Top 8 was 2 Grand Crusaders, 1 Joleera Midrange Rogue, 1 Tyrus Midrange Warlock, 1 Deathbringer Kor’ush Call of Yogg-Saron combo, 1 Night Elf Midrange Warrior, 1 Nexus-Thief Asar Murloc, and 1 Ghoulmaster Kalisa list abusing the Warp mechanic.

In Atlanta we saw 2 more Grand Crusaders in the top 8, but the event was won by Murloc Warrior. There was also an Augh Midrange , 2 Medivh the Corrupted Burn Warlocks, 1 Alliance Solo Rogue, and 1 Mistress Nesala Solo.

The last SCG Core Circuit event ever was held in Worcester. The Deathbringer Kor’ush Call of Yogg-Saron list showed up again and took down the event.  Second place was Murloc Warrior. Followed by Midrange Red Paladin, Midrange Mogdar the Frozenheart, Midrange Red Shaman based around Legacy of the Horde, Midrange Red Mage with Monstrous Frostbolt Volley, Tyrus Blackhorn Midrange, and last but not least Night Elf Hunter again. This final event showed how open and unexplored the format was. It really is great to see eight different decks in a Top 8 as it speaks to the health of a game. So it was sad to see the SCG story end here.

Joleera on the Reborn Circuit

With the SCG events being the last couple of looks into the Core format, it’s very possible that Joleera is one of the decks that I start with in testing for the upcoming Reborn Circuit Core events. The format looks to be pretty aggressive with Grand Crusader and the Night Elf variants being on top as the most played aggro decks. Joleera plays very much in the control/big midrange realm which is where you want to be in a meta like that. Weathering the early game until you can slam game-winning dudes is my kind of plan!

It’s also likely that some things should change about the deck. Blackout Truncheon could be replaced by something like Boundless Agony against the various Last Relic decks that might show up.  No Mercy could be in the deck because it can deal with pesky equipment as well as allies. Thrall the World Shaman could be another option against aggro, and does double duty functioning as a win condition in the late game. Smokescreen could come in giving us more game against the Medivh burn lists and Call of Yogg-Saron combo. The deck, much like any late game deck, has a lot of card choices you can tinker with and season to taste. My plan is to get back to testing her and see if she has what it takes to give me a victory at Reborn Louisville, Origins, and GenCon. I personally love Joleera and will always respect her enough to see if she’s a good fit for an event and so should you!