With the very first World Championship wrapped up and the new Constructed format about to change dramatically with the introduction of March of the Legion, picking a deck to write about is challenging. Amid a field seemingly dominated by Nathadan and Rotun Daggerhand, there were a few decks that didn’t get the spotlight they deserved during the weekend of Worlds. One of those decks is the Twig of the World Tree-based, aggressive Gorebelly deck that TCG superstar Michael Dalton piloted all the way to the Top 8.

Michael Dalton

World of Warcraft TCG World Championship Top 8

Hero: Gorebelly

Allies

3 Broan Charges-the-Fight

4 Kagella Shadowmark

4 Morlug Soulslaver

3 Nyn’jah

4 Rak Skyfury

4 Scout Omerrta

3 Voss Treebender

Abilities

4 Bloodrage

4 Heroic Strike

3 Intercept

4 Mortal Strike

Equipment

4 Perdition’s Blade

4 Twig of the World Tree

3 Stronghold Gauntlets

Quests

3 Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!

2 It’s a Secret to Everybody

4 One Draenei’s Junk . . .

Side Deck

2 Cleave

2 Confessor Mildred

3 Crushing Blow

1 Intercept

2 Sister Rot

Thirty-five people played Twig on Day 1—that’s almost ten percent of the field. Considering the deck hadn’t seen much in the form of Top 8 performances over the numerous Dream Machine tournaments leading up to Worlds, the turnout was quite surprising. I, personally, played my own version of the deck to a 5-4 performance, finishing just out of the money. The deck was a very strong choice for the tournament, where the field was full of Nathadan, Warrior, and Rogue solo builds. A large number of people apparently thought so too.

The deck usually plays out like this: I’m losing, I’m losing, I’m losing, I win. For this reason, the majority of the plays made in the first few turns of the game focus on setting up the eventual kill turn and trying not to die in the process. The early-game allies are very important because they can take a large enough chunk out of your opponent’s health total that you’ll only need a couple of combo cards to seal the deal. Without those allies’ effects on the board, you’ll need to draw a lot of combo pieces and hope your opponent doesn’t have an answer to your weapon, which is rarely the case with Jon Reaver, “Chipper” Ironbane, and Moira Darkheart running around. Stronghold Gauntlets can, of course, help your cause, and it’s very important if you want to keep the card your deck revolves around out and swinging.

A lot of the versions of the deck leading up to Worlds gave up on any 2-drop allies other than the combo piece Morlug Soulslaver. Dalton decided that the powerful combination of Kagella Shadowmark and Broan Charges-the-Fight was simply too powerful to ignore. It allowed for some very explosive early turns and created a ton of early-game damage that would make it very easy to combo with as little as a Heroic Strike and a Mortal Strike. Kagella has the added benefit of being able to deal with any opposing 1-drops and surviving the fight, something the commonly played Gellrin of the Gallows won’t do. If they do manage a trade and get her off the board, there’s always Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service! to bring her right back, which is something a lot of decks aren’t prepared to deal with.

The inclusion of three main deck Nyn’jahs is an interesting one. Michael was obviously expecting a field of opposing Twig of the World Trees and Timeslicers, and his prediction couldn’t have been more right. Nyn’jah allows you to create a tremendous tempo advantage in any sort of mirror, usually blowing up their weapons and creating a solid 3 ATK / 3 health ally for them to deal with as well. He’s particularly potent against Rotun Daggerhand, as Rogues don’t have Stronghold Gauntlets or any sort of weapon protection to prevent him from taking their weapons. Not to mention they will probably have to swing into him just to get him off the board, wasting both a turn to replay their weapon (if they even have another one) and another turn and 3 damage just to remove the threat. Nyn’jah is also good against the Elendril / Rapid Fire deck that is growing in popularity, again with the added benefit of not having to fight through Stronghold Gauntlets to either take or blow up opposing weapons. Wraith Scythe can be troublesome for this deck, so having an answer to it that also gets around Silencing Shot is extremely valuable.

Bloodrage is a card that has turned a lot of heads dating all the way back to its Through the Dark Portal preview article. Drawing extra cards is particularly potent here. Dalton chose to run the full amount in his main deck both to make up for the lack of card-drawing quests and to set up an inevitability involving the deck’s combo pieces. It’ll almost win the game for you all by itself when playing against any of the slower controlling decks, such as Nathadan or Kana Nassis. When playing against Nathadan, for instance, they will have almost no way to win if you just hold on to multiple Morlug Soulslavers and keep a Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service! face up. Bloodrage makes this happen, and it also gives you a way to stay in the game even with any Blessing of Wisdom card advantage your opponent may have. Your perfect seven-card hand beats their perfect seven-card hand every time, and that’s usually what this matchup comes down to.

The cards Heroic Strike, Mortal Strike, and Rak Skyfury need no introduction. Anyone who’s played since Heroes of Azeroth knows the power of them, particularly in conjunction with Twig of the World Tree. It can allow for some crazy plays that just win out of nowhere. Your opponent could be at full health and have a dominating board position, and you may have nothing out at all with 29 damage on your hero, but if you have Twig of the World Tree, two Heroic Strikes, and two Rak Skyfurys in your hand, you just won the game for the mere cost of 7 resources. Granted, any protector throws a wrench in this plan, but with the addition of Intercept to deal with troublesome defenders, plus Mortal Strike thrown in the mix, there is always a way to win.

The reason this deck has been on the upsurge as of late can be attributed to two cards from Fires of Outland: Morlug Soulslaver and One Draenei’s Junk . . .. Morlug can basically be viewed as Mortal Strikes five through eight, and he gives the deck a tremendous amount of redundancy. He has the added benefit of being uninterruptible and creating separate packets of damage, which is tough for some decks with answers like Blessing of Freedom and Holy Shield. You can simply destroy one resource at a time to Twig of the World Tree, and if your opponent tries to respond with, say, a Holy Shield, just add the destruction of the rest of your resources in response, which is usually enough to end the game right there. You can also just play him out early as a 3 ATK / 1 health beater and bring him back later on, if need be, via the Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!.

One Draenei’s Junk . . . adds a subtle but very powerful card to the deck. One of the things that people found with the pre–Fires of Outland version of the deck was the lack of any really good quests to find the combo pieces without creating a severe setback in card advantage. In comes Junk as an answer to this deck’s problems. With forty-four targets in the deck, the chances it will miss are slim to none. It’s basically The Princess Trapped, only for three cards instead of two, and you choose instead of your opponent—pretty good, to say the least. It’s so good that it ushered in a brand new era of running fewer quests, bottoming out at seven in the Canadian versions of the deck from a couple of months back, and a mere nine in Michael’s list.

The side deck that prime-time player Dalton used is extremely focused and powerful. The ability destruction provided by Sister Rot and Confessor Mildred was mainly included to deal with any opposing Hardpacked Snowballs that might come flying at ’ole Belly, with the added benefit of dealing damage on the ground. While Gorebelly himself doesn’t even need to attack to win a lot of the time thanks to cards like Morlug and Mortal Strike, being able to get rid of any Cyclone-like effects will usually let you win on the spot when your opponent thinks he or she is safe.

The real power packed inside these ten cards lies with Cleave and Crushing Blow. They are on-board card-advantage-generating machines. Taking down a wall of two Kulvo Jadefists never looked so easy. Cleave is a much-needed answer to cards such as One-Thousand-Battles and Guardian Steppestrider as well. Whereas a single attack with a bare Twig of the World Tree isn’t enough to get through them, a single Cleave will take down two and usually leave a wide-open path to your opponent’s face. I personally love the card so much that I ran two in the main deck in the version I took to Worlds.

Crushing Blow operates in much the same way. Stories of destroying a Deathdealer Breastplate and Wraith Scythe at the same time ran rampant in San Diego. It’s not that bad taking down an Eye of Rend and a Striker’s Mark either, and it’s one of the key cards to turn the matchup with Rogue in your favor post–side deck. It has the added benefit of making Steelsmith Joseph Carroll a lot smaller, usually small enough to kill him with an ally or a single swing, if need be. Sometimes he’ll even give you a 3-for-1 if he has damage on him already. Just watch out for Kicks, and Crushing Blow can make this weapon-wielding showdown a breeze.

Moving into the future and the post–March of the Legion Constructed format, Twig of the World Tree–based Gorebelly decks are positioned very well to remain in the top tier. As long as the big three (and now four) weapon-based combo cards are around, it will always be played. Making your opponent deal with early threats and having one of the strongest one-shot end games around is just too powerful to die. So get to know this deck inside and out, because it’s here to stay.