Hey guys. With TGT right around the corner, I thought that I'd float the idea of 2p2 community deck testing. Basically, the concept is this. Every week or so, people submit their newly designed deck to the thread, with a brief writeup. These decks should try and be innovative and not be netdecks or just slight variations of existing popular decks. From the submissions, we all pick one and then each of us play that deck on ladder for ~15 games or so. We then report back w/ our stats and general observations & suggestions to improve the deck. This should allow us to more rapidly test new decks out than if we tested on our own.

Hopefully this encourages some creativity and who knows, maybe 2p2 creates the next dominant meta deck.

Figured we'd start in September, once TGT hits and after the 2p2 tourney.

Open to suggestions on the concept, figured we could all try something new and work together on a project.

Sounds fun and worthwhile. I'm in

That does sound good. Hopefully I can come up with something.

love it

Great idea. Time to craft a second hobgoblin

I'll test any out that I have the cards for, which should be most of them.

I'll definitely try this. When can we submit ideas?

Really whenever, but I was thinking after all the TGT cards have been released.

Just bumping this - now that all the cards are out feel free to start theory crafting and posting decks!

Alright, here's my Malygos Shaman list...

2x lightning bolt
2x ancestral knowledge
2x crackle
2x lava shock
2x elemental destruction
2x far sight
2x healing wave
2x hex
2x lava burst
2x lightning storm
1x ancestor's call
2x gnomish inventor
2x azure drake
2x blackwing corruptor
emperor thaurissan
alexstrasza
malygos

not sure if its enough draw, but its hard getting more while sacrificing curve. ancestral knowledge and far sight seem like obv picks, bc you can use mana while adding cards to hand, and the drake is a pretty obvious inclusion. the inventors help thin the deck.

put corruptors in for more removal since there are 4 dragons. the 1 ancestor's call is solely for the combo. hexes are for the big removal, all 4 aoes in there for board clears. lava shocks can be used with the combo or to free up mana crystals since theres a considerable amount of overload. the main proxies for the combo are the bolts (3), crackles (3-6), shocks (2), bursts (5). the only direct spell damage missing are frost shocks, largely bc theyre too weak.

with just a malygos on 4 mana (ancestors call) simply comboing 3 spells is 15 damage from him alone. if you get to alex your opponent its really easy to over-lethal. (upward of 32/72 damage or something along those lines)

its hard balancing direct damage with draw and life gain, but the healing waves lets this deck have like 62 effective health. seems like mulligans should be for inventors, healing waves (if aggro), and aoe. against control, knowledge/any card draw and hexes seem valuable.

I like the use of healing wave in this deck, it's going to really predictable what card you're going to pull from joust.

I'll test out that shaman list when TCG comes out. It will be interesting to see whether having no early minion's can be covered by the healing waves. One of those things that is too hard to say until you can play it.

I haven't really fully looked through yet, but I'll for sure be trying a bunch of shaman stuff.

having 2 more aoes makes not playing early minions reasonable as well

may have to sacrifice some of the bigger spells (lava burst) for cheaper removal (earth shock?)

would love to put thalnos in here but it kills the joust when you're only playing 8ish minions anyway

Disagree with a lot of this tech. I think inventor/drake/corruptor are excessive. I'd much rather have wolves/hoarder/thalnos/x Maybe drake can stay.

If you have that stuff healing wave isnt gonna win. Wolves were cut bc they suck

2 2/3 taunts that doesn't count against your creature count that could be expunged with lava shock. Sounds like a win to me.

As for have a couple low drops. the vast % of time we're going to draw them before it matters given that we're actively milling for those cards.

bobbo is a firm hater of the wolves

he hates them so

Yeah i could be convinced ferals are ok but you really need a ton of deck cycle

I can't wait to f around with some Majordomo + Coldarra + Maiden of the Lake that has been "emperor-ized." Gonna be some gimmicky crap with all the weird hero power stuff in this meta. Dream of launching 3 or 4 rag bombs on a turn--or 10....

Its not so much i hate them

As they are not good

Should be only 1 overload

Alright, other than the malygos shammy deck im excited about that i built earlier, i wanted to build a few lists using new cards. Here is the control warrior list i intend on running:

The new cards i am going to use are bash x2 and varian.

Bc varian has a draw mechanic im going to cut the block for him. Im going to cut 1 fwa bc the bashes are removal. Going to swap my big dragons for sneeds and rag.

Going to tweak my ramp druid. Im going to try double aspirants, 1 copy of mulch (in place of bgh) and 1 of the 5/6 joust. In place going to remove 2 techs (the bgh as mentioned, 1 mct) and 1 taunt (dotc)

I don't like the avenue you're taking bobbo. Methinks you're going to get into a lot of trouble especially early on with the warrior deck. Not sure about the druid deck - haven't decided how to tech it yet with TGT

Alright. TAUNT WARRIOR 1.0

I want to really push the warrior cards that synergize taunt. The sparring partner (I believe it's genuinely a good card, on its own), bolster (I do not think highly of this card, but maybe in this deck it'll perform well), and king's defender. (this REALLY seems like a poorman's fiery, but when in rome...) Of the new cards, Sea Reaver seems to have no home; Magnataur just seems as a bad card. I'll give Bash (x2) a shot, Ogrimmar is a weird card, and Alexstrazza's champ is nasty in a dragon deck... But this is not a dragon deck.

For now, we'll use Varian as well. It's not that I don't think he's good - i think he's insane - but im not sure this is the right deck for him. (That said, the card draw appears to maybe help matters) Anyway...

If the deck is really defensive, I want a consistent curve of taunt minions. Maybe this is the wrong way to go about things, but hey, this is 1.0. So...

2x annoy-o-trons. They are ridiculous anti-aggro, if you bolster them they seem effective, they are the only thing that can proc King's Defender on curve, they're sticky due to divine shield, and they synergize well enough w/ 1 pt of damage enabling execute.

No taunt 3 drops are worth it. Besides, if we're loaded with removal at 3 (bash/king's defender) it's more of a tech slot than an on-curve taunt situation.

2x sen'jin. I love sen'jins and run them sometimes over belchers. it's a relatively strong 4 drop that has staying power.

2x sludge belcher. The only pure staple in control warrior, it's nice that the little bros (little slimes) can proc the other warrior taunt cards.

2x sunwalker. This is the only iffy inclusion; they have been somewhat power-creeped out of the meta, largely because the 6 hole is so tight its a bit crazy to run them over slyvanas / emperor tier. the 4 attack really hurts as well. But this is a taunt deck, and since warriors lack ancient of wars like ramp druids, we have to put these guys in as the big boys.

Other natural warrior inclusions:
-Since this is a defensive deck, it makes too much sense to run 2x armorsmiths (amazing value behind all these taunts), 2x shield slam (a lot of armor), and of course 2x execute (for removal).
-The minion slot @3 seems a bit barren; it's not clear how we're going to gain cards, (with no taskmasters I think acolytes lose value; also think maybe cutting death's bite is correct) so for now going with 1 BGH and 2x shield block (lifegain/card cycle)
-Everyone has pointed out how amazing Black Knight should be in this deck, so we're going to fill up our odd 6 slot with TBK.
-Finally, at least 1 brawl will be needed as a total comeback mechanism.

So right now the "shell" we have... (mana cost up)
-2x shield slam, 2x execute. Standard removal
-2x annoy-o-tron, 2x sparring partner, 2x armorsmith, 2x bolster. *Let's consider fiery war axe below. We have a lot of early game plays with this set up.
-1x bgh, 2x shield block, 2x king's defender, 2x bash This covers the last bit of hard removal, is a weapon which SHOULD get 6 procs in this deck, and a bit of lifegain+cycle
-2x senjin Oh yay, a minion we can play on curve!
-2x belcher, 1x brawl Another minion to play on curve! And an AOE!
-2x sunwalker 1x black knight MORE removal, (maybe too much removal...) and yet another on-curve minion
-1x varian Card draw + big boss.

So this is 26 cards. I'm not really sure how this deck wins, other than basically outlast your opponent, armor up, remove their threats, and just lean on the strength of the taunts. This is, in many ways, how Ramp Druid does it. So I kinda think it's viable; the defensive potential allows this to survive a lot of the burst that combo decks threaten, like Grim Patron or the like. What's funny is I think in this set up the sparring partner will very often target an opponent's minion to remove, which is sorta the intention of the card. How should we spend the last 4 cards?

-About fiery war axe, we have SO many plays on 2 (and we want to king's defender on 3) I think it should be cut. Given the removal options on 3 anyway (bash, the defender, armorup/shield slam) maybe this isn't important.
-Death's bite has some negative synergy. The whirlwind effect is great to proc execute, but if we're not using acolytes* (maybe we should run acolytes) I actually think we cut it.
-We have SO MUCH REMOVAL that maybe we just stick with 6 charges. Neutering the best parts of warrior may be strange, but I'm considering it. We could play 1 Gorehowl, which would help vs midrange and the like, but in such an anti-weapon meta I'm not feeling it.

For curve sake, I don't mind teching in a Harrison. It can aid card draw. With 3 plays on 6 right now I think Shield Maidens should be cut - we should have enough armor gain between the smiths, bash, and blocks. But they are something to consider.

Given our deck lacks some card draw, what about something funky like 2x Gnomish Inventor? We don't have many plays on 4, and it thins out the deck.

Finally, this frees one spot for a bomb card. Ysera seems like the obvious choice - we can taunt her up, we can hide her behind a taunt, she can come into play from Varian... It just makes too much sense.

So for those keeping score at home, my Taunt Warrior 1.0 is:

2x Execute, 2x Shield Slam (4)
2x Annoy-o-Tron, 2x Armorsmith, 2x Bolster, 2x Sparring Partner (8)
2x Bash, 1x Big Game Hunter, 2x King's Defender, 2x Shield Block (7)
2x Gnomish Inventor, 2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta (4)
1x Brawl, Harrison Jones, 2x Sludge Belcher (3)
2x Sunwalker, The Black Knight (3)
Ysera
Varian

Ok, now I'm adding it up and it's 31. Wtf. Let's cut 1 Inventor.