Over the past few weeks I've been bidding farewell to some of my favourite decks of the last year - I've hid in bushes and sprung traps on the unfortunate with Shaii, paid Diane one last visit before careering in to battle like a madman, and now...
If there's one thing I've learned whilst playing this game, it's that nobody ever expects you to play Pinprik. He's fragile, one-dimensional and taking him to the party is very much a gamble - but get it right and it can pay dividends.
Let's take a quick look at what makes him so different to any other hero then. First off, he has a piffling eight health, but to counteract that, he is Elusive - he cannot be attacked by allies. He also has some pretty crazy deckbuilding restrictions:
You can include only neutral quests, any abilities that deal fire damage, and any [Fire] allies. You can't include cards with reputation or text restrictions (like Fire Hero Required).
So. ANY abilities that deal fire damage. That means you can play Warlock, Mage and Shaman cards in the same deck. ANY [Fire] allies - so Horde, Alliance and pets/neutral, providing they don't have any text restrictions.
And just to reiterate - he's Elusive. Can't be attacked. Doesn't seem like such a bad deal now.
I first built a Pinprik deck in the run-up to the UK's fifth Realm Championship. I'd had the idea after a blog post on the old, now defunct Upper Deck blog mentioned Pinprik and provided a sample decklist that had probably never been tested. It consisted almost entirely of cards that cost 1, and the result of this is that you would run out of cards by your third turn and then have to spend resources drawing more; not exactly efficient.
I took a Classic version to a Realm Qualifier and lost every single game, but by this point I was starting to have ideas. I eventually chopped and changed everything around and, satisfied with the new efficiency in the deck, put it to one side and went to work on something a little less silly for me to play in the Realm Championship.
In the end the Realm Championship was cancelled as a result of Upper Deck losing the game's license, though Rob Hooley, the UK's head of Organised Play, went ahead and ran the event anyway. My 'serious' deck wasn't setting the world on fire, and the archetype of Death Wish Warrior was starting to gain momentum, so I figured that I would take my little friend (in his Pokémon deck box) for a spin as there would be some very favourable matchups, and results be damned.
I eventually finished 3-2 and experienced the full Pinprik spectrum - one automatic win (no direct damage), one automatic loss (Silvermoon City), one game that wasn't really close and two that were very close indeed.
Since then I've refined the deck a little and continued to have mild success with it - I piloted it to a 2-1 finish at the Zapped Giants Community Open II Core section, and brought it to tonight's Battlegrounds as my final foray into Core, eventually going 3-2, winning a match I shouldn't really have won (Kil'zin) and losing a match I really should have won (Feral Druid... with double Hurricane).
Imp Lord Pinprik
4 Noxel Shroudhaggle
4 Routeen
4 Waz'luk
4 Anders Blankheart
4 Brodien
4 Dread Infernal
2 Flame Bender Ta'jin
3 Cremate
4 Fire Blast
4 Immolate
4 Incinerate
4 Incendiary Totem
3 Fireball
2 The Blood is Life
2 Forces of Jaedenar
3 Falling to Corruption
3 A Tale of Valor
3 Orders from Lady Vashj
The deck is pretty simple. Kill them with fire before they kill you with anything. Noxel is hilarious if you can get him on the table in your first turn, and if you're facing an uphill struggle you should really think about mulliganing aggressively for him. Routeen lets you ping away even if there are opposing Protectors on the table, Anders and Brodien are both Elusive and direct damage is usually directed straight at the hero, and Dread Infernal is a great way of pumping damage out - he has an impact on the field immediately and even if he dies, he'll often take someone with him.
The only issue with the above list is the quest lineup. Back at 'Realms', A Tale of Valor hadn't been released, and I've found it to be pretty hit and miss. Previously I played the following:
3 The Blood is Life
4 Forces of Jaedenar
3 Falling to Corruption
3 Orders from Lady Vashj
The problem with A Tale of Valor is that you never quite know what you're going to get. The Blood is Life does require you to sacrifice an ally, but that's what Dread Infernal is for...
Obviously the deck has some drawbacks, namely the difficult matches against anyone playing a reasonable amount of direct damage, and anyone playing Silvermoon City - which is a guaranteed automatic loss. It is slightly galling that Worldbreaker brings with it two new cards that would be perfect for a Pinprik deck - Searing Pain, which could frequently deal 6-8 damage, and Cleansing Witch Hill, which is the only card Pinprik can currently utilise that will let you flip an opposing location.
Alas, Pinprik and his junk will soon be banished outside the walled garden of Core. This is perhaps not the saddest loss though, as over half of the above deck also rotates out with him. There is always the option of playing Classic, where our little friend can make use of Blistering Fire, Flame Shock and the aforementioned Worldbreaker cards... but that's for another day.
If we lie low for a while, people will stop expecting us... and that's when we're the most dangerous.
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