So, good news—DMF Boston has come and gone without Vashj being a relevant presence, so I don’t look like a buffoon for judging the team dead on this map. Also good news—my suspicions that Prophet Velen had not yet reached his full potential proved true. Credit goes to many people for the design of the band, but it was Corle and Matt Whaite who showed the rest of us just how good it was during the qualifying rounds. My teammate, Ben Stoll (now employed by Upper Deck and no longer with us on the tournament circuit!) switched over to the band on Saturday and piloted it through the second Constructed qualifier and on up to first place without taking a single loss along the way.
The band is certainly impressive, utilizing fully three figures dismissed by the community at large as being not quite playable to combine into a tank band so durable that HHT looks dreadfully fragile by comparison. The power of Paladin equipment, efficient heals, rerolls from Wrath of Air Totem, and of course the Prophet’s dreaded crit and card-based ability make this band a terror even for triple Mortimer Warlocks. With an honor cost ranging from 25-31 depending on equipment selection, the Velen team is a little worrisome at first to sit down with. You typically start the game at a huge VP deficit, but not to worry, when your team never dies and their team gets bashed in a single round of attacks, you can afford to be patient.
Bulwark is an absolute powerhouse in the Zoo match; the damage potential of the Zoo team is horrifically crippled, especially if they make the mistake of critting you into more armor. The added benefit of Sulfuras, punishing them every time Graccus siphons damage, is really rough on the pets. Sure it means more Water Elemental attacks over the course of a game, but the other pets, usually forced to bash into 3-5 armor, seem suddenly frail and unthreatening. The Bulwark also helps against numerous other teams, forcing attacks to where they are least detrimental to you.
Sulfuras is a hugely important card in the Jaina Zoo match and in the Velen mirror match. In both fights, the hammer’s auto-damage is clutch, and giving Graccus something relevant to do always helps. Between Graccus and Savin, you drop a lot of physical dice on whoever is foolish enough to dance with you. In many ways, Graccus is this party’s only weak spot. If he goes down, then your other pieces can eventually take enough damage to go down as well—clearly not an optimal occurrence. The hammer makes it a lot worse for opponents to try to sneak clothies or pets around Savin to get base to base with Graccus. Suddenly, instead of a mere survival tool, Graccus himself is a threat capable of brining down almost any piece in the game.
Savin’s job, of course, is to be a complete tank, heal up his friends, and occasionally recall how to use his big hammer to hit things. His prime purpose is as a damage soak and infinite Mana Potion for Velen. Velen, of course, just wants to be shooting. Every time you roll dice, you get a chance to crit. Every crit you get is 1-6 damage; once you have everyone injured or damaged by his other ability, that crit is insane. With Wrath of Air totem for rerolls and a shot every 2 ticks, the opposing team will go down surprisingly quickly, and your honor deficit will rapidly disappear.
For anyone looking to learn how to play the Velen team, I’d advise taking a peek at the Boston DMF Top 4 coverage where the team represented 3/4ths of the field . . . In the mean time, though, lets take a look at how the Velen team stacks up on the Gen Con maps.
The map for the Continental Champs event looks pretty ideal for this team to make a strong second showing. The terrain is arrayed such that the Prophet Velen team should take little to no fire while positioning on the VP, and then be optimally positioned to punish opposing teams. With Savin plugging up the VP space, enemy characters can only shoot the target you least care about them shooting. In fact, it’s his job to get shot, so it was very fortunate to see a map so well suited to his skills. Prophet Velen can easily move onto hills for additional rerolls when protector is your main line of defense, or hide back when taunt becomes the relevant ability. With Savin in the VP hole, your opponent has no good access to hills, well, unless he or she likes bashing against 3-5 armor again and again.
The team may face slightly more problems on the wide-open DMF Indy map. The central VP spot leaves the team exposed to fire from a lot of hills. The central terrain is a nice defensive feature, but I really feel that a team capable of utilizing the ring of hills and the open space of the outer ring is a better choice for this event.
Oh, and for those of you wondering how to beat Velen, Polymorph helps a lot. DOTs are good, too, but need to be managed well to get around Cleanse and healing. The real focus of fire for any team hoping to win has to be Graccus. As long as he’s around and taking a share of the damage, you will not be able to force through enough damage without dying yourself or watching mournfully as your opponent heals back up to full. Exhasuting equipment cards seems like a good effect, too, though so far, no team seems to have a reliable means to bring that ability to bear. Time to innovate!
-Ian Stickland
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