Opening Moves

Author: Andrew ‘The Water Boiler’ Klawitter

“Neglecting that first turn could lose you the game, without you even realizing it.”

How many games have you played where in the later stages, you end up counting up your possible damage and it would leave your opponent with a single lifepoint remaining? To consider a possible solution, imagine yourself in the following situation:

Just 1 mana crystal, and 4 cards in hand. Sound Familiar? Thats right, you lost the flip and have to go first, no coin for you. I know, it sucks. But having the right opening move can make all the difference in the tempo of the game.

The largest setback to a turn 1 play is your opponent gets the opportunity to respond with 2 mana crystals (using their coin). This is most evident against Rogue, Mage, or Druid opponents, who can spend that coin, and activate their hero power, to demolish an X / 1 creature. That being said, if you are facing down one of the other 6 classes, a considerable gain can be achieved by getting in an early play, putting your opponent on the defensive, and thus setting the tone of the game.

Some readers may mistake this advice as saying you should include a large amount of cheap creatures in your decks but this is not what I am advocating at all. I am inferring that it can become easy to neglect or habitually disregard that first turn play option.

Simply clicking the “end turn” button can be a giant mistake. Many times you’re left with no other option by incorrectly mulliganing, or even earlier, during deckbuilding. Without discussing any particular deck, let us look at all the possible opening moves and discuss which ones are the strongest (or weakest) in the particular classes.

The Neutral Cards:

1/1: Wisp, Angry Chicken, Argent Squire, Elven Archer, Grimscale Oracle, Stonetusk Boar, Young Dragonhawk.

The only strong first turn playable card in this group is the Argent Squire, the Divine Shield it comes with almost ensures that it will survive to your second turn. The Elven Archer and Stonetusk Boar could ping your opponent for a single life point, but this is not an effective use for these cards, that 1 damage is best utilized in killing off an opposing minion later in the game, rather than for a single damage reducing an opponent’s life total from 30 to 29, just to die off, meaninglessly.

2 /1: Abusive Sergeant, Leper Gnome, Murloc Raider, Southsea Deckhand, Voodoo Doctor, Worgen Infiltrator, Young Priestess -

Many of these contain a Battlecry effect which are useless during the first turn. You have to think of these like safetynet effects, something that will be useful should you happen to draw them in the later turns. If you draw them early, they should be considered blank text 2 / 1 creatures for now. Taking this into consideration the strongest opening play from this group would be either the Leper Gnome or the Worgen Infiltrator, both of which are a turn-delayed 2 damage effect for a single mana crystal. Worgen Infiltrator is actually more defensive than offensive, providing a preemptive answer to an opponents 3 / 2 play (since it trades up for that creature.)

1 / 2: Bloodsail Corsair, Goldshire Footman, Hungry Crab, Lightwarden, Murloc Tidecaller, Secretkeeper

Once again the Battlecry effects make a few of these creatures mere 1 / 2 critters, and thus woefully inadequate first turn creatures. The three I have my eye on; Secretkeeper, Lightwarden, and Murloc Tidecaller each contain ‘build your deck around me’ ‘whenever’ clauses. These minions are given 2 health in order to (hopefully) survive long enough for other cards to be played, triggering their ‘whenever’ text.

0 / 4: Shieldbearer

With zero attack, except for in a fringe weenie-combo-deck design, this minion is used for primarily for protective purposes. His only acceptable use is in a fringe weenie-combo deck, hellbent on unleashing his Inner Fire, or planning a Rampage, after revealing his Inner Rage, or perhaps taking lessons given by the local Master Swordsmith.

Class Cards:

Druid:

Let’s start with the most powerful opening possible. Yep, you’ve got that godly opening hand, 2x Innervate! You just won the lottery and who said luck wasn’t a factor in this game? They were obviously lying. Casually dropping a 4/4 charging Druid of the Claw onto the battlefield and smashing in is perhaps the strongest opening period. More commonly, a single Innervate to play Harvest Golem is about as ideal an opening move as you could hope for.

Hunter:

Let’s say your mulligan didn’t exactly turn out how you wanted and your starting hand is lacking in cards for crystal costs 2 or 3. The Hunter can make use of Tracking allowing you to filter through the next three cards, setting up those future turns. If you are looking for something more aggressive, the previously mentioned Leper Gnome or Secretkeeper will both fit well into a hunter themed deck.

Mage:

Mana Wyrm unlike the Northshire Cleric is an easy first turn play. The mage has plenty of low cost spells to sling at minions (most notably, the 2 crystal Frostbolt) and as such the early Mana Wyrm can power up quickly, becoming a serious threat. I have also been experimenting with a Voodoo Doctor, which is a blank 2 / 1 early but gives the mage access to a cheap Lesser Heal in the late game.

Paladin:

As always, Paladins are happy giving Argent Squire their blessings. I have recently been toying with two other interesting one crystal minions, the Secretkeeper and the Young Priestess. Secretkeeper works well, due to the low crystal cost of the Paladin secrets. As for the Young Priestess, as long as your opponent doesn’t have any focused damage to take her out, she has the potential to generate extra health for your more considerable threats later on.

Priest:

I have seen many players drop the Northshire Cleric as early as turn one. I disagree with this course of action for one reason: by leaving this minon exposed it gives your opponent a chance to destroy it before you have triggered it’s text. I tend to consider the Northshire Cleric only starting at 3 crystal cost, as you will want to use your hero ability to draw a card on the turn you deploy this minion. Lightwarden is equally difficult to trigger her text early. So while you generate a 1 / 2 that might survive an opposing ping, if your opponent ignores it, there is no one to heal to trigger the +2 attack in the early stages of the game. This is a common case where the ability sounds better than it actually is.

Rogue:

Similarly to the Warrior, the Rogue can buff its creatures very cheaply but it doesn’t have cheap minions of its own. Any opening play minion that survives, if followed up by a Backstab/Cold Blood Combo, will lead to highly aggressive starts. Argent Squire or Southsea Deckhand don’t get any better than paired up with a rogue.

Shaman:

Oh Dust Devil, why do you tempt me so? A 3 / 1 windfury is exciting, but sadly not worth playing. The risk/reward factor is just too high on this little minion. It overloads, such that if your opponent does have an answer, you have just forfeited not only this turn, but your next turn as well. Sadly, the single healthpoint is just too fragile to pit all your successes on. I have not been able to figure out a solid early game for Shaman, my basic shaman opening is the classic Argent Squire or simply to click that dreaded “end turn button” and hope to draw my Stormforged Axe, mitigating any early aggression that might be coming my way.

Warlock:

The Warlock has some incredible, cost effective, and class specific, early minions: Blood Imp, Flame Imp, and Voidwalker are all respectable, first turn playable, cards, and all three become considerably worse as the game progresses. [incidentally, Mortal Coil is a solid example of a counter-play to any first turn X / 1 minion from your opponent, if you are thinking about the other side of the coin] I have seen many Murloc decks that use a warlock shell for drawing additional little murlocs quickly thanks to the warlock hero power. For this reason, I would rate the two best opening card choices to be either the Flame Imp or the Murloc Tidecaller.

Warrior:

Nothing exciting that is class-specific here, everything starts heating up at 2 crystals, so the first turn is merely setup. Shieldbearer can lead to some interesting combinations, since the warrior likes to exchange health for extra damage capabilities. But for a more solid deck design, I would say the best card for an aggressive warrior would be either the Leper Gnome or Southsea Deckhand. - for the added benefit of a possible charge later on.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I leave you with a word of caution when you first start adjusting your strategy to include some of these particular opening moves: Don’t get frustrated if your plan to play an early minion just gets them killed by a small damage spell now and again, this is actually a good thing. What ends up happening, is the early minions are baiting those removal spells. Because even though they are not getting in a lot of damage themselves, they are pulling the removal spells from your opponents hand, allowing the more significant threats in a deck to survive in later turns.

What is your favorite opening move? Or are you more satisfied letting your opponent set the opening tempo of the game, only to steal it back in the later stages? Please let me know in the comments section.