We got our first look at Chris McMurry’s new Horde Warlock deck at Darkmoon Faire Austin. I am not sure what most players thought of the decklist, but many people I know followed a similar line of thinking: the deck could benefit from some streamlining. Fel Armor seemed like a bizarre card choice. The deck already had some incredible synergy and an established, strong win condition with Spirit Healer and Lokholar the Ice Lord. After the event, I immediately built the deck. My first modification was the exclusion of the other 8-cost abilities.

Before Darkmoon Faire Chicago, I had a chance to chat a little with Chris. He still liked his build but had incorporated some revisions. I piped up with my advice that he lose Fel Armor. He just chuckled a little and shook his head. At the time, I thought he might be a bit too in love with his “pet” deck and did not give it an objective analysis.

It turns out that my underestimation of Fel Armor was one of my larger misunderstandings of the deck and a serious judgment error. Chris obviously knew a thing or two about the card that I had not figured out. The next day, he landed his second Top 8 spot and fielded a list with a third copy of Fel Armor. It took me a while, but after working with the deck and trying to understand the various iterations that appeared in Regional Top 8s and flooded the message boards (which, by the way, were debated across the numerous World of Warcraft TCG–loving sites), I finally realized the dominant nature of Fel Armor.