Hearthstone’s Kobolds and Catacombs will bring perhaps the craziest card concepts yet. But between double turns, treasure chests and duplicating gibberers, one stands above all. By far the wildest of them is the mighty King Togwaggle. His ability to temporarily swap decks opens up all sorts of new win conditions and crazy combos. How hard will these strategies be to pull off? And are there any that could become genuinely competitive?
Let’s dive into the possibilities. Who knows, some may even turn out viable!
The King of meme decks, but could he actually work? (source: Hearthstone Youtube)
One of the most straightforward ways to use Togwaggle is to simply deny the opponent the ability to swap back. Normally, Togwaggle grants the opponent a five mana “King’s Ransom” spell to reverse his original effect. But if you can fill the opponent’s hand, there’s no room for the spell and no way to reverse the same effect. This could be tricky to put off. It’s hard to fill up your opponent’s hand while playing an eight mana card. But, some classes could pull it off.
Druid has perhaps the best chance. The new Legendary weapon, Twig of the World Tree, allows 10 extra mana crystals. That means you have 12 mana for Coldlights, Naturalizes and similar. If you succeed in getting your opponent to 10 cards, they will be stuck with your wanna be Mill Druid, while you’ll have all their win conditions.
Other classes could have some strategies. Rogue could also have a shot, with either pre-shadowstepped Coldlights or Counterfeit Coining out a Prepped Vanish. Mage’s Counterspell would work, but could be hard to set up and is easily played around.
Clog their hand and the deck swap could be permanent
Unfortunately, this plan has a number of flaws. It’ll be hard to fill the hand of anyone but the greediest of control decks. What’s more, swapping decks might not be that effective; you need to survive long enough to reach turn 10 in the first place, and if your deck can do that, it may not be that much of a liability. And you could easily be stuck as an out-of-steam tempo deck if you do steal the opponent’s deck.
This could rely on a fatigue style win-condition; if you dig through your deck enough before swapping, then the opponent will be far enough ahead in fatigue that victory will be guaranteed. But if you get to this point in the game, you have likely already stabilised against midrange or aggro. Meanwhile combo decks may have already assembled enough damage to kill you shortly after.
You don’t need to permanently steal your opponent’s deck to ruin their strategy. Another plan could simply be to steal or burn vital cards from their deck. The simplest way to do this would simply be to draw lots of cards. Many classes have cheap card draws that could combo with it. Warlock can tap, or Bloodbloom into Doom to completely eviscerate the opponent’s deck. Hunters can Tracking to steal multiple cards while discarding additional ones. Warriors can set up a large Battle Rage, or precision-steal weapons with Forge of Souls. Rogues can Coin, Prep then Sprint to steal four or more cards.
Of course, this could be of limited utility. Simply taking random cards isn’t especially devastating in most cases; at least, not enough to warrant playing an eight mana 5/5. Unless you’re up against a combo or control deck, they often rely more on generic draws than specific cards. Even in the case of combo decks, stealing their cards can often bring them closer to their win conditions.
Explore Un’Goro could nuke your opponent’s deck
The most interesting and potentially potent combo comes with Explore Un’Goro. At two mana, it is perfect to combo with Togwaggle. The ability to essentially destroy the opponent’s deck could become genuinely competitive in the right meta. Unfortunately, things aren’t as simple as that. You need to be able to deal with the possibility of your opponent using their new one mana discover cards to win; or to use your own deck against you.
There are a number of ways to set up the combo. The simplest would be just Togwaggle and Explore Un’Goro. This essentially gives the option to your opponent to have your deck or an Explore Un’Goro deck. Both could be troublesome to deal with, as many classes can have powerful discover options that could lose you the game, and your own deck might be more effective when used against you. To make matters worse, a Skulking Geist could leave you with no deck at all!
To counteract this, it may be necessary to run Dead Man’s Hand, Skulking Geist and an additional Explore Un’Goro. The plan would be simple. First, you Explore Un’Goro your own deck. Then, you Togwaggle to swap decks, and Explore Un’Goro again to convert your newly acquired deck. After that, you can Skulking Geist to destroy both decks and begin shuffling Dead Man’s Hand to avoid fatigue.
This sounds like a difficult combo to counter. But it may be hard to pull off. Geist, two Explore Un’Goros, Togwaggle and Dead Man’s Hand are a lot of clunky cards to have in a class that’s already struggling. What’s more, assembling them would be extremely difficult. And after all that, you need to make sure you shuffle things like removal or lifegain to deal with your opponent’s remaining threats.
Togwaggle could fit into Dead Man’s Hand Warrior, but the archetype is hardly top-tier
Finally, the best possible use may be to enforce your opponent into a Tavern Brawl style match. By simply Exploring Un’Goro both decks, you can force your opponent to discover their way to victory. It might not be the most viable of strategies, but if you want to hover at a rank floor, it might just be a fun way to remind your netdecking opponents of the kind of wacky fun Hearthstone and King Togwaggle can bring.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via Hearthstone.gamepedia.com.
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