White Wall (LoN)  

White Wall decks are mostly defensive, Light unit based decks. They try to set up a wall of cheap defenders and get to Light faction as quickly as possible before using Barbarian Hunters to kill the opposing avatar and Elven Summoners to keep the Hunters flowing. Dwarven Clerics heal off any damage the deck takes early. This deck often uses the High Elf avatar that gains 2 health when it gets to Light faction.

This deck is has seen play in almost all archetypes, but Fighter seems to be the most popular with its extra defensive abilities like Guard of Piety. The deck also has the power to get aggressive and use the Light faction damage bonus on Dwarven Champions to kill an opposing avatar through combat, only going to the Hunters for support.

Strengths

The deck is very strong against unit based decks. The cheap Light units like Elven Paladin and Dwarven Sentry are hard for them to break through. The defensive units are usually cheaper than their aggressive counterparts. The Dwarven Champions make losing an attack a very risky proposition.

The deck is also strong against anything that quests regularly but doesn't use the Gnome avatar that can skip combat. Avatars have a very tough time getting enough attack to win combat against all the cheap units. Again, the Dwarven Champions are very good against questing avatars because of its damage bonus when defending.

This deck is very consistent. It has been around since the release of the Oathbound set and has withstood the test of time. It looks like a deck that people will continue to play even now that Inquisitor has been released.

Weaknesses

The deck can be weak vs. very fast Scout AvA decks. All those defensive units don't do nearly as much when they don't get in the way of the attacking avatar. These matchups aren't terrible because AvA decks still play several abilities and are forced to quest quite often which gives White Wall a chance because it will often win those combats and can also get damage in by attacking.

The deck's biggest weakness is its lack of power production. Many of the top decks now can produce extra power each turn. Cards like Slippers of Dark Mana, Zealotry, and Fanatic Inquisitor are very popular. When your opponent is working with 2 more power than you every turn, that can be a pretty significant hurdle to overcome. This deck is really designed to work on only three power anyway, so that helps to alleviate some of the lower power that the deck produces.

This deck probably lacks some of the raw power that some of the other top decks have, but it's just so consistent and effective that it continues to remain popular.

Legends of Norrath
Wikibase™

This page last modified 2008-03-24 13:49:38.