Foreword
In this article I go over some of the most interesting, combat-specific cards/effects. I break down the effects based on the primary card in the interaction.
Feint
Feint obviously has to be one of the cards I talk about because it only deals with combat, aside from drawing cards.
Chump Block/Attack
The simplest interaction with Feint is to chump block or chump attack without losing your champion. You block with a champion and then play this when you gain the initiative. Your blocker is removed from combat and prepared while the attacker remains “blocked.”
You attack with a champion. They block with a champion, flipping it. You play this so your attacker is removed from combat and becomes prepared. Then, after all of the remaining combat phases occur, you can attack again with that champion and your opponent’s flipped champion can’t block it.
This card becomes more interesting in either of those situations if you can draw out resources from your opponent. While attacking, your opponent might ambush in a blocker. Play Feint after blockers are declared and attack again, bypassing the ambushed in champion. Or, if your opponent unexpectedly buffs a defending champion, play this to get out of that unfavorable situation while still wasting a card of your opponent’s, and then you still get to attack again. (This also works if your opponent buffs their attacker.) Finally, if your opponent group blocks, you can use this to essentially flip multiple defending champions while also drawing 2 cards.
When This Card Attacks
Feint can also let you trigger “when this card attacks” triggers twice in one turn. Say you have Draka, Dragon Tyrant already in play. Attack with Draka, deal 3 damage to all defending champions. Play Feint. Attack with Draka again and deal 3 more damage to all defending champions. This also works with Courageous Soul for a double +2 offense boost, and to a lesser extent, Guilt Demon and Thrasher Demon. I’ll come back to Faithful Pegasus.
One very important aspect to note: when you play Feint, it removes champions under your control from combat, but it does not end combat. So, when you attack with Draka and then play Feint, your opponent will still get an opportunity to play cards before blockers are declared, and technically after blockers are declared as well. Due to this, you could Draka, Feint, pass. Then your opponent could play Ceasefire or Bitten etc. before you can declare the second attack.
**Edit** If all champions that were declared as attackers or blockers are removed from combat, the combat immediately ends. So, in the above crossed out text, if you attack with Draka and then immediately Feint, your opponent would not get a chance to play anything before you could attack with Draka again. **Edit**
If WWG ever creates a card with a “when this card blocks” ability, you could potentially get that to trigger twice, but your opponent would have to attack you again for you to be able to get the second trigger.
Raging T-Rex
Raging T-Rex must attack each turn if able, but if you attack with Raging T-Rex and then play Feint, that condition has been met for the turn. So, it doesn’t have to attack again.
Prepare Expending Blockers
If you have prepared, non-deploying expend champion(s) (Dark Assassin, Dark Leader, Murderous Necromancer, Necromancer Lord, Succubus, High King, White Knight, Djinn of the Sands, Forcemage Apprentice, Keeper of Secrets, Time Bender, Hunting Raptors, Pack Alpha, Elara The Lycomancer, Helion the Dominator, and/or Rabble Rouser), Feint can let you trigger them twice in one turn.
If you are brave enough not to expend your expend champions right when you play them (usually better to expend immediately) and your opponent attacks you on their turn, you can declare all of your expend champions as blockers. Then, assuming they survive until you get the initiative, you could expend all of your blocking champions for their effects. (Since they were already declared as blockers, they remain blocking even if expended.) After that, you play Feint which removes all of them from combat and prepares them, so you could use all of their expend abilities again, immediately. (This only works with non-deploying or blitz expend champions.)
Double removal or a lot of human tokens could be pretty strong.
Faithful Pegasus
Faithful Pegasus lets you group attack with it and another human. That human gains airborne this turn. (The human would not gain blitz, so it can’t be declared as an attacker if it is deploying or expended.)
Even if the Faithful Pegasus is removed, the human that gained airborne this turn does not lose it until the end of the turn.
The most interesting interaction with this card is Feint. If you attack with this and a Time Walker (granting Time Walker, a human, airborne), and then play Feint, both champions will be removed from combat. You could then have Time Walker attack alone with the airborne it gained from Faithful Pegasus. After that, you could attack with Faithful Pegasus and a different human, giving that second human airborne too.
Lord of the Arena
Lord of the Arena has a bunch of really cool effects, mostly concerned with combat. When you first play it, it is a 13/9 blitz, unbreakable, must be blocked if able champion. So, you can use it for 13 unbreakable blitz offense, or as removal. If you opponent only has 1 prepared champion, that champion (or one that gets ambushed in before blockers) must block it.
On your opponent’s turn, if you get the chance to play a 1-cost Good card before it is removed, it gains unbreakable for that turn. Then on your next turn, it can attack again and force another block. It’s also really nice that you can see how they block before you trigger Lord of the Arena‘s ally ability (if you don’t want to preemptively make it unbreakable that is). If its 5/9 body is big enough to get the job done, you don’t need to play a 1-cost Good card. If it isn’t, you can play a fast 1-cost Good card before damage.
Attacking with Lord of the Arena first also forces your opponent to block it, so you can follow up with a Rampaging Wurm afterwards if your opponent is out of blockers.
This card also works with Feint, since if your opponent has 2 champions and they block with the one you didn’t want to block, you can Feint and force them to block with the second one (since the first blocker remains flipped).
Since Lord of the Arena is a human, it also works with Faithful Pegasus for an airborne, 13/9, blitz, unbreakable, must be blocked by an airborne champion if able champion. In that scenario, the blocking champion would probably direct all of its damage to break the Pegasus, since the Lord of the Arena is unbreakable.
If you returned this to play with an Angel of Mercy or an already in play Necromancer Lord, you would get the tribute trigger, and then you could play a 1-cost Good card to get the ally trigger too. This would leave you with a 21/9 unbreakable blitz champion.
Turn/Helion, the Dominator
The simplest and frequently the best use of Turn is to permanently gain control of an opponent’s champion (especially if they ambush one in on your turn during combat). Since this doesn’t have much to do with combat, I’m largely ignoring that part for this article. This leaves us with the ability to steal a champion for a turn, prepare it, and let it attack (if it is your turn).
Temporarily stealing a champion on your turn and letting it attack can sometimes be stronger than stealing a champion permanently. This is especially true if your opponent has spent their gold for the turn, even more so if you are playing against a control deck. Attacking with a big body champion can get a lot of damage in that your opponent might be unable to stop. Say your opponent Surprise Attacks in Time Walker. You steal it for the turn and attack for 10 damage. If you take the Time Walker permanently instead, your opponent can wait until their turn to deal with it, potentially playing a Sea Titan returning their Time Walker to their hand.
Temporarily stealing a champion on your turn can also allow you to use a powerful expend ability like High King, Necromancer Lord, etc.
One interesting quirk with Loyalty 2 -> Blitz effects is that the champion never loses blitz (unless a Blind Faith strips it). So, if your opponent played Necromancer Lord with Loyalty 2 -> blitz and didn’t expend it, you could permanently gain control of Necromancer Lord and still expend it on the turn you Turned it.
Even with these uses, stealing permanently is so powerful, that the first option is usually only used on your opponent’s turn. The most common use of Turn on your opponent’s turn is to stop an attack. They play and attack with Gold Dragon, you Turn it, gaining control of it, preventing the attack from dealing damage to you/giving your opponent health through righteous, and you gain a blocker that your opponent won’t want to remove (since they will get it back at the end of the turn). If that is all you use it for, it’s okay, but not great.
The more champions in play and the more champions attacking at once, the greater Turn‘s potential. Say your opponent attacks with 2 Draka, Dragon Tyrants at once. All of your champions will take 6 damage, but then you could Turn 1 of the Drakas, and, assuming your opponent doesn’t play anything, you can declare your stolen Draka as a blocker to the other Draka. This will cause both Drakas to break, netting you removal of 2 1-cost champions for 1 1-cost card. Even if your opponent only attacks with 1 Draka in this situation, you could still steal the non-attacking Draka and declare it as a blocker.
Another excellent option is a combination of block and expend. Say your opponent has a Dark Assassin that they expended to break one of your champions, then they attack with Pyromancer. You could turn the Dark Assassin, declare it as a blocker, and then expend it to break one of their other 1-cost champions. In this unlikely situation, you would remove 3 1-cost champions with just 1 1-cost card. Even just stealing Elara to chump block a Steel Golem and then transform herself giving you the wolf token is strong.
Another great thing about Turn, is that you can target your own champions. You want to Rabble Rouser again? Turn. You want to attack with your Lashed Kong again? Turn. Another use of Necromancer Lord, etc. You could even attack with Dark Assassin and then if they ambush in Lurking Giant, play Turn on your Dark Assassin, expend to break the Lurking Giant, and then let your attack finish.
Finally, one really fun one. Elder Greatwurm cannot gain blitz from Turn because of its “this card can’t gain powers or abilities” ability. But, if your opponent has Elder Greatwurm in play, you can play Blind Faith and strip Elder Greatwurm‘s can’t gain abilities ability. Then, you can play Turn on the Elder Greatwurm, give it blitz, attack, and play Lash on it.
That’s right WWG remainder text, I just gave it both blitz and breakthrough.
Helion, the Dominator can do some of the same things. It does not prepare the targeted champion though.
Sea Hydra and Angelic Protector
If you have Sea Hydra in play and you get attacked by a big champion (Steel Golem for example), you can block with your Sea Hydra and then play Angelic Protector before damage. Sea Hydra still takes 13 damage, but it doesn’t break because it is unbreakable. At the end of the turn, it will gain 13 +1/+1 counters. This can also be done with Brave Squire.
Thrasher Demon really appreciates unbreakable as well.
Army of the Apocalypse
Army of the Apocalypse can do a lot of crazy things: a lot of blitzers, Drinker of Blood combos, etc. Specifically related to combat already in progress, I really like it with dragons.
Attack with White Dragon. If your opponent doesn’t block, play Army of the Apocalypse to return 3 Thundaruses and a Gold Dragon to play. Your unblocked 20/20 righteous will then hit. If your opponent still isn’t dead, you can swing with your 21/23 airborne, blitz, righteous Gold Dragon.
More?
As I come up with more, I’ll be sure to add them here. Let me know if I missed any that you would like me to add.