EnZo’s Scholomance Big Ripper Quest

Looks good! I’m a warrior-only player and right now Big Ripper is my favorite deck to play so I’m excited to try it out with Scholomance cards. On paper, this deck definitely looks better after the expansion!

My current Ripper deck runs the quest as well and it works really well! To do this, I drop only three cards – one copy of Sword and Board, one copy of Shield Slam, and one copy of Corsair Cache. My replacements are Hack the System and 2x Upgrade!. It loses a little of control but once completed, the quest adds a great deal of pressure to your board and fills the gaps for when you’re not dropping your big threats. Plus, you can churn out two 4/3’s for 4 mana on turns when you are also clearing the enemy board with the rest of your mana. With the updated deck list, you can also drop a 4/3 alongside your Troublemaker just like I already do after dropping Deathwing since they both cost 8.

The quest works by using Upgrade! strictly for the 1/3 weapon so I can maximize hero attacks for the quest without having to add more weapons. Once the quest is completed, I try to only attack if I can spend the 4 mana hitting my hero power twice. But I’m hitting my hero power once whenever I have extra mana. I’ll sometimes use my Bulwark of Azzinoth aggressively to get in extra attacks if my board and health are in a good state. Otherwise, I’ll use it for its usual defensive use. All in all, my deck provides 10 guaranteed attacks and possibly a couple more from the Bulwark. So 5 for the quest, and 5-7 turns where I’m hitting my hero power twice for the two 4/3’s. It ends up balancing out nicely with turns when I’m casting Dimensional Ripper or dropping expensive minions. Also, it obviously doesn’t add any minions do the deck which makes it all work. I like to run Livewire Lance in stead of Wrenches for a couple reasons. First, they are cheaper so I can get my quest started faster. Second, I love the utility they provide while filling out the board. They also help fill out your mana curve when your clearing or utilizing your double hero power. They also deliver some big minions sometimes or an extra Ripper through the lackey’s.

For Scholomance I plan on running a similar deck. I’ll basically copy this one but I’ll do the same thing where I drop one copy of Shield Slam, Sword and Board, and Corsair Cache for 2x Upgrade! and Hack the System. I’m torn between running Lances or the new Mauls so at first I think I’ll run a copy of each. The only other change I plan to make is to drop one copy of Commencement. I know this card is great but I just don’t love it enough in this deck to include two copies of it. With only 7 minions in the deck, it hurts when 2-3 of these are less than ideal targets for the spell. At 7 mana, it’s not cheap. And the less-than-ideal targets are Archmage Vargoth, The Boom Reaver, Kargath Bladefist, and even Deathwing to some extent since you lose the battlecry clear. Rattlegore and Troublemaker are freaking awesome targets for it though. Also, I dislike how it doesn’t pull a copy of the minion like Ripper and Reaver do but rather the actual minion from your deck. This, combined with the loss of Molten Breath’s removal has me wanting to add the new dual-class card Coerce for some solid and cheap removal. The inclusion of that card has me wanting to keep one or both Lances in the deck for the 1 mana lackey’s to activate the combo but I have to see how powerful the Maul is. Some free taunt minions might be really strong on turns where I’m clearing board and also producing two 4/3’s.

Feel free to give it a try! If you think no one expects the Dimensional Ripper deck, just wait until you start the match off with a quest! They won’t know what’s going on. I have yet to see this deck outside of myself playing it.