The Demo Characters, Dwarfed.

One of the minis leaked from Gencon is Grumpherys (near the bottom of the thread). This is an interesting character, a minimum range means your opponent can push him around the board, and the very low attack strength and tick cost makes him a specialist piece. He's designed to hunt down 1 and 2 def enemies. (He's close to useless against higher def characters). The thing that makes him noteworthy is that his efficacy is bound to the presence of his pet. Boosting his irrelevant 2 strength 1 tick attack to an efficient 3 strength 1 tick attack is critical. The problem is, Grumpherys comes with Bloodclaw, a fragile, aggressive pet. Removing the raptor from the board is nigh trivial, and that leads the dwarf...well...declawed. Maybe we'll see a suitably durable pet (a turtle?) in the first set for his constructed application, but that won't save him in limited. His other action bar card has good synergy with his abilities, a re-roll that you can trigger every turn is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm pretty happy with this piece, as the demo characters are a bit bland. At least Hodoon and Ruby cover each other's weaknesses. Lotherin and Gorebelly don't mesh so well. Both are aggressively geared, without much defense against a barrage of magic attacks. Lotherin's Heal just isn't efficient enough to contain large packets of damage, and Gorebelly's taunt doesn't sufficiently protect against ranged attacks in a 2v2 scenario. The main problem with the 4 starter pieces, is that their abilities don't really make for interesting deck construction. They seem very generic. Ruby is enough of a cannon to see play in constructed, but the others will struggle. Gorebelly is a big swinger and can absorb a lot of damage, but he'll only see action if Taunt turns out to be good. Lotherin and Hodoon just don't have the potency required. Naturally, any of these predictions could be overshadowed by talent-specific action bar cards.

I'm a bit surprised by UDE's choice of demo pieces, the rationale eludes me. I think they've set the complexity bar a little low, and the demo map doesn't promote interactive play. Pets are such a big part of the WoW experience, and so well implemented in the minis game that I think the absence of a hunter or warlock in the demo is a mistake.