Well,
I guess this blog’s going to remain relatively Hearthstone-centric for the
forseeable future. Just can’t really find the chunk of free time required to
just sit down and play Warcraft III, as much as I love that game. But the good
news is, while it’s not going to update as much as my comic/TV review blog, it’s
still going to receive periodical updates about Hearthstone and the Warcraft
universe in general. One thing I’m probably going to do in the near future is
to talk about the Legendary cards in the game and just talk about their lore in
the Warcraft-verse and generally just kind of talk about their viability
in-game. But for now, let’s talk about some new Grand Tournament cards that are
revealed. The voting in the Hearthstone site has apparently finished, bringing
with it the reveals of two legendary cards – Rhonin and Varian – and we’re not
going to get a card every day. But as I am typing this there’s going to be a
big Twitch stream about Hearthstone or something like that, so there may be
even more new card reveals. With around ten days to the so-called predicted
date of release, well, we’re probably going to basically see the rest of the
expansion within the next week or so.
Neutral
Minions:
·
Lance Bearer: Lance Bearer is a two-mana drop
with 1/2 and a Battlecry of permanently giving a friendly minion 2 Attack. It’s
relatively fair to compare it with Abusive Sergeant. For one extra mana cost,
the buff is permanent. It’s definitely a solid addition to most decks,
especially for beginners who need substitutions for the vanilla two-drops. And while
1/2 is relatively dead weight compared to the more versatile 2/1 stat
distribution for a two-drop, I see this little dude getting some decent
mileage. Except, y’know, despite being a ‘Lance Bearer’, the dude is shown with
a sword and shield. What.
·
Light’s Champion: A three-drop rare card with 4/3
and the Battlecry of silencing a demon. It’s got identical stats to
Spellbreaker, except it’s a three-drop instead of a four-drop… and far more
specific in that it only silences demons. And to be fair, there’s a fair bit of
demons out there that this dude’s effect can be good on – Voidcaller, Void
Terror, Mal’Ganis, the brand new Dreadsteed – and unlike the Spellbreaker, it’s
got decent value for its mana cost. The problem is that, well, its silence
effect isn’t really going to go off… well, anytime you’re not fighting a
Warlock, basically, so for 90% of the time Light’s Champion is going to be a
three-mana 4/3. Ironbeak Owl is definitely a better silencer than Light’s
Champion (or Spellbreaker for that matter) so this is really kind of
situational. I think it’s especially bad in arena because it’s in the Rare slot
and there are so many other better options for the rare slot.
·
Icehowl: Icehowl is a behemoth of a
neutral Legendary minion. Icehowl is one of the bosses in the Argent Tournament
quests in World of Warcraft, alongside the earlier-revealed Gormok the Impaler,
and being a gigantic yeti, Icehowl stands at a nine-drop with a whooping 10/10
stat and Charge… but he can’t attack
the face. And while at first it kind of seems stupid, Icehowl is definitely a
force to be reckoned with. It comes in and just blasts a minion of your choice
to death – basically like Ragnaros, except the effect isn’t random at the cost
of not breaking the enemy’s face. And even then there are ways to get around
it, like intentionally silencing Icehowl after the first turn he’s summoned. Yes,
he takes damage, but on the other hand ten health isn’t anything to laugh at. Definitely
great if you can get Icehowl at a discount with the likes of Unstable Portal,
Thaurissan or Aviana. If I ever get this card, I’ll definitely use it, simply
for the sheer fun effect of having this gigantic monster just mow down the
entire board.
Class
Cards:
·
Living Roots [Druid]: A one-mana spell card with one of
two effects: deal two damage, or summon two 1/1 minions. It’s pretty decent,
and is compared to Arcane Shot and Holy Smite – Hunter and Priest spells that
cost one mana and deal two damage respectively – except with the added bonus of
being able to summon two 1/1’s… sorta-kinda like the Mage’s Mirror Image,
except instead of being two 0/2’s with taunt you get two 1/1’s that can attack,
which is relatively good value for one mana – you get four stats worth of
minions instead of the normal 3. It’s a pretty versatile card and definitely
merits being used in more aggressive Druid decks and can replace things like
Moonfire in beginner Druid decks, but I don’t see it finding a niche in any of
the already-existing Druid decks.
·
Astral Communion [Druid]: For four mana, discard your hand
and obtain ten mana crystals. This… is going to be an absolutely situational
card, but if played right (or in a deck centered around it) it’s going to
potentially win you entire games. It depends, of course, on getting Astral
Communion within fourth turn (you can drop it earlier than the fourth turn provided
you have access to Innervate or the Coin) and just get ten mana crystals while
your opponent’s struggling with four and five… but since you’re going to be
constantly topdecking throughout the rest of the match, you better draw
eight-drops and nine-drops, or something that can increase your drawing
abilities otherwise you’re not going to make much use of that ten mana. And if
you do fill your deck with eight-drops and nine-drops like the Ancient of
whatevers and drawing cards (Nourish and Ancient of Lore aside, any Druid card
that draws cards only draws one – which is inefficient) it is a very possible
situation that you won’t draw Astral Communion until a later turn and by then
it would severely diminish the value of this card. Overall, it has a potential
to be pretty awesome, if very situational and gimmicky.
·
Ram Wrangler [Hunter]: A five-drop with 3/3 stats, and a
Battlecry that if you have a beast, summon a random beast. Which is awesome in
a beast synergy deck – and Hunters really do have good beast synergy with cards
like Houndmaster and Kill Command, so most Hunter decks are already good for
this card already. Without a beast on the field it’s going to be a gigantic
waste of five mana, but if you do? Well, it’s basically the Webspinner’s
Deathrattle effect, but far more immediate because for five mana you get a 3/3 and a bonus beast. And, yes, you might get
duds like the Stonetusk Boar or the Young Dragonhawk… but on the other hand,
you might get King Krush, Malorne, Gahrzilla, middling-but-great-value stuff
like Stampeding Kodo, Savannah Highmane, Lost Tallstrider, and all those. And even
things like Scavenging Hyena, Ironfur Grizzly and Haunted Creeper are still
relatively decent for the two mana ‘spent’ to freely summon it, so most of the
time you’re going to get something of value or far better for your value… of
course, with the risk of getting underwhelming things. Still, I think the Ram
Wrangler will be a fun and decent card to add to your Hunter deck.
·
Rhonin [Mage]: The Mage Legendary card, Rhonin,
is a relatively important character introduced in one of the earliest Warcraft
novels, starring in Day of the Dragons which
introduced important stuff like the dragon aspects and whatnot, before showing
up in person in Worlds of Warcraft. I
think Mists of Pandaria killed poor
Rhonin off, which is a shame, but he shows up all awesome and shit in
Hearthstone – as an eight-mana minion with 7/7 and the Deathrattle of adding
three Arcane Missiles to your hand. And while 7/7 for eight mana isn’t that
stellar, it’s still relatively good value considering his Deathrattle basically
refreshes your hand with a bunch of cheap spells – which is going to be pretty
depleted in turn eight onwards. It’s a shame that Arcane Missiles is random,
but on the other hand it’s basically nine free points of damage launched at the
board, enhanced by however many Spell Damage minions you managed to set up.
With the dragon aspect of magic Malygos it’s going to be especially devastating…
and far more deadly with fellow Mage Legendary Archmage Antonidas, because in
addition to three Arcane Missiles, you get three Fireballs too. Rhonin is
definitely an awesome card to include in most Mage decks, and unlike Anub’arak
his stat distribution isn’t too crippling for his cost.
·
Warhorse Trainer [Paladin]: A three-mana minion with 2/4 that
adds one attack to your Silver Hand Recruits… while this dude is around on the
battlefield. It could potentially be pretty great, but we’ve already got the
Quartermaster, which adds a permanent boost, and stat-wise and effect-wise this
is definitely an inferior minion to the Quartermaster. Even with Muster for
Battle it’s relatively hard to keep a board full of Silver Hand Recruits, and
boosting them by one attack… only them,
mind you. Stormwind Champion and Raid Leader do the same thing to all your minions, so you’re better off
running them instead. Not objectively terrible, but nothing to write home
about.
·
Flash Heal [Priest]: For one mana, restore five
health. Because holy shit talk about mana cost efficiency. It’s not quite that
useful to have a sudden healing bomb – but comparing it to the Paladin’s Holy
Light spell (two mana, restore six health) it’s definitely great value. I don’t
think it’s going to see much use, though… running things like Antique Healbot
gets you a minion and healing, plus
Priests can already heal on their own. Combined with Auchenai Soulpriest it’s a
one-mana-five-damage nuke, which could be great. It could kind of be good, but I’m
not too impressed. Then again, not that big of a fan of the Priest’s way of
playing so I can’t say I’m too excited about Priest cards.
·
Cutpurse [Rogue]: A pretty solid minion. Two mana
gets you 2/2, with the effect that whenever this minion hits your opponent’s
face, you get a Coin. Which is awesome. Granted it’s probably not going to stay
on the field for long, but a couple of coins can definitely help you get out
combos pretty quickly while giving you extra manas to boot… and if you’re
running Edwin Van Cleef, the many many coins you have are going to help you
clean out your hand and summon a stupidly humongous Edwin.
·
Healing Wave [Shaman]: For three mana, restore 7 health.
And then you joust – if you win the joust, you restore 14 health instead. Definitely
one of the better jousts, because for three mana, even a seven-health healing
is pretty decent – not especially good, but still decent – with the advantage
of being able to restore even more if
you win a joust. And Shaman can potentially be a good Joust-centric class thanks
to being able to have less two-drops in the deck thanks to being able to summon
totems. Shamans also don’t really have a reliable way of healing themselves,
and this is pretty fun for that.
·
Charged Hammer [Shaman]: A four-mana weapon with 2/4, and
a Deathrattle that changes your hero power to dealing two damage. It’s kind of
weird. Four mana for 2/4 is definitely poor cost, so you’re going to want to
whack things with the hammer as much as you can to trigger the deathrattle. But
you’re going to basically miss out on Totems and instead have your Shaman power
be a buffed Fireblast. Don’t really know how much that’s going to help out the
Shaman especially with all the support Totem is getting this expansion, so I think
it’s going to be one of those things we’ll have to wait and see.
·
Fist of Jaraxxus [Warlock]: This card costs four mana, and
you deal four damage to a random enemy if you play or discard it. If you play
it? Definitely a shitty usage of mana, since four mana can net you so much
more. But if you discard it, and there are a fair amount of Warlock cards that
can discard cards – Succubus, Doom Guard, Soulfire on top of my head– but how
reliably you can get them to discard this card is kind of inconsistent and you’re
going to spend most of your time with this card sitting in your hand when it
could be a four-mana minion or something to help maintain board control, so as
fun as it is to help counteract the Warlock’s discard-your-cards effect, it’s
still pretty m’eh in my opinion.
·
Dreadsteed [Warlock]: The Dreadsteed is a four-drop
minion… with the Deathrattle of summoning another Dreadsteed upon death, which
has the same effect. For a four-drop and a potentially gamebreaking
Deathrattle, the Dreadsteed has a measly stat distribution of 1/1, which is…
unimpressive, to say the least. Sure, the Dreadsteed’s stats aren’t anywhere as
holy shit inducing as fellow ‘regenerators’ Anub’arak or Malorne, but unlike
things like Harvest Golem or Haunted Creeper or Piloted Shredder, the
Dreadsteed doesn’t just summon a minion or two upon death – basically unless
the Dreadsteed is silenced or hard-removed by the likes of Hex, there is no
reliable way to remove this 1/1 thorn in your field. This makes Dreadsteed a
perfect target for Warlock spells like Sacrifical Pact or Power Overwhelming,
since you get all the benefits without really losing a minion. Buffing the
Dreadsteed with all the Demon-buffing spells that Warlock has is also a great
option. On its own it might be relatively underwhelming for a four-drop since
it can’t reliable take out most things, but it’s definitely going to be a
presence in the field. Coupled with Baron Rivendare, the Dreadsteed’s
Deathrattle will activate twice. It’s a good thing that the Warsong Commander
and Dreadsteed cannot meet (save for some insane Unstable Portal hijinks)
otherwise, well, you can just infinite-loop a Charging Dreadsteed to victory.
·
Alexstrasza’s Champion [Warrior]:
Finally we get some
Warrior cards that are decent and not just dud spells. Though Alexstrasza’s
Champion is still kind of… eh. Two mana for 2/3 isn’t really exciting
considering the other options for the two-mana drop, but if you’re holding a
dragon, Alexstrasza’s Champion becomes a 3/3 with Charge… which is insane value for two mana. I don’t
really think there are many Dragon decks out there, and you’re really going to
need to tailor your deck to be dragon-oriented to make good use of Alexstrasza’s
Champion and considering how most Warrior decks center on things like Grim
Patron and Frothing Berserker, I don’t see Warrior Dragon making a sudden
return unless they add more Dragon support cards in this expansion.
·
Sea Reaver [Warrior]: It’s like Flame Leviathan… but
without being shit. Sea Reaver is a six drop 6/7, which is basically
Boulderfist Ogre. But when you draw Sea Reaver, it deals one damage to YOUR
minions only, as the card reminds you in capital letters. It’s not as punishing
as the Flame Leviathan’s “deal two damage to all characters when drawn” which
has the potential to kill off your own minions. The Sea Reaver is basically a
free whirlwind to trigger all your Grim Patrons and Enrage minions, while
having the best stat distribution for his mana cost. Except, well, you don’t
really want to trigger Whirlwind on your minions all the time, so it remains to be seen if Sea Reaver can find a
spot in all those Patron decks. Not as bad and unpredictable as Flame Leviathan,
since Warriors make use of damaging their own minions far more than Mages do,
but it’s still situational.
·
Varian Wrynn [Warrior]: We close this post with Varian
Wrynn, King of Stormwind and leader of the Alliance. It’ll take too much to
talk about Varian’s history, so let’s just save it for a future post and get
right on cracking down this card. Varian is a whooping ten-mana drop for 7/7…
which is like Rhonin, and not really that impressive stat-wise. But Varian
allows you to draw three cards, which is an awesome Battlecry even if Varian is
just an eight-drop with 7/7, but he’s a ten drop so he gets even more effects. Which
is, if you have minions in the cards you draw, it’s automatically summoned. So potentially you can get things like Grom
Hellscream and Icehowls and Alexstrasza and all those big-cost Legendaries to
the field… or you could just draw three spell cards. Which isn’t that bad,
really, and even if you free-summon at least one four-mana drop minion you’re already getting great value out of
Varian. Definitely a card that is a lot better than it seems on the surface,
especially for Control Warrior decks.
No comments:
Post a Comment