Blackrock Mountain Card Review – Neutral Cards

Introduction

ITS HAPPENING!!!!

Hello everyone, by now you’re all aware of the Blackrock Mountain (which we’ll be calling BRM) latest card spoiler. Which, by the way, is the last. Now the whole Adventure Mode has been released, and we’re just waiting for the release data (which is also very close).

For those who are not aware, here’s a very quick explanation:

• Blackrock Mountain is Hearthstone’s Newest Adventure mode.
• It brings 31 Unique cards to the game that will only be obtainable via playing the Adventure Mode itself.
• The Adventure mode follows Naxxramas’ business mode: 700g or Real money per “Wing”. Only this time there will be no “free” wing during the launch event.

With all that clarified, this is my review of all the spoiled cards. Keep in mind the information posted here is not the ultimate truth, but rather my initial opinion on cards that have not been played yet, therefore all information included in this review is simply my personal.

I found it was funny how the spoilers were made, they started by showing us the bad cards together with some nice new mechanisms and kept the best for the end, so we were all like “meh, meh, this is ok, meh, maybe this is good, meh, meh, awww disappointed with Nefarian, WOW HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO GOOD!!!”. I guess it was the right choice, given how hyped I am right now to start playing with the new cards.

We are also aware that the cards wont be released all at once, and we will rather have to start playing with a couple of cards each week and we have no idea which cards go in each Wing at this point.

NOW, ENOUGH WITH THE CHITCHAT, LETS START THIS REVIEW!!

The Review!

To make this review easier, I decided it would be nice to separate the cards in groups. Similar cards will be reviewed together, making the understanding better for each and every one of them.

The Legends

Image URL: http://i.imgur.com/gI1vZSK.png

Majordomo Executus: This card looks so fun. Unfortunately, its apparently nothing more than just that: fun. Becoming ragnaros-the-firelord is amazing, and the Hero Power’s flavor is just crazy, but changing your life total to 8 is just too risky to be any good. This card could even be used when you’re ahead and lose you the game. If you’re looking for competitive play, stay away from this card. Actually, not only that: If you want to win games, stay away from this!

Nefarian: A few days back I was asked about this card, and the response was: “I dislike this card, it is at best a worst ysera. The only case I see this seeing play is if you want to run two Yseras in your deck, which is very unlikely to happen since Ysera barely sees play as a 1-of.”. Well, guess what? There are a few cards that allows us to do such a thing now. The reason I believe this is worst than Ysera is that usually two Random spells will be a lot worse than a Nightmare card (let alone two or more nightmare cards, that will straight up win you the game), and then the 8/8 body is significantly worse than Ysera’s 4/12. Regardless of that, a draw engine is a draw engine, doesn’t matter if it’s a worse thoughtsteal. Because of the addition of other cards such as Emperor Thaurissan and Dragon Consort Nefarian may come to be a playable card in a few greedy Late game Control decks.

Chromaggus: Well, I like this guy. It’s not something that will be played very often, but just like Ysera it will win you the game if left unchecked, and the 6/8 body is a very significant board presence, which makes it so if this guy gets silenced, you are still in a very strong board position. The ability is one of the greediest in the entire game, but I could see this guy being run in decks if the metagame goes Control heavy.

Rend Blackhand: Errrr…. I still don’t know what to make of this guy. The ability is obviously relevant, but it just seems greedier than Chromaggus himself which is already very greedy. In this guy’s case, it’s not only just Greedy: it also has very little Health. Which means this will trade for most 4 drops in the game. Generating value out of this can be good, but we are still not sure yet how many times this will happen. This is one of the very few cards that I simply can not evaluate by now.

Emperor Thaurissan: BOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biggest hype I had in these spoilers. I believe this card will be staple in every single deck that has “Midrange” or “Control” written on its name. When I saw this on the stream I could not believe the power level of this card. Having the cost of all the cards in your hand reduced permanently by 1 is just too much. Keep in mind that as a Control you will always have a bunch of cards in your hand. Generating tempo out of a single card, for free, that also happens to have a decent body is just too much. Just imagine this as a 6 mana 5/5 card with a battlecry: “Add multiple innervates to your hand”.

Neutral Dragons

Image URL: http://i.imgur.com/qvO7L9I.png

Drakonid Crusher: This is….. decent. But so is every other 6-drop in the entire game. Not only that: The great majority of the 6-drop cards in the game are better than this guy, even if you manage to +3/+3 this most of the times (which you won’t, at least not on curve). This is a good card, but unfortunately worse than most of the other options in the game, therefore I predict this card will see zero play. Actually, come to think of it… I could easily run this if I were playing a Dragon deck and had limited options regarding cards (newcomers, perhaps?).

Volcanic Drake: My favorite Neutral Non-Legendary Dragon of this cycle. His ability makes it a relevant card in every deck but Control. The fact you can make a good trade early in the game and put this into play with the mana cost of 4 or less is insane. That plus a 6/4 for 6 isn’t that bad later in the game when you are in the draw wars(there are much worse things). Which makes this card either good, reasonable or insane. If you can use this guy in your deck, go ahead and do it. Another small tip: When calculating this card on the mana curve of your Midrange deck (if you’re one of these guys, like me, that likes to have a well curved deck) count this card as a 4-drop, not a 6-drop.

Dragonkin Sorcerer: Might as well rename this guy to “Priest 4-drop”. I like this, but I don’t see it having much synergy with anything else on the game but Priests. Priests already run quite a few good cards that synergize well with this guy, such as power-word-shield, light-of-the-naaru and velens-chosen. And since this guy’s body is already something nice to work Priest’s hero power with this looks like an easy inclusion to Priests. However, I am still unsure what to take away in order to put this guy in, which makes it so we still don’t know if this guy will end up seeing play or not.

Hungry Dragon: In my opinion this card is the most overrated card in the entire set. Everyone is thinking this will be good, and who wouldn’t? a 5/6 for 4 is just insane. However, you have to remember its downside is actually something pretty important. Against most aggro this card will simply be another body to be ignored that will also happen to buff his board by adding to it, and make it so you take more damage the following turn. I dislike this card, and wouldn’t suggest you playing this. If you want a good suggestion, however, spam Face Hunter on the ladder the day this gets released for possible free wins.

Other Neutral Cards

Image URL: http://i.imgur.com/GGCoDDU.png

Blackwing Corruptor and Blackwing Technician: Both these cards have something in common: They are mediocre when played with no value, but generate insane value when played with their battlecry being activated. These are the types of cards that we just can not evaluate until we see how it works out. These cards look great on paper, but it’s really hard to know how the randomness of the draws will actually affect both of these cards. However I believe that the Blackwing Corruptor has better chances of seeing play, since its not something you want to keep on your starting Hand, but you are likely to draw it until tur 10, where you will be able to get good value out of this. The problem with the Blackwing Technician is that it’s usually a card that you will want to keep on your starting hand, then you remember you don’t want to keep Dragons in your starting Hand, which makes it so the chances of getting this to be a 3/5 on turn 3 are very low. Regardless of that, a 2/4 for 3 against Aggro isn’t that bad, so that’s something *shrugs*.

Grim Patron: There will be some crazy combos with this guy, I am sure of it. However, these combos are likely to only happen once every 5 or 10 games, and the cards are doomed to clog up in your hand until that magic moment when it works. Unfortunately Grim Patron looks more like a fun card to me than a competitive one. There isnt much to say about this card, getting an army of 3/x guys out can be nice, or even playing this with warsong-commander but everything that I can think of playing with this guy just seems too unreliable and inconsistent.

Dragon Egg: A much worse version of nerubian-egg.The way you want to generate value out of this is by getting it to be damaged but not killed, like with either inner-rage or cruel-taskmaster, where the value generated is decent. However I don’t think doing so is worth the effort. If, for some god-knows-reason, you’re thinking on running this, simply use Nerubian Egg instead, even if you’re playing a Dragon themed deck!

Conclusion

BRM is just around the corner! I hope my reviews of this set are being as entertaining for you to read as it is for me to write. I am ultra hyped about this Expansion, let us just hope the clock passes faster and we are able to play the Adventure Mode as soon as possible.

Coming up next: The Class Cards!

Stay tuned for the next review, which should be going out a day after this one gets published!

Love yall, see you guys soon™

 /BudaBudie

 @TheNubaHS

 /TheNubaHS

 /TheNubaHS