Hey everyone, the next and probably most anticipated wing of Naxxramas comes out this week, the Construct Quarter is going to be giving us 8 new cards to add to our collections.
These cards are some of the best in the entire expansion including dark-cultist, undertaker, deaths-bite, and the feugen stalagg combo.
I will be going over all these cards and discussing how they will fit in the current meta-game and if they might find their way into constructed.
Undertaker
Undertaker will be the star of new Naxxramas zoo decks that emerge after the expansion is complete. With all the new deathrattle cards we have been receiving along with those already in the game Undertaker will be a great turn one drop in deathrattle decks that are sure to emerge. Deathrattle decks will definitely be a viable option for the high ranks in ladder but similar to all zoo variations I believe it will also struggle around the rank 5 area.
Nevertheless Undertaker will be a fun card to play in combination with haunted-creeper, nerubian-egg, harvest-golem and zombie-chow will allow you to flood the board with very sticky minions that are difficult to remove and cause your opponent to choose their silences carefully.
One of the strengths of this card is its health, starting at two and being buffed immediately or the next turn will allow it to survive most one drop minions that have an attack of two. Going second with this card is going to be great by being able to coin out another card that buffs undertaker will give you a very aggressive first turn.
Zombie Chow
Zombie chow is another great card that will fit perfectly with undertaker in your deathrattle deck. Now although the deathrattle of this card gives your opponent 5 more health it will still be a great turn 1-2 card. flame-imp is a card that deals damage to you early and is one of the best cards in Zoo decks.
Both these cards are very similar they both have negative battlecry/deathrattles and Zombie Chow will be good for the same reason Flame Imp is good. Both cards have such high stats and take control of the board early. At the start of the match health doesn’t matter as much as board control. Zombie Chow will give you so much momentum and tempo that it will be well worth the 5 health to the opponent just as flame imp is worth the hero damage.
There is also the possibility that this card could find its way into priest decks that can be used for early game pressure that most priest decks lack, or as a card to combo with auchenai-soulpriest to deal damage instead of heal. The dream combo would be to combine two zombie-chow, auchenai-soulpriest and baron-rivendare with circle-of-healing to deal 20 damage to the opponent however this seems very unlikely that you would be able to pull this off and it would mean you wouldn’t get much value out of your Zombie Chows and their great stats.
Wailing Soul
Wailing soul is the weakest of the cards we are receiving this week, although we now have tons of deathrattle cards the only two other Naxxramas cards that work with Wailing soul are dancing-swords and zombie-chow.
In the current meta there aren’t many cards that you want silenced. Many current decks have already incorporated haunted-creeper and nerubian-egg and are utilizing these cards to fill the board with very sticky minions that would lose most of their value if you played wailing soul.
Right now the only way I see this card as useful is to remove effects such as humility or other debuffs your opponent can apply. With all the new great cards coming out it is hard to justify this card taking up a four mana slot in your deck. This card may be too situational to see any play in constructed, it’s stats are solid but you would probably get more value if you play senjin-shieldmasta instead. If this card silenced all minions then is might have been playable since you could stick this in some old pre-Naxx decks that didn’t run as many deathrattles and silence many your opponent’s side.
Overall this is the most underwhelming card in Naxxramas and is definitely going to be overshadowed this week by the other great cards we are receiving.
Mad Scientist
When Mad Scientist was first shown we all expected it to make the already strong freeze mage even stronger, however with the release of loatheb Mage is now almost unplayable. Priest has risen in popularity and will probably even get more use with the release of dark-cultist leaving mage as arguably the weakest class right now. This gives Mad scientist only two other possible destinations Paladin and Hunter.
In recent meta changes hunters are no longer running traps and are leaning more towards minion based decks. Mad Scientist has good stats and cost but doesn’t seem to fit in the current meta. When it comes to Hunter traps you always want to play them in the best situation and Mad scientist throwing down random traps wouldn’t be very efficient for your deck. Since we haven’t yet received the Paladin secret the best Paladin deck is control and I don’t see how Mad Scientist could change that to make people play a secret based paladin deck.
Mad Scientist has the possibility to be a very good card if mage can find its way back into the meta, but until then there aren’t enough secret cards and decks that utilize secrets to make Mad scientist as useful as he would be in a Mage deck.
Feugen and Stalagg
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Feugen and Stalagg are the new legendary cards being released this week. When both these minions die in the same match they summon the Legendary Thaddius. Thaddius one of the strongest minions in the game second only to deathwing. Both these minions are very solid when it comes to stats and cost however Feugen is the better of the two since a 4/7 for 5 mana is great value while Stalagg’s health is just too low and can be easily stopped by any minions with taunt.
These two cards are going to best fit into control decks where these big threats can shine. With the possibility for having an 11/11 minion by turn 7 this combo could be very dangerous if its able to be pulled off early. The main problem with this combo is that it may be very hard to draw into both of these cards in the same game.
I would definitely consider including these two cards into your control deck since even though it is very situational for you to actually have the chance to summon and utilize Thaddius to his full potential both these minions have some good value and will demand attention once they hit the board.
Class Cards
Warrior-Death’s Bite
The next class card we can unlock is the Warrior card Death’s Bite. This is an amazing card and is one of the best class cards in Naxxramas. This weapon deals 4 damage for 2 hits then when it is destroyed it deals 1 damage to all minions. For only 4 mana you are able to deal 8 damage and get a free whirlwind at the end. Even if this gets destroyed by acidic-swamp-ooze or harrison-jones you can still get the one damage to all minions which synergizes great with other warrior class cards.
You can also so have the last hit to activate your grommash-hellscream allowing you to deal 14 damage and could be a great finisher. This is a must have card in your warrior deck once the Construct Quarter is opened. This is a very good card that fits well with any warrior deck and although this card is great it is not the best class card we will be receiving this week.
Priest-Dark Cultist
Dark Cultist is arguably the best card we will get in the entire Naxxramas expansion. For only 3 mana a 3/4 is already great value and in addition to the deathrattle that gives one of your minions +3 health makes Dark Cultist an essential card in all priest decks. In an episode of Value town Reynad and Trump discussed this card and Reynad even stated that this card was too good and is broken.
Before Naxxramas Priest was the weakest class and with deathlord it instantly got better, recently Trump was able to take his Priest deck that included Deathlord to Legendary Rank 2. Priest has gotten stronger and now with Dark Cultist it will be one of the stronger classes out right now.
The Dark Cultist is a great card and I feel like although Priest is receiving the best card this has helped balance out the classes. Before Naxx Priest was a very weak class and didn’t have a lot of success on ladder and now with deathlord and dark-cultist Priest is finally a contender for one of the stronger decks in the meta.
Conclusion
This week when the Construct Quarter opens we are getting very strong cards and I look forward to using these cards and seeing how Naxxramas can further change the meta-game. This is the largest amount of cards we have received in a single wing and it includes some of the best cards in the entire expansion let me know in the comments what you think of these cards and the impact they will have.
