Hey everyone, I’ll be going over the 6 new cards you can expect to get in the Plague Quarter of Naxx. I will analyzing each card as well as showing where and how these cards may find their way into constructed.
Stoneskin Gargoyle
The first card we will be given is the Stoneskin Gargoyle. This card has the same stats as one of the worst cards in the game the silverback-patriarch with the only difference being that you lose taunt and gain the ability to heal yourself each turn.
The ability is almost useless since the only time you should trade with this minion is when you are going to kill it and with only 1 attack it isn’t very threatening. The only potential this card has of being played is in with the Priest, Paladin, or Druid where it can benefit by being buffed. In Priest decks this card can be used to to combo with northshire-cleric and lightwarden it can also be used in Priest decks that utilize inner-fire however these decks do not have much success in constructed.
In Paladin decks this card can be used with blessing-of-kings or sword-of-justice and used to trade with minions and help maintain board control. Lastly I feel this card does the best with Druid where mark-of-the-wild can provide taunt and help this card reach its full potential forcing minions to trade into it. Overall I think this is a slightly below average card and would have liked to see it cost 2 mana and it would have been a more playable card.
Unstable Ghoul
Next the Unstable Ghouls is a card many Warrior players are excited for. This card will be a great anti-aggro card allowing it to trade into many 1 drops then trade into a 3/2 and clear the board. The unstable ghoul will also combo great with cards commonly run in many warrior decks.acolyte-of-pain, armorsmith, amani-berserker are all great cards that synergize well with unstable ghoul and his deathrattle.
This card is also a viable replacement for abomination in Priest decks that also run wild-pyromancer as a way to board clear. Although this card may not find it’s way into many decks I feel that it will definitely shine in Warrior decks. This is a great new card and when the new warrior weapon deaths-bite is released expect to see many warrior decks when laddering and prepare to keep in mind their new ways to clear the board.
Sludge Belcher
Next up we have another strong taunt card. This card will also see some play in slower control decks. This card is essentially senjin-shieldmasta that summons a goldshire-footman when it dies. There are several decks that I think can really benefit from adding this card.
First being in Shaman decks, this card can work well with ancestral-spirit and will be a major annoyance for your opponent. This card can also synergize well with flametongue-totem and will make it that much more difficult for your opponent to deal with. Control shaman and paladin are already strong decks with the hero power to create minions, Sludge belcher is only going to make these decks stronger.
In the paladin decks it can be even more of a threat when summoned with sword-of-justice. This card will also have success slowing down miracle rogue decks not allowing for minions like leeroy-jenkins to attack the face. It’s 5 health helps it survive eviscerate and will cause the rogue to waste multiple removal spells just to eliminate this one minion.
Loatheb
The last neutral card we will receive is the legendary Loatheb. Out of all the cards being released in the plague quarter, Loatheb has the most potential to make a huge impact on the meta. The miracle rogue deck is one of the if not the strongest deck out there right now but Loatheb may be able to change that.
We all saw how after the unleash-the-hounds nerf not only was the deck less powerful but people stopped playing hunter as often because they felt it just wasn’t worth it. Playing loatheb turn 5-6 against a miracle rogue will prevent them from being able to protect their gadgetzan-auctioneer and will slow down their play similarly to how the unleash the hounds combo is now one turn late this could have a huge effect on not only miracle rogue but also freeze mage that will prevent a frostbolt ice-lance combo.
Both Trump and Reynad spoke about this card on a recent episode of Value town and stated that they felt it was as good as harrison-jones. This card may be situational but being that it is given out for free and everyone will be excited to use it there is a definite possible that we will see less miracle rogue/freeze mages in the following days. Lastly although in some match-ups this card will just a 5/5 for you it’s presence in almost every deck will cause some serious changes in the meta.
Webspinner
The first class card I will discuss is the Webspinner which when it dies allows the player to draw a random beast card. Notice the card does not say from your deck Hearthstone game designer Ben Brode has clarified that the webspinner will give you a random card out off all the beast cards not only the ones in your deck. Meaning that when this dies you can get any beast from the angry-chicken to king-krush. Although it is just a simple 1/1 this is a great minion to add to your hunter deck. After the UTH nerf the hunter lost some card draw and was slowed a turn and now Blizzard has given the hunter more card draw. This card is going to make the hunter an extremely powerful class again. Webspinner is one of the best cards coming out of the Plague Quarter and is the strongest class card we have gotten out of Naxx (until we get dark-cultist).
Duplicate
The last card we will be given is the mage class secret. When a friendly minion is killed Duplicate allows you to get two more copies of the card into your hand. The best use of this card I believe is to copy either leper-gnome or loot-hoarder allowing for some early damage or lots of card draw.
Duplicate will also be great with any cards with deathrattles such as harvest-golem, sylvanas, and cairne-bloodhoof. Although I feel this card leans towards more an aggro mage it can be used in freeze mages to produce more doomsayer and allow you clear the board more often. Although it is a bit reckless there is the possibility of using this in combination with leeroy-jenkins to produce some serious damage.
With freeze mage being the most popular mage deck being played I wouldn’t be surprised to see some more aggro mages take advantage of this secret.
Conclusion
The Plague Quarter of Naxx is giving us 6 new cards to add to our collection. Aside from stoneskin-gargoyle and perhaps duplicate these cards are very strong and you should expect to see them in many decks in the coming days. Also look out to see if loatheb can slow down miracle rogue and change the meta. If you have any comments and different opinions feel free to comment below.
