Hey guys! Witchwood is still being slowly revealed but we are now more than halfway through the set which only means one thing, more previews and predictions about the upcoming meta! There are currently 71 revealed cards of the 135 card set and only 9 legendaries and 11 epics that haven’t been revealed yet. Paladin’s legendaries are still a mystery as well as both of Mage’s two epics as well as their three rares. Priest commons are still unrevealed as well but most of what hasn’t been revealed yet is still in the neutral category which means there is still a lot of the set that is up in the air. Let’s not waste any time and jump right into it!
I’ve sorted the reveals by rarity starting with the legendaries and going less rare, so if there’s a certain category you’re looking for, use the links on the right to jump to the section you want.
New Legendaries
Duskfallen Aviana
Prediction: 3/10
This card has a good body with nice health that should keep it alive but the obvious downside is that your opponent will almost always be able to abuse her mechanic more than you will. What’s worse is that you can’t use her ability right away, since she will be the first thing you cast on your turn and making whatever you want to drop for free having to come out the turn after. Your opponent will get to use her ability first and therefore probably have the upper hand. There’s a chance that she might be used in a sort of combo deck that could play her on turn 5, allow your opponent to play something that could be deadly but not end the game, and then allow you to combo off the turn after with something huge for free. It will mostly come down to any combo capability.
Splintergraft
Prediction: 4/10
This card isn’t bad since an 8 mana 8/8 is pretty deadly especially in a class that can mana ramp but right now I just can’t think of any good targets for the ability. Making a 10/10 version of a minion that costs 10 mana just seems like a waste of a turn unless you’re able to use it on something like C’thun or Rat Pack or Dispatch Kodo but none of those cards are in this set/class. It could be useful as just an extra big minion with a second battlecry/deathrattle but I don’t think that’s anything too gamechanging.
Emeriss
Prediction: 2/10
This is very counter intuitive to Hunter decks since most Hunter decks like to move quick and get damage in early since that’s mostly what your hero power is good for. By the time you’re able to cast 10 mana for this card, the 8/8 body isn’t that dangerous and doubling whatever is in your hand isn’t really that scary either. It does provide some interesting late-game capability for Hunter but I think it goes against most Hunter deckstyles and probably won’t be used.
Toki, Time-Tinker
Prediction: ??/10
I’ll be honest and admit that I’m not sure how Toki will work. It sounds like she will be able to pull any Legendary from the past which includes cards that aren’t in Standard? If that’s the case it could be a pretty interesting card but not really that powerful since it will be mostly just RNG and unpredictable. Another way of interpreting the card is that she may put a Legendary into your hand of another Legendary previously played in that same game. If this is how she works she becomes a little more powerful because you can cast early small legendaries like Bloodmage Thalnos and get another copy for later. Her mana cost and attack/health are also not a bad size so if used in that way she could be pretty good as just a big body that gives you free card advantage. I tried to do a quick search about how her mechanic works but couldn’t really find out so my prediction will have to wait until I understand her better.
Lady in White
Prediction: 4/10
While this card kind of follows the theme of the new Inner Fire combo craze, it doesn’t really work in those styles of decks because you can’t increase the health of your minions in your deck before changing their attack to their health. It also doesn’t really work as an “aggro” card because it comes out too late in the game to really make a fast impact so it really does rely on having to make your stuff huge in order to be much of a threat on Turn 7/8. What’s worse is that it only hits things in your deck so you won’t be able to even play things in your hand with the increased attack, you’ll have to immediately start drawing into the cards that are affected by her.
Chameleos
Prediction: 10/10
POWERFUL. Not only is this a great control card since it basically lets you see one of your opponent’s cards in their hand every turn, it also allows you to “steal” one of those cards by getting to play a copy as well if he turns into something that is really useful at the time like a board wipe or maybe a strong legendary like a Deathknight card. I love the fact that it’s basically a way to control the game by slowly revealing your opponent’s cards in their hand and knowing what to expect and play around, definitely a card that requires intelligence to use but can be very powerful in the right player’s hand. If there is any sort of control Priest deck I don’t see why they wouldn’t use this card.
Darius Crowley
Prediction: 6/10
This card is pretty good since it basically has the ability to come into play, kill something small and then become a little bigger. It then puts pressure on your opponent because if they can’t deal with it using a spell or attacking into it, it can get even bigger next turn by eating more things or force your opponent to stop playing small minions in fear of making him too huge. It also combos well with things like Leeroy Jenkins who can give your opponent small minions for you to eat as well. Very good anti-aggro card that is kind of aggro itself.
Blackhowl Gunspire
Prediction: 5/10
The only thing I don’t like about this card is the high mana cost but everything else seems really fun for one of Warrior’s main deckstyles, the Whirlwind effect. The only problem is that I feel most decks will be able to kill this card without having to really attack into it or deal too much damage so I feel like at most it’s only going to do 3 or 6 damage to a random target but played at the right moment with the right combo cards like Blood Razor, it could be deadly.
Dollmaster Dorian
Prediction: 5/10
This card actually has a great mana cost and health for a card that needs to survive but having to draw cards in order to get the effect means it’s mostly going to rely on RNG in order to be effective. You can combo it with things like Elven Minstrel in order to guarantee copies of minions into play but there’s nothing that you really want to combo with right now that will guarantee a game win, like a crazy Deathrattle effect. There is combo potential but this card just has too much RNG to really be reliable as a powerful gamechanging card.
New Epics
Toxmonger
Prediction: 4/10
Giving small minions Poison isn’t really that deadly when it comes to having a threat against your opponent but it does provide a good source of creature kill in a deck that usually has small quick minions. It’s nothing that puts pressure on your opponent though since most 1-mana minions are easy to deal with.
Rat Trap
Prediction: 3/10
The problem with this card is that it doesn’t share a trigger with another Hunter trap and also doesn’t have an “opposite” effect on another Hunter trap such as “At the end of your opponent’s turn if they played less than 3 cards, summon an X/X minion” because then that would force your opponent to have to play around both, like when a Mage has Mirror Entity and Explosive Runes, it’s hard to play around since you want to play something with big health to avoid the damage but also want to play something small so you don’t give them a copy of something big. It’s too easy to play around this secret since all anyone has to do against a Hunter deck is only play 2 cards a turn.
Cathedral Gargoyle
Prediction: 8/10
I think this is a powerful card only because it’s pretty easy to have a Dragon focused deck and activate this ability, almost always making it a 2/2 Divine Shield Taunt for 2 mana which is pretty strong. The only issue is that it doesn’t follow the normal Dragon rules by being a Dragon itself, so fitting into a Dragon deck might be tough especially if this expansion keeps up this whole Dragon-activated non-Dragon card theme.
Spectral Cutlass
Prediction: 5/10
This weapon costs a little much to really be super deadly but the Lifesteal on it makes it pretty strong since it gives Rogue a little more survivability while also having potential to really stick around and deal a lot of damage while gaining a lot of life as a control style card if you have lots of cards that steal cards from your opponent and can continuously pump this card up.
Bogshaper
Prediction: 4/10
I think this card costs a little too much to be super effective but it does have the potential to be in heavy spell-focused deck that uses the spells to pull the few big end-game minions to finish the game off. Right now there isn’t a strong spell-heavy Shaman deck so I don’t think it’ll be used but there are a lot of cards in this expansion going in that direction so it could be a possibility.
Deathweb Spider
Prediction: 6/10
Originally I thought this card was great but there isn’t really a lot of things that deal damage to you for free on your turn so it will be hard to get it out really fast to be effective. However, even as a 7-mana minion that you play after using your hero power, it has really good health to survive most big removal spells and board wipes, and if its able to even give you 4 life back for one turn that makes a huge difference for a Warlock. I think it has potential because of the Lifesteal while also being a decent 4/6 for 5 mana that can handle aggro decks.
Deadly Arsenal
Prediction: 4/10
This is a card that I think will work a lot like Brawl if its even used in a type of control deck that puts one or two big weapons in your deck that you use with this card as a board wipe. Something like Gorehowl would work well dealing 7 damage to everything for 6 mana, being sort of like a Dragonfire for Warriors. It also has the ability to combo with the Whirlwind theme cards but for 6 mana it just seems a bit much for that so I think it will just be used as board wipe, if even for that. The mana cost is rough and having to make sure your weapon is still in your deck when it goes off is all RNG and hard to ensure.
Witch’s Cauldron
Prediction: 9/10
The only reason I’m rating this card so high is because I see good potential in early game aggro decks. This card will usually die pretty fast because it has 0 attack but on the right turn, you could play it and then swing in 3-4 small minions and trade with their field, making it so it’s hard for your opponent to kill it next turn unless they have a spell to do it and at the same time, filling your hand up with Shaman spells which can be pretty deadly with things like Lightning Bolt. Being Neutral makes it even stronger since it can go into decks like Murloc Paladin which already does a good job of trading with your opponent using small minions and refilling your hand with direct damage potential.
Voodoo Doll
Prediction: 4/10
While this effect seems good since it’s almost like a Corruption, it doesn’t seem that reliable to get it off effectively and quickly without having to give your minions Rush which means it requires two cards to kill one thing and will costs a decent amount of mana. I think it has potential in aggro decks of some sort where you’re trying to get your minions killed like with Witch’s Cauldron above.
New Rares
Witching Hour
Prediction: 3/10
I don’t see any good potential of reviving a Beast that died earlier in the game except to maybe revive something huge late-game but there’s nothing that is super deadly to worry about being revived. Without Barnes it also doesn’t really have much combo value since the developers learned their lesson with that card so I just don’t see this being of any really big use.
Duskhaven Hunter
Prediction: 3/10
This card seems great for aggro but it has one huge problem, guaranteeing that it can come out as a 5/2 Stealth on Turn 3. If you’re going first and it’s in your opening hand, it should turn into a 5/2 Stealth on Turn 3 just fine, but if you’re going second it changes everything and needs to be drawn on your first turn in order to flip just right. Even as a 2/5 Stealth it’s not that bad considering it has good health to survive but if your deck is about being aggro it kind of goes against what you’re going for. I think it has good potential but the flip mechanism will be difficult to get right every time, making it semi-unpredictable.
Wing Blast
Prediction: 8/10
I think this will become one of Hunter’s new removal spells since it is really easy to activate by either killing off your own minion in a trade or using another spell to kill a minion and then activate this cheap ability to get another minion killed. Very easy to use and does big damage for small mana.
Silver Sword
Prediction: 6/10
This has good potential in aggro decks but has one problem, the huge mana cost. In aggro by the time you have 8 mana to even attack with this, you should already be putting your hurt on the opponent and finishing them off, not trying to make your army bigger. If the mana cost was lower it would definitely be an aggro card, maybe 6 mana or so, but for 8 I think it won’t be used in aggro.
Bellringer Sentry
Prediction: 7/10
Paladin has always had good synergy using Secrets and this card is pretty crazy. It has a decent mana cost to come out early and give you a free Secret along with a decent body size to go with the 4 mana cost, and then gives you an extra effect of another Secret when it dies. Paladin secrets are also really hard to play around so this can set up really interesting traps where your opponent can misplay and fall victim to some good Secret placements.
Holy Water
Prediction: 6/10
The mana cost on this card is a little rough but it has a great ability since you can potentially steal really useful low cost/low health minions and get them for yourself. It can also combo with your minions attacking to put a big minion into the health range to finish it with this card and then giving yourself a free copy. Has really good potential but the mana cost is the only issue since it will eat up a turn just killing one minion.
Cursed Castaway
Prediction: 5/10
This is just a decent card with a Rush ability. As I’ve mentioned before, Rush is best used with cards that want to die or can trade easily with things because you can only attack minions. I see this card as a 6-mana deal 5 damage to a minion spell that pulls a Deathrattle from your deck into your hand. When used that way, this card is pretty good, but against a board with no minions to kill this can also come out as a threatening 5 damage minion.
Mistwraith
Prediction: 5/10
While this card could get pretty big using Echo, there isn’t anything that Echoes for really cheap which means you’ll only get around 2-3 activations per turn if you’re using a strictly Echo based deck. There may be ways to cheapen Echo cards which could make this deadly since the activations also make his health bigger, making it harder to kill, but so far there isn’t anything useful to synergize with it so we will have to wait and see. This reminds me of Questing Adventurer and its potential to get huge in games.
Pick Pocket
Prediction: 8/10
This card works well with a lot of the Rogue cards that have been revealed like Mistwraith and Spectral Cutlass. Cheap Echo cost means it can be cast a lot of times in one turn, making it so that it’s a great card to topdeck on Turn 10 when you have no cards in hand because it basically turns into a 10 mana gain 5 cards effect. It really works well with the cards revealed in the rest of the set too so I’m ranking it pretty high for now.
Blood Witch
Prediction: 5/10
I wanted to rate this lower but it works really well with the Deathweb Spider revealed above that I had to rate it higher. The body size is good for this minion because it has a “downside” but honestly, a 3/6 really isn’t that threatening on Turn 4. The ability to get an activated Deathweb Spider on Turn 5 is really really good though and could make for a strong deck archetype in the upcoming meta if these types of cards keep getting revealed. I still think it will be difficult to activate the spider though because if your opponent sees this card come into play they will know to deal with it immediately.
Witchwood Grizzly
Prediction: 8/10
Wow what an insane Taunt minion. There is potential to lose a big amount of life if used against the wrong deck but I think that even something like losing 4-5 life isn’t that bad considering you’re “gaining” 12 life in the form of 12 health on a Taunt minion. Against a deck with direct removal spells like Siphon Soul it could be pretty bad but against aggro decks this is so ridiculously strong that I think it will become the tech card to put into control decks to fight against all the upcoming aggro archetypes.
Edit: Tanny Danner in the comments brought it to my attention that the loss of health happens to the minion and not yourself. This definitely lowers the power of the minion since it allows it to die to smaller spells like Fireball and can also be traded with less minions than originally thought since it won’t have the full 12 life, but can still be quite a threat against aggro decks since they will drop their hand and he will still come out with around 10 health. New prediction: 7/10 still.
Gilnean Royal Guard
Prediction: 4/10
This has okay potential as a removal effect like Argent Commander since you can wait for it to flip as an 8/3 and then Rush into one of your opponent’s minions with the Divine Shield, but the 3 health just makes it so easy to remove that it’s basically only good as a removal “spell”. Just like Argent Commander I don’t think it will be used in constructed decks but has great potential in Arena drafts.
New Commons
There are a couple new commons revealed but I only wanted to go over two of the big ones that I think will have an impact on the meta. To check out the rest of the cards I didn’t go over, head over to Reddit and check out the Hearthstone subreddit and there is a thread at the top that has the entire reveal chart if you’re curious to see what else there is.
Dire Frenzy
Prediction: 6/10
I think this card has good potential in aggressive Hunter decks because it has the potential to pump up something big and stay aggressive while also shuffling extra versions of it into your deck with the buff already on them. If Hunter has a way of drawing into cards after this effect it could be pretty deadly.
Cheap Shot
Prediction: 8/10
Another great Rogue card that fits into the new playstyle of Rogue by giving it another Echo effect to use with Mistwraith while also giving Rogue another big removal potential by allowing it to hit multiple targets a turn for 2 damage over and over. Effects that reduce mana cost can really make this card do some crazy things so I’m starting to get a little more excited for rogue after seeing how many low mana Echo costs they have.
Conclusion: Looking Better
I’m still not super impressed with this expansion so far, there isn’t really anything new and exciting to play with except for a few interesting legendaries. As I’ve said before, the Rush effect is nothing new by basically just being a weaker Charge and the Echo effect isn’t really new either, just being able to cast the same spell over and over. The game style really won’t change with this expansion so I think it’s pretty safe to make strong predictions about how card will be used since the style is mostly the same, play powerful cards on a good curve, which means I think Tempo decks will still be the strongest like Murloc Paladin.
Witchwood is expected to come out near the end of the month so I’m guessing around 3 weeks from now we will be able to play with the full expansion. Stay tuned next week as we should have another big pack of cards revealed and I will do another continuation of my predictions and previews of the set!
As always you can keep up with what I’m currently up to on my Twitter at @whoisfuskee or you can drop by and check out my live stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/whoisfuskee. I haven’t been streaming any Hearthstone lately, been mostly taking a break while waiting for the new expansion and meta to come out, so I’ve just been playing a lot of Path of Exile and messing around with that in the meantime. Once the expansion comes out I will definitely be playing a lot more and testing out all sorts of deck ideas to write about so please come by and give me a follow, I’m still working on my affiliate status so all follows and viewers are GREATLY appreciated!
I hope I see you around in my channel sometime but if anything, keep an eye out next week for Part 3 of my predictions and previews. See ya guys!
Published: Apr 6, 2018 03:37 am