HSP reviews TGT: Savage Combatant & Clockwork Knight

View list of cards released so far in this dedicated post.

Introduction

This is the series where our contributors – high ranked ladder and Arena players – and players from Team HSP review the new revealed The Grand Tournament cards. We rate every card both in Constructed and Arena, then give you our thoughts about them. This post will be updated every time we’ll get a new review!

When it comes to the rating, we rate the cards from 1 to 5:

1 – Very Bad – The card will see no play in any kind of deck. It won’t be drafted in Arena unless you’re present with other terrible options. E.g. Magma Rager, Dalaran Mage.

2 – Bad – The card might see some occasional play in low tier or budget decks, but isn’t good enough to be played in top tier decks. It will rarely be drafted in Arena – either it needs to synergize with the deck or you need to be present with other bad options. E.g. Boulderfist Ogre, Frostwolf Warlord (Constructed), Ironforge Rifleman, Ancient Mage (Arena)

3 – Average – The card might fill some niche and see play in couple of decks. Not an especially strong card, but can be used to fill gaps in the deck after putting staple cards. In Arena, it’s the card you’re gonna draft pretty often – the card is good enough to not ruin the quality of your deck, but nothing impressive. E.g. Gnomish Inventor, Sen’jin Shieldmasta (Constructed), Bloodfen Raptor, Archmage (Arena)

4 – Good – You’re gonna see this card in a lot of decks. Either it fits into a certain archetype or is overall a good card. Your Constructed deck are mostly filled with cards of those quality. They’re strong and definitely serve their purpose. In Arena, those are the cards you actually want to see and draft – every great deck will have at least couple of those. E.g. Azure Drake, Defender of Argus, Haunted Creeper (Constructed), Harvest Golem, Mechanical Yeti, Stormwind Champion (Arena)

5 – Very Good – This is THE card that will be auto-include or at least a very strong contender. The card that is gonna be really strong and see a lot of play in many decks. Card that is often best in its role, the one that you can’t really pass. In Arena, this is the card you want to see most in the draft, the base of 12 wins Arena decks, one that you instantly pick when you see it. E.g. Dr. Boom, Mad Scientist, Piloted Shredder (Constructed), Flamestrike, Truesilver Champion, Fire Elemental (Arena)

Both of the cards were revealed on the IGN site today.

Savage Combatant

Sixis

Constructed: Average/Good (3.5)

Arena: Good (4)

This card is pretty hard to judge. The synergy with Innervate against aggressive decks is very powerful if its played on first turns. The biggest problem this card has is it line ups horribly against Piloted Shredder. If Shredder gets pushed out of the meta or Druid gets so really op beast synergy cards then this card may see play. I think is the first Inspire card that doesn’t look horribly.

Smashthings

Constructed: Average/Good (3.5)

Arena: Good/Very Good (4.5)

First thing’s first: It seems that Blizzard is (very slowly) trying to give every class a tribal deck:

• Shaman has Totems and Murlocs,

• Warlock has Demons,

• Priest, Mage, Paladin has Dragons,

• Rogue has Pirates,

• Hunter and Druid have beasts,

• And everyone has Mechs

And so, I think the fact that this new card is a Beast may actually be relevant (in this set, or the next). I mean, just what the next card we see spoiled is something like ‘Kill Command’ for Druid?

As for the card itself, well I think it is pretty good. In fact, I think my 3.5 constructed rating maybe on the low side.

If you Hero Power on the same turn as playing this guy we can we get to deal 3 damage, which makes the card somewhat comparable to Shaman’s Fire Elemental or the Neutral Blackwing Corruptor. Both of which are considered strong cards and see competitive play.

With that said, of course it’s true that with this beast your hero has to take damage and you can’t damage through taunt (these being two problems that Fire Elemental does not have). But I guess (very much unlike Fire Elemental) if It survives you can do it all again next turn.

The only thing, I think holding this card back is its stats; the most common 4-drop right now is Piloted Shredder, and as 5/4 this card is very vulnerable to it.

In short, it is decent because it is a Fire Elemental for Druid, and moreover Beast synergy may push this over the edge. On the downside though, its stat distribution makes this vulnerable to some of the more popular 4-drops in the format.

Stonekeep

Constructed: Good (4)

Arena: Good (4)

An interesting card! And a pretty strong one, that is. While it’s in play, it changes your Hero Power to 3 attack. Obviously, there is a huge difference between 1 and 3 attack. 3 attack allows you to kill most of the 2-drops and many 3-drops in one hit as early as turn 5 if this one survives. The 5/4 stats pass the vanilla test. The only problem is that it’s 5/4, not 4/5, but I guess it would be too strong then. 4 damage is much easier to deal. It’s gonna be a little bad when let’s say enemy coins out Piloted Shredder before you can play this. But if it’s the other way around – you coin it out and enemy follows with Shredder, you can take the first body just with your Hero Power. I’m not sure whether this one will suit the standard Midrange Druid, because playing on curve is really important and missing a 5-drop is not something you can do. On the other hand, it’s also nice thing to drop in the later turns, along with your Hero Power. On turn 6 you can use it + Hero Power something for 3 damage. I don’t think it’s gonna be a staple card, but will definitely be used. Also, I’m pretty sure some people will experiment with Beast Druid – they did before, but it didn’t work yet. Maybe with some new Beasts it will be better?

In arena, it’s a Lost Tallstrider with a bonus, which is really fine. The bonus is strong, obviously, so once you gain board Control with this guy on the board it’s gonna gain you a lot of value. Pretty solid late game top deck – there are situations where enemy is dropping 2 or 3 small drops back to back and this guy preys on such situations. I would give it 5, but the 4 health is a lot worse than 5 in Arena. 4 health lines perfectly with popular removals like Flamecannon, Frostbolt + Ping or let’s say Truesilver Champion. Still a solid Arena card.

Lucky

Constructed: Bad (2), potentially more

Arena: Good (4)

Currently this card looks pretty weak since it dies too easily to weapons (Death’s Bite, Truesilver Champion) or common minions (Piloted Shredder).

However, after seeing this card we can easily wait for more beast synergy in Druid being released, which could increase its use.

WindUpRabbit

Constructed: Average (3)

Arena: Good/Very Good (4.5)

In Constructed: It’s a Hunter buff, I think we’ll be seeing Hunters getting more use of it than Druids will and for them it’ll be HUGE since it’s an excellent card to get as it basically buffs your hero power by 2.

Druids though, I can’t see this doing much in the games current state. It’s just way too average to be played and if it would be played it would be a weird Beast Druid deck which right now does NOT have the support to be played. This can of course change very quickly with over 100 more cards to be revealed, but in its current state I’m saying meh to this card.

In Arena: Man, this card gives so much value it almost needs to be dealt with immediately or it’ll give way too much value. I love it, if it was a 4/5 it would be way too good, but right now I’m saying that it will be picked when available due to the sheer amount of board control it brings if not dealt with.

Camzeee

Constructed: Average (3)

Arena: Good (4)

This card is pretty decent but not great. Blizzard seems intent on making some real beast synergy for Druid. This appears as a card that could be great in the right archetype, but the synergy just isn’t there yet.

Look at the Hunter class for beast synergy. They have a spell that does 5 damage for 3 mana with a beast (Kill Command), a card that gives +2/+2 to a beast (Houndmaster) and a card that basically starts and feeds all these synergies (Unleash the Hounds). Druid meanwhile basically has one real synergy card and it’s Druid of the Fang. This does not entice a Druid player to drop everything and build a deck around beast synergy.

With that said, would you play Savage Combatant in a non-beast deck? My answer is no. It’s a 4 mana 5/4 which is okay but not amazing. The only other 4 mana 5/4 I can think of that sees play is Goblin Blastmage. That card is in a similar vein – a tribal synergy card – but the difference is, you get an extremely powerful effect with its Battlecry versus this one whose effect is non-synergistic.

I am going to be generous though and give this one ‘average’ as opposed to ‘bad’ because of the potential synergies it might have with the yet to be released new cards. Giving +2 attack to a hero power is tremendous value and if there’s a way you can activate it often and for cheap, this card could see play.

In Arena, this card is very good. Not only does it provide a very decent sized body that trades well, its effect is usable much more often due to the comparative lack of removal. It allows Druids to snowball a game and that’s something they can’t often do. This could be a “great” card in arena, but without being able to take other Inspire based cards, it can often be a sitting 4 mana 5/4 which is merely average.

Clockwork Knight

Sixis

Constructed: Average/Good (3.5)

Arena: Average/Good (3.5)

This card looks like a solid include in the not hyper-aggresive Mech decks since that mana slot was not really represented. The stats are good enough for a 5-drop plus the effect is definitely good. This card is pretty good but not particularly OP. In Arena, the card is good but finding the synergy can be problematic.

Smashthings

Constructed: Average (3), Bad (1) for Priest

Arena: Average (3)

A 5 mana 5/5 with a situational upside. Obviously this card won’t see play outside of Mech decks but in Mech decks I suspect that this maybe playable. But that is mostly due to the fact that this card doesn’t have too much competition in the 5 slot (Antique Healbot does not fit tempo/aggro Mech decks and not everyone likes to run Fel Reaver).

All in all, it’s a nice simple card with a decent effect. But with this said I rated this guy as a 1 for Priest because I think Upgraded Repair Bot is just better and I don’t think Priest would want to run both. So just to be clear; it gets a 1 for priest not because the sucks, but it gets a 1 from me because Priest has better options already. With that said, it would be more accurate to say that the card is ‘obsolete’ in Priest, rather that calling it ‘beyond terrible’.

In Arena, the simple fact it is a 5/5 for makes it playable. If you happen to have enough Mechs to reliably trigger the ability then you have a nice little pick; not great, but decent.

Stonekeep

Constructed: Average/Good (3.5)

Arena: Average/Good (3.5)

This card screams AVERAGE! Or maybe rather slightly above average. And it’s not a bad thing, obviously. The 5/5 stats for 5 mana are fine, the bonus effect is really small, but it’s a bonus nonetheless. I guess there is a gap in 5-drop Mech spot, all other lesser mana slots have a generic, Common Mech (Clockwork Gnome, Mechwarper, Spider Tank, Mechanical Yeti) – there is no 5-drop like that, the only non-class 5-drop Mech is Fel Reaver, which obviously is suited for the aggressive decks. And Blizzard is trying to push more Commons into higher mana slots, which isn’t bad, especially for new players. Clockwork Knight fits into slower Mech decks. Will it be used? It’s hard to tell, maybe if a new Mech Deck that really needs a 5-drop will show, why not. Right now the only slower Mech Deck around is Mech Priest, which already has superior 5-drop – Upgraded Repair Bot. Maybe in Mech Mage, I can see Mage passing Azure Drake to put him in. It’s more of a filler card – it’s not great, but good enough to put it into your Mech deck.

In Arena, it’s also slightly above average just for the 5/5 stats. Obviously there are better 5-drop choices, but I wouldn’t cry when this one shows up. Also, Mechs are quite popular tribal in Arena, because most of them are pretty good by themselves, so getting the Battlecry to work isn’t that hard. Turn 4 Mechanical Yeti into turn 5 Clockwork Knight can be a possible scenario. In Arena I’d classify it somewhere between Spiteful Smith and Stranglethorn Tiger – definitely not bad, but not great.

Lucky

Constructed: Bad (2)

Arena: Bad (2)

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