Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to third installment of my Arena reviews for the upcoming expansion Journey to Un’Goro. Just as before the cards are going to be rated and put into these categories: Terrible, Bad, Below average, Average, Above average, Good, Amazing. Almost all of the cards revealed in this installment are going to be from the big card reveal stream on March 31st. Without further ado let’s jump into Un’Goro and see what it has to offer for the Arena.
Card reviews
Tyrantus is a big pile of stats that is hard to get removed. In Arena a big pile of stats that is hard to remove is great. Tyrantus is best when you are either ahead on board or if the board state doesn’t favor anyone. If you’re behind on board Tyrantus will get killed by minions, which is the only reliable way to clear it since it can’t be targeted by spells. If you’re ahead most of the time you will be able to either hit the opponent in the face a lot or generate tons of card advantage from Tyrantus. The biggest problem with Tyrantus is that it costs 10 mana which means it is going to be a dead card in your hand a handful of times. Either way it is a great late game card and Tyrantus is going to be a great finisher to close out the game.
Rating: Good
Since adapt is worth 1 mana, Ravasaur Runt basically gives 1 mana worth of value if you control 2 minions. The single biggest problem with Ravasaur Runt is that it’s very bad in the early game as 2/2 with no effect is garbage in the early game. If Ravasaur is bad in the early game, what is the point of picking it. In the late game Ravasaur isn’t good either since it becomes just a 3 drop if you control 2 minions which is not good as in the late game mana is usually least of your worries. In the midgame it can be hard to find time to play Ravasaur Runt or you will have difficulties having 2 minions stick on the board. Overall this card just doesn’t have a purpose since it isn’t good in any stages of the game.
Rating: Bad
The card is meant for constructed and in Arena it’s not going to be of much use. The stats are bad for a 4 drop and most of the time you won’t benefit from the effect since deathrattles aren’t that common in Arena. On top of that you’d want to play both Umbra and deathrattle minion on the same turn since if you play Umbra alone and try to set up a deathrattle for the next turn it won’t work since the opponent will target Umbra instantly and since it has poor stats it will die easily.
Rating: Bad
Direhorn Hatchling shuffles a direhorn-matriarch in your deck when it dies. As we’ve seen previously with cards like elise-starseeker, cards that shuffle better cards aren’t great in Arena. This is because it is very random if you are going to draw the shuffled card since you could draw it the very next turn or it could be sitting at the bottom of your deck for the entire game. For this when evaluating cards like these we need to make sure that the minion that shuffles a card into your deck is a good play by itself. And in this case Direhorn Hatchling has same stats as fen-creeper which is average in Arena. The Matriarch which gets shuffled into your deck is insanely good. It is better than bog-creeper which is one of the best neutral commons in Arena. Because the body of Hatchling is average and Matriach is just insane, Direhorn Hatchling is going to be a pretty good card in Arena.
Rating: Good
I am a big fan of poisonous because it has so much potential. Giant Wasp is a way better version of emperor-cobra since having stealth is way better than +1 health. Emperor Cobra in Arena is good already and Giant Wasp is going to be insane. Against classes that don’t much AoE like Druid Giant Wasp is going to be bonkers. Against classes like these you can keep a stealthed Giant Wasp on the board and just wait for it to kill a 6 drop or something even bigger without getting punished. Against AoE heavy classes like Warlock or Mage you will want to use Wasp a lot more aggressively since it could get removed by board clears and you’d lose out on a lot of value. Nonetheless Giant Wasp will almost always guarantee a lot of tempo for you if you sue it correctly and I’m really excited about this card.
Rating: Amazing
Jeweled Macaw’s body isn’t the best, however it is good because it replaces itself with a random beast. The good thing about Jeweled Macaw is that it gives you something to do on turn 1 which is usually pass for Hunters in Arena. Getting a 1/1 body on turn 1 doesn’t seem like much, however it is very valuable. It does have some good synergies too since it is a beast. For example Jeweled Macaw into crackling-razormaw is an insane early game play. Jeweled Macaw is a bit similar to swashburglar. Unlike Swashburglar which can give dead cards, Macaw will give you beasts which has synergy with hunter and his class cards.
Rating: Good
In Arena Dinomancy is going to be too situational to be good. Sure Hunters have a lot of beast, however there will be turns, especially in the late game, when you won’t have any beasts in your hand and will regret giving up that steady-shot. Because it is very hard to draft a beast Hunter in Arena which would have enough beasts for Dinomancy to be good, it is going to be terrible in Arena.
Rating: Terrible
Stonehill Defender combines i-know-a-guy with silverback-patriarch. Do note that it is a lot better to discover a taunt minion in Warrior since they have plenty of good taunt minions as opposed to other classes. In Warrior I Know a Guy is above average, which means in other classes it’s going to be either average or below average. Silver Patriarch is just a bad card in Arena which dies to pretty much for free to anything without having an impact. So all in all Stonehill Defender combines a below average card with a bad card which doesn’t make an impact.
Rating: Bad
powershot is amazing in Arena and Grievous Bite is a weaker version of Powesrshot. Grievous Bite does 2 less damage overall in exchange for 1 mana. That’s not the main reason why Grievous Bite isn’t as good as Powershot. In Arena 2 health is a lot more common than 1, especially with 3/2 minions which are quite common nowadays. 1 health minions die very easily to hero powers and because of that people avoid drafting them. Often times you will use Grievous Bite as an arcane-shot which isn’t anything terrible. Overall the card is quite flexible since it costs so little, however the 1 damage to adjacent minions won’t have a big impact since there are so few 1 health minions in Arena.
Rating: Above average
Ornery Direhorn is your average adapt minion. It has 5/5 body with taunt which is worth 5 mana then on top of that it has adapt which is worth 1 mana. Because it already has taunt there are a few adaptations that are going to be quite bad such as windfury or stealth. There are only a few adaptations which are good with Ornery and if they don’t get offered Ornery is going to be quite bad. Because of that it’s going to be below average.
Rating: Below average
With Stampede you want to build your deck around it which isn’t possible in Arena. To get any value from it you need to play Stampede with at least 2 beasts in one turn which is hardly feasible. The amount of times Stampede is going to be a dead card in your hand will heavily outweigh the good times where you will get 2 or 3 random beasts added to your hand. Stampede is just not meant for constructed.
Rating: Bad
Stubborn Gastropod is great in all stages of the game. Because it has 2 health it won’t get removed as easily as pit-snake. In early game it could die to 1 drops because of the low stats, however the advantages of having Stubborn Gastropod in the mid and late game outweigh the bad early game potential. If the opponent doesn’t have 2 damage from hand Stubborn Gastropod might be able to kill big threats from opponent for only 2 mana. Because it only has 1 attack Gastropod isn’t a threat by himself so opponent may opt to just ignore the board and choose to kill it over 2 turns with hero power whilst playing card draw or something similar. Overall weak in early game, however very strong in the mid and late game.
Rating: Above average
I like to compare Primordial Drake to corrupted-seer which is a bit above average in Arena. Corrupted Seer has a body of a 2 drop so the effect is costed at 4 mana. Primordial Drake on the other hand has a body of a 6 drop so the effect costs only 2 mana. Compared to Corrupted Seer the deal 2 damage to all other minions costs twice as little for Primodial Drake than Corrupted Seer. Even though Primordial Drake comes out 2 turns later it is insanely strong. If the 2 damage AoE doesn’t kill everything, opponent’s board will still be weakened. This allows Primordial Drake to finish off the enemy’s board by himself. Because he has taunt the opponent’s won’t have any other options other than sending his board in or playing a hard removal. If the opponent sends all of his board into Primordial Drake, it’s like Primordial did 6 damage AoE to opponent’s board. Overall the card is going to be insanely strong.
Rating: Amazing
Stated Threshadon has the body worth around 6 mana. The three murlocs it summons are worth around 2 mana. From the stats alone it may seem that Sated Threshadon is quite good. However Sated Threshadon is just worse than captured-jormungar which isn’t good in Arena. Past turn 6 1/1 minions don’t do much at all. The murlocs are going to die easily without making an impact on the board. You’d much rather have the extra 2 health from Jormungar rather than three 1/1 murlocs.
Rating: Below average
5/11 taunt for 7 mana seems crazy, however Tar Lord isn’t as good as it seems. Compared to captured-jormungar Tar Lord has taunt and +2 health in exchange for being 1/11 on your turn. The biggest problem with Tar Lord is that it isn’t a big threat to your opponent since you can only do 1 damage to opponent’s face on your turn. bog-creeper if left unchecked will kill the opponent in 5 turns, unlike Tar Lord. Compared to Bog Creeper, Tar Lord only has 2 more stats which isn’t worth it to justify it being a 1/11 on your turn. Overall the card isn’t a big threat and the opponent can choose when to clear it.
Rating: Average
Charged Devilsaur is insane in Arena. 8 mana 7/7 charge is complete bonkers and the only downside is that it can’t attack heroes on the turn it’s played. With Charged Devilsaur you get initiative and you can deal 7 damage from hand to minions which is great in the late game. If you don’t have anything to attack Charged Devilsaur is still a 7/7 which is a big threat to opponent nonetheless since it will be able to attack face next turn. Paying 1 mana for charge compared to war-golem is a great deal.
Rating: Good
It feels like Binding Heal is just too much healing. Most of the time restoring 2 health from the hero power is enough to keep your minions alive and it doesn’t cost a card. In Arena decks aren’t as aggressive and as a Priest you surely don’t need to heal your hero because you have your hero power for that. Restoring 5 health seems too much since most of the mid game threats you put out will have 5 health. Only in the late game you are going to put out huge minions with a lot of health. Until that binding heal will be sitting in your hand as a dead card. It’s just too situational to use.
Rating: Bad
Right away the biggest problem with Elder Longneck is that it has 1 health. If you don’t have a minion with 5 or more attack in hand, Elder Longneck is going to be the same as magma-rager which is very bad. If you do get to adapt you are going to want to get +3 health, +1/+1, stealth or can’t be targeted by spells or hero power adaptations. If you get anything besides these, Longneck is going to die very easily since it only has 1 health. Having a 5/1 taunt or 8/1 against Mage’s hero power is just bad. So to sum up Elder Longneck is garbage if you don’t get to adapt. Then if you do you there is still a chance you won’t get what you want and Longneck will die.
Rating: Below average
Legendaries have a very slim chance of being offered during the draft. With Free From Amber you have an equal chance of getting all rarities. Besides most legendaries are powerful end game drops. There is a problem that battlecries don’t activate from Free From Amber so cards like cthun become worse. The good thing is that since you’re discovering you can simply avoid these battlecry cards and instead pick stronger ones. The ability to discover your late game threat is insanely powerful as you can pick the best one fitting your current board state. Also Free From Amber lets you summon 10 mana drops for 8 mana. All of these good qualities make the card insanely powerful. The only downside is that it costs 8 so it may be a dead card early on, however the effect is so strong that it’s worth it for sure.
Rating: Amazing
Radiant Elemental is exactly what Priest needed in Arena. Right now Priest is struggling in Arena since they lack strong early game. Because of that Radiant Elemental is going to be extremely good for Priests. First of all it’s a common 2/3 for 2 mana. This alone makes the card good for Priests since they will have more early game. On top of that the ability is very strong in all stages of the game. Radiant is not only good in early game, but also in mid game and late game. It helps bring strong late game spells like free-from-amber or mind-control earlier. On top of all this it has elemental tag too for extra synergy. Overall the card is crazy good for Arena and exactly what Priests needed.
Rating: Amazing
Let’s look at the stats first. Lyra has 3/5 stats which are of a 4 drop. That means if you don’t trigger the effect the card is bad. It is going to be hard to generate value from Lyra unless you have very cheap spells like power-word-shield. If you don’t you will have to set up Lyra a turn beforehand. The problem with this is that it doesn’t have very strong stats which means often times Lyra will die without gaining you any value. Besides Priest does have some bad spells like silence or purify. 5 mana makes it very clunky to use and most of the time Lyra will simply be a overcosted 3/5.
Rating: Below average
Giant Anaconda is incredibly slow card. You spend 7 mana playing it. Then your opponent can ignore it and go face. On your turn you trade it in and summon the big minion. Next turn opponent ignores it and goes face with everything again while ignoring your big drop. Then sure you got a big threat out, however you are going to be almost dead. Besides you can’t guarantee you are going to have a minion with 5+ attack in your hand when Giant Anaconda is on the board. In Arena huge minions aren’t that common and that makes Giant Anaconda a lot worse. 5/3 stats are very bad too. Anaconda can die to a 3/2. Sure then it is going to summon a big minion, but why not just summon the big threat yourself instead of paying 7 mana for a 5/3.
Rating: Bad
Tortollan Forager is going to be really good for Druid. The stats aren’t good for a 2 drop, however the battlecry makes up for it. The 2/2 Forager replaces himself with another card and that is great for early game cards because you can use them well in late game too. Forager is especially good in late game since more often than not minions with 5 or more attack are going to be big threats. Forager also has good synergy with previously reviewed Large Giant Anaconda and Elder Longneck. In the mid game Tortollan Forager isn’t that good because of the stats. Yet overall Tortollan Forager is going to be good in Druid and should help him come out of the bottom tiers.
Rating: Good
Since health doesn’t matter too much, the armor gained from Earthen Scales isn’t as important. The most important part is the +1/+1 buff for 1 mana which isn’t great. For 1 mana you’d expect a +1/+1, however this buff isn’t worth a card itself. Earthen Scales is just worse than divine-strength.
Rating: Bad
Air Elemental is good because it eliminates the reason why 2/1 minions are bad in Arena. Because Air Elemental can’t be killed by hero powers it makes the card a whole lot better. By playing Air Elemental you get yourself a disposable 2 damage whenever you want which can chip off some health from opponent. On top of that since it’s an elemental it has a lot of synergy with other Shaman cards. Overall a premium 1 drop.
Rating: Good
Volatile Elemental just seems too inconsistent to be good. Instead of playing Volatile Elemental to deal 3 damage to a random enemy minion why not just play a simple 2 mana 3/2 and then choose where you want your 3 damage to go to. The 1/1 body doesn’t feel worth the trouble that Volatile Elemental can cause. On top of that the opponent can control the odds on which minions Volatile Elemental’s deathrattle will hit. Giving the opponent initiative and allowing for him to control the odds is never a good idea and you should avoid it as much as possible.
Rating: Bad
Emerald Hive Queen has good stats, however it is way too risky to play. The chance of Hive Queen of screwing you over is too high for it to be good. On top of that it’s stats and ability conflict each other. The 2/3 stats are great for a 1 drop and give a lot of tempo but the ability discourages from playing minions and developing tempo on board. In mid game and late game the card is just awful. The only good place for this card is in the early game. Even then you can still get screwed over if opponent ignores Hive Queen and doesn’t play anything or plays minions with 2 or less attack. Overall just a terrible card overall.
Rating: Terrible
Hallucination falls along into the line of other 1 mana discover a card like journey-below or i-know-a-guy. Because it costs so little and you get to discover Hallucination is extremely flexible and that’s what makes the card good. Class cards are stronger than neutrals most of the time which makes Hallucination better than other discover a random card spells. Overall the card is really flexible and Rogue is the class where you want as much flexibility as possible.
Rating: Good
blood-warriors is a trash card in Arena. Sudden Genesis is similar to Blood Warriors. You aren’t going to combo your board with a whirlwind or ravaging-ghoul most of the time since it requires too much. First of all for Sudden Genesis to be good you need a big board. If you have it why not keep pushing the board instead of copying wounded minions? Then you need lots of mana and specific cards to combo with Sudden Genesis. If you don’t combo it and just trade minions then you will have a bunch of wounded minions vulnerable to AoE. Overall way too situational.
Rating: Terrible
Vinecleaver is straight up nuts in Arena. For 7 mana you get 6/6 worth of Silver Hand Recruits plus a 4/3 weapon. The recruits alone are worth 6 mana which means you get the weapon for 1 mana. The question is how much the weapon is worth. It is similar to assassins-blade just reversed. So all of this means you get 11 mana worth of stats for only 7 mana which is insane. The card is going to be bonkers in Arena.
Rating: Amazing
The best use for Sabretooth Stalker is in aggressive decks as a finisher. As soon as you start losing the board as the aggressor, drop Sabretoth Stalker and even if opponent kills your board you will still have 8 damage ready for him next turn. Other than that, Sabretooth doesn’t have that many uses. Clearly you won’t be trading down with it since it has only 2 health. 8 Attack is usually way more than you actually need to kill most minions. In a sense Sabretooth can be used as a hard removal that comes a turn later. Yet as I’ve mentioned the best use for Stalker is to use him in aggressive decks as a finisher once you’ve lost your board.
Rating: Average
Pterrordax Hatchling has a body of a weak 2 drop plus adapt which is worth 1 mana. Because it’s body is bad even for a 2 drop, the adapt doesn’t save him. The poor body also makes many adaptations poor such as taunt or windfury. Overall stats are worse than they should be but other than that the card is what you would expect.
Rating: Below average
3 damage is worth 2 mana. Three 1/1 minions are worth around 3 mana. If you combine them you get Feeding Time. It’s a good removal in a sense that it not only removes a minion but also helps to develop the board instantly. However 5 mana can get quite clunky and it may be as a dead card in your hand. Warlock is the class where you really want to avoid high costed spells like Feeding Time as you want to spend your mana using Life Tap as often as possible.That doesn’t change the fact that the card is still quite good for its mana cost.
Rating: Above average
Razorpetal Volley is straight up bad. To deal 2 damage you have to pay 4 mana which is absurd. As a Rogue you don’t even need 1 damage pings for 1 mana since you have your hero power for that. The card is completely useless and a waste of mana. razorpetal itself is bad since it deals only 1 damage when you have spells like arcane-shot or holy-smite in the game. Not only the Razorpetals are awful, you have to pay 2 mana to get 2 terrible cards to your hand.
Rating: Terrible
Just as I’ve mentioned before the Razorpetals are bad for their mana cost to damage ratio. Razorpetal Lasher has bad stats and adds a bad card into your hand. 2/2 stats are bad for a 2 drop and Rogue has quite a few good early game cards already so you certainly don’t need Razorpetal Lasher. The good thing is that at least it gives a body for 2 mana unlike Razorpetal Volley.
Rating: Below average
Ultrasaur has really good stats. 7 attack is enough to kill most of the minions in the late game and 14 health makes Ultrasaur very good at generating card advantage. In control decks Ultrasaur is what you ideally want in your late game. It is a huge threat with 7 attack and it’s really hard to remove Ultrasaur if your opponent doesn’t have hard removal in hand. I personally really like this card and I think it is going to shine in control decks.
Rating: Good
Closing
That’s all for this part. Overall it seems like Journey to Un’Goro is bringing a lot of good cards for the weaker classes in Arena. What do you think of these new cards? Feel free to leave your thoughts on the cards in the comments. As always thanks for reading and stay tuned for part 4!
Until next time.
