Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to my 4th and final part of Knights of the Frozen Throne card reviews for Arena. As always the cards are reviewed and put into one of these categories: Terrible, Bad, Below average, Average, Above average, Good, Amazing. For this set I will not be reviewing legendary cards for reasons mentioned in part 1. Let’s take a look at the last batch of cards and see what KotFT has to offer.
Card reviews
Night Howler
The stats aren’t great for this card. 3/4 stats are worth 3 mana and they are bad if the minion costs 4 mana. The problem with Night Howler’s ability is that most likely it will only trigger once or twice at most because it only has 4 health. Even if it triggers once it’s not great as you get 5/4 stats if it triggers. At that point it’s way better to pick a simple 4 mana 5/4. Overall poor stats.
Rating: Below average
Hyldnir Frostrider
It’s no doubt that 4/4 stats are amazing for a 3 mana minion. Though usually such good stats for a minion are offset by negative ability. Hyldnir is no exception. If you have other friendly minions, Hyldnir is going to freeze them. Of course this isn’t a downside if you have no minions on board. Now the question is whether the drawback is worth the extra stats. Firstly I don’t see a way to get any reliable synergy with other cards from the freeze. Secondly it doesn’t feel worth to freeze your board for extra few stats. It’s going to be hard to play Hyldnir on an empty board. Thirdly it’s a dead card if you have a decent sized board. And it’s going to be a dead card very often. Dead cards are bad. Therefore Hyldnir is bad too.
Rating: Bad
Avalanche
First comparison that comes to mind is with cone-of-cold. Only instead of freezing all 3 minions, Avalanche damages 2 of them by 3. Most of the time it’s better to freeze a minion instead of dealing 2 extra damage to it. Also if you add up you get 6 damage for 4 mana which isn’t great considering the card is so situational. Basically a slightly worse version of Cone of Cold which is already quite a bad card in Arena. Also it is going to be very hard to line up the damage properly.
Rating: Bad
Furnacefire Colossus
Weapons are way more valuable than stats. This means you will almost never want Furnacefire Colossus’s ability to trigger. On top of that it loses card advantage. That means the card is 6 mana 6/6.
Rating: Below average
Death Revenant
Very situational. Requires the whole deck built around it. FOr Death Revenant to be good it needs at least 3 or more minions to be damaged when it comes into play. This is going to be hard to pull of since it’s Arena we’re talking about. Of course the dream scenarios can’t happen but more often than not the card will have worse stats for its mana cost than it should.
Rating: Below average
Deadscale Knight
1 mana 1/1.
Rating: Terrible
Drain Soul
Obviously a worse version of drain-life. Drain life is bad in Arena due to its mana cost. Dealing 2 damage is usually worth 1 mana so Drain Soul is a bit overpriced in that way. But it makes up in 2 health that is restored.
Rating: Below average
Drakkari Enchanter
Stats of amgam-rager which is a terrible card in Arena currently. The effect is good but only works with a handful of cards. For Drakkari Enchanter to gain value you’d have to build your deck around it. This is hard to do in Arena and in most cases it will just be a 3 mana 1/5. Besides even if you have some synergy with it, 1/5 stats aren’t resilient and opponent will be able to remove Drakkari Enchanter quite easily. Still the card is strictly better than Am’gam Rager.
Rating: Bad
Arrogant Crusader
Base stats are 5/2 which are awful for sure. If Arrogant Crusader is killed during opponent’s turn you get extra 2/2 which brings the total stats to 7/4 which is very good for a 4 drop. The question is whether the opponent will kill your Argent Crusader. The great thing about this card is that it’s a big threat with 5 attack. Getting hit 5 damage to face a turn is no joke. Because of that opponent will be forced to make the trade sooner or later. Of course the card gets destroyed by taunts or if there are must kill minions. In those cases it’s a 5/2 for 4 mana. Needless to say, it’s a bad deal in those scenarios. But I think that the deathrattle will activate more often than not.
Rating: Above average
Dark Conviction
At first glance Dark Conviction seems very situational, however in the worst case scenario you can always use it on a 1/1 token which gives +2/+2 for 2 mana. By all means that isn’t the main use of this card. The best use for this is to make opponent’s threats small. If you use it on a 6/6 minion to turn it into 3/3, you gained 6 stats for 2 mana which is great. It also is going to help with must kill minions that can generate a lot of value if left in check as there are plenty of those in KotFT. Overall a great utility tool which will be a 2 mana +2/+2 in worst case scenario.
Rating: Good
Bloodworm
Even though it has life steal, still just a 5 mana 4/4.
Rating: Bad
Strongshell Scavenger
Way too conditional for Arena. Usually you can draft 3-4 taunts in Arena at most. Even with the 1/5 scarabs with taunt it’s not enough. For Strongshell Scavenger to be good it needs to buff at least 2 minions which is hardly feasible. Besides remember that taunts are the minions that die the fastest since your opponent is forced to attack them. If you don’t buff anything, Scavenger is only a 4 mana 2/3 which is unbelievably terrible.
Rating: Bad
Tuskarr Fisherman
A 2 mana 2/3 with a nice bonus. The spell damage is a neat addition but not enough to bring a 2 mana 2/3 from average to above average.
Rating: Average
Bone Baron
The base stats are average – 5 mana 5/5. The deathrattle is really great though. Cards which generate more cards are very powerful in Arena. Even though skeletons only have 1/1 stats, they’re very good to fill in your curve and since you got them for free from Bone Baron it’s not bad at all that they have 1/1 stats. So this is already a nice card but I’ve yet to mention that the card is for Rogue which makes it even more better. Rogues like cheap cards to activate combo effects easily. Skeleton is going to be very good when used with vilespine-slayer for example. Overall the stats, are great the deathrattle is great and the synergy with Rogue is great.
Rating: Amazing
Doomerang
Obviously Doomerang has a lot of potential. Using it when your assassins-blade has only 1 charge remaining is going to be amazing. Sadly scenarios like that won’t happen very often. That is the main problem of this card. For it to be good you actually need to have good weapons in play. Dagger from your hero power won’t suffice since there is no point in returning it to your hand and it would only deal 1 damage for 1 mana if you use Doomerang on your hero power weapon. At the end of the day it depends on how many weapons you have in your deck but I can see the potential in Doomerang even though it will be a dead card most of the time.
Rating: Average
Vryghoul
If Vryghoul dies during opponent’s turn, you get 5/3 worth of stats. That is only 1 more health than ice-rager. If you kill it during your turn you get a 3/1 which is worth 1 mana. The main problem with this card is that 3 attack isn’t a big threat. This means your opponent can simply leave Vryghoul be until it dies during your turn. Overall if the deathrattle triggers you get above average stats, if it doesn’t the stats are awful.
Rating: Bad
Exploding Bloatbat
2/1 stats are worth 1 mana. This means that ability is worth 3 mana. Surely AoE is very strong in Arena, however Exploding Bloatbat’s’ ability isn’t good because opponent can simply play around it. The opponent can simply trade his low health minions or attack face with his minions and put you at low health. Compare this card to consecration. Consecration plays immediately whilst this card has to wait entire turn for the AoE to trigger just for an extra 2/1 body which isn’t even great in Arena to begin with. At the end of the day it’s still AoE so the card isn’t terrible.
Rating: Below average
Wicked Skeleton
Very situational. Needs at least 4 minions to die to be good. Of course the ideal time to use this is after a AoE, however it’s going to be hard to fit in both Wicked Skeleton and AoE since it costs 4 mana. Without AoE this card is going to be weak since usually only 1-2 minions die each turn. In most of the cases Wicked Skeleton is going to be lower than 4/4 which makes it a bad card.
Rating: Bad
Skelemancer
Skelemancer has the same problem as Vryghoul. A 2/2 minion isn’t a threat to the opponent which means he can simply let Skelemancer live until he draws removal for the 8/8. Needless to say, if opponent kills the Skelemancer, you get 10/10 stats in total for 5 mana which is absolutely insane. On the other side of the spectrum if it dies during you turn, you get a 2/2 for 5 mana which absolutely terrible. Overall it will be a 5 mana 2/2 more often than not.
Rating: Below average
Acherus Veteran
Acherus Veteran is a bit similar to elven-archer. There are cases where Elven Archer is better and there will be cases where Acherus Veteran will be better. The great thing about both of these cards is that they do something even if they die the very next turn. This is especially important for 1 drops with 1 health as they can die very easily. Overall Avherus Veteran seems a bit better than Elven Archer as its 2/1 stats are able to trade into 3/2 minions.
Rating: Above average
Wretched Tiller
1 mana 1/1.
Rating: Terrible
Toxic Arrow
Very weird effect. You’d want to use it on a friendly minion since 2 damage is not worth 2 mana. This means you will want to use it on a friendly minion and then send it into opponent’s minion. This isn’t too bad but it’s way worse than deadly-shot. Besides you can’t use this on minions with 2 or less health since they will just die without giving poison. At 3-6 health it’s going to die almost certainly since it will take damage from the minion it attacks and on top of that from the Toxic Arrow itself. If you want to use 2 cards to kill a big minion, hunters-mark is a better option. Still there will be cases where Toxic Arrow gets value.
Rating: Average
Gnash
claw is below average. Gnash is way worse than Claw. 3 damage for 3 mana is simply not worth it.
Rating: Bad
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Deathaxe Punisher
If you don’t have a lifesteal minion in hand, Punisher is 4 mana 3/3 which is bad. If you do have a lifesteal in hand which is unlikely, Punisher is 5/5 stats, however 2/2 of those go to hand which is worse than on board. Even if it buffs a minion in hand, it’s still not very good. If it doesn’t, it’s trash. And let’s face it won’t buff a minion at least 80% of the time.
Rating: Terrible
Keening Banshee
For the effect you get +1 attack compared to chillwind-yeti. Sure you get to decide how many cards you play and removing cards from your deck doesn’t really matter unless game goes to fatigue. At the same time +1 attack doesn’t seem to make the difference and drawback is quite severe.
Rating: Below average
Spectral Pillager
The base stats are poor obviously. On top of that Spectral Pillager is going to be hard to combo since it costs 6 mana. For the card to be good you need to play at least 2-3 cards before which is incredibly hard to do in Arena. Most of the time you will play 1 card max before Spectral Pillager which means most of the time it’s going to be just a 6 mana 5/5 which deals 1 damage to an enemy minion.
Rating: Below average
Tainted Zealot
Spell damage isn’t too relevant in Arena, especially in the early game. Because of that Tainted Zealot is just a way worse argent-squire. Of course you can make the argument that you could combo it with a spell in the same turn to deal extra damage. But that extra damage is only worth it for AoE most of the time. Even though it has divine shield it’s going to be very easy for your opponent to remove this card so it won’t generate value as time goes on.
Rating: Bad
Venomancer
Simply compare this card to emperor-cobra. For 2 more mana you get 2 more health. That is not a good deal at all. Of course Emperor Cobra is strong in Arena so it may not be a very fair comparison, however Venomancer uses 2 mana for its poisonous effect which is usually worth around 1 mana. On top of that it’s not really a big threat to opponent’s life total. 2 damage each turn is only a tickle and your opponent won’t be afraid to keep Venomancer on the board longer and remove it when it’s good board state for it.
Rating: Below average
Spellweaver
Similar to evolved-kobold just has +2/+2 more stats for 2 more mana. Evolved Kobold is terrible. Therefore Spell weaver isn’t going to be too far off from that. That is to say it’s better than Kobold since it has a way bigger chance of surviving with 4/4 stats. However as I’ve said spell damage isn’t too strong in Arena and it’s hard to play Spellweaver and cast a spell immediately since it costs 6 mana.
Rating: Bad
Grim Necromancer
For 4 mana you get 4/6 worth of stats which is actually pretty good. razorfen-hunter is a good comparison to Grim Necromancer. For 1 more mana you not only get an extra 1/1 minion but also get 1 more health on the big body. Basically a better version of Razorfen Hunter.
Rating: Above average
Grave Shambler
The effect is very situational and it’s unlikely it will trigger. This leaves Grave Shambler a 4 mana 4/4 which is Average. The exception to this is Rogue. In Rogue you are going to destroy many daggers usually. With Grave Shambler you can even use your hero power even if you have a dagger just so you get that +1/+1 buff.
Rating: Average
Closing
So here we are. That concludes my 4th and final part of Knights of the Frozen Throne card reviews – Arena edition. It’s been very fun reviewing these cards. The set seems to have a lot of interesting new mechanics and some very strong cards. Now with all the reviews done it’s time to jump straight into Arena and test these cards in play once the expansion comes. What do you guys think about KotFT cards? How good will they be in Arena? How the meta is going to be impacted? Let me know in the comments below. As always thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Arena articles in the future. Until next time.
