After a slow start to the spoiler season, we got to see quite a few cards this week from Hearthstone’s latest expansion ‘Knights of the Frozen Throne’. We also found out about the PvE missions that will be included with the expansion featuring Icecrown Citadel for free. Completing the eight missions will allow you to get access to 3 packs and one random Death Knight Hero card, which is exciting! Moreover, if you beat the final boss using decks from all nine classes, you will get access to third third Paladin hero portrait “Arthas Menethil” in his Paladin form.
Without waiting any further, let’s check out the new cards that have been showcased this week:
Druid
Spreading Plague: Spreading Plague is one of the most interesting cards we’ve seen this expansion. It allows you to get 1/5 Taunt minions if your opponent is ahead on board. For 5 mana, if your opponent is ahead on-board presence you spawn a 1/5 Taunt for each minion your opponent has more than you and the effect stops once you are even on board. It can serve to be a good card against decks that like to spam the board and Druid can cheat the card out earlier than Turn 5 with cards like Innervate, which makes the card’s application quite interesting against hyper aggressive decks.
Fatespinner: Fatespinner is another interesting card that allows you to give it one of two deathrattles without letting your opponent know which effect you’ve chosen. You can either use it as a board control tool to deal 3 damage to all minions or to buff the board on both sides by +2/+2.
Hadronox: Hadronox allows you to re-summon all of your Taunt minions that died in a game through its Deathrattle. Unlike N’zoth, the card is highly susceptible to Silence or other forms of hard removal that can negate its effect from going off.
Hunter
Deathstalker Rexxar: Rexxar’s Death Knight Hero card was the first to be shown on the announcement date and it’s a very slow card that comes with an AoE effect bundled. While being able to put together two beasts into a powerful abomination is a great hero power, it is not what defines the Hunter class that is known for its fast-paced gameplay.
Professor Putricide: Professor Putricide expands upon the Secret Hunter archetype and allows you to get an extra secret for each Hunter secret you play while the minion is on board. The card does feel a little slow compared to other cards that support the archetype like Cloaked Huntress and we’ll need to wait and see what new cards get added for the Secret Hunter archetype to see where this card stands.
Abomination Archer: Abomination Archer is a decent 7 drop that allows you to resurrect a friendly Beast that was destroyed in a game. Hunter does not have access to decent 7 drops and the card can be considered if you want a 7 drop in your Hunter deck. Being able to pull out a high value beast like Savannah Highmane or Infested Wolf can offer great value.
Bearshark: Bearshark is a great 3 drop but Hunter already has access to auto-include 3 mana cards like Animal Companion, Eaglehorn Bow and Kill Command. It is a great Houndmaster target and also stands to be an amazing Arena card.
Venomstrike Trap: Venomstrike Trap is reminiscent of Snake Trap and works the same way except instead of 3 1/1s you get a 2/3 Poisonous Cobra. It is definitely a card one can consider for a Secret deck.
Mage
Coldwraith: A Freeze themed card that allows you to get card advantage if a minion is Frozen. It can work with not only Frost based spells but also minions like Water Elemental.
Ghastly Conjurer: Ghastly Conjurer adds a copy of Mirror Image to your hand which can be great for synergy with things like Archmage Antonidas or even for Quest Mage, which requires you to play spells that do not start in your deck.
Doomed Apprentice: Doomed Apprentice is a low cost minion that allows you to partially lock out your opponent by increasing the cost of the spells in his deck.
Frost Lich Jaina: The card is meant to be used in an Elemental Mage deck and while the new hero power by itself doesn’t change your hero power, but if you do manage to land the killing blow with your pings you will be able to summon Water Elemental each time you do it.
Sindragosa: Sindragosa is a super late game legendary that focuses on offering card advantage and allows you to draw 2 legendaries through the tokens Singadrosa generates on the board. You can also throw in N’zoth into your deck for drawing two more legendaries.
Priest
Spirit Lash: Spirit Lash is an early game AoE that deals 1 damage to all minions and also heals you for each target it hits. You can combo it with spell damage as well and get more value out of the card for just 2 mana.
Eternal Servitude: Priest is known for running very few minions and control themed decks usually run a lot of minions that cost 4 or more which makes Eternal Servitude a decent pick for getting back some of your high value cards. You can even try a lot of fun decks revolving around Barnes, Prophet Velen and Malygos for some fun OTK decks that you can pull off.
Rogue
Shadowblade: Shadowblade seems like a decent weapon at first glance as it allows you to control the board without taking damage on the first turn you play the weapon. Rogue is notorious for being bad against aggro decks and this card allows some breathing space when using weapons to control the board.
Leeching Poison: Rogue is a class that lacks healing capabilities and Leeching Poison is a great card for allowing the class to recuperate against fast paced decks. If we get access to good weapon buffs the card can be quite viable.
Plague Scientist: Plague Scientist is a combo card that gives a minion ‘Poisonous’. In a board centric Tempo Rogue deck the card can be quite good and help your remove minions very efficiently. Violet Teacher tokens come to mind when looking at the card and the card has good potential.
Paladin
Chillblade Champion: Chillblade Champion is a charge minion that has lifesteal, allowing you to make instant trades and get value out of it. It can also work well with Paladin buff cards for added value.
Howling Commander: Howling Commander is a very interesting card as its draw effect with limited Divine Shield minions in the deck can help you consistently draw them out in time. Even if you play only Wickerflame and Tirion in your deck, you can draw them out guaranteed every time you play this card.
Bolvar, Fireblood: The card is awfully weak to silence and it is very reminiscent of the older Bolvar Fordragon card but it is even harder to get value out of the card consistently and you would need to build your deck around Divine Shields and also have this card in your hand. Unless there is more to the new archetype that we are missing, it is unlikely Bolvar is going to do any better than its previous iteration, which barely saw any play.
lights-sorrow: Another card that works like Bolvar, Fordragon and the weapon is seemingly more viable than Bolvar since weapons cannot be Silenced as of now and getting a high value weapon is not very unlikely if you have a decent amount of Divine Shields in your deck.
Shaman
Ice Breaker: Shaman is receiving a frost archetype in the new expansion and there are plenty of synergetic cards that have been added to the mix. Ice Breaker works exactly like Mage’s Shatter and destroys any frozen minion that you use the weapon on.
Voodoo Hexxer: A decent taunt minion with a high health pool that can freeze multiple enemy targets that run into the taunt and buy you time.
Cryostasis: Unlike other cards that try to freeze enemy minions, Cryostatis seeks to freeze your own minions while also buffing them. Playing it on Taunt minions is a good idea since your opponent will have to answer it or run their minions into it anyway.
Moorabi: Moorabi has a lot of potential with so many freeze effects already revealed and available for use for Shaman from older sets. If we get a mass freeze effect, Moorabi can be a powerful card draw tool for the class. If Frost Shaman is a viable deck, you definitely want to include this minion.
Warlock
Sanguine Reveler: The card looks incredibly powerful on paper and can be used in aggressive Zoo lists on eggs and deathrattle minions for instant value. Warlock is in a weak spot right now and cards like this are needed to push Zoo back into viability.
Defile: A very interesting early game AoE spell to counter aggressive token decks. It is a Whirlwind that keeps repeating itself if you kill any minions when the effect goes off.
blood-queen-lanathel: Blood Queen Lana’thel is a Warlock legendary that is targeted at the Discard Warlock archetype. Just like Bolvar, Blood Queen Lana’thel is also susceptible to Silence effects and feels too slow to be used in aggressive Discard decks.
Warrior
Blood Razor: Warrior is known to have several Whirlwind effects packed into their decks and Blood Razor allows you to pack in 2 more AoE effects while also giving you 2/2 weapon to boot for 4 mana.
Animated Berserker: Fiery Warrior can have synergy with things like Grim Patron and Enrage Minions, or even Battle Rage if you build your deck around such cards.
Mountainfire Armor: The card is quite interesting as your opponent has to choose between letting the minion survive, allowing you to dictate the trades or taking care of it but giving you 6 armor in the process.
Bring It On!: Bring it On allows you to gain a massive amount of armor, but in turn you reduce the cost of all minions in your opponent’s hand less by 2 which is extremely risky!
dead-mans-hand: Dead Man’s Hand shuffles a copy of all cards in your hand into your deck. It can work really well in niche decks like Patron Warrior or Blood Warriors decks which seek to draw out the deck very rapidly using things like Battle Rage and can serve as a means of avoiding fatigue too quickly.
That’s it for our coverage for the class cards released this week. We’ll take a closer look at the Neutrals and other releases in the coming week next weekend! With the expansion expected to come out on 10th August, the reveals are going to happen very quickly this time around with all of the remaining Death Knight Hero cards scheduled for reveals in the upcoming week. Until next time!
