League of Explorers Cards Review – Class Cards Part 2

Hello everyone! It didn’t really happen before, but the new Adventure was just announced and at the same time, it’s just around the corner. With first wing coming out on Thursday already, we’ll get to play the new cards really soon. Like every expansion, we’re trying to give you guys our opinions on the new […]

Introduction

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Hello everyone! It didn’t really happen before, but the new Adventure was just announced and at the same time, it’s just around the corner. With first wing coming out on Thursday already, we’ll get to play the new cards really soon.

Like every expansion, we’re trying to give you guys our opinions on the new stuff. Whether it’s just a first look at the cards, more in-depth reviews or deckbuilding theorycrafting, we offer different points of view from different writers.

Just like for TGT, I’m doing the card reviews too. Since they’re pretty in-depth and we’re getting 45 cards in total I’m going to divide those into 3 parts: 2 articles for class cards and 1 article for neutral cards.

When it comes to the card evaluation – take those with a grain of salt and focus on the reasoning. Sometimes I rate the card higher, but tell you that it’s only going to work if certain type of deck is created. Sometimes I rate the card lower, but I see the potential synergies in the future. But, I’ll try to give every card one of the five different “grades”: Terrible, Bad, Average, Good, Great. I give one rating for the Constructed and one for the Arena.

In the second part of the Class Cards, I’ll review new cards for the second 5 classes (alphabetically): Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior.

Priest

Museum Curator

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Average

It’s very similar to the pre-nerf Novice Engineer (it used to be 1/2, which actually was pretty strong in the vanilla, it was played in almost every deck). Instead of drawing the card from your deck, you pick a random Deathrattle minion. And the thing is – most of the Deathrattle minions are pretty strong. Some of the strongest minions in the game like Savannah Highmane, Sylvanas Windrunner or Tirion Fordring have Deathrattle. Even the “small” Deathrattle minions are good. This card, however, is pretty bad in Constructed. First of all – in what deck would you like to put it? It doesn’t fit the Dragon Priest at all. And the standard Control Priest? It’s also a weird choice. I don’t think you need a random Deathrattle minion and you certainly have the better tools to gain value/card advantage in Priest. It’s a nice drop later in the game, but Control Priest can already have a crazy late game even without it. So I’m not sure what’s the point of this minion.

When it comes to Arena, it’s not that bad. I mean – it’s a bad 2-drop. Priest struggles in terms of tempo in Arena even more than other decks. And this is clearly a low tempo drop. On the other hand, it’s pretty good later in the game. Just like Novice Engineer gets better when you actually have a lot of mana to work with and you can drop it as a free additional 1/1 on the board, this does similar thing, but is even better. Since the average quality of Deathrattle card you’re going to get from this is most likely higher than average quality of card in your deck, it should be better than drawing a card. Meaning it really sucks as a 2-drop (besides some scenarios where you play it into opponent’s 2/1 1-drop), but is a good card later in the game.

Excavated Evil

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Average

I’m not sure about this card. I mean, first of all, the 5 mana for 3 damage to everything is too much. Compare it to Hellfire and you’ll see that it’s underwhelming. And then you shuffle this card into opponent’s library? I mean… Okay, it makes some sense. If you play against Aggro and you use that, you actually WANT them to draw it. I mean, you prefer them to draw it instead of some threat or Charge minion or burn spell. But on the other hand, in Control matchup you’re just giving enemy one more removal. And since those matchups tend to go for really long, if everything goes to fatigue you actually might give enemy an advantage. And I’m not even talking about him actually USING the spell. If you give enemy one more card in the library, it means that he fatigues one turn later. And that’s huge in some matchups, like against Control Warrior (which is already very hard in fatigue).

This card seem like it was made to counter Patron Warrior. I mean, board full of Patrons – it clears it (unlike Holy Nova). And then, by giving it to the Warrior you might postpone their OTK combo by a turn (because they might let’s say draw into it instead of the Emperor Thaurissan) + they can’t use it if they actually have a board control. Overall, I think it wouldn’t be a bad card against Patron, even the new Patron, but I don’t think it’s really needed. Lightbomb is much better and it only costs 1 more mana. That’s the main reason. Lightbomb is much better against slower decks, because it can clear all the big stuff too and it’s only slightly worse against faster decks. But against faster decks you have the Holy Nova, so I don’t see a reason to put this spell too.

In Arena it’s a little better. Removals, especially AoE removals, are pretty premium. Even though it’s not the best removal ever, Priest often fights for the board control from.. behind. I mean, Priest decks often struggle with early tempo, meaning that by turn 5 they rarely have the board advantage. Excavated Evil is not the worst thing ever, but the extra mana cost compared to Hellfire really hurts. 3 damage on turn 4 is very good, but on turn 5 it gets a little worse. Giving it to the enemy obviously might work great for you or against you. It really depends on your deck, opponent’s deck and timing of drawing it. But overall I think that it’s not a big deal, it’s a pretty mediocre spell. And you prefer them to draw a mediocre spell late in the game than let’s say an 8-drop.

Entomb

Constructed: Great

Arena: Good

I can’t really stress how much I like this card. Just compare it to the Recycle. Since I saw the Druid card I hoped that it would work just like Entomb. So, why is this so good? After all, Priest has a lot of removal already. There are few things. First of all – it’s unconditional. It’s not “less than 3 attack”, “more than 5 attack”, you can just target anything. Priest had always problems dealing with the 4 attack minions in particular – for example Ysera. Entomb works against those. Second thing is that it doesn’t DESTROY enemy minion. It means that it doesn’t proc the Deathrattles. It’s awesome against stuff like Sylvanas Windrunner or Tirion Fordring. Or let’s say Savannah Highmane against Hunter. Removal part is already good, but that’s just one part. The second is a delayed Mind Control. As we all know, the card is incredibly strong in slower matchups, but, well… too slow. 10 mana is a lot. 6 mana is much easier to spare. Entomb is still incredibly strong in slow matchups, just like Mind Control, but it’s also easier to use in the faster ones. Let’s be honest – it won’t be good against Face Hunter, because they literally have nothing worth stealing and every small removal works on their minions too. But even the very popular Secret Paladin. Mysterious Challenger, Dr. Boom, Tirion Fordring – all can be stolen. Rhonin / Archmage Antonidas against Mage. Even the Sludge Belcher or Piloted Shredder is not the worst target ever. It’s a clear way to get rid of them, even though you’re paying a little too much.

But then, the second part of the spell. In faster matchups it really doesn’t matter most of time. In the slower ones, however, it’s a key to victory. So, you play against Control Warrior. You get rid of their Ysera, you put +1 card into your library (which is great in fatigue scenario) AND that one card is Ysera, which Warrior has to deal with. How cool is that? This card can win you the slower matchups AND it doesn’t suck as much as Mind Control in the faster ones.

In Arena, it’s good. I mean, a big removal that’s unconditional. Something like Siphon Soul, but probably even better, because it doesn’t proc the Deathrattles. In Arena putting a big minion into your deck is cool, because then you have a chance to actually draw it and you prefer drawing big stuff in the late game. But it’s not as good as in Constructed, because games rarely go to the fatigue. It’s still really good way to deal with some annoying cards. Shadow Word: Death is still probably better, because it’s a higher tempo move, but I like Entomb.

Rogue

Pit Snake

Constructed: Average

Arena: Average

There is one problem with the 2/1’s for 1 mana. They need to have some instant board impact or Stealth to be really meaningful. It’s not ALWAYS true, but it’s how it works most of the time. This has no instant impact and no Stealth, so I don’t think we’re going to see it a lot. The card itself is not bad. Having a “poison” effect on a 1-drop is big, because the card has incredible scaling into the late game. I mean, a 1-drop that can kill any big drop? Sure, that’s cool. The problem is that you generally want to drop it on turn 1. And on turn, when you face other 1-drops and 2-drops, the poison effect doesn’t matter that much. It’s good if enemy opens with a 2/3 like Zombie Chow, because then you can actually get a 1 for 1. But if enemy opens with any other 1-drop OR something like Haunted Creeper, Mad Scientist, Shielded Minibot or Knife Juggler, the poison effect is literally useless and this guy is just a 2/1. In that case, isn’t it better to play let’s say a Clockwork Gnome? It’s not a bad fit into an Aggro deck, especially if you run a lot of 1 health minions and pinging every one is just impossible. The dream scenario is this guy killing something like Sludge Belcher and yeah, it might happen, but the question is – how often enemy won’t be able to kill your 2/1 on turn 5+? I have mixed feelings about Pit Snake.

In Arena, it’s also average. Mage and Rogue remain one of the most popular Arena classes, so once again, 2/1’s that don’t do anything aren’t BEST. TGT also slowed Arena down a bit, LoE will probably also slow it, so 1-drops aren’t that necessary as they were some time ago. It’s still nice to have some of them, even if enemy spends like Coin to ping it – it’s not that bad of a tempo move. And against classes that can’t ping it can be actually a late game threat too. I mean, if you drop it on turn 5 against let’s say Priest, he might be unable to throw out his 6-drop, because it just dies to the 2/1. I think it’s much better than a lot of 1-drops, but not on the level of Worgen Infiltrator or Abusive Sergeant and DEFINITELY not on a level of Zombie Chow.

Unearthed Raptor

Constructed: Good

Arena: Great

Another card I have high hopes for. A card with vanilla stats – 3/4 for 3 – AND a good effect. Copying a Deathrattle is a pretty big deal. For example, a Haunted Creeper or Nerubian Egg played on turn 2 into this on turn 3 is a very, very powerful play. And the thing is that it has INCREDIBLE scaling as the game progresses. 3/4 for 3 is always nice and the later it gets, the bigger Deathrattles you can copy. Starting with Piloted Shredder for example. 3/4 is arguably even better stat distribution than a 4/3, so you’re getting a 3 mana Shredder if you already have one on the board. But how about pushing it even further? Sylvanas Windrunner has incredibly strong Deathrattle. How about having a second one? Or I don’t know, the Sneed’s Old Shredder. This is probably pushing it too far, but you get what I mean. So, the only problem I see with this card is that it doesn’t fit into the existing Rogue archetypes. It won’t be any good in Oil Rogue or Aggro Rogue or something like that. It would fit a Midrange Rogue deck with some Deathrattle stuff and couple of late game cards. And honestly, thanks to the Unearthed Raptor I think this deck has a chance to work. If it will, suddenly every deck will have to run double Silence. But we’ll see.

In Arena, it’s AWESOME. 3/4 for 3 is already good. Spider Tank is one of the best 3-drops available to Rogue. Rogue didn’t have any strong 3-drop before. SI:7 Agent is incredible, but it’s not really a 3-drop, Shady Dealer was just a 4/3 for 3 most of the time (and 3/4 is superior statline) and Iron Sensei was a joke in Arena unless you drafted at least 5 other Mechs. Unearthed Raptor is something that you can drop on turn 3 easily AND it has potential scaling into the late game. Even if you don’t get to activate the effect – it’s good. But if you do, which shouldn’t be incredibly hard (Deathrattle cards are generally strong in Arena, so they are high priority to take), the value skyrockets. It might possibly be the best 3-drop in the game if you have a proper Arena draft.

Tomb Pillager

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Good

A nice concept. I think this card is much better than the Cutpurse, because it pretty much guarantees you to get one Coin from it. I don’t think it’s good enough for Constructed, though. 4 health really cripples this guy. Time has shown that 5/4’s for 4 aren’t bad if their effects are good enough. But if you compare Tomb Pillager to Goblin Blastmage or Savage Combatant (which isn’t even common in Druid decks), I don’t think that gaining one Coin is as strong as those effects. It might work in some minion-based Tempo decks where the Coin is really valuable. Coin is great way to activate the combos and it can ramp you a bit, but I still don’t think it’s enough. I feel that even Mechanical Yeti might be better in that kind of decks. 4/5 is superior to 5/4 and Spare Parts are also good combo activators (not as good as Coin, but they also get additional effects).

In Arena, however, Tomb Pillager should be good. First of all, it’s much harder to activate Combos in Arena. You don’t always have the free/cheap spells like Backstab, Preparation or Deadly Poison, so the additional Coin is awesome if you have some Combo cards in your draft. Pushing the tempo is also very important. Since the combat in Arena is mostly minion-based, the guy with a biggest minion usually gets the best trades. Since a vanilla 5/4 (Lost Tallstrider) is just average 4-drop, since Tomb Pillager has an additional effect it’s pretty good. Plus since it’s a Deathrattle, it gets some synergy with the other new card – Unearthed Raptor! (it’s not a big one, but still :>)

Shaman

Tunnel Trogg

Constructed: Average

Arena: Average

1-drop for Shaman that doesn’t suck? Cool. There is one problem, though. Do you want to play four 1-drops? Because I don’t think you want to play this guy over the Zombie Chow. Even though it has the potential to be better, if you don’t draw into any Overload spell at the start, 1/3 can be just eaten for free by a lot of 2-drops. Zombie Chow is guaranteed to trade into stuff like Knife Juggler – this isn’t. You don’t really care about Chow’s Deathrattle on the first turns anyway. Yes, Tunnel Trogg has potential to grow even further, especially in the late game, but the reason Shaman runs 1-drops is to not get behind in the early game. I’m not entirely sold on this one. But I think it’s the second-best 1-drop available to Shaman after Zombie Chow, so if the Midrange Shaman decides that it needs another 1-drop, it’s probably going to be it. Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to break the meta or anything like that.

In Arena, well, it heavily depends on how much Overload cards you have. It’s very similar to Mana Wyrm in this matter. But unlike Mage, Shaman can’t ping with the Hero Power. So if you don’t have any Overload stuff and Trogg gets eaten for free by a 3/2, well, too bad, you can’t do anything about it. I think that Trogg isn’t that bad, because you end up with some Overload cards pretty much every draft. If you get the Totem Golem follow-up on turn 2, 2/3 for 1 is awesome.

Rumbling Elemental

Constructed: Average

Arena: Average

When it comes to Constructed, whether this card will be good REALLY depends on how the meta shapes. 2 attack is really low for a 4-drop. But in case that Aggro decks will still dominate, it might actually be good enough. If enemy has a 2/2 minion you want to kill, you don’t care if your 4-drop has 2 or 5 attack. 6 health is good, high enough to take out at least 2 small minions, sometimes even 3. But then, you wouldn’t play it just for the stats. The effect is, hm, it’s very hard to tell. First of all – it’s a random ENEMY, meaning that it can also hit opponent’s face. Which you really don’t want most of the time. Second, Shaman decks aren’t really that heavy on Battlecry cards. I mean, they have some Battlecries, but most of them are actually high cost minions. The smallest Battlecry minion that’s ran in Shaman decks is usually Defender of Argus. And honestly, Defender works very well with Rumbling Elemental. Giving it +1/+1 and Taunt turns it into a 3/7 Taunt, which is a formidable wall. Throwing 2 random damage is a nice addition. If you decide to run this guy, don’t expect the effect to shoot like a machine gun. Until the late game, it’s 1 activation per turn at best. It should be a solid minion against Aggro decks, but honestly it’s pretty bad in slower matchups. And it completely sucks against the Priest. Remember that Cabal Shadow Priest is a thing and Priest will gladly take a 2/6 minion with a nice effect for free.

In Arena it’s also pretty average. We already have another 2/6 minion there – Maiden of the Lake and honestly it’s meh. It’s not the worst minion ever, it’s good at clearing the small stuff, but it doesn’t even trade 1 for 1 with a lot of other 4-drops + it sucks against bigger stuff. So it’s just the effect that can save this guy. And the effect doesn’t save it. While it’s true that Battlecry minions are good in Arena, you don’t always get to draft tons of them. If you drop it on turn 4, it also needs to survive until turn 5 for you to get a chance to drop something. The good thing is that there are actually quite a lot of good Battlecry minions for 5 mana, meaning that you might sometimes get free 2 damage without by just following your curve. Definitely not the worst pick ever, but I would take pretty much any 3/5 over it.

Everyfin Is Awesome

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Bad

Oh, the puns. Honestly my rating is based on the fact that Murloc Shaman sucks right now. But IF, IF Murloc Shaman would work, this card would be completely broken. The thing is, +2/+2 for the whole board is incredibly strong. 7 mana is obviously a joke, but if you manage to get 4 Murlocs on the board (which in a Murloc deck isn’t very hard), it suddenly becomes 3 mana. Thanks to this spell, if Murloc Shaman somehow gets ahead on the board in the early game and plays this on turn 3-4, it might just seal the whole game. There are a lot of ifs and IF Murloc Shaman won’t work, this spell won’t work either. It’s not usable in any Constructed deck outside the Murloc Shaman.

In Arena you won’t really get Murloc synergies, because Murlocs are generally bad. Maybe SOMETIMES you’re going to get 1 or 2 mana discount (like if you draw a Murloc Warleader or Murloc Tidehunter because other options were bad), but that’s it. It’s still not the worst card ever in certain decks. If you play a deck that’s pretty tempo/aggro oriented, you should have a nice board presence on turn 7. You’d obviously prefer to play something else, but if you don’t have anything, giving out 3 or 4 +2/+2 buffs is nice. At least it’s not conditional like Bolster. Still, your other options would have to really, really suck for you to pick it.

Warlock

Reliquary Seeker

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Terrible

I know that they can’t print a good 1-drop for Warlock, because Zoo can get out of control easily. That’s understandable. But it doesn’t mean that they have to print ones that are so bad. Okay, so, you obviously play it in Zoo-like deck. It’s not something you’d ever play in the Control Warlock decks (Demon Warlock, Handlock, Malygos Warlock). In Zoo, for 90% of time it’s going to be a 1/1 for 1 mana. Without any upside. And in some niche scenarios, for example after a 4 damage Imp-losion, you can SOMETIMES play it as a 1 mana 5/5. I mean, that’s great if it works. But since it works so rarely, the minion is bad. If you want to run something similar, just play the Sea Giant. There will be scenarios where you can drop it for free even, but 2-3 mana is pretty common. And it doesn’t require you to have exactly 6 minions on the board. And it’s even bigger. Well, yeah, we have a winner!

In Arena, it’s even worse. You rarely draft a Zoo-like deck and you don’t always have access to stuff like Imp-losion. In arena it’s just a 1/1 for 1 like 99% of time. And honestly, if you have a full board in Arena, you pretty much just won the game anyway (if enemy doesn’t have a big AoE clear) and you don’t need a 1 mana 5/5.

Curse of Rafaam

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Terrible

Another card that is… questionable. I mean, here the design is very cool, but I’m not sure whether it’s going to be any good. I don’t exactly get the point of this card. First of all, I don’t see it fitting into any Warlock deck. But that’s not even the biggest problem. You use it on turn 2. If you play against a slow deck, he just takes 2 damage and gets rid of the curse from his hand. You’ve just dealt 2 damage for 2 mana and wasted a card – why not just Darkbomb opponent’s face? The result will be better! Against Aggro deck, well, he can just ignore it. If he plays Aggro deck, he doesn’t expect game to last more than 6-7 turns anyway. EVEN in case he doesn’t even get rid of it, it’s not likely to kill him. And even Aggro decks sometimes float the mana, so after 3 or 4 turns he should have some spare mana to just get rid of it. Using it later in the game is even more questionable. It’s not like enemy won’t have enough mana to get rid of the curse. I mean, okay, you can combo it with Loatheb. Then enemy can’t get rid of it for one turn. He takes 4 damage for 2 mana, cool, but that’s it. In most of the scenarios you just trade 2 mana + card for 2 mana + 2 health. I think it’s a good trade for your opponent. I think the card would be cooler if it dealt 1 damage per turn, but enemy couldn’t get rid of it. Then you could actually put enemy on a clock while playing a stall/burn deck.

In Arena it’s even worse. If you play it on turn 2, enemy just ignores it. You lost the tempo to gain some face damage. It’s comparable to Priest using Mind Blast on turn 2. Yeah, sure, he has dealt 5 damage, but so what? You just waste the card and the tempo to not gain anything. If you don’t get the board control, the face damage will be useless anyway. Even if it deals 10 damage to the enemy, if he is ahead on the board you won’t be able to abuse it.

One thing I wonder about is how it works with the Spell Damage. If Warlock has Spell Damage on the board, will the curse deal more damage? And what if the cursed guy has Spell Damage?

Dark Peddler

Constructed: Average

Arena: Good

Oh, the only Warlock card in this set that doesn’t suck. But it’s not particularly great either. I mean, let’s start with the base stats. 2/2 for 2 is meh, only cards with incredible effects (like Mad Scientist or Shielded Minibot) are playable with this statline. This effect is cool, but is it good enough? Drawing a 1 cost card is nice. There are a lot of good 1-drops and Warlock 1 mana spells are also cool (Mortal Coil and Power Overwhelming are great, but Soulfire is also nice). If you’re missing a 3-drop or 4-drop, 1-drops can be good at filling your curve. In terms of value, Dark Peddler is pretty nice. But it’s still not a Mad Scientist-like effect. Scientist not only draws a 2/3 mana spell (in Hunter/Mage), but also puts it in the play instantly. Here, you have to play it from your hand. While it’s a solid 2-drop, I don’t think it’s broken enough to get into the Constructed meta.

In Arena, however, it’s much, much better. 2/2 for 2 is playable. Not best, but playable. And the fact that you get a free 1-drop from it means that a lot of time it’s going to get 2 for 1 in the late game. Not really much to say about it. Sometimes you’re going to get really bad 1-drop choices, but other times you can get let’s say a Zombie Chow, which should wreck the enemy.

Oh, and one thing that’s worth noting is that most of time it can be used as a 3-drop too. The flexibility is a big part of this card. On average, you’re probably going to get something like 2/2 + 2/1 for 3 mana, but some 1-drops have additional effects. Or like I’ve said, Zombie Chow means that it’s 2/2 + 2/3 for 3 mana (and 1 card), which is pretty good.

Warrior

Cursed Blade

Constructed: Average

Arena: Average

People are giving this card a really hard time. Calling it a second Poisoned Blade, a completely useless card. But I disagree with them. I mean, right, it’s pretty bad. Taking 2x damage sucks. But we need to remember that it’s a 2/3 weapon for 1 mana. When it comes to Constructed, it’s obviously NOT a card you’d be using in a slower Warrior deck. It’s a strictly Aggro Warrior card. And it might actually not be that terrible. If you equip it on turn 1 and start whacking opponent’s face, you probably won’t get more than 1 hit by the time you use all 3 charges. It has nice synergy with Bloodsail Raider, making a 4/3 on turn 2. If you play a faster matchup, you might actually kill some early minion with it. Yeah, taking 4-6 damage from a 2-drop is not something you really want, but it’s still better than not killing it. Not to mention that against slower decks you completely don’t care about taking early game damage if you’re playing Aggro. And 6 damage for 1 mana is quite a lot. I don’t think it’s going to be a hit, but that’s mainly because Aggro Warrior isn’t strong enough. Obviously it’s not usable in any slower Warrior deck.

In Arena, it’s also average. It’s an AWESOME card on turn 1. In Arena you also don’t care about taking early game damage. Tempo and board control are much, much more important. If you have the board control, you’ll control the trades and you won’t take unnecessary damage from enemy minions anyway. Like, Rogue sometimes hits a 3/2 minion 2 times with his Hero Power (and takes 9 damage in total) just to not fall behind on the tempo in the early game. It’s similar situation here, but you “only” take 6 damage. It’s a dead card in the late game most of the time, unless you’re really high on health and you have the board control, but the fact that it can help you with the early board control makes it not bad. It’s also important to note that Warrior’s Hero Power is great at escaping out of the burn range, so if things get too risky and you get too low, just Hero Power every turn and you should be fine (after all that’s the ONLY thing for which Warrior’s Hero Power is good).

Fierce Monkey

Constructed: Good

Arena: Great

It really doesn’t seem that strong, but I think this card is awesome. Warrior always struggled with turn 3 plays in Constructed. Bash gave him a good option, but it didn’t always work. I think that having a 3/4 3-drop that also has a Taunt is awesome. It’s just 1 less health than Sen’jin Shieldmasta, but for 1 less mana. It’s AWESOME against fast decks like Hunter or Secret Paladin. It helps you preserve the early Armor. If you hide an Armorsmith behind it should also give you at least 2 Armor. I’m not sure whether this will be really used in Constructed decks, but I think it might actually be good enough. The only problem would be fitting it, but there are a lot of good deck builders that might find a way. Not to mention that a few more cards like that and Taunt Warrior can possibly become viable.

In Arena, that’s AWESOME. Like I’ve mentioned before, 3/4 for 3 is awesome statline and Spider Tank is already one of the best 3-drops. Give Spider Tank a positive effect and you get a great Arena card. Even though Taunt might not seem like a big deal, having Taunt on a minion with strong statline is awesome in the early game. The point is that you force enemy into bad trades. 3/4 is good against 3/2, but even better against 2/3. Let’s say you play a 2-drop, enemy plays his. Then you play this guy. Now enemy can’t kill your 2-drop and you’re ahead on the board. And you’re the one dictating the early trades. Later in the game, having a Taunt minion might protect your damaged or more valuable minions. It’s a very solid card, the first good 3-drop Warrior has and even more importantly – it’s a Common, so you’re going to draft quite a lot of those.

Obsidian Destroyer

Constructed: Bad

Arena: Good

When it comes to the Constructed, not much to say about this guy. It’s a War Golem with a slight upside. I mean, if Big Game Hunter wasn’t a thing, it would be playable. The 1/1 Taunts could be awesome against weapon classes and against slower decks that have no way to ping, like Control Priest. But the fact that 7/7 body just dies to BGH or any other big removal, getting a 1/1 with Taunt isn’t really enough value. Just play the Dr. Boom, it’s guaranteed to get two 1/1’s and they have much better effects too.

In Arena, however, it’s different. Arena is a mode where War Golem is not a terrible card and Big Game Hunter is very, very rare. Even the big single target removals aren’t the thing you see every game. It means that this guy has quite a big chance to survive. Since War Golem is just average, this guy is definitely above average. While one 1/1 with Taunt isn’t huge, the effect can snowball if it sticks to the board. Getting 2 or 3 of them is better and better. Against classes that can ping, 1/1’s aren’t a big deal, but you don’t mind them pinging. I mean, they have to spend 2 mana per turn to deal with something you don’t even have to pay for. But against the classes without ping, my god. A 1/1 Taunt can actually tank 5+ damage easily if enemy has only big stuff on the board. But even stopping an attack for a 3/2 or something might mean that enemy can’t deal with the 7/7. And the longer it sticks to the board, the more annoying it gets. Oh, and it’s ALSO a Common. Warrior suddenly got a lot better in Arena. I think that Warrior will still be a worst class, but at least it got a little closer to the rest.

Closing

So, that’s it for the second part of the League of Explorers cards review. In the third (and last) part I’ll be doing the Neutral cards reviews. It’s going to come out very soon, so stay tuned!


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Read Article Hearthstone Battlegrounds is getting a co-op mode
Hearthstone Battlegrounds announcement at BlizzCon 2023, on November 3, 2023. (Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)
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