League of Explorers Weekly Review: The Ruined City

Introduction

Hi guys, anothersy here. I am Hearthstone Player who has been playing Hearthstone even since Beta. After a few months of grinding the arena, I started to play ranked and playing competitively.

At Blizzcon2015 Blizzard officially announced a new adventure expansion named as ‘The League of Explorers’ and this week’s adventure wing that is unlocked is The Ruined City.

So I would to guide you through each week’s released wing to give you some of my opinions about the cards as a notice of what you should be expecting on each week/adventure wing

This week’s wing features The Ruined City and several of the cards released this week are under the murloc theme in it so be prepared for murloc invasion this week!!!

First Boss: Lord Slitherspear

Defeating Lord Slitherspear will award you with huge-toad , gorillabot-a-3 and allows you battle with the Hunter’s class challenge to earn dart-trap.

Huge Toad

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Constructed Opinion: 

• Similar abilities as flame-juggler however, it is a Deathrattle ability making it more difficult to use to gain value, Flame Juggler may allow you to remove some one health minions when he comes into play and Huge Toad does not. Moreover, this card is a beast and a 2-mana minion and adds more minion pool to piloted-shredder and webspinner

Maybe viable in: None

Arena Opinion:

• A decent minion, 3/2 stats for 2 mana are always welcomed in every arena deck. It’s ability may just be a bonus as it is very hard to gain value from it, most of the time the damage just goes face. Hunters and Druids may have a little tendency urge to pick this card than other classes because it is a beast.

Gorillabot A-3

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Constructed Opinion 

• A discover card, mainly for mech decks. But sadly the discover ability leads to a below stats for this card making it a bad tempo-wise card, and most mech decks are aggressive decks that would always want to be ahead of tempo by playing the best minions in the curve. (piloted-shredder) However, if the meta becomes to be slower, this card might fit a nice spot as a draw card mechanic for mech decks that tends to run out of gas easily.

Maybe viable in: Mech Decks

Arena Opinion:

• Decent enough but you need lots of other mech cards in your arena draft to make this card worth the pick as if he is dropped without gaining his discover ability he’s gonna be a very bad card.

Second Boss: Giantfin

Defeating Giantfin rewards you with anyfin-can-happen and murloc-tinyfin and also unlocks you the Shaman class challenge, granting you everyfin-is-awesome via completion.

Anyfin Can Happen

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Constructed Opinion: 

• Anything can happen, eh. This card is very weird. First things first, it does not spawn duplicate murlocs so say goodbye to your 7 old-murk-eye One-Turn-Kill combo dream. But it still could act like a strong finisher for paladin decks as most paladin decks now add murloc-knight into their decks but they require murloc-knight to roll old-murk-eye and murloc-warleader to get a high damage burst from anyfin-can-happen , the downside is 10 mana spells are probably unusable in most games in such an aggro oriented meta ( We rarely see pyroblast , mind-control don’t you agree?). For murloc Paladin decks this is the real finisher, a potential 17 max damage burst from an empty board with old-murk-eye and a couple of murlocs with bluegill-warrior, downside is you have to let them all die once in order to get them to comeback with anyfin-can-happen. Most murloc decks are aggro oriented decks, swarming the board fast with cheap murlocs then get burst damage with murloc-warleader and if you can’t kill your opponents by turn 5 or later you probably are unlikely to win and anyfin-can-happen would be probably too slow for an aggro murloc deck, so it opens to a more control oriented murloc deck.

Maybe viable in: Paladin Murloc Deck / Midrange Paladin

Arena Opinion:

• Very very risky pick in arena, depending on most your draft on how many murlocs you can pick up or even how many murlocs your opponent would pick up too. As a 10 mana spell, this card is very unlikely to be playable in arena just because it is too slow and even you get a crazy draft with 20 murlocs in arena (which is very unlikely to happen) you would hardly get a chance to play this card in arena just because the game is decided even before that. But if your deck contains a few murloc-knights to spawn some murloc armies, this card might be worth considering but bear in mind that it is a 10 mana spell.

Murloc Tinyfin

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Constructed Opinion:  

• wisp version of a murloc. Main existence is probably to nerf murloc-knight for more chances to get a weaker murloc. Not much to talk about a Wisp in constructed, as no decks would be running it.

Maybe viable in: Murloc Decks

Arena Opinion:

• Murloc cards are always trash in arena (exceptance of our godly murloc-knight which is the best murloc card and also one of the best cards in arena) and wisp is never picked in arena, and when both are combined to be this card it doesn’t get even an upgrade in stats, just a wisp’s stats with a murloc type card. This card should never be picked in arena unless you are very confident to draft a murloc deck in arena.

Final Boss: Lady Naz’jar

Final boss of this week’s wing is Lady Naz’jar, defeating her will reward you with pit-snake , naga-sea-witch , jungle-moonkin , this week’s legendary murloc card  sir-finley-mrrgglton and lastly the Priest class challenge that will grant entomb after completion.

Pit Snake

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Constructed Opinion:  

• Possibly the most annoying minion that could pop out of hungry-dragon or mounted-raptor and could possibly win you a game by removing a free minion from your opponent’s board but not as worthy to include it in a deck by itself, we have several poison minions and they all have been ignored from the game. patient-assassin might be the most seen poison card because it can pop out of piloted-shredder. Oh and this card is a beast too, another possible spawn from webspinner

Maybe viable in: None

Arena Opinion:

• Totally different story from constructed, this card is a decent card in arena and helps you get pass tough minions but you need to evaluate the situation to make this card get some value by killing a big minion.

Naga Sea Witch

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Constructed Opinion:

• Similar abilities with avianna but sets it to 5 mana instead of 1. A more higher curve Druid deck can benefit from it greatly, as you may be able to drop a huge legendary the following turn if this card survives or play it on 10 mana to drop another huge minion. I am very inexperienced in playing greedy Druid decks since the arrival of avianna so I am very skeptical of the overriding ability of this card and avianna. Stats of this card is pretty mediocre, could see play in several Druid decks.

Maybe viable in: Greedy Druid decks, Avianna Druid, Ramp Druid

Arena Opinion:

• Pretty decent stats and a mediocre ability, the dream play would probably be you put this thing down then your opponent cannot kill it that turn then you drop an ironbark-protector or something bigger the following turn. However, Druids have several powerful epic cards such as ancient-of-lore and ancient-of-war that can be consistently powerful than naga-sea-witch so consider the whole draft before picking.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton

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Constructed Opinion 

• Our legendary of the week, is also a murloc card. and has a very unique discover abilty, and with average stats for a discover minion. The funny thing about this card is that why would you change your own hero power to a new one. Since your can always pick your favorite class to play it in and get the hero power you want. Most sources say this card is made for Shaman as shaman’s hero power is the worst in the game. So maybe we could be seeing more murloc Shaman because this card. However, in other decks this card could change the pace of how a deck is operated if it gets the correct hero power. Imagine Face Shaman getting Hunter’s hero power, or Murloc Shaman getting Warlock’s hero power. So it is very difficult to judge it’s play ability in constructed due to its variety of outcomes. We’ll probably have to test him a lot, but Shaman gets a nice edge, as Thrall has probably been dreaming of changing his hero power for a long time.

Maybe viable in: Cannot evaluate

Arena Opinion:

• Might be worth a try just for fun, but he won’t be as good as we think, changing the hero power isn’t really a big deal I guess. Consider your other choices before picking, as he is not as impactful comparing to constructed play.

Jungle Moonkin

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Constructed Opinion 

• The first glance I see this card, I tried to imagine several situations that this card could lose you the game. Versus Hunter, the hunter could quick-shot , kill-command for some extra damage. Versus Paladin, you just gave Paladin a free flamestrike by buffing up consecration and the list goes on. On the other hand the benefits for us as the user of the card is meh. The super combo is probably like azure-drake with an extra spell power damage for swipe but is it really worth it for the risk and giving extra spell power for your opponent?. Moreover, could be the dream webspinner spawn as it is a beast that buffs your quick-shot and kill-command.

Maybe viable in: Midrange Druid?

Arena Opinion:

• Similar opinions about it as in constructed, as this card can really really backfire you so hard. The stats of this card are mediocre and the rarity is rare, you could probably get other options. This card for me is too risky to run or even pick into your arena draft

Class Challenge Cards

Hunter: Dart Trap

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Constructed Opinion:

• A new trap for extra mindgames for good old Rexxar. Might be very strong in Face Hunter or Hybrid Hunter since these decks have little amount of priority of controlling the board than Midrange Hunter, and this trap suits them very well, 5 extra damage to the face with traps sign me in. The reason this trap is powerful because it punishes the ability to heal for most classes (Druids, Priest and Warrior) and damage to the face is all about what Face Hunter concerns. First plays of this trap maybe successful as most players will not be expecting it, however as time goes by if a deck that contains Dart Trap goes viral people might be playing around it, as it is very easy to play around, just don’t use your hero power. In conclusion, I see this trap to be play as a surprise trap and will see play in ranked mode.

Maybe viable in: Face Hunter and Hybrid Hunter, maybe Trap Hunter?

Arena Opinion:

• Not as good as constructed I think, but depends on your overall draft, if you manage to get a deck similar to Face Hunter, this trap might be your dream trap as I’m pretty sure your opponent may not playaround this trap. However, if your drafting a Midrange type of Hunter, you would possibly avoid picking this trap as it doesn’t help you control the board at all. So depends on the draft but I would pick explosive-trap over this card just because it helps control the board a bit.

Shaman: Everyfin is Awesome

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Constructed Opinion:

• Another interesting addition into the Shaman card pool, buffing up your minions for +2/+2 is a new concept to Shaman. However, the 7 mana cost with no reduction of this card may not be very mana efficient, and the requirement of murlocs might makes this card not playable if the shaman isn’t a murloc shaman card, as bloodlust is a much better finisher with lesser mana cost. Now let’s talk about it in murloc Shaman, this card is similar too murloc-warleader for permanent effect, and in murloc Shaman could be a huge deal, as tougher murlocs are very hard to deal with for most decks.

Maybe viable in: Murloc Shaman

Arena Opinion:

• Very gimmicky, but the permanent buff is a very strong card on its own. Could probably see some play in arena. However the mana cost of this card may be a problem as 7 mana spell that can only be gamebreaking only when you have a huge board but if you don’t this card is never going to be played. So it will see some play in arena to test its power, then probably fall off as it is very situational.

Priest: Entomb

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Constructed Opinion:

• Probably the most interesting card for Priest in this adventure set. A cheaper mind-control that adds the card into your deck instead of gaining immediate control. The drawback is that it maybe a dead draw for your other cards in the deck especially when playing against an aggressive deck, this card isn’t going to shine much as they do not possess high value threats for you to entomb, however in control or midrange matchup is where this card is going to shine and gain super value. Moreover, this card is a removal that doesn’t require the minion to have a valid attack power (shadow-word-pain and shadow-word-death) and can be used very versatility.

Maybe viable in: Control Priest , Dragon Priest

Arena Opinion:

• Very good in arena too, in terms of resource and threat elimination. Makes you win games in the long run. However, similar to constructed this card only gains value in the long time game, you have to survive long enough for the card entombed in your deck to come out to really destroy your opponent. Anyway, it removes any card/threat easily so when you can control the board and your opponent drops a big minion you can’t deal with, this card is still does a good job as a strong remover.

Winner of the week

This week’s cards are mostly murloc themed, but we have a very indecisive class pick between two classes…..and we’re gonna go to!…….

[spoiler]

Honorable Mentions: entomb , dart-trap , naga-sea-witch , anyfin-can-happen

[/spoiler]

Why?

[spoiler]

• Well, our winner goes to everyfin-is-awesome, just because I would like play Hearthstone’s forgotten class, Shaman and yep, this week deck is going to be Murloc Shaman.
• Tough to decide between playing a Murloc Paladin or Murloc Shaman but since we’re all a little bit tired of how often we see Uther’s beard in constructed, I selected Thrall.
• Honorable Mentions cards are cards that would probably see some play in constructed (every card would see play but these are the ones that I think has potential to be staple cards in the future)

[/spoiler]

Deck Synopsis

A hybrid murloc midrange Shaman deck. The deck strategy would be swarming the board a lot and grind their life down with everyfin-is-awesome. We should’ve sufficient amount of murlocs for the mana reduction or you could add more murlocs as you may. I chose cult-master over siltfin-spiritwalker because we can draw cards from other minions to and no Overload drawback too. You could develop the deck into a more aggro version by cutting out the big drops and go a more all-in route with more aggressive drops and maybe more burst spells.

Final Thoughts

Well, I had extra time during Thanksgiving break to write this piece up so its extra lengthy as I manage to put my extra thoughts in the cards. Hope you all had a nice holiday break. Feel free to leave your thoughts about the cards/decks in the comments or even what you like/don’t like about the review. I read and answer all my comments and all comments are much appreciated. So see you all again next week for the final wing of League of Explorers!

 

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