TIF Reviews: The League of Explorers! [Hearthstone]
Video Article
Video Article
The Impact Factor is back with its second ever video article! In a move that shocks literally no one, I also use this video article to discuss a mainstay in my gaming wheelhouse: Hearthstone.
BlizzCon 2015 had its opening ceremony last Friday, November 6th. Amongst news about Starcraft and Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch, we also got a nice bit of Hearthstone content revealed. As expected, Team 5 talked about Hearthstone's upcoming adventure, and revealed it to be entitled 'The League of Explorers'! The news was a little different than expected, though. The adventure is four wings (not the regular 5) and comes with 45 new cards (not the regular 30 or so). On top of all that, the first wing will be released this Thursday!
Therefore I took it upon myself to sit down and analyze the new cards--all 45 of them. The video article below discusses each and every card, and places them in a competitive constructed context. What are the cards that may potentially make the biggest impact in ranked play? How will the nearly fifty new cards impact the competitive metagame as a whole? All of those questions are answered and more!
Let me know in the comments here or on YouTube what you think. Which cards have you the most excited? What cards do you think will make the biggest impact? Are you going to be buying The League of Explorers? Let me know!
Most of the neutral cards do not excite me. Maybe the one drop that allows us to either discover a spell or minion. Might replace mind vision for me.
ReplyDeleteAs an exclusive Priest player I have some thoughts:
Museum Curator: I agree with you 100% on this card. I'd never play it. It doesn't help with board control which is what you'd want for a 2nd turn drop ideally. Late game, you might get more use out of it, but for my control deck my late game card slots are all taken on cards I know will definitely assist.
Entomb: I can envision this card replacing MC. It is 4 mana cheaper, and while you don't get the actual creature on your side of the board, it is still a flat removal with the potential for you to get a battlecry ability yourself. Makes it so you don't have to play around a threat turn 8-9 hoping to last to 10 to MC it.
Excavated Evil: I disagree with you on this card. Maybe it won't show up in the meta immediately, (Priests aren't even dominant in the meta IMO) but 3 health is a sweet spot when playing aggro decks. Nearly every Mech drop on turn 2-4 has three health. There have been many times I've lamented that Nova is always one damage short of clearing the board for me so much so that I've considered adding kobolds to my deck. Azure Drake would be wonderful if I ever get one. As for hurting your own creatures, turn 5 against an aggro deck you either don't have any creatures or you don't need this card because somehow you are winning. Late game, you can still heal your own minions out of it (or attack first) which is worth it if it'll clear the board in your favor. As for being added to the opponents deck. . . Do you think an aggro player would EVER consider wiping their own board just to get a few of yours? I think this has the potential to help control Priests greatly. Would it completely replace holy nova? I don't think so. But it might replace one.
Great comment RADTrooper! Really appreciated how you took your perspective as a predominantly Priest player to assess the class's new card in The League of Explorers.
DeleteI totally agree with you on Entomb. It doesn't completely replace Mind Control, but serves the same function for most of the match-ups where you would find MC useful. Namely, control versus control. MC is nice, but often very slow. It's clunky to use your whole turn stealing a minion. Entomb not only allows you to do something else, but also have the effect earlier. It's got so much versatility. Entombing a Sylvanas, Tirion, Ragnaros... even smaller things like Mysterious Challenger or Savanah Highmane. It takes a big threat away from your opponent and gives it to you for later use. Awesome. I expect seeing only as a 1-copy card, though. 6 mana is a lot.
Re: Excavated Evil. You're not the first person I've heard express this sentiment. In fact, MTG Pro & Hall of Famer turned Hearthstone Pro Brian Kibler said pretty much the same thing you did. I'll admit, I was perhaps a little too harsh on the card. Even taking into consideration both of your opinions, though, I still can't really see this card getting much play. Sure, Holy Nova is bad but is this much better? At least Nova can activate Holy Champions and Light Wardens and Northshire Clerics. The 3-damage is important against aggro. Absolutely. But for 5 mana that still not a great cost-to-damage ratio.
As to your second point, I agree that's it's absolutely a disadvantage for aggro to draw this card. They aren't going to want to clear their own board. Then again, the chances that the aggro deck draw this are pretty statistically low. They have one copy out of the 22 or so cards remaining in their deck. When you compare this to Hellfire, you're essentially paying 1 extra mana to have a 1/20 chance to screw over your opponent's draw. If Excavated Evil cost 4, that would be an entirely different story.
I do like the idea of it in a deck, but find it hard to imagine it ever being that great. At most, I think a control Priest would replace 1 Holy Nova for a copy of it.
Thanks for the comment!
Not to mention, that if your opponent DOES play Excavated Evil, you get it back. It might as well be Christmas against stingy aggro.
ReplyDelete