by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

We here at the BlizzPro Hearthstone site are rabid fans of the game, to say the very least. Whether we’re writing articles, recording podcasts, or chatting it up with you all in the community over social media, we care a lot about the development of the game and how it’s being received by the players. As a result, that leads to a LOT of thinking about Hearthstone. With all of that thinking, some pretty stalwart opinions develop as well. Enter HearthPro Picks! Each week, we’ll be putting our opinions out in the open for you to agree or disagree with on some part of the game – favorite cards, least favorite changes, and on and on. We hope you enjoy and come banter with us!

Here we are again! Another week, another wing of Naxxramas. As per usual, we’re debating our favorite card reward from the Construct Quarter. Here are the possible options:

Stephen Stewart

– Undertaker –

I’m sure that I’m about to incite a riot. As a professionally perpetually proclaimed Priest player, you’re probably looking at my choice and going, “Oh, that’s funny. He spelled Dark Cultist wrong. Silly Leviathan!” Nope, this is real life, people! Undertaker is a broken card. And guess what? It works in Priest, too! In fact, just this morning, I watched Backspace absolutely annihilate Tidesoftime’s Control Warrior with one of the most disgusting sequences of buffing through simply laying down minions that I have ever seen. Basically, the Zoo is now open to Priests and THAT’S why I’m picking this card. For so so long, Priest was perceived as a class with a really high skill cap just to be able to play it anywhere near a competitive level and even then, you were subject to quite a bit of RNG to consistently win, which made it too inconsistent to be considered top-tier. That’s not to say that Zoo is “easy mode” by contrast, but being able to employ a more aggressive strategy within the Priest class that now relies less on timely combos per se and getting to the late game, but instead relies more on efficient trades and continued pressure turn by turn… Well, it’s simply refreshing! It’s also about time. #priestpower

J. R. Cook

– Zombie Chow –

This week is probably the toughest week for deciding which card is the best. Undertaker is pretty awesome and Reynad has shown that Mad Scientist can do amazing things in Midrange Hunter. However, I think Zombie Chow has to be my absolute favorite. First off, a 2/3 drop on 1 mana is pretty amazing. Yes, it has a draw back of giving your opponent 5 health if it dies, but if you do some combo shenanigans with it, it’s well worth the risk. You could silence it for example, but my favorite combo is using the Priest card Auchenai Soulpriest. Suddenly, your chow is damaging your opponent instead. The dream though is to get both of these cards working with Prophet Velen and possibly Baron Rivendare and watch your opponent weep. Unfortunately, it’ll take a lot of luck to pull off that wombo combo – but it’ll be the story you can tell your grandkids in 50 years about how amazing you were at Hearthstone that one time.

Kevin Hovdestad

– Feugen and Stalagg –

I know everyone is on about the incredible value that is Mad Scientist for Hunters, and I can certainly understand why – it’s impossible to overstate just how deadly a play that tempo-positive can be. I’ll go ahead and say that I think it deserves an honourable mention, but Mad Scientist is only truly a useful utility in one very specific style of deck for one class, so it isn’t the choice that has the deepest impact for me out of this wing.

I absolutely have to give top billing to the new legendary pair of Feugen and Stalagg. Two incredible new five mana cards that easily pass the vanilla card test individually, but also add an incredible level of risk to your opponent ignoring them if they survive? Count me in. Few of the popular rush-down decks use silences, so the opportunities with these two are incredible. One is in the blind spot for Priests, and the other trades aggressively (or can even be easily activated by your own Big Game Hunter after attacking!).

It might take a little time for some solid control archetypes that can hit back against the popular Trap Hunter style dominating high-end ladder, but when it does, I expect these two – along with Loatheb from a couple of weeks back – to stick a big landing in the long-term meta.

Quite the varied results just from the three of us! I was on the fence because you could honestly give a nod to just about every card from this wing being valuable/playable in Constructed. Where do you fall? Let us know in the comments below!