by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

With hundreds of minions, spells and weapons to choose from, where do you start? You can start right here: every Thursday, we will feature one card in our Weekly Spotlight and share with you how to use it in your constructed deck.

Avenge (1M) Secret: When one of your minion dies, give a random friendly minion +3/+2. “Several paladins have joined together to deliver justice under the name “Justice Force”. Their lawyer talked them out of calling themselves the Justice League.” Paladin.)

Ben Brode loves this card. He has stated this repeatedly in developer interviews, on top of that it has the distinction of being the last class card awarded in the Naxxramas adventure mode. The community reception of Avenge – despite the fabulous flavor text – has been a bit more muted.

The card had its coming out party in the fight against the Four Horsemen in the Military Quarter, which made the fight considerably more challenging.

Objectively speaking, Avenge has great value. For only 1 Mana, one of your minions receives a +3/+2 buff, which even makes the Silver Hand Recruit suddenly that much more fearsome. This kind of attack and health boost for one Mana can at best be found in the Flame Imp, which demands a fairly steep price in return.

While the value trade makes Avenge seem like a no-brainer, there are some considerations: the card does not trigger during the turn in which you play it, and you have to have a friendly minion on the board to receive that buff. If you only have one minion on the board and find yourself top-decking, this card may not have quite as much utility. You also don’t have absolute control over which minion will receive this buff.

The card is great when it comes to shoring up board control, and offers a bit of an insurance policy against potentially devastating spells like Brawl, Holy Nova, Consecration and even Flamestrike. Rather than having nothing or only a severely hampered minion on the board, Avenge can potentially give you a starting point to rally back from. Particularly in tandem with the Sludge Belcher, Avenge could be very, very potent.

While the jury is still out on Avenge, the card has a great deal of potential for the Paladin class. It will be interesting to see how it helps reposition the Paladin in the new meta.