Blackrock Mountain Week 1 Card Review

by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

A lot has been said about all of the revealed Blackrock Mountain cards, but now we’ve had the chance to play with some of them. Has the public opinion changed on some of the cards after everyone has gotten a chance to try them out? Lets see how these new cards have done thus far on their first week out.

Boss Cards

Grim Patron might be the card that has gotten most attention this week, mostly because its hella fun. But is it good? When Grim Patron was first announced the general consensus is that it wasn’t going to amount to much. It didn’t seem strong outside of some wacky combo decks, and that appears to be the case thus far. The catch is that the wacky combo decks that Grim Patron enables seem to be performing a bit better than people were expecting. Expect to see a lot of Grim Patron on Youtube Highlights, Funny Vids, and stuff like that. Expect to see quite a few Grim Patron Warrior Decks facing against in you at the Hearthstone Inn.

But Grim Patron isn’t the only card that provides a serious amount of silly fun. Gang Up has been used to fortify the good old Mill Rogue deck concept. From initial analysis we knew that Gang Up was going to be a better card when reaching near fatigue levels, and of course the first we see of it is inside decks that actually try to fatigue you. I’m intrigued by the potential of this card on more standard rogue decks, specially those shifted more to the control end of the spectrum. Gang Up is a card of huge potential, so keep an eye on it. If Rogue gets more tools in the future that increase the power of Control Rogue decks, then this card could really start making the difference on serious play situations.

Finally we have Resurrect. Resurrect is a pretty cool spell, it definitely looks super fun. While I’m not a big fan of wild RNG-based effects, this seems to be something that you can at least control to a degree, and its also not something that would be forced into any Priest deck just by the virtue of its average power. In fact, the most I’ve seen about Resurrect this week is how great this card would be in a deck like Druid. Still, just like Gang Up, Resurrect is a card whose power will more than likely scale upwards as new cards come out. Resurrect has great synergy with cards such as the Injured Blademaster, and maybe if we get more cards with negative battlecries then Resurrect could make a big splash in the future.

I’m still waiting for more people to start trying out Resurrect, maybe they can come up with something cool using existing cards.

Class Challenge Cards

It is no secret that a lot of people were not happy with Quick Shot, Face Hunter is a deck which gets a lot of haters within the community and they weren’t exactly happy with it getting an extra tool. As expected, Quick Shot quickly made its way into Face Hunters lists on tournaments. But the question is still out there on whether Quick Shot makes Face Hunter better or not. Many people have suggested to only add one Quick Shot to the deck. Meanwhile others claim Quick Shot might be a better fit in Mid-Range Hunter, even just as a glorified Darkbomb.

The role of Quick Shot will continue to be discovered as the new cards keep coming out, the meta continues to evolve, and more people get the chance to playtest their new decks. After the dust settles we will likely have an answer and see how big of an impact this card will end up having.

I’d like to add like many of the cards before it, Quick Shot also has some potential to become better as new set drops. If in the future we get more good cards that give you a big incentive to quickly burn through your hand, then the value of Quick Shot could see a considerable increase.

Dragon’s Breath is a card that has barely got any attention this week.  Just like it was discussed before it was revealed, it has been seemed inferior to some of the other options that Mage has at his disposal. The situations where you can get great value out of this card aren’t often seen, and thus this card has been put in the back burner for now. Perhaps some weird twist of the meta will make Dragon’s Breath rise to prominence, until then we will keep Frostbolting and Firebolting things instead.

Wing Legendary

Oh boy, Emperor T. When this card was originally announced the interwebs went crazy. He was immediately heralded as the new Most OP card in Hearthstone and it doesn’t take much to see why. Reducing the cost of cards is generally a pretty powerful effect, and often times his ability was compared to innervate. The thing is, Thaurissan’s ability is more like Wild Growth instead. One of the great things about Innervate is that allows you to play a single powerful card on a turn where your opponent will be hard pressed to find an answer for. But since Thaurissan’s mana reduction is spread across your hand, you can only accelerate a big threat 1 turn. Even then, as a 6-drop your opponent is way more likely to have a good answer for whatever madness you can muster on turn 7.

Even when you ramp out Thaurissan, often times you won’t have enough cards in your hand to make the most out of its ability. And I’ve also seen a lot of its ability go to waste as sometimes the best possible play would still be the same if you hadn’t activated T’s ability, you just end up with 1 unused mana.

That said, I’ve also seen some games where Emperor Thaurissan has single handedly claimed games for one player or the other. What worries me the most about Emperor Thaurissan is the potential to enable some sick OTK combos where you just win from your hand and don’t really interact much with the board, the again Emperor is a Legendary card so with only 1 copy on your deck you might be hard pressed to build around a particular combo.

Mr.T right here is a very powerful card, and it will be included in a lot of the decks out there. Despite that, it might not end up being as gamebreaking as it was originally thought. Still, this is a card that I’m going to be keeping an eye on, I wouldn’t be surprised it if ended up encouraging degenerative gameplay and ended up being nerfed for it. Thaurissan can also be a huge pain if you can’t immediately handle it, so that might be the factor that prompts a change.

In all, I’m having fun with Emperor Thaurissan thus far, and hopefully you are too.

What did you think of the Blackrock Depths and its cards? Let me know on the comments below or hit me up on Twitter at @DannieRay23