by OtakuMZ - 8 years ago     show comments

Introduction

The Opera will open its doors for NA Hearthstone players later today, the rest of the world will have to wait a litlle longer, most likely about 4-8 hours past the initial NA release. If you want to buy the wing, it will cost you 700 gold or 7 US$. Let’s take a look at this week’s cards…

“The Opera” Cards – One Night in Karazhan, 2nd Wing

Card Predictions

I will not talk about every single card in this article again, as we already did individual initial reviews. I kindly invite you to take a look back at our Karazhan Card Evaluation #1 to #7 articles or to head to my Karazhan Power Rankings.

The Interesting

One week in with experimentation on new cards, we once more saw that cards are not easy to predict. In the upcoming release, there are quite a few of these cards that might turn out to be powerhouses or fade to oblivion: Barnes , Onyx Bishop, Arcane Giant, Swashburglar and Moat Lurker.

Although similar to Herald Volajz, Barnes is not depended on board presence. Some pros are skeptical about the card by I think it will shake up the meta quite a bit. He will most likely be played in N’Zoth decks and control decks with minions that have either immediate effects like Ragnaros or deathrattles. Midrange Deathrattle Hunter will also be a perfect fit as it lacks good 4-drops despite Houndsmaster and probably some Midrange Paladin.

Onyx Bishop is powerful and I am sure it will get relevant once better priest cards got released with a new set. Right now, as you all already know, Anduin is in a tough spot and this holy fella will not likely change his dire situation.

I predict Arcane Giant to be very powerful in spell based decks, especially in Yogg-Saron decks. I have high hopes that this one will be better than Frost Giant which totally wiffed. Why? Playing spells is already a natural thing for these decks and does not end in a tempo loss. The excessive use of the hero power on the other hand WAS a huge tempo loss and therefore the big frosty guy was almost never played.

Swashburglar will have to wait until last week to unravel ist (hopefully) full potential in conjunction with Ethereal Peddler but there might be experimentations in already existing decks like N’Zoth Rogue or even Tempo Rogue to enhance the early curve while no running low on cards. Overall, as I already mentioned, I have high hopes for this card. I already stretched the point on many occasions that 1-dops, despite looking irrelevant at first, often tend to have a HUGE (imagine ThatsAdmirable‘s voice) impact on the game.

Moat Lurker is the most difficult one to evaluate. I already said in my initial review that the mechanic is amazing and there a vast range of scenarios for it to interact with your own and your opponent’s minions. Its problem is it’s cost of 6 mana, another very copentitive spot on the curve. Only extensive testing will show if it will be a relevant meta card. I can see it in Evolve Shaman morphing your opponent’s minions away. You might be even very brave and use Purify on it. 😈 😆 #PurifyValue

The Weak

After all those interesting cards, there are the underwhelming ones: Pompus Thespian, Kara Kazham and Silvermoon Portal are on the weak side of this wing. I do not expect to see them having a big impact.

The Pompous Thespian isn’t even worth considering for Bolster Warrior because there are better alternatives (e.g. Sparring Partner). The only card that might see play is the paladin’s Silvermoon Portal, I am sure it will be tested out in some Aggro or Midrange Paladin list but finally I do not think it to be too strong. Atop, at 4 mana it is in a highly contested spot. Anyway, Portals in general are overall on the stronger side of the set, so I am hesitant to knock it out of the game yet. Wicked Witchdoctor will see play testing but I am not convinced that a “Wicked Totem Shaman” list will be better than actual aggro or midrange lists. Kara Khazam looks cool and its name is very cute but I can still not find a home for it. Maybe it will find a home in some Cho’Gall deck or a more top-heavy Zoolock which abuses the tokens with Darkshire Councilman and Knife Jugglers.

The Strong One

Finally, no arguments will be made that Kindly Grandmother will catapult Hunter to the top of the meta once more. It is a tiny bit more balanced than either Nerubian Egg or Haunted Creeper but nevertheless powerful. In some circumstances, it may be even stronger than the two above mentioned cards owing the double beast tag. I am almost sure that Rexxar and Alleria will be able to defend a top spot even further down the set’s release. Again, after some downtime during Whispers of the Old Gods, SMOrc is incoming once again. I will take it lightly because my Hunter is the only clas that I have not played to level 60, I think the time has come to close this gap.

Deck Predictions

What decks do I expect this week on the ladder?

First and foremost: Hunter, Hunter Hunter, Hunter – Yogg and Load, Aggro, Midrange and N’Zoth. Last week was already full of secret-heavy lists and this week all Hunter archetypes will get a very important deathrattle beast in the form of Kindly Grandmother.

Spell heavy decks will be the second archetype we see due to Arcane Giant. The Third kind of decks will be deathrattle based and control decks that will try to abuse Barnes.

The rest of the classes will get more relevant next week but I will look out for further iterations of Moat Lurker Evolve Shaman. I also hope for some rogue innovations due to Swashburglar but I am still not sure they will happen.

What do you think? Write me @OtakuMZ1978!

Final Words

Be sure to check out JR’s Wing 1 guide to to beating the first wing’s encounters even on heroic if you haven’t achieved that already. I am sure he will also release a similar guide ASAP after the 2nd Wing of One Night in Karazhan went online. I hope you enjoyed reading this short preview and predictions article, I plan to do it for week three and four too despite missing week one. So please tune in again! 🙂

Magically yours,

OtakuMZ