by OtakuMZ - 8 years ago     show comments

Introduction / Genreral Information

The Spire is the fourth and last wing of One Night in Karazhan (ONiK). It will open its doors for NA Hearthstone players this  tomorrow, Thursday, September 1st. The rest of the world will have to wait a few hours longer, normally around 4-8 hours which is about the time of midnight to early morning CET. 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…

Cards of “The Spire”

Card Predictions

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 4^th and last wing of the Karazhan adventure has IMHO the most difficult card yet to be evaluated. Nevertheless, there is a lot of exiting stuff and a lot of unknown variables associated with the cards. Let’s do not linger and head directly into it.

Let There Be Dragons

Netherspite Historian seems weak but I got reminded over and over by already existing “inspire” cards that this mechanic is indeed powerful. Therefore, I have not given up on the historian yet despite its weak body. The same is true for Book Wyrm, destroying a 3-attack minion can mean a huge swing – totally fizzle. Again we have the story of “two in one”, we get a decent 4-mana body packed with a (targetable!) Shadow Word: Pain. We have to see how this particular dragon performs.

Portals

Ironforge Portal is not the most interesting one but it isn’t too bad for Control Warrior. With Bash still in the game this card may stay a sleeper pick until next Hearthstone year though. It simply does not deliver an immediate board control and lets your opponent time to react where Bash can remove a threat (e.g. Tunnel Trogg) and provides survivability. Moonglade Portal on the other hand will most likely be adapted by Yogg Druid.

Hype Train

I am so hyped about Malchezaar’s Imp. I will play Discolock (Discard Warlock) a lot. I do not know if it will prevail but I so much love the concept. I am tired of Zoo and I want Demonlock back. At least this is something fresh for my most played class. Spirit Claws is heavily undervalued IMO. I see it rock and totally change the Shaman playstyle opening up a long forgotten archetype. Medivh’s Valet in controlish mages is an auto include. It provides early-game board control and is still late-game viable – great card design!

Unknown Future

Violet Illusionist looks bad at first glance but so did Wicked Witchdoctor. I do not fully give up hope on this card, it just fits too well in Warlock with self-damaging demons (Flame Imp, Pit Lord) and Fool’s Bane loses its downside of taking a lot of damage. I already said it in my card review Ethereal Peddler is my personal most anticipated card of the set. I hope he performs better than Shadowcaster and will push Burgle Rogue right into the middle of the meta.

I could not have been more divided that with this week’s legendaries. I hate the concept of Prince Malchezaar and I most profoundly think he is garbage and hope he will not find a hope in competitive play.  I think inflating your deck with random cards is outright bad. It is an unfun card, nothing more and nothing less and I do not think it will have a long lasting impact -we WILL see Trolden moments created by this cards though, that’s for sure. Finally, with the host of the whole adventure, Medivh, the Guardian, I am on the strictly opposite train. I like the concept and he has the right amount of RNG attached to likely provide a lot of fun moments. Let the party begin!

Deck Predictions

The next week in Hearthstone will be crazy. We get a lot of cards that finalize the tools for a plethora of decks. I have no clue what the outcome will be but I expect another big shift in the meta. I hope that we end up with a lot of different decks where no single deck is dominating.

I think Medivh will inspire a lot of Yogg / Spell Control decks. There will be all kind of crazy testing going on but I definitely think he will find a home in a deck or another, first and foremost Control Priest and Yogg Druid.  Dragon decks get two new cards with unknown impact. I expect a lot of testing in this corner and I hope something viable is among all compositions tested. Discard Warlock, or Discolock as I like to call it, which is more in line with ONiK’s  general theme, gets a hopefully strong upgrade. Freeze Mage and Control Mages get their final puzzle pieces and might be pushed hard into relevancy. I also have high hopes for a new Control Shaman or Spellpower Shaman with the help of Spirit Claws and of course our host himself. Finally, Ethereal Rogue or Burgle Rogue will be tested and I direly hope that it will be a competitively viable deck.

Final Words

I hope these articles helped you along the release of One Night in Karazhan. I would very happy for feedback from your side that will help to improve future articles. Just leave a comment below or a tweet @OtakuMZ1978.

And now, without further ado, let’s party together in Karazhan!