Body Bagger - As much as corpses are important, this card is just too vanilla in my opinion. Its like playing a 1/3 in your deck that does nothing else. Too bad this isn't 2016, where that alone would have been enough.
Malignant Horror - To be honest, if DK can buff minions this card might just be insane enough to actually see play. Even without buffing essentially you're paying 1 corpse for two 2/4 reborn minions for 4 mana. What's there not to love? Only way it doesn't get played is redundancy, either there being better cards or the deck simply doesn't care for sticky minions.
Corpse Bride - A casual 12/12 worth of stats for 5 mana, sure why not? Yeah it takes up 8 corpses, but if it wins you the game then nothing to it. Unholy decks would love it
Runeforging - Just broken, but there's always the chance that DK simply doesn't have many weapons other than frostmourne, which even discounted is fairly worthless today.
Chillfallen Baron - A slower arcane intellect that comes with a 2/2.
Not really a fan of the 3d legendary portrait. But more concerning is what it'll do to the game when on mobile, or slower PCs. Might be that it lags the game to such an extent that the portrait is simply unplayable. We've already seen the effects of Convoke the Spirits on mobile, I'd be sad to see it happening to this as well.
Haven't really tried out the card myself, and by the looks of it Im not missing anything. Currently on hsreplay this card is pulling low play win rates, and horrible mulligan win rates (which is obviously unsurprising). Basically thief rogue is the best fit for this card, both because you can cheat it out with Swiftscale Trickster, or cheat out an expensive spell should you get one.
But in all honestly, this is a card I dont need to try to know it sucks. The problem with this card is simple; it does absolutely nothing and is a gamble for success. If you get a few cheap spells or freeze effects with this card you might mitigate its horrible cost, and if you get anything unplayable (like Sigil of Reckoning) then it just bricks your hand. You can play this cheaply should your hand be big enough, but then youre getting less spells and at some point we might as well be asking why not just play Venomous Scorpid, or anything else for that matter.
The only way this card even sees remotely any play is that you can cheat it out, or if the pool is small enough that you'll likely get something good most of the time. But Im highly unoptimistic, because with the advent of DKs the spell pool is not only large its also cluttered with cards you dont have synergies with (corpses, etc.).
One good niche it does have is that it fills your hand. So this is just an effective immunity against curses, bombs, or draw effects. But this is beyond the realms of desperation, that its included into the deck simply to counter such archetypes.
DK cards are currently enjoying the same work as dhunters did, in that their cards are simply blatantly overpowered for their cost, relative to the options available to other classes. Wouldn't be too surprised to see a round of nerfs from the first month alone, depending on the expansion cards.
Frost cards looking very dangerous, almost the level of tempo dhunter on AoO. All it needs now is a card that generate lots of stats on board by turn 5. We might actually see another 70% playrate for DKs on the first month, even if its different archetypes.
Patchwerk is like a mutanus that's played on an empty board. And for an added fuck you he even eats something from your deck. How this card isn't insane is completely beyond me. The only thing stopping this from appearing in every DK deck is the rune restriction.
I remember slagging off mutanus for the exact same reason. But turns out that even removing one card from your opponent's list of options is a very big deal.
How did you beat Prince M without summoning any of his taunty imps?
Even on Normal, he summons a 13/13 demon that attacks with no sense of self-preservation.
You need to rush down melchazar before killing any demons. Best achieved through a defensive build that can also focus down red targets, like nature bros. Just remove brukan for something like nemsy, who comes with a renewable natural taunt minion.
Dont need to worry too much about them demons killing themselves, since one of them usually buffs demon's health.
Should be able to easily kill off the prince before anything else dies.
This is always going to be difficult because its really a subjective thing. Diamond cards to me always looked messy while this one stands out really well, even if it looks like you've just pulled it through a color filter. Have to say that Im impressed as far as optional cosmetic goes, and it does help that each expansion will feature its own unique look.
But objectively, I have to believe that making signature cards simply requires less effort (and therefore less expensive to produce) than diamond cards, which is perhaps why team5 is more willing to elevate this rather than continue with diamond cards. There's 18 of them every expansion after all.
Nerf to Ice Revenant is necessary because from what Ive seen of the frost cards in DK a lot of them generate spells and discount other spells, so we can have a problem with this innocent card getting a 6/6 buff on turn 4.
Well, at least I'll be happy knowing I still have all those cards in my collection ready for a payoff.
As for theotar, this is not the end nor will it be, since its fairly obvious now that team5's concern isn't really theotar as a win con, as much as it is theotar seeing too much play. Seriously, this card isn't even 4 months old and it already has two nerfs. Just make it discard cards than swapping it, that'll make the card truly all about disruption and not winning games on its own, which even at 4 mana wouldn't be any more impressive than most other disruption cards available.
At least DK is more resistant to theotar (owing to the lack of corpses for other classes) and being the new class will likely be dominating play rates the first month, meaning theotar's play rate will similarly diminish. But I wouldn't be surprised if this card gets another nerf at some point within the next year.
You might just sneak one copy of this into big spell mage, so your dawngrasp can get you another twin 5/6 taunts when she comes out. And unfortunately, this card might only ever see play in that deck. Because in most other cases you'll much rather be playing mage stuff like freezes or just plain beefed up hp. Mage usually just dont really care about board all that much, both yours and the opponents.
Still, the fact that your opponent cant kill this with targeted removal effects makes this a real stellar card to have, even out of discovers.
Looks good. You can buff your hero upwards to 60 health with two copies. But unless youre specifically playing Reno Jackson, there's very little indication that DK can even heal upwards to 60 health and do so while fighting back the opponent's stuff.
Team5 might end up regretting this design, because its the kind of card that encourages attrition control gameplay and generally tends to infuriate opponents. Imagine playing a mirror match with this shit. Those tournaments can be dragged up an additional 1.5 hours just for the mirror alone.
But for what its worth, if youre going full blood this card would be the reason why. Gain ten extra health? Why not?
Unimpressive even after the manathrist triggered. Doesn't even have spidertank stats. Playable only if the healing is that important to you. Or if Happy Ghoul is returned to standard.
Poor man's AoE. And I mean really poor. For those that care, the 2/2 body is insignificant and the AoE is too small. A terrible inclusion in all manners of space and form.
There's no reason to believe anyone would be holding this for 5 extra turns just for a 4/7 taunt. If you need a taunt you'll jam this on 3, and that's the end of discussion because you're playing a 3 mana 2/5 taunt on 3 when even Tar Creeper is a better option.
It has alot of stats, comes with both rush and taunt, and cannot be removed by conventional removal options.
But because its so undeniably dull you'd have to be really desperate if this card is deliberately added into your deck. Such a shame, because if it were 4/6 for 5 mana, it would be infinitely better than as a 6 drop.
Just bad, because it doesn't affect the board or your hand, and comes out at 7.
Arena god, constructed minnow. The only other way this sees any play at all is in vanndar decks or big decks. Or there's always a chance that the meta turns against removal cards so a massive 16/16 minion without description on turn 8 can actually be enough.
Its so baffling to attach the effect to such a recognizable name in warcraft lore. Perhaps there's a card down the line that makes this undroppable. But for now I dont see it.
Probably bad, but wont know until we actually get to play DK. But from the sneak peak of cards and reveal video, I just dont see it. Maybe under the unholy build? Because if you can keep a board then this card is just 15 damage without a silence counter.
Problem range from cost to needing a undead minion to even do anything useful. At 8 mana, the card has to either end games or stabilize board. This card does neither unconditionally. And (need check) there's a possibility of it buffing itself too, which substantially reduces its powerlevel. Bonemare was key during a time where the meta was slower, and that card allowed you to choose. This card is not just slower even than bonemare (which incidentally sees no play even as we speak in standard) but doesn't allow you to choose.
Synergizes with hp too, but lets be real here. You're not going to spend 10 mana to do 6 damage to face.
I would rate Burden of Pride over this card. Unless there's a good reason for warrior to be flooding board I dont see why this would be played at all.
The upgrade is nice and all, but double 2/4 taunts for a card you need to hold until 6 mana is hardly going to blow anything down in terms of power level. I'd much rather just play this on 2 and get proper board, than wait 4 extra turns.
Shadow spell fodder. Its a decent card at best but Im still struggling to see shaman spend 2 mana to do nothing more than summon two 3/2s, which incidentally needs a target and overloads for 1.
But being shadow spell fodder may just be enough reasons to play this. Your Multicaster drawing one more is absolutely a significant point to make.
Alright, some cards to look at;
Body Bagger - As much as corpses are important, this card is just too vanilla in my opinion. Its like playing a 1/3 in your deck that does nothing else. Too bad this isn't 2016, where that alone would have been enough.
Malignant Horror - To be honest, if DK can buff minions this card might just be insane enough to actually see play. Even without buffing essentially you're paying 1 corpse for two 2/4 reborn minions for 4 mana. What's there not to love? Only way it doesn't get played is redundancy, either there being better cards or the deck simply doesn't care for sticky minions.
Corpse Bride - A casual 12/12 worth of stats for 5 mana, sure why not? Yeah it takes up 8 corpses, but if it wins you the game then nothing to it. Unholy decks would love it
Runeforging - Just broken, but there's always the chance that DK simply doesn't have many weapons other than frostmourne, which even discounted is fairly worthless today.
Chillfallen Baron - A slower arcane intellect that comes with a 2/2.
Not really a fan of the 3d legendary portrait. But more concerning is what it'll do to the game when on mobile, or slower PCs. Might be that it lags the game to such an extent that the portrait is simply unplayable. We've already seen the effects of Convoke the Spirits on mobile, I'd be sad to see it happening to this as well.
Haven't really tried out the card myself, and by the looks of it Im not missing anything. Currently on hsreplay this card is pulling low play win rates, and horrible mulligan win rates (which is obviously unsurprising). Basically thief rogue is the best fit for this card, both because you can cheat it out with Swiftscale Trickster, or cheat out an expensive spell should you get one.
But in all honestly, this is a card I dont need to try to know it sucks. The problem with this card is simple; it does absolutely nothing and is a gamble for success. If you get a few cheap spells or freeze effects with this card you might mitigate its horrible cost, and if you get anything unplayable (like Sigil of Reckoning) then it just bricks your hand. You can play this cheaply should your hand be big enough, but then youre getting less spells and at some point we might as well be asking why not just play Venomous Scorpid, or anything else for that matter.
The only way this card even sees remotely any play is that you can cheat it out, or if the pool is small enough that you'll likely get something good most of the time. But Im highly unoptimistic, because with the advent of DKs the spell pool is not only large its also cluttered with cards you dont have synergies with (corpses, etc.).
One good niche it does have is that it fills your hand. So this is just an effective immunity against curses, bombs, or draw effects. But this is beyond the realms of desperation, that its included into the deck simply to counter such archetypes.
DK cards are currently enjoying the same work as dhunters did, in that their cards are simply blatantly overpowered for their cost, relative to the options available to other classes. Wouldn't be too surprised to see a round of nerfs from the first month alone, depending on the expansion cards.
Frost cards looking very dangerous, almost the level of tempo dhunter on AoO. All it needs now is a card that generate lots of stats on board by turn 5. We might actually see another 70% playrate for DKs on the first month, even if its different archetypes.
Patchwerk is like a mutanus that's played on an empty board. And for an added fuck you he even eats something from your deck. How this card isn't insane is completely beyond me. The only thing stopping this from appearing in every DK deck is the rune restriction.
I remember slagging off mutanus for the exact same reason. But turns out that even removing one card from your opponent's list of options is a very big deal.
You need to rush down melchazar before killing any demons. Best achieved through a defensive build that can also focus down red targets, like nature bros. Just remove brukan for something like nemsy, who comes with a renewable natural taunt minion.
Dont need to worry too much about them demons killing themselves, since one of them usually buffs demon's health.
Should be able to easily kill off the prince before anything else dies.
This is always going to be difficult because its really a subjective thing. Diamond cards to me always looked messy while this one stands out really well, even if it looks like you've just pulled it through a color filter. Have to say that Im impressed as far as optional cosmetic goes, and it does help that each expansion will feature its own unique look.
But objectively, I have to believe that making signature cards simply requires less effort (and therefore less expensive to produce) than diamond cards, which is perhaps why team5 is more willing to elevate this rather than continue with diamond cards. There's 18 of them every expansion after all.
Nerf to Ice Revenant is necessary because from what Ive seen of the frost cards in DK a lot of them generate spells and discount other spells, so we can have a problem with this innocent card getting a 6/6 buff on turn 4.
Well, at least I'll be happy knowing I still have all those cards in my collection ready for a payoff.
As for theotar, this is not the end nor will it be, since its fairly obvious now that team5's concern isn't really theotar as a win con, as much as it is theotar seeing too much play. Seriously, this card isn't even 4 months old and it already has two nerfs. Just make it discard cards than swapping it, that'll make the card truly all about disruption and not winning games on its own, which even at 4 mana wouldn't be any more impressive than most other disruption cards available.
At least DK is more resistant to theotar (owing to the lack of corpses for other classes) and being the new class will likely be dominating play rates the first month, meaning theotar's play rate will similarly diminish. But I wouldn't be surprised if this card gets another nerf at some point within the next year.
You might just sneak one copy of this into big spell mage, so your dawngrasp can get you another twin 5/6 taunts when she comes out. And unfortunately, this card might only ever see play in that deck. Because in most other cases you'll much rather be playing mage stuff like freezes or just plain beefed up hp. Mage usually just dont really care about board all that much, both yours and the opponents.
Still, the fact that your opponent cant kill this with targeted removal effects makes this a real stellar card to have, even out of discovers.
Looks good. You can buff your hero upwards to 60 health with two copies. But unless youre specifically playing Reno Jackson, there's very little indication that DK can even heal upwards to 60 health and do so while fighting back the opponent's stuff.
Team5 might end up regretting this design, because its the kind of card that encourages attrition control gameplay and generally tends to infuriate opponents. Imagine playing a mirror match with this shit. Those tournaments can be dragged up an additional 1.5 hours just for the mirror alone.
But for what its worth, if youre going full blood this card would be the reason why. Gain ten extra health? Why not?
Unimpressive even after the manathrist triggered. Doesn't even have spidertank stats. Playable only if the healing is that important to you. Or if Happy Ghoul is returned to standard.
Poor man's AoE. And I mean really poor. For those that care, the 2/2 body is insignificant and the AoE is too small. A terrible inclusion in all manners of space and form.
There's no reason to believe anyone would be holding this for 5 extra turns just for a 4/7 taunt. If you need a taunt you'll jam this on 3, and that's the end of discussion because you're playing a 3 mana 2/5 taunt on 3 when even Tar Creeper is a better option.
I really want to like this but I can't.
It has alot of stats, comes with both rush and taunt, and cannot be removed by conventional removal options.
But because its so undeniably dull you'd have to be really desperate if this card is deliberately added into your deck. Such a shame, because if it were 4/6 for 5 mana, it would be infinitely better than as a 6 drop.
Just bad, because it doesn't affect the board or your hand, and comes out at 7.
Arena god, constructed minnow. The only other way this sees any play at all is in vanndar decks or big decks. Or there's always a chance that the meta turns against removal cards so a massive 16/16 minion without description on turn 8 can actually be enough.
Its so baffling to attach the effect to such a recognizable name in warcraft lore. Perhaps there's a card down the line that makes this undroppable. But for now I dont see it.
Probably bad, but wont know until we actually get to play DK. But from the sneak peak of cards and reveal video, I just dont see it. Maybe under the unholy build? Because if you can keep a board then this card is just 15 damage without a silence counter.
Problem range from cost to needing a undead minion to even do anything useful. At 8 mana, the card has to either end games or stabilize board. This card does neither unconditionally. And (need check) there's a possibility of it buffing itself too, which substantially reduces its powerlevel. Bonemare was key during a time where the meta was slower, and that card allowed you to choose. This card is not just slower even than bonemare (which incidentally sees no play even as we speak in standard) but doesn't allow you to choose.
Synergizes with hp too, but lets be real here. You're not going to spend 10 mana to do 6 damage to face.
Corpse fodder. Just a bad card in most other classes other than DK.
Can't even use the undead synergy until this thing is dead.
Possibly one of the most important paladin cards for the past two expansions. This card allows for tempo and in aggro decks burst face for 5.
Certainly the best paladin card so far by a fair margin. Probably wouldn't see another card better.
I would rate Burden of Pride over this card. Unless there's a good reason for warrior to be flooding board I dont see why this would be played at all.
The upgrade is nice and all, but double 2/4 taunts for a card you need to hold until 6 mana is hardly going to blow anything down in terms of power level. I'd much rather just play this on 2 and get proper board, than wait 4 extra turns.
Shadow spell fodder. Its a decent card at best but Im still struggling to see shaman spend 2 mana to do nothing more than summon two 3/2s, which incidentally needs a target and overloads for 1.
But being shadow spell fodder may just be enough reasons to play this. Your Multicaster drawing one more is absolutely a significant point to make.