Warriors are next up to be reviewed - the final class, in fact! Don't worry though, we've still got the neutrals to cover, and there's enough of those that you should expect about three reviews total.
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At least he's keeping busy while he waits.
Quote From Noxious Goodbye Fiery War Axe, hello Imprisoned Gan'arg! This looks like a full power creep in my eyes. Fiery War Axe costs 3 mana. If you play this guy on turn one, he gives you the axe on turn 3. Bonus: You get a 2/2 minion as well!
There is, of course, still use in having Fiery War Axe in your deck. It interacts with cards like Corsair Cache and *cough* Deadly Arsenal, and you won't always get Imprisoned Gan'arg early enough to actually play him on turn 1. Nonetheless, if you're looking for a value-driven deck, I would pick this over the weapon to save some space. A 2/2 minion might not be amazing on turn 3 and up, but it's still a worthwhile bonus, if you're willing to wait two turns for him to craft your axe for you.
Took me a while to get the joke, because those words do not sound the same.
Quote From Echo Despite being kinda boring, I think this card can be very strong in a certain meta. Being able to remove a threat while also gaining armor can easily turn the tides against an aggro deck. I think this card can easily be compared to Bash, which saw a fair amount of play back when it was in standard. That being said, this card needs a suitable control deck to slot into to be good, which I personally don't see happening this expansion given the loss of most of Warrior's good control cards and not getting too many in return. There's not much else to the card honestly, its underwhelming but it does its job very well and I think it will most likely see play eventually.
You wanna play? You run, we'll fetch.
Quote From Demonxz95 A nice, simple, strong card for Warrior. It's just a winner right here. Minions being damaged in Warrior is just natural for them, and the card notably doesn't care who the minion belongs to. You or your opponent, any damaged minion will trigger its effect. What do you get out of it? A 3 mana 4/4 with Rush, quite similar in many ways to Underbelly Fence. That's pretty good! Rabid Worgen saw play, and this is just simply a better version of that. The condition is laughably easy to accomplish. You could even just simply play [Hearthstone Card (Injured Tol'vir on turn 2) Not Found] to get a curve play for this.
You get certain perks as a captain.
Quote From FrostyFeet At first sight the card is quite uninspiring tutor effect, giving you the bonus of one more swing for a 2-Mana tempo loss. The most prominent weapon-swinging Warriors that come to mind are naturally Pirates, and while they are likely interested in that extra Durability and refill, you still have to pay for the weapon you drew and ended up giving some board initiative back to your opponent, which is not what these decks tend to want. I could imagine this seeing play in Standard Pirate decks for the lack of better options, but not for any other reason.
Where the card may truly shine are the less prominent decks where weapons have a high impact on the decks' performance. You want that Woecleaver to your hand while playing Big Warrior? Well that would indeed be nice, and the +1/+1 doesn't hurt either. If your deck is running Sul'thraze for whatever reason, you probably won't mind the easier Overkills with extra attack nor the extra swing. If the new Bulwark of Azzinoth ends up seeing play, +1 Durability is definitely something you'd be interested in. Even Bomb Warriors might want to consider the card for an extra Bomb and potential help for getting an on-curve Wrenchcalibur.
What I can promise is that the card won't ever be OP; if the meta gets filled with weapon-swinging Warriors, Acidic Swamp Ooze and its relatives will shut down that party quite fast.
Don't worry, we'll be adding to our defences soon - you just go out now!
Quote From linkblade91 When a new Taunt enters the game, my first thought - if possible - is whether or not the minion will be worth playing in my favorite deck: Quest Taunt Warrior in Wild. With Scrap Golem, the answer is a resounding "Yes": it's strictly-better than Rotten Applebaum, a card that was already a mainstay in the deck. You'll gain a minimum of 4 Armor from the Deathrattle, matching RA's healing effect, only now you can Armor-up while at max Health. Things only get better from there, because cards like Into the Fray, Armagedillo, and Zilliax can improve the Attack of Scrap Golem and further enhance how much Armor you get from this one minion. I like this card, and I will craft it if I have to.
…it should be fine enough in Standard, as well, if you're into that sort of thing.
The Bane of your existence.
Quote From Avalon Its effect really fits Warrior's identity of having various upsides when there are damaged minions on the board. The discount effect is similar to Mogu Fleshshaper's one, although the requirement is different and more difficult to meet, therefore the higher stats.
Even with just two damaged minions (keep in mind: Brute considers all the units, not just yours) on the board, you'll pay 5 mana for a 6/8 with Rush, which is pretty good in my book. Play it after, let's say, a Risky Skipper's trigger against a swarm deck and you'll probably have to spend half the original cost.
In my opinion, one of the best cards Warrior got in this set: we'll probably get used to its entry line in no time.
Death by like, three to five cuts.
Quote From Noxious Spin to win! Bladestorm is the spiritual child of Warpath and Bouncing Blade. On paper, the effect sounds great. In practice… it feels like it's going to be very awkward to pull off successfully. If you're fighting big, beefy boards the likes of Resurrection Priests, Bladestorm is surely going to make a difference. If Replicat-o-tron is going to actually see play, Bladestorm will be a direct counter to it. Aside from that, I feel there will be many situations in which the opponent has big minions on the board, but also a little guy with something like 2-3 health. Bladestorm would not be worth using, if it's just going to do 2-3 damage; that's the awkwardness I was referring to. Why not just do a Whirlwind + Plague of Wrath? Sure, it's more expensive, but at least it'll get the job done!
I don't have much faith in this card seeing play or being as useful as it looks. Bladestorm is a really cool ability in World of Warcraft, but in Hearthstone… Warpath is a better Bladestorm.
Are you not entertained?
Quote From Noxious Well, this one sure is new! Very cool effect, but I'm not sure it'll be as great as it looks in Standard, at least not by itself. Wild has a lot of hand buff effects to make this card better, but we cannot say the same about Standard.
That's not to say it's terrible. It's got 10 health for 3 mana, and a very weird rush effect. If played on turn 3, it'll destroy any regular cheap minion in that mana bracket. I can see it being used as a support card for Frothing Berserker or Armorsmith rather than using it by itself. Assuming this minion fights another that has 3 health, that would be +6 damage for the Frothing Berserker, or an alright 3 armor from Armorsmith. My hope remains that cards in the next two expansions this year will come out to complement Warmaul Challenger, as the card looks really fun and unique; it would be a shame for it to be mostly useless.
Sorry, can't shake hands right now. Social distancing, y'know?
Quote From linkblade91 Even in his base form, Kargath Bladefist is a solid card: a 4/4 with Rush for 4 mana is pretty straight-forward. Rush provides you immediate productivity, and if you kill Kargath in the process of making a trade he cannot be Silenced or otherwise denied his Deathrattle. It's when we talk about the secondary Prime that things get "spicy" (as Ben Brode would put it). A giant Rush minion, cheaper than his stats, who can provide you a large swing in Armor/effective health? Hell yeah! I'm not sure what else to say; unless you plan to consistently win before turn 8, why would you not run this card? It's just that good.
Demon chests are very cylindrical.
Quote From linkblade91 It seems Legendary Warrior weapons are going to be a regular thing now, eh? Not complaining; surprised it took this long to happen, really. Unlike Ancharrr, this one is definitely more orientated toward Control, being similar to an Ice Block or Time Out! for the Warrior. It effectively prevents the opponent from punching through for a turn or so, unless presented with an overwhelming force or a chain of ping-damage. It will work best against a low number of heavy minions; Cinderstorm, not so much. And, for at least another Standard Year, you will have to deal with Zephrys the Great, one who could immediately end your plans with a simple Acidic Swamp Ooze. All-in-all, the best case scenarios for Bulwark of Azzinoth might not outweigh the number of ways the card could be undermined. It will all depend on the meta.
Comments
As a dirty brainless aggro player, I'm quite excited for Galakrond or Aggro warrior in this expansion. Warrior already had lots of "damage your own things" effects in the Galakrond lists we have now (i.e. Risky Skipper and Bloodsworn Mercenary), so I feel like Bloodboil Brute and Bonechewer Raider will feel at home there. Imprisoned Gan'arg seems nuts if you draw it early, similar to N'Zoth's First Mate into Patches the Pirate but on turn 3 and much less tempo. I feel like this card fails when you don't have anything else to fill in the 2 mana spot since you're then just letting your opponent build up a board over 2 turns and all you have is a Fiery War Axe and a 2/2. Kargath Bladefist seems good enough to run in any Warrior deck, aggro or not, so that's just icing on the cake.
Now this might just be isolation induced madness, but does Corsair Cache artwork seem suspicious to anyone else? Overall the expansion doesn't really have a Pirate theme and we haven't seen Ethereal Pirates before in Hearthstone. No other Warrior card of this set really connects to it thematically and it wouldn't be difficult to come up with a more Outland-appropriate artwork to fit the rest of the set.
Could it be a hint for a future expansion? Perhaps one involving Pirates in some shape or fashion?
Or maybe this is just some WoW reference I don't get
Good catch! Even in wow Ethereal are smugglers but not pirates. Yes they have some presence on Netherstorm and Blade Edge Mountains.
Maybe is some kind of hint, because Ethereals use some void magic and second year of the phoenix expansion looks like a void one for his people/black core.
Have to wait for 4 months to know lol
In Outland there is a zone called Area 52, which is run by goblins and has quite some ethereals. So I think it's more of a twist to make an ethereal fit theme-wise for a warrior. I mean, ethereals with weapons do exist, but they wouldn't really fall under the class of warrior, more like a battle mage, so yeah, given pirates are known to be part of warrior cards in HS, they "transformed" the ones in the art to be pirate-like.
Bladestorm frustrates me. It's such a flavorful idea - Defile is my favorite Warlock card, and whirlwind effects are my favorite Warrior gimmick - but it just doesn't work. (Sorry, Todd Howard) As you say, Bladestorm almost never clears the whole board. It only works against a board of equal health minions or a single minion. None of them can be deathrattles, either; this card can't deal with deathrattles. It just can't! Mecharoo laughs at Bladestorm just like Evasive Chimaera laughs at Deathwing, Mad Aspect.
I mean, maybe it will be used just like that. To kill a singular big minion. Alternatively it can always just be an activator for Plague of Wrath.
Cards that are good and might see play;
- Corsair Cache, Bladestorm, Kargath Bladefist, Bonechewer Raider, Imprisoned Gan'arg
Others;
Sword and Board - cheap 2 damage. But in my opinion the standard amount of damage a removal should have to be good is 3. But with dhunters being a thing, maybe its just good enough.
Scrap Golem - just one year too late. Had the magnetize effects still exist this would be insane. But guess its just a case of being in the wrong expansion at the wrong time.
Bloodboil Brute - doesnt really fit in control decks, so maybe midrange? The problem with this card is that it requires an activator to be good (minion trading rarely ever work out without something dead at the end), so its limited by that conundrum. And there are other cards that you generally want to use when there are damaged minions like Battle Rage. Chances are good you cant do both in one turn.
Bulwark of Azzinoth is deceptively good. Under specific circumstances, like against most mages, this is just amazing. And you can generate more with Hoard Pillager. Unfortunately, this is the kind of card that will likely only be good in tournaments, amazingly bad in ladder. But it can still take 4 attacks for you, possibly buying you a turn, so there's that I guess.
Warmaul Challenger - until a handbuff effects come along, there are better cards. Too bad. I love a battle to the death every now and then.
Warrior is interesting, it has a lot of different ways to plays it seems. I wonder which archetype will be best :)