The Warlock card reviews are here! Finally time to look at those other Soul Fragment cards.
I'mma be honest, Pikmin 3 Deluxe just got announced and I'm struggling to think of anything else at the moment, so this is gonna have to do for the tongue-in-cheek "we're amazing" bit. In fact, just like Pikmin 3, we deserve nothing but praise for our fantastic... gameplay? No, this isn't working, just read the reviews.
Wilfred really regrets not buying the textbook.
Quote From FearGralex Remember Dark Possession? …Lol.
That aside, this isn't exactly gamebreaking levels of power creep, so I think it's fine. There's a fairly deep pool of Warlock demons, so you could end up with some bad sets of three, but most of the time you're going to end up with a Demon that's decent, especially with a 1-mana discount. That discount does a lot to enable these kinds of 1-mana Discover cards, and I wouldn't be surprised if this card shows up in some midrange/control Warlock decks that care about using this card to help trigger Spellburst effects.
Gimme a K! Gimme a T!
Quote From ShadowsOfSense A solid anti-aggro board clear option with bonus healing down the line (and all the other synergies inherent to the Soul Fragment mechanic). This will be a staple of any Warlock deck looking to take advantage of Soul Fragments, and honestly isn't even a bad option on its own.
It's a better version of that one Mage AoE… Volcanic Potion! Yeah, Volcanic Potion was good and this is also good. I'd probably run it over Hellfire unless I was really desperate for that extra point of damage; a meta call, for sure.
Everyone's always ribbing them about coming out of their shell.
Quote From Noxious Nice egg.
The summons are mostly in line with what a good chunk of our current batch of eggs spawn. The discard mechanic attached to it, though, is a nice little addition.
I can't say this card is extremely overpowered, comparing it to Hand of Gul'dan and the other four cards in Wild that bear a similar effect, but seeing another card with an on-discard effect show up this new Standard Year gives me hope that this will be a mechanic we will run into for years to come. Truthfully, you can't print too many of these cards else an effect like discarding that is supposed to be negative would quickly turn into a positive one.
I'm not sure how much play this card will see, considering you run the risk of discarding other cards if you're aiming to discard this one, and simply playing it just doesn't feel all that powerful. It's not even a demon egg, which would at least enable some decent synergy with that tribe and its various beneficial effects (Sacrificial Pact comes to mind).
Lights out in the dorms is just a suggestion, right?
Quote From ShadowsOfSense A 3 mana 3/4 that also deals 3 damage as a Battlecry? That's insane! The sheer power of some of these pay-off cards makes me nervous that we'll see Soul Fragments nerfed somehow, because not only are the cards that benefit from them nuts, but the mechanic itself is just… good. That extra healing (and technically card draw) is fantastic for Warlock already, and then you can also run cards like this?!
I anticipate seeing this in a Soul Fragment focused Zoo deck, I think. More control style variants probably don't care too much for the damage, preferring the healing when they can just run straight destruction cards.
"4/5, drinks have a bit of a strange aftertaste" - The Void, A-Z of Azeroth
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Speaking of insane pay-offs. Say hello to Earth Elemental, except instead of Overload: (3) you just have to run several already good cards - oh what a hardship.
Seriously, even without the bonus the card isn't too awful - no question it's bad, but not that bad - and when you do get the reward as you frequently will, it's massive stats for not much cost. I have so many ideas for Soul Fragment decks and I'm not totally sure where this one fits into the picture - maybe it veers towards the control decks, because it helps stall the game? Midrange? - but when all is said and done, I think this is actually just a bit weaker than Shadowlight Scholar. And it's kind of insane how good that makes it.
Can't wait to look back on this in a few months and see how right or wrong I was about this whole mechanic.
She always picks the worst project partners.
Quote From linkblade91 I like Big Demonlock, and this can try to find a home there. The problem is…what does that deck even look like nowadays? Most of the best (big) Demons have fled Standard, except for Enhanced Dreadlord. On anything smaller she's just too low-value of a play, or negatively impacts certain cards like Void Drinker. Archwitch Willow also has anti-synergy with Kanrethad Prime, losing us his Battlecry. In Wild, Willow is surrounded by much better cards like Bloodreaver Gul'dan and N'Zoth, the Corruptor. So, realistically, can Willow see play somewhere when she doesn't really have a home anywhere? I just don't know.
Dual Class Cards
Comments
The only card I'm not psyched about was Archwitch Willow. Everything else seems to really blow things out of the water and this legendary just seems meh.
I want Willow to be cool but yeah she just has NO targets
I think Willow will be really strong at some point, but probably not this year.
Combined with Kanrethad Prime and Felosophy you can really put on the long grind with big demons with taunt and lifesteal, but we don't have enough big demons and also there are more proactive game winning strategies with similar builds (Malygos Questlock)
Since Archwitch Willow summons 2 demons, it seems like you could game the system by putting in only 2 demons (and hoping you don’t draw one of them). So no matter which demons you choose, you’re going to get a crapload of value. Just have to pick some good ones. 19/19 worth of stats across 3 bodies for 9 mana is beyond good
problem is having to wait until turn 9 to do so
I'm sad that people talk about big demons and always forget about Fel Lord Betrug... Not that Archwitch Willow is going to help him, at all. Actually, she has anti-synergy with him as you can't play Plot Twist or even tap after playing her which wastes all his potential. Man, it feels so bad when one of your favorite cards is so fair that it ends up unplayable in the sea of unfairness...
I did not forget about Fel Lord Betrug, but I failed to mention him for the reasons you described. They just don't play nice :(
I like him a lot too, and play him in my Wild Plot Twist deck. It's too bad Willow doesn't cost 8; that would have been perfect.
Cubelock players, will Archwitch Willow make the cut in the deck? Is it good enough? I play Cubelock myself, and I would play it, but what do you think? I think it's pretty good when you don't find Skull of the Man'ari, but 9 mana in itself is quite expensive and may cripple its usefulness.
No, I wouldn't run her. It's not worth the risk to have her in hand instead of Mal'Ganis, Voidlord or Enhanced Dreadlord when you desperately need an answer against aggro on turn 4/5/6 via Voidcaller or skull. Those two do the same job but earlier and without diluting the minions pool.
In other words: she offers good value but the backlash in consistency is too severe imho.
I am super happy with the new Discard card support. Hoping to see them push it to the next level. Hopefully they give us a Legendary minion that will let us pick what gets discarded. :D We can dream...