Reviewing Hearthstone's New Warlock Cards Arriving in Forged in the Barrens

The full Forged in the Barrens set has been revealed and it's time to look at all the new cards and look at how Warlock will be doing this expansion. We'll be breaking each of the Warlock  cards down,

• You can see all the new cards in our Forged in the Barrens.
• Our deckbuilder will let you theorycraft your own decks using the new cards before the expansion arrives.
• You can simulate pack openings in our Forged in the Barrens Pack Opening simulator.
• You can do your best Kazakus impression by trying out our Build-A-Golem Simulator.

Keep in mind that this is an early look at the class before we've been able to play with the new cards, so while we try to be as accurate as possible in our predictions of what is to come, no one can perfectly predict the Hearthstone meta.

Warlock Deck Themes in Forged in the Barrens

Warlock gets support for a few notable themes, Shadow, Deck Destruction, and Swarm:

• Shadow - Tamsin Roame, Soul Rend, Grimoire of Sacrifice

The Shadow spell package given to Warlock is a boon to Control-styles of play, offering a variety of AoE clearing options. We also know that Drain Soul, Siphon Soul, and Mortal Coil are also Shadow spells that offer minion-removal and have seen play in the past. Warlock's Shadow spells support Control and slower archetypes, so expect to see a fair amount of those.

• Deck Destruction - Neeru Fireblade, Altar of Fire, Barrens Scavenger, Soul Rend, Blood Shard Bristleback

Speaking of slower Warlock playstyles, Warlock's newly supported Deck Destruction tools offer a variety of new win conditions for Warlock to pursue. Destroying the enemy deck with cards like Tickatus and the new Altar of Fire is what Control Warlocks currently do, but Bristleback and Neeru grant new incentives for Warlocks to burn their own decks. Time will tell if this beats out or gets added to current Warlock decklists, but it is at least interesting.

• Swarm - Imp Swarm (Rank 1), Apothecary's Caravan, Kabal Outfitter

Not a ton of support for Swarm/Zoo Warlock this time around. A couple of tools to keep up board presence and a single minion buffer, but Zoo has a pretty strong base to work on in Standard already. We'll have to see whether or not these cards are enough to make the cut, but it's pretty neat to see Blizzard opening up a bit more with buffs in Warlock.

Neeru Fireblade

Cards? Where we're going we don't need cards

Neeru is the big payoff card for the Deck Destruction archetype Warlock is adopting. From what's available, the deck will likely be some form of Control Warlock, but there could be some variants that try to turbo mill their own deck with Altar of Fire and (gasp) un-Corrupted Tickatus. The current Control Warlock lists take a lot of cards from the Year of the Phoenix though, so it might be tricky finding a way to slot this in. There is also the matter of Neeru needing to outperform the double-Corrupted-Tickatus plan that Control Warlock currently employs. If Neeru isn't better, then there really isn't a reason to run him.

However, Warlock also has plenty of draw left in their arsenal with Backfire and Hand of Gul'dan still in rotation. Excessive draw can act as another way to get through your deck very quickly to activate Neeru. As such, it might be the late-game win-condition in some variety of turbo-draw Zoo. The issue in this case then becomes that Neeru is a dead card for the vast majority of the game and only functions as a final trump card in specifically the Control matchup.

Tamsin Raome

Casts a big Shadow over her sister

Where Neeru is the push for a specific gameplan, Tamsin offers very powerful value generation in a generic Control Warlock deck with only minor build-arounds. You'll obviously need to include some Shadow spells, but the payoff that Tamsin provides can be astronomically difficult for opponents to deal with. The craziest part about Tamsin is that you don't even need to play the 0-mana copies immediately and can opt to hold onto them for when the time is right. Since her trigger is 'Whenever' and not 'After', even Shadow spells that kill Tamsin should still get added to your hand, giving duplicates of things like Grimoire of Sacrifice, Hysteria, Soul Rend, or even Twisting Nether if you're lucky.

The main downside that Tamsin faces is that she must be comboed with at least one other card to get good value. This makes her somewhat situational and means that even with her absurd ability to replicate removal spells, she still might not see play. Against aggressive decks, she might not do enough to warrant a spot since you'll have to wait until at least turn 4 to play her with a spell. She might be too slow in a heavy aggro meta, but she thrives against anything Control since she offers insane amounts of removal.  

Altar of Fire

Some people just want to see the decks burn

I imagine this is the card that people will be most salty about out of the reveals. People already hate Tickatus with a burning passion, and I imagine that a Warlock deck that focuses even more on burning the enemy deck will draw peoples' ire even further. Where Tickatus required some setup, Altar of Fire just immediately burns three cards. Although the effect is technically symmetrical, Warlock is also gaining new ways to benefit from a smaller deck size such as Neeru Fireblade and Barrens Scavenger.

Warlock's deck destruction archetype is certainly an interesting direction to take the class, but I fear that it still lacks something to make up for the amount of inconsistency that it inherently comes with. Similar to the discard decks of old, not knowing what you lose will probably prove too detrimental for the deck to see much play. I believe the deck destruction archetype needs something like Soulwarden or Silverware Golem to benefit more explicitly from burning your cards before it really takes off, but there have been plenty of sleeper archetypes before.

Barrens Scavenger

The early-game grind

Both Barrens Scavenger and Blood Shard Bristleback support the mid-way point of Warlock's deck-destruction archetype where they don't require you to go gung-ho on milling yourself and provide reasonably powerful benefits in the meantime. Both strongly support a control-style gameplan and help stabilize against board threats. A 1-mana 6/6 Taunt is incredibly powerful since it can follow-up on AoE board clears, not entirely unlike Strongman. Furthermore, Scavenger at 6-mana far more reasonable to play on-curve than Strongman at 7. 6-mana also gives the quirk of not being able to corrupt Tickatus, which supports the idea of tempo-ing out Tickatus to mill 5 and possibly even follow it up with a Scavenger.

Like the other cards that encourage you to have a small deck, Barrens Scavenger also works when put in a deck the instead follows the gameplan of drawing through the deck instead of just milling. Spending resources on turbo-draw into this as a topdeck has the potential to be very powerful since lets you very cheaply defend yourself from board threats. I'm not sure if this makes it in a turbo-draw Zoo though since it clashes with Hand of Gul'dan to be discarded by Nightshade Matron.

Soul Rend

Between this, Drain Soul, Siphon Soul, and Soul Shear, being a soul seems rough

The card that tries to push the deck-destruction archetype into a definitively more Control style of play. Reminiscent of Doom Pact, except 5-damage isn't always enough to get the job done. It's hard to determine whether or not removal on such a scale is worth the cost of milling so many cards. Warlock actually has some tools to mitigate the potential losses from this in the form of Soul Fragments. A Control decklist could run this as a 'break-in-case-of-emergency' card if the opponent puts on a ton of minion pressure in one turn, such as in a Token Druid matchup. In the meantime, you can stuff your deck with Soul Fragments and hope those get destroyed when you end up playing this.

The issue I see with this card is that you have relatively little control over when you need to play this card and suffer the burn. Altar of Fire and un-Corrupted Tickatus have the benefit of allowing to wait until you draw a key card like Neeru Fireblade whereas Soul Rend can destroy your win-conditions before you're ready to start milling. This uncertainty and unreliability makes me think that this card won't actually see too much play, even in dedicated mill decks. 

Blood Shard Bristleback

This card hits pretty Deep

Yet another payoff card for thinning out your deck, and I think the best one to boot. Bristleback is pretty bad without milling your deck first (see Acolyte of Agony), but isn't awful if you need to develop something against an aggressive start from your opponent. When you do trigger its secondary effect, Bristleback becomes the bane of all Aggro decks, providing very powerful removal potential coupled with potent life restoration and a Lifesteal body to boot. Bristleback is the perfect stabilization tool in the late-game and a fantastic payoff card for having to mill out your deck.

Bristleback's greatest strength is the variety of decks that he can be included in. Unlike Barrens Scavenger, Bristleback doesn't seem that bad in some kind of turbo-draw Zoo deck. It doesn't clash with Hand of Gul'dan and its Lifesteal procs Flesh Giant and make up for a lot of the self-damaging effects Zoo inflicts. It can also be run in a control deck with a small mill package, and of course, it fits into a dedicated mill deck as a strong stabilization play.

Apothecary's Caravan

Bring out your dead!

This card is very clearly meant for Zoo decks as a way to consistently bring out pressure from the deck. The draw is obviously Flame Imp, with Possessed Villager and potentially Emerald Skytalon as other notable pulls. I have low hopes for this card, and Caravans in general though. 3-health with no immediate board impact seems too easy to remove for how slow it is at creating value. The tempo loss from playing this on-curve is too severe and it is abhorrently weak in the mid-late stages of the game. Even with low hopes, I am going to keep a close on this card though. It might be a case where it provides enough value when it isn't answered that it is strong enough to make the cut anyway.

An interesting application I see for this though is the possibility of combining it with the deck-destruction archetype that is being pushed. This card thins out your deck without destroying it, lending it some potential in a mill-zoo deck along with Neeru and Bristleback. It'll probably be too janky to work, but it should be a fun experiment to try.

Imp Swarm

These imps sure are warm

Imp Swarm is less imp and less swarm than Fiendish Circle, which I find slightly disappointing. In terms of playability, I think that it is a decent card for Zoo, but it has some stiff competition with the cards from Year of the Phoenix. The only cards that current Zoo is losing are Voidwalker, Soulfire, and Expired Merchant. Imp swarm is fine turns 2-4 as a 2-mana 3/2, but fine doesn't usually cut it. Turns 5-9 are pretty strong as a cheap way to generate a pretty respectable amount of threat and is probably the height of when it's good. Turn 10+ is crazy good value, but many decks will probably be able to deal with some 2-health goons by then. 

I think that Imp Swarm is worth trying out in the holes left by the Year of the Gryphon rotation, but its general mediocrity leaves a bit to be desired. What hurts it most is Warlock's lack of swarm synergy. There are no synergistic incentives to build a wide board outside of Wicked Whispers or maybe Ritual of Doom, and even then Fiendish Circle fills that niche a bit better.

Grimoire of Sacrifice

Never judge a book by its cover

I am a big fan of this card. Cheap AoE damage is something that every deck benefits from since Aggro is always in style. This card is especially fantastic at popping deathrattles, which is an effect that should always be considered. Dark Pact restored health to your hero at the 'cost' of destroying a friendly minion, and AoE is far more impactful. However, where Dark Pact was used in slower decks to pop Carnivorous Cube, Grimoire is in rotation with a slew of cards that make it more likely to be run in a Zoo list. Nerubian Egg and Boneweb Egg slot in naturally with Zoo decks and can make a very potent combo against other swarmy matchups.

That said, Grimoire can still be used in Control lists as well as Zoo. Control decks often run small minions for the early-game, such as Spirit Jailer or Armor Vendor that can act as fodder for a board clear in a pinch. Another use is to pop Envoy Rustwix the same turn he's played. Rustwix runs into the risk of some enemies transforming or stealing him, so instantly killing him can be pretty nice. 

Kabal Outfitter

Fresh from Kazakus!

Another piece in Zoolock, and a pretty good one at that. Kabal Outfitter is a rare Warlock buff card, and what's better is that its an immediate buff and not something like Eager Underling, which required some hoops to get around. Outfitter is on a decent 3/3 body and comes with an immediate +1/+1, which is very likely to land given that Zoo is getting some very sticky cheap minions, such as Possessed Villager and Nerubian Egg. This helps Zoo get early value trades and assert board dominance. What's really great about this card is that the 3/3 body + deathrattle is also good enough to develop on curve without any other minions on the board. Of course value the battlecry is preferable, but you're not at too much of a loss when you miss it compared to something like Wriggling Horror.

This doesn't really have any application outside of a Zoo/Swarm strategy though. It's very good at what it does, but there really isn't much else to say. Like any deathrattle buffs, this is vulnerable to large AoEs, but Zoo will have problems with that most of the time. Kabal Outfitter is simply a very efficient minion that is a great way for Zoo to keep up board presence.

Theorycrafting Warlock in Forged in the Barrens

I am very interested in Warlock's upcoming Deck Destruction archetype and think it has some potential for, if nothing else, an amusing meme deck. I believe that it is better to push card draw since it helps keep consistency. As such, I shove all the card draw I reasonably can into the deck with only a few destruction effects for when I need to reach a certain threshold. Altar of Fire is good for a quick burst of mill and Soul Rend helps greatly on early board control. Neeru Fireblade is the late-game win-condition, so just control the early-game So long as the board is clear long enough to reach 10 cards in the deck, you enable Barrens Scavenger and Blood Shard Bristleback which are fantastic for stabilizing until you are able to get rid of all the cards in the deck. Tamsin Roame is included to help continue providing control, healing, and draw by duplicating Mortal Coil, Drain Soul, and Soul Rend. Mankrik is included despite shuffling a card into the deck since he is good on-curve and synergizes with the plan of drawing a lot of cards. Kazakus, Golem Shaper is good despite having another 4-cost card since the golem can provide extra stall or card draw.

Closing Thoughts on Warlock in Forged in the Barrens

I am excited and intrigued by the direction Warlock is being taken in. I have always been a fan of interesting win-conditions, and I think that the thin deck payoff cards exemplify that perfectly. I am also very pleased that it goes counter to the heavily established Warlock support of Soul Fragments, which anti-synergize by being shuffled into your deck but aren't overly detrimental since they also cycle themselves. It's something that is going to take a lot of experimentation to get right, but I am hopeful that it will turn out to be a cool deck, even if it is not a great one. More typical Control Warlock decks get some pretty nifty tools in addition to the powerful set of cards in their Core set. Tamsin Roame specifically will more or less ensure that Control Warlock is never low on removal options. Zoo looks like it will still be fairly strong since so much of their current infrastructure resides in Year of the Phoenix. Zoo is losing very little in the rotation and cards like Kabal Outfitter or potentially Imp Swarm (Rank 1) should be able to nestle in well with the spaces left. I can't wait to see what comes out of the biggest rotation ever along with Forged in the Barrens!

What do you think about Warlock in Forged in the Barrens? Let us know in the comments below!

More Forged in the Barrens Reviews

Click on any of the banners below to be taking to our other class card reviews for Forged in the Barrens.