Our Thoughts on Wailing Caverns' Mage, Paladin, Priest, & Rogue Cards

The Wailing Caverns mini-set has just released and we've got some thoughts to share on the new Mage, Paladin, Priest, & Rogue cards.

Our reviews were written prior to the launch of the mini-set, so it'll be interesting to see how they hold up over the next week. With that out of the way, let's jump right into it!

Mage

As we predicted, the mini set brought Jaina some Freeze support. Since Mage has many good cycle tools, you won't ever play with unit unless you'll be able to guarantee the Frost spell to be drawn and therefore to summon the Shards.

We're talking about Nightbane Templar type of card, even though the requirements are different. Now that there are more Frost spells and Freeze support available, Frostweave Dungeoneer might actually have a chance.

The hinted combo with Flurry (Rank 1) is blatant. Sure, 2 card combos are not insane, especially if the two spells alone do little (or nothing), but you're guaranteed a clear, no matter if the enemy minions are small, big, have Divine Shield or whatnot.

This is also a great spell combined with Varden Dawngrasp: for 7 mana you'll cast a one-sided Twisting Nether and develop a 3/3, which is great since Mage does not have access to unconditional removal.

Floecaster is pretty much what Kabal Crystal Runner is for Secret Mage. The discount effect is based on the enemies that are currently frozen, and not on the ones you froze throughout the game, but even going Flurry (rank 2) into 2 mana Floecaster into Shattering Blast is more than decent.

It is very unlikely that Freeze Mage will work as a standalone archetype (at least for now), but we can see a word where it can be combined with other packages (maybe the Hero Power one? Wildfire is a Fire spell and messes up your Frostweave Dungeoneer, but sometimes you gotta take some risks) in a bigger game plan, probably control oriented.

Paladin

As some people stated, it is basically a Reckoning 2.0, with the difference that with Reckoning you let the enemy minion attack and then you destroy it, while here you debuff it before the attack and then you let it live (unless it was going to be traded into one of your units, in which case all the better for you).

Definitely not a bad Secret at all, but Paladin appears to have better choices right now. We wouldn't be surprised to be wrong on this one though.

The effect is the same as Righteousness, a spell that never saw a bit of play. However, this Divine Shield wave will now come when you want it and is essentially free since all you will have to do is hold the last weapon swing and proc the Deathrattle whenever you're ready to exploit it.

Seems like a very solid weapon to run together with Sword of the Fallen in a Secret build, be it either Aggro or N'Zoth Menagerie.

Is this... a bad card for Paladin? Or am I dreaming with my eyes wide open? Seems like a less expensive The Forest's Aid but with no Twinspell and in a class that cannot capitalize very much on swarm effects.

Maybe future Paladin will receive swarm support, but for now we think this is a hard pass for constructed.

Priest

Considering what Priest wants to do, you may as well read Cleric of An'she's effect as a "Battlecry: Discover a spell from your deck" which means that we're talking about Thrive in the Shadows on a stick and locked behind a very light condition.

It's card draw for Priest, so it should become a core card from now on.

Honestly, the card itself is not bad at all: with some deck restrictions Devout Dungeoneer becomes a 1 mana 2/3, and even if you don't run just Holy spells, it's a card draw effect for Priest, a class that doesn't have that many cycle tools available.

Therefore, we can see Devout Dungeoneer experimented in current iterations of Control Priest, in a way that it will draw you a spell and sometimes discount it as well, but if your goal is building a Holy Priest, probably keep in mind that Palm Reading and Hysteria (as well as Raise Dead and Shadow Word: Death) are Shadow School spells you cannot really afford to give up. May become better down the road, but now seems just decent.

Quite the odd removal for Priest. While it lines up pretty well against certain types of boards (especially Hunter), Anduin currently has a very large removal kit, as well as lots of card generation, so we're quite hesitant about it. Moreover, Shadow Word: Ruin works similarly, but you rarely run it in your starting deck.

On a side not, it's a 2-cards one-sided Twisting Nether in combination with Wave of Apathy, which could definitely become relevant down the road.

Rogue

First, some lore about this apparently very extravagant spell. In World of Warcraft, this is a food item that players could fish up outside of Wailing Caverns. A play with cooking, and the rare recipe drop, could then create this treat that places an hour long effect on characters to change the way they look. What is this appearance change? It is a random chance of becoming a pirate or a ninja!

Now that we know why the card works this way, the main use we see for Savory Deviate Delight is to work as combo disruption effect, pretty much what Demonic Project was back in the day - you decide when it's better to play it and give up a minion of yours just to mess with your opponent. Sure, you could always run in it some aggressive-oriented lists in order to get rid of some high-costed minion you got stuck with, but it's probably better to just include in your deck cards that you actually want to draw.

On a side note, another relevant effect that Savory Deviate Delight brings to the table is that it dilutes the Wandmaker pool, which is quite great and with pretty much no lowroll for Valeera.

A slightly better Arcane Intellect in a class with way better drawing options (Swindle, Field Contact, Secret Passage).

It kind of reminds us of Acrobatics (card draw + a certain reward if you play the drawn cards), but again: Rogue has better tools for cycling through the deck.

As J_Alexander suggested on Twitter, swapping the keywords on this unit would've made it way better, while right now it seems around the decent power level. 

More support for Stealth Rogue (an archetype that hasn't been supported in the Barrens) is good and the high Health makes it less susceptible to AoEs, but it doesn't really drive us crazy. To be honest, Rogue wants to take the board and never leave it unless it has lethal from hand, so the fact that Water Moccasin asks us to do the opposite is upsetting.

That does it for the first round of our Wailing Caverns reviews. What do you think about the new cards? Have your opinions changed since the set released? Let us know in the comments below!