Even though yesterday's reveal stream was pretty short, it brought us lots of exciting news:
- United in Stormwind is the name of the new expansion - it will launch on August 3rd!
- New cards revealed - check them here!
- The Fire Festival is back - 7 Legendary Quests, Brawls and Firelands Hero Bundle, starting next week!
- Fresh Battlegrounds updates - new minions, new and returning heroes, cosmetics.
- Duels Balance Changes - Buffs and Nerfs to Passive Treasures!
- Nozdormu Day finally has an in-game quest!
- More cardbacks to show off.
- Hearthstone Mercenaries is set to launch at this end of this year's Phase 2.
But that's not all: Patch 20.8 is already live and with it everyone can claim a free copy of Flightmaster Dungar, a Neutral Legendary minion from United in Stormwind. The same thing that happened in the last expansions with Shadow Hunter Vol'jin, Silas Darkmoon and Kael'thas Sunstrider. Not only will our F2P peeps will receive a Legendary card for free, but we'll also be able to endure the waiting for the next set with a little more ease.
For what regards Flightmaster Dungar itself, is it good? What can we expect from it? We had little time to play with it, but we already got an idea and we're ready to share it with you.
After Archdruid Naralex's release in the Wailing Caverns mini set of a month ago, here's another card with Dormant, one of the least explored keywords of the entire game. While Flightmaster Dungar's effect may appear a tad slow, the rewards get exponentially more impactful with how many Dormant turns you have to wait.
What is important to keep in mind is that you don't have to consider the flightpaths separately, but all three together, as you'll always be able to choose the one that fits your current matchup the most.
Westfall - An effect that reminds us of Sigil of Summoning in how you spend mana to gain a couple bodies on the following turn, even though there are some differences: Sigil comes for 2 mana and gives you two 2/2s with Taunt; Flightmaster Dungar costs 1 more mana and isn't focused on the defense, but summoning bodies to contest and possibly win the board. In the end, not the most exciting flightpath of the three, but surely the most solid, since you'll have to wait just one turn in order to get your payoff. Great option in the early game, especially in faster matchups.
Ironforge - Imagine being against an Aggro deck like Face Hunter as Control Priest/Warrior. Most of the times, on turn 3 you'd just Hero Power and pass, waiting for your opponent to commit more on the board and then clear everything. Therefore, setting up a 3-turns Greater Healing Potion is not that penalizing from the tempo point of view (Archdruid Naralex itself sees play with the same handicap) , and can give you enough resilience to exhaust your opponent's resources and win the game. Definitely not the best topdeck ever if you're already cornered, but some you win, some you lose!
Eastern Plaguelands - A reward effect comparable to Imprisoned Antaen: sure, it will take you 3 more turns to get there, but Flightmaster Dungar can be played way earlier than Antaen, and therefore you can set it up with more ease, as well as with less mana to invest. Aggressive decks will definitely abuse Eastern Plaguelands in order to set up lethals a couple turns ahead.
Final Thoughts - A very solid and flexible card: you have board presence, healing and burst in a single unit. The effects are straightforward and the Dormant keyword requires you to think a couple turns ahead before choosing your flightpath: sometimes, based on the opponent, healing or damage will be the no-brainer options, but if you don't plan it out carefully and act too greedy, you may be punished before getting to the payoff!
Flightmaster Dungar Decks
Now, where should we play Dungar in? We still have to wait for the top players to post a powerful list we all can netdeck and flood ladder with, but in the meantime we could try it in some lists with an already established game plan and see how it goes. We think archetypes like Libram Paladin, Menagerie Priest and Rush Warrior may all benefit from Flightmaster Dungar's inclusion, but Face Hunter and Elemental Doomhammer Shaman could also use some experimentation.
What do you think about Flightmaster Dungar? Have you already played with it? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Good card, fits into virtually any non-combo deck.
My dream of making it work in Hunter for that big finishing damage boost has yet to come to fruition (damn those other decks for getting in the way), but one cannot become so easily discouraged from travelling all the way to Plaguelands.
What happens if you double his battlecry and choose different rewards? I suppose he'll awaken as soon as the easiest reward is reached while losing the hardest one, but who knows.
Just tried him with Brann, his battlecry doesn't actually get doubled. You just get to choose flight path once, that's it, and when he awakens he also only triggers the chosen effect once.
That makes sense. After the first battlecry he is dormant, and therefore can't interact with anything or do anything. He is treated like he doesn't exist, and so isn't able to trigger his battlecry again.
Curious how they still running Dormant keyword close to 2 year. Dual Class, Lackey, etc got only 1 year, and even some mechanic only printed for 1 expansion period (e.g Magnetic).
Maybe just me, but I'm predicting they going to use Dormant mechanic in Core set in near future.
EDIT. Another thing crossed my mind as how the interactions between Maiev and this.
I tested the interaction with Maiev Shadowsong myself: it doesn't work - if you put Flightmaster Dungar back to sleep, he'll wake up with no other bonus effects.
Dormant is already an evergreen mechanic as the first ever dormant card came in JtU, four years ago. And even though it may never appear in the core set, I believe we will see many more dormant cards in the next few years.
I would also think(and hope) the same will happen with Tradeable, it literally begs to be an evergreen mechanic too.