Well, well, well, what do we have here? A new Hearthstone expansion? And it's a murder mystery? My, how fun! And speaking of fun, Blizzard have given us a brand new Legendary to have some fun with, as is tradition. Prince Renathal is probably the most interesting one we've got since Fellow Royalty Malchezaar.
However, unlike Mal, Renathal actually has the potential to change the face of Hearthstone considerably. Let's take a look at his majesty's lore, balance, and what he can mean for Hearthstone's future!
Lore
Prince Renathal, in all his glory
Prince Renathal, a.k.a. the Dark Prince, is a venthyr, a race of vampiric humanoids that live in the Shadowlands, Azeroth's afterlife. They have dominion over Revendreth, and are tasked with punishing and rehabilitating the souls of the unworthy. The ruler of Revendreth is Sire Denathrius, the lad in the new expansion's cinematic who got murdered, and whose portrait got sliced in half. How rude!
Renathal is the first venthyr Denathrius crafted, however that works. The former sees the latter as a "father", but Ren is still loyal to the Shadowlands and Revendreth's mission. When Sire Den is suspected of the drought of anima, the essence of mortal souls that World of Warcraft players can collect willy-nilly, Renathal is willing to start a rebellion and dethrone his father to restore the flow of anima.
Ah, it seems we have our main suspect for the murder of the Sire, as I see no butler!
Card Balance & Flavor
Hearthstone's Prince Renathal is a 3-mana 3/4 with a very interesting effect. When you add him to your deck, its maximum size increases to 40. Then, when the game starts, your health is also set to 40. This card allows you to sacrifice consistency for a larger health pool. Flavor-wise, you can think of Renathal feeding the player anima, Infusing them.
Like most other Start of Game cards (which this technically is), Renathal has a powerful effect that comes into play before the game even starts, after which it's basically a vanilla minion. However, this is the cheapest Start of Game minion we've ever had, meaning it can be played along with other cards more easily or, at 3 mana, be played on curve without losing as much tempo.
The biggest drawback with the new Prince is the consistency of your deck. Let's look at some numbers, courtesy of our very own Echo:
- The chances of having a card in your opening hand (assuming two copies, going first and a full mulligan) is 41.8% for a 30-card deck. It drops to 32.3% for a 40-card one.
- If you want to have a card by turn 5, you'll get it about 60.7% of the time in a 30-deck. That drops to 47.9% in a 40-deck.
- If you only have one copy of the card (it's a Legendary or you're playing a highlander deck), the numbers drop to 36% and 27.5%, respectively.
- Lastly, your chances of getting a specific card by turn 10 are about 75.86% in a 30-deck, and go all the way down to 61.5% in a 40-deck.
As you can see, there's quite a drop in consistency across the board. Is this drop worth the 10 extra Health and a pretty beefy Fatigue buffer? We'll have to wait and see.
How Will This Affect Hearthstone?
As mentioned in the previous section, a 40 card deck is going to tank your consistency, but the extra 10 Health should really help your survivability. With that in mind, who would want to run this card? Keep in mind that all the following scenarios are under the assumption that your opponent will have a 30-card deck, as a Renathal mirror would balance things out.
Before anything else, it's worth noting that the Prince is banned in both Arena and Duels. So no having to do 10 extra drafts, and no 40-card deck at the start of a Duels run.
The most obvious option is Control. These kinds of decks like to stall out games, so a hit to consistency won't be much of an issue, assuming a similar distribution of their tools. 10 more Health than usual is going to help a lot in surviving Aggro's early push, which will give players time to find their board clears or life gains. In a Control mirror, the 40-card deck should be favored due to the very delayed Fatigue.
Aggro decks might consider running Ren in an Aggro-heavy meta to get an edge over their opponent, but it's unlikely otherwise. These decks tend to end the game quickly and don't usually care about their own life total, so they're unlikely to want to reduce the consistency of their deck and risk a dead draw for more health points.
One type of deck that will absolutely NOT want to run Ren are Combo decks. Getting to their pieces as fast as possible is paramount for them, so they will absolutely not risk their consistency for some extra survivability.
In terms of classes, Warlock will love Renathal. The extra 10 Health is just more fuel for their Hero Power. Un'Goro Quest Priest will also run this card to complete the Quest at the start of the game. As for the others, it'll be highly dependent on the type of decks they play.
What do you think of Prince Renathal? Will he impact the game, or is his effect too niche? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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Comments
When I got this minion, I immediately went to Warlock. Being able to toss in every delay card on top of my kill conditions was hilarious. I won out 3/1 games against aggro because of the increased health as well. By the time control-lock was established, my aggro opponent was gassed and gave up.
I think that this will continue to see a lot of play with mid-range and control decks. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not Highlander decks will try this due to the fact that you only run 1 copy of a card and often times you need a way to get to it. Although the idea of being able to Reno back to 40 life in classes other than Priest is pretty awesome.
The one deck I've yet to try with this minion is High Priest Thekal Paladin. Getting 40 armor, playing Giants really early, and then being able to restore your health as you draw into your deck makes that kinda hilarious
I find Renathal quite, err, interesting on the interesting-scale because he is simultaneously super interesting and not interesting at all. Because everything he does occurs before you start playing, and while you're playing it feels a lot like any other game (albeit with some extra health), he doesn't actually excite me much. I guess that's just my inner rogue itching for shenanigans and being quite disinterested with predictable effects I'm not actively involved in.
Yeah, that’s a fair point. I’ve watched a few youtubers play with him, and I usually forget he’s in the deck. Once your hero takes damage, you don’t even register the higher-than-normal health. The only exception is if the hero goes below 10 Health, I think “You’d/I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for Ren”.
Well, you start with a large quantity of arcane dust, about 1600 units...