Maw and Disorder, Murder at Castle Nathria's mini-set, goes live tomorrow, September 27th, and we've got some thoughts on the new cards coming for Mage, Paladin, Priest, and Rogue. Let's go over the them and see where we're headed in the mini-set meta. Have a good read!
In case you missed it, a few days ago we published our Murder at Castle Nathria mini-set prediction article - how well do you think we did?
Interested in reading our thoughts on other Maw and Disorder cards? Here are the links to our other review articles:
Moreover, here are other Maw and Disorder related articles you may want to check out:
Mage
For our understanding and from Leo Robles' (Hearthstone Game Designer) insight, Life Sentence should act as a Flik Skyshiv, getting rid all copies of a minion in any hand, deck and on the board, while also removing it from the resurrection pool; however, just like The Amazing Reno, it won't destroy the targeted minion, but it will simply make it disappear: *poof!*
Quote From Leo Robles Negates Deathrattles AND removes it from the res pool.
Although it cannot prevent a player to summon that minion through RNG effects (Charged Call, Conjurer's Calling), we think that Life Sentence is premium removal that eclipses Polymorph under almost any aspect and that will help slow Mage strategies. Although we may still need some time (and cards) for Reno Mage to be back on the menu, we expect Life Sentence to be part of the new meta, especially if decks like Boar Priest will make a comeback.
Counterspell for minions. The existence alone of this Secret, especially when randomly generated, will be real pain in the arse for any opponent: only the fact that the hidden Secret may be Objection! will require players to make tough choices, especially if they run a deck with very few key minions.
With this and Contract Conjurer, Secret Mage can finally have a shot in Standard and, possibly, become a niche strategy you see from time to time.
Torghast Crystal Runner. Differently from Kabal Crystal Runner, Contract Conjurer only considers Secrets you currently have in play, but it has better stats and can come down slightly earlier.
An interesting combo is turn 2 Anonymous Informant into turn 3 0-Cost Secret into 3 mana Contract Conjurer, which seems pretty good to us.
As we already mentioned in Objection!'s review, we expect Secret Mage to pass from being totally inexistent to seemingly a playable deck, but at the same time, we are not foolish enough to think that it will go above tier 3.
Paladin
And there it is: Pure Paladin support that justifies a bit more giving up on all those Neutral cards out there. Vanilla stats for the cost and, in case you meet the "Pure" condition, a Subdue for free. While this upside might sound not particularly great, we beg to differ: shutting down a Vile Library-ed Imp, a sated Insatiable Devourer or, let's say, an Edwin, Defias Kingpin for just 2 mana is quite the feat! Pure Pally usually struggles to get back the board when it is lost: with Blademaster Samuro gone, Class Action Lawyer is a nice step in the right direction.
The card is good, very good: Paladin (and, to be precise Pure Paladin) is looking better.
Lorekeeper Polkelt for 2 less mana and that draws a card? Implications aside, this card looks packed with potential!
If you're running expensive cards in your deck, you obviously do not want to play this on curve, otherwise you'll risk to not have anything playable for several turns; however, consider casting Order in the Court on turn 7 and always drawing Lightforged Cariel on turn 8, playing what currently is the strongest Paladin card on curve. And after that? What about The Countess on turn 9, with enough mana to play a Legendary Invitation?
We feel like this card singlehandedly makes Pure Pally a lot better, as it ensures its lategame to be more consistent.
In order to judge Jury Duty correctly, let's try to break it down a bit: the two summoned Silver Hand Recruits are worth 1 mana (Lost in the Jungle), so we find ourselves with a 2 mana "Give your Dudes +1/+1", which doesn't seem particularly great to us.
All in all, this is literally an Arbor Up for Dude Paladin and, more importantly, it represents more ways for the player to generate and capitalize on Recruits. Not particularly high on the deck's chances to be stronger though.
Priest
Here's the Shadow/Thief support card we speculated about. Theft Accusation can be seen as a 1 mana Assassinate which, however, needs to be paired with a card you copied from your opponent: if you see it as a 2-card combo, it becomes less broken and more reasonable (but still very, very good).
Anyways, more support for Thief Priest, an archetype that hasn't seen much success in the first two months of the Murder at Castle Nathria expansion, is more than welcome. On the other hand, this deck doesn't need only payoff cards, but "thief" generators as well - speaking of which...
Drakonid Operative is 2022, and no one can change our mind. Incriminating Psychic has multiple pros:
- Dragon tag, which may help towards Kazakusan purposes.
- Taunt, which means that it will inevitably slow down aggression.
- Card generation, and not totally random: there's a good chance that Psychic will give you a rather good card since, you know, an opponent that wants to win games will inevitably play good cards!
Yes, a Deathrattle is slower than a Battlecry, but at the same time getting a card from your opponent's hand rather than deck can be more meaningful - Sire Denathrius, Questline rewards, Hero cards, valuable tools like Theotar, the Mad Duke. What's more is that, like any other card you copy from your opponent, The Harvester of Envy can steal the real one!
To put it simple, this seems like a really good card, one that will make the cut in multiple decks.
As we see it, the most valuable part of Clear Conscience is the "elusive" buff, allowing the unit to not be targetable by the likes of Nightcloak Sanctum, Windchill and whatnot - if you want some stats buff, then this is no better than Serpent Wig.
Furthermore, we think that Clear Conscience won't be a staple in Bless Priest, but it will make the cut from time to time based on the meta and what decks are at the top. All in all, a situational but potentially game-winning effect.
Rogue
Wow, this card looks really solid to us. Miracle Rogue already has many reasons to see play in Sinstone Graveyard, Edwin, Defias Kingpin, Necrolord Draka and so on, so Scribbling Stenographer naturally fits in that deck.
Speaking tempo wise, you'll need to play 2 cards in order for this card to be worth its cost, but if you manage to play 3 or more, then Stenograph will become a really good deal - let us remind you that this is a Rogue card, a class that is well known for having many cheap tools as well as lots of mana-cheat cards: reducing Scribbling Stenographer's cost to 0 won't be an issue at all.
It's worth noting that Murder Accusation lets you target both a friendly and an enemy minion to die, meaning that you can use it, let's say, on a friendly Deathrattle like Burning Blade Acolyte, destroy an enemy unit and then get Acolyte's spawn in exchange, maybe with Snowfall Graveyard in play.
However, Rogue isn't exactly a slow class: if all you want is winning the game by pushing face damage, why running a card that doesn't help you to do that? The card is good, but it probably goes to one of the classes that needs it the least.
Let's start by saying that we're quite disappointed that Rogue received only one Secret-related card in the mini-set: despite the buff to Halkias, the archetype has seen no play whatsoever in the last two months - we're quite sure that just one more Secret won't change things.
Regarding the card itself, Perjury is pretty damn cool: it will not trigger on your opponent's turn, allowing you to set up plays like Ghastly Gravedigger without running any risks. Moreover, the "new" Secret won't be random (if it was, Perjury would've been much, much worse), but you'll get to choose it from three choices, and chances are you'll always get a valuable pick. All in all, slow but pretty good Secret.
What do you think about these cards? Are there any you're excited to play with? Let us know in the comments below!
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Comments
"Life Sentence should act as a Flik Skyshiv, getting rid all copies of a minion in any hand, deck and on the board, while also removing it from the resurrection pool"
It doesn't appear to read that way. It looks like it's just a "Silence + Destroy + Can't be resurrected" card for Mage.
I've never really liked Thief priest and I pulled The Harvester of Envy recently as well but these 2 new cards actually seem like fun! Might try making a Dragon Thief priest
Perjury looks so fun. I've been playing a secret thief Rogue and it's been real fun. Not the best win rate but recasting secrets with the Stash is satisfying.