Tier Ranking the Tourists
I'm interested in what everyone thinks are the best and worst Tourists in Perils in Paradise and I'm not afraid of being proven wrong almost immediately, so I'll drop my personal rankings of which Tourists are going to be the most impactfu…
I'm interested in what everyone thinks are the best and worst Tourists in Perils in Paradise and I'm not afraid of being proven wrong almost immediately, so I'll drop my personal rankings of which Tourists are going to be the most impactful (in Standard) when the expansion launches next week and I invite everyone else to do the same.
I tried to rank the cards both by how powerful I think their effect is and also the quality of the cards they allow their class access to, which means there's a lot of ways I can be wrong and isn't that fun? Without further ado, here are my almost certainly incorrect rankings of Tourists (in reverse order of power level):
Tier 4 - Probably Terrible
River Crocolisk is not a good card, no matter how many you have or how big they get, so Ranger Gilly already has the deck stacked against him. Then I look at the cards Warrior got in the new set, and there honestly isn't anything worth putting such a weak 6-Drop into my deck for.
Rogue has met with a terrible fate: a Tourist card with a mediocre effect and a set that doesn't look like it'll do well in Rogue. Maestra gets the edge over Gilly solely because some Hero cards are actually really good and there's always the upside of using Tess to replay all your Rogue cards.
Tier 3 - Weak, with Upside
I can't get over the fact that Raylla, a Legendary minion from 2024, is just a slightly better Vex Crow. If you can look past that, then you can convince yourself that Raylla has a lot of ways to pay off a small spell deck with a durable board, which is nice, but there's not a lot that the Paladin set offers Mage - unless you're playing a minion buff deck (and this is Mage we're talking about, guys), you're not going to have a whole lot of opportunities to make use of the cards that Paladin has to offer.
I like Cookie's effect, but the set he gets doesn't really play into what he wants you to do. Demon Hunter has a few cards that Shaman will definitely want, but it's really hard for me to think of Cookie as anything other than a dead card that you're running specifically to gain access to better card draw and/or new spell schools. Like Raylla, Cookie is better played when you can combo him with other cards and, also like Raylla, doesn't really offer much beyond an OK board presence - but at least he can be played onto an established board to make some trades a little better.
Massive card draw is good, and there is some support for Spell School DK... except for spells that are actually good. The archetype feels fringe, and if you're not specifically going for Spell School DK there just doesn't feel like there's a reason to play Buttons. Probably the most inflexible combination of Tourist and set.
Tier 2 - Good Effect, OK Set
There's a few cards from the Rogue set that Paladin could use, mainly Oh, Manager! and Knickknack Shack, but the cards that cost 2 or less that Lynessa is going to be comboing with are much more likely to be Paladin cards. If you took away the Tourist, would it change how much Lynessa sees play?
Darkmarrow is a bit of a mix between Baron Rivendare and Spiritsinger Umbra, which sounds like a pretty good deal. He also gives you access to cards like Brittlebone Buccaneer and Eliza Goreblade, but a big reason of why he's likely to see play is more about what he does with the Warlock cards, both the old ones and the ones from the new set.
Tier 1 - A Beautiful Marriage of Effect and Set
Vol'jin's effect is situational, but in the right situations it can be very strong. He sits at the bottom of this tier because what he does doesn't really play with any of the cards Priest gets from Hunter; but his effect is solid and the set is really good so I'm giving him a pass. Giving Priest, the class with the most potential for annoying shenanigans, access to Sasquawk and Pet Parrot feels a little nasty on Blizzard's part, and it's going to take a lot to convince me that Death Roll isn't premium removal.
Aranna is so good at what she does that half of Priest's set feels like cards printed specifically for Demon Hunter (but don't feel bad for Priest - Blizzard made it up to them by giving them Hunter's entire set). Sauna Regular, Acupuncture, Nightshade Tea, and Hot Coals all go great with a self-harm DH whose Hero Power gives them constant cheap access to pain. And while Aranna feels like a huge payoff for the archetype, it doesn't feel like the deck won't work if you don't draw her.
Y'all - I don't think I'm going out an a limb when I say that Mistah Vistah's effect is absurdly strong. Sure, you have to wait three turns to get the payoff, so you're technically playing a 5/5 vanilla 5-Drop, but there's a lot of good spells for Vistah to repeat to the point where it feels like the opponent has to kill the Druid in that three-turn window or they'll be completely buried. And the Tourist tag gets you Tsunami (a great spell to stall the board and later repeat with Vistah), Go with the Flow and Seabreeze Chalice (great cheap spells for Spell Damage Druid) and niche tools like Rising Waves and Tide Pools, so this looks like a top-tier Tourist (except, actually, it isn't).
Tier 0 - I Mean, Come On
Any Tourist card that gives its class access to the absurd pile that is Druid's set in Perils in Paradise is already a top three Tourist in my book, and then you add an effect which gives you the ability to delete one of your opponent's key minions before they even draw it. Warrior salivates over the chance to add cards like Trail Mix, Hydration Station, New Heights, and Sleep Under the Stars to their decks, no matter the archetype. Both effect and set give one of the best late-game classes even more tools for suffocating its opponents, so this is obviously the best Tourist.
Please disagree with me down below!
