StanCifka's Top 10 Cards to Watch out for in Knights of the Frozen Throne
Hi guys! The Knights of the Frozen Throne cards have been fully revealed, so it’s time to go through the whole set and try to guess which cards we need to watch out for and which ones just look flashy but won’t make much of an impact.
Below you can find the Top 10 cards that should be on your radar while building new decks and brewing strategies. There are so many interesting cards, so let's start with an honorable mentions before getting to the actual list.
Honorable Mentions
- Runeforge Haunter - Can snowball a lot in the right meta-game
- Prince Valanar - Great anti-aggro tool if you can make it work
- Shadow Ascendant - might be hidden gem of the set
- Stitched Tracker - If Midrange Hunter exists this is the perfect card for him
- Frost Lich Jaina - New Jaraxxus for Mage that will help with closing games
#10 - Scourgelord Garrosh
Garrosh alone could mean the comeback of Control Warrior. Best you can do is to compare him with Gorehowl, as they both do very similar things when you really think about it, only Garrosh does it a little bit better and hence is more expensive. Losing the ability to armor up is actually a big deal, so I would say that your deck needs to have some good synergies with Whirlwind to make this Hero great.
#9 - Corpsetaker
While this minion is neutral, it could straight up be a Paladin one as that is the obvious home for this guy. Getting Divine Shield will be the easiest part, and if you can reliably get Taunt as well (and you can, see the next card), then you are basically good to go. With the Wickerflame Burnbristle wording change which gives him Lifesteal, you are good to go if you manage to play Corpsetaker before you draw this must include Paladin card. The only missing piece of the puzzle is a Windfury minion which would push this card over the top, but I am having trouble finding even one random minion with Windfury to put alongside this in a deck. Be on a lookout for future improvements in the upcoming sets as well!
#8 - Righteous Protector
Not flashy or extremely powerful, but gets the job done. This is a strictly better Argent Squire for Paladins, and in my opinion is as good as Shielded Minibot which saw a ton of play in the past; One could even say he was meta-defining. Protector also has good synergy with Corpsetaker as mentioned above. Expect to see this guy in any Paladin archetype.
#7 - Uther of the Ebon Blade
This card is very similar to Tirion Fordring, and will either be played alongside him or completely replace him. We start to run into a problem of having too many great weapons with Paladin and as such, these cards don’t work all that great together. Lifesteal might prove even better than expected here, as gaining an effective 20 life (5 armor and 15 from weapon) may be unbeatable for classes like Mage.
6# - Prince Keleseth
Prince Keleseth got a lot of hate when people first saw him, but the effect on this card is simply insane. I can just imagine this card just being played on turn 2 and winning the game right there at that point. It’s not that hard to build some sort of Warlock Zoo that would rely on 1-drops and 3-drops only, and after that you are playing a fair deck that would get almost a free win every time you get lucky enough for Prince Keleseth to make an appearance.
#5 - Mountainfire Armor
Every turn you keep this card alive, you're getting a ton of value. If your opponent decides to ignore Mountainfire Armor, it allows you to trade anyway you wish or go straight to the face with 4.
As far as archetypes go, I don't believe it will spawn one of its own, but this card will shine in some form of Midrange Warrior or end up in Control Warrior alongside Scourgelord Garrosh.
#4 - Valeera the Hollow
I really like the design of this Death Knight and it will undoubtedly impact the meta-game quite a bit. It changes the flow of the game completely, and you won't want to be at on the receiving end of this girl. Before Valeera the Hollow, Mages would play Alexstrasza against you with an Ice Block in play and you were done.
The tables have turned though because now if you can deal with the dragon, Mage won't be able to kill you in one turn as you'll be sitting at at an effective 20 life. Losing after that (against Mage or any other Class) is hard as your passive ability generates a ton of value every single turn.
#3 - Archerus Veteran
This might be quite a surprise for you, but I think we will see Archerus Veteran a lot in the metagame. It’s close to Abusive Sergeant, which needed to be nerfed in the past, it’s neutral so it fits right into any aggressive deck, and it manages to create a great board presence very early if you manage to play him with a 1-drop. Just imagine playing Fire Fly and then Archerus Veteran while attacking your opponent’s Fire Fly. You are left with 2/2 and 2/1 while fully seizing the board before your enemy even gets a second mana crystal.
#2 - The Lich King
Looks like the talk about the apocalypse is real, great job Arthas. This guy really delivers and I am sure we will see him almost everywhere in the months to come. If he would just draw a card every turn he would still be quite good, but that’s far away from what he actually does. Spawning cards out of thin air is very valuable in grindy matchups where fatigue becomes a real possibility, not even mentioning that his creations are way above the quality of cards that you can play by yourself.
You can see the power level of cards he creates right here.
#1 - Ultimate Infestation
Oh boy, what an impressively accurate name! Not only is the card Ultimate, but you can straight up expect Infestation of the meta-game. Just a pure existence of a spell like this has huge impact on the meta-game as I think we will see decks that are super aggressive with the sole purpose of killing your opponent before he can cast this card - Druid decks with 2 of these and their whole gameplan wrapped around it. All the ramp spells just got a lot better, Mire Keeper will probably see some play and Nourish will be used for crystals more often than before. I guess they really wanted something to be capable of winning a game even after your opponent plays a Death Knight, and this is the way to do it.
That's It For Today!
That’s it for today, thanks a lot for reading! Make sure to watch my Youtube video if you are looking for more, and if you enjoy this type of content then hit the Youtube subscribe button as it really helps me to bring you more content like this for free.
I am also already brewing a sweet Paladin deck so if everything goes according to plan, you guys will have deck guide available right when Knights of the Frozen Throne is released!
Cheers,
Stancifka
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Editors Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Fallen Sun Cleric was the #3 pick when it should have been Acherus Veteran. This has been fixed.
I really hope that Zoolock with Prince Keleseth doesn't become a thing. In a mirror match, whoever draws it first is gonna be the winner almost everytime and deciding a game purely based on that it's just retarded.
A card that can win you the game on turn 2 (even against a bad matchup) by itself it's just stupid and shouldn't exist.
Yes. I hated Reno for the same reason. Cards like these amplify card draw RNG.
There's a huge diference between Prince Keleseth and Reno Jackson. In a mirror match or against another control deck, Reno was pretty useless, a lot of times you would play it just for the body on the board and nothing else. Also worth mention that Reno is a 6 drop, so against aggro you had to survive at least to turn 6 to play it.
Prince Keleseth has the potential to win you the game on turn 2 against pretty much everything and, unlike Reno, it can easily decide the winner in a mirror match.
I am not necessarily talking about mirror Reno matchups. I am saying whenever you drew Reno against Aggro/fast midrange deck then you win. Same is the case with prince Keleseth in mirror matchups. Same is the case with Aya Blackpaw in Jade Druid mirror. and this is not fun. Reno literally read Battlecry: If your opponent is playing Aggro/Aggro-Midrange deck then make him concede.
I hate to break it to you but this is a card game. Most games will be decided, especially mirrors, by who draws better.
Best example is dragon priest.
well the lich king will be in almost every deck..... he has taunt and he gives you an op card at the end of the turn. the valeera and garrosh DK though are garbage. funny this list doesnt have the most probably strongest DK, Thrall..... malfurion DK is pretty strong too.
A couple suspect choices like the cleric. Why run the Cleric as an "abusive sergeant" when you can run the 1 cost 2/1 that gives +1 attack instead for half the mana cost? You're just losing out on 1 health, and for 1 mana that's a hell of a better deal.
Also the Warrior DK is absolutely not for a control deck, it's for a midrange deck. Control Warriors are not running the minions that benefit from self-wounding. (Except Acolyte of Pain)
The 2-cost Prince is so, so, so terrible if you don't draw it, and the chances are not good that you do in time. What kind of zoo deck going first is going to succeed when their 2 slot is completely empty? You have an 80% chance of not getting it in your opening hand even if you mulligan the whole thing, and over a 70% chance to not have it by turn 2. You gonna gamble your game on that?
Fallen Sun Cleric is listed incorrectly here - in the video it's Acherus Veteran, the one drop 2/1 +1 attack to a minion. So yeah, you're right!
Let's wait and see about the Prince. I was surprised he picked that one as well but he had some good points...
This list is....not good. Mountainfire armor, prince keleseth, and garrosh DK all seem very build aroundy and none of the build arrounds seem particularly strong. Prince lists are terrible when you dont draw prince, mountainfire armor is good in exactly tempo warrior, but not as much in the tempo warrior direction that other cards in the set push. Garrosh might be an exception as it fits in the kind of tempo warrior this set gave a lot of support to. Im still a little skeptical though.
Fallen sun cleric is ok, but it is not the 3rd best card in the set. Valanar as an honorable mention is hilarious as its payoff is mediocre and its condition is quite tough to meet.
Valeera is the only bold choice that I like the thought behind. Its a really cool combo/value card. I actually think it is the reason we see so many deck filling cards in this set.
Double post. :(
i disagree with Ultimate Infestation.
While insane value as a card, even the rampiest druid can hardly get to (10) reliably and fast enough to abuse it. It is very good in Control vs Control. A game sealer maybe.
But Aggro will try to kill you well before turn 10 even if that card didn't exist. And they will probably do so if all you do is trying to ramp.
I also like his optimism about Valeera the Hollow. I think it's too situational, but I hope he's right.
Some of these predictions are just laughable, or the reasons given make no sense...
No priest DK? I think DK Anduin is better than DK Garrosh. Unlike DK Garrosh, DK Anduin will be auto-include for control deck. Insane battlecry against Jades and interesting Heropower which is also better than dealing 1 damage to the board. Again DK Garrosh doesn't even fit in Taunt warrior, because of the quest that gives insane heropower
Ultimate Infestation is so fucking overhyped it's crazy. You'll remember my comment once expansion comes out.
Yes. Not many people have played Jade and Ramp druid in recent times and I know that Ultimate Infestation is playable at best. Maybe as a one off in Ramp Druid. It's an expensive Firelands Portal because more often than not you will be milling yourself with this because it draws you 6 cards as you cannot play a card after playing this coz it costs 10 Mana or maybe you have to waste an innervate. Also to all those who are saying that Nourish could be used for ramp, then Ultimate Infestation are just 2 cards in your deck and you cannot play it if you don't draw it.
Burst draw is not good. Cycling through deck is good. If you play Nourish for ramp then you will run out of cards. If you play Nourish for draw then you will mill yourself with Ultimate Infestation. Just 1 copy is playable in ramp druid as a "save me card" when you are out of cards and slightly behind on board.
Also, Shattered Sun Cleric > Fallen sun Cleric. 1 health sucks.
Pro player reviews #Facepalm.
As a Pally main, I very much like how 4 of the "top 10 cards" slot conveniently into my midrange and control decks. :)
Brace yourselves, The Lich King will be freaking everywhere ..!
Which only means, The Black Knight will also be everywhere ^^
Nxc4#