Hearthpwn

Even nature is at its darkest in this expansion as you'll encounter the deadly wilds and druids with their dark powers lurking these grim, haunted forests. Instead of fearing them and running for your life however, you have the ability to use their power and become yet another one to fear within the forests. Grimforest Guardian works as a flexible offense or defense tool allowing you to use your Void Orbs to gain Attack to take down enemies, or gain Armor to obtain more life to stay in the game. This isn't even mentioning the high, vanilla stats she has for the cost, allowing her to still keep a good fight and keep good value off of playing her card no matter which option you choose or how much of it you chose.

In World of Warcraft, Leyara serves as the Lieutenant for Fandral Staghelm and also possesses a hatred for the main Druid hero, Malfurion Stormrage. After this expansion, she however works for him allowing you to make use of her in your Druid deck.

Something some of you may not have noticed before is that we currently only have one card in the game with synergy specifically for Choose One cards and in fact is the only card in the game that mentions the Choose One keyword without being a Choose One card itself, which is the obvious - Fandral Staghelm. Being his Lieutenant, Feyara works well in conjunction with Fandral giving you two Choose One cards: One upon playing, and another upon Death. Both can be used for their own purpose and can also be useful to save and combo with Fandral for a large board impact. Druids in this set gain more Choose One synergistic cards in this set using space in the mechanic previously unused before.

List of Shot cards:

• • Arcane Shot
  • Multi-Shot
  • Deadly Shot
  • Explosive Shot
  • Quick Shot (Wild Only)
  • Powershot (Wild Only)
  • Cobra Shot (Wild Only)
  • Spectral Shot (This expansion)

Some Hunters just go in the Wild with their Beasts, ready to strike whatever/whenever they feel the need to, going no holds barred. Other Hunters however are about spying on their target, getting a good aim and scoring that perfect shot. Upon playing Hooded Sharpshooter, he will give you a random Shot card, giving you a way of dealing direct damage regardless of outcome (except Deadly Shot, but even that can be used to kill a large minion). This acts a nice way of getting an answer to deal with enemy threats and will give you a spell for spell synergies. Speaking of getting answers though...

... Hunters in this set get Maximillion, a pegasus (see what I did there?) that upon playing gives off a Wrathion effect and will keep drawing cards each time you keep drawing Beasts or Secrets. I think most of us can agree when I say Hunter's draw ability sucks, particularly with one of their best midrange cards, King's Elekk, rotated to Wild. Maximillion is here to save the day and give Hunters their good card draw. The reason Wrathion didn't work is because its draw was too unreliable and its stats were too low. Maximillion has none of those problems though, working with two things Hunters excel at, Beasts and Secrets.

Most Hunter decks tend to run a lot of Beasts anyway, so drawing 2 should often be reliable enough even without Secrets, but if you are running Secrets then this is just the icing on the cake. Perfectly curves with Savannah Highmane on turn 6, into this on turn 7 as well.

Hunters in general have a small Greek mythology theme in this set, allowing you summon fierce chimeras and deadly cerberuses to fight alongside you. Maximillion himself is a pegasus which also fits that theme.

Warriors in this expansion get fierce, violent and bloody. Brute Fighter is not one to mess around, giving Warrior a cost-efficient and also very effective way of gaining Void Orbs, gaining you one whenever it's damaged (meaning no matter what, you're always guaranteed one). Warriors already have their own means and synergies around damaging their own minions and this expansion is no different. In this expansion, Warriors get a bunch of cards focused around self-damaging and self-damaging synergies. Using them to your advantage, Brute Fighter can single-handedly give you a bunch of Void Orbs to use with other cards. In addition to that, it's also a 3/6 for 4 meaning it has good stats for the cost even without the Void Orbs taken into account.

The Warrior Legendary in this set is arguably one of the more interesting ones. As seen in Knights of the Frozen Throne with cards like Gnomeferatu and Skulking Geist, Team 5 is now more willing to make hand and deck destruction for the opponent. Whether that's a good or bad thing remains to be seen. The new Warrior Legendary, Icaria, has some of that same aspect going for it.

When Icaria is played, all minions in each player's hands at the time will take 1 damage. This can allow you set up some sweet combo plays with damage synergy cards to help out your own damaged minions or to easily kill your opponent's. It can give you a free trigger for your Enrage minions, or weaken some of your opponent's minions making them less of a worry for you. Proper planning can really mess your opponent's game plan up while simultaneously advancing yours significantly.

Notes about Icaria:

• • Icaria will not trigger on-damage effects of cards like Acolyte of Pain or Grim Patron while they're in the hand.
  • If any minions reach 0 Health with Icaria's Battlecry, the minions will stay in their owner's hands but will instantly die upon being put out from the hand.
  • Enrage minions damaged will display their Attack buff and their red Enraged aura while in the hand. Spiteful Smith however will not buff your weapon's Attack while it's in your hand.