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.
It's always fun to look at these previews some time after it, and see what was missed and what not. In particular it's odd to see how few people actually thought good enough fo Bonemare!
LOL it's so wrong xd, Uther is crap in standard, no one will be playing it in a few weeks after release, not in standard for sure. In wild its great, cause you have there Thaurissian and you can simply build a otk deck with it, just simply reduce the cost of Beardo and 3 secrets, bum you have 10 mana summon 4 horsemens. Mountainfire is also crap, it's a defensive effect with restriction that works for aggro deck (if you are agro you don't care about armor, if you're control and want the effect you need to taunt it up cause all aggro will simply ignore it) and midrange warrior will never be a thing. AND WTF? shitty Uther and ok Valera were mentioned here, but not Warlock? WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BEST DK? Bullshit, that's it
Have you ever played Control Pally, bro? Possibility of "OTK-ing" someone with Horsemen isn't the main strength of Uther of the Ebon Blade - first of all, you get another Ashbringer with Forbidden Healing for 10 attached. And Justicar Trueheart's effect, which is pretty fuckin good on Pally.
And Warlock's DK is veeery strong, but I feel that many such reviews dismiss him, because Warlock as a class has been pretty non-existent since Reno Jackson rotated out of Standard. That said: if there will be a slow Warlock deck that does well in the meta, it's almost certain that Bloodreaver Gul'dan will be a core card there.
Guys, Righteous Protector is not strictly better than Argent Squire, especially not in Paladin who uses Rallying Blade. Sometimes you want your Divine Shield minion to get the +1/+1 buff which will be denied through Taunt .
According to the definition of "strictly better" that is correct. According to the commonly used CCG gamer definition of "strictly better" it's not. Generally strictly better means that something is better in every situation, no matter how you look at it and without exception. The CCG gamer definition is below.
"Strictly better describes a card which is, in isolation from other effects, superior to another card in at least one respect, while being worse in zero respects." Rallying Blade would be an "other effect". This definition compares baseline stats of the minions.
I think people are really deluding themselves with corpsetaker. Against non-mage & non-paladin control it is going to usually be a 4 mana 3/4+ with taunt and divine shield. Cool. Against aggressive decks and those other things, it will just be a 3/4 taunt. I don't think wickerflame is gonna proc this that often, and if you don't get lifesteal the card is gonna be a worse Sen'jin in all of the times that it matters.
What? You can consistently get divine shield/taunt with this which is completely anti-aggro as they have to run two minions into it to clear it. 3 Attack is good vs aggressive decks and the 4 health means it's not inconceivable they have to use 3 cards to clear it (1 to get rid of divine shield 2 to actually kill it). Mage still has to use 2 mana + something to kill it with hero power on the divine shield, which means if you play this on turn 4 their best best would be something like hero power, attack in with something, 2 mana damage spell, which means it still 2 for ones and means they most likely won't have mana to play a minion.
Trollolol...
Nothing will ever replace Tirion!
" 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. "
Uhm, No!?!
Why would you say that?
I believe that perhaps blood guldan should be included a good example of a deck he would excelle in is reno demon lock .. Here is an example http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/881332-lord-of-the-demon-realm-legend
Well, these are certainly cards to look out for, but I wouldn't say they are the top 10. There is things missing from this list.
My Top 10 in no particular order:
Ultimate Infestation: awesome value. Unarguably good. A little overestimated but definitely good.
Bolvar, Fireblood: Often can be a 5/7 divine shield with a chance of being a 7/7 divine shield. I don't even think you need to build a deck around it, but will make that divine shield deck have very strong tempo plays. If this card gets buffed when it loses divine shield, then damn this thing will easily be a 7/7 or more often.
Corpsetaker: Unarguably good in Paladin. It's a Wickerflame Burnbristle +1. May be seen in other classes! Other classes may have a Burnbristle!
Deathspeaker: It's a neutral Argent Protector. It costs 1 more and doesn't have divine shield synergy, but it can be used by anyone and Argent Protector was a widely used card.
Drakkari Enchanter: In wild, this can be crazy. In standard, it's just good. Getting effects off twice has been great at this mana cost for battlecries. The deathrattles had less success but that card costed more. This is the sweet spot and will see tons of play if we get more end of turn effects next expansion. For now, it'll just see play in those certain decks that run cards with EOT effects.
Plague Scientist: Wild boar combo? Probably not an early game removal card, but mid to late game will love this. It makes all trades favorable and has good body for the cost. This card is insane in arena!
Tainted Zealot: It's not just a FTP alternative for Bloodmage Thalnos. It's more Thalnos! With cards like Defile this card has more synergy that with Thalnos. It also has divine shield synergy for Paladin.
Righteous Protector: Argent Squire but better. Annoy-o-Tron but better. It's gonna be seen in every paladin deck. No question.
Deathstalker Rexxar: This slot could have been any of the good DK cards, but I believe the hunter DK has the most potential for crazy game swinging plays. It is kind of slow even though it costs 6 mana. The hero power costs 2 plus the cost of the card you generated to get that card on the board, but those cards are crazy! You can get 9/9 charge minions (that can hit face!) and other crazy good minions. This card is only good however if control hunter will be a thing, otherwise it won't see play (midrange maybe?).
Otherwise, Fallen Sun Cleric, Mountainfire Armor, and Scourgelord Garrosh are also really good, but fall just short of my list. Cleric is probably gonna be amazing in zoo, and Armor is just good. Warrior DK is impressive if tempo warrior is coming back. It might just solidify that deck type in the upper tiers methinks.
What I'm really excited is for the 'Finja' and Vicious Fledgeling of the set, the ones that no one is excited about but turns out to be super strong. I have my money on these cards:
Chillblade Champion, Snowflipper Penguin, Plague Scientist, Doomerang, Play Dead, BearShark
booooo no ARFUS
man your in delusions before people palyed Nourish 5 mana draw 3 ... so this for the extra 5 mana deals 5 dmg and draws 2 like Starfire you also get 5 armor and 5/5 body thats why its value if off the roof ...so you can play Wild GrowthJade Blossom and also Nourish to ramp faster , sure playing 2 of this may actually fatigue you unless your playing jade but playing 1 is super good in any druid that is not aggro
This card is most likely to be run in some kind of big druid with medivh and maybe spreading plague, malfurion DK and lich king. Big druid doesnt run auctioneer and has less card draw than jade druid. The worst thing that can happen against control is not drawing big threats after ramping up. This card is going to replace the curator package and makes sure you dont run out steam. Fatigue is rarely relevant in this matchup.
stan i love you but im gonna need some receipts for #6
QUEST HUNTER
Well then you are in luck, there might be a deck guide, maybe even right before Knights of the Frozen Throne is out!
It's not "Archerus" veteran, nor "Achenus" veteran - it's Acherus Veteran, named after Acherus, the Ebon Hold.
I would switch Garrosh with Jaina, but overall this list is great!