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'm totally coming around on him. I'm not sold on the other two princes, but the 2 mana guy can be one of those cards that wins games when you play it early but doesn't necessarily cripple you if you don't draw into it.
Plus there's some sweet bounceback potential that really gets me excited.
No his argument is that having both cards in the same deck might be a bit much because Paladin already plays some late game heavy hitters (Ragnaros Lightlord, Tirion Fordring, etc...) and there may not be enough room for another big late game card like those.
Also Acherus Veteran is in it's own category to be considered and isn't being compared against Tirion Fordring at all...
In a meta where a 1/1 with Charge is in a top tier deck I can believe that a one mana card can be more defining than an eight mana card. Size doesn't mean everything, and since Uther of the Ebon Blade gives you a weapon identical to Ashbringer but with the added benefit of Lifesteal on the turn after Tirion Fordring can be played it means that half the benefit of that legendary is useless if the new Paladin hero card becomes a staple.
That being said this list shouldn't be taken as fact, lets just see where the meta takes us.
then tell me your top 10 ;'D
In no particular order:
Happy Ghoul: great tempo, good in priest and paladin. Will be a key part of hand pally because of the prevalence of stuff like lifesteal in the corpsetaker build.
Corpsetaker: Really exceptional in paladin and useable in a handful of other classes.
Lich King: Strong value card for mid range decks. Taunt + value generation = great.
Priest DK: It is the best wild card in the set bar none and it will probably still see some limited play in standard. That hero power + raza is waaaay too good.
Warlock DK: i havent had the time to theorycraft with it enough, but it seems crazy.
Druid 1/6 3 drop taunt thing: I dont remember the name, but it is potentially game winning in the aggro mirror and really annoying for any other decks to deal with. I really like it.
Ultimate infestation: it enables a more consistent ramp druid and is just plain good.
Righteous Protector: Great card. It's an argent squire thats better in the late game and in the aggro mirror.
5 mana 4/5 arcane explosion demon: It's just one of those cards that is just plain good. Great effect, reasonable body, demon tag, I like it.
Skulking geist: It may not be one of the most played, but you will definitely be keeping this card in mind when considering playing that inner fire, jade idol, etc. Its impact will be felt.
great predictions. time will tell if you are right ;)
Some of these cards will be good, but saying Keleseth will win you the game when you play it is simply a joke. I think Garrosh is better than people have been saying, but saying a smaller Shattered Sun Cleric is going to be one of the breakout cards of the set is just ludicrous. It's an Arena card, full stop.
Never underestimate how seriously people take their top 10 lists on the internet.
Perhaps NewSunshine, but if there were a Top 10 list of Top 10 Lists that People Took Seriously, this one would be, like, in the ninth spot, at best.
What are you on about? You can't even compare Shattered Sun Cleric to Keleseth. In a zoo deck buffing all your other minions in your deck is really strong. I don't know if he will become meta-defining, but it's not wrong to predict him as one of the breakout cards! Time will show if he will become a hit..
No one expects Jade Druid to be a thing right off the bat. But once all the dust settles and the meta stabilizes we might see some more Jade shenanigans from Malfurion and I'm acutally really surprised that Skulking Geist is nowhere on this list. Blizzard basically killed off an entire archetype(expansion) by making this card which is unfair since they already have cashed in.
Everyone is crapping on his analysis, but can we please remember this guy literally plays this game as a job? I'm willing to bet he has some insights we are not going to have or appreciate. He's making educated guesses. Disagree if you want but dont insult his intelligence behind it. I doubt everyone posting here is pulling in $50k+ a year playing this game.
No one person is good enough or smart enough to nail everything. Good analysis should incorporate your own opinion as well as using insight from others knowledgeable on the subject. Most of these choices and explanations show a lack of regard for the insights of others, so it becomes more of a fun diversion than worthwhile content.
This is not to say that this was terrible as his Valeera insight and fallen sun cleric insight may prove to be very useful. However, prince keleseth, fallen sun cleric, and mountainfire armor are not top cards in the set no matter how you slice it.
Stopped reading after Prince Keleseth. That card is the least playable prince. Every deck has important two mana cards and even if you made some kind of no two cost card token/zoo deck you still have to draw this card, play this card, and the ability only works on your deck so you have to wait so long before getting enough value to justify this card. 1/5. card is trash.
Edit: Went back and read the rest :p. Valeera the Hollow is a cool design but you are playing a 9 mana do nothing a lot of the time. It does nothing to further your win condition only stalls the game and sometimes stalling is what you might need. However a lot of the time this card will be to slow. I can see it in some kind of Control Rogue. Miracle doesn't want a 9 mana do nothing though.
i think you completely ignored valeera the hollow's hero power.
I was just stating the reasons the card won't see play in miracle or at all. The hero power is the major reason you would consider playing the card. Even then its too slow for miracle. Like I said before might see some type of control rogue or even a new variant of jade rogue.
Yeah but miracle might like the duplication of free or cheap spells Shadow Reflection. If they play this turn 9 then on turn 10 they will have one more cycle card, and the longer they wait the more powerful the combo would become.
Well one of the cards here might become bad card with good reviews for bingo... especially the number 1 as draw 5 and 10-cost at is not good in all possible meta games, only in particular match ups...