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 like the list, but there are some pretty glaring errors.
Scourgelord Garrosh isn't a card that will fit well into any control Warrior. As mentioned, losing armor is a really big deal, especially in control warrior. While the card might be great in a new archetype of Warrior, it doesn't fit in control.
Runeforge Haunter - Sorry, a 5/3 whose ability is to extend a weapon's life isn't really a snowballing card. As long as Pirate warrior exists (and it shall for a while), there will be plenty of weapon removal out there.
Ultimate Infestation - Great card, but it is tough to see anyone running 2 of these cards. The problem is the 5 card draw. 2 of these would mean you are drawing an additional 10 cards, and with Nourish, Wild Growth, and Wrath all staples in big Druid decks, that's going to mean either milling yourself or chewing through your deck far too fast.
Minor criticisms. I like most of the rest of the list!
Noone said you MUST include 2 Ultimate Infestations on your deck.At least i didnt see that rule anywhere.
I would personally cut one Nourish for a copy of Ultimate Infestation in a control based or Big Druid deck.
Acherus Veteran is superbly better than Fallen Sun Cleric imho; it also works better with Prince Keleseth in Zoo decks, if the card even sees play that is.
You guys are correct, just my typo, sorry about that, should be Acherus Veteran as you can see in the video, thanks for pointing it out!
Fallen Sun Cleric's battlecry : +1/+1
Good list, what are your thoughts on Defile?
#3 - Fallen Sun Cleric
Just no
Should be the 1 drop guy as in the video ;)
2 princes being meantioned is a surprise...nice
Nice