Best and Most Interesting Cards from United in Stormwind

United in Stormwind expansion is releasing next week – August 3, to be more precise – and we’ve already seen all of the cards from the expansion. As much as I would love to review each one of them, that’s very hard with how the recent reveal seasons proceed (to be more specific – they got much shorter and more condensed, leaving no time to write about every card). However, I think that the format I’m about to present might be a good compromise.

In this article, I’ll focus my attention on the United in Stormwind cards from one of the two categories. First, I’ll list the best cards – cards that I think have the biggest potential to impact the meta and see play in high-tier decks. Then I’ll finish the article off with some most interesting cards – cards that I don’t think will necessarily be as strong, but seem really fun, have a cool design, or simply ones I like. Of course, sometimes those two categories will overlap – there are certainly cool cards that I think will see a lot of play. If one cards fits into both categories, I’ll just put it into the first one.

Best Cards from United in Stormwind

Before I start this list, I need to address one thing. The fact that I didn’t put a card on it doesn’t mean that I don’t think is good. “The best” list is for cards I would normally rate 8/10 and more. But cards that are 6-7 can still turn out to be good and a big part of the expansion – so if you see a card that seems good but it’s not on the list, it most likely means that I would rate it 6-7. Cards are in alphabetical order, so pay no attention to it.

Aimed Shot

Aimed Shot is Face Hunter’s wet dream. If you gave them a straight-up 5 face damage for 3 mana, they would play it and love it – after all, that’s what Kill Command was mostly used for (yes, it was sometimes a removal, but it had a big downside of requiring a Beast on board). Because that’s what the card essentially is. Yes, you need to press Hero Power to “access” the 2 damage part, but when was that a problem in Face build? You’re doing that all the time anyway. But for the sake of clarity, we can call it 7 damage for 5 mana – that’s still something every Face Hunter would play (Hello? Leeroy Jenkins?)

But it gets even better – the card has some flexibility. In fact, you can use it as a sort of 3 mana “deal 3 damage to a minion and 2 damage to the enemy”, which is still nuts. In fast matchups, you often need to control the board. Or you might need to get thorugh that Taunt vs a slower deck. Aimed Shot lets you do that while still providing some extra reach.

Some people say that it’s bad, because it interferes with the Mankrik + Barak Kodobane combo… and they couldn’t be more wrong. It makes Barak an even better card – you often had to play him before Mankrik (or rarely after drawing Mankrik’s Wife already) just to draw your burn and then you missed on the 3 mana slot. With Aimed Shot, you have something in it even without Mankrik, so Kodobane is now consistently drawing you three burn spells, with the added benefit of triggering Mankrik from time to time.

While it’s incredibly simple, it’s one of the strongest cards of the entire set. Period.

Alliance Bannerman

Another card showing that simplicity is often very strong. It doesn’t really do anything special, it’s very straightforward, and yet it’s another card I’d easily give one of the highest ratings.

Of course, it will work best in Handbuff Paladin. And it’s actually a reason why I think that handbuff Paladin MIGHT work (but I’m still kind of 50/50 about it). Bannerman by itself activates First Blade of Wrynn which makes an AMAZING curve. You follow up your slow 3 mana play with one of the best 4 mana plays you could ask for (4/6 with Rush AND Divine Shield). It also, by itself, makes Catacomb Guard pretty playable. At 2/5 with Lifesteal that deals 2 damage to a minion it’s a card you’d actually want to run in your deck, easily.

But even if Handbuff Paladin won’t turn out to be good enough (we might be missing one or two synergy cards), Alliance Bannerman should still be playable in different decks. Anything that runs enough minions will like it – since it draws it guarantees one target, and I’d say that 2 more in your hand (which is not hard) is enough to make it work. I could absolutely see this in an Aggro/Secret Paladin, some kind of Midrange Paladin or maybe even Libram if you drop the Secret package (it would probably replace a Northwatch Commander then).

Auctionhouse Gavel

Ever since Cagematch Custodian was printed, the value of any weapon in Shaman has increased heavily. It turns an even average card like Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer into something amazing since you can tutor it with a 2 mana 2/2. But behold what I think will be an even better option – Auctionhouse Gavel.

If you count the mana discounts, it’s essentially a 0 mana weapon in the long run – yes, you paid 2 mana for it, but you also got 2 mana back. It means that you can cheat out some cards earlier – how about playing your Lilypad Lurker on T4 or Fire Elemental on T5? Having those ahead of the curve is really strong.

However, I think that the discounts on your Battlecry cards are worth even more if you consider another card Shaman is getting – Bolner Hammerbeak – I’ll explore potential synergies below, but the basic gist of it is that making your Battlecries cheaper means that you can play more on your turn, which means that you can have some massive blowout turns in the mid-late game.

Honestly, its biggest downside is that it makes for an awkward curve after T2 Custodian. But people will definitely find a way to make it work.

Bolner Hammerbeak

I really don’t know what Blizzard was thinking. Remember Brann Bronzebeard? Remember how often it was played and how many cool combos it activated? Remember how having a massive Brann turn was often game over, because you got so much value and/or tempo? Yeah, Bolner is Brann – but better.

There are two reasons why it’s better. The first one is obvious – mana cost. 1 mana doesn’t look like much, but when you play to play multiple cards on the same turn, every single point matters. And second – it repeats the first Battlecry you play, not doubles each one. Generally speaking, in most of the matchups/situations there is a single Battlecry you value most – and instead of doubling some that could be useless (e.g. healing vs control), it lets you play that one first and keep getting more and more of it. You’re running out of cards and need value? Play Primal Dungeoneer and draw a full hand of cards easily. Need a board clear? Earth Revenant + a bunch of cheap Battlecries should suffice. Want to have a Loatheb effect? Well, there’s always Cult Neophyte – you can easily make your opponent’s spells cost 5 more. Need a burst damage? You can play Talented Arcanist, keep stacking the Battlecry and then a simple Lightning Bolt might deal let’s say 13 damage. Maybe shuffle a bunch of Olgra, Mankrik's Wife into your deck? Or have a Reno Jackson effect with Spice Bread Baker? Maybe want to build a few Golems with Kazakus, Golem Shaper to basically seal the late game?

Heck, you can even set up some OTK combos with Circus Medic. After you play a Corrupted Medic, all you need is Bolner + Lightning Bloom + Y'Shaarj, The Defiler. Y’shaarj is your first Battlecry of the turn, so when you play 0 mana Medic you trigger it again and get another Medic and so on. (Update: You can only deal 20 damage with this combo because of board space issues, but if you throw in Dunk Tank you can get 40 damage if you go all face, or even infinite as long as your AMP is fast enough and you will clear Medics with Dunk Tanks). Yes, it’s Turn 10, which will only make it relevant in slow matchups, but it’s basically an auto-win unless they disrupt it with Mutanus or something similar.

And I’m probably missing at least a dozen of uses for it. The card is just so nuts. I would be really, really surprised if it wasn’t nerfed very quickly.

Canal Slogger & Granite Forgeborn

Elemental Shaman is one of the best decks in the meta right now. Even if it didn’t get any support, it would still probably be a solid T2 build – I would expect new stuff to take over, but it wouldn’t be bad by any means. But, luckily for Shaman players, it actually got even more support. Come to think about it, Shaman probably is probably the biggest winner of United in Stormwind alongside Warlock. But unlike Warlock, Shaman is doing really well right now already.

Anyway, back to those cards. Starting with Granite Forgeborn, it’s… really nice. 4 mana 4/5 are good baseline stats, and its effect is nuts. Yes, discounts are better in the early game, but T4 should be good enough given how extensive they are. When you play Elemental Shaman, you run Elementals. A lot of Elementals – easily over half of your deck (and sometimes up to 2/3). And this makes all of them 1 mana cheaper – 2 if you play both of your copies. It’s insane. Elemental Shaman is a very proactive deck that relies on building strong boards, and this really helps. Playing your big Elemental a turn earlier with Kindling Elemental was already great, this means that you can do all of your plays a turn earlier and combine 2-3 of them into a single turn much more easily. I think that it might also do is push the curve a bit higher – since you will be able to discount most of your deck quite consistently, you might as well take advantage of that and cut a couple of cheaper minions and run mid-late game ones instead.

And Canal Slogger is just a good, standalone Elemental. It doesn’t synergize with the deck outside of sharing the same minion type, but that’s alright. Lifesteal + Rush is a really strong combo – having it might turn matchups like Face Hunter from a coinflip into Shaman being a big favorite. You clear a minion, heal for 6 and potentially leave a body behind – with Lifesteal, so any minion trade will heal you for 6 more (so e.g. Face Hunter might need to “waste” a burn spell on it, buying you A LOT of health).. But what I like about it is that you don’t even need to play it in Ele Shaman. It’s just a good standalone card. Kind of like Zilliax – yes, you’re trading Divine Shield + Taunt for more stats, but I think that’s a fair trade. And I think I don’t need to tell anyone how good a card comparable to Zilliax can be. I could absolutely see a small Elemental package of e.g. this + Cagematch Custodian being put into every Shaman deck alongside Primal Dungeoneer. It even has Overload for a good measure – it means that you can run it in Quest Shaman (although I don’t think that Quest Shaman will be that strong).

Cornelius Roame

Wanna draw cards? Here’s a card. And another one. And another one. To hell with it, here are ALL THE CARDS. Yep, that’s what Cornelius Roame is – a card drawing machine in human skin. At the very, very least – it’s a 6 mana 4/5 that draws 2 cards. That already is… pretty okay, but not insane. But it’s also a must-kill target, because if you don’t kill – oh boy. Cornelius surviving on board for ONE TURN guarantees 6 card draws – 4 of which will be in your hand ready to use (with 2 more coming at the end of your turn and start of your opponent’s).

Yes, the card is insane – the only problem is, where to fit it? Control decks won’t like it, because it’s way too many cards – you often have issues with emptying your hand already. Aggro? Well, it seems a bit too slow in Aggro – but maybe, just maybe. It’s actually an amazing card in Aggro vs Control matchups, but it sucks in mirrors. So, where do you play it? The answer is most likely Midrange. Midrange decks can afford to play a slower 6-drop and they could use late game refill. Midrange decks might also have better means of protecting it – play it behind Taunt, play it after baiting opponent’s removal already, play it after handbuffing it (Handbuff Paladin, Rush Warrior). Or not even handbuffing – just regular buffing. Libram Paladin could drop it and make it a 6/7 immediately with Librams, making it harder to clear and making it solve a bunch of empty hand situations. At the same time, fatigue or overdrawing is not a big concern in this type of decks. You should have enough cheap cards to throw them away and fatigue is not a big deal because you will put enough pressure on the opponent that they will either have to clear it or die – no other option.

I could also see it in something like Token Druid. Sadly it interferes with Fungal Fortunes, but the past has proven that you can run a couple of minions with it (especially now that you could Gibberlings). The deck LOVES card draw and the best part is that it could cheat this card earlier, e.g. on T3 with Bloom + Innervate. Token Druid has no issues with doing crazy plays and dumping hand, so it should be solid.

In theory, you might also try to run it in a Combo deck – the draw part is insane, you can find your combo pieces way, way quicker, but the issue here is that you have no way to protect it, and since you don’t play many minions in the first place, your opponent is likely to have a removal ready for it. Still, it might be worth it just to draw 2 and stall your opponent a bit.

Demonic Assault

I feel like a lot of people severely undervalue this card. Combining damage with board presence is usually quite strong. This reminds me of two cards – Imp-losion and Flanking Strike, both of which have seen a lot of play when they were in Standard. Compared to Flanking Strike (I know it’s a different class, but still), 2x 1/3 with Taunt are probably better than a single 3/3 given the context (Zoo Warlock loves to have multiple minions). While compared to Imp-losion, two Voidwalkers would be roughly similar to four 1/1 Imps, while 3 damage is right in the middle. Of course, it’s not as good as Imp-losion high-roll, but still probably better than the mid-roll. And consistency means that you know what to expect – the biggest problem with Imp-losion was that you never knew how much you’ll roll, making your decisions much harder. Oh, and I forgot to mention – it can hit face. Might not be a big deal on T4 since you’d usually want to use it on a minion at this point, but it gives some more late game reach – unlike the two spells I’ve mentioned.

And it’s not only Zoo that would like this card. I could totally see it being playable in Control build. Against Aggro it’s really nice to remove something AND put 6 health worth of Taunts on the board. It can easily stall a deck like Face Hunter to give you more time, and that’s very important in slow Warlock. Overall, I can see it being played in all kinds of Warlock decks, which makes it a really solid card.

Dark Alley Pact & Entitled Customer

Talking about Warlock – it looks like United in Stormwind might be a comeback of Handlock. Well, it’s hard to say whether the cards we see is enough, but it’s a MASSIVE push, since their quality is really high. Two biggest Handlock-focused cards are Dark Alley Pact and Entitled Customer.

Pact is basically a better Mountain Giant. If you focus on tapping in the early game, like you usually do with Handlock, this is an 8/8 going first and 9/9 going second on Turn 4. So it’s AT LEAST as good as Giant, or slightly better in terms of stats. It’s also a Demon, which is kind of a big deal in Warlock, since it comes with all kinds of synergies (it’s not like Handlock will play Man'ari Mosher… but maybe?) However, it’s biggest advantage is the fact that, unlike Mountain Giant, it’s actually playable on T4 against faster decks. When playing vs Aggro, you often could NOT skip turns 1-3, you had to play something. With Pact, you can play something and still have e.g. a 5/5 on T4 – not nearly as good, but better than not being able to play it at all. Imagine how good it would be if Even Warlock was still in Standard…

The second card is Entitled Customer. Warlock has a bunch of “AoE on a stick” cards, the latest being Keli'dan the Breaker. Which is actually not bad – it’s a Twisting Nether on a 3/3 after all… but the problem is that his effect is only active the turn you draw him. That’s a massive downside. Entitled Customer is much better in that sense – as a Handlock you will easily be able to deal 6+ damage with it, which is often as good as Nether, and it’s much more consistent. More often than not, it will be able to wipe the entire board. Yeah, there are some cases in which opponent will have 10+ health minions and there will be no way to clear them… but at that point in the game, you should have other ways of finishing those.

Those two cards, combined with a few others from the set, might really push Handlock into viable territory. Which is something I’m really excited for.

Encumbered Pack Mule

It doesn’t seem menacing and you might just gloss over it and think “meh” – but you couldn’t be more wrong. Remember Saronite Chain Gang? This is a better Saronite Chain Gang in nearly every situation. It can do almost everything Chain Gang can, and more. You see – since you get 2x 2/3 in your hand, you can simply play them both on Turn 4 like Chain Gang. Handbuffs affect both parts – like in the case of Chain Gang. But the thing is, unlike Chain Gang, you DON’T need to play them on T4. You can play them as two 2-drops instead. E.g. it’s Turn 5 and you have a 3-drop + this in your hand. If it was Chain Gang, you’d just play it and float 1 mana. In this case – you can play your 3-drop and one of the 2/3’s, while keeping the other one in your hand. Those will make you curve out much better. Pack Mule is also a Beast for the sake of synergies – that might come handy in classes like Druid or Hunter.

Actually, it kind of reminds me of Fire Fly too, but instead of a Battlecry, the 2/3 is created right away in your hand. Yes, it’s not the highest tempo play, but the card is flexible and it adds more value to your hand.

The only real downside is that it’s not a Battlecry, which means that it has some less synergies (e.g. you couldn’t play it in the infamous Shudderwock Shaman), but for most of the classes it doesn’t matter. What’s worth noting is that unlike Chain Gang it takes two hand slots – which can be an upside and a downside. For example, it synergizes with stuff that cares about hand size. It also protects your hand better against Mutanus the Devourer. On the other hand, if you’re at 9 cards and you draw it… you lose one part. But at that point I don’t think it’s a big deal since you’re not struggling for value.

All in all, a really good card and I expect to see it a lot.

Fire Sale, First Flame & Hot Streak

“Fire Mage” package looks really, really solid. Of course, there are more Fire Mage cards, and I have no doubt that people will try to build a complete Fire Mage deck, but those three actually fit into all kinds of builds. Hear me out.

Starting with Hot Streak – it’s a pre-nerf Innervate specifically for Fire Spells. Like we all know, cheating out mana is really good in Hearthstone. If you plan to play some Fire Spells anyway, this can give you 2 mana for 0 – at the cost of a card, of course, but Mage can cycle quite well so it’s not a problem. The biggest deal is its synergy with Sanctum Chandler – if you build a full Fire Mage deck, that’s actually quite insane. You can play Chandler, Hot Streak, some Fire spell, then top it off with First & Second Flame and you will draw a lot of cards on top of all the tempo. Those mana cheat cards usually end up seeing play sooner on later and I expect this one to be the same.

Then, First Flame is a new spin on Twin Slice – or maybe the Twinspell cards like Ray of Frost. 1 mana to deal 2 damage to a minion is not great… but it becomes really good when you add the second copy to your hand after you use the first one. It becomes much more flexible – you can remove something small and keep the second copy for the future. You can remove two small minions on the same turn. You can deal 4 damage for 2 mana to a single minion. Those kind of cheap removals are always great and I would be very surprised if First Flame was different. It gets extra points for Sanctum Chandler synergy – but I think that Chandler in particular will be played only in Fire Mage specifically. First Flame, on the other hand, will be all over the class I feel.

And finally, Fire Sale. One of the first Stormwind cards revealed and I loved it from the beginning. It’s a great showcase for the Tradeable keyword. 4 mana for 3 AoE damage is actually quite solid – of the effect is mirrored, but it’s not a big deal if you’re playing reactively or you’re relying on a burn gameplan. That kind of card would be already okay by itself. But slapping Tradeable on top turned a solid card into a great card. The thing about removal is that… you don’t always need them. Especially AoE removals. Let’s say that you play against a Control deck that doesn’t build a wide board. Normally you’d have a dead card in your hand… but you don’t, because you can just spend 1 mana to draw another card instead.

All three cards are really good and I expect to see them in Mage quite often.

Guild Trader, Royal Librarian & Rustrot Viper

Now, the reason why I bundled those three together is because they’re all Neutral, all Tradeable and all tech-y cards. Unlike most of the cards on this list, those are not auto-includes, those are not cards that you will see all over the ladder, but they are amazing, and I mean AMAZING tech cards in the right circumstances.

Let’s start with Guild Trader. Evolved Kobold was played in some burn decks back in the day, and this is a way, way superior version. Spell Damage +2 is a strong effect, but 4 mana 3/4 is… meh. However, if your entire game plan revolves around burn, it can really do wonders in the late game. For example – if you have 3-4 cheap burn spells, it adds 6-8 damage. And what if you draw it early? No problem, you just trade it away.

Then we’ve got Royal Librarian. Spellbreaker who? Not only it has a better stat distribution (3/4 > 4/3), but Tradeable makes it so much better. As you probably remember, Spellbreaker was already a quite common tech card in certain metas. But if you happen to not need Silence at a given time, you can just Trade it for another card. Neat.

And finally – Rustrot Viper. Acidic Swamp Ooze has to be the most popular tech card in the history of Hearthstone, and Rustrot Viper just power creeped it. Yes, it’s 1 mana more expensive, but it’s honestly not a big deal – how often were you playing Ooze on T2 anyway? Yeah, it can make a small difference sometimes in the late game, maybe you could fit a more expensive card during your Ooze turn – that might make a difference. But if you consider that Viper has Tradeable, it compares to Ooze really favorably.

You see – the biggest issue with that kind of tech cards was that they sucked against anything you didn’t tech them against. To put it better – Ooze was GREAT against Doomhammer, and it could single-handedly win a Poison Rogue matchup. But draw it against Priest and it’s completely useless. A 2 mana 3/2. Those instead of being a dead weight can be traded for 1 mana. Yes, it’s not free, you still have to pay something – but it’s better to have a 1 mana cycle than a vanilla 2 mana 3/2, isn’t it?

Will they be auto-include now? Hell no, not even close. We’ll still need the right meta to play them. But at the very least they won’t be as useless outside of matchups in which they shine when that meta comes. They are superior versions of already solid tech cards.

Harbor Scamp

You see, the thing is that majority of those slightly understatted, but playable on curve tutor cards are just good. We had lots and lots of cards like that and they just work. You cycle it in your hand, so you don’t use value, but you put some tempo on the board. You can also include the specific cards you want to tutor. It’s great, really.

Now, drawing a Pirate is not really the BEST thing in Standard Warrior right now. It’s different in Wild, where Pirate Warrior will love it. But even looking at Standard – Warriors already auto-include 2x Sword Eater. That alone is nearly good enough to run 2x Scamp to tutor them. To be completely fair, I’d add one or two more Pirates just to be safe – there are some fine choices, to be honest. Southsea Scoundrel would be good in a slow build, Stonemaul Anchorman in Midrange, while a faster deck might want to try the new Stormwind Freebooter. Oh, Control Warrior could also use the new Cargo Guard – it’s not the best card ever, but it’s actually quite good against Aggro. Scamp into Guard would be a decent curve vs faster deck.

Questline Warrior will 100% run it, no questions asked. But it’s hard to say whether Questline Warrior will work in the first place. But even outside of it – Rush Warrior will probably want this. Other Midrange Warrior builds? Sure, why not? Maybe even Control Warrior – thinning your deck to get to your win conditions (like C’Thun) quicker is actually pretty good. I would not be surprised if it became auto-include across all the Warrior decks.

Provoke

I love this card, it’s one of my favorite designs from the set. And I also think that it’s really strong – that’s why it’s on this list, after all! Here’s the thing – Control Warrior loves board clears, and this is just another board clear. And it’s actually quite flexible.

By far the best way to use it is to play a big minion and hit it with Provoke. It should clear most of your opponent’s board – yes, that’s a 2 cards combo, but a) it doesn’t necessarily mean that the minion will die and b) you can also trigger some extra effects that way. A good example would be Rattlegore. The card is painfully slow – it’s amazing and can win you the games in a long run, but it’s hard to find a turn to just play it against anything non-Control. With Provoke, it would be much easier. Play Rattlegore, Provoke. Bam – your 9/9 will most likely clear a big part of your opponent’s board and then… you still have 8/8 (and so on) on the board. Similarly – Mutanus the Devourer is usually good, but very slow and it’s hard to fit it when opponent is putting any pressure. With Provoke, you can both eat something from their hand – hopefully something big enough to then clear the board with Provoke. Even Kresh, Lord of Turtling can be solid against board with smaller minions. Normally it’s really slow, but with Provoke you can immediately trigger 8 Armor gain and possibly gain 2/5 weapon to clear whatever’s left. And then you can immediately follow it up with Overlord Saurfang if you run him.

And AoE removal is not the only thing you can do. If your opponent played a big minion – a good play would be to drop Venomous Scorpid and hit Provoke. Priest is already often doing something similar with Hysteria, but Hysteria is way more expensive for this particular combo.

Yes, the card is situational. You often don’t have the right minion in your hand to play it… but guess what? That’s where Tradeable comes into action. If you don’t need it or can’t use it since you have nothing combo it with – just reroll it for 1 mana. Good riddance. Maybe by the time you draw it again, you will have a better way to play it (and if not – you can just do it again).

Shard of the Naaru

First of all – yes, I agree with most of you that this is a very strong card. But keep in mind that this is still a TECH CARD. Yes, it’s a strong tech card, but it doesn’t mean that you want to play it every single deck. Run it only when the meta demands it.

With that out of the way – hello Mass Dispel 2.0. For 1/4 of the cost. Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t get BOTH the Silence and draw, but honestly, I’ll swallow that for it costing 3 mana less. AoE Silence can be really good at times. Against Token Druid – remove all the extra stats and/or Soul of the Forest. Or against Clown Druid – it’s a nice way to make the Survival of the Fittest minions a bit less menacing. Against Paladin – get rid of buffs (including Librams & handbuffs), Divine Shields and such. Against any Deathrattle-heavy deck, like Deathrattle Demon Hunter. Or even not heavy – just against decks that run a single powerful Deathrattle minion – Rattlegore anyone? Yep – in the right meta, it’s a card that you will gladly put into your deck.

And if you don’t need it? Trade it away. As simple as that. I think that we see a pattern here – Tradeable looks to be a really good keyword, since it means that your tech cards aren’t completely useless in matchups in which they normally would. I love it.

Spice Bread Baker

For the most part, Spice Bread Baker could be a Warlock card. Because let’s be honest – it screams Handlock. One of the deck’s biggest downsides is running low on health. It can summon big minions, it can clear boards, but it can’t win games when it gets rushed down and killed. And here comes the Baker – in the best case scenario, it’s a 4 mana 3/2 that heals for 9. That would be great in almost any class, but it’s absolutely insane in Warlock. Between that and the next card on the list – I don’t think that Handlock will have to worry about dying. For the most part, this is a much better Antique Healbot and something that slow Warlock will simply love. Unless the meta is really slow, I expect it to be auto-included in Handlock and one of the many reasons why it might be revived this expansion.

Technically, the card fits into any slower decks that struggles with healing and has big hand size… But honestly, Handlock is the only one that comes to mind. Priest doesn’t need it, because it has tons of way to heal (maybe in a very aggressive meta, but that’s about it). Warriors also don’t struggle with healing. Maybe some Druid, like Celestial Druid? The deck usually has a lot of cards, but is suspecible to aggression, so it could help buy an extra turn, which can be a difference between winning and losing. I briefly thought about OTK Demon Hunter, but the deck is already packed and has some good ways to regain health without it.

Touch of the Nathrezim

I feel like half of this list has been Warlock… for a good reason, the class is getting a really good expansion. Touch of the Nathrezim in particular feels busted. We’ve already established that healing is something slow Warlock builds struggle with. One of the best ways to win against them is just to rush them – they will keep struggling for survival and make suboptimal plays, won’t be able to maintain a big hand and so on. Touch is one of the ways Warlocks will be able to fight against Aggro.

It will 100% replace Mortal Coils. Not only 2 damage is obviously better than 1 damage (it’s way easier to finish something with it, and it kills a much wider range of minions), but imagine this. You’re a Warlock and you draw a card from Mortal Coil. How many times would you like the card to be 0 mana, heal for 4? My guess is quite a lot – especially against decks where early removal is key. And Touch of the Nathrezim is basically that – instead of drawing a card, you get 4 points of healing. In many, many situations it’s worth much more than a random card from your deck.

Being 1 mana also means that it can fit perfectly on Turn 3 alongside Life Tap. Even if your opponent didn’t deal any damage yet, but he played a small minion, Tapping on T2, then Tapping + playing this on T3 means that no healing is wasted.

Amazing card, it’s definitely going to be a slow Warlock auto-include.

Varian, King of Stormwind

And last, but not least – Varian. I’ll be honest – I really liked Siamat for how flexible it was. The card was played quite a lot at the beginning, then less and less as the time passed, but even at the lowest point it still had a few % of play rate. And, in the right deck, Varian is a way better Siamat. As you might remember, the most popular Siamat combo was Rush + Divine Shield. This way you could remove a big threat and leave a 6/6 behind. Varian gets both of that, AND Taunt, and +1/+1… and it draws three cards. All for just 1 more mana. How insane is that?

Well, okay, let’s wait for a second. The truth is that unlike Siamat, which had zero deck building restrictions, to make Varian work you actually need to include specific cards. Rush and Taunt shouldn’t be a problem, honestly. Most of the decks run at least one Rush and Taunt minion, and even if they don’t, they can easily fit them. Now, Divine Shield is probably the biggest problem. Sure – Paladin won’t struggle with it, but other classes might. There’s only one good Neutral Divine Shield card – Taelan Fordring. And yeah, it’s great, you probably will run it with Varian.. but the problem is that one is not really enough. You’d like at least a second one for consistency. Shaman can run Al'Akir the Windlord, but the rest? And saly, without Divine Shield, the card loses a lot of power. Rush + DS is a great combo, since you can kill something big without losing any health.

Because of the Divine Shield issue, Varian is AMAZING in Paladin (and I expect to see it a lot in that class), it COULD work in Shaman or Priest (because Priest can also run Devout Pupil – and funnily enough if you want to play your Questline, it’s a great 8-Cost card to finish it off), but the rest of classes might have a hard time running it. If there were some good Neutral Divine Shields, I’d absolutely see it in the likes of Warrior or even Druid. Heck, maybe even right now it’s good enough to include some mediocre Divine Shield card like Annoy-o-Tron or Darkmoon Dirigible (would actually work semi-decent in Rush Warrior). I would be really surprised if it didn’t see play, it’s just so good.

Most Interesting Cards from United in Stormwind

Here are the cards that I don’t think are as strong as the ones above, but I think they have cool design, have some potential to be playable in the future or I just like the flavor behind them. Some of them are still good, but I wouldn’t rate them around 6-7 and not 8+ like the ones above.

Darkbishop Benedictus

Shadow Priest is the class fantasy that I’ve been waiting for… basically ever since the game was first released. I like the Priest class – yes, yes, I know. It’s not my favorite, but I like it, what can I do. But over the years, I got bored of the usual, reactive, slow, Control playstyle with slightly different flavors. My favorite Priest decks ever were Dragon Priest (proactive) and – yeah – Highlander Priest (also known as Razakus Priest). In other words, I always preferred Priest decks that can actually kill the opponent instead of making them concede out of boredom. And I really hoped that Shadow Priest will offer the same in United in Stormwind ever since Darkbishop Benedictus was revealed. Because let’s be honest – having a 2 damage Hero Power that can target anything is actually pretty strong. That’s Mage’s upgraded HP after all. And in case of Benedictus, the cost isn’t even THAT high… assuming the quality of Shadow spells will be high enough. And the thing is – we’ve got a bunch of okay to good Shadow minions, but the thing I feel we’re missing are some real Shadow Spell bangers that could carry the deck.

The reason why the card is one of the most interesting is that changing the Hero Power often changes the deck’s play style completely. In the case of Priest, this slow, reactive identity is heavily tied to Hero Power. Having it do the complete opposite – well, you’d assume that the play style will also change. And that’s what the early theorycrafts suggest – even if you try to build a more Control-ish version, you ultimately end up with a way to kill your opponent over time, not only to keep yourself alive. That’s why I love the concept behind Darkbishop Benedictus and I hope that it will work.

Defend the Dwarven District

Here I was talking about Razakus Priest, when the real Razakus Priest was printed in… Hunter. I think it’s the Quest people are most hyped for, or at least the highest rated one. However, I’m not sold yet, that’s why I don’t put it into the best list – but it surely is interesting.

There are actually two ways to approach this Quest, but sadly both of them are flawed in my opinion. First one is using it in a Face Hunter-like deck. You already play a lot of damage spells, just turning your HP 0 mana is okay, and then making it refresh itself a few times is even better. Yes – that’s true. But playing 6 damage spells usually takes longer than most of you would think. Even longer if you start with one less card because you kept the Questline. I just don’t think that the deck can afford to do it. And sure – even if you finish it, it’s not like you draw a lot of cards. You won’t have any fuel to do the combos. You will get some extra damage here and there, in the mid/late game, but was it really worth making your early game – time when you should get most of your minion damage in – much weaker? I don’t think so.

The second proposition feels much more interesting, but just as absurd since we’re talking about Hunter. How about a more Control-oriented build? You don’t play like Face Hunter, you mostly focus on controlling the board, on killing your opponent’s minions. Then you play enough refill and enough damage spells to not run out of cards too quickly and do your combos after you finish everything. Your win condition would be then controlling the board with spells and dealing 4-6 damage from your Hero Power every turn and slowly burning the opponent, plus a few burn spells to the face for a good measure as a finisher. Yeah, I would love to see that – but again, I don’t think that Hunter has the right tools to achieve that.

I really, really like the Quest and I’ll definitely try to make it work, but I don’t think that’s it.

Elwynn Boar

Oh my, I really love it. I used to be a big South Park fan back in the late 00’s and that’s coincidentally is when I also played A LOT of WoW. Because of that, the specific episode this card is referencing is one of my favorites (you can check it out here).

So yes – this card has insane flavor, that alone would be enough to get it on this list. But what I love about it is that it’s another insane combo that most likely won’t be competitively viable, but it’s really fun to pull off. If seven Boars die during the game, you equip Sword of a Thousand Truths. And unless your opponent is killing you on board next turn, it most likely means that you win the game. You hit them for 15 and you drain all their mana. Then do the same thing next turn – bam, game won.

Of course, getting 7 Boars to die won’t be easy. You can’t just trigger their Deathrattle 7 times – you need to have 7 actual copies of the card. It’s easier in Wild and I think that certain versions might be at least semi-playable, but it’s hell of a lot of work in Standard. Hunter has the highest chance, because it has a lot of ways to shuffle or Discover it, such as Dire Frenzy, Selective Breeder or Warsong Wrangler. But most of the other classes can only do it with the new Northshire Farmer, which is.. well, yeah.

Don’t get me wrong, the combo is so cool that I will try to pull it off at least once. But I would be really surprised if it was actually working well enough.

Ignite

I see Ignite being rated really highly and I can kind of understand that. If you build a full-fledged Fire Mage deck, then Ignite will probably be a part of it. Or if you build some OTK combo decks around it. But for the most part, I just don’t think it’s good enough. Because what does it actually do? It deals 2 damage for 2 mana… and that’s really bad. I mean really, really bad. Then after you play it once, it deals 3 damage next time you draw it. That’s also below average. Only with 4 damage we’re entering actually playable territory – a card that you would want to put into your deck and be happy with it. 5+ it’s nuts, but to get there, you need some incredibly long game.

The main problem I have with this card is that let’s say that you draw it in the mid game and play it. The chances are that you won’t see the card next time until you have ~10 cards left in your deck. And it will still be a pretty bad card to draw. Then you play it again and it’s close to the bottom of your deck. And only then it actually becomes a good card.

Yes, it prevents fatigue… but when was the last time you played Mage in Standard and said “hmm, I wish I could play some weak cards in the early game just not to fatigue now”! Trust me, I have played a lot of Spell Mage when Forged in the Barrens first launched and I ran into situations in which fatigue played a deciding role maybe a few times. Yes, I can’t say that there are no situations like that, but it feels more like a tech card because of that. Maybe I’m completely wrong and it will dominate the meta, I just don’t think so. The card reminds me a bit of Jade Idol, which also started weak and then snowballed into incredible sizes… but contrary to the popular sentiment, Jade Druid was a T3 deck most of the time, it wasn’t anything special, it just felt dominating because you remembered the times it actually got to the bottom of the deck and kept shuffling bigger and bigger men.

All of that said, the card will definitely feel really cool to play. The fantasy of having an infinite spell that grows stronger and stronger each time you cast feels good. And when you actually get to the late game scenario, let’s say with Sanctum Chandler left in your hand – oh boy, you can get some really nice combos. Let’s say you drop the Chandler, drop three Ignites (one with Hot Streak), maybe 5 + 6 + 7 damage. that’s not enough? No worries, you also just drew the 8 damage version, which will very soon become a 9 damage version. Yes, that’s a nice inevitability to have in your deck, and can really ruin a reactive deck’s day. If such a card is played, Control decks will HAVE to adapt a proactive game plan, or else they will just die in the long run.

Jace Darkweaver

Jace Darkweaver is another card I will love to play, but I don’t think it will be good enough at the start. I’ll make another confession by saying that I loved to play the cards that let you repeat all of the stuff you played. Shudderwock, Tess Greymane, Zul'jin – those just felt good. They were a nice deck building riddle and more importantly they were much more consistent than Yogg – never felt as random, because while the order and cards were random, you KNEW what’s going to be cast before you played them. And Jace is similar.

The card’s power level is actually as high as most people think. The only issue is not with it, but with the Fel spells in Standard right now. The problem is – we don’t really have enough of them to build an entire deck around it, I think. Maybe it will be slapped into a deck that already plays e.g. 2x Chaos Strike and 2x Fel Barrage – like sure, even just replaying each one of them once and getting a 7/5 body is good enough. But again, that’s not a card you build your deck around yet, it’s a card you add into an already existing deck that just so happens to want to play some Fel spells.

But give it time – there’s one more expansion this year and three more next year. That’s a looot of time to add more Fel stuff and build an entire deck around pumping up this guy and then unleashing everything in one big wave – a wave that’s very likely to just kill the opponent. Since I like this style of decks, I can’t wait to try it out then.

Maestra of the Masquerade

Maestra has to be my absolutely favorite design from United in Stormwind. Not because she’s very strong, not because she’s doing some flashy combo that you will remember and want to replay, but because she takes advantage of the fact that Hearthstone is a digital-only card game and you actually CAN do stuff like that.

You see – hiding the fact that you play Rogue from your opponent is a brilliant and incredibly flavorful idea. The goal is to make them mulligan poorly – if you play a very fast deck and then roll a class that plays slower decks in the meta, they will get rid of all their removal tools. Similarly, they will likely mulligan away Ooze so you have a higher chance to . The spell will most likely break very quickly – often even as soon as Turn 1, but that honestly doesn’t matter. Technically you COULD try to play more Neutral cards and just keep the disguise, but I don’t see what’s the point. Your goal was already achieved, you should just play 29 other Aggro cards and bite the bullet on a single 2 mana 3/2.

Will that actually be good? First of all, you need an Aggro Rogue deck to maximize the difference in mulligan. Then you need to hope that you roll a slow class like Priest. Because if you roll a Hunter then your whole disguise is busted even if that’s not actually your class. Then you need to play against a deck that actually changes their mulligan based on what they play – so mostly a slower deck. And then you hope that you don’t draw her at all, because 2 mana 3/2 with no effect is obviously a bad card.

Yes, that’s an unlikely chain of events. Because of that, I don’t think that card will be any good. And it’s already banned from competitive play, so we won’t get to see her in any tournament setting to bamboozle the opponent. But I’ll definitely want to test her out, because I love the idea and I hope that we get more similar cards in the future – cards with effects that could never exist if Hearthstone had physical version.

Rise to the Occasion

Truth be told, upgraded Hero Powers were always one of my favorite things in Hearthstone. I loved them first when Justicar Trueheart was introduced, I loved them later when Baku the Mooneater was wraping the meta (of course I didn’t like the fact that those decks were TOO strong, but hey) and I even played a bunch of Highlander Paladin with Sir Finley of the Sands to experience them one more time. Another thing I like are Silver Hand Recruit, or “Dude” builds in Paladin. And this card combines both of those things – it’s just perfect! Not only you’re upgrading your Hero Power to summon 2x 1/1, but those 1/1’s become 3/3’s after you fully complete the Quest. Yes, that’s a permanent Quartermaster buff on all of your Recruits.

Well, the problem is that it feels like completing the Quest is just too difficult. You want to finish it as soon as possible and you want to run A LOT of 1-drops. However, when you run so many 1-drops, you have very little room left for other things. You also make your build awkward – the Quest is clearly created with long games in mind. It’s not worth it if you will only play your Hero Power once or twice and the game is done. But with so many 1-drops, your gameplan pretty much has to be aggressive, and you run out of cards very quickly. It’s a tough balance act. The Quest would be SO MUCH better with either version of pre-nerf First Day of School.

All of that said, if someone manages to find the right build, this card can seriously wrap the meta.

Runed Mithril Rod

Since we’re doing a mini review of my favorite effects ever in Hearthstone, here’s another one – Emperor Thaurissan. I loved that fella, he activated so many cool combos – most of them meme anyway, but we had some really solid ones only viable after a few discounts. The time Thaurissan was in Standard was a golden era for Combo decks in Hearthstone, and I kind of miss those days. When United in Stormwind launches, you will be able to do the same… but with only one class.

Truth to be told, I have no idea how viable Runed Mithril Rod will be. I don’t know if it would be good enough to put into your regular Handlock list – I don’t really think the deck NEEDS it in the first place. But two hand-wide mana discounts can absolutely activate some really cool combos. Warlock was often known for its combo nature – maybe not as much as some other classes, but we had multiple episodes that involved burst damage – sometimes from Leeroy Jenkins, other times from Malygos, but it was there.

Runed Mithril Rod activates all sorts of combos. Which ones, you ask? The thing is… I DON’T KNOW! Seriously, I don’t have any ideas yet. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to think hard about it, but I would be really surprised if some better deck builders didn’t come up with some idea on how to utilize not one, but two mana discounts. It’s much simpler in Wild, but in Standard? That’s a challenge.

I’m pretty sure that the card will break something – you can’t just print two consistent hand-wide mana discounts that are relatively easy to pull off in the long run without breaking something. You can’t.

Sheldras Moontree

This card has so much potential. So much potential. But it’s sadly also very slow and very hard to use. So, in a perfect world, you play it, then you draw e.g. 2x Survival of the Fittest into Guardian Animals. You win the game. Right? Most likely right – if opponent can even stop that push, every minion you drop from now on has +8/+8. But the problem is that – we don’t live in a perfect world.

I’ve played quite a lot of Druid lately. But not Token – I like ramping up, I like doing the big plays. And unless I faced a very slow deck, I was basically forced to play very defensively. With very limited early game removal and spending most of the time on ramping and drawing cards, playing an 8-drop that doesn’t do anything is a death sentence. Seriously. I had tons of games where the only thing that saved me was playing Guardian Animals on Turn 4-5. Yes – otherwise I would be 100% dead. If you have 8 mana, assuming you’re alive in the first place, you often have to either drop GA or at least try to stall with Cenarion Ward. And that’s the problem with current slow Druid decks – with limited removal and stall capabilities, the deck relies on doing its big play right after ramping up. I would probably lost 20-25% more matches if after all of that ramping up I played 8 mana 5/5 that doesn’t have any impact on the board. Would what comes next make up for that?

Well, and “what comes next” is also not guaranteed. You’d also need to run Lorekeeper Polkelt to guarantee your highest cost draws. Because drawing your Lightning Bloom would sure suck, right? And you’d need to build your deck in a way that you draw 3 spells in a row – so you can’t e.g. play Clowns, because playing Clows means that you draw Clowns before “payoff” spells like GA or Cenarion Ward. Polkelt itself is also a dead card in the early/mid game, which really sucks. As you can see, there are a lot of obstructions on your way to the perfect combo.

The card looks SO MUCH FUN. I really want to make it work somehow, I want to cheat 20+ mana worth of spells. But I don’t really know how without decreasing your win rate instead of increasing it. Just like with Celestial Druid – I wanted the deck to work so much, but it never ended up good. Yes, I could high roll a few games, but ultimately playing 7 mana do nothing was just too much and it was so easy to lose to Aggro. The deck sat in a dumpster tier, and I’m afraid that the same thing might happen to Sheldras decks.

The Demon Seed

And finally – one of my favorite cards from the new expansion – Warlock’s Questline. I never really liked those “self-damage” Warlock builds, something just didn’t sit right with me. The payoff never seemed good enough – in Standard that is, because I know that in Wild Darkglare Warlock is still one of the best builds. But the new Questline actually gives it a meaningful payoff in Standard. Payoff is… killing your opponent instead of yourself. After you finish the Quest, any damage you deal to your Hero is redirected to your opponent. And since you build your entire deck around it and you no longer have to hold back – yeah, you kill them pretty quickly. While getting all the extra benefits yourself, since those cards are generally more powerful than your average card at the downside of damaging you. In the slower matchups, fatigue would become your best friend. You would just keep drawing and tapping, get into 5+ fatigue damage and kill any opponent that way very easily.

Now, the hard part is actually finishing the Quest and not dying. A slower Warlock deck already has to do anything to survive and it still has bad matchups vs Aggro. A deck that will actively HELP Aggro accomplish their goal? Yeah, that’s the hard part. Again, it won’t be a big deal vs slower decks, but when you face Aggro, instead of them killing you on T6, they will just kill you on T4 and thank you so much for playing Questline. Sure – you do regain some health from rewards, but you need to take 21 damage in total, and only heal back for 6. That’s a 15 health net loss, so you will need a lot of cards to compensate for that. Luckily, Warlock has gotten some really nice tools this expansion – at first I didn’t think that the Questline will be any viable, but with the likes of Touch of the Nathrezim and Spice Bread Baker, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s still a long tunnel and the light might turn out to be a train, but heck, it’s the first time self-damage synergies might actually be an insane win condition, so why not try?

I’ll definitely try all the three Quests I’ve listed under the most interesting cards, but Warlock will probably be my favorite – and sadly the one I have the least hope for. At least for now.