Grave Horror

Grave Horror Card

Grave Horror is a 12 Mana Cost Rare Priest Minion card from the Rastakhan's Rumble set!

Card Text

Taunt Costs (1) less for each spell you've cast this game.

Flavor Text

Trolls can regenerate lost limbs, but this is what they do with the leftovers.

Grave Horror Card Review

Well, it seems that they’re slowly running out of ideas… This card is a better version of Arcane Giant (trading 1/16 of stats for a Taunt is a great deal), and Arcane Giant is an amazing card (I’ve even put in on the list of best neutral Epics ever). However, Arcane Giant has never really seen play in Priest. Most of the decks either didn’t play enough spells to make it work, or it just wasn’t necessary. That’s the thing about Priest – the deck is rarely about late game tempo swings.

However, there is one deck that might fit into that description. It runs A LOT of spells (most popular build uses 19 to be precise), and it wants to get some solid late game tempo swings. The deck is Resurrect Priest (Zerek's Cloning Gallery build). When it comes to getting it from Shadow Essence or reviving, it’s not as strong as The Lich King or Obsidian Statue, but a 7/8 Taunt is still a 7/8 Taunt. Plus, the deck relies heavily on Lyra the Sunshard value in some games, so casting those 12 spells shouldn’t be that hard. The question is – can you actually fit it into the deck? That seems very tough.

I like the fact that it can be dropped right after Psychic Scream turn in the late game. Most of the time, Scream takes your entire turn and you can’t do anything. Having a 7/8 minion on board is a massive difference – you either have something to trade with immediately after, or force your opponent to deal with it on his turn (so you get back most of the initiative).

Of course, the card would be amazing in a sort of Spell Priest deck that runs Legendary weapon (Dragon Soul), but players have tried to make it work multiple times. It’s way too weak in the early/mid game until it starts to roll the spell synergies, and this is not going to help with that. It would be a nice addition, but not a card that makes the deck.

So all in all, despite the card being really powerful in theory, it might turn out to not see much play in practice. Of course, even if it doesn’t now, we still have 3 more expansions when it will be in Standard, so maybe some kind of spell theme will get pushed eventually.

Card rating: 8/10 in theory, but might not find the right deck and not see play at all

Leave a Reply

26 Comments

  1. brandon
    November 21, 2018 at 3:43 PM

    assuming this is worth 7 manna at worst stats see war golem you have put 5 spells in your deck to make this work that is a 6 card commitment for a war golem.

    • Muzek
      November 21, 2018 at 7:46 PM

      I wouldn’t call it a commitment, there has never been a top tier priest deck that didn’t run at least 4 spells. A 5 card commitment would be 5 cards you wouldn’t naturally run in your deck

  2. Piterno
    November 20, 2018 at 9:14 AM

    Arcane giant with 1 less attack and taunt. The taunt might make it worth something? But what are priest spells and how are they going to cast 6 or 7 before turn 5 or 6 to play this on curve without winning the game? Priest seems to be wanting to do too many things as a class this expansion.

    1.5/5

  3. TerrorBlade
    November 20, 2018 at 6:19 AM

    Priest with spells synergy?
    While the revealed and “probably” the upcoming archtype for priest is aggro…
    3 expansions, and Priest STILL got nothing better than the others…
    Well, atleast in off-meta.

    • TerrorBlade
      November 26, 2018 at 7:27 AM

      Sorry about the above one.
      What I want to tell is
      Priest got aggro-themed cards recently and I think Grave Horror isn’t good for aggro (better for control Priest).
      Others class got very specific themed cards that fit to their archtype. Like Tempo Elemental Mage who got so many elemental cards supports recently.

  4. Jed
    November 20, 2018 at 5:35 AM

    Idk seems pretty standard let’s move on

    3.14159/5

  5. CocoAsticot
    November 20, 2018 at 5:24 AM

    I can see this played in control priest to tale the bord after a psychic scream.
    It s a good card. The taunt Add a lot of value.

  6. Skyscale
    November 20, 2018 at 4:49 AM

    You want to play at least 6 spells before making this card worth it. Too bad 6 spells aren’t that easy to cast in a reasonable amount of turns.
    I don’t really see this card seeing play to be honest

  7. 3xZut
    November 20, 2018 at 4:46 AM

    Easily playable for less than 4, could help in a rez deck against aggro in such circumstances instead of the grizzly maybe.
    Any way with the spellsstones we already gaining from playing spells, and Lyra, and radiant, and gargoyle. Even the nightmare spell and some circle of healing, and let’s go crazy some OTK built with Temporus haha!
    Plus I guess the priest legendary can fetch it in the deck if you played 7 spells.

    • Solus
      November 20, 2018 at 6:20 AM

      Cards that search your deck for a certain mana cost will always check the base mana cost. For example, if you cast 6 spells so that this costs 2, then play Keleseth, you will still get the buff because until you draw it, it will still cost 12 as far as Keleseth is concerned. You can see proof of this kind of interaction because Skulking Geist will not destroy spells created by Academic Espionage.

      • 3xZut
        November 20, 2018 at 2:51 PM

        Oh yeah cheers, indeed those examples makes sense, I didn’t think of them.

  8. Qwerty019283
    November 20, 2018 at 3:44 AM

    The fact that it is not a plain 8/8 really ruins the flavor

  9. Hoodrn03
    November 20, 2018 at 3:33 AM

    This could fit quite nicely into a copy priest deck.

  10. Soup And Salad
    November 20, 2018 at 3:27 AM

    Grave Horror seems okay. Rather plain, but okay. It’s a giant with taunt. Maybe it’ll see play.

    • Solus
      November 20, 2018 at 6:21 AM

      “maybe” kek

      • Soup And Salad
        November 20, 2018 at 3:49 PM

        Well, Arcane Giant never really saw play in Priest when Lyra was the class’ all star card. Why would it now with a much larger card pool?

        Sure, the taunt might come in handy against aggressive decks, but in those match-ups it’ll most often be dropped when it’s too late or when you’ve already stabilized and will probably win.

  11. D00mnoodle
    November 20, 2018 at 3:26 AM

    This goes right into my dragonsoul deck 😀

    • luca
      November 20, 2018 at 4:12 AM

      Hello, do you mind sharing your dragon soul deck list with me?

      • D00mnoodle
        November 20, 2018 at 8:44 AM

        It is a wild deck but you can convert it to standard if you want, i recommend adding another auctioneer for draw consistancy (i only have one auctioneer)

        ### Dragonsoul
        # Class: Priest
        # Format: Wild
        #
        # 2x (1) Northshire Cleric
        # 2x (1) Power Word: Shield
        # 2x (1) Psionic Probe
        # 2x (2) Radiant Elemental
        # 2x (2) Shadow Visions
        # 2x (2) Spirit Lash
        # 2x (2) Wild Pyromancer
        # 1x (3) Dragon Soul
        # 2x (3) Extra Arms
        # 2x (3) Gilded Gargoyle
        # 1x (3) Shadow Word: Death
        # 2x (3) Twilight’s Call
        # 2x (4) Priest of the Feast
        # 2x (6) Dragonfire Potion
        # 1x (6) Gadgetzan Auctioneer
        # 1x (8) Shadowreaper Anduin
        # 2x (12) Arcane Giant
        #
        AAEBAZ/HAgSkB9MKkNMC2OMCDeUE9gfyDIK0ApK0Auq/AtHBAtjBAvDPAqniApvnAp/rAuX3AgA=
        #
        # To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

  12. Desolasty
    November 20, 2018 at 3:11 AM

    Combine this with lyra and couple of radiants

    • Soup And Salad
      November 20, 2018 at 3:51 PM

      I don’t think that pushed Arcane Giant into Priest during the peak of Lyra’s relevance.

  13. Talyn
    November 20, 2018 at 3:06 AM

    Priest Arcane Giant Anyone?

    • Virilio
      November 20, 2018 at 4:11 AM

      Now that I think about it is litteraly an arcane giant with 1 less attack and taunt, trades a little of agresivess for the taunt but overall is a big body for a class that can easily play tons of spell justo like mage