Veiled Worshipper
Veiled Worshipper is a 4 Mana Cost Epic Warlock Minion card from the Descent of Dragons set!
Card Text
Battlecry: If you've Invoked twice, draw 3 cards.
Flavor Text
If you’re not wearing your regulation cultist clothing, how will Galakrond know to devour you last?- Mana Cost: 4
- Attack: 5
- Health: 4
- Crafting Cost: 400 / 1600 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 100 / 400 (Golden)
- Rarity: Epic
- Class: Warlock
- Card Type: Minion
- Set: Descent of Dragons
- Mechanics: Battlecry, Draw Cards
Thing to take note of with invoke is this summons alot of demons and can summon several units so you can get easier use out of card like the giant and Jimbo imp as well as the plague of flames can be used with the cheap 1 health minions for a clear. All those 1/1s also make good sacrifice targets.
I have mixed feelings on this card because while I love the value it can generate – drawing 3 for 4 mana is awesome, let alone a 5/4 on top of that – it’s an awkward Zoo card, and Zoo seems to be what the Invoke/Galakrond build is targeting given the hero power (two 1/1 imps). And for those confused and wondering why this card is awkward in Zoo, time for a lesson on Zoo Warlock 101.
Zoo is a board control deck. It’s not blindly rushing face and it isn’t trying to build to something later on. You want to contest the board with strong early game minions, and then make smart trades as needed to control the board. Ideally your minions are higher health too so they can be sticky. Veiled Worshipper requires you to invoke twice before you get to draw 3. I don’t like that. I want every card I draw in zoo to be playable on turn 3 or 4, and if isn’t, it better be an 8/8 sea giant. I don’t know how good the invoke cards are (we’ve only seen 3 so far) and how low the mana cost is on average, but unless in the early game you can play 2 invoke cards and maintain board control while doing so, this card isn’t useful in zoo.
Now it’s entirely possible that there are a lot of great invoke early game cards. It’s entirely possible this card is so good when it generates value that it’s okay when you have to play it as just a 5/4 on occasion. It’s also quite possible there is a Galakrond build that just thrives on value. Galakrond Warlock might be much more midrange based, because cards like this can be very powerful for just having more good stuff than your opponent. A 4 mana 5/4 that draws 3 is awesome. Maybe it is even great in some variation of Quest Warlock. But as we saw with Dark Pharaoh Tekahn, value isn’t everything if there isn’t a way to make it work. And given the similarly high ratings, Veiled Worshipper gives me a little bit of deja-vu to Dark Pharaoh Tekahn’s release (one of two cards along with Desert Spear being underrated that made me make an account due to disagreeing with the rating). I will say though I’m a little more optimistic on Veiled Worshipper’s chances than I was on Tekahn’s given it’s a two of instead of a legendary, and especially since the value it generates is much more practical in use than Tekahn’s.
But until we see more invoke cards that prove me otherwise, I’m very hesitant.
I do agree with most of what you’re saying, but I feel like it’s highly unlikely that this card won’t find a place in at least a tier 3 deck somewhere. The Warlock hero card seems most like it’s leaning towards zoo, but I actually think it will work well in a board-focused midrange deck. Summoning 4 random demons is going to give fairly consistent strong results, and a board-focused midrange deck wants to do exactly this. The 5 mana 4/5 taunt invoke also seems very strong in a midrange warlock deck because the raw stat value of 6/7 (4/5+two 1/1s) for 5 is great, especially because it has partial taunt. As long as another decent invoke card gets released, this deck should have the invoke it needs to work (although you would still be forced to run the 3 mana 1/1 which isn’t really a great midrange card) There are a lot of other midrange warlock board control cards that haven’t had the deck support to see play (first example I think of is riftcleaver), and I think this minion, given that is has a solid statline and a great effect of drawing 3 cards, is enough to push that deck into viability.
If this does not work, however, then there is still a chance this card could see play. Zoo Warlock. Assuming the midrange deck didn’t work because of the lack of invoke support, that probably means the rest of the invoke cards for warlock or neutral were more aggresively oriented. Assuming a 2 or 1 mana invoke gets printed, I think aggro will see play because this card will be active on turn 4 significantly more often and even if it isn’t, as you said, It’s entirely possible this card is so good when it generates value that it’s okay when you have to play it as just a 5/4 on occasion. Also, this card drawing 3 for that deck is huge because it increases the chances of drawing and playing a fully upgraded galakrond on turn 7, which should almost always be an instant game winner as long as you aren’t way behind.
Overall, I think this card and the invoke warlock deck will work somewhere, even if it’s not apparent where that is yet.
This is really well put, and I completely agree that it seems like the card by itself should be good enough for something to work. Midrange Warlock is kind of the golden goose of potential for the class given two of its major class traits can give warlock an edge on value in 1. Discard (Soulwarden great example of value) or 2. Self-inflicted damage (Riftcleaver as you pointed out). For whatever reason though, historically midrange warlock hasn’t taken off. It doesn’t help that warlock has largely just been given meme legendaries each new expansion, with the only great legendary (Lord Godfrey) best suited for control. The taunt invoke card (shield of Galakrond) seems like a great fit in any mid-game or late-game centric Galakrand deck (and a clear 2 of in priest), so there is definitely an intrigue as to the fit. But it feels like it is going to take a lot more support for warlock to be able to catch up to the current set of midrange reno decks, or even the caliber of something like mech paladin, and so much of Galakrand’s power level is dependent on how good the selection of invoke cards is. And maybe it is just a slightly more Midrangey Zoo that thrives on value?
I agree though that it feels like both Galakrond and the invoke package should work somewhere in theory – especially given cards like Veiled Worshipper – and maybe the right comparison to Veiled Worshipper is something like Bloodsworn Mercenary. Bloodsworn Mercenary was clearly a great tempo card, but warrior was a class that has previously struggled to support its tempo potential. However we have seen the Aggro-based warrior builds thrive at times during the past meta (albeit inconsistently), and Bloodsworn Mercenary really can provide massive tempo swings in the right situation.
Ultimately though it does appear the best use of Galakrond is still more zoo focused, and in regard to Galakrond Zoo, 3 questions still remain:
1. What will the rest of the invoke cards look like?
2. Is Zoo better off focusing around Galakrond or not?
3. Would Galakrond Zoo even run Veiled Worshipper?
Oof ouch zoo hurty
Yup. Just put it in the Super Value List. And Something is telling me what we haven’t seen the Last of Kibler’s Quest Warlock Deck just yet, to add in the extra fun. 5 Stars.
The card is nuts by itself and it addresses one of the two major problems of the Swarm Galakron warlock archetype: the first one is card draw and the other is lack of health buffs. The card draw issue already was the lesser one of the two, since warlock draws a lot by itself, but still this card is amazing at that. The problem here is that I think that the deck in which you have to put it is just super bad: even if it’s too early to take stances, Galakron for warlock is such an underwhelming play and the invoke cards are just slightly on the weak side. I don’t think that this alone will be enough to make the deck work: it still misses a good widespread buff for the board.
Powerfull but a turn 6or 7 card probably… But 4 mana draw 3 is already good, and if it comes with a stick Even better, but no sure ir Will ve played, Will depend exclusively on how good the invoke cards are