Most Interesting Cards From the Upcoming Forged in the Barrens Expansion

Forged in the Barrens releases tomorrow! It’s been a while since the announcement, but it’s been a wild ride all the way through. In fact, ever since the reveal season started, I’ve been so busy that I didn’t have time to do the usual reviews. But since I still want to share some of my thoughts about the cards, I’ve decided to make a compilation of the most interesting ones instead.

But before proceeding to the list, two things I need to clear up. First – the list is about the most interesting cards and not necessarily the strongest ones. There are multiple cards that I think are clearly stronger, but they aren’t as interesting. They aren’t trying something new, they aren’t potentially activating new archetypes, and so on. And the second thing is… I probably don’t need to say it, but this list is subjective. You might find those cards boring and other ones interesting.

Anyway, let’s begin!

Kazakus, Golem Shaper

I have a confession to make – when playing the old Kazakus, I picked the 10 mana potion way, way, way too often. 1 mana was usually the best option in faster matchups, while 5 mana was a go-to one in slower ones. 10 mana potion was simply too greedy most of the time, I ended up dying before I could play it more than once whereas a cheaper one might have saved me… but I didn’t care. It was just so fun to build this massive, AoE Polymorph combined with reviving 3 of your own minions, or dealing 6 AoE damage and summoning an 8/8.

And once again, I’m sure that I’ll pick the 10 mana Golem way more often than I should. I’m already looking at those crazy combos. Maybe I’ll summon a 10/10 with Taunt and then copy it for 2x 10/10 with Taunt to just crush any deck’s dream of getting to my face? Or maybe a 10/10 with Poisonous + AoE damage combo to have a one-sided Twisting Nether on a (huge) stick? Or possibly summon a 10/10 with Stealth and +4 Spell Damage to prepare for next turn? There are simply so many options, and they’re all incredibly fun to mix and match.

While Kazakus, Golem Shaper is a derivative of an older card, thanks to the new twist it feels fresh and will definitely be interesting to put into the deck. Now, if only I will be able to find a deck that doesn’t want to play any other 4 mana cards…

Deathrattle Demon Hunter Package

After seeing Razorfen Beastmaster, me (and many other people) were very confused. Didn’t they mix something up? Shouldn’t it be a HUNTER card instead of a DEMON HUNTER card? I’ll have to say that I’m still not digging them flavor-wise – not the effects, but names, artworks etc. I think that Quillboars would fit into the aforementioned Hunter much better. But flavor aside, what I didn’t really like at first has shaped up into something interesting by the end of reveal season.

The most powerful think about DH’s Deathrattle package are tempo chains. Imagine playing a Razorboar on Turn 2. When it dies, you summon a Razorfen Beastmaster for free. When it dies, you summon Darkspear Berserker. That’s 9 mana worth of minions for just 2 mana initial investment. Of course, it’ll drain resources from your hand like crazy, but Demon Hunter never had card draw issues. After all, we’ll also have the new Tuskpiercer for a cheap weapon that cycles itself, or Vengeful Spirit to draw more Deathrattles.

But probably most importantly – Death Speaker Blackthorn. It will be the deck’s power play. It draws three minions immediately and then SUMMONS all of them for no extra cost. Oh, and it has a 3/6 body too. Skull of Gul'dan looks like a harmless toy in comparison. And since those three minions will all have Deathrattle, there’s a chance that you will get some AoE resistance. For example, if you would play Burning Blade Acolyte or even Taelan Fordring, it would make your opponent’s AoE turns a bit more awkward.

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea whether Deathrattle Demon Hunter will work at all, but it’s a cool, interesting concept for the class. One that FINALLY is focused on board and not hitting opponent in the face all the damn time.

Celestial Alignment

I have no clue why this card was kept all the way until final card dump, really. It’s one of the most interesting cards in the entire set. And a really hard one to judge, to be honest. It gives me similar vibes to Astral Communion – the card was insane if you put it into the right deck and had a perfect opening hand. You could get to 10 mana on your first turn and then just topdeck a big minion after big minion. Celestial Alignment is a bit tamer in comparison, but only a bit – since the card discards nothing and costs more, you can’t play it so early for those blowout games, but it’s also more consistent. And it has a mirrored effect – but of course, you will put it into a deck where that mirrored effect is not exactly mirrored.

The idea is that you pack your deck full of big minions, cards like Survival of the Fittest, and then try to get to 7 mana and drop Celestial Alignment as quickly as you can. Since the cost of your cards on average is much higher, you will be able to pull out some crazy combos while your opponent still plays the same tame stuff. Of course, there are a few ways for this card to backfire. Most importantly, you spend 7 mana doing nothing. And I mean it, NOTHING, since you can’t play another card on the same turn. And spending 7 mana doing nothing against Aggro doesn’t sound good. Like yeah, if they have no board, then you will be easily able to play it since they drop down to 1 mana too. But if they already have a good board, you have to focus on clearing instead of doing nothing or else you die. The second issue is that sometimes you might stumble upon a deck that will benefit from having their cards cost 1 nearly as much as you do, or even more. Some combo decks come to mind. Like, imagine dropping it against Mozaki Mage. I know, the deck will no longer exist after rotation (RIP Sorcerer's Apprentice), but it’s just an example.

As you can see, the card has its clear upsides, but it will definitely be difficult to use and it will sometimes explode back in Druid’s face after the opponent drops down some expensive combo pieces for 1 mana.

Tavish Stormpike

Imagine creating  a full deck of Beasts with Rush/Charge (mostly Rush given that Charge is nearly gone) and then dropping Tavish and playing your biggest one. Which will then summon a smaller one, and a smaller one, and you will end up with a board full of minions. Yes, that’s the dream, and it will not happen very often. You won’t be able to build a perfect deck like that and still make it functional. And because you draw other cards too, you will end up with some gaps in your chain. But the dream is so, so sweet!

Anyway, even without any dreams, I think that Tavish is a pretty solid card. For him to work, all you need to do is play a single Rush Beast on the same turn OR already have a Beast ready to attack on the board. It’s really not that hard, and triggering the effect once is honestly good enough. If you can do it twice – that’s even better. For example, I could very well imagine playing Tavish with Tame Beast (Rank 2) on Turn 5. It summons a 4 mana 4/4 with Charge, which then pulls e.g. Zixor, Apex Predator, which then pulls a 2-Cost Beast from your deck. It’s not some outlandish combo that’s very hard to pull off, and it will create a really strong board for Turn 5.

Plus, just like any other similar minion, Tavish will have a huge mark on its back – your opponent can’t afford to leave it on the board, because if they do, well – you might play an even bigger Beast with Rush and get tons of value. But frankly, it’s not that easy to clear. 5 health is very high for a 3-drop and it might be real pain to clear it That’s what makes the card pretty sweet, and I think that it might see play in some sort of Beast Hunter, if that deck will be good enough.

Hero Power Mage Package

When they first revealed Mordresh Fire Eye, I honestly wasn’t impressed. The card seemed… underwhelming. Dealing 10 damage with Hero Power is a herculean task for a regular deck. Even when playing a very long game, Hero Powering 10 times is difficult.

Then, Reckless Apprentice got revealed and things started to make a bit more sense. Let’s say that your opponent has 3 minions on the board – dropping Reckless Apprentice loads up Mordresh by 4, and that makes it was easier to use.

But when I’ve seen Wildfire during the final reveal stream, it was a done deal, I HAD to play this deck. Will it suck? Most likely yes. Will I have tons of fun with it? Definitely! Play two Wildfires and your Hero Power turns into Darkbomb. Play two Wildfires and even a single Reckless Apprentice can load up your Mordresh easily. And Mordresh is a really powerful finisher. It’s a 10/10 body that clears almost any board (10 AoE damage) and then Pyroblasts the opponent for good measure. Often there’s no comeback from that.

Of course, the biggest issue is how much the deck relies on Wildfire to work. You don’t even need two copies, but one will be crucial. Without it, your Reckless Apprentice is meh, and you will never load up Mordresh. And I see no obvious way to tutor it or to potentially generate extra copies, which means that you will have to hard mulligan for it and hope that it’s close to the top of your deck, not bottom. Still, I can only imagine that the games where you get both Wildfires early will be really, really interesting.

Swinetusk Shank

Swinetusk Shank really reminds me of one of my favorite “meme” Rogue cards ever – Spectral Cutlass. But maybe less meme, since you don’t have to play a Thief Rogue to make it infinite (still, that was part of its charm).

In case of Swinetusk Shank, instead of cards from another class, you have Poison cards. You can also give it Lifesteal in Wild with Leeching Poison, but I honestly wouldn’t expect it to be playable in Wild. So instead of Lifesteal, you’ve got Paralytic Poison that makes you immune while attacking, so you take no damage from minions you hit. And after a Deadly Poison or Nitroboost Poison, your weapon should be big enough to clear out most of the regular minions. Oh, and did I mention that you draw a card every time you hit thanks to Silverleaf Poison?

With a total of 8 Poisons you can put into your deck + extra ones you can generate (Apothecary Helbrim), Swinetusk Shank has a realistic chance to snowball out of control. You can start by using it to clear the minions and then go all-in on your opponent’s face with your, I don’t know, let’s say 7/4 weapon.

I mean, the biggest downside is that building your entire deck around a weapon might not be the best idea. It’s not like Kingsbane – it doesn’t come back after it’s destroyed. You can stack it with 4 Poisons and then your opponent can drop a single Ooze and it’s gone. And without a card like Cavern Shinyfinder, you have no good way to tutor it. That’s why I don’t think that the card will be particularly strong, but it will be sooo fun to stack a massive weapon and when it’s going to work, it will feel amazing.

Cannonmaster Smythe

If I had to pick the weirdest card of expansion, Smythe would certainly be pretty high up there. In some unexplainable way, a guy firing the cannon is transforming Secrets into Soldiers. If it sounds crazy, it means that it is crazy.

It’s safe to say that I’m not sold on Secret Paladin. I mean, let’s get some facts straight. It’s true that possibly the strongest Paladin Secret has finally made a comeback in the Core Set (Avenge) and we’re getting two new ones (Reckoning, which is pretty interesting, and Galloping Savior which is a Rat Trap, but weaker). It’s also true that Secret Paladin gets its possibly strongest card since Mysterious Challenger – Sword of the Fallen. But besides the Sword and Smythe, there are no other reasons to play Secrets. Like really, we don’t have a single another Secret synergy. Commander Rhyssa, Mysterious Blade and Sunreaver Spy all rotate out (Update: As Umbreomancer corrected in the comments, Sunreaver Spy will be a part of the Core Set, forgot about that one). Secretkeeper will not be a part of the Core Set. Which makes it all a bit… weird.

But getting back to Smythe – that card is probably meant as a big Secret pay-off. Some of the Paladin Secrets aren’t easier to trigger and they might linger for some time without getting used. Like the new Galloping Savior – Rat Trap shows that sometimes you have to wait long, long time for it to trigger. Or let’s say Reckoning – if your opponent doesn’t play minions or you clear them immediately, it’s also pretty useless. But, thanks to Smythe, you can turn those “temporarily useless” Secrets into 3/3’s. Summoning two or three 3/3’s on top of a 4/4 for 5 mana is really nice. And the best part is that they turn back into Secrets right after they die, so you really lost nothing. Yeah, yeah, they could be Silenced and Transformed, but if you play Paladin you have so many Silence/Transform targets that you really don’t mind.

I’m not sold on Secret Paladin just yet – but Smythe is a really cool concept that might become useful in case Secret Paladin eventually ends up seeing play.

Self-Burn Warlock

Honestly, this is one of the strangest things that came out from Forged in the Barrens. Like, I understand burning your opponent’s deck as a win condition. Mill strategies have been a thing for a long, loooong time – lately brought back again in a form of Tickatus. But normally the goal is to burn your opponent’s cards and force them to fatigue, while potentially getting rid of some of their key win conditions. However, the new package asks Warlock to burn THEIR OWN deck in order to work.

The package I’m talking about is Neeru Fireblade, Altar of Fire, Barrens Scavenger, Soul Rend and Blood Shard Bristleback. Yes, that’s a surprisingly big package for such a novel mechanic. Normally they’re sprinkling in a few cards here and there until the package finally comes together after a few expansions. Okay, and the mechanic isn’t really THAT novel – we already had Chef Nomi after all, but this time it’s a bit different. In case of Nomi, you wanted to burn your entire deck ASAP and then fill the board with huge minions, hoping that your opponent can’t clear them. The new package has two cut-off points. The first one is 10 cards left in your deck – at this point  you activate Barrens Scavenger (1 mana 6/6 Taunt) and Bristleback (3 mana 3/3 that deals 6 damage to a minion). That’s cool, but those aren’t nearly enough to win you the game.

And here’s when Neeru Fireblade comes into action – after you’re left with no cards in your deck, you drop it, and then your board gets flooded by 3/2 Imps every single turn. It’s like the Nether Portal from the original Warlock Quest, but better. Your opponent has to drop a board clear every turn or else they take 18 damage. It’s worse than Nomi, but also permanent – Nomi could usually be played twice, thrice at most in the right deck. This can go on for 5+ turns, so the chances that your opponent can clear every wave are much slimmer. Of course, the downside is that with no cards left in your deck you start taking fatigue damage, which means that you’re also on a clock. It leads to a really interesting race against time, where you have a basically infinite win condition, but only a few turns left to take advantage of it (because let’s be honest, as a Warlock you won’t likely be at full health going into fatigue).

To be honest, I don’t think that the deck will work well. You see, one of the biggest downsides is that you don’t know which cards you’re burning. If you build your deck around Neeru and then burn it… that’s game over. You have to draw him first before you can burn your own cards, but what if he’s in the bottom 10 cards? At that point it will already be too late. Still, the idea of burning your own deck sounds pretty interesting, even if it will turns out to be a meme in the end.

Watch Post Package

Forged in the Barrens has many cool Legendaries with flashy effects, combo potential and so on… but one of the things I’m most excited for are Neutral Watch Posts. Really. There’s Far Watch Post, Mor'shan Watch Post and Crossroads Watch Post and I dig them a lot. What I like about them is that they’re pretty good at distributing your opponent’s game plan without making it completely unusable. For example – if your opponent wants to play a spell, they can still do it, no problem. They will just buff your board if you have Crossroads Watch Post in play. It’s a cool concept, and the fact that Watch Posts can’t attack will create a very interesting dynamic – do you kill them or leave them be? There’s no right or wrong answer here, it all depends on the specific context and situation. In reality, if they’re dropped quite early, the opponent can’t just ignore them. They will often have to clear them, but since Watch Posts have extra stats for the cost, it won’t be that easy and will often eat up some extra resources.

And of course, there’s also a pay-off – Kargal Battlescar. If you build a Watch Post deck, Kargal will be AMAZING, and I mean it. Let’s say that you’ve played three Watch Posts by the time you get to Turn 7 – seems pretty realistic. Then you can drop 4x 5/5 minion that will basically force your opponent to AoE or die. It’s a bit like Soulciologist Malicia in Soul Fragment decks – the downside is that summoned minions have no Rush, but the upside is that 5/5’s are much more deadly and harder to clear than 3/3’s.

I still don’t have the slightest idea which class and what specific deck might want to play Watch Post package, but I can’t wait to try it out. I like to play decks that disrupt the opponent, decks that force them to think about everything they do or else they can get punished. And I think that Watch Posts, as long as they turn out playable, might fit my taste.

Gruntled Patron

Grim Patron‘s more cheerful cousin. Released at the same time as Warsong Commander got semi-unnerfed (it no longer gives Charge, but gives Rush instead). Of course, the biggest difference between Gruntled and Grim Patrons is the fact that a single 3 health Grim Patron could summon TWO more, so they ended up replicating much quicker. For example – playing Grim Patron + Inner Rage + Whirlwind resulted in 4 Patrons. In case of Gruntled, the same combo would only summon three.

Of course, the clear upside is that the new one costs 4 mana instead of 5. And it could be just as well used to remove a whole board of small minions while summoning a solid board yourself with the new Warsong Commander. And if you’re playing your Whirlwind effects anyway, then you might as well summon a few minions, right?

While I don’t think that Gruntled Patron will be good enough to have its own deck like Grim Patron did, I do think that if Frenzy Warrior becomes a thing, it might as well run Patron because of the synergies.