The Guy Before the Lambs: The Diary of My Journey to 1000 Death Knight Wins (Part 5)

Constructed? More Like Construct-Ed

Death Knights were the biggest beneficiary of the mini-set, and it’s all off the back of one card. Construct Quarter was obviously good from the get-go, but perhaps we haven’t entirely appreciated just how good it is. It offers 12/15 stats for three mana and more than makes up for the delayed payoff with the initiative that Rush provides. Perhaps the closest comparison that comes to mind is the pre-nerf version of Nightcloak Sanctum, a card that also had to be nerfed because of its overwhelming impact.

Meanwhile, Frost Queen Sindragosa feels undertuned and a big flavor miss – as exciting as it is to see multi-rune cards, the fact that you can’t use the Queen of the Blue Dragonflight alongside Frostwyrm's Fury just doesn’t sit well with me, gameplay complications be damned. It also just feels like a fairly weak removal tool, more fit for the era of Boulderfist Ogres than today’s fast and nimble gameplay experience, where sticking a board has very different properties than just two big minions that go face again.

It’s also tough to imagine a deck or metagame where Rimescale Siren (a card I only referred to as “the Naga” in the first draft of this article because of just how unremarkable it was) could become relevant in a 30-card Constructed deck. You have to keep it in hand for a long time for a limited and semi-random effect that requires further cards to actually remove something – and it’s tough to envision a Frost Death Knight deck that’s well-equipped for a Freeze Mage-style control strategy. It is a weak stall tool, and it really does feel like it’s been nerfed from 2 mana at some point during development (although I wonder why).

This highlights the same sort of issue the devs used to face with weapons in the past, where they almost always ended up more effective as an aggro tool to maintain a board lead (and threaten burn) than as a removal option for slower archetypes. In many ways, the Freeze keyword feels quite similar, as users of Glacial Shard in the past, especially in the Arena, can attest.

Speaking of which…

Below Fifty Percent but Still Above the Water: A New Arena Experience

Meanwhile, over in the Arena, the situation couldn’t be more different. With the format now featuring a Standard rotation, the power levels are drastically higher than they’ve previously been. This also gives us a better idea of the raw power level of the Death Knight cards once the various synergies aren’t necessarily in play – and the end result is somewhat subpar.

That isn’t to say there is an issue with the class, and, in fact, this is very much in line with what the Arena community pegged as the starting DK toolset’s power level before release, analysis that couldn’t quite factor in the impact of the corpses and the narrowness of the Discover options. Now, the cards themselves prove to be fine and unspectacular, which is exactly where the class itself is in the current metagame.

Death Knight is fine in the Arena, but it absolutely cannot cope with the resource generation madness of Mages, meaning the more aggressive options of Unholy and Frost runes remain the best options for your drafts. You can definitely go infinite with Death Knights, and the win rate differential is narrow enough that you aren’t getting constantly pummeled by the one hyper-popular OP class. If you’ve become a fan, or you’re also looking to rack up wins the same way I am, it’s not that much of a -EV option.

By the way, Construct Quarter is also one of the best class cards in the Arena. What a surprise. The “problem”, however, is that you need to draft it first. Getting just a single copy should bump your win rate above 50% – and if you manage to snatch a few of them, you might breeze all the way to 12 wins (unless some Mage with an even more powerful deck is there to stop you).

Elsewhere, Even Unholy DK continues to shine in Wild – with an interesting little Reno build emerging, which DocDelight piloted to #37 Legend, as seen below – and Death Knights are still the ones to beat in Duels. Right now, only Battlegrounds serves as an escape from the Scourge – and, of course, Classic.