The Comprehensive Across the Timeways Preview

 

Unleash the Crocolisks

10 armor is a large amount of sustain, but how much is it realistically worth? We would say that a 3 mana card that gains 10 armor would be okay, while a 2 mana card would be strong. Therefore, giving the opponent a couple of Crocs does not seem worth the overall package.

However, there are mitigating factors that turn Unleash the Crocolisks into a constructed worthy Warrior spell. The first is that it is very strong when paired with AOE. Shellnado, specifically, now looks like a far more powerful card when we have a cheap way of gaining a massive amount of armor. Brawl is another AOE that removes the drawback of summoning minions for the opponent. When paired with either of these effects, the Crocolisks are void.

Furthermore, this spell works extremely well with ‘For Glory!’, discounting it by 2 mana. If the opponent has three minions in play, we can play Unleash, play a free ‘For Glory!’ and then cast Shellnado or Brawl. We can also combo Unleash with The Great Dracorex or other rush minions that can kill the Crocs immediately.

As a standalone card, Unleash is clearly weak, but it is amazing when combined with other effects since it is so cheap. We think Warrior will find this burst of sustain too valuable to pass up in its control archetypes.

Score: 3

Precursory Strike

A classic 3 damage for 2 mana spell that can go face, with the potential of tutoring a minion if we have an expensive one in hand. An active Precursory Strike is nuts. Killing an early game minion of the opponent while gaining card advantage is an ideal play for a control deck.

As for the condition, it is completely trivial to meet, as Control Warrior archetypes usually display an abundance of expensive minions in their curve. At a pinch, Precursory Strike is a playable card at its baseline, with an extremely high ceiling.

We believe this is a mandatory inclusion in all Control Warrior strategies going forward.

Score: 4

For Glory!

Drawing 2 cards is an effect that has proven to be constructed worthy once it hits 2 mana. Arcane Intellect is almost always too weak to be worthwhile unless it has a bonus effect.
Therefore, we should ask ourselves about the likelihood of an opponent having three minions in play against us.

For a Control Warrior archetype, this is a normal day in the office. Falling behind on board is part of its identity, so it feels very comfortable allowing the opponent to develop threats that it needs to respond to. What makes this spell compelling is that it is strongest when we are being snowballed on. It helps us dig for answers when we are in trouble. In slower matchups, the urgency to draw is usually not as extreme.

Thanks to Unleash the Crocolisks, we can proactively discount ‘For Glory!’ too. The ability to Unleash/For Glory for 1 mana, then proceed to cast Brawl or Shellnado, is a tempting proposition.

Score: 3

Slow Motion

A disruption spell with wide usage in theory. Slow Motion affects all cards: spells, minions, locations… it does not matter. We are guaranteed to slow down the opponent’s next turn with this spell.

The spell costs 2 mana, so we believe that the impact of the effect needs to cost the opponent at least 2 mana for it to be worthwhile. If our opponent ends up playing 2 cards the next turn, then we have broken even when it comes to our investment. Mana Burn is a good comparison, as it costs 1 mana to deny the opponent 2 mana, which makes it strong.

But Slow Motion does not impact the board, it represents card disadvantage, and it does not guarantee us the ability to capitalize on the opponent being slowed down. This is the nature of disruption cards: they do not progress our own game. If we fall behind and are being pressured, it is not likely to save us.

We could use the card proactively to make it difficult for the opponent to respond to our own pressure game plan, but the issue with that is that Slow Motion will be mostly useless for proactive decks because it does not help them develop pressure. It only helps them when they are already ahead.

What we see in this spell is a tech card. This is a card meant to buy Warrior time so it can reach a specific power spike that swings the game. We expect it to be overrated, but there are situations where it can be useful, especially in the late game when the opponent can potentially play many cards in a single turn.

Score: 2

Stadium Announcer

Random weapons have extremely high variance, so a Rewind ability seems tempting to tilt the RNG in our favor. But we do not understand why Warrior would play this card in the upcoming format. This is a damage source for an aggressive Warrior deck. There is no other reason to play this card because defensive Warrior decks want to reliably control the board and if they ever care about weapon tech, they will play Viper.

Meanwhile, aggressive Warrior decks that are centered on enrage mechanics already have a more fitting weapon to equip on turn 3 (Axe of the Forefathers), which makes Announcer hard to fit in. We think this dragon slips through the cracks, though we recognize it can represent a lot of damage.

Score: 1

Undefeated Champion

This 8-drop’s battlecry makes it completely unplayable in hand. Sure, a 13/13 rush is big, but filling our opponent’s board is a massive drawback and can be highly punished. A full board of 1-drops can hit us in the face for over 10 damage, and we do not have the mana on the same turn to deal with it.

This Warrior set heavily leans on a Big Warrior archetype, which can bypass battlecries by cheating minions out. This makes Undefeated Champion a potential target for Warrior scam turns. However, unlike other Big Warrior candidates, Undefeated Champion exhibits relatively lower impact. This kills a single minion and leaves a threat. Minions like Tortolla, Briarspawn Drake and The Great Dracorex can win the game on the spot.

While there is a faint possibility Champion makes the cut in Big Warrior, we think it will not. It is a waste of a recruit effect.

Score: 1

Gladiatorial Combat

A 5 mana Recruit spell is powerful by any historical metric in the game. Scamming a big minion on turn 5 usually leads to good things from a “big” deck, but the drawback here is massive. Summoning a 5/5 tiger for the opponent means that our summoned minion needs to basically win the game.

There are some targets that can work well with Combat that we cannot ignore. Tortolla laughs at the tiger. The Great Dracorex can wipe it for free. Briarspawn Drake eats it instantly. The potential is there to negate or minimize the drawback with currently available minions in Standard.

Alongside Chemical Spill and Food Fight, Warrior now has the consistent ability to drop a large bomb on turn 5 every game. The availability of Briarspawn Drake and Succumb to Madness means that Big Warrior has some capacity of killing slower decks too, which would be the main concern of this archetype. We will rate this card by math. When big things happen on turn 5, they usually make the cut.

Score: 3

Heir of Hereafter

We think this dragon is strong when there are two damaged minions in play, as it becomes a 5 mana 6/10 taunt. The limiter of making it work is our ability to damage minions on the same turn without spending mana, or having our own damaged minions survive turn 4.

The only realistic archetype that can accomplish this is an Enrage Warrior with Axe of the Forefathers. Enrage Warrior has good synergy with the dragon type, so Heir of Hereafter looks like a natural fit, a big bomb of stats that can be relevant against a wide variety of matchups.

Our concerns come mostly from Enrage Warrior’s current competitive standing. The archetype is completely unplayable and miles away from being competitively viable. Is Heir of Hereafter strong enough to lift it to a competitive win rate? We think this is unlikely, as Enrage Warrior’s issues run deeper than what a single mid-game stat stick can address. Its early game is too fair to properly snowball on opponents.

Score: 1

Chrono-Lord Epoch

We see a vision for Epoch. A Control Warrior runs Hostile Invader, Brawl and Shellnado. This deck wipes an opponent’s board on turn 5 with great consistency. The opponent proceeds to reload the board on turn 6 and gets checkmated by Epoch. The Warrior is now ahead on board and likely to win the game against any faster opponent.

Where Epoch is less effective is against sustained pressure, when the opponent incrementally develops minions. A 6 mana 7/5 that destroys a single minion is hardly worthwhile, unless we reach the late game and that single minion is particularly large. It is also ineffective against ‘summoned’ minions.

It might be that Control Warrior simply has too much removal at this point, and Epoch does not make the cut because it is less reliable than its established board wipes. The upside of Epoch is that it allows the Warrior to swing the board rather than strictly posture defensively.

If Control Warrior goes full AFK with the Quest, deviating from its Hydration or Terran shell, it has a greater chance of having space for Epoch. Otherwise, it might need rotation to be included in the archetype, but we think this card’s inclusion is inevitable.

Score: 3

Lo’Gosh, Blood Fighter

The Blood Fighters are all weak by themselves and not worth the 7-mana investment they require. A 7 mana 7/7 with rush, elusive or taunt is completely unplayable. It is not worth playing from hand, nor is it worth cheating out.

They become strong when one of them dies on the board while the others are in hand. Whenever one Blood Fighter dies, another one jumps in its place with +5/+5 and an ability that reflects the previous fighter. A 7/7 that summons a 12/12 on a deathrattle, which summons another 12/12 on a deathrattle, becomes stressful for the opponent to deal with.

The tricky part is how do we make sure that we can cheat out a Blood Fighter while the others sit in our hand. There is no guarantee we will find both, or even one of them, before we summon the first. Precursory Strike can help with that consistency, but it might draw a different minion in our big deck, and we cannot afford to have the Blood Fighters as our only minions.

This is a package that only realistically fits a Big Warrior archetype and requires some conditions to come fully online. We think it is too greedy and slow to run this package in a more aggressive deck. If we ever summon a Blood Fighter to the board with Gladiatorial Combat or Food Fight, while the other ones are in our deck, it is game losing. The only saving grace is that our opponent cannot know and may decide to ignore it, but that does not inspire much confidence.

We would rather cheat out and resurrect Briarspawn Drakes more consistently.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts

Across the Timeways Set Rank: 6^th

Overall Power Ranking: 9^th

We have mixed feelings about the Warrior set. We like the additions to its defensive toolkit and think they will become increasingly important once the class loses some in rotation. There is some survivability insurance and there is also some support for new late game avenues, but we do not think this set changes Warrior’s late game dynamics and what made it an underpowered class through most of its time during the Lost City of Un’Goro.

Control Warrior will not fundamentally change the way it looks to win late game matchups, which has already proven to be inadequate in this format. Perhaps, Deios provides a boost to the quest reward, but Warrior does not have the discount potential that can abuse Deios to the same extent that Rogue or Priest can. Meanwhile, other classes may get better in the late game to a greater extent than Warrior can.

We consider Mech Warrior to be an afterthought. There are a couple of new cards it can use and Deios can be a strong addition to its late game, but the deck’s appeal is dead. If it has a 50% win rate, it will see no play whatsoever.

The main direction that Warrior has received support in this set is a Big Warrior archetype. We do not like the concept of Big Warrior as much as the concept of Briarspawn Drake Warrior. With Gladiatorial Combat, our ability to cheat out Drakes becomes significantly more consistent, while The Great Dracorex provides it with blowout potential in faster matchups too.

The deck has already proven in the past that it can apply an enormous amount of pressure to the opponent’s life total, so this is what we would look out for if we are interested in a fresh Warrior deck.

Nothing else seems particularly promising. We will be very surprised to see an Enrage/Dragon Warrior making it to competitive play, as the deck still seems too fair. To maintain a reasonable play rate, the class will be counting on the appeal of Control Warrior, finding a shell that can best perform against the emerging format. One thing it does have now is an abundance of options.