The Comprehensive Across the Timeways Preview

 

Dangerous Variant

A 2 mana 1/1 is unacceptable. We are counting on the opponent’s inability to kill Variant on their turn, when it can get pinged by everything. It is also important to note that our random 5-drop does not even get to attack on the turn it is summoned, meaning that Variant only becomes a threat two turns after it is played. Never constructed worthy.

Score: 1

Yesterloc

Some players may see a murloc here and consider it a new addition in Quest Paladin, but this minion has low impact that is comparable to Coldlight Seer. We do not need board buffs in Quest Paladin, as evident by the archetype cutting Crusader Aura. Yesterloc is not an efficient quest progressor, nor does it scale well post-quest. We do not think it is good enough for other aggressive decks either.

Score: 1

Cyborg Patriarch

There are two places where Patriarch might be considered. In Quest Hunter, it is a cheap minion with 3 attack. In Demon Hunter, it helps us enable Perennial Serpent on curve. However, both archetypes have strong alternatives and may opt to pass on the slow, mechanical monkey.

Score: 2

Classes: Demon Hunter, Hunter

Living Paradox

We would not pay 1 mana for a 2/1 with Elusive, so paying 3 for three of them does not sound particularly appealing. Its best competitive chances are in board-flooding decks that highly value cards that summon multiple bodies. A Shreds of Time Warlock deck or an Aggro Paladin with Crusader Aura are where you might encounter it this expansion. An Aggro Druid, if it ever becomes competitive, is another deck that could leverage the card in the future.

Score: 2

Classes: Druid, Paladin, Warlock

Misplaced Pyromancer

This card will be overpowered. In 2032.

Score: 1

Quantum Destabilizer

Taking double damage means that this minion’s effective life is 5. Is a 3 mana 4/5 good enough in any deck? We do not believe so.

Score: 1

Sandmaw

This is a nice support minion for Quest Hunter, as it has 7 attack and only costs 3 mana. Playing a 7-attack beast has been a significant bottleneck for the archetype, so Sandmaw may help Quest Hunter speed up its quest completion. Its stats are not well distributed for a 3-drop in any other deck.

Score: 2

Classes: Hunter

Temporal Traveler

A 3 mana 4/1 is a horrible body and the deathrattle only hits minions too. There is a much better neutral 3-drop if we care about board control that we will talk about shortly.

Score: 1

Whelp of the Bronze

This 3-drop threatens to heal for a significant amount if the opponent cannot cleanly deal with it through removal. Its high attack value and divine shield make it strong in minion trades. Its dragon tag could also be relevant, as several classes this expansion have an incentive to run a dragon package.

But where Whelp of the Bronze is particularly powerful is in a Priest deck with Resuscitate. If such a Priest deck emerges that does not run a Protoss package with Void Ray, Whelp of the Bronze becomes the best 3-drop available in the format that we can resurrect. Reborn on this thing can heal us for 16.

Score: 3

Classes: Mage, Priest, Warlock

Whelp of the Infinite

This is an extremely sticky 3-drop that excels at board control and can deny the opponent from developing threats in the mid-game. Whelp of the Infinite is guaranteed to kill two enemy minions if it is not dealt with through removal, while its 4 health makes it difficult to kill on curve.

It seems that Team 5 have found the right formula to make good poisonous minions. As in the case of Blob of Tar, they need to be sticky to the point more than one resource is needed to kill them. Once they reach this threshold, they can gain us card advantage while slowing down the opponent’s pressure.

Their primary weakness is that they fall off a bit in the late game, when the opponent has more mana to spend to both clean them up and develop, but this is an intimidating minion to face on turn 3 if we have any ambition to control the board.

Could slot into a variety of decks of different playstyles.

Score: 4

Classes: All of them.

Chronicle Keeper

A 3/6 with divine shield and taunt is not bad, but Chronicle Keeper is a bit too slow for a conditional card to work. We are required to run a deck that is heavy on dragons to activate it consistently, but dragon decks in this expansion may not value spending mana on a non-dragon minion that is only slightly stronger than the average 4-drop. They will also usually have their own powerful turn 4 plays, diminishing Keeper’s importance.

Score: 1

Fading Memory

This minion is straight up awful. A 6/3 for 4 mana is unacceptable. The upside of having a random turn 5 play does not make up for it. We are not winning Hearthstone games by playing a 6/3 on turn 4 and then a random 5-drop on turn 5 that has no synergy with our deck.

Score: 1

Hourglass Attendant

A persistent handbuff card. The divine shield and 4 health make it a bit annoying to remove on curve while the opponent will not be happy to let it survive. The end of turn effect makes it slightly worse in the late game, but it is strong on curve.

This is a bit redundant in Paladin due to the availability of Painter’s Virtue, but a Handbuff Priest deck could be interested. It is expected the class will have a minion-dense proactive strategy that will scale hard through any additional buffs it can add. Attendant provides a turn 4 play to follow a turn 3 Disciple of the Dove that makes a lot of sense.

Score: 2

Classes: Priest

Time Skipper

A 4 mana 3/4 is simply too weak to accommodate, when the effect is not even clearly advantageous to the player. Rogue has better ways to generate coins and no other class values coins to this extent.

Score: 1

Wizened Truthseeker

Every expansion needs to have its bad tech card. Players fuming over “mana cheating” now have the choice to make their deck worse just to screw an opponent over once in a blue moon. Extremely niche.

Score: 1

Aeon Wizard

This card reminds us of Cobalt Spellkin, which added two 1-mana spells from our class with the same stats and cost. We believe Aeon Wizard’s Rewind is inferior to two guaranteed 1-mana spells, as the narrow pool increases the quality of generation and can be planned for. The Rewind keyword only slightly boosts the quality but does not change the high variance of outcomes involved. For card generation, we can and should do better.

Score: 1

Clockwork Rager

This minion is horrendous on curve and not even good on turn 10. Give it taunt and it is still not good enough. Discount it to 3 mana and it is probably still not playable.

Score: 1

Devious Coyote

Expected to be the most important neutral for aggressive decks in this set. Coyote gets discounted by any trigger of damage, so our goal is to hit the opponent with multiple instances of damage through either minions or spells. A board-flooding deck synergizes with Coyote extremely well. Spells with split damage, such as Sigil of Cinder and Tachyon Barrage, also threaten to fully discount Coyote by themselves.

Playing a 0 mana 5/3 with stealth mounts so much pressure on the opponent that it can be game-winning by itself. We only must remember how impactful Frenzied Felwing was back in Descent of Dragons to understand how monumental free stats can be for an aggressive deck that goes hard and early. Coyote is more difficult to discount but has an even higher ceiling.

We have no doubt that this minion is game-warping and provides a massive reward for early pressure. Almost every aggressive deck in the upcoming format, as well as future formats, will attempt to fit it in.

Score: 4

Classes: Demon Hunter, Hunter, Paladin, Shaman, Warlock

Sentient Hourglass

This rush minion is far too slow, and its ability is not even guaranteed to be beneficial to us. Completely unplayable.

Score: 1

Time Machine

As we have seen in this article, most Rewind cards are bad. Playing a 6 mana 6/6 taunt just for the privilege of getting a random one via a deathrattle is not something we ever want to do.

Score: 1

Paltry Flutterwing

This is a slow, value 1-drop that requires synergy to be useful, as it cannot be considered a strong inclusion for an aggressive deck just for the sake of summoning a random 2-drop on turn 4.

The current format is surprisingly absent of 1-attack beasts, which has made life difficult for Quest Hunter. This is an ideal inclusion for the archetype and should help its quest completion. It can also be ran in Beast Hunter, as the archetype benefits from holding space on the board to boost R.C. Rampage.

This minion may also prove to be useful in Aggro DH, as it can activate Perennial Serpent. Demon Hunter has an abundance of dormant activators, but most of them fit a slower deck.

Score: 2

Classes: Demon Hunter, Hunter

Portal Vanguard

Vanguard is a minion tutor that gives us the option to Rewind, to find a more desirable draw in any specific situation. Its dragon tag and stat buff are also notable, making it a potential inclusion in a dragon deck, or a deck that values handbuffs.

We think this 3-drop will find its way into a deceptively high number of decks, as having a minion tutor in the neutral set makes it easier for us to build decks with a win condition that is reliant on a small, curated minion pool. Besides that, it is one of the better dragons in the format if we want to activate a card with a “hold a dragon in your hand” condition.

May prove to be ubiquitous.

Score: 4

Classes: Death Knight, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior

Soldier of the Bronze

This could be an ideal minion for a Handbuff Priest deck, specifically a Zarimi Priest, as it is also a dragon. A single buff from Disciple of the Dove or Power Word: Barrier already puts this taunt at 10 health. A couple of buffs and this is a massive roadblock that is extremely difficult to get through without hard removal.

A Handbuff Priest deck is reliant on having payoffs that are strong in faster matchups, allowing it to pay an initial penalty on stats from its handbuff cards to swing the board later. It cannot always play minions that aggressive decks can ignore as they rush the Priest’s face.

If Zarimi Priest becomes competitively viable, we think it will play this dragon.

Score: 2

Classes: Priest

Soldier of the Infinite

Buffing health is almost always better than buffing attack. Soldier of the Infinite does not provide the same protection as Soldier of the Bronze. A high attack diminishes in value as we are most likely going to overkill a minion when we rush into something, and there is no expectation that Soldier of the Infinite will survive the opponent’s next turn to attack face.

In contrast, a scaling amount of health can render damage-based removal completely useless, either forcing hard removal from the opponent or forcing unfavorable value trades. Bronze for the win. Infinite in the mud.

Score: 1

Unknown Voyager

The only possible client for this card is Enrage Warrior, as it can activate it on curve and instantly summon a 7-drop. But is a random 7-drop even worth 5 mana when it is conditional on us having a pre-loaded self-damage effect? We do not think so.

Other decks will not play this, as it is not too difficult to remove cleanly and does not offer any immediate impact to the board.

Score: 1

Timeless Causality

Krona Druid is the main candidate to utilize this minion, but it is so much worse than Contingency, as it does not actually draw us the discounted cards. We think Druid skips it, especially if Oaken Summons proves to be important for the archetype. If Oaken Summons is not included, there is a faint chance of this card seeing play.

Score: 1

Circadiamancer

This minion has its own little game plan. If we play it on turn 3, we get to play a random 8-drop on turn 6. That… is not even good. It requires us to spend mana on things that deviate from the deck’s original game plan. It has no synergy with whatever our deck is trying to do. Hell of an arena card. That is it.

Score: 1

Futuristic Forefather

It is important to note that we must choose between three cards that are originally from the opponent’s deck, which is the way Envoy of Lazul worked before with the same text box.

Guessing correctly is not a trivial thing to do here. Even if we can read our opponent’s hand like a book, a 4 mana 4/8 taunt is not particularly amazing, while a 4 mana 4/4 taunt is game losing.

Score: 1

Conflux Crasher

This minion is bad against a big board, even with the Rewind keyword giving it some bailout potential. The damage can go face, which is nice, but not something we expect to see top out the curve of aggressive decks.

Score: 1

Amber Warden

This taunt can summon a 1-drop and a 10-drop. The variance here is wild. No chance this card makes it into constructed with such a slow initial body and an unreliable deathrattle.

Score: 1

Timelord Nozdormu

This legendary is unique. Its ability is triggered by different cards whenever a new expansion comes out.

A 3 mana 8/8 rush sounds powerful, but it is dormant for 5 turns and needs new cards to be summoned earlier. Its usefulness depends on the composition of the deck in every new expansion.

Generally, we do not believe that there will be many decks that run many cards from the new expansion. Even if they do, Timelord Nozdormu needs to make sense in them to see play. For example, Demon Hunter may consider it for its Perennial Serpent activation, but it will not have enough new cards to activate it early enough, and there are more consistent alternatives available.

Ultimately, there is no stable home for Timelord Nozdormu. Therefore, it will spend most of its time in our collection, unused.

Score: 1

Chromie

Chromie draws every copy of a card we have already played during the game. This draw effect is awkward for a couple of reasons.

First, it is stapled into a deathrattle on an easily ignored minion that is incredibly slow. A 6 mana 4/6 represents atrocious board development. This card is completely irrelevant in any faster matchup.

Second, it might end up overdrawing us in the late game. As we play more cards, Chromie could end up drawing an uncomfortable number of cards when we are playing a slower deck that should have a sizeable hand.

When reading this card for the first time, we could not believe the effect was on a deathrattle. This is hardly overpowered on a battlecry. A disappointing legendary for the main character of the expansion.

Score: 1

Chrono-Lord Deios

Deios is the father of all late game cards. It is an undeniably expensive minion that is difficult to leverage in a normal Hearthstone deck, especially when the average Hearthstone deck does not often leverage all the mechanics that Deios amplifies. For a battlecry deck, this is just a 7 mana Brann. For a deathrattle deck, it is a 7 mana Necromechanic or Snowfall Graveyard.

It is when massive discounts meet Deios that things get broken fast. Deios’ most dangerous combo is with Sandbox Scoundrel and Incindius. Deios/Mini-Scoundrel/Incindius is a 9 mana play that shuffles 10 Eruptions into our deck that deal 3 damage each. With Sonya shenanigans, this combo can shuffle 100 damage into our deck, leaving no one safe from the absurd damage potential. With Deios, Rogue’s late game reaches godhood without a major obstacle in its execution.

Another class to watch out for is Priest. Deios/Incindius offers a reliable win condition for Aviana Priest. In Quest Warrior, we can Deios/Latorvius to increase our chances of finding a Time Warp. Deios also synergizes well with some quest rewards, such as Barnabus and Sulfuras. In Paladin, it is a strong late game card for an Auradin deck post-Gelbin.

The more we think about it, the more we believe that Deios will be a late game mainstay throughout a significant portion of its time in Standard.

Score: 4

Classes: Potentially all of them, but especially Paladin, Priest and Rogue in the immediate term.

Mister Clocksworth

This legendary minion has proven to be a weak card in Standard that has now gotten nerfed due to the Rewind mechanic being too slow. 8 mana 3/3 that summons random garbage. We can do better.

Score: 1

Murozond, Unbounded

The ultimate “if this minion sticks, then we win!” minion. Murozond’s attack value turns to infinity on our next turn, which means our opponent must remove it or lose the game, unless they are brave enough to hide behind taunts.

Realistically, this legendary is too slow to work in most decks. A 9 mana 8/8 takes our whole turn, cannot be played if we are at risk of dying and is vulnerable to any type of removal. Only two decks can circumvent this and turn Murozond into an OTK: Zarimi Priest and Quest Warrior.

In Priest, this requires us to run Ysera and get to 13 or 14 mana. The good news is that it is far easier to execute and requires less combo pieces than the previous Briarspawn Drake plan. We just need to play Murozond and Zarimi. Surround the combo with a defensive dragon shell and it is a feasible game plan.

In Quest Warrior, we can play Murozond alongside Time Warp. However, this is sketchier and slower than the Zarimi plan since we need to complete the quest and find Time Warp. Zarimi Priest can realistically execute the combo on turn 10 (Ysera ramp into Naralex/Murozond/Zarimi). For Warrior, it will take at least a few turns longer.

We respect the Zarimi plan enough to not write this card off.

Score: 2

Classes: Priest, Warrior

 

 

Across the Timeways Summary of Ranks