Path of Arthas: Rares
Blood Tap
This card very much reminds us of Conditioning. Its activated ability is quite likely to be available by turn 5 or even earlier, so it compares quite favorably to the Warrior spell. Handbuff Blood support doesn’t seem to be entirely fleshed out, so we’re not sure whether this card will immediately see play, but if the archetype ever becomes competitive, Blood Tap should be one of its best performers.
Score: 2
Deathchiller
The ceiling of this card is incredible, and its only possible limitation is the number of available spells. Horn of Winter is an amazing enabler for it. It’s important to note that Deathchiller is not exactly a 2-mana Flamewaker. It cannot hit the same enemy twice with one trigger, so if the opponent has an empty board, Deathchiller will only hit face once. This prevents the card from being absolutely broken. It’s still a great card that Frost Death Knights will likely use to control the board and set up swing turns in their favor.
Score: 4
Hematurge
A 2 mana 2/3 that discovers a card is very strong, and the corpse requirement is very low. Hematurge basically pays for itself since it gives back a corpse when it dies. It might be a little hard to activate it on turn 2, but Blood Death Knights should have time to make use of it. It’s basically guaranteed to discover a card you’d put in your deck if you’re running a defensive Blood deck. Should be a staple in these decks.
Score: 3
Vicious Bloodworm
This card seems very weak. It theoretically belongs in a handbuff Blood deck, but cards that only buff a single minion in hand aren’t as impactful. It also buffs attack rather than health, which is the worse stat of the two. It’s a Bloodfen Raptor with a small upside. We don’t think this even goes into the deck it’s supposed to go into.
Score: 1
Unholy Frenzy
Devouring Swarm that resurrects any of your minions that die at the end of an effect. Works well with Reborn minions as well as Deathrattles. It can also potentially give you a lot of free corpses. Devouring Swarm costs 0 mana and ‘shouldn’t’ see play, considering it’s been consistently a bait card in every deck that has played it, including Beast Hunter with Imported Tarantula. We don’t have much faith in Unholy Frenzy considering it costs 3 mana.
The problem with these cards is that they excel when you’re ahead on the board and are far less powerful when you’re behind. In the case of Swarm, it’s far easier to use as a comeback card, and yet it still doesn’t deliver strong results in this role. If Unholy Death Knight is ahead on the board and faces a single big minion, it’s just going to cast Grave Strength and go face.
Score: 1
Tomb Guardians
This is one of the best Unholy cards of the Death Knight set, on par with Army of the Dead in terms of impact. For 4 mana and 4 corpses, we’re getting a couple of 2/2’s with both Reborn and Taunt. That’s 6 health in taunt across 4 different bodies. This is possibly a stronger card than a 5 mana Giggling inventor. Almost impossible to get through this in an efficient way and should completely blockade aggressive decks from getting any glimpse of our face.
This card also pays for itself in corpses, since we’re producing 4 bodies that leave behind a corpse (they’re not ‘risen). So, we could play this on turn 4, have our opponent try to clear it out with the investment of multiple cards, and we could still have enough corpses to play Army of the Dead on 5 and possibly a 0 mana Stitched Giant. Good luck dealing with that.
Score: 4
Corpse Bride
A very significant corpse payoff. Though it possesses no rune requirement, it can be strongly considered an Unholy card as it is the only archetype that may have the corpse generation to consistently support it. This could seem like an unlikely scenario, but a 12/12 in stats on turn 5 is certainly an appealing prospect with Plagued Grain and Meat Grinder as potential enablers.
What’s more appealing is the prospect of slapping a Stitched Giant on the same turn, as Corpse Bride is the best discount tool for what is likely to be a meta defining threat for Unholy Death Knights. Corpse Bride requires some specific deck building adjustments, but its potential ceiling is quite high in an archetype swimming in corpses. We can’t ignore it.
Score: 3
Marrow Manipulator
Potentially a 6 mana 5/5 that deals 10 damage. This is a massive corpse payoff that is cleverly put in the archetype that may have the greatest struggles in generating corpses. Frost isn’t very good at swarming boards, but this card makes us look differently at a 5-drop like Rime Sculptor. Considering the ceiling of Manipulator and Frost Death Knight’s damage-based win conditions, we should absolutely care about our corpse count to fit this card in. It’s way too good in both fast and slow matchups, and it’s way too good in both fast Frost decks and slower ones, to be skipped over. You either Pyroblast an opponent in the face or completely wreck their board, on turn 6, while developing a 5/5. Insane.
Score: 4
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