The Comprehensive Deepholm Preview

Deepminer Brann

Brann might be one of the most impactful cards in a strong mini-set. It highly incentivizes Warrior to run a Reno deck with the promise of a powerful late game centered on doubling every battlecry in the deck. This is a permanent aura Brann that the opponent cannot remove once it’s played. A 6 mana 2/4 is essentially skipping a turn, but if the Warrior isn’t immediately punished for it, then it’s likely to get that mana back with interest.

Note that Brann doesn’t work with Odyn. It used to, but Team 5 changed the interaction not too long ago, likely because Brann was coming. Nevertheless, Reno Warrior may not mind, choosing to go minion dense, rather than armor dense.

The impact of doubling up battlecries for the rest of the game is something that may only be fully appreciated once it’s seen in live action. There are so many battlecries available in the game, and so many of them become crazy good in a Brann world. An innocent School Teacher. Astalor. Tidal Revenant. Boomboss Tho’grun (this does turn off Reno, though). Maruut Stonebinder. The list goes on and on. It will be very easy for Reno Warrior to complete a list of 30 cards and feel very good about going to the late game against any deck. The only question is whether Warrior will maintain enough survivability to fend off pressure before it turns the corner with Brann and Reno.

Potentially format defining.

Score: 4

Burning Heart

It’s clear that Burning Heart needs to trigger to be useful, as its baseline 2 damage to a minion for 1 mana is unacceptable. The extra 3-attack on your hero makes it quite strong, so it’s all about whether the condition is easy enough to trigger.

Ironically, Burning Heart might have been a better card if it only dealt 1 damage, since it’d become much better to use on your own minions. Instead, the 2-damage threshold puts it in an awkward place where it’s not a great removal tool, nor is it a good Enrage activator.

The other perspective is to say that we just never care about its removal utility. We only care about its 3 damage for 1 mana. This is an aggressive card that we’ll just play on any of the opponent’s minions, regardless of synergies or the game state, just to smack our opponent in the head with the damage. Alternatively, this spell can clear a 5-health minion for 1 mana, provided our health total affords us to take the hit.

This card is okay. It’s a bit conditional for an aggressive deck, while being slightly awkward for a slower deck that looks for more proper setups.

Score: 2

Crimson Expanse

Every time we look at this location, we take another glance at Forge of Wills and can’t help but feel underwhelmed. Crimson Expanse costs 1 more mana, requires a damaged minion, with the slightly increased flexibility of being able to copy enemy minions. It summons a copy of the target minion, but that copy goes dormant for one turn.

Even if we play location on curve and have a perfect follow-up on turn 5 with a damaged minion, the location may only impact the game on turn 6. That’s extremely slow. If the copied minion doesn’t have rush, taunt, or a static ability, then you’re looking at turn 7 as the point in which spending 4 mana on Crimson Expanse starts to matter.

Adding dormancy also means that charge minions are far less enticing to copy. It seems that Crimson Expanse was balanced around charge minions that are available to Warrior, but the extra caution led to a power level that’s likely to make it irrelevant.

Score: 1

Fel Fissure

The “standard” 2 damage symmetrical AOE costs around 3 mana, which is barely good enough for constructed, so we should ask ourselves whether it’s worth spending 1 extra mana for a delayed, second AOE wave. This type of delayed AOE has already existed in Demon Hunter before (Sigil of Flame, which is better) and didn’t have a great impact.

The reason is that telegraphed AOE’s lose a lot of value when they’re… telegraphed. The other problem is that our ability to develop a board is also hampered. Fel Fissure can only fit a deck that’s extremely passive in the early game, which is hard to find in the class. We doubt that even Big DH would want to play it. It doesn’t move the needle for Reno DH either.

Score: 1

Shadestone Skulker

It’s important to note that Skulker takes your weapon in its current state and returns it in the same state. It does not return the weapon with its full durability charges. It doesn’t work like Doomerang.

Skulker may cost 1 mana, but it’s certainly not a 1-drop. It’s a minion you play later in the game when you have a weapon equipped. Skulker’s rush keyword means you can use it to run into an enemy minion and immediately get your weapon back, so it doesn’t necessarily deny you a swing. If you have a Magnifying Glaive up, for example, Skulker turns into a 4-attack rush minion for 1 mana. It’s a bit of a weird card that requires specific support, but we don’t hate it. Our only issue is that it’s useless if you haven’t drawn your weapon. Likely better in Demon Hunter than Rogue.

Score: 2

Quick Pick

A 2-mana spell that does nothing besides drawing 2 cards is decent enough. Quick Pick is a small weapon put on top of that effect, with the only drawback being that you don’t get to draw those 2 cards immediately.

This weapon would be a guaranteed inclusion for many classes looking for card draw. Ironically, it’s weakest in Rogue and Demon Hunter, only because of the abundance of draw options already available to them. This card doesn’t go into Excavate Rogue, for example, since the deck has major hand space issues to the point many of its builds dropped the Concoction package. It wouldn’t fit a Demon Hunter deck running Magnifying Glaive either.

But it’s hard to write this card off just because some existing archetypes wouldn’t play it. Quick Pick is a very low hanging fruit for increased deck consistency, so we’re sure that it will find its way to a competitive deck eventually. The draw rate for the cost is just too good.

Score: 3

Fool’s Gold

Yet another random value generator for the “Thief” archetype. Fool’s Gold generates two minions from other classes for 1 mana: A Pirate and an Elemental. The Elemental pool is all over the place, while the Pirate pool is quite narrow with just a few Warrior minions. None of them are particularly strong.

We don’t think Rogue wants to play this card. The class has so many better things to do. If it’s ever in a position where it needs to play Fool’s Gold, the class is likely in trouble. This spell screams mediocrity. It doesn’t have any enticing synergies. It’s just there to fill space.

Score: 1

Hidden Gem

A 2 mana 2/2 stealth that heals at the end of the turn might be useful to an Overheal Priest deck. You can keep it hidden and have it trigger overheal effects every turn. The problem is that this archetype is so far away from being competitive that it’s hard to see Hidden Gem being the difference maker.

For Rogue, we don’t think it does enough. The class doesn’t often flood the board to the point where the healing gets value, while the volume of healing for your hero isn’t quite strong enough to turn it into a legitimate sustain option in the class. There’s always a better card to play.

Score: 1

Shadow Word: Steal

While the wording on this card is a bit awkward (why is it “returning?”), it’s easy to understand. The target minion gets ‘yoinked’ to your hand, without triggering any deathrattle or reborn effects.

This spell combines the effects of Séance and Life Sentence for 5 mana. It cleanly removes an enemy minion in play, while “copying” it to your hand. The card may seem slow on the surface, but its cost is quite reasonable for the effect.

We like this card more in Priest than in Rogue. For Rogue, this is very slow, with the potential synergy with Tess Greymane looking overly optimistic. For a Reno Priest deck, this is a serviceable removal card that might prove to be irritatingly strong in Reno mirrors, since you can yoink a highlander payoff from an opponent and play it yourself.

Tram Heist is seeing some fringe play in Reno Priest currently, but this is a far better card. We think SW: Steal is guaranteed to see play, just because Priest players can’t stay away from effects like this. Whether it’s genuinely strong is another story.

Score: 2