The Comprehensive Deepholm Preview

Summoning Ward

There’s not much to say about this spell. It’s a secret that doesn’t make us want to play a secret deck, so it’s a waste of time. Fairly easy to play around if it’s known. Mostly relevant for the Reliquary Researcher pool. We think it makes it worse because it lessens the chance for Objection and Counterspell. Big letdown.

Score: 1

Mantle Shaper

A Corridor Creeper that gets discounted by spells while it’s in hand. At 5 mana, this seems quite easy to quickly discount and play early in the game. There’s a bit of tension with Mantle Shaper needing to be in hand, so we’re not sure it just goes into decks without a second thought. There needs to be some support for it, as the deck should be able to consistently play a flurry of spells in the early game, but its potential is obviously very high.

Surprisingly, we think Shaper might make a bigger impact in Hunter initially, since it’s strong with Monkeys and Bananas, while looking like a good fit in Arcane Hunter too. Its utilization in Rainbow Mage could prove to be more difficult, as the deck is not that dense with spells. If Spiteful Siren was still a 4-mana card, then Mantle Shaper would be insane in Naga Mage. We’re not sure it’s good enough to carry a 5-mana Siren, but it’s an interesting proposition.

Obvious build-around card that should become important for both classes eventually.

Score: 4

Elemental Companion

This spell is cool, but we don’t think it’s very good. We’re not convinced it’s any better than the original Animal Companion, which is a card that hasn’t seen constructed play for a long time. Our issue is that Elemental Companion seems worse on curve, with two companions that require something to be played on the turn they’re summoned. This does make Elemental Companion potentially better later in the game, but since none of the summons are reliable, you can never count it. Me’sho is good on turn 3 but gets weaker later. Hiffar and Luekk might be good later in the game but are usually awful on 3.

Mage has no desire to spend 3 mana on a mediocre spell without a spell school, while Hunter has faster cards that impact the game more consistently. We give it a better chance to be played in Hunter, but we think both classes skip it.

The attempt to keep the stats true for the original Animal Companions for flavor reasons might be holding this card back. A 4/3 Hiffar and a 3/4 Luekk would probably make this spell good enough.

Score: 1

Shimmer Shot

This is a very good spell for Arcane Hunter, since it scales incredibly well with spell damage. A single spell damage boost already turns Shimmer Shot into a powerful card. Dealing 2 damage while summoning a random 2-drop is well above the curve for 1-mana, but we suspect that Hunter will be able to boost it further quite often.

The only question is whether interest in the deck will pick back up. We sense some fatigue from the player base regarding Hunter decks from the past year, but if the power level is strong enough, then it has a chance.

Score: 3

Stone Drake

This 6-mana dragon/elemental is quite interesting. The combination of keywords makes it incredibly hard to deal with, especially in faster matchups where it can act as a defensive stabilizer. We wonder if Dragon or Reno Druid would be interested in this card. Even though it’s a low-pressure minion with just 2-attack, it scales hard with Azsharan Gardens and Take to the Skies. Another deck that might be interested is Blackrock N Roll Warrior, since a 6/6 buff on Stone Drake turns it into a massive blockade.

We expect Stone Drake to see fringe play, but despite having no special abilities, it’s very cool design.

Score: 2

Shale Spider

Fairly simple card. A 2 mana 3/2 that draws a card is clearly strong, but the condition means that it’s only good in Elemental decks, which haven’t gotten cards in this mini-set that really make us think they’ll be competitive suddenly. This might be the best neutral Elemental support though, so we’ll give it some credit.

Score: 2

Iridescent Gyreworm

Painfully slow. Horrendous without a board. The deathrattle can still be played around by clearing out other minions first. No immediate impact. No redeeming value. Surely a waste of space.

Score: 1

Therazane

A Lor’themar Theron for Elementals. Therazane works a bit differently. It’s a deathrattle rather than a battlecry and only works on elementals. The upside is that it buffs minions in hand, not just ones in the deck.

We’re still not impressed, because deathrattles are open to very unpleasant counterplay options, such as silence/transform and mind control effects, which are quite popular in the current format (Sylvannas/Yogg/Reska). The fact it has taunt may help it activate more quickly, but it doesn’t prevent these options from ruining your day.

Therazane’s restriction on elementals makes her incredibly limited too. For such a heavy restriction, it’s odd that this card doesn’t clearly outclass Theron even in a dedicated Elemental deck. Elemental decks aren’t known for their staying power, so waiting until turn 7 to drop a 7/5 taunt doesn’t appeal to us either.

Its best chance of seeing play may come in Rogue, thanks to Scourge Illusionist, but Rogue surely has better things to do than playing elementals?

We’re not sure it’s unplayable, but we’re sensing a buff coming to it in the future.

Score: 2

Maruut Stonebinder

An additional neutral highlander payoff. Maruut is far tamer than Reno. You get to discover an Elemental to summon, while the two options in the pool not selected are added to your hand. Decent value, but not of high quality.

We did the math while looking at the Elemental pool for classes. It’s quite likely that you’ll find a beefy elemental boy to summon with Maruut, to make the stat output for 7 mana reasonable. Shaman has some class elementals that are particularly game winning discovers from Maruut.

A more subtle synergy comes from Warrior, since Maruut can be doubled up by Brann, making it far more powerful. In Druid, we can tutor Maruut and play it on 6 mana after a Summer Flowerchild. Ramping generally makes the card better.

Maruut is certainly not a format defining payoff for Highlander decks, but we suspect it’ll be useful enough to see play. It should be a staple in Reno Shaman and Reno Warrior, at least.

Score: 3