Shadowflame Suffusion
This is one of the stronger Dark Gift generators, as it also helps us respond to the opponent’s threats. Dealing 3 damage is worth 2 mana, which can deal with most early game minions in the format. The damage can also go face, which makes the card playable even when the opponent does not have a board and we need to generate a Dark Gift minion on turn 3. This is important because Suffusion curves into Dragon Turtle.
The discover pool is of high quality, as class minions are significantly better than ‘any’ minion. If Dragon Turtle is strong enough, which it appears to be, then Suffusion should be a very good enabler for it, as it is a solid standalone card by itself.
Score: 3
Dragon Turtle
This minion packs a lot of value into it. The 6 armor helps us stabilize, while the 3 attack buff on our hero helps us remove an early game threat. These effects, when calculated together, should be worth at least 2 mana. When you add the 3/6, this 4 mana package sounds powerful.
Warrior currently has a genuine problem of dealing with early game snowballing, so the addition of Shadowflame Suffusion and Dragon Turtle provide it with new tools to stabilize against aggression. Dragon Turtle is a double tribal minion that activates Darkrider, one of its enablers, and can get drawn consistently by All You Can Eat.
It is not the best fit in a deck with Succumb to Madness, but we likely do not care. We would rather build around a Dark Gift early game package and rely on other synergies to win the late game. This is a serious building block for Control Warrior decks going forward.
Score: 3
Keeper of Flame
One of the more evocative cards in the set, Keeper of Flame packs a massive and unconditional handbuff effect, without being terribly undersized either. To compare, Keeper of Flame provides a bigger, less restrictive, and a more instant Handbuff effect than a (non-mini) Amateur Puppeteer.
The drawback effect is the price to pay for such a high value card, but this drawback can easily be built around, as three turns is a very long time in Hearthstone. If we build a deck with a low curve, even running cheap minions like Wisp, we can dump our hand quickly following a Keeper of Flame and overwhelm the opponent for the following three turns.
This strategy needs to be completely novel, but this is the type of card that creates a new one. Warrior does have plenty of strong tutor effects that can help us fill our hands with minions before playing Keeper. An interesting build-around card to watch out for that we believe can have success at some point in the future.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts: Plenty of room for optimism and excitement here. Control Warrior’s early game gets a lot better, and it might be able to establish a more consistent survivability shell surrounding Dragon Turtle. Keeper of Flame should encourage some wacky experimentations with Handbuff Warrior decks that are very different from what we are used to.
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