Cremate
The net cost of Cremate is 1 mana. In theory, this is well worth the unconditional Dark Gift packed into the minion. The downside of Cremate is that it requires a heavy initial investment without developing in the early game, but the potential swing, as early as turn 4, could make up for it. This becomes particularly strong if we discover a 6-drop on turn 3, which we can cheat out early. Alternatively, we can discover a 2-drop and immediately play it. At the later stages of the game, this card becomes worse, as the impact of “cheating” something is lessened.
The card is inherently slow and does not have a strong discover pool, so we suspect Cremate will only be played if we need it to activate Frostburn Matriarch. We think it will compete with Rite of Atrocity. It might be better than the 1 mana spell in a slower deck.
Score: 2
Frostburn Matriarch
5 mana for 12/12 in stats, on top of having a couple of taunts, is a powerful play in the mid-game that can either act as a stabilizer against faster decks, or a pressure card against slower decks. Matriarch’s main cost is the requirement of a Dark Gift package to support it being consistently active on turn 5.
Creature of Madness and Xavius are already strong cards in Death Knight decks, so we suspect they should become core. Rite of Atrocity and Cremate are the other notable options in the class. Raptor Herald and Treacherous Tormentor are a bit more suspect.
We think Death Knight will have to include at least one of those additional cards to get a consistent Matriarch, if not two. Rite of Atrocity might be better in a faster deck. Its undead tag, paired with Matriarch’s dragon tag, is a potential nod to Menagerie Death Knight. Cremate suits a more passive deck, such as Blood-Ctrl Death Knight.
This card is well worth building around, no matter the playstyle, so we think it has a good chance of making an impact.
Score: 3
Volcoross
This legendary is a significant corpse spender that can become a massive taunt/rush minion. However, to maximize the stats of Volcoross, we are required to spend 30 corpses, which is a huge amount that is realistically never happening by turn 8. Even getting to 10 corpses is not that easy to accomplish if we have other corpse spenders in the deck.
If we judge the card by its 10 corpses form, we are not that impressed. A 15/15 with rush and taunt is not that strong for 8 mana. By this point, games against faster decks should already be decided, while slower decks should have single target removal to deal with it at this stage of the game.
Another issue is the awkward rune requirement, which does not fit into current Death Knight decks particularly well. We do not like its anti-synergy with Airlock Breach either. We think this card looks flashy initially, but then we remember how much better Lord Marrowgar was and are turned off. This does not touch Lord Marrowgar in terms of impact and swing potential.
Score: 1
Final Thoughts: Frostburn Matriarch will see plenty of experimentations in different kinds of Death Knight decks, so the class should have something new to try.
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