The Comprehensive Embers of the World Tree Preview

 

Inferno Herald

This card is horrendously slow for any type of constructed format, especially in the absence of Aqua Archivist. We are required to spend 4 mana on a 3/6, then spend mana on a fire spell, generate a random elemental of questionable impact and hope it helps us make up for the investment. Mage has no access to mana acceleration tools that can turn Inferno Herald into a board swing engine at an early enough stage of the game.

For this card to see play, Mage needs to receive a crazy elemental set in the next expansion. A big picture card that may not ever reveal the big picture.

Score: 1

Smoldering Grove

A 2 mana spell that draws 2 cards is already good, so Smoldering Grove needs to sit a single turn in our hand to become powerful, which is an acceptable price to pay. If we keep it in hand for two turns, Grove becomes exceptionally powerful. 2 mana to draw 3 was deck warping in the past.

The only drawback of Grove is that it discards if we do not play when it upgrades for the second time. However, if it sits in our hand for three turns, it likely means we do not need to play it to win the game. In a way, it is a card that is weaker only when the game state is favorable to us and we have plenty of resources in hand.

We suspect this card draw effect will be a strong option for a variety of Mage decks, considering it does not require any special synergy to leverage.

Score: 3

Scorching Winds

6 damage for 3 mana is good, making Scorching Winds a stronger Fireball, but the discard requirement tilts the spell’s direction heavily towards aggression. This card should be decent in an aggressive Mage deck that needs burn, as discarding cards is less of a drawback when we are looking to finish games quickly.

However, most fire spells in the Mage class are burn spells themselves, so we are most likely discarding burn for the sake of frontloading damage. This might not prove to be worthwhile against decks with strong sustain.

We can envision this spell seeing play in a Fire Elemental deck with Saruun, as Scorching Winds works like Molten Rune in doubling spell damage effects, but we cannot see this archetype emerging without significant support in a future expansion.

Score: 2

Final Thoughts: This set mostly hints that Mage’s Un’Goro set this summer will focus on elementals. The class will be happy to add Smoldering Grove to its current strategies for now.