The Comprehensive Heroes of Starcraft Preview

Photon Cannon

Photon Cannon is a Neutral Protoss Common Spell for 2 Mana and has text - Deal 3 damage. If this kills a minion, your Protoss minions cost (1) less this game.

A plain 2 mana spell with the standard 3 damage. Reducing the cost of Protoss minions should be important in a Protoss deck, but we cannot get the discount if the opponent doesn’t have minions we can kill, unless we want to target our own minions, which we shouldn’t. It can be used as burn, but then it’s just a Dark Bomb with no added text. Sometimes, that’s good enough, especially in Rogue.

Score: 2

Chrono Boost

Chrono Boost is a Neutral Protoss Common Spell for 4 Mana and has text - Draw 2 Protoss cards. Summon a 3/4 Zealot with Charge.

Tutoring 2 cards is easily worth 2 mana, so spending an additional 2 mana on a 3/4 charger sounds good. From every angle you look at Chrono Boost, you see a source of card draw that should become mandatory in Protoss decks. The only possible slight on it is that it doesn’t have the best synergy in a slow deck, which normally wants cheap draw and doesn’t care about a charge minion as much, so it will likely use the Zealot to trade.

Score: 3

Warp Gate

Warp Gate is a Neutral Protoss Common Location for 4 Mana with 3 Health and has text - Your next Protoss minion costs (3) less.

4 mana is a heavy initial investment on doing “nothing”, but Warp Gate’s discount sticks for multiple turns until it is spent on a minion. We could even stack the discounts across two charges on a single minion, summoning a 12 mana Protoss minion on turn 6. This is probably the most important minion discount enabler in the Protoss set, one that also fully discounts Void Ray with one charge. A turn 4 active Void Ray isn’t the worst way to bridge into a turn 6 with the second charge of Warp Gate.

Score: 3

Void Ray

Void Ray is a Neutral Protoss Rare Mech Minion for 3 Mana with 3 Attack, 1 Health and has text - Rush, Divine Shield Battlecry: If this costs (0), gain +2/+2.

A Void Ray that costs mana is weak, but when discounted to 0, it becomes very powerful. A 5-attack divine shield minion helps us knock out a threat while developing our own. It has great synergy in Rogue specifically thanks to Breakdance and Shadowstep. It is also a prime target for Warp Gate, in the case we need an early stabilizing play. Should be a common choice in Protoss decks.

Score: 3

Artanis

Artanis is a Neutral Protoss Legendary Hero for 7 Mana with 30 Health, 5 Armor and has text - Battlecry: Summon two 3/4 Zealots with Charge. Your Protoss minions cost (2) less this game.

This hero card is objectively cracked. Two Zealots are well worth 6 mana, so for 1 extra mana, you add a permanent discount on future Protoss minions, 5 armor and a strong hero power for board control purposes. It’s hard to see decks passing on Artanis. Not only is it a mandatory inclusion in Protoss decks, but we can also see aggressive decks such as Zarimi Priest using it without any further synergy. It’s the Leeroy Jenkins of hero cards.

Score: 4