Blazing Power
A baseline +1/+1 that scales with damaged friendly characters, which includes the hero. So, if you have two damaged characters, it’s already Rampage. We would absolutely run Rampage in Enrage Warrior right now.
Moreover, Blazing Power can keep scaling into an even bigger buff, if you can combo it with a Whirlwind effect. In the early turns, it’s likely weaker than Rampage since it’s harder to utilize as a standalone card. But as you get to the mid-game, it might eclipse Rampage in its finishing potential. A +5/+5 buff is not impossible. Good addition for Enrage.
Score: 3
Light of the Phoenix
Another card that counts friendly characters, which means that if your hero took any sort of damage in the early game, this is already an Arcane Intellect. In Enrage Warrior, this could easily cost 0 mana in combination with a Whirlwind effect. This is the card Enrage Warrior should have gotten last expansion. It’s never too late though.
But as we’ve said, this is an Arcane Intellect in its baseline for slower Warrior decks too, even those that have no self-damage synergies. This leads us to conclude that Light of the Phoenix simply goes everywhere.
Score: 4
Silverfury Stalwart
Occasionally, Warrior gets a random taunt minion that looks neat and ends up seeing no play whatsoever. You can add Stalwart to the list. It has pretty good stats and multiple keywords. Rush, Taunt, and can’t be targeted. It’s not a bad card, it just doesn’t really go anywhere. What are we doing with this and how does this further any game plan of a defensive Warrior deck?
Score: 1
Embers of Strength
Thorngrowth Sentries in a fire spell that scales on turn 6 into double the stats. This works particularly well with Sunfury Champion for a potential Enrage Warrior combo that enables Light of the Phoenix, Blading Power, or Imbued Axe. Cards that are solid at their baseline and then scale later in the game either by themselves or along other pieces are usually valuable commodities. This is also a way to infuse Imbued Axe, which Enrage Warrior often struggles to do.
Score: 3
Last Stand
Occasionally, Warrior gets a random spell that draws and/or buffs a taunt in hand. The numbers are a bit different every time, but they never see play. This seems to be Taunt Warrior’s last stand. It’s a big one. We can tutor Silverfury Stalwart and get a massive 8/16 taunt with rush and the opponent can’t target it! That sounds like a great 4 card package.
So, about those 26 other cards, Blizzard…
Score: 1
Sunfire Smithing
Out of the entire Fire package that Warrior is getting in this set, this might be the weakest card. Not necessarily because Sunfire Smithing is a bad card. It’s a 4/2 weapon for 4 mana that gives a huge buff to a minion in hand. It’s just that Enrage Warrior is never touching another weapon other than Imbued Axe, and we’re unconvinced this outclasses Outrider’s Axe in slow Warrior decks because of Weapons Expert. This should go into the slower Warrior decks post-rotation and enable Forged in Flame, but for now, it might be twiddling its thumbs.
Score: 2
Sunfury Champion
Risky Skipper for fire spells, also known as Crispy Skipper. This is obviously not as good of a card as Risky Skipper since it’s harder to activate, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a great 1-drop in the class. A fire package is already showing great synergy in Enrage Warrior, so it’s only natural to have a cheap enabler of self-damage that can help us prime our board for an Imbued Axe swing, draw cards for no mana with Light of the Phoenix, and buff a minion out of control with Blazing Power. Sunfury Champion accomplishes all of that and more, so we’ll take it.
Score: 3
Disruptive Spellbreaker
Good card for a dead archetype. Spellbreaker is a bit slow as a 5 mana 4/5, but the effect can be very powerful. Discarding an opponent spell right off the bat, and threatening another if it’s not removed, making it essentially have taunt. The single guaranteed discard should be very annoying but losing more cards to Spellbreaker is something that cannot be tolerated.
No issues with the power level here. It’s just not going to be enough to make Control Warrior relevant for other reasons.
Score: 2
Asvedon, the Grandshield
A mini-Murozond, casting a copy of the last spell your opponent played. This card can be very powerful. As a 3 mana 3/3, it doesn’t need to do much to be effective. All that needs to happen is that your opponent plays a non-targeted spell that either builds a board or generates value, and Asvedon becomes a very strong play.
A Druid played Wild Growth. A Rogue played Shroud. A Mage played Arcane Intellect or Cold Case. A Shaman played Wildpaw Caverns. A Priest played Switcheroo. These are just small examples of things you can reasonably copy in the early-to-mid game that provide a significant benefit on top of a 3 mana 3/3, and it can obviously get better later in the game
It feels like a huge sleeper and might be fast enough include in Enrage Warrior. You could argue that it’s too reactive and might be useless when faced with removal, but this is the kind of card that makes your opponent play differently out of fear of being blown out. Something that should be given a shot initially.
Score: 3
Thori’belore
An initial 4 mana 4/4 rush doesn’t seem that great, but it gets a lot better when you can revive it 2 more times with just a single fire spell. That’s a lot of value and pressure for a small deckbuilding cost considering that the fire spells in this set are good and we’re happy to play them.
Thori’belore initially looks like a Control Warrior card because of its incremental value, but Fire spells seem to work better in the more aggressive Enrage Warrior. This gives the archetype some extra longevity and the ability to respond to an opponent’s threat, something it isn’t normally good at it, as it’s mostly focused on snowballing its own board.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts
March of the Lich King Set Rank: 9th
Overall Power Ranking: 9th
We can sum up our feelings on Warrior in two sentences. Enrage Warrior looks awesome. Everything else looks bothersome. That might be the story of this class at the launch of March of the Lich King, and we’ll explain why.
The Fire package is a strong fit for Enrage Warrior. It’s getting a Risky Skipper for Fire spells that allows it to set up its board for Imbued Axe and trigger Anima Extractor. It’s getting amazing card draw. Finally. It’s also getting a Rampage with a lower floor but a higher ceiling.
All those things are going to help the archetype a lot. It’s going to make its early game more consistent but also improve its late game longevity. Instead of a one-dimensional aggressive deck, it might feel more like a two-way deck. We believe that Enrage Warrior is going to take another step forward and establish itself as a respectable competitor.
But Control Warrior will likely remain very dead. Nothing was added to its toolkit that solves its biggest problem, which is winning games. If you think Blood Death Knight has this problem, Control Warrior wishes it had the ability to close out games with the tools at Blood Death Knight’s disposal. It’s a completely different level. A Mutanus for spells doesn’t solve that problem.
The crux of the matter is that Control Warrior does not synergize with Renathal and cannot beat Renathal. It needs a scaling threat, such as those equipped by Spooky Mage and Relic Demon Hunter. Those decks perform well against Renathal decks because they actively kill them. Sitting around and waiting to die to Denathrius is what Control Warrior currently does. It doesn’t work.
Which is why the only way a Frozen Buckler deck can be viable on December 6th is if Charge Warrior gets a major boost from Bonelord Frostwhisper. Warrior might have the best tool at killing its own Bonelord with Shield Slam, so it makes sense to try the card and see whether it can improve redundancy and reduce the need to find ‘To the Front’. Having an Arcane Intellect also helps.
So, there you have it. If you like Enrage Warrior, the prognosis looks good. If you’re a Control Warrior diehard, you may want to play Blood Death Knight instead.
