Has Tourist access to: Death Knight
Cards can be played by: Rogue
Party Fiend
A powerhouse 1-drop. Summoning three 1/1’s on turn 1 is so difficult for the opponent to contest. It makes it very easy for the Warlock (or the Rogue) to dominate early trades and win board. Rogue can even Shadowstep Party Friend and summon five 1/1’s on turn 1, which is a crazy opener in some matchups.
The drawback can be considered an upside in most relevant contexts. Party Fiend should become a staple in Pain Warlock alongside Flame Imp, as well as a crucial activator of Party Planner Vona, especially if we opt for a Pain Rogue playstyle.
Absolute no brainer.
Score: 4
Eat! The! Imp!
Drawing 3 cards for 2 mana is a good deal. The requirement does limit the type of decks we can run the spell, but it should be very effective in any deathrattle deck, where popping minions becomes part of the game plan. We can also, at a pinch, sack a 1/1 from Party Fiend to play this card on curve, though we suspect that any deck that runs ETI will always have plenty of targets for it. The Death Knight set that Warlock has access to does have some incentives to play a deathrattle deck.
Rogue might utilize this card if it goes heavily into a Vona/Deathrattle direction. Its other archetypes have better sources of card draw.
Score: 2
Fearless Flamejuggler
More Pain Warlock support, as if the archetype needed any help! We wouldn’t call this card a surefire home run like Party Fiend though, as Flamejuggler is dependent on strong setup through self-damage effects, while offering stats in play without immediate impact on the board. There’s a chance it’s a bit too awkward to make the cut, but it’s worth testing. Pain Warlock has multiple 1-mana cards (Flame Imp, Party Fiend, Mass Production, Spirit Bomb) that can boost Flamejuggler, while Cursed Souvenir synergizes very well with it. We can see Flamejuggler occasionally spawning as a giant as early as turn 4.
Remember that Blood Treant does not buff Flamejuggler, as it’s not considered a damage effect. That would have been too much.
Score: 3
“Health” Drink
This spell provides a solid amount of removal and healing, which any slower strategy could appreciate. Rogue might consider tapping into the Warlock set just for the sake of running this card in a deck like Cutlass Rogue, as it fuels Cutlass very easily while discounting Smash and Grab, but it might be better off simply running the neutral Drink Server instead.
We’re a bit hesitant to get behind this card in the immediate term, as slower Warlock strategies have received very little support this expansion. Considering that they’ve been unplayable ever since the Wheel of Death nerf, we’re not sure we’re going to see this card shine soon. We don’t like running Health Drink in faster decks. Pain and Insanity Warlock have better ways to recoup health. This card is reliant on an enemy minion being in play, which is often not the case when we’re on our front foot.
Score: 2
Sacrificial Imp
This 3-drop activates its powerful deathrattle only on our turn, so we need to hope it survives and trade it into something (which isn’t easy, as it has 6-health). Alternatively, we sack it on the turn we play it, which can be enabled by a Felfire Bonfire discount.
Sacrificial Imp’s deathrattle is kind of nuts. A 6/6 taunt will more than make up for its initially flimsy body, but we suspect that the card will only be played in a deathrattle-focused deck that can consistently activate it. It’s far too weak if the opponent can kill it on curve.
Chaotic Consumption, ‘Eat! The! Imp!’ and Summoner Darkmarrow are available for Warlock to use in the upcoming format. Darkmarrow is particularly powerful if we can bank a Felfire Bonfire discount and drop a free Imp alongside it, instantly spawning two 6/6 taunts.
Score: 2
Felfire Bonfire
This is a card players might be slightly underestimating in the context of the current set. A spell that deals 4 damage to a minion is worth roughly 2-mana, but most importantly, it should be able to kill any early game threat out there, so its condition should be met quite consistently. Once we do activate it, the bonus offsets the initial cost of Bonfire.
A 3-mana discount on a deathrattle that is banked for future turns is very powerful. This is where players might be fixated on Sacrificial Imp. Sure, it’s nice to be able to play Imp for free, perhaps alongside Darkmarrow to trigger its deathrattle twice. We could also discount Eliza Goreblade and play her alongside Darkmarrow on turn 5.
But we’re here to remind you that Wretched Queen and Enhanced Dreadlord are both deathrattle minions that cost 8 mana. This means that we can Bonfire on 4 and drop one of them as early as turn 5, which is faster than Nemsy can cheat them out. Big Demon Warlock may have flopped during Whizbang, but Felfire Bonfire is a lifeline thrown at the failed package.
Score: 2
Announce Darkness
This card is a funny callback to Renounce Darkness, but a meme that won’t see competitive play. It makes little sense to play this card in Warlock, while Rogue should have much better things to do, including discovering a hero card with its Tourist, if it ever wants to tap into the Warlock set.
Ultimately, this is a waste of space.
Score: 1
Cursed Souvenir
A 3/3 buff for 2 mana is just strong. Once again, self-damage is mostly an upside in the context of Pain Warlock, so we’re not bothered by it at all. What’s interesting to note is that the self-damage activates at the start of your next turn, so while it doesn’t immediately discount Imprisoned Horror, it sets up Flamejuggler very well.
Furthermore, the addition of Party Fiend makes this card much easier to connect on curve. Rogue can discount it with Prep and play it for free, something it will look to do if it opts for the Pain Rogue playstyle.
Should become a threatening pressure point in every matchup. A 1-drop getting a 3/3 buff at such an early stage of the game can make it very difficult for opponents to be able to stabilize.
Score: 3
Party Planner Vona
This is quite the payoff for Pain Warlock. Vona summons an 8/8 Ourobos taunt with a unique deathrattle that attaches itself on a minion in your hand, allowing you to redevelop the giant snake repeatedly, though on a slow churn. Ourobos having taunt is a huge deal, as it doesn’t just offer pressure in slow matchups, where it will shine the most, but it provides protection in faster matchups too. A 6-mana card that produces 12/12 in stats immediately, as well as a big taunt that can’t be ignored.
For Pain Warlock, it is completely trivial to activate Vona on curve. By turn 6, we’re already at the point where we often heal ourselves with INFERNAL! It should have 100% uptime in the deck.
What we’re curious about is Vona’s potential in Rogue. The class has nowhere near the number of self-damage cards that can consistently activate Vona on time, but perhaps equipping a weapon and bumping our face into enemy minions can also do the job. What’s enticing is the possibility of playing Vona on turn 4 with the help of Sea Shill, but that requires a very specific start that involves Party Fiend and Shadowstep. It is quite difficult for Rogue to activate Vona on turn 4.
Rogue’s late game potential with Vona is also interesting. We can run Adaptive Amalgams with the hope of connecting an Ourobos deathrattle on them and fish them out with Pit Stop. We can Shadowstep or Breakdance Vona. Against a slow deck that’s very reliant on removal for survival, it could be an oppressive game plan to deal with, but it is a slow strategy that is very dependent on finding Vona in the first place.
Score: 3
Summoner Darkmarrow
We’ve touched on some of the synergies available to Darkmarrow in the set. Ideally, we play a strong deathrattle minion on turn 3, then run it into something as you develop Darkmarrow on turn 4. Or we could set things up with Felfire Bonfire and play Darkmarrow alongside discounted deathrattle minions, such as Sacrificial Imp or Elize Goreblade.
We will note Warlock’s collaboration with Death Knight does feel a bit lacking. The Death Knight set does not provide much deathrattle synergy that could complement Darkmarrow. On the other hand, we do gain access to burst tools that could offer a lot of off board damage to a deck that’s focused on killing its own minions.
If this collaboration is successful, we expect Darkmarrow to be one of the weaker and more situational cards in the deck, as it is reliant on specific scenarios to be effective. We don’t expect it to be played on turn 4 and live often, which is why its synergy with a turn 5 Game Master Nemsy doesn’t seem that strong.
Score: 2
Final Thoughts
Perils in Paradise Set Rank: 9th
Tourist Synergy Score: C
Overall Power Ranking: 8th
Warlock might end up becoming the worst class at collaboration. The access granted to Rogue looks somewhat questionable, while its own access to Death Knight seems underwhelming. This leaves the class in a peculiar position, where it might rely on a single deck to carry it through, while the rest of its prospects appear relatively grim.
Let’s start with the positive. Pain Warlock is a powerful deck that will receive extremely powerful new cards, including a 1-drop that may become the envy of all other classes.
In a high lethality format, it’s reasonable to assume that Pain Warlock should be able to establish itself as one of, if not, THE premier aggressive deck in the format. Its ability to quickly vomit stats in play in the early game is second to none. It is perfectly capable of applying extreme pressure on “solitaire” strategies. It is no stranger to Cult Neophyte and Speaker Stomper, while possessing a historically strong matchup into Druid.
Indeed, we would not be surprised at all if the deck dominates the early days of the expansion. Our one concern involves over-the-top burst. Pain Warlock tends to leave itself low on health to develop its threats. That may provide an opportunity for some of the new strategies to kill it over-the-top after it develops Molten Giants.
But our relatively low ranking of Warlock is certainly not because we have little faith in Pain Warlock. It’s everything else. Insanity Warlock, for example, relies on its strong matchups against slow and grindy strategies to succeed. If grindy goes out of fashion, it may find itself incapable of keeping up. A Deathrattle Warlock would have to rely on Death Knight’s board-centric influence to succeed, which may lead it to struggle.
Meanwhile, slower strategies are completely dead in Warlock in the current, relatively lower power format. Those strategies are getting little support in this set. The class’ chances of establishing a new defensive strategy, such as Wheel of Death, are near zero. If the nerf to Wheel was reverted today, we would still think it has next to no chance of competing.
It’s either going to be Pain, or painful, for Warlock at launch of Perils.
