The Comprehensive Reign of the Black Empire Preview

 

Darkest Depths

A 1-mana spell that assembles a minion would be a good deal, as it is a high-quality minion that is better than most discover effects. Baking in a couple of small taunts for an extra mana also seems to represent a good deal. We get to generate value while stalling our opponent’s ability to pressure our life total in the early game.

The main issue with this card is that it is a Warlock card. Late-game-oriented Warlock decks these days have a rigid play pattern that involves Life Tapping on turn 2 to increase the size of their hand and set up The Unseen Atlas and subsequently, Spire of Solitude. Darkest Depths involves spending 2 mana and only maintaining hand size. We do not think it suits a Warlock deck that runs Godfrey/Atlas.

It is a possible inclusion in faster Warlock decks since the taunt bodies can be buffed by Floating Lessons or Entropic Continuity, but it is a relatively slow card for a Zoo Warlock deck.

We would be more confident of this spell becoming competitive if it existed in most other classes, but in Warlock, it might be a more difficult inclusion despite its decent effect for the cost.

Score: 2

Ritual of Summoning

Our argument against early-game 2-mana spells in Warlock has its limit. When we get a 2-mana spell that summons 10 health in two taunt bodies by turn 4, it is time to pay attention. This can encourage Warlock to deviate from its normal game plan and survive against pressure.

Ritual of Summoning is a major tool against aggressive decks, one that is fast enough on curve to make a huge impact. Realistically, the Warlock never dies before this Ritual is resolved, so the opponent must get through a major blockade to win the game. This can buy the Warlock enough time to stabilize through other means.

Moreover, Warlock Rituals have a major payoff in the form of Kith’ix, which greatly encourages them to run at least 4 Rituals to consistently activate the legendary. This is comfortably one of the two better ones in this set, so we suspect every resource-focused Warlock deck will be happy to run it. Ubiquitous.

Score: 4

Mindrot Subjugator

Three 4/5’s on turn 5 sound strong on paper, but this is not a buff, but a complete transformation effect. This means that whatever stats we develop with this minion, we need to subtract the stats lost by the minions we transform. Obviously, this makes Subjugator more efficient when we play it in a deck with a large plethora of small minions. It also requires a deck that floods the board aggressively to ensure we have multiple minions in play to set up a consistent turn 5 Subjugator connection.

Subjugator is a very strong payoff for handbuffs. Though Warlock normally does not have robust access to this mechanic, the neutral Unstable Prototype and Floating Lessons are stand-out enablers from this set.

Zoo Warlock has not been competitive for a long time, and it is currently far from the level required to compete. It needs a major power boost to have a chance, and even then, we are not sure it necessarily wants to run Subjugator. It is a good card for a specific type of Zoo Warlock.

Score: 2

Ritual of C’Thun

The cheapest C’Thun enabler and the cheapest Ritual, making it a mandatory inclusion if a deck cares about either. We believe this is the strongest class C’Thun card, as it lets us spend the least amount of mana to fully upgrade the Old God.

But even in a deck that does not run C’Thun, we likely run this Ritual if we want to activate Kith’ix. The C’Thun abilities are great at defending ourselves from early pressure or even putting pressure on the opponent. At this cheap cost, they help us get significantly ahead once they resolve.

1-mana cards also have synergy in a Godfrey/Atlas deck since they become free if they are overdrawn and get re-added to our hand, allowing us to dig deeper into the pool of cards we have overdrawn at the early stages of the game.

This is an easy inclusion in every Warlock deck with late-game aspirations.

Score: 4

Mawman Cultist

A bigger, more expensive and symmetrical Cult Neophyte with a permanent debuff aura if it is in play. Cultist does have some indirect synergies with a couple of spells in the set, but it needs to stand on its own as a card to see competitive play. Increasing the cost of Floating Lessons so it becomes a bigger buff is not a synergy we value highly.

Cultist does not belong in a slow Warlock strategy. It requires us to be the aggressor, as it is mostly good when we disrupt the opponent’s reactive tools when they are trying to deal with our board pressure. When the opponent is not on the back foot, they do not necessarily need to play removal spells and will simply develop a board until they can remove the Cultist. In fact, if we are the ones playing defensively, Cultist hurts us more than it helps us.

In an aggressive deck, Cult Neophyte is just better. It does not mess up our own spellcasting. The debuff persists for the turn even if the Neophyte is removed. It is also cheaper, which gives us more mana to do other things on the same turn. The average game length of an aggressive deck is short, so if we value this effect, we do not need it to persist for multiple turns. We just need to lock out our opponent for one turn to snowball the game.

Considering that Cult Neophyte is hardly a core inclusion in aggressive decks, since it requires a specific field to be powerful, we do not have much faith in Cultist.

Score: 1

Blasphemy

This spell is unacceptable unless it is fully active, in which case, it is a powerful effect. Dealing 4 asymmetrical damage for 4 mana would be a powerful card for any defensive-minded deck. The issue is that these decks simply cannot realistically utilize the spell due to its condition.

No Warlock deck that looks to survive to a late-game plan can reasonably structure its curve without expensive cards that would block Blasphemy.

This leads us to wonder whether an aggressive Warlock deck with a low curve can use it instead. It deals 4 damage to the face and wipes an opponent’s attempt to contest the Warlock. When the AOE is this efficient, asymmetrical, and deals face damage, it is feasible for these strategies. The main problem is that it does not develop pressure and can be a dead draw at the early, crucial stages of the game.

It remains a bit tricky to activate Blasphemy even in prospective Zoo Warlock decks too, as they likely still want to run 5 mana cards. It conflicts with Subjugator and Vaultkeeper but becomes more consistent with Zakajz.

Score: 2

Floating Lessons

At its baseline, Floating Lessons is a 2/2 buff for 1 mana that also buffs a random minion in hand for 2/2. That is a lot of stats for the cost. It has synergy with cards that increase its cost, such as Cultist and Zakajz, since it scales exponentially with its cost.

But considering the numbers on this spell, we may not care about those synergies at all. It is strictly a good early-game buff with immediate impact and consistent value. It scales well into the mid-game, since we can immediately play the minion we buffed in hand alongside it, turning the spell into a 1-mana 4/4 buff with little delay.

Warlock rarely gets access to good buffs, so an aggressive Warlock deck should value it. It helps us activate Unstable Prototype, which we should be interested in, as well as various eggs. If Zoo Warlock comes back, Floating Lessons will see play.

Score: 3

Ritual of Excess

The third and most expensive ritual in the set. Ritual of Excess draws 2 cards and discounts them after 2 turns. The net mana cost is negative, but the effect is significantly delayed, only resolving on turn 5. For a source of card draw, that is extremely slow and may prove to be a luxury.

After all, Warlock does not need more card draw in its toolkit. Godfrey decks like to Life Tap early or play Atlas on 3. Ritual of Excess has anti-synergy with Atlas, as playing it initially reduces the size of our hand. It also becomes much worse later in the game as we are less concerned with filling our hand and more concerned with having useful cards to play. With Atlas, at least we can cast it for free when our hand is full, but casting Ritual means we have less mana to spend on plays that impact the game.

This is also the worst ritual at enabling Kith’ix, since its window to activate Kith’ix on curve is the smallest. Cheap rituals are easier to weave in. Ritual of Excess requires the bulk of our turn.

To activate Kith’ix, we do not think that 6 rituals are required. 4 should be enough. We believe this spell gets skipped as a result.

Score: 1

Zakajz the Corruptor

A bulk discount for minions, no matter where they are, is an effect that should be respected in Hearthstone. The drawback of Zakajz means that slower decks are unlikely to utilize it well, since it messes up their removal toolkit and they do not prioritize pressure. However, proactive decks that contain a high density of minions should benefit from the card.

There are also two spells in this set, which an aggressive Warlock deck may use, that become “better” when their costs are increased: Blasphemy and Floating Lessons.

It is worth noting that Zakajz will probably not drop onto the board alone. Since it turns 1-mana minions into free minions, it is likely that a deck that leverages Zakajz will run many 1-drops, which could accompany Zakajz on the same turn. A 4-mana 5/5 alongside a couple of 1-drops becomes a strong pressure play that can threaten a Vaultkeeper follow-up.

The bottom line is that it is easy to build an aggressive deck that will not suffer much from Zakajz’ drawback. Bulk mana reduction is one of the most powerful effects in Hearthstone and the only way that this card will not be competitive in its time in standard is if Zoo Warlock remains non-existent for the 16 months. We think Zakajz is the kind of card that can make a competitive Zoo Warlock possible.

Score: 4

Kith’ix

A 6-mana 6/6 that casts a Sinister Ritual of choice once we complete one of our own Rituals. There are always the same three options available and all three options resolve after 2 turns. To evaluate this minion, which is initially slow, we must evaluate the impact of these Sinister Rituals.

Ritual of Famine is a huge card advantage swing. Not only does it fill our hand with constructed-level cards, but it can also steal a key win condition from the opponent and gets them closer to fatigue. This is a big chunk of the opponent’s deck. In late-game-oriented matchups, Ritual of Famine looks scary.

Ritual of Subjugation provides a big board swing and possible value. Three legendary minions should make for a sizeable board on average. Legendary minions can be hot or cold, but at 1 mana, they are likely to create a big swing.

Ritual of Conquest massively buffs our minions and turns every single one of them into basically a giant. This affects minions in play too, not just those in hand or deck. This Ritual can single-handedly overwhelm opponents through an absurd level of threat density. It offers a way in which an aggressive deck gains so much value that it can destroy slower opponents that rely on removal to survive.

No matter the Sinister Ritual, these are all legitimate win conditions which can decide different matchups. The requirement to activate Kith’ix is trivial, since we only need to play good cards to make it work. It should be ubiquitous in Warlock.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

Black Empire Set Rank: 4th

Overall Power Ranking: 1st

Our prediction is that the Warlock class will explode at the Black Empire and become one of the strongest classes in the game. It is receiving two major packages that look nuts and tie in with each other: Rituals and C’Thun. What is important to understand about these packages is that they fit both slower and faster Warlock decks. They are entirely versatile as we get to choose which effects are more desirable to us according to the game state.

Rituals are bonkers. They are essentially dormant spells that swing the game when they resolve. They also activate Kith’ix, which is a win condition on the level of an Old God. Sinister Rituals are amazing for any kind of Warlock deck and can cripple different opponents according to their weaknesses.

The C’Thun package is similarly versatile with the class-specific card being a Ritual, so it makes us want to run Kith’ix alongside it. It offers another win condition for slower Warlock decks, while its activators can summon stats or buff the board if we are playing a more aggressive deck. We can also skip the neutral activators and use a C’Thun/Bat Mask combo, enabled by Mother, to OTK opponents.

Overall, Godfrey Warlock decks get a massive injection of power, both in their ability to win late-game matchups with drastically improved inevitability, as well as surviving against aggression, current notable weaknesses in their kits.

It has been dormant for a long time, but this might be the expansion where a Zoo Warlock deck returns to the competitive scene. Boosted by these incredible packages as well as impactful neutrals, the deck can potentially contest early boards while maintaining a shocking amount of inevitability.

Day 1 of the expansion will begin with a ritual. Be prepared.