The Comprehensive Reign of the Black Empire Preview

 

Elder Word: Flay

Damage to a random enemy is not a reliable source of early-game removal, but this effect is repeated the next time we cast a Shadow spell, which makes it stronger if we have repeated it at a reasonable time frame.

An advantage of this card is its cheap cost, making it a good activator for Blade of the Black Empire, as it lets us spend mana on the same turn doing other things. However, its relatively low impact and the availability of the Imbue package makes us wonder whether Control Priest will opt to include it in a Blade deck or whether this is strictly a good find off random generation.

For a low-curve list that is a bit more aggressive, this may represent 6 damage to the opponent’s face, as they are less likely to have minions in play to contest us if they are playing defensively. We wonder if an aggressive Shadow Priest has a competitive shell behind it, but this is a strong source of damage for it.

Score: 2

Entropic Rift

This spell offers Priest a triple Shadow spell package in one card. For Blade of the Black Empire, this is a decent supportive card that can help us maintain the weapon’s uptime without much effort. Note that the random Shadow spells can be from any class.

While completely random generation degrades the quality of the card pool, Shadow spells are of great quality on average. When we investigated this large pool, we found out that it contains only a small percentage we would be upset to find. Shadow spells lean heavily into removal, so it is likely that we can find some survivability tools when we play Rift. Most of them are cheap too.

We think a deck that wants to support Blade of the Black Empire’s win condition will consider this card. Otherwise, it does not have much of a role.

Score: 2

Elder Word: Manifest

A 5-mana 5/5 with lifesteal is not a great baseline effect, but doubling it should be an impactful, stabilizing play that can also surprisingly pressure opponents. While this mechanic introduced in the Priest set is easier to double trigger on cheap cards, an expensive spell produces a bigger payoff once it is repeated. We should always be able to summon the second dragon by turn 6 with Manifest on curve.

Furthermore, this spell becomes trivial to activate on the same turn in the late game. By simply pairing Manifest alongside a cheap shadow spell, we can summon both 5/5’s instantly.

We like cards that can serve strong roles in both fast and slow matchups. The first 5/5 is already a nuisance on curve for aggressive decks, even if it does not immediately impact the board. Considering the class’ removal toolkit at this point, it is hard to rush Priest down before turn 6. Manifest will matter.

Score: 3

Servant of Zuramat

Silence can be a valuable effect against specific strategies, but fitting in Royal Librarian can be difficult due to its cost and poor stats, so it is not too successful of a feature in competitive decks. Servant is as cheap as it can be for a silence in minion form, only losing the tradeable tag when compared to Librarian. This makes it drastically superior.

We suspect a lot of players overestimate the impact of this card. It undoubtedly provides a low-hanging fruit to counter certain strategies, but it is not as well-rounded of a card as Hex, for example. It will not be utterly ubiquitous, or at least, it should not be considered a core card for Priest strategies.

Its popularity and success will depend on the popularity and success of decks that provide valuable silence targets. If those are common, then Servant could be an influential determinator of matchups in similar veins to Hex. It is a strong tech card, but it is still ultimately a tech card that should not be great in faster matchups.

Score: 3

Elder Word: Foresight

The final Elder Word card, Foresight offers delayed draw with great discount potential. The baseline effect is not impressive but can be considered palatable. While drawing a single card for 3 mana is a bad deal, the discount can offer Priest to cheat out a card early. In addition, Priest can be generally passive in the early game and count on its AOE to swing back the board state, especially with Medivh’s Triumph in the picture.

But once Foresight’s second trigger hits, the card becomes more than worth the cost. In fact, its overall net cost goes negative, helping us get ahead.

While the second trigger condition has a subtle deckbuilding limitation, which is pushing us to run many Shadow spells to activate Foresight early, it is a great source for draw for any deck that has another good reason to do so. In the context of this set, this spell comfortably slots into any deck that utilizes Blade of the Black Empire.

Score: 3

Befuddled Summoner

Probably the most bizarre card in the Priest set. Summoner offers pseudo removal akin to Funhouse Mirror, but the target chosen is random. Funhouse was a playable constructed card with low overall impact, yet it cost 3 mana and it let us choose our target, which meant we could utilize it to guarantee a minion’s removal. Summoner costs 1 more mana and does not provide us with this privilege, with its only advantage being a persistent effect that can technically cast more Funhouse Mirrors if left alone.

The problem is that this minion is not going to be left alone because it has 0 attack. It is a free value trade for everyone. Considering the strong removal toolkit in Priest’s possession, we do not have any idea why we would ever be desperate enough to consider this card. Thoroughly unplayable.

Score: 1

Dark Deacon

Deacon offers a path for a Shadow Priest deck, one that likely runs Blade of the Black Empire, to include a C’Thun package. This does appeal on some level, as it provides an alternative win condition to the deck.

In terms of deckbuilding restriction, Dark Deacon imposes the same limitation that Blade does. It requires a high Shadow spell count to activate it relatively quickly and offer us a way to fend off pressure with C’Thun’s abilities. What Deacon does not offer is a double ability, as seen in Demon Hunter and Shaman, which means C’Thun is slower to fully upgrade. Its advantage is that it is cheaper. However, it probably activates at a similar timing to those cards.

We are not convinced this card is enough to push Priest towards a C’Thun package.  The class’ plethora of removal means it does not need these abilities to survive. Priest may opt to pair Blade with another win condition, which requires less deck slots to support. It can also simply embrace attrition as the best path forward with Blade, in which case, C’Thun would be a luxury.

Score: 2

Mismatcher

An expensive Assemble card, but one that is geared to provide us with a swing card more consistently. We get to choose a cheap minion, then slap an ability of a more expensive minion on top of it. That is the best recipe to produce a blow-out Assemble minion.

Mismatcher’s high cost means we cannot blow out opponents too early. But turn 6 is around the time Priest needs to start swinging back into the game if it has adopted a relatively passive approach until then. Mismatcher can help the class turn the corner, with its taunt body able to stall us into the subsequent Assemble minion.

This card could be a great fit in Control Priest decks. It does not require special synergies to work and offers Priest a more proactive tool to contest an opponent’s pressure. This card is also one reason why we are less enthusiastic about the C’Thun package in Shadow Blade Priest. Mismatcher can offer us swing cards that are more powerful than C’Thun abilities and does not force us to commit 7 deck slots for the privilege.

Score: 3

Blade of the Black Empire

This legendary weapon represents a clock on opponents, something that Priest decks rarely impose. This clock is not a fast one, as it takes a notable number of turns to build up enough fatigue damage that threatens to kill opponents, but this damage has no limit on paper. After around 6 active turns, Blade of the Black Empire turns into a big problem. This means that a turn 3 Blade can kill opponents by turns 10-11, especially if the opponent has not healed much of the damage and the Priest is capable of developing its own minions. Once this weapon is equipped, the opponent must kill the Priest within a specific time frame.

Considering this time frame, we think this weapon best serves defensive Priest decks that would otherwise have no clear “finisher”, attrition decks that rely on completely depleting the opponent of resources strictly to cause them to give up. It gives those decks a better timer and makes them less vulnerable to opponents with lethal win conditions.

The one requirement to make Blade work is a robust Shadow spell package. Imbue generation can help, especially later in the game, but we want Shadow spells that can impact the game past turn 3.

We have one concern with Blade, which is that it cannot be the sole win condition of a deck due to how easy it is to counter, but the fact it needs to be responded to already establishes it as a threat. It is cheap, yet opponents need to spend resources to deal with it. This weapon can alter the dynamic of some Control Priest matchups, so we will respect it.

Score: 4

Zer’Ontu

This card reminds us of Master Oakheart, but it is introduced in a class without ramp and no great targets for its recruiting ability. We looked around for minions that this legendary can summon and provide us with a clear advantage. We were struggling. Is Tar Tyrant going to become meta? We would not bet on it. The 0-attack pool is particularly unworthy of the deckbuilding effort. If the plan involves Befuddled Summoner, we want little to do with it.

Of course, Zer’Ontu can become stronger with the introduction of new targets, but until those arrive, we suspect it will be quickly forgotten. The absence of ramp means the threshold for target quality is high. It is nowhere near that.

Genuinely feels like a throwaway to lower the quality of summoned random 8-drops.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts

Black Empire Set Rank: 6th

Overall Power Ranking: 7th

Priest might have landed on the right path of design. In this set, we are noticing that Team 5 are figuring out what they want to accomplish with Control Priest archetypes. That has been a major design issue for the class for a long time.

This set provides Priest with real inevitability thanks to Blade of the Black Empire. It requires support and it does have counterplay in tech cards, but it can put the opponent in an uncomfortable spot where they cannot wait forever to accumulate the resources required to checkmate the Priest, a common occurrence in the class’ history.

And even if Blade gets dealt with, Priest has received another clear pathway to victory, which is support for C’Thun. In fact, this set encourages the class to pair them together through the Shadow spell school, which means the game is not over if the opponent has a Rustrot Viper.

But we do not think that Priest is only limited to C’Thun. Its ability to prolong the game extremely effectively through removal can suit any of the other Old Gods as well.

The strengthening of the Shadow spell school does one more thing: making it easier for Quest Priest to complete its quest. No longer does it need to accommodate mediocre cards for quest progression. With multiple 1-mana Shadow spells and Holy spells, the process can take off.

There are reasons to be optimistic that Priest’s story this expansion will be about steady progression and setting new late-game rules that will no longer frame it as a sitting duck, waiting to be shot. No, Priest wants to pick up the gun.