The Comprehensive Rise of Shadows Preview

Improve Morale

The cheapest lackey generator with the weakest effect, but one that is relevant for Warrior decks that are interested in Execute and Smolderthorn Lancer. Also has obvious synergy with Acolyte of Pain. Not an astounding card but does the job.

Score: 2

Vicious Scraphound

Weak. There’s no reason to put this card in your deck. Control Warrior doesn’t want anything to do with this, and the stats are too weak for faster Warrior variant. Pack filler in a class card, and boring too.

Score: 1

Dr. Boom’s Scheme

This might be one of the worst cards of all time. We need this to stay in our hand for 11 turns and then it’s still a strictly worse Branching Paths. Absolutely useless car crash of a card. Feels like its initial design was different and there was a last-minute panic change.

Score: 1

Sweeping Strikes

We generally don’t want to run cards that require a minion on the board to not be dead. We need a minion on the board to survive until our turn is up. We need it to have a strong enough attack value, and we need it to be able to clear multiple minions of the opponent. To conclude, we need too much to happen for this card to be useful.

Score: 1

Clockwork Goblin

This is a much better card than Seaforium Bomber because of its cheaper cost, making it less of a burden to put it in our deck. Still, the main attraction of Clockwork Goblin is to fuel the new Blastmaster Boom, so it’s hard to say whether it will be worth it. Many have talked about a Control Warrior deck utilizing the bombs, but we think a faster Warrior deck has a far better chance of fitting this package successfully.

Score: 2  

Dimensional Ripper

This is a 10-mana spell that doesn’t win the game when it’s played. We’re looking forward to summoning the Ancient One in Wild, but outside of memes, this card is pretty much unplayable for constructed. 10-mana spells that encourage us to run more 10-mana cards are not very good.

Score: 1

Wrenchcalibur

This is a weak weapon on the surface but very crucial for the Bomb package, so if Blastmaster Boom ends up being as strong as we think it might be, playing Wrenchcalibur will be a necessary evil. This weapon might be expensive, but it represents a lot of damage and inevitability.

Score: 2

Omega Devastator

A Mechanical Yeti that turns up the heat on turn 10. This might be enticing for a removal heavy Control Warrior deck, but a full Dragon shell will probably not use this due to the availability of Lancers and Roasters. Will see play if fatigue is a viable win condition. Great to pick up off Omega Assembly.

Score: 2

Blastmaster Boom

Very powerful card only questioned by the package that supports it. Dr. Boom was one of the strongest cards in the game’s history, and this has potential to become even more oppressive with multiple bombs. The amount of damage and board tension generated by Blastmaster Boom can be obscene, so we cannot rule out its success. In our opinion, it will be best used in a Rush Warrior deck to improve its ability to close out games, as Blastmaster Boom is a tempo card at its core rather than a natural fit in a reactive control deck.

Score: 3

The Boom Reaver

A 10-mana card that just doesn’t do enough to justify ever playing. Together with Dimensional Ripper, it encourages us to play a “Big Warrior” deck, but this archetype has failed to establish itself in the meta even with stronger cards such as Gather Your Party and Woecleaver. Nothing about Big Warrior in Rise of Shadows makes us believe that this could work.

Score: 1


Final Thoughts

Year of the Raven Sets Rank: 2nd

Rise of Shadows Set Rank: 8th

Overall Power Ranking: 5th

Warrior’s Rise of Shadows set is very underwhelming, and we’re probably less harsh on it than most people since we still believe in Blastmaster Boom and the bomb package. Luckily for Warrior, its Year of the Raven sets are so strong that it can likely afford not to use any cards from Rise of Shadows and still be successful. Rush Warrior’s early game strength is terrific, and Control Warrior’s late game looks much stronger in the absence of Year of the Mammoth cards. Garrosh should be safe.

 

 

16 Comments

  1. How long do we have to wait before we can make fun of them for whiffing on all the Bomb/Mech/Alysiana cards?

  2. I have a few disagreements
    – Jepetto is completely overhyped and I’m surprised you too fell for it. Everybody seems to forget that one must draw AND PLAY Jepetto BEFORE drawing the minions required for an OTK, otherwise it just falls flat. Tog’s Schema can make Jepetto more consistent. You can cast Tog Scheme on Malygos and then draw two 1-mana Malygoses with Jepetto, which sounds good in theory but is actually worse than Kobold Illusionist + Necrium stuff (not to mention Rogue loses the petals…). If 2018 Maly Rogue wasn’t competitive, 2019 Jepetto Maly Rogue won’t be either.

    – Implock is bad, but imo not totally unplayable. It could fill Odd Paladin’s niche as the hyperswarmy deck. It won’t break the meta but can carve a spot into tier 3 imo.

    – Fiery War Axe and Totem Golem are good cards, but they require you to play a Secret on turn 1…but a true aggro deck want to play a minion on turn 1, not a defensive card! Totem Golem is bused when it follows a Tunnel Trogg, not so much when it follows a Never Surrender. Also, Paladin has no way to refill its hand.

    Besides that, I agree with most of your analysis. Very nice job, and very funny to read too. I too would like to marry Waifu Innkeeper 🙂

  3. Yeah you are pulling a caverns below reveal with the Portal demons, a.k.a massively understimating them

  4. Always fun to see predictions that turn out really bad. There is some lack of vision on some of this predictions but overall they seem spot on

  5. “Barista Lynchen” seems like a great card. Until you watch her reveal video. She actually copies “other battlecry minions you control”. So you need to have minion survive for this to be relevant, so fuck this, this seems 2 at best mostly for the steampunk espresso machine.

    Another one is “Exotic Mountseller”. Compare it to auctioneer, for instance. Greedy goblin friend provides card advantage to win the game. This provides board advantage (for 1 more mana and 5 more stats). Violet teacher is reasonable comparisson, but board of 1/1s does not win games without buffs. Board of 3/3 (on average) just might. It is at least 2 for me in the right class and deck, maybe even 3.

  6. Kudos on a fantastic piece of work! I particularly like the fact that you prepared it without previously having seen other set reviews. I’ve seen several, now, and value your unique perspective. It’s thorough and thoughtful, and I appreciate your focus on each card’s relevancy with respect to ladder-play, as opposed to stream & meme or pro-tournaments. Much appreciated!

  7. I really like the choice y’all made to do ratings out of 4, and how you’re very straightforward with your reasoning/explanations. Definitely the best comprehensive set review I’ve seen.
    I’m skeptical as to whether Waggle Pick really is better than Necrium Blade (even without synergies) in a Raiding Party deck. If you play Pick + Corsair on 4 and attack, then when you attack the next turn and return Corsair to your hand, you lose all the tempo you got playing it for free last turn. I think the deathrattle is really bad when it hits most of that deck and you’d rather just play a 3 mana 3/2 weapon that doesn’t mess up your gameplan. Now if the best Rogue deck winds up being a Lackey/Heistbaron Toggwaggle deck that just runs Raiding Party for consistency/thinning, then maybe you have enough targets that don’t make you sad for this to be better.
    Can’t wait to see what you have to say as we get into the upcoming meta. Cheers

  8. Thank you for all the hard work you put into your content guys! I haven’t played hearthstone competetively for a few months now, but I still enjoy everything you put out, it always gets me hyped to try new things in the game

  9. Plot twist can enable a mechathun otk but it doesnt seem like there will be enough good controlock cards until future expansions.

    Evil genius might be underrated. 2 mana add two random lackeys to your hand seems good so as long as you hit a 2/2 (maybe even a 2/3) or worse it might be worth it.

    Darkest hour might be for a wild deck with voidcaller, lackey, and eggs? Maybe they’re trying to push a deck with spells that summon small minions like scheme (lol) to sac and recruit the big ones from your deck?

  10. Will you do a pre-release poll? It’s a nice tradition, and it would be a shame to have it stopped.

  11. Man this article is a dream come true coming from you guys. And excellent read, I can’t wait for the next article! I certainly hope this become tradition, because this is some seriously quality content!

  12. Archivist can counter bombs, probably a decent pick in specialist alternative decks.

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