The Comprehensive Rise of Shadows Preview

Evil Conscriptor

A lackey generator is never bad, but this might be the weakest one printed, since receiving the lackey is delayed via the deathrattle. Nevertheless, it’s a solid body for 2 mana that produces good value. The question becomes whether Priest can justify playing this card when it doesn’t have inherent synergies with lackeys. Time will tell.

Score: 2

Unsleeping Soul

Silence Priest is back on the menu, and this card is one of the best delicacies listed. This card is both a silence effect and a Faceless Manipulator. It pays for itself in terms of value and tempo even when the target is just an Ancient Watcher, and things become truly scary once we enter Arcane Watcher territory. Terrific card that makes every minion you play a threat even before it’s silenced. The only issue with this card is its narrow use. You probably wouldn’t play this in any other archetype, so if Silence Priest falls flat, so does this card.

Score: 3

Hench-Clan Shadequill

The fat Zombie Chow. This is another excellent card to play in Silence Priest, but unlike Unsleeping Soul, you should probably play it in every Priest deck. The drawback is hardly relevant in slower Priest decks, and it gives you a strong body to contest the board with, something Priest should appreciate. We’re feeling the return of Injured Blademaster, Circle of Healing and Auchenai Soulpriest with this card.

Score: 4

Forbidden Words

Good removal card that plugs a gap in Priest’s removal hole and is much more versatile than Shadow Word: Pain or Shadow Word: Death. The problem with the card is that it will likely take up your whole turn to remove a threat, so Priest decks that are focused on initiative may not want this card. Control Priest? Yes please.

Score: 3

Convincing Infiltrator

This card synergizes with both resurrection and deathrattle mechanics. The problem with this card is that it pays a heavy price for its ability with a very underwhelming body. In a dedicated deathrattle deck, you will want this card, but it’s hard sell for anything else.

Score: 2

Mass Resurrection

There was some outrage when this card was revealed, as many amongst the player base is sick of facing resurrection mechanics. After Big Priest, Gallery Priest and Wall Priest, there is some player fatigue involved. We wouldn’t fret too much about it, because this card is a much worse version of Diamond Spellstone in a world where Priest can’t cheat out threats and resurrect them early. It’s interesting that you can resurrect multiple copies of the same minion, but a specific way to abuse it with the upcoming card pool doesn’t stand out. Might be relevant in a deathrattle or “wall” deck.

Score: 2

Lazul’s Scheme

Cabal Shadow’s Priest best friend, this card allows us to Mind Control minions as early as turn 6. The drawback is that the card is quite slow to upgrade, so it might not be ready by the time we would like to use it. It also works well with Forbidden Words if we want to cheat out removal and sacrifice a 2 for 1 exchange for tempo. Priest has always appreciated cards that manipulate attack values, so Lazul’s Scheme will probably find a home.

Score: 3

Shadowy Figure

2-mana Prince Taldaram for deathrattle minions. Narrow application cards such as Shadowy Figure are harder to predict because their appearance is entirely dependent on whether their dedicated archetype pans out. We’re not too enamored with Deathrattle Priest decks, so we’re giving this card a modest score.

Score: 2

Madam Lazul

3 mana 3/2 discover a card is already good, but the fact this card shows you the contents of your opponent’s hand makes it even more valuable. This is a staple in every Priest deck that can afford to run it without clashing with deck building restrictions. A Control Priest’s dream and a far better card than Chameleos. In faster matchups, you can pick up a cheap card that can help you fight for the board. In slower matchups, you can get a high value card or pick the right moment when you’re most interested to spy or fish a card from on your opponent.

Score: 4

Catrina Muerta

Catrina is a strong card that can be played in many Priest decks. A person that looks at this card might be too fixated on a resurrection deck, but the fact is that any reasonable body that spawns from Catrina should pay for itself. As a 6/8, we only need to resurrect a 3-drop to make the investment worth it, though we would obviously like bigger bodies. The key advantage of Catrina is that she’s a recurring threat that will continue to produce value if left alone, and she can also resurrect herself.

Score: 3


Final Thoughts

Year of the Raven Sets Rank: 9th

Rise of Shadows Set Rank: 3rd

Overall Power Ranking: 6th

Priest fans might be able to breath out a sigh of relief, as Rise of Shadows has brought out a set of cards that plug major holes in the class’ evergreen kit. While the class may struggle to close out games without Shadow Visions, it got some interesting tools that could push it in a more proactive direction. Without Psychic Scream, it will need to fight harder for the board, so be prepared for Priest decks that are very different from the ones we currently see.

 

 

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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