Axe of the Forefathers
This weapon essentially has 3 attack, as whatever minion is targeted takes 2 damage from the weapon and then 1 damage from the whirlwind effect. This is important because the difference between 2 attack to 3 attack is massive for early game weapons. Axe should be able to kill most early game minions.
Axe of the Forefathers can be viewed as mini-Swipe with two charges for the same cost. That is an incredible deal if the whirlwind effect can be leveraged to the degree it has a positive effect. For Enrage Warrior, this is a dream weapon, a reincarnated and cheaper Death’s Bite. For slower Warrior decks, it can also work if they are passive in the early game or have some friendly fire synergies.
It does feel like Enrage Warrior’s return is a matter of time thanks to this card.
Score: 3
Fortify
This is a merger of Bash and Shield Slam. We think it is appropriate to compare the card to its components to understand how strong it is.
At its baseline, with no armor available to us, it is a 3 mana Bash. That seems weak, considering that Bash is not even a core card in current Control Warrior decks. However, its damage scales with armor like Shield Slam, so it becomes significantly better than Bash in the late game, where it can kill larger threats when paired with other sources of armor.
If we compare Fortify to Shield Slam, it is weaker in the late game, as it costs three times more mana and is not as efficient at killing larger threats. However, it is better in the early game, when we usually do not have much armor. On turn 3, it can deal with nearly every early game minion, while Shield Slam is significantly weaker with a hero power.
We like Fortify’s versatility. It has a lower ceiling than Bash and Shield Slam in their peak powers, but its floor is higher and steadier than both cards at their worst. Cards that are always useful and scale in the late game are valuable. We think there is a good chance it sees play in future Control Warrior decks.
Score: 3
Windpeak Wyrm
In a dragon dense deck, Wyrm is a 5 mana minion, which is very powerful for what it does. Its combined stats and effects are comfortably worth 7 mana. It can significantly stabilize the Warrior in the mid-game and can even hit face when we need it to. Tidal Revenant was a very similar card that saw play in Control Warrior decks. Although Odyn did give it a big push, it cost 8 mana. A 5 mana mini-version of it looks enticing.
The main question is whether Windspeak Wyrm is a consistent 5-mana minion. For that to be true, we need to run a sizable dragon package. Warrior does have some quality dragons, but we are not convinced it is incentivized to run them just because of the addition of Wyrm. This tribe has failed to make an impact in the class throughout the entirety of the Emerald Dream. It was never even close.
Will this one card make the difference? Probably not.
Score: 1
Latorvian Armorer
If we only look at the unconditional package, it cannot be considered strong. The damage effect is not even worth 1 mana at its baseline, so slapping it on a 3/3 and budgeting it at 3 mana is not impressive on the surface.
However, if Armorer kills the enemy minion it targets, we get a burst of 5 armor. That is a massive amount, especially in the early game. 2 damage does not kill every early game minion in the format, but the effect is crippling when it goes off. We can imagine trying to develop a board against a Warrior as an aggressive deck and getting demolished by this card. Killing our minion, developing a 3/3 and gaining 5 armor we need to punch through sounds oppressive. We might not even want to play a 2 health minion against Warrior, which is a game warping thought.
Later in the game, it becomes easier for us to set up Armorer for the kill, as we can pair it with other removal on the same turn. Armorer is obviously not as good in slower matchups, but this is not why we generally want removal. Warrior, based on this set, just wants to survive. This card does that.
Score: 3
Shellnado
A Reckless Flurry with a ceiling. Shellnado costs 1 more mana and has a damage limit of 5. This might seem terrible on the surface, but Reckless Flurry used to have awkward moments in the late game when it removed too much of our armor when we did not need it to do that much damage to clear the board.
Obviously, Shellnado might not be as strong due to its increased cost, but this is still a powerful board clear for the class that pairs extremely well with Safety Goggles, much like Sanitize did, and can come online as early as turn 4. A turn 6 combo with Shield Block is also available.
The bottom line is that a 5 damage AOE effect for 4 mana is a very good deal. With Shellnado, Hostile Invader and Brawl, it becomes increasingly difficult to dodge AOE effects when you are trying to build a board against Control Warrior. Good luck with that after this card is released.
Score: 3
Story of Sulfuras
This spell is just extremely expensive for what it does. We need to pay 5 mana, then 4 more mana on hero powers, to shoot randomly at an enemy twice for 8 damage. The mana to cost ratio does not seem good (9 mana for 16 damage). For random damage, this needs to be a lot better to be competitive.
We think this spell could have been competitive, without being broken, even at 3 mana. Story of Sulfuras, like many of the stories, does not have ambitions of being competitive. It just wants to tell a story.
Score: 1
Stonecarver
This 2-drop is worth a lot of immediate stats if it has a damaged minion to buff when we play it. Overall, you are looking at 3/6 in total stats, while threatening to continue buffing minions in future turns if it is not removed. As a 2 mana 1/4, it is difficult to kill on curve, as we have experienced when facing Death Knight’s Brittlebone Buccaneer.
The archetype it belongs to has not been competitive for a long time, but Enrage Warrior seems to be getting some support in this set. Anima Extractor had the same stats, with an insane ceiling when paired with Whirlwind effects. Stonecarver does not have the same potential, yet it can snowball games faster without needing as much attention.
Injured Tol’vir, you may have got more left in you.
Score: 3
City Defenses
This is a lot of taunt for 4 mana. We are looking at 12 effective health that the opponent needs to punch through when we play this card.
We generally dislike 0 attack taunts, as they are weak in slow matchups and are too easy to value trade, but in the case of City Defenses, the more you try to trade into them, the more attack they gain. If we are faced with a board of small minions, value trading for the opponent becomes awkward.
While it is possible that a Control Warrior deck runs this spell to stall the game, an Enrage Warrior can take advantage of it better, as Steadfast Security are great targets for self-damage effects such as Eggbasher and Axe of the Forefathers.
If we evaluate City Defenses in the driest way possible, we would be happy to run a single Security as a 2 mana minion, so summoning two copies of them for 4 mana just looks like a good deal that some Warrior decks will be interested in.
Score: 3
Nablya, the Watcher
Nablya has enormous value bomb potential considering the legendary copies every damaged minion we have in play. Add the rush effect given to all the copies, as well as a baseline 5/7 body, and Nablya can represent a massive blow out.
What is difficult about Nablya is the setup. Since it costs 6 mana, there is little room to maneuver self-damage effects on the same turn. The opponent can also play around the card by denying us a board, turning Nablya into a dead card in our hand.
However, there are some ways we can pre-load self-damage effects and make Nablya more consistent. A charge of Sanguine Depths or an equipped Axe of the Forefathers can injure our minions on the turn we play Nablya, without the opportunity for counterplay from the opponent. City Defenses summons high health minions that are difficult to remove and represent prime Nablya targets.
It is also important to note that while the fantasy scenario of copying multiple minions is feasible, it is enough for us to copy a single minion with reasonable size to turn Nablya into a positive play that is well worth the cost.
Nablya is a strong candidate to become a core piece in a new Enrage Warrior deck, should it materialize.
Score: 3
Enter the Lost City
In many ways, this is the most unique quest in the set. While Enter the Lost City encourages us to build a deck that can survive to turn 10, it does not tell us how to accomplish that. There is no specific support, no cards that are indirectly necessary to complete the quest. There is complete freedom in the deckbuilding phase. All we need to do is build a survivability shell however we see fit.
This is the slowest quest in the set. It always completes on turn 10, regardless of the game state. While Standard format has been slower during Emerald Dream compared to most formats in the game’s history, a turn 10 quest means we will not complete it in a high percentage of games. It is irrelevant in all but the slowest matchups.
However, the reward is worth waiting for. Un’Goro quest rewards are ferociously lethal. Even without any support in the deckbuilding phase, a combination of them will absolutely kill opponents. We do not believe it is realistic to outlast 9 quest rewards over the course of a game. While this is clearly a slow clock, this is far more lethal than win conditions that are centered on card advantage. Kil’jaeden is not beating this quest, for example.
What we like about this quest is that it allows Warrior to fully focus on survival, winning faster matchups while knowing that survival alone will take care of business even in slow matchups. The clock is appropriately slow, considering we do not need to work for it whatsoever. It goes well past turn 10, yet it exists, and it will end the game if allowed to.
Even if it may not prove to be the strongest quest in the set, it could prove to be the most popular one. It promotes the type of passive playstyle that a large section of the player base is desperate for. It can also be treated as an optional greed up tech card in any Control Warrior deck going forward, since we do not need to invest more mana or cards to support it.
Whether it wins enough Hearthstone games is a good question, but when it comes to design attractiveness, it has already won.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts
The Lost City of Un’Goro Set Rank: 2nd
Overall Power Ranking: 7th
This is undoubtedly a great set for the Warrior class, one that is necessary to help it catch up to the rest of the format. When it comes to Control Warrior, this set helps re-establish the archetype’s survivability capabilities. In its current state, Control Warrior does not dominate aggressive decks as much as it is perceived to, so an upgrade in its survivability is important for its competitive aspirations.
This set also offers the easiest win condition to execute in the format. Some may write it off, but we think Enter the Lost City is one of the strongest quests in the set. The reason we consider it strong is that it costs 1 mana and requires neither any further mana investment to complete nor imposes any deckbuilding restriction. It is the second cheapest quest, after Paladin’s.
And when it is time to cash in on the quest, it absolutely kills the opponent. It is incredibly difficult to outlast the 9 quest rewards from Journey to Un’Goro. They can combine to OTK the opponent with zero counterplay. So, when facing a Quest Warrior, the opponent is forced to be the one to pressure. There is ample time to do so, but this is a late game clock that Warrior did not have since Odyn and can significantly change matchup dynamics.
Another thing to keep in mind is that any Control Warrior deck in the future can “tech in” the quest for some matchups when it is needed, no matter how it is built. This is partly why we rate the card highly and cannot see it ignored in competitive play. We will have to see whether Control Warrior will go all-in on the quest, using the other 29 cards to turtle up, or whether it will act as a secondary win condition.
Enrage Warrior has also received high impact support in this set. It is unclear whether it is quite enough to compete, but Axe of the Forefathers is guaranteed to be one of the archetype’s best cards when it does eventually appear.
We are carefully optimistic about Warrior’s ascension from a fringe player in the format. The most important thing might be the boost in popularity it will receive. We know Hearthstone players well after years of following their tendencies. They will milk Enter the Lost City for all its worth.
Be the first to comment