The Comprehensive The Lost City of Un’Goro Preview

Crypt Map

Frost rune cards make up a pool for highly varied cards with different costs and effects. While we are likely to find a cheap card to play immediately and get to discover twice, there is no such guarantee, as there is in other maps. For the card to be consistent, we need to play it at a later stage of the game.

We further are not sure where Crypt Map belongs. Its restrictive rune requirement means it can only be played by Frost decks, but Frost decks are currently aggressively slanted. Cheap discover cards can always find a home, but Crypt Map does not strike us as a particularly powerful option.

If Frost decks are looking for some late game value, then Crypt Map offers a discover 2 cards for 1 mana that can give them the extra juice required to finish the game. Otherwise, it is nothing special.

Score: 2

Reluctant Wrangler

Wrangler has the smallest initial body, but its total number of stats and corpses is big for a 3-drop, once its reborn and deathrattles are resolved. A couple of 2/2 taunts and 1/1’s are comfortably worth the 3 mana investment, so it is all about whether the initial sacrifice in initiative can be accommodated.

Since it is a 3-drop, it is likely that a Wrangler played on curve will summon all its stats in the average Hearthstone game. The taunt bodies are important for aggressive matchups, as they cannot be ignored. Its stickiness might also be valuable when played by aggressive decks. It may not apply a lot of initial pressure, but it is very annoying to clean up.

What is also important is that Wrangler represents the highest value deathrattle minion at the 3-mana slot, which is relevant for Dread Raptor. The absence of any rune restriction, as well as its subtle Menagerie synergy (the taunts have two tribal tags) makes us believe it can find its way to competitive decks. It is a decent set up card for a turn 5 Menagerie Jug.

Score: 2

Bonechill Stegodon

A vulnerable mid-game minion that has an explosive deathrattle, Stegodon is a very slow card to develop. The 6/3 body can be easily killed, while its immediate impact on the board is non-existent. Its value comes from its deathrattle, which deals a whopping 18 damage spread around three enemy targets. One of the targets can be the opponent’s face, even though one target cannot be hit more than once.

When Stegodon dies, it is likely to take some of the opponent’s board with it, while possibly shooting 6 damage to the face. 6 damage kills all but the largest threats in the format in theory.

Our suspicion is that Stegodon is stronger in slower matchups, where the opponent is passive and plays few, larger minions. But it seems very weak against board flooding decks that can easily trade into its 3 health and soak the shots.

A good comparison is Marrow Manipulator. Both cards are stronger against slower decks and become less impactful if we have fallen behind. Manipulator is not a great card in Standard and Stegodon does not seem better. No immediate impact despite costing 6 mana and a worse body. The Umbra synergy is not that appealing. We have little faith in this one.

Score: 1

Paleomancy

A 3 mana discover spell is very slow, especially when we cannot reasonably play this on turn 3. Discovering a minion for 3 mana has already proven to be unplayable when it can be played on curve, gets a 2 mana discount and a Dark Gift (Cremate), so what chance does a baseline Paleomancy have?

The other question is whether the activated Paleomancy is even good. Generating three random Undead minions for three mana does not seem that strong. It is a low-quality minion pool and costs corpses to boot. If this is how we are supposed to spend corpses for Death Knight’s quest, we are not interested. We will find other ways besides playing terrible cards.

Score: 1

Cryosleep

This spell’s baseline effect is not good enough, but Kindred makes it strong. Drawing 2 cards on top of dealing 4 damage is a worthwhile effect for 4 mana, so the question is whether we can activate Cryosleep consistently.

Frost spells are not abundant in the class, but we do have access to Harbinger of Winter, which makes it more likely that we find them in the average Hearthstone game.

Horn of Winter, Frost Strike and Corpsicle are the competitive Frost spells that normally do see play. While the potential Frost spell count is low, Corpsicle can stay in our hand for a long time, which improves the uptime of Cryosleep’s Kindred.

Current builds of Frost Death Knight lack card draw, while Frost Strike is a weak card that has been overplayed for a long time in the archetype, so we can see it being replaced by Cryosleep.

Score: 3

Dread Raptor

A 4 mana 3/4 that draws a minion is weak, but its Kindred discount turns Dread Raptor into a powerful minion that is well worth the cost. A full discount on a 3 mana deathrattle minion means we are spending just 1 extra mana on a 3/4 that draws a card.

The Kindred ability is very easy to activate in all Death Knight decks, as Dread Raptor is an undead beast, two tribes that are extremely common in the class.

Raptor’s rune restriction means it is available to Frost or Rainbow Death Knight builds. This aligns well with the Menagerie Death Knight archetype. The double tribal tag and synergy with Reluctant Wrangler further supports that direction. Remember that Chillfallen Baron, Dreadhound Handler and Harbinger of Winter are three other deathrattle minions that can work well in the Menagerie archetype if we need further redundancy.

Another possible direction for Raptor is tutoring Soulbound Spire in Starship Death Knight, but that requires us to give up a second Blood rune, which means we cannot play Orbital Moon or Corpse Explosion.

This minion is clearly strong and flexible enough to work in a variety of decks. Raptor/Handler/Baron/Wrangler is a very splash-able package of cards.

Score: 3

Wave of Tar

We can understand the idea behind the card. We clear the board and deny the opponent from being able to reload the next turn. In theory, this should be a crippling AOE effect against board flooding decks.

However, the AOE effect is very weak. We know how big of a difference it is to deal 3 damage rather than 2 damage when it comes to removing early game threats. 2 damage mostly deals with token boards, but there are plenty of important 3 health minions that can survive.

Another awkward element of the card is its rune restriction. The decks that would want this spell the most are defensive Blood decks that look to stall, yet they have no access to it. Frost/Unholy hybrid builds are currently proactive and aggressive in nature. They would have no interest in this spell. There is no reason to believe, based on this set, that Frost/Unholy Death Knight decks will dramatically change their proactive characteristics this expansion, which makes Wave of Tar look a bit homeless.

Score: 1

Reanimated Pterrordax

A lifestealing rush minion that is free, if we can gather 5 corpses to pay for it. Pterrordax has no rune restriction and a familiar double tribal tag, making it a potential candidate in every Death Knight deck. It is hard to argue against including it in any Death Knight deck. This is a corpse spender that costs no mana, making it the best enabler for Reanimate the Terror, the Death Knight quest.

For a defensive Death Knight deck, this minion is invaluable in stabilizing in any matchup. For an aggressive deck, this is a perfect minion to run in Menagerie Death Knight. We can even play it on turn 5 alongside Jug, to maximize its impact.

If we are given an opportunity to include a minion that costs no mana by turn 4-5 and immediately impacts the board, we take it, no questions asked. We are certain that this is the strongest Death Knight card in the set and will be the most popular one. The definition of a no brainer.

Score: 4

High Cultist Herenn

Herenn pulls two deathrattle minions from our deck and makes them attack each other once. This works like Demon Hunter’s Proving Grounds. The specification of deathrattle minions makes it significantly easier to include Herenn in a deck, without a massive deck building restriction. Its extra cost also means it is harder to blow out an opponent with it, unless it is accompanied by Exarch Maladaar.

Although the deckbuilding restriction is not as severe, it is still difficult to execute in a Death Knight deck. We need to give up early game deathrattles, such as Chillfallen Baron and Dreadhound Handler. In fact, these are the same restrictions imposed on decks running Wakener of Souls.

Herenn likely goes into the same deck as Wakener of Souls. After all, there is no bigger deathrattle minion, one that possesses more value when cheated out than Wakener. Add Travel Security and you have a late game 5-card package that does not sound too bad on paper. Herenn instantly becomes the strongest card in the deck, one that provides us with the best path to cheating out the other two.

We have tried to make Wakener work multiple times. We are not convinced this will be the card to make the package competitive, but we will admit this is a good step in that direction. Herenn and Umbra is a sound late game pairing.

Score: 2

Reanimate the Terror

This quest requires very lenient support through deckbuilding, at the cost of a heavy rune restriction. A Quest Death Knight deck simply needs to run corpse spenders to progress the quest, which are often cards it wants to run anyway. The most noteworthy spenders available with this rune restriction are Corpse Explosion, Reanimated Pterrordax, Airlock Breach, Foamrender and Maladaar. The Quest Death Knight shell will be defensive minded in nature.

This might be one of the slowest quests in the set. Rather than being bottlenecked by corpse spending, we think the process of gaining 18 corpses may prove to be the one most important to quest progression. After all, we just need 3-4 corpse spenders from the previously mentioned cards to complete the quest.

The reward is similarly slow. In a way, Quest Death Knight may not be in a rush to complete the quest, as it plays into a drawn-out game. Tyrax represents a cycle of infinite stats and infinite damage, through a minion phase and a location phase.

A single Tyrax does not seem like a great win condition. After all, it takes multiple turns to go through a full cycle. A single 8/8 can be dealt with and the 8 damage can be healed through incremental means. One angle is running Scrapbooking Student, which can copy Terror’s Grave. We can copy Tyrax with Carnivorous Cubicle too. Another possibility is running Orbital Moon and/or Brittlebone Buccaneer to give Tyrax reborn.  Copying Tyrax amplifies the damage and pressure it can apply, turning into a more serious clock on the opponent.

But is this better than running a Starship package? We are thoroughly unconvinced. It seems to require a lot of work on top of post-quest support to get a win condition that may come online before the game’s turn timer runs out. Meanwhile, a Starship Death Knight has already summoned about 5 random 10-drops and on top of a massive starship by turn 10. The only thing a board of Tyrax has on starships is resilience to mass removal.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts

The Lost City of Un’Goro Set Rank: 6th

Overall Power Ranking: 3rd

Death Knight is in a stable position, one that makes it unlikely that it drops off at the launch of the expansion, even if its new set does not pan out. This confidence comes from the fact that Starship Death Knight is an extremely well-rounded deck that is difficult to target before it reaches its power spike. When we think of the new set, we do not envision a lot of strategies that can deal with Death Knight’s starship game plan.

Then you add Reanimated Pterrordax to the equation, a powerhouse minion that represents a free stabilizer that makes it increasingly difficult to rush down the Death Knight. A strong deck getting a card at this power level is a recipe for perseverance. We can even see Stitched Giants popping up to take advantage of the new corpse spender.

The class does get new stuff to experiment with, but we suspect it will prove to be inferior to starships. Reanimate the Terror offers a win condition that is resilient to mass removal, something that can be considered Starship Death Knight’s weakness, but the required support for Tyrax is much more difficult to execute. Timing is key too, as Tyrax seems significantly slower to get going as a serious clock on the opponent.

Herenn is another interesting option, one that might be able to power spike earlier than starships but requires an uncomfortable deckbuilding sacrifice that has proven to be difficult to overcome in the past. Wakener of Souls has never been close to a competitive power level, so Herenn needs to perform exceptionally well to carry this package.

An important building block for faster decks will be Dread Raptor. Menagerie Death Knight, much like Starship Death Knight, has strong foundations laid in place. Raptor looks like a powerful card it can easily accommodate to its build.

Since its release as a class, Death Knight has enjoyed a near-permanent aura of popularity that seems unshakeable. We will be surprised if this is the expansion where things finally crumble.

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