The Comprehensive United in Stormwind Preview

 

Peasant

Reasonable going first on turn 1. Unplayable in any other situation in the game.

Score: 1

Stockades Guard

Possible addition to Handlock, as half of a Sunfury Protector.

Score: 2

Classes: Warlock

Deeprun Engineer

Not sure why.

Score: 1

Florist

This might be an interesting 2-drop in Druid to combo with Oracle and provide some snowballing mana cheating. We’re interested.

Score: 2

Classes: Druid

Pandaren Importer

This is a great generation option. Further upside to decks that have deckbuilding restrictions that prevent them from running certain spells but want to generate them. Just a good card in general. Will likely be prevalent though not as much as Venomous Scorpid.

Score: 4

Classes: Hunter, Mage, Priest, Shaman

SI:7 Skulker

Good card specifically in SI:7 Rogue. There’s a chance it sneaks into Miracle Rogue as well since it synergizes very well with Field Contact, but probably not. The body is a little weak.

Score: 2

Classes: Rogue

Impatient Shopkeep

No patience for this one.

Score: 1

Northshire Farmer

Elwynn Boar’s greatest hope.

Score: 1

Package Runner

This isn’t good enough in Handlock because we’re looking to life tap on turn 3.

Score: 1

Rustrot Viper

Decent weapon tech card that’s far better than Acidic Swamp Ooze, but that doesn’t mean it won’t bait many players to run it when they don’t need to.

Score: 2

Classes: All of them.

Traveling Merchant

This is still not great even with two minions on the board, so we’re not impressed. Going to be a 1-mana cycle too often.

Score: 1

Guild Trader

Evolved Kobold just got a massive buff. This card makes a late-game burn plan a far more interesting proposition. The tradeable tag is also very nice for these decks since you want the Trader to be your finisher, so cycling it away when you draw it too early is a very nice bonus.

Score: 2

Classes: Mage, Rogue

Royal Librarian

Much better Spellbreaker. Can be good in a specific meta, but you guys already know what happens to tech cards. Tradeable will just tempt everyone to run them more often than called for.

Score: 2

Classes: All of them except Priest.

Spice Bread Baker

Fantastic burst healing option in Warlock. Can basically be considered a Warlock card, though there’s a chance other defensive decks will also consider it. One of the reasons we’re cautiously optimistic about the revival of the class since it was missing on-demand healing to complement its incremental healing from Soul Fragments.

Score: 4

Classes: Warlock

Stubborn Suspect

Probably not good enough for Deathrattle Demon Hunter, and not an enticing enough target for Deathrattle Rogue.

Score: 1

Battleground Battlemaster

This is basically a Loatheb, the only difference is that instead of increasing the cost of the opponent’s spells for turn, it kills them!

Seriously though, this card has the potential to deal a lot of damage and end games on the spot whenever you’ve developed a sizeable amount of power. Could work particularly well in Handlock, but also in Paladin thanks to their newfound buffing abilities as well as Battlemaster’s synergy with Conviction.

Score: 2

Classes: Paladin, Warlock

Lion’s Guard

Yet another potential Handlock card, but the archetype looks stacked with so many options that it’s hard to predict whether it goes in.

Score: 2

Classes: Warlock

Stormwind Guard

Quite a bit of stats for a 5-drop. Reminds us of Fungalmancer. Could end up sneaking into a random aggressive deck.

Score: 2

Classes: Aggro decks.

City Architect

This has so much health in taunts that we can see it having some defensive utility as a stalling tool. We like it most in Druid due to the class’ ability to leverage it offensively with Arbor Up

Score: 2

Classes: Druid.

Mo’arg Forgefield

This is a decent target for N’Zoth and Big decks, so it might end up seeing play eventually. Very good stabilizer when cheated out or summoned.

Score: 2

Classes: N’Zoth/Big decks.

Encumbered Pack Mule

This card is potentially better than Saronite Chain Gang, since it gives you just as much value while also offering flexibility to be split. Any class with buffing capabilities should be highly interested, and it’s probably going to end up omnipresent in the meta. One of the strongest neutrals of the set.

Score: 4

Classes: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Warlock, Warrior

Mailbox Dancer

We don’t like giving our opponents mana.

Score: 1

Entrapped Sorceress

Serviceable 3-drop for quest decks, but despite the condition, it’s likely to be inferior to Venomous Scorpid. If we want to run both, Sorceress can get in.

Score: 2

Classes: Quest decks.

Two-Faced Investor

This card is hilariously bad, and we wouldn’t touch it even if it had an extra attack. We’re honestly not sure why it’s not a Spider Tank.

Score: 1

Goldshire Gnoll

Another good neutral for Handlock. This is very often going to be a 1 mana 5/4 rush in that deck, and that’s amazing for Handlock’s early game survivability. The efforts to push this archetype through both the Warlock set and the Neutral set are astonishing. We’re also slightly scared of this card being another Mogu Fleshshaper in Evolve Shaman.

Score: 3

Classes: Shaman, Warlock

Elwynn Boar

This might be one of the greatest designs in Hearthstone’s history. Hilariously entertaining. We promise there will be at least a couple of theorycrafted decks in our article tomorrow that are based around this card. We can’t promise they will be any good, but they should be fun.

Score: 1

Classes: ???

Stockades Prisoner

This is like a very bad Imprisoned Felmaw.

Score: 1

Enthusiastic Banker

We don’t think classes will be that desperate for card draw that they will opt for Banker. This will pretty much always die on the turn it’s played, so getting a single delayed draw off a 3 mana 2/3 isn’t great.

Score: 1

Nobleman

Similar thinking to Enthusiastic Banker, it’s not a great way to gain card advantage by running an undersized body. There’s no control over what you copy. A 3 mana 2/3 that draws a card is hardly good enough, and this effect isn’t better.

Score: 1

Cheesemonger

This card gives us the slightest Ogremancer vibes, but we’re not sure whether an aggressive deck would want to run a slow card just to get some random spells. We don’t like it in slower decks because it might end up clogging your hand.

Score: 1

Auctioneer Jaxon

We don’t think it’s a viable strategy to stack tradeable cards in a deck just for the occasion where we draw Jaxon and get to choose what to discover. This is a hard card to evaluate because there might be some player who discovers a way to abuse it in some unexpected way, but we’ll be very surprised.

Score: 1

Flightmaster Dungar

We know the deal. This card is too slow, even for the slowest and most defensive decks.

Score: 1

Cornelius Roame

Daddy Roame offers decks lacking card draw with a way to refill their hand while developing a threat that must be removed on the spot or it ends up completely tipping the game in their favor. It’s already guaranteed to draw 2 cards but drawing 4 would be insane.

A 6 mana 4/5 is a little slow, so we’re mostly looking at decks that can buff it in hand, making it tougher to remove or decks that can cheat it out. We’re confident it will find competitive play in at least one of these potential classes and be a powerhouse. There’s a strong possibility that it will just be everywhere.

Score: 4

Classes: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Shaman, Warrior

Lady Prestor

Thought-provoking. Many of the dragons have great abilities that can be game-changing under a lower cost. This card makes the most sense in a low-curve aggressive deck, as a late-game fallback tool, but it’s a bit too wacky for us to get fully behind. We do tend to underrate the wacky cards, so maybe this is another one.

Score: 2

Classes: Aggro decks, Paladin (Quest?)

Varian, King of Stormwind

A hybrid of Siamat and Curator. Provides you with reload but also offers a strong play that immediately impacts the board and offers protection. Particularly good in Paladin because of how easy it is for the class to fit divine shield minions in its deck, but other classes may consider building around it at some capacity.

Score: 3

Classes: Druid, Paladin, Warrior