Hearthstone: Analysis of Week 1 and Week 2 of Blackrock Mountain

After a disappointing Goblins vs Gnomes expansion, which I have covered thoroughly in previous articles, Blizzard announced the latest expansion and recreated WoW raid Blackrock Mountain. The expansion has brought a massive improvement to the metagame, as well as several new decks and powerful combos. In this article, we’ll be reviewing some of the more impactful cards from the first and second weeks of Blackrock Mountain, and analyzing their viability and strength.

1. Grim Patron:

When originally presented, the card was seen as a gimmick, albeit an amusing one. However, as the card has been experimented with more and more, it has been realized that the card is actually pretty damn good. In addition, Warsong Commander received a bug fix, where cards that are summoned through deathrattles or lightning effects also gain charge in addition to summoned minion. This leads to powerful combos where Grim Patron can wipe a board clear by resummoning more Grim Patrons, or one-turn-kills by summoning enough Grim Patrons with your own AoE for face damage. Although the deck isn’t quite top tier, it’s one of the stronger, and one of the cheaper decks available at the moment. Try it out with different spells and minions to see what works for you, but make sure it has sufficient power to pull off combos and not lose tempo early.

2. Gang Up:

This card received a fair amount of hype in the days following the first week of Blackrock, exclusively finding its way into Fatigue Rogue matchups, where creating 3 extra Coldlight Oracles or Antique Healbots has been a solid boost to the weak deck. The other popular Rogue deck right now, Oil Rogue, gets poor use of the card, since it doesn’t rely on a single minion that they need a bunch of to win the game, but rather a variety of sticky minions in combination with spells.
So while the card is fun and was successful in turning fatigue rogue into a more consistent deck, it isn’t a card that will be run very often.

3. Emperor Thaurissan:

This card is absolutely bonkers. There really isn’t any two ways around it, thanks to the effect that works well with any deck that plays combos. Force of Nature Druid, Grim Patron Warrior, Freeze Mage, Malygos Shaman, Midrange Paladin, and Demon Warlock have all began running the card due to its power in creating cheap combos. Just one turn of Thaurissan being on the field can make Force of Nature + Double Savage Roar cost just ten mana, make Pyroblast + Frostbolt + Double Icelance cost 10 mana, Warsong Commander and Grim Patron cost only 6, etc. The card may have below average stats for 6 mana, but the power it unlocks for future turns more than makes up for it.

Week 2

1. Blackwing Technician:

at a 3/5 for 3 mana, a buffed Blackwing Technician is on par as the most value you can get out of a 3 drop. The only other contenders are Tinkertown Technician (4/4 with the added benefit of granting a spare part), and Dark Cultist (3/4 with an insane value deathrattle). This card will for sure be a must add to any dragon deck, especially due to how high cost most Dragons are, this will give them a stronger early curve. How much play this card sees depends greatly on the validity of Dragon decks, which are starting to make an impact, but not quite there yet. The card will for sure be a staple with them though, just due to the great value.

2. Axe Flinger:

When first announced, this card was supposed to finally put aggro Warrior on the map. However, although I’ve been trying it in Grim Patron decks, there still isn’t enough tempo and power to successfully pull off. In combination with not enough face damage, even with charges and Axe Flinger, and the uselessness of Warrior’s hero power, Aggro warrior has still not become a success. So while this card fits into a certain niche, and works great with the Warrior theme of taking small increments of damage, it hasn’t put aggro Warrior into the limelight. In addition, the subpar stats aren’t strong enough, a 3/4 or ideally a 3/5 would have been much stronger.

3. Majordomo Executus:

This card lets you harness the power of the Fire Lord! Crush Sniveling Insects! However, it’s really just terrible. Although the Legendary from week 1 was overpowered, week 2’s more than certainly made up for it. Because Ragnaros replaces your hero with only 8 health, any class can easily combo it down in one turn. There have been more than enough videos of players having almost full life only to die suddenly thanks to their hero having a tiny health pool thanks to Ragnaros. In addition, his hero power doesn’t have great value. Although 2 mana for 8 damage is pretty kick-ass, you can’t play Alexstrasza and use it the same turn. The hero power has poor value against Shaman and Paladin with their hero powers, and there aren’t too many 8/8s being played at the moment. To be honest, the card just doesn’t work as well as it should, and it’s incredibly disappointing because the card is a lot of fun, and has a design most people would agree we need more of.

Conclusion

Throughout week 1 and week 2, we haven’t seen a huge influx of cards that have been at both ends of the spectrum, both terrible and great. While there weren't many new dragon cards that the expansion mainly promoted, we have seen a larger variety of decks be improved or come into creation thanks to the expansion.

Jason Mulchay