Mage, Hunter and Warlock Blackrock Mountain Cards Revealed

[Steven Bogos]

Mage, Hunter and Warlock Blackrock Mountain Cards Revealed

You can now pre-order the Blackrock Mountain adventure for an exclusive card back.

The trickle of Blackrock Mountain [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/blackrock%20mountain?os=blackrock+mountain] information continues today with the reveal of the Mage, Hunter and Warlock's class-specific cards. Additionally, the adventure is now available to pre-order on all of it's platforms (PC, Mac, iOS and Android), although, only for real money. If you are willing to slap down the $24 in advance, your reward will be the exclusive Molten Core card back you can see to the right.

The three new cards brings the total of cards revealed for the adventure to 12. You can check out the previously revealed cards here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/140160-Hearthstones-Blackrock-Mountain-Cards-Revealed].

Now lets check out what the Mage, Warlock and Hunter have been given to play with this time:

[gallery=3941]

First up is the Mage's Flamewalker - a card that looks like it would have good synergy with spell-heavy Mage decks, and maybe even in those spare part-heavy mechmage decks...

Next we have the Hunter's Core Rager, a card that rewards you for recklessly playing everything in your hand. May be useful for face Hunters looking for that final endgame push.

Lastly, we've got the Warlock's Imp Gang Boss, who will call his buddies for help if you gang up on him.

It'll be interesting to see how these new cards shift the game's meta.

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/18314312/]

Permalink

 

[Tiamattt]

Flamewalker looks like fun, doesn't really fit into mech mage but should find a home in the more control versions of the class.

Core Rager I'm iffy on, not even face hunters want to empty their hand that quick since it usually requires a late unleash the house/Kill Command to finish someone off. The worse part is he gives the opponent a turn to BGH/kill him, in which case you're in topdeck mode with little to show for it. I dunno, maybe someone will find a great way to use it but I'm not seeing it.

Gang Boss has potential, at the very least he gets you a body and potential more if you get lucky. Actually he'll probably get 2 imps consistently thanks to his above average toughness, so that makes him my favorite of the 3.


Pretty decent as far as reveals go, still waiting on the cards that gives me that "must have" feeling that's been lacking so far.

 

[gonenow]

Gang Boss is really the only card there that has any form of potential sadly and even then we still need a few more cards that make demons usable

 

[Jandau]

Imp Gang Boss is a solid card. In most situations you'll get 3/5 in total stats for 3 mana, and 4/6 isn't unlikely either. Solid pick for early game meat on the board.

Core Rager is garbage and completely unplayable. No way is anyone going to waste deck space for a card that MIGHT OCCASIONALLY be playable.

Flamewalker is nice. If you can drop 2-3 spells after it (not unlikely for a Mage), the damage effect alone is worth it, even without the stats. It will, however, be in competition with the Blastmage.

 

[NerAnima]

Imp Gang Boss looks like a really good card to me, especially since I took a liking to the Warlock, and have slowly been building a Demonologist deck, or at the very least a demon heavy deck. This will definitely be a good addition to the deck; yes, I'm one of those people who runs unsteady crap like that, it's fun.

Flamewalker could be interesting, I could definitely see myself in a semi-serious deck, it has a decent stat line, and the effect is pretty good. Now whether I would actually use it is another story...

Core Rager...no, I can't seem to think of a way to make it work; in a rush deck is probably the only way, but if you're able to get this effect off in a rush deck against an opponent and they're still alive, you are either really lucky, or you're most likely already screwed.

This is all speculation at this point, though, so maybe Imp Boss will be shit, and the Core Rager will become the new Unleash the Hounds for the Hunter. It's really, really unlikely, but it could happen.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Gang Boss is really the only card there that has any form of potential sadly and even then we still need a few more cards that make demons usable

A mid-range demon deck is completely viable. It has seen recent tournament use where it has been quite successful. I could probably see the Gang Boss fitting in since there are much better silence targets in a demon deck. That means that it'll almost always be at least 3/5 of stats (worse though since it's splitting the minion) and often 4/6 of stats.

Flamewaker is the spell version of Knife Juggler. It costs 1 more mana, yet it has a much better chance of surviving a turn. Juggler is a lot easier to proc, but Flamewaker does double the damage. Hard to say if it'll be good enough to fit into a mage deck. It could see play in mech mage due to the spare parts... maybe.

Core Rager..... I have no idea. It has amazing potential, but I see it getting played as a 4/4 way too often.

 

[Colt47]

I'm starting to get a bit of a fondness for this game. It seems simpler to jump into than Magic the Gathering and it doesn't seem to have the same level of absolute BS price gouging. That and it shows the Warcraft setting is a fun thing to explore, even with World of Warcraft still out and about.

As much as I got tired of WoW and had to move on, I've yet to find any other MMO that is as friendly to busy work schedule players as that game. Final Fantasy XIV ARR is good fun as well, but the end game community is always pushing people to get the best possible gear from raids and to do the top tier content, which really is only plausible for people with enough time and coordination to get a team and run it down.

Bah, going off subject.

 

[MoltenSilver]

I'm starting to get a bit of a fondness for this game. It seems simpler to jump into than Magic the Gathering and it doesn't seem to have the same level of absolute BS price gouging. That and it shows the Warcraft setting is a fun thing to explore, even with World of Warcraft still out and about.

As much as I got tired of WoW and had to move on, I've yet to find any other MMO that is as friendly to busy work schedule players as that game. Final Fantasy XIV ARR is good fun as well, but the end game community is always pushing people to get the best possible gear from raids and to do the top tier content, which really is only plausible for people with enough time and coordination to get a team and run it down.

Bah, going off subject.

While it probably isn't quite as expensive as MTG (especially since using the free-to-play side slowly earning everything is an option) I feel it'd be fair to warn you that gold income in this game can be absolutely glacial unless you have a tonne of time to put into the game and a willingness to play hyper-aggro decks over and over and over to get through games fast. You can get a decent aggro deck built decently fast but if you want to play control its going to take a lot of time or money or both. While I won't quite call it pay-to-win since it is possible to earn everything eventually, cards from the Naxxramus set are in nearly every worthwhile deck and while it's technically true that legendaries aren't higher stat 'stronger'** in realistic terms their mechanics are what enable a lot of deck archetypes.

**(For those who play hearthstone: I've left out the discussion about whether Dr. Boom is 'Strictly Better' than War Golem since it seemed beyond the scope of my post)

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

As a pure arena player it looks like once again mage is getting a buff

 

[Kahani]

Core Rager I'm iffy on, not even face hunters want to empty their hand that quick since it usually requires a late unleash the house/Kill Command to finish someone off. The worse part is he gives the opponent a turn to BGH/kill him, in which case you're in topdeck mode with little to show for it. I dunno, maybe someone will find a great way to use it but I'm not seeing it.

If you have a charge rhino on the board it gets you a 7/7 charge for 4 which isn't bad at all. Better value than a kill command at that point if you're going for the finishing blow. Needs pretty specific circumstances to pull off though. Even without that, it's still a 4/4 beast for 4, which isn't far behind the 4/5 nothing for 4 standard. So it's really a slightly underpowered creature that has potential to become a seriously overpowered one, but only in a situation you probably don't want to be in. Not the best card ever, but I don't agree with the people calling it completely useless.

 

[babinro]

The only card that feels weak here is the Core Rager. I could see trying it as a 1 of in a face hunter style deck but more often then not it'll fail to battlecry I bet. I don't care for the face hunter playstyle but I have tried it and I frequently don't have a completely empty hand by the end of the game. If I do...it's often the last turn of the game anyways. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong but the opportunities to play Core Rager optimally seem very inconsistent.

Flamewaker is amazing. It compliments just about every mage archetype wonderfully. I can see it being run in any deck that runs Mana Wyrm. It may even find it's way into mech mage but I'm not sure if that deck would devote the spells to it or want to give up a mech slot for this guy. It's a tough call but worth testing out.

Imp Gang Boss is amazing. Warlocks sorely need demons without any drawbacks at all and this guy is solid. I'm sure we'll see him in demonlock decks and any future zoolock variants that form over time. He's among the weaker of this cycle of cards but the demon type is what's important. Must have card for me.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I hope they reveal more dragon cards, I always wanted a full dragon deck but all the dragons are 9/10 cost Legendaries sans Azure Drake. Drakes aren't even dragons either. So my dragon deck is two Azure Drakes, Alex, Deathwing and Ysera (want Malygos to finish off my full spell power joke deck too.) With Hungry Dragon coming up though that'll be 7 out of 30 cards for the deck. Blizzard pls.

Saying that, the idea of a mech deck sounded fun until everyone realised how horrifically broken full mech aggro decks actually can be. Be careful what you wish for.

Yeah there's no "omg need" cards revealed right now. I mean when I first saw Dark Cultist I was 100% putting him into every Priest deck but the ones so far are pretty eh.

 

[Tiamattt]

Core Rager I'm iffy on, not even face hunters want to empty their hand that quick since it usually requires a late unleash the house/Kill Command to finish someone off. The worse part is he gives the opponent a turn to BGH/kill him, in which case you're in topdeck mode with little to show for it. I dunno, maybe someone will find a great way to use it but I'm not seeing it.

If you have a charge rhino on the board it gets you a 7/7 charge for 4 which isn't bad at all. Better value than a kill command at that point if you're going for the finishing blow. Needs pretty specific circumstances to pull off though. Even without that, it's still a 4/4 beast for 4, which isn't far behind the 4/5 nothing for 4 standard. So it's really a slightly underpowered creature that has potential to become a seriously overpowered one, but only in a situation you probably don't want to be in. Not the best card ever, but I don't agree with the people calling it completely useless.

It's not completely useless but there's a good chance it'll have problems finding a deck that'll want to use it. It's too slow for face hunter and midrange has better options that late in the game. Charge rhino helps but it rarely lives a turn after it's summoned and if you try to summon them together that's 9 mana and you have to hope it wins the game that turn. All in all I rate it a little higher than a lost tallstrinder just out of potential, but that's pretty much it.

 

[Tiamattt]

I hope they reveal more dragon cards, I always wanted a full dragon deck but all the dragons are 9/10 cost Legendaries sans Azure Drake. Drakes aren't even dragons either. So my dragon deck is two Azure Drakes, Alex, Deathwing and Ysera (want Malygos to finish off my full spell power joke deck too.) With Hungry Dragon coming up though that'll be 7 out of 30 cards for the deck. Blizzard pls.

Saying that, the idea of a mech deck sounded fun until everyone realised how horrifically broken full mech aggro decks actually can be. Be careful what you wish for.

Yeah there's no "omg need" cards revealed right now. I mean when I first saw Dark Cultist I was 100% putting him into every Priest deck but the ones so far are pretty eh.

No faerie dragon? Until further notice your low cost options are very low and it's a very decent creature.

 

[gonenow]

Gang Boss is really the only card there that has any form of potential sadly and even then we still need a few more cards that make demons usable

A mid-range demon deck is completely viable. It has seen recent tournament use where it has been quite successful. I could probably see the Gang Boss fitting in since there are much better silence targets in a demon deck. That means that it'll almost always be at least 3/5 of stats (worse though since it's splitting the minion) and often 4/6 of stats.

Flamewaker is the spell version of Knife Juggler. It costs 1 more mana, yet it has a much better chance of surviving a turn. Juggler is a lot easier to proc, but Flamewaker does double the damage. Hard to say if it'll be good enough to fit into a mage deck. It could see play in mech mage due to the spare parts... maybe.

Core Rager..... I have no idea. It has amazing potential, but I see it getting played as a 4/4 way too often.

Flamewaker is basically a poor man's antandias and the only mage deck that it'd currently work in is Aggro Mage which hasn't really been used since Mech mage rose to popularity. It doesn't fit in Freeze/Fatigue mage for obvious reasons and it is kind of a weird fit for mech mage.

Core rager is completely pointless for hunters as its too slow for constructed and its just a BGH target. Maybe in arena though

 

[RedDeadFred]

Gang Boss is really the only card there that has any form of potential sadly and even then we still need a few more cards that make demons usable

A mid-range demon deck is completely viable. It has seen recent tournament use where it has been quite successful. I could probably see the Gang Boss fitting in since there are much better silence targets in a demon deck. That means that it'll almost always be at least 3/5 of stats (worse though since it's splitting the minion) and often 4/6 of stats.

Flamewaker is the spell version of Knife Juggler. It costs 1 more mana, yet it has a much better chance of surviving a turn. Juggler is a lot easier to proc, but Flamewaker does double the damage. Hard to say if it'll be good enough to fit into a mage deck. It could see play in mech mage due to the spare parts... maybe.

Core Rager..... I have no idea. It has amazing potential, but I see it getting played as a 4/4 way too often.

Flamewaker is basically a poor man's antandias and the only mage deck that it'd currently work in is Aggro Mage which hasn't really been used since Mech mage rose to popularity. It doesn't fit in Freeze/Fatigue mage for obvious reasons and it is kind of a weird fit for mech mage.

Core rager is completely pointless for hunters as its too slow for constructed and its just a BGH target. Maybe in arena though

Core Rager could be run as a one-of. Yes it's a BGH target, but people don't usually save BGH against hunters anyway. Obviously, if it sees a rise in popularity, BGH will start being held for it and it will decrease in popularity. You'd never want to run two in case you draw them both, but I could see it being used as a finisher. Hard to say until it's tried out though.

 

[gonenow]

Gang Boss is really the only card there that has any form of potential sadly and even then we still need a few more cards that make demons usable

A mid-range demon deck is completely viable. It has seen recent tournament use where it has been quite successful. I could probably see the Gang Boss fitting in since there are much better silence targets in a demon deck. That means that it'll almost always be at least 3/5 of stats (worse though since it's splitting the minion) and often 4/6 of stats.

Flamewaker is the spell version of Knife Juggler. It costs 1 more mana, yet it has a much better chance of surviving a turn. Juggler is a lot easier to proc, but Flamewaker does double the damage. Hard to say if it'll be good enough to fit into a mage deck. It could see play in mech mage due to the spare parts... maybe.

Core Rager..... I have no idea. It has amazing potential, but I see it getting played as a 4/4 way too often.

Flamewaker is basically a poor man's antandias and the only mage deck that it'd currently work in is Aggro Mage which hasn't really been used since Mech mage rose to popularity. It doesn't fit in Freeze/Fatigue mage for obvious reasons and it is kind of a weird fit for mech mage.

Core rager is completely pointless for hunters as its too slow for constructed and its just a BGH target. Maybe in arena though

Core Rager could be run as a one-of. Yes it's a BGH target, but people don't usually save BGH against hunters anyway. Obviously, if it sees a rise in popularity, BGH will start being held for it and it will decrease in popularity. You'd never want to run two in case you draw them both, but I could see it being used as a finisher. Hard to say until it's tried out though.

It'd only really work in mid range hunter. As a card its far too slow for aggro hunter as it does nothing the turn its played and it is too face rushy for control hunter so while it is nice in theory it just wouldn't work that well. Personally I don't see mid range hunter being viable but we will see what the other hunter card is