Funhouse Mirror
Single target Soul mirror. Funhouse Mirror is a single target removal spell that functionally resembles ‘The Light! It Burns!’. If the enemy minion has an attack value equal to or bigger than its health, it will die. The difference is that Funhouse Mirror can benefit the player with deathrattles, or in cases where the minion survives but carries a powerful static effect.
Is that worth an extra 2 mana? Absolutely not, but the comparison with one of the best single target removal spells ever printed might be harsh. ‘The Light! It Burns!’ was a fantastic removal spell because of its cheap cost and efficiency. It’s possible that Funhouse Mirror becomes a serviceable spell, but it’s not good against early game minions and doesn’t help us get ahead most of the time.
How often is this card better than Shadow Word: Death? It’s better against Titan minions, but otherwise we’re not convinced this card even makes the cut in Reno Priest.
Score: 2
Puppet Theatre
This is a very weird location that’s reliant on your opponent providing you with viable targets that are worth copying for the high front-loaded cost of 4 mana. Players will have the tendency to think of the best battlecry minions Puppet Theatre can copy, which makes this location seem strong. A Reno Priest copying the highlander payoffs of other Reno decks? Copying game winning effects like Boomboss?
However, most minions in the game are not going to be strong targets for Puppet Theatre. It’s a very greedy card that’s going to be useless in any faster matchup. The question is whether this provides Priest with late game power? It does to some extent, but this power is not reliable and doesn’t synergize with the rest of your deck. This power can also be played around, as the opponent can avoid giving you good copy targets. We don’t think this lifts Reno Priest enough from its current 40% win rate.
Having said that, Puppet Theatre is probably the most annoying card in the set. If it ends up being viable at some point in the future, then it will likely become unbearable, as it punishes players for playing their cards. We think Team 5 recognized this, so they gave it a very prohibitive cost.
Score: 1
Delayed Product
Delayed Product is just a random pile of discovered stats with some “mana cheating” built into it. Getting a minion out on turn 6 that costs 8+ mana doesn’t sound terrible. However, many minions in the game carry battlecries, which diminishes the discover quality to some degree.
Our main issue with the spell is that this is another Priest card that lacks strategic synergies. In slower matchups, where this card is meant to be played, opponents have plenty of dormancy time to know what’s coming, so they will save removal for it. In faster matchups, this spell is completely unreliable at helping us turn the corner and swing the game.
This is not the win condition that Control Priest decks need to have any hopes of competing against other late game strategies.
Score: 1
Final Thoughts: We don’t think this set changes anything in the Priest class. Zarimi Priest will not care about these cards at all. Control Priest decks aren’t going to pop up thanks to them. Furthermore, this is the standout class set in terms of weak design.
