The Comprehensive Into The Emerald Dream Preview

 

Ominous Nightmares

A cheap Choose One card with two lukewarm effects. Whirlwind would never see play in modern Hearthstone. A 2/2 buff for 1 mana could be okay; although the condition is a bit hard to achieve early in the game. Rampage struggled to see play even when enrage effects were prevalent and powerful. Ominous Nightmares’ buff is a little better than that.

Realistically, this card can only be seen in an aggressive deck with Sanguine Depths and Eggbasher. Otherwise, we do not see a purpose for it.

Score: 2

Brood Keeper

A River Crocolisk with a 2/2 weapon in a dragon deck. We strongly dislike 2-attack weapons and have rarely been pleasantly surprised by them. They are bad at controlling the board as there are many early game minions, including 1-drops, which have 3 health.

However, when the weapon is attached to a reasonable body for 2 mana, it is not too bad. It is still fair value on turn 2. We can use the weapon for face damage and control the board when we can. If a fast Dragon Warrior deck becomes competitive, then Brood Keeper will go in it. Otherwise, no chance.

Score: 2

Eggbasher

This minion’s name is not subtle. Eggbasher’s best use will be bashing eggs. 3/5 stats for 4 mana looks bad, but the immediate attack buff it gives another minion is sizable. If it lands on an egg, the egg becomes hard to ignore.

With Clutch of Corruption, Eggbasher has a prime target in the set. Nerubian Egg is available in the Core set, while Acolyte of Pain offers a less subtle target for it on curve. Eggbasher can only see play in a deck built around it, so we consider it a situational choice in a specific archetype.

Score: 2

Darkrider

A 1 mana 1/1 that generates a card is borderline playable, depending on the generated card’s quality. In this case, the quality is high, as we discover a dragon with a Dark Gift.

When looking at all Dark Gifts, they are worth 2 mana (roughly), so once we play the dragon we discover, Darkrider pays for itself with interest. This is a good 1-drop for dragon decks, especially fast ones that look to leverage the Dark Gift to pressure early. A Control Warrior may not be interested in this card because it dilutes Succumb to Madness’ resurrection options.

Score: 2

Siphoning Growth

Siphoning Growth looks strong considering that Dark Pact was an influential tool for Warlock. Gaining armor is better than gaining health, so as a standalone card, Siphoning Growth is better.

The only caveat is that Warrior is not as robust when it comes to utilizing deathrattle minions. The clear path here is eggs, with Clutch of Corruption looking like the prime target for this spell. An aggressive deck that runs Clutch and Nerubian Egg can also use this, although the armor gain in those cases is not as important.

Siphoning Growth can also sack Ysondre and avoid counterplay such as silence or transform effects. It is hard to see the class not utilize this card eventually. Greatly encourages slow Warrior decks to incorporate a deathrattle package. Deck warping.

Score: 4

Succumb to Madness

A 3 mana resurrect effect on a discover is a strong card, especially when it is limited to a specific tribe and has the added benefit of discover. This allows Warrior to build a deck without significant restrictions, just adding a small package of dragons so that Succumb to Madness hits a guaranteed desired target.

Warrior has access to dragons that are strong resurrect targets. Ysondre is the biggest one, but Afflicted Devastator, Illusory Greenwing and Draconic Delicacy are no slouches either. Briarspawn Drake could fit a Big Warrior deck down the line.

This is an easy spell to fit into a deck, compared to Clutch of Corruption, which requires support through egg activation.

Score: 3

Clutch of Corruption

The main egg generator of the class. This location can be worth significant value when it targets available dragons in the class. Ysondre is the target with the highest scaling value in the late game, offering Warrior a very grindy path to winning the game.

There is one issue with Clutch of Corruption, which is that the summoning process can be slow. We need to target a dragon and then we need to sack the egg to summon a copy of the dragon. That requires support in the form of egg activation, such as Eggbasher, Siphoning Growth or other self-damage effects.

There are two paths where this location can fit. The grindy path leads to Ysondre in a late-game-oriented deck. A beatdown path could look at Draconic Delicacy and Chemical Spill. Illusory Greenwing and Afflicted Devastator can complement either direction.

We like the high value potential of this location and think the class will try hard to make it work.

Score: 3

Afflicted Devastator

One of the cheapest dragons available to Warrior that has a high value deathrattle, which makes it a potential target for Clutch of Corruption or Succumb to Madness. A 4 mana 6/6 body is strong, compensating for its drawback battlecry.

We do have an issue with Devastator and are skeptical about whether it is truly a great fit in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to faster Warrior decks, the battlecry is a big problem. Yes, it can kill eggs in theory, but often, we will have minions in play, and we will not want to clear them for our opponent. This makes Devastator a very awkward threat. The deathrattle is also easy to play around for slower decks, while other aggressive decks may choose to ignore it.

When it comes to slower Warrior decks, the battlecry should not be important, as the archetype does not tend to develop minions early. However, the main reason we would want to play Devastator is its deathrattle. But the deathrattle does not offer an “on-demand” board clear. If we want a mid-game board clear, why would we not opt for Hostile Invader instead?

While there is a decent chance Devastator sees play, we cannot help but wonder whether Illusory Greenwing is the superior 4-mana dragon for some of the directions we can take.

Score: 2

Ysondre

The primary dragon win condition for a slower Warrior archetype, Ysondre is the definition of grindy. Its stats are weak, being a 7-mana minion with 5 health. The best part of it is that it is impossible to ignore with its 8 attack and taunt. The deathrattle summons a random dragon for every time Ysondre died, so the first Ysondre that dies will summon one random dragon. A random dragon is an extremely high variance minion, which can be as big as a 12/12, or as small as a 2/1.

As a standalone card, Ysondre is a sticky threat, but not something worth playing as it is extremely unreliable. What makes Ysondre a real win condition is our ability to repeatedly summon it. Clutch of Corruption and Succumb to Madness do the heavy lifting here, turning Ysondre into a source of inevitable waves of threats. The more dragons we summon from its deathrattle, the lower the variance is on the outcome. We can also use Siphoning Growth to kill Ysondre on the turn we summon it and immediately spawn a wide board of dragons.

Should the format allow the success of an attrition playstyle of this extent, Ysondre sounds like an exceedingly difficult threat to deal with over the course of a long game. The main question is whether we have time to resummon Ysondre for the third or fourth time, which is when the dragon truly comes online.

Control Warrior has several paths to experiment with this expansion, so competition is hard.

Score: 2

Tortolla

This massive turtle has one of the unique stat lines we can remember. A 10 mana 1/30 taunt, which gets angrier and angrier the more hits it takes, while giving us armor. Tortolla is an impossible taunt to get through via minion trades, as its massive health, scaling attack and armor gain, guarantee stabilization. Its Elusive keyword means targeted spell removal is useless too. The opponent needs a battlecry destroy effect, such as Dark Templar, or a non targeted effect, such as Deadly Shot. There are matchups in which dropping Tortolla to the board should end the game.

Tortolla does cost 10 mana, so on paper, it is a hard minion to drop to the board, even with the ramp that is now available to the class.

Just kidding. Chemical Spill ends it.

Chemical Spill’s job of cheating out Zilliax is over. Chemical Spill summoning Tortolla leads to a 2/25 taunt that comes down to the board on turn 5, turn 4 with a coin or New Heights. We can even tutor both Chemical Spill (Fae Trickster) and Tortolla (Quality Assurance, Tortollan Traveler). This sounds like an incredibly consistent game plan that should be devastating for any deck that aims to pressure the Warrior, especially aggressive decks.

No wonder Hydration Station was nerfed, but even a 10 mana Hydration Station should not deter Warrior from utilizing Chemical Spill/Tortolla in every single Control Warrior deck going forward. The potential follow-up with Carnivorous Cubicle sounds absolutely disgusting.

Over the past Hearthstone year, single target removal and Titans influenced the format, but there should be fewer clean answers to a minion of Tortolla’s kind. Be wary of this meta defining turtle.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

Into the Emerald Dream Set Rank: 2^nd

Overall Power Ranking: 1^st

Everything could be lining up for Warrior to take center stage. A reduction in late game lethality, an anticipated slower format, win conditions becoming more vulnerable to armor gain, a decline in single target removal, as well as one angry turtle.

We do not expect Warrior to have the highest win rate during the first week of the expansion, because it will probably take time to figure out the optimal Control Warrior build. But what we do see in Control Warrior post-rotation is an archetype that is incredibly flexible, that can seemingly do anything it wants, and one that should heavily influence the success of other strategies. 

At the core of it is Tortolla. The reduction in power of single target removal makes a turn 5 Chemical Spill potentially end games against faster decks, as well as a variety of classes that simply have no way to get through it. Silence? Watch the Warrior eat the silenced turtle with Carnivorous Cubicle and laugh at you. If opponents start running The Black Knight, or some other tech cards, then we view it akin to Rustrot Viper being played everywhere because of some meta warping weapon deck.

We have established that Warrior could be meta warping in its ability to shut down aggression. The biggest question is what does it do in the late game? It can do many different things, depending on what the format demands. All of it can be accommodated in a Control Warrior shell with a Tortolla foundation.

A Dragon package provides the most sustained value. Ysondre is a natural fit in a Tortolla deck with Carnivorous Cubicle. Add a couple of other dragons with different roles, as well as Clutch of Corruption and Succumb to Madness, and you get an attrition deck that can produce waves after waves of threats. 

A Terran package is still perfectly acceptable, with massive armor stacking potential. A Mech package can kill opponents the fastest, as it has the highest damage potential. If proactivity is not needed, we can stack more removal and win in fatigue too.

And if you are a hipster who is bored of Control Warrior decks, the class might be able to produce an aggressive dragon deck too, with sticky eggs and a surprisingly high density of threats.

Prepare yourself or face a shellacking.