ScourgeWar Part II

[AUStarwars]

Diane Cannings-The Leatherworking "champion." Ok so first of all she is a universal 3/4 for 3. Essentially her ability allows you to play a piece of Mail or Leather on turn 4 (such as the below King Dred's Helm) and keep pace on the offensive front, since she will be attacking for additional damage that turn as well. The preview "article" mentioned the old Ring based Zaritha deck and I truly do not think you have to go this "all in" on leather or mail because her ability is only triggered on your turn..so you have to wait a whole turn where she is a vanilla 3/4 for 3 (not terrible, not great). Overall she is not a terrible card, but not very exciting either unless King Dred's Helm is viable or there are other Mail/Leather pieces that have decent enough armor values to warrant inclusion

WoWTCGDB has all the cards previewed up so far, so let's shift to alphabetical order

Army of the Dead-ok we all know its insane. In fact it is probably one of the best cards ever printed in a TCG, but why? Because here you have a Wrath effect coupled with a win condition. Most control decks will play both cards that clear the board of allies and then play something to act as a win condition. Army of the Dead does both! A bunch of 3/3s is nothing to shake a stick at..and this card will revoltionize the Metagame. I still have little idea of how Death Knight is shaping up as a class, but it certainly seems like Armor Control/Ally Control is what they will be good at, with weaknesses to other control decks such as the Clothies with fewer allies. If we look back to the DK starter to begin to round out our class cards we see similar culprits: Ally removal and no removal otherwise (and one very expensive counterspell that should help vs. control). So what does this card actually do? In my opinion it radically shifts the metagame alone, along with Corpse Explosion. First of all I see Army of the Dead having a place in every DK deck, regardless if it is aggro or control because in a general aggro deck you may even be upgrading your 2/1 or 3/2 ally base while simultaneously demolishing your opponents board. I really feel this card is completely game changing and will set up DKs as the ally destroying menaces they are..they will fill a role of "random alliance aggro or aggro/control deck killer", finally bringing something to the table that can destroy Fizzlefreeze.

Corpse Explosion-Is this card for real? 4 damage to their board for 3?! That is so insane I cannot begin to fathom how this card was made. Again, DKs just demolish allies in every way shape or form. The best part about Corpse Explosion is how it has a use in control matchups since you can still damage the opposing hero for 4 for such a low cost. What is the downside on this card? You have to RFG an ally from a GYard!? That is hard to do? The whole set seems to be graveyard focused (which is a MASSIVE MASSIVE RED FLAG btw, EVERY TIME this happened in Magic and a block was Gyard focused, insanity and brokeness resulted, so prepare). I cannot even FATHOM what the Blood and Frost specced cards will eventually do that they have to compete with this monstrosity except to say that in the beginning of competitive play whichever racial DKs we have at each spec are what we have, no more, no less...so if the Unholy heroes are "bad racially" then thats what you are stuck with to play this rediculous board sweeper. Again, I just cannot fathom how Ally based mid range aggro control decks can possibly compete with DKs in the environment any longer.

Call of the Grove-Deathrattle is insane, period. The fact that you get extra use from the Ring of Blood: Brokentoe, The Ring of Blood: The Warmaul Champion, The Darkmoon Faire, and/or The Darkness Calling is just nuts. If you know me, you know I love Brokentoe regardless in control decks because no control deck has 60 cards that are just stellar at all times, so pitching one early and then drawing more cards later, is always a good trade off. Now we get a cycle of cards that benefit from this use?! And we get other cards that are more powerful in the Graveyard instead of in your hand?! i would take time to discuss Death Rattle but in general I feel that the card has to have merit on its own before you just play it for its Death Rattle ability. That being said, Call of the Grove sucks.

Nourish-I hate cards like this..theydo zero the turn they come into play and need a turn to become active, or they need extra work on your part..horray..I am not a fan of this card, but i recognize its sheer power with both the new Mend abilites and HOTs such as Regrowth. I just feel at the 3 slot, you need to be a more active card.

Buzz- I love this pet. It is just so modular. So you have a 5/5 for 5 that comes into play and destroys and equipment, something Hunters were severly lacking in. Then you have a 5/5 body that beats down, and when/if it is destroyed, you get to kill a weapon! How is that not a 3 for 1 against certain decks in the environment? That is only if you play the pet fairly! At other times in the game, Buzz will act as a modified Crushing Blow, say when you have another Pet already in play. Then there is the Death Rattle ability, as discussed above, which is very easy to pull off with quests, giving you essentially a free weapon destruction ability. Overall Buzz is just a very well designed, needed pet. The card is just too modular and adaptive to not find a home in constructed play.