hearthstone Hearthside Chat with Matt Place: Four Reveals Including Two Death Knights

[L0rinda 307]

Senior Designer Matt Place has revealed four new cards in a Hearthside Chat Video.

In the video, Matt reveals the Druid and the Paladin Death Knights, as well as a card from each class.

The lore behind the cards is explained in the video, so let's take a look at the cards themselves.

(Images: Hearthpwn)

Malfurion's Death Knight seems unimpressive in the extreme, but we should bear in mind the sent out earlier today by Iksar regarding Webweave (Which is the same as Malfurion's effect)

Iksar

Fun fact. This card was at (4) until near the end of final design. Was one of the more powerful cards in the set. (Source)

If this is even close to being accurate - and considered comments from the design team usually are - then Malfurion the Pestilent may be significantly better than he looks. It is also worth noting that Malfurion's Hero Power will work with Fandral Staghelm.

(Image: Hearthpwn)

Druid of the Swarm offers a strong choice. As the options are very different to each other, with the Taunt taking care of small wide boards, and the Poisonous minion posing a threat to large minions, this might be a playable card due to it's huge versatility.

(Image: Hearthpwn)

Uther's Death Knight brings an alternate win condition to the game, and I am a big fan of alternate win conditions as they add interest and an element of fun when they are complete. This one seems like it will almost never go off, but it is possible with Auctionmaster Beardo to do it as a combo, and someone, somewhere, will make that work at least once. On a more serious note, the fact your opponent has to slow down and actually kill the 2/2 minions each turn will also have some tactical implications against other Control decks.

(Image: Hearthpwn)

Blackguard looks to be one of the best cards in the set. It is difficult to remove, which means that it will get to use its ability on a regular basis. Even small amounts of extra damage from Truesilver Champion will add up over the course of a game, and that is before you account for the huge healing that Paladins will no doubt combine with Blackguard. 

One of the problems with cards like Lay on Hands has always been the turn you have to miss to cast it. If you're shooting a random minion for 8 damage at the same time, a lot of that downside is removed.

For a full list of previously revealed cards, as well as all of the information about the new expansion, check out our Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion hub.

[VaraTreledees 138]

I actually think Malfurion looks pretty strong.  At 7 mana it gives you either ~16 health (15 if they can kill your wall perfectly which they probably can't) on top of upgrading your hero power significantly, or against control match ups, 2 spiders that can have a fairly major impact on the board.  Worst case scenario, you get 5 armor, a better hero power and you force your control opponent to waste at least 3 mana clearing your scurry spiders.  3 armor a turn is no joke against burn decks and 3 attack deals with a significant number of threats quite well.  He is somewhat unassuming, but I think one of the stronger death knights in the set, next to anduin and maybe valeera (I think in a vacuum rexxar is the strongest, hunter just doesn't support it well enough).

 

As for uther, I mean he is super cool, but probably only worth it for the memes.  Paladin already has enough high end threats that this probably won't see play, I love the design but it might be the weakest of the death knights revealed so far.  (for the record I think Uther and Rexxar are probably going to be the two weakest, Anduin and Mal probably the strongest with Jaina firmly in the middle and Valeera is either going to be incredibly strong or just kind of meh.  The shadow reflection power level is sort of hard to judge without playing with it but if it turns out to not be incredibly strong, its going to be somewhat awkward to play and a 9 mana card that generates awkwardness will probably end up just being bad).

 

As for the other 2 cards, the druid might just see some play, a 5 health wall isn't that bad vs aggro, especially since you can use your hero power to trade into a lot of aggro threats, and it isn't completely dead vs control, the 1 attack on the taunt might just hinder it too much though.  6 stats for 2 mana just seems strong even if they are distributed rather poorly.  The paladin one looks amazing.  Might actually make life steal incredibly strong for paladins.  The only thing is this probably doesn't proc when you are at full life, which could make it significantly weaker then it appears.  Spending 6 mana to play it against an aggro deck is probably not a viable line of play, and if you can't get any value out of it in a control match up, it just sort of leaves it as a dead card.  Then again, with an effect that powerful on a very generously statted 6 drop it is hard to imagine it won't find a home somewhere.  

[Taan 46]

6 hours ago, VaraTreledees said:

I actually think Malfurion looks pretty strong.

I agree. All this flexibility is worth a lot and we have already seen, that getting a lot of armor each turn can be useful...the only catch is, that I can't really think about a druid-deck, that the Malfurion-Deathknight fits in.

 

6 hours ago, VaraTreledees said:

As for uther, I mean he is super cool, but probably only worth it for the memes.

On this one I have to disagree. Uther seems very powerful to me, at first glance. Paying 9 Mana to get 5 Armor and (more importantly) get a 5/3 LIFESTEAL weapon seems super powerful. You basically get 20 life and 15 damage with this alone...and than the heropower: getting a 2/2 every turn, is more than twice as powerful than the normal paladin-heropower, even without the additional wincondition.

I think the strange Exodia-Wincondition is pretty fun, but will probably be to hard to pull of...but my point is, that the Paladin-Deathknight is powerful enough, even without it.

[Zadina 923]

I agree that Malfurion looks strong too and I think he will see play. So far he's the cheapest DK mana-wise. I am bad.

Malfurion just had the misfortune to be released along with Uther, who looks OP on paper. I mean even the weapon equip alone is enough! However, I do think its hero power is very slow, yet the meta looks like it will slow down anyway.

[positiv2 952]

46 minutes ago, Zadina said:

So far he's the cheapest DK mana-wise.

I don't think I understand. Thrall is 5 mana and Rexxar is 6. Shouldn't Thrall be the cheapest DK mana-wise?

[Zadina 923]

Derp didn't remember well then. No need to be so harsh as always -_-

[Valks 2,375]

1 hour ago, Zadina said:

Derp didn't remember well then. No need to be so harsh as always -_-

This is Icy Veins, not Warm Cuddles!

[positiv2 952]

5 hours ago, Zadina said:

Derp didn't remember well then. No need to be so harsh as always -_-

Sorry if I came across as hostile or harsh, that was not my intent. You can always check the KFT hub for future reference if needed!

[VaraTreledees 138]

On 8/7/2017 at 2:20 AM, Taan said:

I agree. All this flexibility is worth a lot and we have already seen, that getting a lot of armor each turn can be useful...the only catch is, that I can't really think about a druid-deck, that the Malfurion-Deathknight fits in.

 

On this one I have to disagree. Uther seems very powerful to me, at first glance. Paying 9 Mana to get 5 Armor and (more importantly) get a 5/3 LIFESTEAL weapon seems super powerful. You basically get 20 life and 15 damage with this alone...and than the heropower: getting a 2/2 every turn, is more than twice as powerful than the normal paladin-heropower, even without the additional wincondition.

I think the strange Exodia-Wincondition is pretty fun, but will probably be to hard to pull of...but my point is, that the Paladin-Deathknight is powerful enough, even without it.

Yeah but 9 mana is a very bad mana slot, in the sense that you are basically playing a weaker 10 mana card with the only benefit being that it can come into play 1 turn earlier.  If you don't play it exactly on turn 9, it will still take up your entire turn, you can't really do anything else with 1 extra mana.  On top of that, Paladins also have a lot of strong top of the curve threats, plus the new lich king.  This card plays very heavily into the old trueheart style of control deck that was mainly about exhausting your opponent of resources rather then generating a huge swing turn with N'Zoth, or pressuring your opponent out with die insect.  I mean sure this card auto wins you vs control mage, but that was already a highly favored match up with the amount of healing paladin packs.