Hello everyone. This expansion finally dragged me back to Hearthstone, so I figure I might join you guys and see if I can stick around for a while. The new cards look pretty fun and I'm excited to try them out. I wanted to give some thoughts on a few of them though that don't necessarily go with the common perception. Perhaps I'm thinking about it wrong.
Rhok'delar - Unplayable and barely good even in spell hunter. Ignoring the fact that there aren't the cards for this right now, in a few expansions maybe there could be. Even at that point, this will not be good due to the high amount of garbage spells hunter has. This card won't be worth playing in the deck it's made for.
Lynessa Sunsorrow - The best legendary of the expansion. Control Paladin is tier 2 right now, honestly, and next expansion it will run two buffs: Spikeridged Steed and Potion of Heroism. These two alone will be enough to make Lynessa viable in that deck. She's going to be very strong.
Val'anyr - Very decent. Probably among the best weapons. Sure, it can be silenced but very few decks run silence and whatever this buffs will not even necessarily be the best target for that silence. Not sure it's playable, but I think it's good.
Potion of Heroism - This is going to be one of the best spells ever made. Incredibly strong. Allows you to trade and keep your minion while cycling. It allows so much more value than something like PWS, which is already run in just about every Priest deck ever made. This will definitely see play.
Psychic Scream - This card will not see play. It's expensive and while it clears the board, it gives everything back to your opponent in their deck. Since Priest is going to be running a bunch of big minions that are pretty decent, giving them to your opponent in the late game will likely see them be excellent top decks for your opponent. All this will do is stall the game and, at 7 mana, just give your opponent a chance to fill the board again. It's enough to put aggro to bed, but it's not enough for other archetypes. Priest doesn't need this. Drakefire Potion is much better.
Sonya Shadowdancer - Second best legendary of the set. Rogue runs a ton of minions that may stick around because, on board, they're not much of a threat. She'll be able to capitalize on this. Even if she does become played a lot and opponents work to make sure she can't trigger, that means they're making otherwise inopportune plays just to play around her. She's definitely playable. Might make it into current tempo rogue lists.
Kingsbane - Overrated. Rogue doesn't have the cards to do fatigue matchups generally, and that's really where this belongs. It's good in theory, but really it's not wonderful. The rogue card that searches a weapon isn't enough to make this viable. You'd need to use a lot of buffs on it and see it coming back multiple times. I think you'd lose before that happens in most matchups.
Elven Minstrel - Card draw in Rogue that is actually decent. Finally. This won't see play this expansion but keep an eye out for it next year. If Rogue gets a decent heal, this guy is going to play a part in the rise of some kind of control Rogue.
Zola the Gorgon - Third best legendary and another buff to Rogue. She's like a better Shadowcaster, which was just a bit too expensive to be viable. She doesn't have that issue. You can make a lot of strong plays using her. Very good. Also viable in other control decks. I believe she will undoubtedly see play.
Overall, I think they've set Rogue up to become potentially dominant next year (and still very good this expansion). Paladin is going to be a bit stronger. I do agree that Priest is going to be very strong, but not oppressively so. Dragon Priest wasn't great before. Now it will be viable but not overpowering and likely still not the best Priest archetype. The best card by far for priest was the dragon that board wipes as that will allow Dragon Priest to hurt aggro like it used to with its army of taunts.
