The entire Whispers of the Old Gods expansion has now been revealed, and will be released this week. I’d like to take this time to look over the set and pick out some of the cards that I believe will be overpowered – or extremely powerful – in the upcoming set, and within Standard format as a whole.
1. Twin Emperor Vek’Lor
With Dr. Boom rotating out, the seven slot is conspicuously open for most decks. With Twin Emperor Vek’Lor creating both himself and a duplicate with the same stats, he creates a formidable 8/12 worth of stats, with taunt, across two bodies, for seven mana. It is highly resistant to removal, while also stopping most decks in their tracks. Think of Druid of the Claw, but two of them for only two more mana, and in a single card. This is one of those cards where the value and tempo are both off the charts, and the activator is incredibly easy for any decent C’Thun deck. Emperor Seven is here.
2. Ragnaros Lightlord
Ragnaros returns in full force! Not only is Ragnaros the Firelord much better with so many token generators disappearing, but his twin Ragnaros, Lightlord has appeared. The Lightlord is absolutely amazing. Unlike the Firelord, the Lightlord can easily be manipulated into hitting a specific target, making it extremely consistent. It may be forced to attack, unlike its brethren, but it is such a board-swing card that it easily makes up for this issue. If you are able to stick one on the board you can also attack with it and have it heal itself. An amazing card in every aspect. Especially with the Big Game Hunter nerfs that just rolled out.
3. Flamewreathed Faceless
This card is off-the-charts good. Especially with Big Game Hunter receiving a nerf hard enough that he can’t even answer this the same turn. I can’t see Flamewreathed Faceless not being a staple in every Shaman deck, and I would also be shocked if it doesn’t push Shaman into Tier One all by itself. Imagine trying to answer this coined out on turn three. I think this might be the strongest card in the set.
4. Eternal Sentinel
As the Faceless monster above has proven, Shaman is in a great place for the next expansion. I thought of highlighting their spectacular cards like Hallazeal the Ascended or Master of Evolution, but I think the thing that Shaman decks really lacked was a way to mitigate their Overload. Now they can easily play massive overload cards like Elemental Destruction, or even moderately priced ones like Feral Spirits, and with both Eternal Sentinel and Lava Shock in Standard, they will almost always find a way to mitigate their Overload.
5. Faceless Summoner
The value on this card is only matched by the tempo it brings. In all fairness, this card doesn’t suit a lot of the Mage decks that will be appearing over the next few weeks. However, this card is so incredibly overpowered for arena that I had to include it. Pairing incredibly strong cards with their amazing board clear, I’ll be surprised if Mage isn’t first place in arena win rates over the next few months. And who knows, this certainly could see play in some Tempo Mage decks as well.
6. Doomsayer
There were also some big winners from the older sets, and Doomsayer is probably the biggest of them all. He was already a staple of many high level decks, with his only huge downfall being silence abilities. Now that silence just received a large nerf, this guy is out in force, predicting everyone’s doom. Freeze Mage decks will be a force to reckon with simply because of the Frost Nova + Doomsayer combo, now that it is so much harder to clear. Seems like Doomsayer has a good reason to be Validated!
7. The Black Knight
The Black Knight has been a rarely seen tech card for years. Whenever it sees play, it often manages to swing matches single-handedly. Now that the meta has slowed down enough for him to be played more consistently, it’s hard to imagine him not being a staple of decks, particularly since Big Game Hunter has disappeared, meaning many decks are in need of removal. With so many massive taunt creatures out there, The Black Knight looks like he may finally have found his time to shine.
8. Cairne Bloodhoof
Cairne Bloodhoof is one of the cards that used to be incredibly powerful but fell off as the meta got faster. Now that the meta is set to slow down, the incredible value packed inside Cairne will have a chance to shine once more. He is even stronger with the silence nerf, as he is one of very few incredibly strong Deathrattle minions remaining. He also becomes more likely off of Museum Curator and the new Rogue card Journey Below, meaning he’ll see quite a bit of play even without being in decks.