We’re a week behind on these now, as I had to use last week’s column to get some time-sensitive feedback out on an important Marvel Heroes update. In any case, Week Three was only significant in that it opened up the potential for Dragon Paladin, but let’s still dig through it and talk about the wing and new cards.
Blackrock Spire
As the weeks roll on, I’m seriously wondering if adventure modes are worth it for Hearthstone. Guaranteed cards coming with PvE content is an interesting novelty, but when I can finish a wing and its challenges in half of a lunch break, it can be a bit frustrating waiting for the next wing. I’m not a Legend player, but I doubt that even casual players are having a hard time with these wings. I thought perhaps they would be getting harder from week to week, but Blackrock Spire is just the next easy wing I’ve been able to mindlessly clear.
Highlord Omokk is the first boss of the wing and his hero power allows him to destroy a random minion. Simple enough, just look to use a deck comprised of cards that gain high value immediately when played. Basically, it’s a face race.
General Drakkisatth isn’t really a challenge; he’s more of a fantasy fulfillment fight. This guy’s hero power makes all cards cost one mana and gives you two mana to play with. This lets you create some crazy off the wall decks full of high mana cost spells and minions and just go completely nuts. I filled my deck with giants and all the craziest legendary cards I could and just went to town on this guy. It was a fun, but again, mindless fight.
Finally, some semblance of a challenge appeared in the wing boss of Rend Blackhand. Blackhand’s hero power changes constantly throughout the fight and allows him to summon a variety of different minions. Your best bets here are decent AoE board clear options and a deck with solid tempo to ensure that you can keep up with his craziness.
This week’s notable new cards are the Dragon Consort (yeah!) and, well, that’s about it. Class cards such as Twilight Whelp (Priest) and Volcanic Lumberer (Druid) just don’t really do much for their respective classes. The Hunter’s new card, Core Rager, is absolutely useless. As I said earlier, aside from the Paladin’s Dragon Consort, Week Three was a complete dud.
The community seems to be still trying to figure out if Rend Blackhand is of any use, but to me, I can only see this card being useful as, ironically, anti-Dragon tech. Powerful dragons such as Ysera and Chromaggus aren’t vulnerable to the tried-and-true Big Game Hunter, so Rend could possibly find a spot in players’ own dragon decks to use in mirror matches. I’m not especially convinced, though.
Here Come the Dragons
I don’t feel Week Three made any significant impacts on the meta. Most of the cards released weren’t all that good, but I immediately went to work on my Dragon Paladin deck once I got my hands on Dragon Consort and even with many dragons left to go at the time of Week Three’s release, I had a surprising amount of success with just the addition of this card. What I ended up doing was taking the standard cookie cutter midrange Paladin deck and tweaking it to include cards like Blackwing Technician, Dragon Consort, Ysera, Alexstraza, and so on. I also put in Faerie Dragons, which really didn’t fare too badly for me at the time. This deck let me cruise up the ladder pretty quickly. There’s a lot of potential in Dragon Paladin and the synergy will only improve from week to week. Midrange Paladin was already pretty decent and Dragons are turning out to be a fine addition to the deck type.
What did you think of Week Three of Blackrock Mountain? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
