Descent of Dragons is almost upon us. And the power level of this set is incredibly high. Watch any pro Hearthstone player review the cards as they are revealed and you’ll most likely hear the words “meta defining,” “game breaking,” “crazy good” and other positive descriptors. Some would even argue this set is stronger than most sets from the past, like Journey to Un’Goro and Knights of the Frozen Throne.
Meta Definers
There are several cards that will absolutely shape the way games are played, given their power and abilities. Things might not change until this set rotates out given how powerful these cards on. Honestly, some of them might even see play in Wild.
Priest came in with the bomb of the century. Murozond the Infinite. His ability replays all cards your opponent played last turn. So, if they decide to combo off and build a giant board or buff all their cards and don’t manage to kill you, they are in serious trouble. Murozond will obey the order of the cards played, meaning you can easily steal your opponent’s combo or even turn into their Galakrond and then turn into your Galakrond later. This makes choosing when to use your combo extremely deadly, since if you don’t outright kill the enemy, you risk your own combo coming back and hitting you in the face.
With Mage, they get Rolling Fireball, bringing back positioning as a vital part of the game. Granted it always has been, but now it becomes even more crucial. Similar to the days of Crushing Walls or Meteor. This card could easily sweep a board of tokens or just taking out a huge minion.
Perhaps the most terrifying card of the set is Dragonmaw Poacher. This four-mana minion can easily become an 8/8 with rush due to its ability. It gains the rush and the extra health and damage if the opponent has a dragon on their side. It would be a shame if most of the cards in this set were dragons. Oh, wait. With how many dragons that are in this set, this card will most likely always trigger its ability. And if your opponent doesn’t have any removal for it, they will be in an incredibly sticky situation.
Early Game
This set seems to favor early game and late game cards, letting the other sets fill in the mid game or just let it be completely non-existent. The late game are the obvious powerhouse dragons, but the early game cards might have a chance to make or break certain games depending on the matchup. For example, most mages will be slotting in Violet Spellwing since it is a solid one drop, but also gives you an Arcane Missiles card after it dies. Granted it could be silenced. But would your opponent really waste a silence ability on that of all cards?
For Hunter, they got the Dwarven Sharpshooter which will be an incredibly powerful addition to any Hunter deck. This card essentially allows Hunter to have an upgraded Mage Hero Power. We all saw how powerful that ended up being before Baku was Hall of Famed. This is even more prominent since tons of cards work off of Hunter’s Hero Power. So, putting this card into the deck would be an easy no-brainer, even in Highlander Hunter decks.
Almost every class got a solid one drop even if you exclude the Side Quests. Blazing Battlemage, Sky Raider, Surging Tempest, Bloodsail Flybooter, even Embiggen and Whispers of EVIL to name a few. All these one drops make the early game a bit more exciting. So now players and watchers of Hearthstone will no longer see a turn one pass and turn two hero power pass. They will get to see actual cards be played in the beginning and that leads to the bigger and tougher cards.
Overall
This set seems incredibly fun and powerful. And it isn’t the powerful that seems one-sided. Where one deck excels, another could come in and destroy them. This set looks to be very self-policed and should balance itself out.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
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