We are just a week away from the release of the Rise of Shadows. Every class Legendary with the exception of one Shaman Legendary has been revealed now. This time reveals Legendaries for Druid, Rogue and Priest. They are Lucentbark, Tak Nozwhisker and Catrina Muerte.
A Druid class Legendary minion, Lucentbark looks to be a component of a new Druid archetype. Restoration Druid seems to be a new deck on the horizon, with all of the new printed health gain cards. Lucentbark
synergizes with the archetype, as he is an eight mana 4/8 Taunt minion that will be resurrected every time you restore five health.
In terms of tempo, it’s not a very good card to be playing for eight mana. The benefit of the Druid class is that they have mana ramping tools with Wild Growth and Nourish. So there are times you play a 4/8 Taunt on turn six which isn’t so bad. At least Lucentbark has taunt, and the value later on in the game becomes very significant.
The new set added two new cards that let Druid gain health with Crystal Power and Dreamway Guardians. We might also see a returning of Ancient of Lore to the meta if this archetype actually shows some viability. It’s hard to say if the deck will have enough late game value to contend with other Control decks, but it shows promise against aggressive archetypes.
The new Rogue Legendary is a seven mana 6/6 minion that for every copy of a card that gets shuffled into
your deck, it also goes into your hand. This is quite a powerful effect as it effectively doubles the number of playable cards you have. It also gives you copies instantly instead of having to draw it out of the deck.
Right off the bat this card has synergy with the also newly printed Togwaggle’s Scheme. Not only can you get a bunch of copies of a good minion into your deck, but also into your hand. On powerful cards with healing effects or damage effects, this is a valuable resource to Rogue.
One major drawback of the card is that it costs seven mana. That’s a late turn for Rogue, especially since they lack any defensive options. Most of the time Rogues need to do something powerful on turn seven whereas Tak Nozwhisker occupies an entire turn to utilize him properly.
The reveal video showed him being combined with Preparation and Academic Espionage. This is also a very interesting combo, as it adds a bunch of one mana cards to your hand. It’s still very RNG based, so sometimes you just don’t get cards you need. Tak has the potential for power, but just might not make the cut in a competitive deck.
Priests will continue to be stuck with the Resurrection archetype for time to come. Catrina Muerte is an eight mana 6/8 minion that resurrects friendly minions that died this game at the end of your turn. Similar to Kel’Thuzad in some ways but still acting differently.
Along with Catrina Muerte, the card Mass Resurrection was also printed in the Rise of Shadows set for Priest. It simply resurrects three friendly minions that died this game. This definitely suggests the idea that players should continue to make decks that have few, high value minions and resurrect them for late game value.
Priest is a class that usually has to rely on defensive tools, so Catrina will likely be used in decks similar to the current Wall Priest. The Spellstone in Priest and Eternal Servitude both rotate out next week. So, Mass Resurrection and Catrina serve as replacements for those tools. It’s hard to say if the archetype will still be a solid choice but for now it will probably have its place in the new meta.
Check out all of the Rise of Shadows cards as they get revealed here.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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