Hearthstone has just released a bucket of new Warlock cards for the March of the Lich King expansion with exceptional Discard synergies. Check them out!
Today, DC Universe joined Hearthstone's March of the Lich King reveal season and introduced 5 new Warlock Discard cards. This new way of revealing cards in buckets intends to highlight their synergies and help creators and the community better assess them.
As part of that Hearthstone initiative Esports.gg will be reviewing today's March of the Lich King Warlock card bucket. DiscoWarlock is back! Or at least, there's a chance for that.
"At the risk of losing powerful spells and allies, Warlocks can embrace the chaotic nature of fel magic, discarding a random card from their hand to activate powerful effects or summon unnaturally powerful minions."
March of the Lich King's new Warlock cards
The first March of the Lich King Warlock card bucket Hearthstone released revisits part of the class identity: the Discard mechanic. With the ability to draw cards with its Hero Power, Warlocks don't suffer much from discards. However, how big of a pay-off do these new discard cards bring?
The heavy hitters
The two most robust cards revealed today, stat-wise at least, are Savage Ymirjar and Amorphous Slime. With the game becoming more and more board-centric, these 5-cost minions could help turn the scales in your favor.
Image via Blizzard
Image via Blizzard
The main problem is that they are part of a toolbox that needs to be completed to work. For Discard Warlock to succeed in today's Hearthstone, the March of the Lich King cards need to transform the Discard mechanic into a benefit, not a liability.
So, which Hearthstone Warlock cards in March of the Lich King can turn Discard into an advantage? So far, we see two examples that synergize perfectly with the above-mentioned minions: Walking Dead and Soul Barrage.
If instead of losing a card from your hand, the result of a discard becomes playing that card, you are transforming a negative into a positive. The Walking Dead and Savage Ymirjar have a remarkable interaction with Amorphous Slime. You can cheat a 5 Mana 7-7 with Rush, avoiding the negative Battlecry effect, or summon an extra body to the board, twice. However, synergies don't end there.
Amorphous Slime Undead-targeted discard can help you cheat out big minions in the mid-game. For example, Flesh Behemoth, a 9 Mana massive minion, can help you overwhelm your opponent while at the same time keep cycling your deck for more Undead pay-off minions.
Image via Blizzard
Any Hearthstone deck needs some kind of mana cheat, could this be enough for Discard Warlock to be viable in the March of the Lich King expansion? Well, there is one more piece that might turn this bunch of Discard cards into an archetype.
Scourge Supplies: new Discard-based Warlock card draw
So, this card might be the glue that holds the Discard Warlock archetype together during the March of the Lich King Hearthstone expansion. For any Discard archetype to succeed, they need a superb card draw engine.
Image via Blizzard
In Karazhan's days, that was Malchezaar's Imp. Today the new Scourge Supplies could fill that void and even turn the discard into an advantage. Drawing 3 cards for 3 mana is something even zoo decks would take.
You are indeed discarding one of the draws. However, the card lets you choose which one. On top of that, you can discard a Walking Dead or a Soul Barrage.
Other Hearthstone synergies for Discard Warlock
The Year of the Hydra Hearthstone Core set has some cards that might interest Warlock fans wanting to build a Discard archetype for the March of the Lich King expansion. None of them are as powerful as Doomguard, Soulfire or Malchezaar's Imp. However, when building this kind of archetype, any kind of redundancy is helpful.
Suffocating Shadows, from Murder at Castle Nathria expansion, stands out as the potentially most influential card to add to the mix. The tempo swing this Discard can provide can be game-winning with the correct setup. Moreover, it's one of those cards you want to include to have Discard targets.
Another good fit for the deck is High Priestess Jeklik from the Core set. This legendary provides multiple discard targets and value behind them. Other cards that might find a place in the deck, if the metagame allows it, are Spawn of Deathwing and Darkshire Librarian.
Will Discard Warlock be good in March of the Lich King expansion?
The million-dollar question. As always, the answer starts with "it depends". This Discard Warlock seems to be different from the zooish archetype that shined during One Night in Karazhan's adventure.
However, that isn't necessarily something inherently wrong. Slower, mid-range Hearthstone decks are performing well at the moment, maybe there is a place for Discard Warlock in the March of the Lich King expansion..
The keys to this deck's success can be summarized by the following points:
- Enough Discard synergies for consistency
- Good enough pay-offs to justify the Discard mechanic
- Superb draw engine to make everything work
Hearthstone's card library site marks a second Warlock card bucket full of March of the Lich King cards. It's still a mystery if it will support the same archetype. My gut says it will.
On top of that, we are still waiting for Warlock Class legendaries for the March of the Lich King Hearthstone expansion. Blizzard usually pushes archetypes in a way that most of the cards synergize with each other.
I'd love to see how these unique cards support the archetype. We will just need to wait until November 26th to discover that!
Thanks to the Hearthstone CM team for giving us the opportunity to review these March of the Lich King Warlock Cards. Make sure you check out DC Universe's reveal too!
That's all for now but stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in the Tavern.