Knights of the Frozen Throne is out, and I tried my hand at Arena for my first two runs.
Both of them were Priest, and I went 3-3 and 1-3, so not a good start. Here´s my first impressions
New cards I played
Necrotic Geist
I played with and against this in 5 games, and in 4 of them it produced major value and board presence. If played into a double trade situation you can basically force your opponent into killing it or face an army of replicating 2/2s. Not bad, but a little clunky.
Devour Mind
A bit weaker version of Cabalist´s Tome. I think it´s weaker because the variance is greater. On the other hand, you learn about 10% of your opponent´s total cards, which is valuable. Write them down, always.
Embrace Darkness
Horrible Card, as expected. The 4 mana discount off of Mind Control is not worth the pile of disadvantages this brings: It does nothing the turn you play it, it can be silenced before it goes off, your opponent can trade the minions away, and when you finally get it, it has summoning sickness. This last one kills the card, and I think you should avoid drafting it.
Tomb Lurker
You will find yourself in a situation where you topdeck this and think “Hmm, which deathrattle guys died this game?”. This is basically a late game card, because on-curve it loses to 2-drops and there is little chance for deathrattlers to die beforehand. Value-wise this should be okay if it triggers, even if you only get a Mistress of Mixtures or something.
Grim Necromancer
Filler card, Pick it if you must, but it´s nothing special. See Dragonling Mechanic
New neutral cards I played against
Bone Mare
A nightmare! This is one of the cards I expected to shake up arena play, and so far I´m not disappointed. 9/9 worth of stats, half of which has Charge and Taunt? Sign me up.
This is very similar to Firelands Portal in terms of value and tempo gained. You can go from one weak minion on the board to two threatening ones with only 7 mana.
Right now, Heartharena is not yet updated, but I suspect this will be above 90 points, which is really high for a neutral common.
Cobalt Dragonscale
5/5 for 5 is always playable, and if this triggers it´s a big pile of stats. And the opponent is forced to trade into the buffed minion. Good card.
Bone Drake
6/5 for 6 and drawing a card seems strong. With this and Cobalt Dragonscale, I am wondering if the dragon density is high enough for the Dragon Gamble in Priest draft :take a medium strength dragon such as Midnight Drake or Faerie Dragon early in the draft, to try and get Drakonid Operative / Netherspite Historian going.
Just an idea at the moment, probably a bad idea.
By itself, this card is obviously good value.
Mindbreaker
This seems decent and reminds me of Saboteur, 7 worth of stats for 3 mana and locking out the next hero power use of your opponent. Just make sure you can trade it away or work without your own hero power on the next turn.
Corpse Raiser
Also a strong card. This is somewhat similar to giving a minion divine shield before trading it. I think playing this on curve and simply trading 4-mana guys is actually really strong.
Class cards encountered
The class cards I encountered so far were nothing special.
Doomerang seems okay until you realize that you have to play weapon cards, most of which are bad.
Druid Of The Swarm might be good, 1/5 aggro stopper or soft removal in the late game.
Runeforge Haunter seems pointless. Again, do we really want to draft Weapon Rogue? 🙂
Breath of Sindragosa might be strong, it kills many 2- and most 1-drops. Need more data.
First thoughts on the Meta
My first impression of the meta is that again, long term value play is rewarded. Between the Taunts and the new lifesteal mechanic going for an aggressive strategy seems risky.
stdOut 