Doomguard and Arcane Torrent

For anyone who checks the main World of Warcraft TCG page, you have surely seen the 2 preview cards from the upcoming expansion Through the Dark Portal-Doomguard and Arcane Torrent. For anyone who hasn't seen these cards yet:

Doomguard
Warlock Pet
Cost 7
ATK:8 Health:8

When Doomguard enters play, choose at random a friendly hero or ally other than Doomguard, then destroy that character.

At the end of your turn, destroy target opposing ally.

Arcane Torrent
Instant Ability (Horde only)
Cost 3

Blood Elf Hero Required

Interrupt all other abilities. Opponents can't play abilities this turn.

With no knowledge of other cards in the set, let's take a look at how these may interact with cards we already have and the metagame we are in right now.

The two most important words to remember on Doomguard are hero and random. The first time I read him, I conveniently skipped over the hero part and immediately thought the guy was incredibly busted. Then I re-read it and saw the part where he can cause you to just randomly lose. That's not something I'm a big fan of, but let's look at what he can do should he stick around. If you don't immediately lose the game upon Doomguard's arrival, you should win it pretty quickly afterward. The guy is a Vanquish machine trapped in an 8/8 body. If your opponent doesn't deal with him quickly, he will see his best ally killed at the end of every turn. Doomguard also gives the Horde a true top-end ally to combat the big hitters the Alliance currently has, though only for the Warlock. From an Alliance Warlock perspective, I just don't see this guy getting much play. At a cost of 7, he is in that upper echelon of game finishers. The problem of course is that the Alliance already has several high-end allies that are gamebreakers and don't have the ability to randomly kill you. Some Warlock players who like to push the envelope may play Doomguard as a one-of to tutor for with The Missing Diplomat in games that look like they're slipping away. In this situation, Doomguard can take a game it looks like you're about to lose and swing it back in your favor. The problem with this theory is if you're losing you probably don't have many allies in play. He might actually have a better home on the Horde side, where you can play the somewhat gimmicky Valthak Spiritdrinker to make sure Doomguard doesn't off your hero, and where the Horde is somewhat lacking in high-end allies. If two control decks go long, Doomguard definitely has the ability to win stalemates over any of the Alliance biggies. I think this card is incredibly powerful, but the drawback is probably significant enough to relegate to mostly casual decks and a few high-risk, high-reward Warlock builds. The biggest problem here is that you need a lot of allies to make his drawback as minimal as possible. The more allies you have, the more likely you are to be winning. If you're already winning, why risk the game by playing this guy. If you're in a game that you feel like you need Doomguard to bring you back, well you probably only have one or two allies meaning Doomguard will end these games in favor of your opponent at least 1/3 of the time.

Now let's move along to Arcane Torrent. This one is racial spec'd to the Blood Elves. So far, we have no idea which races the Blood Elves will represent in this set. We do already have a Blood Elf Mage from the Burning Crusade cards. First let's look at the card itself. It interrupts an ability (maybe more than one if you're lucky) and shuts your opponent out of abilities for the rest of the turn. Right now, there are only two interrupt abilities in the game, Shield Bash and Counterspell. IMO, Shield Bash is far better since it can be played for free and is more active in the deck that plays it. The Shield Bashes are in Gorebelly decks to force through their Mortal Strikes and Heroic Strikes when the time comes to combo the opponent. The Mage generally plays Counterspells as a catch-all to stop deadly abilities. 90% of the time this card will be inferior to the 2 previous interrupts when used as an interrupt. The majority of the time it will interrupt one ability. The block on abilities is unlikely to have a major impact on the turn since they can still play instants in response. The overlooked ability here is the chance to use this as an Abeyance. For instance, a Hunter could play this first and then know that his opponent has no answers for his Aimed Shot (assuming all those cards can legally go in the same deck) This versatility will make this card a lot better. The ability of aggressive decks to use this card both reactively and proactively will make it a staple in aggressive Blood Elf builds essentially allowing 8 cards to be put into 4 deck slots. Since I don't play the MMO, I don't even know which races the Blood Elves could be. A quick trip over to the official site though shows us that the possibilities are Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock. Now the question is what would each of these classes do if given an interrupt ability. The Mage (which is one of the heroes we know will be Blood Elf) already has access to the more efficient Counterspell. The only reason I could see them running Arcane Torrent too is if some ability based combo deck comes out of the next set. That would give the Mage 8 interrupts, one of which could stop abilities from being played the rest of the turn. The Hunter could so some scary things with an interrupt. Shutting off Frost Novas and other spells that decimate their board could really give the Hunters a boost. The Paladin (the other hero we know will be a Blood Elf) doesn't really look like it will need this card. It already really has enough prevention. It doesn't stop the Paladins current worst enemy, Medoc + Moira. It could be sideboarded in vs. Warrior combo decks, but other than that the Paladin really already has better tools at his disposal. Horde Priests could probably put this card to pretty good use in a decent mid-range type deck. Rogues are awful and will need a lot of help before they become playable. The Horde Warlock could make good use out of this card as it will make the Gorebelly matchup so much better.

There should be a new preview card every Friday. I will try my best to review each one the next Monday from now until the previews either get more frequent or the set gets released. Until then, take care.