Naolin Sunsurge and Ka'Lai the Uplifting

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means, preview cards. It's nice to get to talk about something new, which we don't get to do a lot of right now in World of Warcraft, being between Regionals and between sets, so it's nice to get to spice things up a bit. Today's preview cards are both pretty good. Before I get into the specifics, I'd like to say that if the preview cards so far give us any inclination of the power of Dark Portal as a whole (I know, when is that ever the case with preview cards) Heroes of Azeroth better make the most of its time in the sun because it's going to be sitting out for a while. Ok, moving on to this week's cards, for those who haven't seen them yet and are too lazy to go over there I give you

Naolin Sunsurge
Cost 4
3/2

Blood Elf Hero Required
When you play an ability for the first time on each of your turns, draw a card.
At the end of your turn, if you didn't play an ability this turn, destroy Naolin Sunsurge.

Ka'Lai the Uplifting
Cost 5
5/4

Draenei Hero Required

Other allies in your party have +1 ATK and +1 Health.

These two allies give us our first taste of racial spec'd allies. These guys are so powerful, they will only play for their own race. If the other Racial Spec'd allies are on this power level, deckbuilding is going to get really fun in about a month and a half. Ok, enough gushing over how powerful the next set is going to be based on 6 cards, let's talk about these guys specifically.

First up is Naolin. His stats aren't good enough for him to go into aggressive decks so he's going to be relegated to some kind of control. The addiction to abilities means he will probably want to go into a deck with a caster hero. The most likely races are Mage and Warlock. It's a good thing too, because those classes are sorely lacking in the card draw department. Oh wait, that's not right. The only real problem I see with this ally is that 2 in the bottom right corner. If they had simply switched his ATK and health he would be an easy inclusion in any kind of ability based Blood Elf deck. As a 1/4, he might have been reason enough to build such a deck, but 2/3 would have left him balanced. I think that he is a very well designed card. He has a pretty powerful effect but a small body for it. I think the Blood Elf requirement was probably restrictive enough to let this guy be a 2/3, but even as he is, he should still see play assuming the Blood Elves have anything playable.

Today's other preview card is really good. I'm going to say it right now, if this guy weren't race stamped, he would be in every Alliance deck except solo Paladins. The thing that makes this guy an absolute beast is his stats. His ability is very good, but when you combine with a 5/4 dude for only 5 resources, it's a flat out steal. His ability is good in either a rush deck or a control deck. In fact his ability can be pretty sick in conjuction with some pretty commonly used control cards. Rescue the Survivors makes guys that can actually deal damage? Nice. Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire makes 2/2 ferocious protectors? Seems good. Barov Peasant Caller and Are We There Yeti make 6 ATK each? Sign me up. Magni Bronzebeard? Yeah, that's fair. This guy is a beast. I actually think Ka'Lai could be just as powerful as Fury in a rush deck. Let's look at what you lose. Obviously you lose the 5 ATK of ferocity on turn 5. Or do you? For every ally you have in play, you get one point of ATK back. Obviously you will rarely have enough allies to get all the ATK on five that you would have with Fury, but you don't necessarily lose it all. But look what else you get. 4 Health. This is above the critical High Water Mark and pulls Ka'Lai out of the range of many commonly played abilities that will generally kill Fury. Here's a thought that might make you shudder. Just think what the Draenei Agrro Shaman deck is going to look like. No kidding.

Well, that's all I've got for today. Let's hope the previews keep getting better like they have each week so far.