Fires of Outland Previews

It seems like just yesterday we were talking about the first round of Through the Dark Portal previews and here we are now getting our first taste of Fires of Outland. I, personally am hoping for some good control stuff to balance out the game a little bit, but I'm sure most of you already knew that. We actually got 4 previews today, so I'll just get right to it letting you know what I think of them.

First up is Shawn of the Dead

Horde Ally
Cost: 5
ATK/Health: 5/3

When Shawn of the Dead attacks, you may put an ally card from target opponent's graveyard into play under your control.

If you swtiched Shawn's stats, he would probably be busted. As he is I think he's got a lot of potential. There are a couple of things worth noting here. First, his ability triggers when he attacks. He doesn't have to deal damage to an opposing hero, just attack. This also means you get the guy immediately. This means if you get a Ka'lai or something similar, Shawn will have the bonus for that attack.

I could see this ally making it into a lot of Horde decks. He will have his uses in both rush decks as a top end of the curve to recycle all the protectors your control playing opponent has used on you early in the game. He also poses in immediate problem for Pagatha decks that like to drop a Lok'helar into their graveyard for recursion. Notice also, that he has no drawback to the ally such as coming in with damage on it, going away when Shawn leaves play, or you needing to have the requisite amount of resources to have played him.

I can also see this guy going into protector heavy control decks. If you can run this guy out against an aggressive deck and get him one attack, he can start ressurecting their army to fight for you. He will be especially good against Horde decks where you can take their guys with Ferocity.

His 3 health is a concern as that opens him up to many of the removal spells in the game and also a lot of the allies as well, but like I said earlier if his stats were reversed, he might be too good.

Our next doesn't suck either.

Latro's Shifting Sword
Cost: 4
Used by:Rogue, Hunter, Warrior
ATK: 3
Strike: 2

Your hero has dual wield.
You pay (2) less to strike with other swords.

There were a lot of people who were ready to declare dual wield the best card in Dark Portal when it was new. There were several problems with Dual Wield that made it rather ineffective and just not that good really. Fast forward to Latro's Shifting Sword and we have a much better dual wielding ability. This is only one of a cycle of weapons that have dual wielding built in. This removes the two biggest problems with the card Dual Wield. 1) The card disadvantage associated with getting Dual Wield blown up, and 2) The fact that you actually had to draw the Dual Wield and two different weapons to make it worthwhile (assuming of course it didn't immediately get blown up).

Latro's sword (and the rest of the cycle presumably) remove the card disadvantage as getting your ability to dual wield removed will require removing one of the weapons anyway. Also, you now just need to draw the two weapons with no need for the Dual Wield card as well since one of the weapons will now grant it instead.

There is a drawback though. You will stay have to pay extra for the ability to dual wield, as Latro's sword costs 4.

Now just remember all the cool stuff that everyone said about Dual Wield when it premiered in Dark Portal except now it actually has a chance. When you look at the classes who can use this, the Gorebelly aggro/combo decks seem like a natural fit as two weapons makes Heroic Strike ridiculous. Warrior control decks will probably still prefer a shield in their off-hand slot though.

I can also see Azarak control decks making use of these weapons. They now have the ability to play two melee weapons and a ranged weapon (Warriors have this ability as well, but only Bulkas uses it and I think they will stick with Shields unless one of the Dual Wield weapons is really good). Wraith Scythe will have all kinds of ways to trigger in Azarak decks now, which could mean good things for the Orc Hunter after U.S. Nationals.

I'm not really going to say anything about Rogues here. They've made some top 8's but they're still really the bottom class in the game. I know there are a lot of people who like Rogues, but every time I say something good about the class, they go and continue to suck.

Corki's Ransom
Quest

Put Corki's Ransom in it's owner's hand and pay (2) to complete this quest.

Reward: Draw a card.

This card is ridiculous. There's no reason to run an Alliance deck and not run this card. Once you get to the point in the game where you don't need anymore resources, this is simply an extra card every turn for two resources. Sadly, this is a great card for Phadalus decks. They may still want to ramp up to 9 resources to play Magni, but at the same time they get cheap, recurrable card draw in quest form. Cheap card draw in quest form is one of the main reasons rush decks are so good in this game. Go ahead and make it recurrable and indestructible and you've got a ridiculous card. It's going to be really good in control decks as well as they also like cheap recurrable card draw. The inability to keep playing resources and using the Ransom hurts the control decks far more than the rush decks since they will usually want more resources to work with, but that's still no reason not to play this quest. I have a feeling this may soon be considered the best quest in the game.

And finally:

Chen Stormstout
Ally
Cost: 7
ATK/Health: 6/6

When Chen Stormstout enters play, say "I bring PANDA-MONIUM!" and opposing allies can't attack this turn.

(3), Say "Another round?" --> Target ally can't attack this turn.

This guy's funny and the flavor is nice, but there's no way he's going to make it into any constructed deck.