With the Hearthstone Championship Tour in Sydney this weekend, we’ve been going through some of the game’s more prominent cards and working out just which ones are true match winners. Today, it’s the Death Knight hero cards.
Introduced as part of the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion last August, the Death Knights are one of the most ambitious concepts ever trialled in Hearthstone – with the jury still out as to whether some of them are just plain overpowered.
We’ve had six months to test out the undead versions of the game’s nine heroes, so now it’s time to rank them from Death Knight supreme to DOA.
Unlike the legendary weapons we looked at yesterday, there are no bad Death Knights.
The replacement Hunter hero can prove devastating when used in the right situation, especially as an emergency lifesaver, but presents too much of an about-face strategy wise to be useful in most other circumstances.
The loss of constant and reliable face damage goes against what the Hunter class specialises in. While the new hero power allows you to play beasts with ridiculous abilities, it doesn’t reduce their cost by a great deal and often sees you sacrificing crucial late-game tempo to get them on the board.
Blizzard seems intent on making control Hunter a thing, so this card may yet get strong tools to help bump it up in the future. For now, it’s good, but certainly not an auto-include.
Scourgelord Garrosh comes with a unique and very powerful weapon, while the new hero power it provides is perfect at activating any enrage minions or getting good value from minions that do something when they survive damage – two things the Warrior has ample access too.
The problem here is that playing Scourgelord Garrosh cuts off your most reliable supply of armour, something you’ll want a lot of if you plan on using that weapon.
Once the weapon is gone, that’s the Death Knight’s influence more or less over too, with the replacement hero power also proving unhelpful in some circumstances.
Like many current Shaman mechanics, there’s a great deal of randomness involved when it comes to Thrall, Deathseer.
While the capacity for the battlecry to backfire is limited, given the Shaman already has access to overpowered minions thanks to overload, the chance of the new hero power backfiring or doing little is quite high.
The Shaman Death Knight is also perhaps the only such card in the game that has good or bad times to play it, with the others a safe play at almost any time.
That said, if you do strike gold with the battlecry, this card proves outrageously powerful for its low cost.
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Uther of the Ebon Blade’s biggest strength is the lifesteal weapon it equips – arguably one of the most dangerous weapons in the game.
At 5/3, it can be used as an almost risk-free board clear or simply punishing face damage for three straight turns. Simply put, it’s a genuine match-turner.
As good as the weapon is, the rest of the Paladin Death Knight’s arsenal is somewhat lacking. The hero power, despite its raw power, is quite gimmicky and often very difficult to actually reap the benefits from.
The card also provides no minion buffs – normally a Paladin staple – and, like the Warrior, sees its influence largely gone once the weapon has been exhausted.
Valeera the Hollow is perhaps the most unique of the Death Knight heroes, granting the Rogue stealth for a full turn while also replacing Dagger Mastery with the only playable passive hero power in the game.
Making your hero untargetable for a full turn has obvious benefits, but it’s the new hero power, Shadow Reflection, which has the potential to be meta-defining down the track.
Adding a copy of the card you just played to your hand can make for some crazy combos, especially when you consider how many cheap legendaries the Rogue has access to – imagine an 8/8 and a 10/10 Edwin VanCleef.
This card is arguably still being figured out, but don’t be surprised if it becomes a buildaround in the near future.
While not initially viewed as a game-changer upon reveal, Malfurion the Pestilent has, so far, stood the test of time as an important weapon in any control Druid deck.
The Druid’s trademark choice mechanic is where this card’s strength lies, with the option of summoning two poisonous spiders or two scarabs with taunt an extremely effective roadblock to any unfavourable minion comp your opponent has on the board.
Additionally, the choice of gaining three armour or attack each turn allows the Druid Death Knight to clear many small to medium threats without fear of suffering too much face damage.
The loss of Fandral Staghelm to wild format soon will hurt this card, but for now it’s an extremely effective late-game turnaround.
Up until Raza the Chained was nerfed, this was undoubtedly the number one Death Knight.
It’s still an incredibly strong combination of emergency boardclear turned powerful knockout, however, making it an auto-include for any Priest player.
The Priest is set to suffer some big losses once the set rotation takes place, but some of Shadowreaper Anduin’s biggest allies in Lyra the Sunshard and Prophet Velen are here to stay – meaning it will stay near the top of the Death Knight power rankings for some time.
Bloodreaver Gul’dan’s viability was widely questioned upon his reveal, namely due to the card’s high cost and seemingly lacklustre battlecry.
Post Kobolds and Catacombs, however, this card has seen its power level skyrocket – thanks largely to the Voidlord.
In combination with Carnivorous Cube, Bloodreaver’s demon resurrect can create an insurmountable wall of taunt in the game’s late stages, while the vastly improved lifesteal hero power keeps the Warlock relatively safe from spells too.
With very few important tools leaving the Warlock collection in April, this card’s grip on one of the top spots is only set to get tighter.
Debate has raged since day one – literally – as to whether Frost Lich Jaina is simply too overpowered in its current form.
I tend to agree, with the summoning of the best four-mana minion in the game (now with lifesteal), the ability to generate that same minion again by picking off weaker enemies and the addition of lifesteal to any elemental your deck is running making the Mage Death Knight nigh unbeatable.
Combined with the Mage’s already vast collection of powerful spells, this combination proves to be a winner almost every time it’s played.
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