Every Hearthstone fan has been glued to their computers, waiting to see what cards are going to be revealed for the next expansion, Knights Of The Frozen Throne . There have been some really weird card releases, from Meat Wagon , which summons a random minion with less attack from your deck, to Embrace Darkness , which takes control of an enemy minion at the start of your turn. It’s great to see the guys at Blizzard push the envelope of what cards they can make, breaking preexisting boundaries that limit traditional card games. Since Hearthstone is all online, Team 5 can do some incredible stuff, besides Ben Brode rapping about the Lich King of course.
The newest card from Knights Of The Frozen Throne that everyone online is freaking out about is Archbishop Benedictus . The seven-mana Priest Legendary adds a copy of your opponent’s deck to your own deck. Priest used to just steal a few cards with Thoughtsteal or Crystalline Oracler , but now Anduin can take over your opponent’s entire identity. It’s like Arch Thief Rafaam decided he was done raiding tombs and focused his life’s work on becoming a corrupt healer. This card brings a whole new level of insanity to Hearthstone .
We aren’t entirely sure how Benedictus Cumberbatch is going to work, but that’s half the fun of card reveals. We can assume that it won’t take your opponent’s entire deck that they started the game with, instead only taking the cards they have left. That means, if they don’t draw a single extra card and you’re able to Coin out this beast on turn six, your deck can be over 50 cards. If they finish the Hunter Quest The Marsh Queen , you can have a 65 card deck to play with. Those weird interactions are what I’m dying to see play out – who knows what broken combo might come out of the Archbishop?
If you like Archbishop Benedictus as a minion instead of a gimmick, you do start to see some flaws. A good TCG gamer knows you want to have as few bad cards in your deck as possible, focusing solely on the good stuff. You don’t want to have dozens of one-cost minions or Elementals without the other combo pieces. That’s how you lose a serious game. Cards that thin the deck out, like Arcanalogist and the new card Stitched Tracker , are amazing because they get rid of potentially dead draws. If you add an entire Control Warrior deck to your Priest, your just adding bad draws and potentially losing the game.
It’s sad to say, but Archbishop Benedictus is a bad card. It’s a flavorful, fun card that adds a new level of depth to Hearthstone , but it’s shitty anywhere outside of Arena. Even in that game mode, it’s pretty awful if your opponent doesn’t know how to draft a proper deck. If I end up pulling this guy from packs, I won’t be angry, but I won’t use it either. This card is aimed at the casual player, who looks at an awesome ability and thinks how fun it will be to play. As someone with a highly competitive nature and need to win, I can’t even play this card in a joke deck.
I’ve been surprised with how many different mechanics are being tried out in Knights Of The Frozen Throne . Team 5 isn’t just making stronger cards to increase the power creep, they’re adding a whole new level of strategy to an already fairly complicated game. I look forward to the 100 or so cards we haven’t seen yet, who knows what secrets we’ll uncover?
