Hearthstones second solo adventure after Curse of Naxxramas, Black Rock Mountain, has now been out for nearly a month. Like Naxxramas, the adventure itself is tons of fun - pitting you against a deck consisting of only Legendary minions in the Dark Iron Arena, for example. Blizzard have clearly spared no expense in thinking up new, exciting challenges for each of the wings, and its refreshing to see new single player content for what is almost exclusively a multiplayer experience. However, in addition to the boss fights, Black Rock also introduced 31 new cards into the game. With the end of the ranking season in sight (the first ranking season since these cards were introduced) its time to see which of these newest additions have managed to secure themselves a place in the metagame.
Honourable Mentions Nefarian, Rend Blackhand
Nefarian (Neutral): 8/8, 9 mana. Battlecry: Add 2 random spells to your hand (from your opponents class). Rend Blackhand (Neutral): 8/4, 7 mana. Battlecry: If youre holding a Dragon, destroy a Legendary minion. Nefarian is a fantastically fun card to play with, simply because of the crazy situations that can come about from grabbing a couple of random class spells. Obviously, due to the cards random nature, there will be times where hell get a Totemic Might from a shaman or a Sense Demons from a Warlock, and youll wonder why you bothered playing him. But the times that he manages to steal a Fireball or a Mind Control for the win more than make up for the failures. From a competitive standpoint though, Nefarian just doesn't quite make the cut. A 9 mana investment is likely going to take up a whole turn, so it needs to affect the state of play immediately, and Nefarian doesn't. Yes, he refills your hand with resources, which is handy in a long game, and he presents a significant threat to your opponent on the board. However, because there is no guarantee of getting a useful spell off of the Battlecry effect, and because there is almost always a one turn delay in playing those spells, and because the metagame is littered with Big Game Hunters, Nefarian just isnt quite as powerful as other big cards in the game. Which is a shame. On the face of it, Rend looks like a card that can immediately be discarded to the never to be played pile. Look closer, though, and he can actually be a pretty powerful game changer. Sure, at 7 mana, his stats are awful - 4 health is not a good return for the mana investment, and he dies to the ever-present Big Game Hunter. However, his Battlecry effect is what makes him stand out. Killing an opposing Legendary minion and getting an 8/4 simultaneously can be a massive tempo swing in the late game. Better yet, he can hit those pesky Legendary minions that cant be killed by Big Game Hunter, like Ysera or Cenarius. In a Dragon deck, Rend is a card worth considering, but unfortunately, his situational effect and poor stats mean that he is almost always excluded in favour of a more consistently reliable minion.
