The best cards from Hearthstone’s Saviors of Uldum expansion so far

The card reveals have been coming fast and furious for Hearthstone’s upcoming Saviors of Uldum expansion, due out on August 6. We’ve looked at new mechanics of Reborn keyword and Plague cards as well as the return of Quests.

While we don’t know the details on all 135 cards yet, I’ve picked nine of my favorite cards released thus far. Not all of them will define the meta, but they look like interesting cards to play.

Puzzle Box of Yogg Saron

The Puzzle Box casts 10 random spells with random targets — basically, it’s the Whispers of the Old Gods Yogg Saron card without the body. This would be a fantastic spell to play with Kalecgos, or to discover with Kalecgos. To prevent infinite loops, the developers stated on Twitter that it won’t cast itself, hopefully preventing the endless turns Shudderwock caused. The original Yogg Saron saw play in the Whispers of the Old gods expansions through the Mean Streets of Gadgazen. It was so good, it had to be nerfed.

There are some ways this card could backfire — like with Myra’s Unstable Element or a Pyroblast your face — but most of the time, you’ll get a secret or two, do some healing, kill some minions and a summon a few minions  for yourself. At 10 mana, I doubt you’re ever running two, but I can see a single copy in most Mage decks. If you wanted a chance to cast it twice, you might be better off with a Tortollan Pilgrim.

Earthquake

Shaman looks to be a strong class in Saviors of Uldum. Earthquake gives them a fantastic AoE spell reminiscent of the Volcano spell which saw play — plus Earthquake doesn’t have the Overload drawback. The card seems tailor-made to clear a board buffed with Soul of the Forest or Soul of the Murloc, or a board with Divine Shield or Reborn minions that need two hits to go down. It also takes care Deathrattle cards that summon extra minions, killing off both Savannah Highmane and the two hyenas from his Deathrattle. This gives Control Shaman another board clear and might allow them to drop the Hagatha hero card in favor of the Heart of Vir’naal, the new Hero Power from Corrupt the Waters.

Reno the Relicologist / Elise the Enlightened

Reno decks are back, at least for Druid and Mage. These Highlander decks — which don’t contain any duplicate cards — do get better the more cards there are in the rotation and it might take the third expansion before these two really shine. The effect for Reno the Relicologist is less impactful for the same deck building restriction. Like the original Reno card, this one is meant to help stabilize against aggro decks, but Mage have already been winning with hand decks, because have decent stabilization tools and AoE.

Elise the Enlightened has some shenanigans you can pull off with Jepetto Joybuzz, Malygos, and Dreampetal Florist, but I have a hard time seeing where it’s going to be consistent. Flobbidinous Floop, Lynchen, and Baleful Banker give some excellent value generation potential of playing Elise multiple times. Like with Reno, I’m just not sure the payoff is worth it. Running no duplicates is a heavy deck building restriction. The payoffs needs to be powerful and it looks like the Hearthstone team has gone a bit too conservative.

BEEEES!!!

I love the flavor of this card. This card could pair with Floop’s Glorious Gloop for  ramp potential or Cult Master for card draw. You could even target your own Acolyte of Pain for a 3 mana, 3 card draw. If you target a zero attack minion (totems, Spirits from Rastakhan’s Rumble) you end up with 4 tokens on the board which Token Druid could take advantage of. Addled Grizzly and Raid Leader provide potential for buffs and each Bee will activate your Knife Juggler.

Colossus of the Moon

From the moment I saw the new Reborn keyword, I expected a Divine Shield minion with Reborn, but I didn’t expect it would be a 10/10 Legendary. In most games, you don’t want to wait for Turn 10 to put a pile of stats on the board. Granted, this is a huge pile of stats, but that’s all it is. It doesn’t affect the board the turn its played and it takes all your mana.

This might work in a Due Paladin or a Resurrect Priest but it’s a buff to Conjurer’s Mage. You can get it from using Conjurer’s Calling on a Sea Giant. It’s also a fantastic result from The Storm Bringer. Big Shaman might be able to use it for Eureka or Muckmorpher, and they can give it taunt with a zero mana Ancestral Healing. It’s a winner if you get two of them with Zarog’s Crown treasure from Heistbaron Toggwaggle which summons two copies of a Legendary minion.

High Priest Amet

The possibilities here are scary. Drop Amet then Stonetusk Boar. Cast Power Word: Shield, two Divine Spirits, and a Topsy Turvy. This gives you a 10-mana, 36 damage combo. Taunt in the way? No problem, because Silence costs zero mana. Hunters will want their new Pressure Plate trap up.

Outside of combo shenanigans, a 1/7 Northshire Cleric or 0/7 Spirit of the Dead are difficult to remove. Lightspawn is another good target. The text here is important: it says “summon” which means it will buff Reborn minions like the new Psychopomp and Grandmummy. The taunts from Sand Drudge become even better than Spreading Plague.

EVIL Recruiter

You remember the 4-mana 7/7 memes from Flamewreathed Facelsss? How about a 4-mana 8/8 split between two bodies? That’s exactly what you get with EVIL Recruiter, at the cost of 4 mana and a Lackey. Lackeys are good enough on their own and already run in Zoo decks, which are a decent deck in the current meta. This card can burst down opponents who can’t immediately answer these threats — and has good refill for when they do. EVIL Recruiter has the potential to make the one of the better decks even better.

Frightened Flunky

This might be one of the best cards released so far. The artwork is great and I hope he says ZOINKS when played. Stonehill Defender was a fantastic card before it rotated out and Flunky has the same card text. The Flunky’s body isn’t as sturdy, but like Stonehill, it can discover itself. Discover cards are weighted to class cards and unless we see additional taunts released, the only Warrior taunts in Standard are Flunky and new Warrior Legendary, Armagedillo. Other good discover options include Zilliax, Amani War Bear, Safeguard, and Rotten Applebaum. This card is going to be nuts.

What else?

Those are some of the more interesting cards I’ve seen, but what about you? What cards are you excited to get your hands on? Which cards will define the meta in Saviors of Uldum?

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