Hearthstone Blackrock Mountain card analysis: Lava Shock and Axe Flinger – Hearthstone
How the new Shaman and Warrior cards stack up.
At the beginning of last week we bought you our analysis of the first five cards revealed for Blackrock Mountain, and Blizzard has since revealed a further two new cards. The first, Lava Shock is exclusive to the Shaman Hero, while the Axe Flinger will be a new card that’s strictly for the Warrior’s arsenal.
Right now it has to be said that neither of these two cards seem particularly remarkable, but it’s important to note that much of the new Adventure has yet to be revealed. Each Hero will get one new Common card and one new Rare card in Blackrock Mountain, and there’ll be an additional 13 Neutral cards on top of that. Who knows what kind of exciting new synergies will be revealed in the coming days and weeks?
With that small caveat out of the way, here’s our quick take on how these new cards might impact Hearthstone’s future metagame.
Hearthstone: Blackrock Mountain – Lava Shock Analysis
A two Mana, two damage spell card wouldn’t be too much to get excited about on its own, but take a look at that additional text for a real eye-opener. It’s been confirmed by Blizzard that Lava Shock will unlock the Mana crystals both on your current and future turns. Play an Overload card and have two Mana left over? Cast Lava Shock and it’s like the crystals were never locked. Alternatively, you can cast the spell at the beginning of a new turn to regain the previously locked-out resources.
Crystal-unlocking effect aside, it’s a pretty weak damage spell for the cost – particularly when you consider the likes of Arcane Shot – but it’s safe to say Lava Shock is going to be a good deal more useful when you can play it alongside something else on the same turn, or the turn right after. Without getting that bonus effect though, it’s going to be a tough Turn 2 play – although a spell damage totem will obviously add value later on in the match.
You would only really be tempted to pick Lava Shock in the later stages of an Arena draft where you already have a decent number of Overload spells in your deck. Otherwise, it’s yet another combo puzzle where you can’t guarantee you’ll have the pieces you need. You’ll certainly be sensible to factor Lava Shock into your maths when playing against the Shaman, however.
Hearthstone: Blackrock Mountain – Axe Flinger Analysis
The next card is exclusively for the Warrior and goes by the name of Axe Flinger. The most obvious use for the card is to shake up the Warrior’s metagame a little, and drag the Hero away from the dominant control flavour of deck.
As well as dishing out a little bit of damage to enemy minions – and pinging your opposite number for two damage in the process – you’re going to need to look for other activators in the Warrior’s existing arsenal. Cruel Taskmaster springs to mind as a particularly meaty combo generator.
