All of the gods got their own gift for the holidays this season. And today we will be taking a look at all 6 of them. Try and figure out if they are any good, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and if they will fit into any new decks.
Winter Wanderlands
A quick recap, the set will be available from December 14th, and will be 20 cards in total. They will be available for purchase and through ranked play. Maybe some other holiday was as well, we will see. The set will "disappear" on January 11th, so it will only be available for a 4-week period.
The "piece de resistance" of the set, aka the legendaries
The first three legendaries we will look at are the Light, Deception and Death Gods Legendaries.
First out is Merry Kadmos himself. 5 mana 3/4 with frontline and Pick one: pull a creature from the board to the top of its controller's deck, or give +2/+2 to the Chosen One. The stats of the card alone is definitely nothing to get excited about. 5 mana 3/4 is well below what you would expect. The pick option does allow you to have some flexibility. And being able to put a creator not only into someone's hand but all the way back on top of their deck is sure to be a play that will buy you some tempo.
While giving +2/+2 as a buff can be very nice. I would rather have liked to see that be for any creature, not just the Chosen One. Mostly because so far I have not really seen any "chosen one" competitive deck. Despite me loving the idea and mechanism of it. But maybe this set will allow a Chosen one deck to finally be viable. Who knows. I would say that if you will see this in any Light decks it most definitely will be in control decks, as it allows for more board control.
Orfeo in Wonderlands, 3 mana 1/1. Deadly and Hiden for 1 turn. After your opponent plays a creature, attack it. Afterlife Shuffle this creature into your deck. This will most definitely see play in control Deception decks. And it will be a tricky card to deal with. Your opponent almost has to just pass their following turn unless they have an armored creature or some way of pinging this off the board. But the kicker is even if they do that, it will be back.
This is just like that pimple that shows up when you least want it to. And it keeps coming back time and time again. There is however some wiggle room in the card. It says it will attack the first creature that gets played. I assume that creatures that are summoned either from hero power or from other cards or creatures will be "safe" from being attacked. I do assume it will attack creatures that are hidden as well as behind frontline. In a similar way to how Underbrush Boar can attack anything.
Frost Queen Neferu, 4 mana 4/4. Each turn, after the first time your opponent draws a card, plays a card, uses their god power, and attacks with their relic, their god takes 2 damage. This wording on the card is very unfortunate. As it reads to me you can do each of these things 1 time every turn. But if you do it a second time you take 2 damage. But this does not really make any sense as you in the absolute majority of cases only can use your hero power once per turn.
Do this means that you then can do one of these things each turn, and the second thing you do makes you take damage? Or do they mean as soon as you do one of these things you take 2 damage, and you keep taking damage for everything you do? If this is the case, then I see this card as being very powerful. And will most definitely see wide play. As an example Death mill decks will run this, control decks and Anubians. Almost any Death deck will have this in them as it is just an all-around good card that for sure will cause problems for your opponent. And with the card being 4/4 it is a pretty big card to deal with. This will probably be one of the standout cards of the set.
Up now are the remaining three, War, Nature, and Magic. Sleigh Master Valka, 5 mana 6/5. Overkill, Roar: if you have fewer than 2 cards in hand, gain blitz. This card will be in most agro War decks. And if you are able to play this will blitz, this one is sure to pack a punch. Its overkill will make short work of smaller creatures. And the 6 attacks will make sure to clear most 5 mana cards in the game with one hit. This looks to be an overall good card. Not crazy in any way, just a good solid card. With 5 mana it is definitely not too expensive for most agro lists. But it will give you that hope of the mid-game ability to turn the game in your favor.
Reinkeeper Selena, 6 mana 3/3, after this creature attacks, summon a base copy of a random friendly Wild creature with mana cost 3 or less. Roar: Summon two 2/2 Reinbadgers with blitz. This card is a bit tricky. The stats alone from the card is 7/7 which is ok for a 6 mana card. Especially with two 2/2 with blitz. The upside of it is pretty great as well. It could allow you to keep summon 2/2 with blitz, if one of them is alive. That is the caveat. It will only summon copies of creatures that are in play.
I think this card will see play, but I think it will not be widely used. It will probably see play in specific decks. Maybe this means there will be an Amazon deck that finally will be consistent and powerful enough? Or maybe the two 2/2 with blitz make this a good fit for control Nature decks? The card has potential, but as it is I do not see wide play for this one.
Snowshaper Pallas, 6 mana 3/3, Roar & Ability: Transform a creature into a 0/1 Snow Statue with "Can´t attack". This card will most definitely see play in control Magic decks. And it probably will see play in a few other decks as well. As it is a good counter against most big threats that get played. Plus the opponent must deal with it or risk having all their creatures slowly turned into Snow Statues. This card I feel will definitely see play in many Magic decks.
There will be one more review after this, in which I will cover the remaining cards as well as take a look at the sub-cards for Fir Tree´s Fury and for Candy Chain.
I hope that you have enjoyed this review, just as much as I have making it. If you think I made any wrong assumption or messed up in some way. Or am plainly barking up the wrong tree with my assessments of the cards? Please let me know and let me know why I am wrong, or correct for that matter. I would love to hear your opinions on these cards. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
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Picture provided by: Gods Unchained media