Curse of Naxxramas card analysis: Part One
The Curse of Naxxramas expansion was recently announced for Hearthstone, and with it the 9 class cards as well as 5 neutral cards that have recently been unveiled. We still don't know the details of the other 16 cards, but I'll be going over the merits and flaws of some of the cards released so far, and their place in the constructed and arena scene in part one of this feature.
Undertaker
One of the neutral cards that has been announced so far, Undertaker wasn't the one that everyone was talking about instantly; however, it appears to challenge cards such as Leper Gnome and Argent Squire for the merit as one of the best one drops in the game. The synergy that this card has with other commonly played cards such as Harvest Golem, Loot Hoarder as well as Leper Gnome makes it viable in an early game tempo deck such as Zoo. I think this card will be one of the more popular cards coming out of the expansion, however that all depends on how the metagame shifts to adjust to deathrattle-themed decks.
Death's Bite
Death's Bite is an interesting card in the sense that it's effect, which is that it's a weapon with a deathrattle, is completely unique within the game (apart from the new Hunter bow). It gives Warriors an extra tool in the fight against Zoo, which always seems like a constant uphill battle, as well as any other minion spam decks; the bane of the Warrior's existence. It will be interesting to see if this gets played over the Kor'kron Elite, however I doubt it. Zoo hasn't much place in the current metagame and I think Death's Bite won't have one either.
Replicate
I'm going to be straight up about this card, and quite frankly I think it's garbage. Duplicate as a card is way too slow, and there are so many better cards you could put into both freeze Mage as well as aggro Mage that this card will never be seen. This is so far the worst card announced of the Curse of Naxxramas expansion, and I don't know whether that will change or not. It's only really good with cheap, high-impact cards such as Doomsayer and possibly Novice Engineer etc.
Anub'ar Ambusher
This card seems superb, especially in a Miracle Rogue-inspired metagame. Most people are currently using either Sen'jin Shieldmasta or Gnomish Inventor to fulfill the general lack of good 4 drops in the Miracle deck, but this card changes everything; at turn 4, you will rarely have many minions out, and if you do having them back in your hand is always of a benefit (Earthen Ring Farseer, SI7 Agent). I think this card will be one of the best to be released in the expansion, and it's an even bigger buff to Rogue, however we may see Miracle changes come out with the expansion so we'll have to wait and see on that note.
Poison Seeds
Finally, I get to talk about this card. This card is completely busted. It makes the handlock matchup so much better from the Druid's perspective (even though I think the current Druid deck performs well against it anyway), and it allows you to recover from almost unrecoverable points in the game. As well as it being a common, meaning you can have TWO of this card in the same deck, this card just seems ridiculous and I think it will probably be changed at some point in the future just due to how game-changing it can be.
