With this new Hearthstone expansion, we delve into the gothic catacombs of Castle Nathria, where a terrible murder was committed. On August 2, it will be up to you to lead the investigation alongside Murloc Holmes, but also to forge new decks and archetypes. And you’re going to have your work cut out, because the developers didn’t go all out with the design some cards, like the one we are pleased to present to you today: tom alteratione. Thanks again to Blizzard for their trust.
The Map: Tome Alteration
Tome Alteration is a spell epic for Warlock which costs 3 mana. When played, this spell places copies of all cards in your hand into your deck, except shuffled copies only cost one (1) mana crystal. The counterpart of this card is rather heavy, because you then discard your entire hand.
Let’s warn you: this is a card that could be described as “all or nothing”, and which will notably depend on the composition of the entire “Murder at Château Nathria” set. Indeed, its effect seems far too disabling, but Tome Alteration could very well synergize excessively with cards specially designed for this purpose. In other words: the card may as well give birth to new archetypes as never come out of the closet.
In the meantime, place for a bit of theorycraftingbecause the card obviously has potential, particularly in terms of wild.
Analysis
The cost of Tome Alteration, 3 mana, is absolutely not prohibitive. The spell will therefore be played, but only if the players manage to articulate a complete deck around it as standard.
In wild however, the card could already create interesting synergies, with Hand of Guldan, Jeklik High Priestess, Silver Golem or Matriarch Zavas.
The Warlock is indeed the only class for which the discard pile can become a real advantageous resource. Therefore, it is easy to imagine the potential of Tome Alterationwhich causes you to discard your entire hand.
As of this writing, the discarded Warlock archetype does not exist as standard. And yet, Tome Alteration could do some mighty magic alongside the Tiny Evil Knight ! This card freshly registered in the fundamental set of Hearthstone could receive a serious boost thanks to Tome Alteration.
Imagine for a moment a Warlock deck capable of drawing a lot in the first turns. Just patiently waiting for round 5 with a full hand, then playing back and forth Tiny Evil Knight then Tome Alterationyou will generate on the board a demon 11/10. On a T5, it’s still commendable, even if the dominant decks of the current meta will easily get away with it.
Another idea to explore would be a warlock deck with expensive, high-drawing cards to seek out 1 mana crystal copies directly in your deck. Your hero power can already help, and with a few other extra draw cards, the “snowball” effect that would result from this draw at a lower cost could be interesting.
On paper, filling your deck with inexpensive copies of 8 or 9 cards that originally cost a lot of money, only to draw them again immediately afterwards, is a sort of “ramp” in a warlock way! The perilous passage of the maneuver will be to relaunch in the turn following the discard of the whole hand.
Let’s go to Revendreth for the next set of Hearthstone! Blizzard is starting to shell out the new cards for the upcoming expansion, and we already know its new mechanics, as well as its release date. Just like Murloc Holmes, we’re on it!