Death Knights in Hearthstone: Control is King!

When Hearthstone was first released, one question I and I imagine a lot of others had was how classes that were added later to World of Warcraft: namely the Death Knight, Monk, and Demon Hunter (and potentially future classes in later expansions) would fit into the structure of the game.

Because the classes function much like the colors in Magic: The Gathering (though everyone is forced to play monocolored decks,) adding a new class would put them at an immediate disadvantage, as existing classes would have a whole library of cards to choose from while the hypothetical Death Knight would only have some starting in that expansion. Plus, it would mean accommodating a new class in all future expansions (and kind of committing to other classes in the future, which is an exponential problem.)

So the solution with Knights of the Frozen Throne is that we see Death Knight versions of each of the classic heroes. You can get a legendary card that replaces your hero, granting 5 armor off the bat along with some relatively powerful battlecry-like effect, and then changing your hero power into something more powerful that also fits with the theme of being a Death Knight.

There are also a number of Death Knight spells, though these are only generated by other cards, such as the Lich King (who actually seems to always die the turn after I play him - I cashed in a huge amount of dust to make a gold Lich King because Arthas is just so damn cool.)

Anyway, through luck and... er... dropping some cash on the pre-order... I've managed to get five of the nine Death Knight cards (you get one for free playing the "prologue" of the Adventure that comes with the expansion - they're doing things differently this time.

So far I have Thrall, Valeera, Gul'dan, Uther, and just today, Jaina.

Because many of these guys cost 9 or 10 mana, decks need to be built to last that long. I've found that healing and taunt minions are pretty useful here, and the new Lifesteal keyword (which already existed in non-keyword form) are very important tools to keep you around long enough to drop your DK.

(Oh, and yes, even if you start with an alternate hero, you get the DK version of the original. There's no DK Khadgar.)

Thrall's DK is built all around the Shaman "evolve" mechanic. He's pretty cheap for a DK at only 5 Mana, and when he comes onto the board he'll transform all existing minions into random ones that cost two more. His hero power then does the same thing to an individual minion, only raising it by one mana cost. I'd say building a deck with a bunch minion-generating spells and minions would be good for filling up your board, though it's tricky to keep a lot of minions alive in a control-heavy expansion.

Valeera is interesting. At 9 mana, the battlecry effect causes you to gain stealth next turn, which will give you a breather if you're low on health. The hero ability is then a passive that gives you a special card each turn that will take on the form of whatever you just played. Obviously this plays well into the Rogue's combo abilities, so card-draw and cheap cards are going to help a bunch here.

Gul'dan is the most expensive one I have, costing 10 mana and summoning every demon you controlled that died that game. The hero power becomes a targeted attack that deals 3 damage and has lifesteal, so if you've been spending a lot of health on Life Tap and demons that damage you, this will help you dig out of that hole. Obviously, it's also helpful to summon these guys directly and not have punitive battlecries hurt you again. I don't quite have the perfect strategy here (or anywhere, of course,) but I think you want to focus a bit on beefier demons in order to maximize the battlecry.

Uther has some interesting effects. It costs 9 mana and gives you a 5/3 weapon with Lifesteal, meaning that with the armor, you effectively get 20 more health, with 10 in the first turn. Your hero power gives you the ability to summon one of the Four Horsemen, which are 2/2. While having 2/2s on demand each turn is not terrible by itself, the thing that will keep your opponent scared is that if you get all four horsemen (the new ones, so if you haven't done the 7.0 DK campaign in Legion, uh... spoilers) you automatically win the game. Paladins have a lot of good control options, and stacking up taunt/lifesteal minions will help keep you in the game while also providing cover if you want to try to get all of the horsemen (though I've never had more than 2 up.)

Jaina actually plays into one of the big themes of the Un'goro expansion, which is elementals. At 9 mana, you summon a Water Elemental. But in addition to this guy, all your elementals - new and old, water and otherwise - now have Lifesteal. Your hero power still deals 1 damage to any target, but now, if you kill a minion with it, you summon a Water Elemental (which again, has Lifesteal.) Having so much Lifesteal makes the Mage suddenly feel far more resilient than it usually is, and so I highly recommend using lots of elementals from Un'goro - taking advantage of existing strategies that become that much more dangerous when you become far harder to kill.

I'm hoping that I'll eventually get Rexxar, Garrosh, Anduin, and Malfurion, but I burned a lot of dust on The Lich King, Uther of the Ebon Blade, and a couple other epics for my Paladin deck, so I'll have to work on it or keep my fingers crossed.