Is Duskbreaker one of the strongest Hearthstone cards ever?

According to some professional players, although it costs a little mana, this new Priest minion is so powerful that it can be considered too OP.

How strong is Duskbreaker, Priest’s new dragon in the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion introduced this week? Some pros, including Zalae and Trump, consider it to be one of the strongest – if not the most powerful – cards ever created in Hearthstone. And they weren’t wrong.

For those who don’t know, Duskbreaker is a 4 mana 3/3 dragon whose Battlecry deals 3 damage to all other minions if you have another dragon in your hand. It has the same clearing ability as Hellfire (also costs 4 mana) but also gives you a 3/3 minion on turn 4 (or 3 if there is a coin). If you were the dominant player on the field before you played it, now you are the one to overwhelm the opponent. Another plus for this card is that it can activate other dragon synergy cards when it’s in your hand. It can be said that it has quite a few uses.

To test the strength of Duskbreaker when the expansion arrives in early December, Vicious Syndicate’s latest meta report states that 4 of the 5 strongest decks currently are aggro decks with early table control. Duskbreaker played according to the curve will clear almost all minions of 3 mana or less (with a few exceptions like Druid of the Swarm, Tar Creeper, Crypt Lord, Kindly Grandmother and Darkshire Councilman). Those that are still alive will face a 3/3 dragon, which means that the result will usually be a clean-up and Priest firmly in control of the board.

In short, it’s really powerful.

With the arrival of Duskbreaker, Priest now has two of the most powerful clearing cards in Hearthstone. However, Dragonfire Potion will soon leave Standard, along with Dr. 5 Drakonid Operative.

When I saw this card, the deck that first came to my mind was quite similar to the Inner Fire Combo Dragon Priest deck that Zalae created. It can take control of the board with its high-quality minions, clear the table with Dragonfire Potion, while still being able to quickly close the match with the Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo.

What really makes Duskbreaker so important is that it tackles the deck’s weakest point, which is early game pressure. That role used to belong to Wyrmrest Agent and Twilight Guardian, however both have been moved to Wild, causing Dragon Priest to lose a significant amount of powerful minions from 1 to turn 4. Increasing the ability to capture the table early helps Dragon Priest has a very good matchup when facing many other decks. Let’s see what Druid has done when equipped with Spreading Plague.

The birth of Duskbreaker reminds a lot of Kazakus bringing the Reno deck to the top. Earlier this year, I analyzed a philosophy put forward by Mike Donais:

“I think I really like the Reno deck. A lot of players in Ladder also like the Reno deck. They want it to be No. 1 but right now it’s not a No. 1. Let’s raise it up a bit to a No. 1 or No. 2 so that instead of playing for fun, they can have significant success.”

I don’t like to focus so much power on the cards intentionally like that. Players use the strongest cards because they want to win. Therefore, if a certain deck (or a few) overwhelms all the others, players will be forced to follow the trend of using them, eventually impoverishing the meta. The more powerful cards there are, the fewer effective decks there are in the game. Not many people want to play cards that will make them instantly lose if their opponent holds Duskbreaker, which are pretty much all 3 mana or less cards.

Duskbreaker is like a hammer that smashes aggro tactics. Its power is too great and its influence is too wide for its price. It is not the same as Golakka Crawler because it can only handle Pirates. Duskbreaker handles all things aggro.

The timing of this card’s release wasn’t coincidental either: with the Drakonid Operative coming out of the Standard soon, the design team created this card based on the assumption that the Dragon Priest deck would weaken significantly when the Drakonid Operative and Dragonfire Potion came out. into the Wild, and needs a boost. Remember that Kazakus was launched when Reno was about to leave, which is very relevant. Moreover, Duskbreaker was also a test of the design team: how much can they push the power of anti-aggro cards?

Will Duskbreaker break the meta?

While Duskbreaker is obviously very powerful, there are two factors that affect it in battle. First, the deck itself. Whether the Dragon Priest deck has a control, midrange or Inner Fire combo strategy, it still has the feature of (usually) playing a strong card per turn. Although this deck has some of the strongest cards in Hearthstone, the gameplay it possesses is not unbeatable.

Along with Divine Spirit, Inner Fire is used in some Dragon Priest decks to increase the ability to burn opponents, overcoming Priest’s finishing weakness. This could be a potential duo that will appear in Dragon Priest when Duskbreaker is present.

Maybe it would be better if the Priest class focused more on the Dragon archetype than the current Highlander or Big strategies. Playing against a strong and stable deck is often more fun than playing against a deck that is too op. Predictable matches often help players prepare better than having to face a deck that can handle everything and sometimes draw the necessary cards at the right time and in the right order.

There’s another notable factor when it comes to Duskbreaker: if it’s really as strong in real combat as it is in theory, it could fall victim to its own success. If Duskbreaker proves it can win many matches on its own, players will switch to decks that are not countered by Duskbreaker. If the aggro decks are cleared on turn 3 or turn 4 by this dragon, players will switch to strategies that do not require control of the board early on. If that happens, Duskbreaker’s power will be greatly reduced.

However, if players change tactics to no longer control the early game, high value decks that are likely to crush Dragon Priest will easily lose to aggro decks that may reappear with a decrease in the number of decks. Dragon Priest’s strength. That creates a meta where there are three main decks that counter each other in a rock-paper-scissor style that is familiar to many players.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Duskbreaker is simply so powerful that not even a single counter appears in the meta. That leads to many people playing Dragon Priest, but if too many people play this deck, Dragonfire Potion will be considered for removal because it is quite useless in mirror betting, so some decks that do not currently exist may be popular. up.

How to deal with Duskbreaker

If Duskbreaker is really going to be used, then you better figure out how to handle it. If you’re still playing decks with a lot of minions early in the game, you have quite a few options right now. The best Minion is probably the Devilsaur Egg. This dinosaur egg effectively blocks a clearing, as the 5/5 Devilsaur will then easily handle the 3/3 dragon. The minus point of this strategy is that Devilsaur Egg is a rather slow minion and is not very good in pure aggro decks, which need fast and strong tempo. You increase your odds against Dragon Priest but decrease your speed when facing a lot of other matchups, but it’s an option anyway.

Cheap options that don’t slow down decks include Argent Squire, Righteous Protector, Possessed Villager, Kindly Grandmother, Wickerflame Burnbristle and Frothing Berserker. You can consider a completely different strategy to deal with Duskbreaker, such as Quest Rogue or Miracle Rogue. Quest Rogue can complete the Quest before Dragon Priest can exert enough pressure (this is an extremely difficult matchup for Dragon Priest), while Miracle Rogue can handle each target that Dragon Priest launches, being an effective counter for Dragon Priest. Strong minion gameplay and high value.

Watch the world burn

Now it’s really op. Drakonid Operative alone is enough to ensure Dragon Priest is a stable deck. This role will be ceded to Duskbreaker next year.

Blizzard’s game designers have obviously managed to greatly enhance Duskbreaker’s power, even surpassing his half-brother and grandfather, Drakonid Operative, which Max McCall admits was designed to elevate the Dragon Priest and hope it can shine in meta. Duskbreaker is one of those cards that can shape the meta and make players consider stopping playing aggro decks. This does not mean that Dragon Priest will dominate the Kobolds & Catacombs meta. In Hearthstone, aggro decks always find a way to live, always adapting to the meta. Anyway, “not completely breaking meta stability” is not a good metric for card design, and this is indeed the card that threatens to cause it. Although only partially seen in the Kobolds & Catacombs set, strong cards like Duskbreaker can cause negative effects. Understandably, the designers of Hearthstone wanted to expand the boundaries of card power to make the game more appealing, but this design clearly did not please many players.

Like the Drakonid Operative, such a powerful card often comes with great risks. Looks like Blizzard is finally listening to players who hate aggro decks, but if the end result is that the meta becomes boring in too short a time, we’re all going to lose interest in it. again.

Source: PCGamer