Hello all, aReNGee here with another edition of Preconstruced Notions. I’m going to do constructed reviews for every set 4 card as they’re being spoiled. Thus far, all of the spoilers can be viewed here and are generally posted to Reddit within minutes. Below, we’ll cover the rating scale I’m going to use:

Constructed Rating

5

Faction staple, probably meta defining. Will see play or at least consideration across all decks of that color combination. Examples: Torch, Slay, Tavrod, Sandstorm Titan

4

Archetype staple. Sees play or at least consideration in the majority of decks of that archetype that can play it. Examples: Oni Ronin (in non hostile metagames), Champion of Cunning, Unseen Commando

3

Deck Staple. Will see play or at least consideration in one or more decks. A fairly broad catagory, but cards that rank 3 or above are always worth thinking about including. Examples: Wisdom of the Elders, Seek Power, In Cold Blood

2

Situational card. Could be a staple of a lesser played archetype, a sideboard card to help handle an archetype, or just a card you don’t want until you really want it. Examples: Sabotage, Devoted Theruge, Unseal

1 or less

This card is not going to be played in constructed.

Card Reviews (in order of spoiler gallery)

Constructed Rating: 2

The ETS was given the opportunity to spoil this little drummer boy. There’s some good things going on here – repeatable effect, unblockable to allow him to attack… Unfortunately, Void Drummer is also vulnerable to nearly every removal spell in the book, and his effect requires careful planning to make use of. The best combo with this card at the moment is something like Ephemeral Wisp, where its constantly going to be in the graveyard to grow. Haunting Scream seems like a shoo in, but there’s a lot of tension between screaming this guy and screaming an actual scream card. Overall, if we get a little more void support he could get there, but for the moment I think the drums will be silent.

Constructed Rating: 3

This night will be your last! TheSkeeJay is on suicide watch, and reverse Annihilate has finally made its way to Eternal. Overall I think killing a multifaction unit is a hair worse than a single faction unit – the targets are higher value, but there’s also a better chance of the card being mostly dead. Nonetheless this is a powerful card to add to Feln’s arsenal of removal, and countering spells is a nice extra effect to have. There aren’t too many spells that you’re really going to be able to counter with this, probably 5 or fewer that see widespread play, but all of them would be impactful snipes. This is a card we will be playing with and against a lot in future months.

Constructed Rating: 1

This is a combo card, nothing more. If you put only one unit in your deck and use a token generator like Assembly Line, this acts as a 4 cost way to cheat any unit into play. The problem is, you need the token to survive to the start of your turn (unlikely) and then you need the unit you grab to win you the game (since you’re playing a mask deck). The best targets for this kind of effect that I’ve been able to think of so far are Spirit of Resistance (kills everything, including the mask), Scourge of Frosthome (though you need to deal with the mask) and original Eilyn (fire off some decimates). All of these ask that you solve more problems once they’re in play, but if you can do that or we get some stronger targets Mask could be a deck, albeit probably a fringe one. Needing a 4 drop attachment to survive a turn cycle on a token is a high bar to clear.

Only three spoilers today, but we’re starting to see the stronger cards. Rindra’s Choice will certainly see play, and Void Drummer could with more support. Mask is a meme card but at least our meme legend isn’t Primal this time. Cheating out units seems to be a popular theme for this expansion, between Mask and Answer the Call, so maybe we’ll see some Bond shenanigans?

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