Everfest is coming to shelves near us soon, and with it some powerful new cards for the Classic Constructed meta. Today, I’ll be breaking down what I believe are the top five cards that will truly make an impact there.

Bravo, Star of the Show is without a doubt the spoiler with the most potential to change the Classic Constructed meta.

Let’s start with his hero ability: dominate has proven to be one of the most potent offensive weapons in the game, and this one comes with an additional 2+ attack boost! 

That said, despite no upfront resources cost, the price of this hero’s ability is quite prohibitive, requiring three separate elements in your hand at once. This prohibitive cost is somewhat mitigated if you play the “Pulse” cycle, which reduces the ask to a more reasonable two-card requirement. But because it’s a restricted cycle, don’t anticipate always being able to activate this hero’s ability at will.

Even with such a steep cost to the hero ability, my hopes are high for the future Elemental Guardian. With the largest card pool of any hero in the game, the utility that this hero’s kit offers you is almost guaranteed to solve any problem an opponent hero can throw your way. The ability to utilize some of the best elemental defensive equipment the game has to offer in Crown of Seeds and Winter’s Wail, combined with the offensive weaponry of Crippling Crush and Show Time! – that’s a scary thought for anyone sitting across from the show stopper. The ability to have such a deep card pool allows Bravo to play as defensively as needed while also always having the option to pivot into haymaker after haymaker. The best part of this hero is that he only gets better the more cards that are released, so if you’re looking for a hero to pick up with longevity this bad boy is right for you.

One of the most potent threats in the Arsenal of Prism has always been the ability to snowball multiple Auras. Traditionally, this was held back by the slow and clunky nature of Auras. There was also a very distinct lack of synergy between the phantasmal attacks and the Aura game plan which fragmented the archetype into two versions: Aggro Herald and Aura Control. This distinct lack of synergy and intrinsically clunkiness of the Aura plan traditionally opened Prism up to forced tempo swings, which made it weak to aggressive strategies. 

Enter Miraging Metamorph. This card places the opponent in an uncomfortable position of 1) breaking the attack at the cost of a card and giving you an Aura for the low low cost of one resource, 2) taking a big chunk of damage or 3) your opponent giving you two cards and functionally their turn cycle. Most importantly though, it acts as a very important glue, cleanly bridging together the two different sides of Prism into a well-polished hybrid deck.

Picking up where we left off on Miraging Metamorph, Fractal Replication is the absolute perfect follow up. First, it’s free, the absolute best price IRL and in Flesh and Blood, but more importantly, it’s probably one of the best follow ups to Metamorph. 

Revisiting the three scenarios above, two out of three times Miraging Metamorph will be on the stack putting the opponent right back in the same bind. Past that, it’s simply one of the best follow-up attacks in the deck making a Herald of Erudition turn even more back-breaking than it already was. The downside is also pretty low. Keep in mind that Fractal Replication will also see blocking Illusionists. So if you don’t think you will have a viable attack, feel free to throw it down as a blocker. I should also note that you may want to board out Fractal Replication against decks with multiple cards with six or more attack, as it can make for some awkward hands.

In a world poised to be overtaken by Guardian and its natural predator, Prism, there’s a very high probability that Brute is the deck to play headed into this Calling season. With every attack acting as a breakpoint for Phantasm, Prism is going to have an extremely difficult time getting any version of their strategy off the ground. Paired against a Guardian? Intimidation is a great way of messing with your opponent’s blocks. Each time you pull off an intimidate, you’re removing options from your opponent. This either forces them to block with cards they would’ve liked to pitch or force them to take damage. Wild Ride not only checks both of those boxes, but it provides a much needed go-again clause to the Brute class, allowing it more options to go toe-to-toe versus aggressive decks where brute previously stumbled.

The Brute class has always been on the cusp of greatness, it’s been referenced multiple times by my colleagues over at Arsenal Pass. I eagerly anticipate what AUS national champion Hayden Dale has in store for this card, and you can bet I’ll be sleeving up my copies of Wild Ride the first chance I get.

Kano is one of only two heroes in the game that can call himself the master of one-turn-kills. Kanos ability to utilize Blazing Aether and Stir the Aetherwinds allows him to give you explosive turns with upwards of 20 damage. If you’re not super familiar with the Wizard hero, don’t worry, neither was I. Let me give you a quick breakdown of how a Kano deck functions. A Kano deck can be broken down into four categories:

1. Damage spells: These spells are the meat and potatoes of the deck and allow you to chip damage throughout the game putting your opponent within combo range. Cards like Aether Spindle, Sonic Boom and Voltic Bolt. 
2. Enabler Cards: These cards allow you to play cards as instants and in unexpected ways allowing you to potentially steal not only an opponents turn, but the game. These cards include Aether Flare, Lesson in Lava, Reverberate and Storm Striders.
3. Toolbox Cards: These are your utility cards that glue the deck together, smoothing out your draws and ensuring you draw the correct ratios every turn to make going-off as painless as possible. Cards like Gaze the Ages, Tome of Aetherwind and Tome of Fyendal.
4. Combo cards: If the damage spells were the meat and potatoes of the deck, these spells are the the crème brulee. The combo cards that pushed Kano to his OTK potential are Blazing Aether, Forked Lightning and Stir the Aetherwinds.

Traditionally, Blazing Aether was the card that really shined at the end of the combo chain, dealing arcane damage equal to the summation of the damage that came before it. Aether Wildfire acts as an additional piece that gives you explosive potential at the beginning of the combo chain, acting as a sort of reverse Blazing Aether, buffing all attacks along the combo chain. Combining these two cards absolutely blows my mind thinking of the potential damage output that this Wizard hero now has access to.