Since their height of power in the WTR and Crucible of War era, Warrior heroes have been valiantly holding out meta to meta as a solid middle of the pack pick. In recent memory, they’ve been good but never great, solid but never oppressive. However, they never felt far off the block, and just needed more depth to their class archetypes rather than the width of archetypes they had gotten for the past few sets. Dynasty has perfectly answered the prayers of Warrior players in that regard and released a set of Warrior cards that very well hits all the right the spots for the Warrior class. Let’s break down exactly what going down in Dynasty for our Warrior heroes.
Equipment
Aside from my love for both the thematic feel and inspiration behind this weapon, Jubeel feels a little lost in terms of where it fits in to the current Warrior card pool. Both signature weapons of Dawnblade and Radyn massively outvalue it for their respective heroes, even in matchups where the Spellbane Aegis might be useful. The one-cost for the swing makes it a solid on-rate weapon in a vacuum however, and I think it will slot in well to any Emperor deck for those wanting to try that hero out in Blitz. Outside of niche sideboard cases however, we’ll likely be keeping Jubeel aside for now until there’s more support or need for the Spellbane Aegis tokens in a future Warrior.
Admittedly a beautiful Marvel card, Merciless Battleaxe isn’t bringing much to the table outside of looks. Its overpowered conditional ability isn’t anything to get excited about, and the three-cost to activate it is especially frightening in Warrior, which is a deck that wants to be leveraging its strong red non-attack action and reactions. Furthermore, although there has been solid Axe support this set, the Hatchets of Mind and Body still benefit equally or more than Battleaxe will likely ever from the support cards. In a future blue-heavy Warrior, this may have a place, but ultimately its offensive efficiency is much too poor to currently run in any serious manner.
This weapon feels like it exists for a Warrior that isn’t necessarily here yet. Since weapons are so critical to the Warrior play style and card pool, it’s imperative that they have polarizing effects or allow for great value plays in a game (ala Dawnblade and Radyn). Quicksilver Dagger is on the opposite end of that spectrum, where not only are the weapons quite below rate, but they don’t do anything to control a game either. Rather, the Daggers look to be support pieces like how Kodachis run for Ninja. In terms of what style is being supported however, we will have to wait and see in future expansions.
The Legendary
A particularly surprising piece, I was not expecting a Light Warrior card to drop this set. However, Spirit of Eirina is here and will likely be an easy slot in with Boltyn decks going forward. The ability to play Lumina Ascension as an instant now means you can gain action points at instant speed with Lumina, as well as add a lot more upper end potential to Lumina turns that begin with V of the Vanguard (since the combat chain is no longer broken). Lumina as an instant also takes pressure away from Boltyn’s soul to be giving the first attack go again to allow Lumina to be played with its conditional Charge subtext. It also allows Boltyn to perform a first turn double Lumina combo if he has a hand of a zero-cost charge card, Spirit of Eirina and two Lumina Ascensions.
However, being a no block item, and a one-off card at that, Spirit isn’t a pillar of consistency that Boltyn players can rely on game after game. From recent play experience, Spirit feels more like a slight power buff and tuning to Boltyn’s kit, and likely is part of more to come in a future set with more Light support.
The Majestics
A disappointing weapon pool doesn’t mean a disappointing Majestic pool. Cleave is the first card to come right hot out of the gate giving a straight one-cost +4 buff to the subsequent Axe swing. Alongside this, it has solid additional effects to wipe clear another ally on the board should the first axe connect for a solid amount of damage. Aside from an explosive board clear, the one-for-four buff also allows more explosive damage to come out of Axe builds in Warrior, which is something the archetype really lacked outside of Spill Blood. In addition, as allies become more popular and present in the Illusionist card pool, Cleave will become more and more a staple of these Axe decks going forward, which would traditionally struggle against the Illusionists.
The first instant speed card to touch the Warrior class, Ironsong Pride is a bit of a puzzle. Obviously made with Dorinthea in mind, Pride has the unique ability of being able to place a counter on Dawnblade on the opponent’s turn. Personally, this is where I think Pride shines at its best, perhaps in a midrange version of Dorinthea where she flashes the aura in alongside paying for a Steelblade Shunt or such on an opponent’s turn. Being able to be efficient with resources in this manner will be where Ironsong Pride shines.
However, if your Dori deck is more focused on turn-to-turn tempo and straight damage, there are plenty of other cards here which do a much better job than Pride at filling out that role. In addition, add in that all counters are lost when Pride leaves the arena and it gives Ironsong Pride players a new on-hit effect to worry about as aura removal starts to flow through the game.
For all the hoops you need to jump through though, I still do believe that Pride has a powerful on-board effect and will be a boon to the right Dorinthea deck rather than to all of them.
Rares
Now we’re talking. I think this is such a fantastic addition to Dorinthea’s card pool. As a three-block aura, not only is much more flexible than Pride, but it allows for Dorinthea to really punish overblocking in ways she couldn’t before. Once you can give that first Dawnblade attack go-again (there are a myriad of ways), you can now threaten not only a reaction on top, but also punish hard if they overblock (respecting a reaction) by playing a Blessing of Steel.
I can’t accentuate this enough. Previously, an attack action or Energy Potion was the only “punish” she had for overblocking, but Blessing allows her to really punish in a way that beautifully lines up with her own game plan of pushing through that first Dawnblade swing and making people think twice about their blocks. Additionally, having Blessing out actually allows her to block up well on a turn and leverage her strong blocking prowess and still strike back hard. It makes Dorinthea much more of an all-around force rather than just being fully card-hungry on her offensive turns. In both blue and red, you’ll be seeing Blessing of Steel in Dorinthea decks going forwards.
Puncture is a neat mechanic. I don’t think you’d ever need more than Puncture 1 attached to a swing to disincentivize equipment blocks. As a result, the main card to be looking at regarding Precision Press is its blue variant. Giving unconditional go-again has always been solid in Warrior due to the ability to bluff a reaction or an attack action/potion/aura being played after the attack. This sort of gameplay style allows Dorinthea to have a lot more nuance in her game patterns and makes the opponent really second guess whether to overblock or not. However, these sort of unconditional go-agains are the core of that strategy, and any deck running along those lines will be happy to have Precision Press in the blue slot.
Perhaps my favorite addition from the set. I’ve long touted that Dorinthea could really use one more red attack reaction of solid quality. Puncture fills the role perfectly. Compared to almost every other Piercing implementation at action speed, adding Piercing to a weapon swing at reaction speed is incredibly powerful. It provides Dorinthea with the ability to not only have a reaction that gives the value of one-cost for four damage, but also helps work around those pesky equipment blocks people like to use on breakpoints with Dorinthea.
Felling Swing is a card will be playing a great little role in Axe decks. It’s by no means a huge pay off card or such and is below rate on damage usually since it’s going to require at least a fourth resource to swing an Axe after playing this. However, Felling Swing is still a solid piece at blue, and considerable at red if your Axe deck simply needs more finishing or upper end power on the bigger hands.
With the inclusion of the newest set, Warrior now has plenty of solid blues to play as support pieces to their offense. Visit the Imperial Forge won’t be one of them. Simply put, giving only piercing to a weapon isn’t powerful enough to fit into many Warrior decks, and if the opponent doesn’t equipment block (which they are disincentivized to anyways) then the card is substantially below rate. I doubt the red or yellow version of this card ever gets touched outside of pack openings, and the blue might find its way into some decks as a support piece.
Wrapping Up
A particularly strong set for Warrior, Dynasty adds a lot of depth to existing strategies. While tuning Boltyn slightly, Dori makes out like a bandit here, with a variety of her archetypes being buffed up. Notable additions will be Blessing of Steel and Puncture for her most popular Dawnblade lists. If you’d like to chat more about the Warrior Dynasty card pool, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @a_dedanwala.
