Forces From Beyond Impressions LoR Spoilers Day 2: Variety Pack
Hey everyone, Kuvi here, for the second day of the new expansion Forces From Beyond. After getting Kai’Sa yesterday, today’s batch is a variety of cards from different regions.
To see the rest of the Forces From Beyond reveals, head to our Spoiler page where they’ll be revealed each day until its official release.
If you’d like to see our expert breakdowns for the cards, check out the rest of our reveal articles.
We got Frostbite support, a new Yeti from Noxus, and a Daybreak card! Let’s get started!
Frozen in Fear
Frozen In Fear is a new 4 mana slow speed frostbite card that summons a Rimefang Pack that gets +1/+1 for each Frostbitten enemies this game. This is meant to be played in Frostbite decks alongside cards like Rimefang Denmother and many frostbite cards like Ashe, Icevale Archer, Flash Freeze, Brittle Steel, etc…
Frozen In Fear can be used as a great development punisher on defense since it frostbites a unit AND summons a blocker which is an amazing defensive effect comparable to Concussive Palm in Ionia.
However, Frejlord already has a frostbite development punisher that fills that role in Ashe decks, Icevale Archer.
Generally, Frostbite is a combat trick that wants to be used very reactively to either answer open attacks or save units in combat, the fact that Frozen in Fear is a slow-speed Frostbite spell makes it much much worse.
I like the design of this card but I personally don’t think it’ll see play in a competitive meta deck.
Cracking Ice
Cracking Ice is another 1 mana burst speed Frostbite spell for Frejlord with a very unique effect. You can target an enemy unit to Frostbite it on the next Round Start. The only effect close to this one that we currently have is Aphelios’ weapon Gravitum which stuns at the next round start as well.
Despite its very unique effect, this doesn’t really fit in Ashe decks or Frostbite decks. Again, Frostbite is great because it’s a premium combat trick, I don’t see how Cracking Ice can replace cards like Three Sisters or Flash Freeze. Three Sisters offers a high amount of versatility while being a great option for Ashe and Frostbite decks.
However, I can see Cracking Ice fitting in control lists like Feel the Rush because of its ability to create a fork. By frostbiting a unit on your defense turn, the opponent is forced to develop before attacking which makes them play into your slow speed wide board removals like Avalanche and Ruination.
Even though I believe this card won’t see much play due to its inability to affect the board instantly, I think it’s important to note that it’s a great answer to spellshield(Supercharge) due to its very low mana cost.
Captive Yeti
Ahh yes, the new Yeti support we’ve been waiting for, but in Noxus. Captive Yeti is a 6 mana 5/5 overwhelm that has a very original Reputation effect, it costs 3 less.
Mixing two different archetypes is something they’ve been doing a lot with the last card releases, this Yeti was meant to work in both Reputation and Yeti Archetypes.
Unfortunately, Yetis need cheaper units that can activate Abominable Guardian rather than other payoff cards.
Captive Yeti is too expensive to fit in Yeti decks, the cost reduction only happens when reputation is active, which would need 4 5+ units to have attacked before, and in that situation, we probably wouldn’t benefit from another 5/5 unit but would rather have a stronger finisher or a value card like Whispered Words or Incisive Tactician.
Captive Yeti also doesn’t fit in non-yeti reputation decks due to it being a worse Callous Bonecrusher.
Overall, I personally hope they keep experimenting with Yetis in other regions and even Elnuks in the future.
Solari Stellacorn
Solari Stellacorn is by far one of the worst-designed cards they’ve printed in a while. As a Hearthstone Priest main, I’m a huge fan of healing cards, and this one doesn’t really live up to anyone’s expectations.
Solari Stellacorn is a 5 mana 4/6 follower from Targon with a Daybreak effect that heals all allies 3 (not including your nexus).
This card is problematic for many reasons:
First, it doesn’t actually fit in any healing deck. Soraka/Tahm Kench can’t benefit from this since we’ve seen effects like Soraka’s spell Wish not see play at all in the archetype. On top of that, the Daybreak conditional effect makes it very awkward to use. You usually want to play Solari Stellacorn after an attack to heal up your board and level Soraka/Star Springs, but the Daybreak effect makes it impossible to use any combat tricks since Solari Stellacorn needs to be played first.
Secondly, Solari Stellacorn doesn’t fit AT ALL in ANY daybreak deck. Leona decks never want this effect for 5 mana on a unit with no keywords. In fact, it’s not only useless in Daybreak decks but it’s even making the archetype weaker by just existing.
Rah’vun, Daylight’s Spear, and Heavens Aligned are two amazing Daybreak cards that are getting WEAKER since Solari Stellacorn is now in the daybreak pool and can be generated by both.
And finally, having a new Stellacorn unit with an effect that competes DIRECTLY with the other unplayable Stellacorn in the game makes no sense design-wise.
Evelynn Husks
Desperate, Enraged, and Stubborn Husks are tokens and not maindeckable cards, Riot has been revealing them every day as a teaser for Evelynn since they most certainly are part of her package.
It’s hard to evaluate how strong they are without knowing what creates them but the flavor of having challenger in Noxus, Furry in Targon, and Regeneration in Frejlord is amazing.
Granting keywords is generally a very powerful effect so I can’t wait to see what it’s attached to.
I hope you guys liked this Card Reveals analysis article, my DMS are always open if anyone wants to discuss what’s written in this article or anything LoR related!
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