It's that time of the expansion, where we lament the current state of the metagame and pray that the mini expansion will fix things... But the question is, will it?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes.
Say hello to our latest Neutral Legendary Angel, Mikael. And boy, is this card good!
Even if there were no other cards revealed at all, this card has the potential to singlehandedly shift the meta. A 3/1 rush for 2pp is nothing special, but where it shines is the invocation effect, something which is likely to heal you for 4hp in the average game. With Vengeance Blood and Wrath Blood gatekeeping many other decks from the meta, this card's ability to heal away chip damage is essential in fighting against Blood. Recall that the typical Wrath Blood game pattern relies on chip damage via Vania or Howling Demon, to put you into that dreaded 11 damage Garodeth lethal range. Most of the time, 2-4 extra hp will keep you healthy enough to disregard their turn 7 burst.
In addition, against Vengeance, any healing is definitely welcome, especially when it can help clear the Marron or Galoms they're throwing out to chunk your face. Overall, this is a card whose value and reason for being run will change depending on the meta. This card will be essential in any board based metagame (think rally sword/castelle/puppet). We might not be there today, but it's something to look forward to with optimism.
The main thing about this card is that it is not easily slottable into Mysteria or any of the main Blood Archetypes, which is a bonus for any board based deck that can slot this in. Granted, it's not very good against Mysteria, but you can't win them all, huh?
Next, we review the Neutral Gold Card.
It's evolve support which is very easy to trigger and draws a card after being evolved (via last words). It's likely an instant 3-of in most evolve decks and will turbocharge your Alice.
The main downside is the difficulty in playing this on curve, considering the 2/1 stat line is incredibly vulnerable in the current meta. Before your evolve points are active, it's hard to play this early game, but these can be worked around, especially considering that in the mid and late game, it's generally a 4/3 rush that draws a card.
This card is likely to see play in a majority of decks involving evolve synergies. It's not immediately obvious if it will change the meta on release, but it is certainly a card that you will see a lot of for the next year, especially since Evolve is one of those keywords that is just waiting for a Grimnir to break them.
Next we have the Sword Legendary. Ah, Gawain, you're not Albert, but you'll have to do.
First thoughts is that it's a really scuffed version of Masamune. But overall, it's a strong Rally payoff card that synergises with the new neutral legendary and with Mars. After Rally 15, it does 4 damage to the opponent's leader for only 2pp, which is somewhat reminiscent of Judith, in some ways. The ability to gain Ward and Bane also makes it a reasonable defensive option in the late game.
This card seems generically good to me. My first thought is that this would go fairly well with Weiss based decks. It synergises with the general Rally synergies of the deck, keeps your hand size up and comboes very well with most of the things you want to do at all stages of the game. The Neutral Legendary will likely make Weiss particularly oppressive in many game states, as the previous counterplay was to leave a big follower that the Weiss player couldn't easily clear and evolve Weiss on the same turn.
Next on the list is the new Shadow Legend.
Frankly, it doesn't seem good enough with our current card pool. It synergises incredibly well with Soul Sniper, but it seems like an inconsistent combo at the current time. If there were a tutor for Soul Sniper (which I can't seem to think of right now), I think the deck would be fairly viable.
Even though reanimate tends to charge shadows fairly quickly, this card is looking to eat at least 12. With this in mind, the card does seem fairly underwhelming, but it's not going to stop you from losing games to your opponent drawing Soul Sniper early and playing it over and over and over again.
At first glance, the Shadow Gold is incredibly good.
Shadow gold, 1pp Burial rite, draw 1. Afterwards, if you have burial rited 2 times or more this turn, draw another card.
For what Burial Rite Shadow wants to do, this card fits in perfectly. It helps you consistently invoke your Lakandula on turn 2 onwards and ups the consistency of your deck considerably. It's also very strong after Myroel leader effect is active. It's not the most exciting card, but it's certainly a very good one, which will boost the power of an already fairly strong deck.
The Portalcraft TM meme card. Probably best used as a Take Two Card to be honest, but it's on the cusp of being viable in rotation.
For sure, somebody is going to try and make this card work, it's along the lines of other meme cards, like Departed Soultaker and friends. You might see it in Cutthroat from the memers out there? The only other possibility is slamming this on turn 8 while playing the Shion 0pp Token. That's the only way I see it working in the current meta, truth be told, and that's a tall ask considering you may just be dead before turn 8.
That said, @jacky1in on Twitter posted a possible OTK combo, so who knows!
Overall, the mini expansion cards seem to have a decent amount of potential. 4 out of the 6 cards are likely to have an impact on the meta, and that's good when two of those cards are neutrals. Let's see what else Mr Cygames has in store.
