Jace Darkweaver

Class: Demon Hunter

Rarity: Legend

Type: Minion

Mana: 8

Stats: 7/5

Battlecry: Cast all Fel spells you’ve played this game (targets enemies if possible).

Developer's comment

As a former mage turned to the Fel arts, Jace Darkweaver is among the most intelligent of the Illidari. Through the combination of wits and fury, he unleashes devastating Fel energies on his foes. His battle skills leave nothing but scorched earth. Unfortunately, the same goes for his cooking.

• The Lore

After Illidan Stormrage lost to Arthas at the end of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, he retreated to Outland. The domination of Outland is threatened by the Burning Legion sent by Kil'jaeden and Illidan trains Demon Hunters to face Demons for revenge, but the betrayal of Prince Kael’thas and the tactic of Kil'jaeden leads the Champions of Azeroth to advance to the Black Temple to defeat him. 

However, just before, Illidan sent his Illidari Demon Hunters to Mardum of the Twisting Nether to take over the powerful Artifact Sargerite Keystone. When you create a Demon Hunter character in World of Warcraft, you can play this Assault on Mardum mission as the tutorial. One of the great named Demon Hunter characters in this assault is Jace Darkweaver.

As one of the core members of Illidari along with Kayn Sunfury and Kor'vas Bloodthorn, Jace Darkweaver and the player were captured together by the Watchers led by Maiev Shadowsong. But later by the time of World of Warcraft: Legion, he was released by Maiev and showed a great performance at the frontlines of events in Broken Shore and Azsuna.

He also appeared in a quest of getting “Aldrachi Warblades”, a 3-mana Demon Hunter weapon in Hearthstone and Demon Hunter’s Artifact weapon in World of Warcraft, and “T'uure, Beacon of the Naaru”, Holy Priest’s Artifact weapon. In Warcraft 3, one of the random names of Demon Hunters of Night Elf is “Darkweaver”, which is named after this character.

Before becoming a Demon Hunter, Jace Darkweaver was a Mage dealing with Arcane spells. In World of Warcraft, you can fish at The Dalaran Fountain to get a coin with the record of memories practicing Arcane spells. After exposure to Fel power, he hasn’t been able to use Arcane spells, but only destructive Fel spells.

As a former Mage, he was a smart character unlike other Demon Hunters who rely on physical power. He was responsible for the maintenance and management of the Fel Hammer, which is a large Legion ship for Demon Hunters. This does not mean that he was weak; his Fel spells are very destructive and this is well characterized in the new Hearthstone card.

• Card effect
  

Jace Darkweaver is a legendary Demon Hunter minion. He costs 8 for 7/5, which is not a great stat for its cost, but has a powerful Battlecry. When Jace Darkweaver is played, he will play every Fel spell you played during this game. His Battlecry is similar to old cards like “Shudderwock” and “Zul’jin”. 

Unlike Shudduerwock and Zul’jin, which target any minion randomly, Jace Darkweaver only targets the enemy minions (if possible). This is a very powerful effect considering that all of the Fel spells in Standard are either spells which deal damage or non-targeted spells.

• Strengths
  
  

There are great AOE removal Fel spells like “Immolation Aura” and “Chaos Nova”. Considering how other cards like Shudderwock and Zul’jin worked, if you play multiple Fel AOE spells during the game, Jace Darkweaver will be able to remove minions summoned by Deathrattle effects, unlike how “Twisting Nether” can’t deal with Deathrattle effects. Other damage-dealing spells like “Eyebeam” and “Felscream Blast” will also help clear the board and heal your hero at the same time.

There are also Fel spells that can help hit your opponent’s face like “Fury”, “Chaos Strike”, and “Metamorphosis”. In the best-case scenario, playing two Fury (Rank 3), two Chaos Strike, and the hero power from Metamorphosis will let you deal 16 damage to the face. This damage potential can be increased if these spells are created by cards like “Wandmaker”.

To sum it all up, Jace Darkweaver can clear your opponent’s board, heal for a decent amount, draw a few cards, and also hit your opponent for 10+ damage. All of these Fel spells were played in a Constructed meta deck at some point, which means that bad cards are not forced to be in the deck to play Jace Darkweaver. Usually, playing good cards to support a more powerful card is a good way to build a deck.

• Weaknesses

The first weakness is that it is a high-costed minion that requires other cards to be played in advance. Ideally, we would play the low-costed Fel spells in the early game and topdeck Jace Darkweaver on turn 8 for a strong tempo play. However, Hearthstone isn’t always ideal. When your deck isn’t ordered the way you want, it might be an 8-mana 7/5 minion that plays a few weak spells, if not any.

The second problem is unique to Demon Hunters: Outcasts. Outcast is one of the core mechanisms for Demon Hunter. Since its release, Demon Hunter has always been relying on “Skull of Gul'dan”. Outcasting Skull of Gul’dan on curve has been the winning play ever in almost every Demon Hunter deck since the release. Playing an 8-mana card in the deck increases the risk of not being able to Outcast Skull of Gul’dan.

Also, Jace Darkweaver can be awkward in current Demon Hunter archetypes. OTK Lifesteal Demon Hunter needs “Il'gynoth” for Lifesteal Fel spells to deal any damage but Jace Darkweaver costs too much to be played with Il’gynoth. In Deathrattle Demon Hunter lists, 2 copies of Eyebeam are usually the only Fel spells. 

The last problem is the number of available Fel spells in Standard. Shudderwock was easier to build around because there were tons of Battlecry minions. Although there is a decent amount of good Fel spells, this is not close to how many Battlecry minions were available to Shaman.

• Overall

Jace Darkweaver is a card with a great potential, but probably not the best fit in current meta decks. This does not necessarily mean that this card won’t be played in the next expansion. Only a small part of the new United in Stormwind expansion has been revealed. There could be new cards, especially Fel spells which can help Jace Darkweaver. Once all United in Stormwind cards are revealed, we will have to theorycraft a new archetype to reach the maximum potential of Jace Darkweaver.