Asvedon, the Grandshield

Class: Warrior

Rarity: Legendary

Type: Minion

Mana: 3

Stats: 3/3

Battlecry: Cast a copy of the last spell your opponent played.

Developer comment: As the leader of the spellbreakers, Asvedon has mastered the art of deflecting any and all magic one might throw his way. With him at the center of the Lich King's siege on Silvermoon, Scourge spellcasters must think twice about unleashing their magic on the blood elves.

Disruptive Spellbreaker

Class: Warrior

Rarity: Epic

Type: Minion

Mana: 5

Stats: 4/5

At the end of your turn, your opponent discards a spell.

Developer comment: The spellbreakers are a vital force within Silvermoon's army. Trained in anti-magic tactics, it takes much more than your average spellcaster to make a spellbreaker do so much as break a sweat. The unholy, blood, and frost magic known by the Lich King's army is near useless when up against a formidable spellbreaker.

Last Stand

Class: Warrior

Rarity: Rare

Type: Spell

Mana: 4

Draw a Taunt minion. Double its stats.

Developer comment: The Lich King may have taken down Silvermoon City once, but that time shall be the last. The city's guardians are among the finest in all of Quel'Thalas. Their fortitude and resolve heighten drastically with their backs up against the wall. The Lich King will have to send more than just ghouls and geists to break down the city once more.

The spellbreaker was a unit of the human race in Warcraft 3. As its name suggests, it’s naturally immune to magic, is capable of stealing other units’ spells, and it burns enemies’ mana. When the Warcraft series moved on to World of Warcraft, many units appeared as playable classes or hero NPCs. However, the spellbreaker didn’t appear much. It was just briefly mentioned in some parts of the stories.

In Hearthstone, it appeared as an original card. The spellbreaker card was a 4/3 minion that costs 4 mana with a battlecry that silences one minion.

With the Lich King invading the Blood Elves with his undead army, it seems that the spellbreakers have stood up to defend Silvermoon, and they have returned as Warrior class cards in Hearthstone.

An interesting point is that the Warriors were traditionally strong against physical attacks, but they were weak against magic. It was a bit different in Hearthstone, but Warriors were mostly strong against minions and weak against spells.

Asvedon can return the spells to the opponent, so players that play spell-focused decks should always be on their toes when they face Warriors. Along with Asvedon, there’s Last Stand and Disruptive Spellbreaker - cards that make Warriors stand stronger against spells.

One of the biggest benefits of Asvedon is that you can return a high-cost spell with only 3 mana. If you return spells like Drakefire Amulet or Rune of the Archmage, it will be extremely impactful, and you can move forward with your game plan with your remaining mana. It won’t be easy, but technically, you can play it with Brann Bronzebeard as well.

However, Asvedon’s weakness is that the impact relies on the opponent’s card. If you are facing a low-cost aggro deck, it could end up as just an underwhelming 3/3 card that costs 3 mana. Also, the spell is cast on random targets so the spells may not be as efficient as you wish, and since there are plenty of decks that have strong Battlecry minions, it could be difficult to have a great impact by just recasting a spell that the opponent cast.

The Disruptive Spellbreaker is a 5-mana minion that makes the opponent discard a spell - a card that affects the opponent’s hand. You can get rid of an opponent spell and its 5 HP is quite difficult to deal with. But like Asvedon, it may not be very useful against certain decks.

The last card is Last Stand. A search card is always good to play in a deck, and doubling a minion’s stats is very strong. Not many Warrior cards have been revealed, but it is likely that there will be a Taunt minion or a Taunt support card, so there’s a good chance that Last Stand would be very useful. If you pull out Silverfury Stalwart with Last Stand, you’ll have a 6-cost 8/16 card with Taunt and Rush, which will be extremely difficult to deal with.

Not all Warrior cards have been revealed, but the March of the Lich King expansion suggests creating control decks that withstand opponent spells while defending face hits with Taunt minions. Neutral cards like Theotar, the Mad Duke or Mutanus the Devourer go well with the deck as well.

Although control Warriors aren’t valued high at the moment, they just might have a chance to shine in this expansion.