Heavy Hitters is almost upon us, and it’s set to really shake up the card pools for Brute, Warrior, and Guardian. But outside of these heavy hitting classes, there is a smattering of generic cards for us to evaluate, as well as some choice class cards that come to us via the expansion slot. So let’s just dive straight in, shall we?

Generic

As always, we’ll start with the equipment. And one thing becomes clear straight away, which is, to coin a phrase, the situationalization of power creep. Balance of Justice is a straight upgrade to our lord and savior Crown of Providence – but only if your opponent is likely to be drawing cards on you.

The big one here is Art of War. If the meta-defining decks are all running Art of War, Balance of Justice is here to be a big balancing factor. LSS has tried something like this before, with Vambrace of Determination, which was basically designed to specifically hose Crown of Seeds where necessary.

But this time around, I believe the power level is there; blocking for two and straight up drawing a card, rather than filtering a card from hand or arsenal, is a big power play. And it’s important to note that the draw isn’t bound to the block. You can conceivably block and then save the draw for when your opponent draws their cards.

Another indicator that LSS is looking to mainly print cards that are only situationally nuts is Down But Not Out, a two-card eight damage play with evasion and a devastating on hit effect – that only comes online when you’re losing in terms of life, equipment, and board state.

This is deceptive. It looks like a defensive card meant to catch you up, but it’s actually much more of an aggressive power play. Use your Snapdragon Scalers or Vexing Quillhand early while your Bravo, Showstopper opponent is conserving their equipment economy, then tank a hammer hit with your face while they block out and you can enable a very nasty early power spike.

The limiting factor – and it’s a big one – is the fact that this costs three resources to play, which makes it an awkward inclusion in the decks that actually want it, since I don’t believe it’s going to see play in defensive decks. While it does block three on defense, it has to contend with more efficient and flexible defensive options, and once it’s online, the defensive deck most likely hasn’t put up enough pressure for the on hit and the damage to matter. Still, it’s a card to keep in mind going forward. The power is there, and it could be the next Wounded Bull if a deck materializes that can consistently enable it.

Moving on to a card that offers much more flexibility: Standing Order. The stat line isn’t impressive, but it passes the vanilla test. That makes it both a passable, if sub-optimal, chain ender for aggressive decks and a fair card on defense. But the standout is the utility of cycling out a bad arsenal while increasing its block value, its offensive potential, or becoming a popper in a pinch.

This kind of consolidation of utility into a single card is where sideboard stars are born, and I think this one is no different. Going forward, I’m for sure going to consider whether I want this card with every deck I build, even if I can see myself saying No a fair amount, too.

Nasty Surprise is aptly named, since if your opponent is looking to tax your hand or mill you out, you get a pretty sizeable advantage – and, say the line LSS, it’s a blue block-three. The hook is the difficulty of triggering its effect while still being able to take advantage of it – since you have to remember that all the tokens you get from its effect will be destroyed at the start of your next turn.

So if you get hit with a dominated Crippling Crush, your hand is just as likely to leave you with no way to use the free resource, the go again, the buff, or all three. Ideally, you want to include Nasty Surprise against targeted hand disruption like Aether Icevein or against a Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty opponent looking to fatigue you out with their Miller’s Grindstone.

Ripple Away is looking to pre-emptively hose the generation of tokens. Its statline is a tad awkward – since it doesn’t cost three, its a painful inclusion in the blue base of a controlling Bravo, Showstopper deck – but if your opponent is looking to create many different tokens, the instant-speed disruption is incredibly potent.

Seduce Secrets gets an honorable mention for being a free cantrip that doesn’t cost an action point. I don’t believe the information you get is all that relevant considering the downside of it being yellow – fixing your clashes likely isn’t worth it in a notoriously blue-hungry Guardian deck. But in the future, it might enable some kind of combo for the people whose brains are big and powerful enough to play Wizard.

Tenacity is the last generic card we’re taking a look at. While it doesn’t look exciting, I believe that, given the right meta, this might find inclusion in Ninja decks. The yellow pitch doesn’t completely cripple the card in low-cost decks, it costs zero to enable Katsu, the Wanderer‘s hero ability, and it can be a big zero-cost chain ender if your opponent is hell-bent on blocking out your big Crouching Tiger turn.

Overall, the theme for the generics in this set seems to be “situationally useful.” There are very few obvious power cards, which I believe is very healthy for the state of the game going forward. The cards LSS really juiced are the class-specific cards and the specializations, as we’ll see in just a moment.

Assassin

Coercive Tendency finally gives a contract-focused Arakni, Huntsman list a reason to exist. It’s blue and blocks three (we may as well start taking shots whenever I point this out at this point), but it does so much more beyond that. It helps fix your contract hits with the reordering of your opponent’s deck. It gets you an extra banish and it helps you craft wide turns that were otherwise impossible. Very exciting indeed!

Graven Call, on the other hand, I find difficult to evaluate. Is the ability to double its power that relevant? Its undeniably exciting to get to recur this after throwing it with your Flick Knives in a late-game scenario, but how much Silver are you going to generate in that kind of game? And if the game is that late, doesn’t your opponent have to block it anyway, no matter its power? Still, there’s no denying the fact that it speeds up the clock, and having options is always nice.

Runeblade

Sonata Galaxia might as well be a Viserai, Rune Blood specialization – an OTK Viserai one to be precise. If you’re stacking Runechants, this gets you your Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath, or whatever finisher the deck is going to run.

The challenge comes with the floor of this card. Until you have the room to build up your stash of Runechants and play the card you tutor in the same turn, this is a two-block red card that doesn’t do anything. I’m not sure if this makes up for the loss of Bloodsheath Skeleta, which all but killed the deck, but LSS seems intent on giving it the tools it needs to become a contender again. It will be interesting to evaluate the deck with this new addition.

Mechanologist

Coming off of Bright Lights, Mechanologist players probably didn’t need to get much this set, but Evo Magneto blue still might turn some heads. It’s an Evo equipment for those brave souls still tinkering with their Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate decks, and it has some utility with all the Gold tokens that will be lying around once Guardian stans get their hands on Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty. It doesn’t need to be much more than that.

Ninja

Fai, Rising Rebellion won the last Pro Tour, while Katsu, the Wanderer only got one deck into Top 8, but Ancestral Harmony is here to fix that: A zero-cost blue that blocks for three (take a shot) that also offers an Art of War-like effect and it cantrips?

Wow. Just wow. This is going to be exciting for sure, and with all the copies of Bonds of Ancestry that Katsu, the Wanderer decks run these days, the payoff isn’t even that hard to consistently enable. Still, it can’t hurt to keep in mind that there will be times where you don’t draw a card off of this. Time will tell if those whiffs are numerous enough to make the card less exciting. For now, it certainly doesn’t look that way.

Ranger

Did Azalea, Ace in the Hole really need a fourth copy of Red in the Ledger? Or, more accurately, a tenth, since you can already tutor it with Nock the Deathwhistle and recur it with Memorial Ground and Codex of Frailty.

Well if that wasn’t enough, we get Judge, Jury, Executioner, which has the added caveat of requiring an aim counter. I’m not sure if this is what Azalea needs to push the deck over the edge, but the small difference of forcing a discard at least gives you an edge in match-ups where your opponent is looking to fatigue you.

Reel In is an insult to me, personally. I love Riptide, Lurker of the Deep, which is no secret around these parts. And while I welcome LSS looking to make traps more relevant, this is NOT the way to go about it. Without pitching extra cards into it, you get to look at one measly card, and even pitching a blue alongside it just gives you four cards to look at.

You’re only ever finding more than one trap (or any traps, if we’re being honest) with Reel In if you’re running almost nothing but traps – which means you’re running something akin to the Nourishing Emptiness fatigue list, which is boring as hell. If I have one big disappointment with Heavy Hitters so far, it’s the fact that Reel In isn’t a card that rewards you for running traps and arrows. Maybe next time.

Illusionist

We saved the best for last. Illusionist players made out like bandits this time around – maybe to compensate for the naturally popper-dense Brute and Guardians getting so much love this set?

Dissolve Reality is a nice bit of utility for Illusionist, offering arsenal disruption in the same way that Lost in Thought offered hand disruption. But this is yellow, which is relevant in Prism, Awakener of Sol lists, and it also blocks for three. You can’t ask for much more than that.

But LSS gave them something better anyway: a Luminaris variant that isn’t just good, but also gives you some plausible deniability in front of your opponent. Gone is the effect that turned auras into weapons (thank god), but the nutty goodness of giving Herald of Erudition go again remains.

You can’t chain attacks as easily anymore, since the effect only applies to the first Herald attack action and the first Angel attack each turn, but if you’re running a fair mix of both, Luminaris, Angel’s Glow is likely to treat you almost as well as its predecessor did.

Conclusion

And there you have it, the most important cards from the generic card pool and the expansion slot. I really like the power spread here – relegating generics to situational counterweights to even out the meta and establish safety valves while powering up specific decks. LSS is doing a lot of things right these days, and Heavy Hitters is looking to continue that trend. Be sure to check back for our next set review!

Other Heavy Hitters reviews:

The Best Heavy Hitters Cards for Commoner

A Review of the 2024 Celebrational with Heavy Hitters

Was Heavy Hitters Supposed to Be a Talented Set?