5 of the Most Influential Cards from Scholomance Academy

With all of the cards from the newest Hearthstone expansion, Scholomance Academy finally revealed, it is safe to say that this set is going to have a lot of influence on the direction of the game going forward. Certainly not as much as Ashes of Outland did with Demon Hunter, but enough to be more significant than a normal new expansion, especially with the introduction of dual-class cards and the new mechanic Spellburst. Today, I want to talk about how Scholomance will affect the meta, and list what I think will be the five most influential cards of the set.

Lorekeeper Polkelt

While its current decklist is surprisingly tight, it is very likely that Lorekeeper Polkelt will find his way into the current iteration of Quest Warlock. His ability to reorder one’s deck with the highest cost cards on top will make it much easier to find win conditions in the form of Dragon Queen Alexstrasza, Malygos, and base Alexstrasza. It is also likely that Polkelt will find his way into a number of tempo and control decks as a way of improving one’s curve in the late game. It might even its way into an aggro deck as a finishing tool that will let them draw into their high-end cards. Polkelt’s influence resides in his wide range of utility across classes and deck types. He is certainly not a card to be underestimated.

Vectus

While not having an obvious home in any of the current competitive archetypes, Vectus is another card whose versatility will likely give him a spot in many decks, even those for which Deathrattle is not the main focus. For one, 6/6 worth of stats on turn five is pretty impressive by itself, especially split across three bodies. On top of that, however, depending on the copied Deathrattles, Vectus can also generate a large amount of value, which can set up for the following turn. All of this will make him a threat to watch out for.

Soulciologist Malicia

Malicia, along with the rest of the Soul Fragment package, is likely going to be a strong option for both Demon Hunter and Warlock for the foreseeable future. Not only do the fragments themselves provide healing to classes that have historically benefited greatly from it, but the payoff cards for adding in fragments for classes can also be quite potent. On top of that, because the fragments are cast when drawn affects, there is zero risk in clogging your deck. Malicia, arguably being the best, will likely be the bane of many people’s existence.

Sphere of Sapience

Scholomance has also introduced, along with many other mechanics, the first neutral weapon. While it may just be 1 mana make 4 of your draws slightly better, those slightly better draws could be the difference between winning and losing in a lot of cases. Though it will probably not see much play in aggro style decks, tempo and control decks will likely experiment a lot with this card. If watching Yugioh has taught me anything its that believing in the heart of the cards can often be the answer.

Secret Passage

Though Legendary cards often do have the biggest, flashiest effects, they certainly are not the end all be all of the game. Often times games are one with smaller, more consistently present effects, like with Secret Passage. To say the card is good would be a huge understatement. While Rogue currently has a lot of value generation already in the form of Galakrond and secrets, after the rotation of last year's sets, this card will likely be the bread and butter of most decks for the class. Though its impact will not be immediate, it certainly will be felt.

There have been a number of sets in Hearthstone’s life span that have defined competitive metas. Witchwood introduced the even and odd deck restriction in the form of Gen and Baku, and Ashes of Outland introduced the horrifically unbalanced at launch Demon Hunter. All though at first glance Scholomance Academy lacks any meta defining cards, the ones listed here do have the potential to do so. Only time will tell now.

What are your favorite cards from Scholomance Academy? Let me know in the comments.

Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friendos!

Originally published at http://animatedobservations.com on August 2, 2020.