hearthstone Lone Champion Reveal: Kobolds & Catacombs

[Zadina 831]

It is time for Wednesday's first card reveal. Behold, the Lone Champion!

The reveal was made by Petr "CzechCloud" Žalud. Lone Champion is a 3 mana 2/4 Rare minion, which reads: "Battlecry: If you control no other minions, gain Taunt and Divine Shield". The video is in English.

This looks like a powerful Arena card. Its power level is comparable to Tar Creeper but Lone Champion is actually a stickier minion that can make better trades. However, Tar Creeper's elemental synergy is a big advantage in constructed mode. Will Lone Champion see play in constructed? It might be a useful early game tool for control docks, but I wouldn't expect to see it that often.

Keep up with everything related to the upcoming expansion in our Kobolds & Catacombs hub!

[Caldyrvan 374]

I am not sure this card is really useful. Ofc it provides a fair amount of stats and abilities for its' mana cost. But who wants this. Minion heavy decks not, for sure. Even control decks include some 1 and/or 2 drops. I know comparing cards doesn't make sense but to make my point; I remember I used to play Tol'vir Stoneshaper in my shaman elemental deck but I ended up cutting it. Not because it's not possible to give it the Taunt and Divine Shield, but because it's not an ele itself it messed up my elemental flow and since I removed it the deck felt more fluid and was more successful.

At least it's not as awkward or questionable as the previous cards with a lot of random stuff.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[Synesthesy 73]

22 minutes ago, Caldyrvan said:

I am not sure this card is really useful. Ofc it provides a fair amount of stats and abilities for its' mana cost. But who wants this. Minion heavy decks not, for sure. Even control decks include some 1 and/or 2 drops. I know comparing cards doesn't make sense but to make my point; I remember I used to play Tol'vir Stoneshaper in my shaman elemental deck but I ended up cutting it. Not because it's not possible to give it the Taunt and Divine Shield, but because it's not an ele itself it messed up my elemental flow and since I removed it the deck felt more fluid and was more successful.

At least it's not as awkward or questionable as the previous cards with a lot of random stuff.

It can be used by control deck as anti aggro tool. It can even be the first minion you play at all, if you skipped first turn and used hero power the second (or coin and this).

[Caldyrvan 374]

I didn't want to say it's totally unplayable but just assume (and I think that can happen more often then we might want to believe) you don't have it in your hand, you play a 1 and or 2 cost minion then you draw it. Now you have put yourself in the position where you hope your current minions on the board will die somehow or you have a dead card in your hand.

Ofc your first minion(s) will die eventually but maybe it's already turn 4 then you usually have better things to do. By turn 4 there might already be stuff to ping your divine shield and 4 health is no longer a big deal for your opponent. There will be games where you can play it on curve or coin it out but that will not happen in most of the games. It's more like a gamble imo.

[SMOrcMan 72]

I could see this in a slower deck that plays few minions, like maybe mage or priest.

[VaraTreledees 131]

I like this card quite a lot.  There are more then a few decks where this card would fit.  Miracle rogue being the most obvious, they run very few 2 drops and normally chose to dagger on 2.  On top of that, it is a more aggressive tar creeper.  Only having 1 attack can be problematic since it let's your opponent dictate the trades.  I could see heavier druid decks also using this over our ubiquitous 3 Mana aggro wall as well.