New Paladin Legendary Card - Ragnaros, Lord of Light

Along with the other elementals, Ragnaros was imprisoned in the Elemental Realm, where his troops confronted the other elementals. During the War of the Three Hammers, the Dark Iron Dwarf Emperor Thaurissan summoned Ragnaros to Azeroth, after which the Firelord ruled the bowels for a long time. Black Mountain until the heroes slew and drove him back to the Firelands, his realm in the Elemental Realm.

Ragnaros is one of two Elemental Lords who sided with Deathwing in the Elemental War. The Aspect of Death helped him open passages from the Firelands to the territory of Mount Hyjal, and Ragnaros set out to destroy the World Tree Nordrassil along with his fire troops and the Twilight's Hammer cultists. However, the Guardians of Hyjal, the Ancients reincarnated on Azeroth, and Cenarius successfully fought him and drove him to the Firelands.

Now Ragnaros resides in his realm in the Elemental Realm and is preparing a new invasion.

Story

Long ago, the Lord of Fire and his brethren ruled the depths of the world. A fearsome servant of the Old Gods, Ragnaros battled the Titans for control of the planet. The price of defeat for the elemental lord was eternal imprisonment in the Elemental Realm. Ragnaros fought and defeated Thunderaan, the Sky Prince, but was unable to destroy him.

At the center of a vast lake of fire is the Stronghold of Sulfuron, home of Ragnaros. Until the elemental lord was summoned to Azeroth, he was a tough tyrant in his realm, the Firelands.

Later, when the War of the Three Hammers was taking place on the mountaintops and in the depths of the caves, the ruler of the Dark Iron dwarves Thaurissan, planning to summon a powerful minion, turned to the ancient forces hiding in the bowels of the earth. Dreams of a quick victory in the war turned out to be a hoax, Ragnaros, the embodiment of horror and death, appeared before the emperor.

Released by the call of Thaurissan, Ragnaros returned to Azeroth, revealing himself as a violent volcanic eruption that destroyed the surrounding mountains. Thaurissan was killed by the forces he summoned, and his surviving followers became slaves of Ragnaros and his fire elementals, hiding in the depths of Blackrock Mountain for a long time.

Kardros and Maraudan, the dwarf rulers of the Wildhammer and Bronzebeard clans, were horrified by the huge burst of flame from the bowels of the earth and united their forces, preparing to meet the minions of Ragnaros, who had lost most of his forces in Azeroth, but still remained a dangerous enemy.

Molten Core

The source of information in this section is World of Warcraft Classic.

The Firelord, who took refuge in the Molten Core, fought for control of Blackrock Mountain with the orcs and Nefarian, son of Deathwing, for a long time. The Elemental Lord managed to discover the secret of creating life from stone, with which he could create an invincible army of golems, finally enslaving Black Mountain and the surrounding lands, if the heroes of Azeroth had not invaded the Molten Core and defeated him.

Invasion of Hyjal

cataclysm to World of Warcraft.

Green dragons fight alongside the Guardians of Hyjal, as do the Ancients, who returned to Azeroth ten thousand years after the battle against the Burning Legion to defend Mount Hyjal from invasion. After the return of the Ancients, Ysera summons Cenarius, who will lead the attack on the Firelord.

To exorcise Ragnaros, the conservationists break through to the Spire of Sulfuron, which links Hyjal and the Firelands. From records found among the cultists of the Circle of the Ascended, it becomes known that the gates of the spire are guarded by Azralon the Gatekeeper, one of the most powerful servants of Ragnaros.

After Azralon's defeat, Cenarius, Malfurion, and Hamuul pass through the fourth portal from the Sanctuary of the Diviners and fight Ragnaros in Sulfuron Spire. The Firelord retreats to his realm, promising to return, and the Guardians of Hyjal win the war.

• Ragnaros yells: YOU JUST DELAYED THE INEVITABLE, CENARIUS. MY ARMIES WILL BE REGENERATED IN THE FIRELANDS.
• Cenarius says: We mustered all our strength, but we drove Ragnaros back to the Firelands.
• Malfurion Stormrage says: We must not let our guard down. After some time, he will regain his strength and return to reduce Nordrassil to ashes.
• Archdruid Hamuul Runetotem says: A council of all Horde and Alliance leaders needs to be called. Ragnaros must be destroyed in his realm. Only then will he be finally defeated.

Firelands

The source of information in this section is an addendum cataclysm to World of Warcraft.

For those who were not satisfied with one Ragnaros, the developers added a second one. Especially for Paladins.

Ragnaros, Lord of Light

Heals 8 at the end of your turn. health to your character with incomplete health.

In standard mode

We have quite a few hard words to say about how this map fits in with the World of Warcraft. No way. If today was April 1st, we wouldn't even publish this map. But we understand that not all of our readers are interested in Warcraft lore, so we will not continue on this topic. Let's evaluate the card.

Paladin's control is becoming more and more real. First appeared, now a new Ragnaros.

We love this card. [Ancient Healer] is leaving Standard Mode. The new Ragnaros also heals for 8. Health, costs 3 more mana, but has +5/+5 more stats than [Ancient Healer]. Purely mathematically, the new card is more profitable. Yes, it is a little more difficult to perform if you only need to heal your hero. You need to get rid of the wounded creatures, or hope for a chance. On the other hand, this card is more flexible than [Ancient Healer]. The new Ragnaros can trade with almost any creature, and at the same time fully restore his Health. At the same time, even if this creature is immediately killed (yeah, try to do it with 8 HP), it will still restore 8 Health to someone when summoned, and take 8 damage that could be sent to other targets.

Now to the cons. The main problem with this card is its cost. It's not overpriced, but Paladin's 8 mana slot is already taken by [Tirion Fordring]. If Control Paladin becomes a reality, it would be nice to add both Ragnaros to it. 3 creatures at once for 8 mana in one deck? It all depends on the pace of the meta, but from today's point of view, the deck seems to be too heavy.

Our rating: 7/10

In free mode:

Seriously, why couldn't this creature be called something else? Why invent something that is completely impossible in Warcraft? Were there enough Paladins worthy of appearing in Hearthstone? Okay, shut up 🙁

Speaking about the impact of the card on the wild mode, one cannot ignore the decks that are already in this mode. Paladin has four decks in the meta right now.

• Agro Paladin does not need this card and for nothing. Don't even need to explain why
• Midrange Paladin and Paladin on Secrets would have come in very handy. Just imagine that this card can kill [Dr. Boom] and fully restore his health. Amazing, but... expensive! It's still a midrange deck, if it's in starting hand gets this creature, it will lie dead weight, and can completely break the game.
• A paladin on Murlocs may need this card more than others. We said in the last article about healing a Paladin that the extra 8 HP can help a combo deck survive until the moment of a full combo. Yes, the card is a little heavy, in the slot for 8 mana there are 2 [Lay on of Hands] at once. But there is at least some hope here.

Therefore, in Wild mode, everything will also depend on the appearance of a Control Paladin. Well, or at least Renault Paladin.

So what happened to Ragnaros when the Old Gods returned to Azeroth?

Today, IGN officially announced the release of new card additions Wake of the Old Gods. Meet "Ragnaros, Lord of Light" - the legendary paladin card, an extremely unexpected twist for the most emblematic card of the game!

Wait, what??

Anyone who has ever dealt with Hearthstone undoubtedly knows about one of the most iconic characters card game, Ragnaros, Lord of Fire, and at the same time the most popular map from classic set. Unlike many on Azeroth, corrupted by the corruption of the Old Gods, Ragnaros became a warrior of light. Instead of dealing 8 damage to a random enemy character, the new Paladin Legendary card restores 8 health to a wounded friendly character.

Imagine a world where Ragnaros says "Live Insect" at the end of the turn and heals you instead of dealing 8 damage to your opponent! It would be wonderful world, is not it?

Team 5 was asked about the new wonderful Ragnaros. "Yes, we know, in the expansion we wanted to turn a lot of good characters into evil ones," said Senior Designer Ben Broad. "It became interesting for us to see Ragnaros (once already enslaved by the Old Gods) in a new light, also changing roles. The only problem was that he already personified evil on a universal scale, because he is the fearsome Elemental Lord. Therefore, we took a different path and decided see what Ragnaros would look like if he wasn't "corrupted" At its core, in Whispers of the Old Gods, the paladins represent a bastion of hope, many of their cards are themed against the coming darkness. Tremble, here comes Ragnaros, Lord of Light!"

The mischievous nature of the card game is most revealed in the darkest expansions, and Ragnaros is the most wonderful example of this. When a new evil is coming, ready to defile everyone around, the enemies become your main allies, ready to help in the difficult struggle. Isn't that cool?

Let's talk about this new "corrupted" expansion card.

Ragnaros, Lord of Fire, plays in decks due to its immediate impact on the game situation, while the new Ragnaros, in terms of impact, is more like the Ancient Healer - it stabilizes and controls game table.

However, Lord of Light has a disadvantage similar to Lord of Fire. Both effects are extremely powerful, but require a trained game situation to play and get the most out of them.

In the case of Ragnaros, Lord of Fire, ideally you play it on a clean board with 8 damage flying into your opponent's face, or on a board with one huge minion on your opponent, so you have a 50% chance to regain control of the game in his hands if Ragnaros killed him. The more small minions the opponent has on the board, the less potential value there is in casting Firelord, and sometimes the right decision is to leave the opponent's Ragnaros alone if you have a lot of minions and pick a different target instead.

On the other hand, it should be easier to capitalize on Lord of Light as it doesn't depend on the opponent's table. For example, if you hold Ragnaros, Lord of Fire in your hand, you cannot say for sure how many creatures your opponent will play on the next turn, and the further benefit of Ragnaros depends on this.

Preparation for the Lord of Light, on the contrary, depends on your actions. If you need to heal your hero, you need to make sure that you don't have any small wounded creatures on the board. If they are, you can exchange them. If you want to heal your one huge creature on the table, you can also play with the probability, and with a 50% chance the creature will be healed.

The big difference would be that Ragnaros, Lord of Light, is also a big creature to be reckoned with, since, starting from the next turn after the play, he can make an attack - while the Lord of Fire cannot - unless on him will not cast silence, but then he will lose the ability to shoot a random creature for 8 damage. From this point of view, the Lord of Fire loses to the Lord of Light - every turn he can deal damage, destroying creatures, and restore 8 damage.

One important question remains - is there a slot in the decks for such an expensive creature? All expensive cards in Hearthstone have a strong and immediate impact on the game. They provide additional burst damage to win (Ragnaros, Firelord, Grommash Hellscream), help stabilize your position in the game (Tirion Fordring, Jaraxxus), help prepare lethal (Alexstrasza), or just have a really strong effect (Ysera, Mal'Ganis , Archmage Antonidas).

Creatures with a higher cost are usually part of the victory condition.

It's a pretty interesting mechanic.

The paladin already has a bunch various ways to heal (and there are even more of them, remember the recently announced Forbidden Healing), but what is rather interesting is that a similar effect is attached to an impressive body size. It's definitely a control card and in Team 5's opinion the card will fit into the control meta that will solidify with the release of the expansion. What can this clearly mean? This means that games will be an order of magnitude slower.

The main reason why the pace will slow down is the elimination of the Curse of Naxxramas adventure cards and the Goblins and Gnomes expansion in the new standard mode, which accelerated Hearthstone and helped face decks like Face Hunter rise to the top. I also note that the additions showed us sticky / difficult to kill creatures (an example would be the Possessed Creeper), with the departure of these cards, the strength of all other cards will be changed in some way.

In addition to that, the cards we've already seen from the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion - C'Thun and his minions - are geared towards a control playstyle. They are specifically made to slow down the pace of the game so that it lasts 10 or more moves.

Each class will have a potentially new type of control deck thanks to C'Thun.

Will Ragnaros, Lord of Light play in the era of Standard and Wake of the Old Gods? Most likely, the archetype of Control Paladin will return. Undoubtedly, this card can become part of the paladin deck on C'thun, help to maintain control of the table in the late game and provide you with a new condition for victory.