Hearthstone’s The Witchwood expansion reveals continue and today we got to see Lady in White, the new Priest Legendary minion.
In this post, I take an in-depth look at Lady in White and what kind of decks she could fit into.
Lady in White
Lady in White is a six-mana 5/5 Priest Legendary minion with a Battlecry to cast Inner Fire (change attack equal to health) on all minions in your deck.
The immediate comparison that comes to mind is Prince Keleseth, which has a similar buff mechanic for cards in deck – and note that it is in deck only, not in hand.
However, Lady in White is not a straight up buff: if the minion has more attack than health, it is actually made worse by Lady in White, and if it has an effect that depends on low attack, it may also suffer.
The most notable cards that do not work well with Lady in White are Twilight Drake (attack reduced to one) and Twilight Acolyte (gives the opponent’s minion four attack instead of two, preventing a steal with Cabal Shadow Priest).
Lady in White also comes down quite late in the game at six mana, so it does not have that early-game snowball effect Prince Keleseth has.
Lady in White also does not synergize well with resurrect effects, as any resurrected minions revert back to their original stats. Same applies to Echo, as all Echo copies have the original statline of the minion.
Does Lady in White make new cards playable?
Some people are already excited about how Lady in White will turn bad cards into good cards. Mogu’shan Warden and Oasis Snapjaw as four-mana 7/7 minions? Sounds great, right? Not really, no.
If Lady in White’s effect was an aura, it could perhaps turn bad cards into good cards. The Caverns Below, the Rogue quest, can do exactly that, because of two factors: it always starts in your opening hand, and it has an effect that applies to everything already in play and in hand.
Lady in White cannot do that: you are not guaranteed to draw Lady in White, and even if you do, you may draw your bad cards first and miss out on the buff. The rest of the deck has to be viable by itself – Lady in White is an additional bonus, but you cannot expect it to carry the games for you.
Minions that benefit or suffer from Lady in White
Thinking of some practical effects of Lady in White, we should not examine obviously bad cards. Instead, cards that are already playable and at most cards that are very close to being playable are the interesting ones.
Some minions that become better after Lady in White is played:
- Ysera
- Malygos
- Sleepy Dragon
- Dragonhatcher (because so many Dragons become better)
- Obsidian Statue
- Primordial Drake
- Stormwatcher
- Hungry Ettin
- Gurubashi Berserker
- Tortollan Shellraiser
- Devilsaur Egg
- Drakkari Enchanter (stats and end of turn synergies with Ysera)
- Injured Blademaster
- Stonehill Defender
- Tar Creeper
- Northshire Cleric
Minions that become worse after Lady in White is played:
- Twilight Acolyte
- Twilight Drake
From the lists above, we can separate three groups of minions for Lady in White synergies:
Dragons. While there are a couple of cards that suffer from Lady in White, not all of them do. Because the effect itself is a Battlecry, it is even possible to include cards that suffer if you expect to play them before the Lady often enough. With Lady in White, the late-game dragons become extremely fearsome foes. Perhaps there is even room for Dragonhatcher to pull those buffed Dragons to the board.
Deathrattle minions. Bone Drake and Coffin Crasher may lose a point of attack, but those beefcake Obsidian Statues and Tortollan Shellraisers look pretty good. Stonehill Defender fits in nicely as it has a good chance to discover more (unbuffed) Obsidian Statues.
Other high-health minions. Perhaps you do not have to go for tribal synergies or Deathrattles. With cards such as Tar Creeper, Injured Blademaster, and Hungry Ettin, it is possible to either build a non-tribal list of useful minions that are even better with The Lady in White – or to use such minions for the early game while holding on to some big dragons for the late game.
Building a deck with Lady in White
There are multiple ways these cards can be combined into a coherent deck. Control Priest with big dragons? Minion-heavy Priest deck perhaps with Dragons as top end? Deathrattle Priest?
What about the combo? Lady in White can also fit in Combo Priest – after all, Combo Priest is largely a midrange Priest deck that has the combo as one possible win condition. With fewer opportunities to steal the opponent’s minions for the one-turn-kill (as Potion of Madness leaves Standard), Combo Priest is more interested in having some good health minions of their own, and Lady in White can make it less reliant on the combo itself.
Will Lady in White create an entire new archetype? Perhaps there is something to a minion-heavy Lady Priest, but overall the card seems to fit into multiple archetypes as simply a good card more than a defining one.