Seeking Power – Omens of the Past Set Review – Praxis and Hooru

GRADES

I will be grading each card in the new Omens of the Past expansion for both ranked and draft play. I am going with a A+ to F grading scale this time out. A breakdown of the grading scale:

A’s: Straight bombs or very efficient cards, the best cards in the set.
B’s: Strong playables. Cards that push you into a given faction in draft.
C’s: Role players and cards you rarely cut from your deck in draft.
D’s: Narrow cards that usually don’t make the cut.
F’s: It would be a mistake to add this to your deck.

NEW MECHANICS

Warp: You can see cards with Warp when they are on top of your deck, and you can play them as if they were in your hand.

Mentor: Cards with Mentor have an additional effect when played if you exhaust one of your units as a Student. Units that are already exhausted can’t be used as a Student.

Alluring Ember
Ranked: F
There are better options in the Warp deck.

Draft: F
This doesn’t do enough even if Warped.

Noble Firemane
Ranked: D
The rate is okay on this, but probably not strong enough to make it.

Draft: B-
This is a two drop with a powerful late game ability which makes it a strong playable.

Champion of Impulse
Ranked: C
This doesn’t seem great, but if you can consistently make it a 4/4 for 3 with upside it is not unplayable. The influence requirements are hard to pull off early in the game though.

Draft: C-
This isn’t that exciting in draft, especially if you are playing 3+ factions, which is common in the format.

Journeyman Armorer
Ranked: F
There are better options for the Warp deck and the rate isn’t good enough on its own.

Draft: C+
This seems strong, especially if you Warp it. Oddly I haven’t seen one of these cast yet and I recently hit Master.

Purify
Ranked: C
There are some juicy targets for this, I’m looking at you Dawnwalker, but there are enough poor targets that I am not in love with this in ranked. The comparison to Torch is a sad one.

Draft: B
A strong reason to play or splash Praxis, this kills plenty of valuable threats and can generate blowouts at fast speed.

Brilliant Discovery
Ranked: D
This is too slow probably, but it does provide a lot of value.

Draft: D
While this does provide value, I would usually rather just play another unit or card that impacts the board.

Clever Stranger
Ranked: C
This could be the key to a viable Stranger deck. My current list can do some crazy things with Clever Stranger, but the downside is that he is quite vulnerable for his cost. Though if you can Warp him you don’t mind. Here is my list:

4 Hearty Stranger (Set2 #104)
4 Permafrost (Set1 #193)
4 Torch (Set1 #8)
4 Elysian Stranger (Set1 #412)
4 Praxis Stranger (Set2 #248)
4 Skycrag Stranger (Set2 #250)
4 Determined Stranger (Set1 #92)
4 Clever Stranger (Set2 #178)
4 Soaring Stranger (Set1 #229)
4 Battle-Tested Stranger (Set2 #58)
4 Workshop Forge (Set2 #182)
4 Fortunate Stranger (Set1 #364)
3 Fire Sigil (Set1 #1)
4 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)
4 Primal Sigil (Set1 #187)
4 Praxis Banner (Set2 #171)
4 Elysian Banner (Set1 #421)
4 Seat of Wisdom (Set0 #63)
4 Skycrag Banner (Set2 #186)

This is untuned, but the early results are promising.

Draft: D
If you have a ton of strangers, I might try this out, but otherwise it is too bad on rate.

Diogo Malaga
Ranked: B
I think there is enough going on here to deem Diogo playable. The ultimate represents a ton of damage and is very threatening to the control player especially.

Draft: A
The rate is way above normal draft cards and the ultimate is a game winner most of the time. Sign me up.

Shatterglass Mage
Ranked: B+
The value potential with this is fantastic. It is also a great answer to Chalice, Obelisk, and various Relic weapons.

Draft: B
There are enough attachments running around that this will get good value a lot of the time, and even if not the rate is solid.

Talir’s Choice
Ranked: B-
I think the first part will be chosen most of the time in a go wide strategy, but it is nice to have the second option as a fall back. It may be hard to find room for this, but I am willing to try it.

Draft: C+
Either side alone wouldn’t be great, but the option makes this a solid playable.

Workshop Forge
Ranked: A
I am a believer in the Forge deck. It provides a huge amount of card and power advantage that ends up being fantastic against mid-range and controlling decks. The problem so far is its weakness to aggro decks. Because the deck is so synergy driven, it can hurt a lot to include non-warp measures to contain aggro. If we can figure out a way to survive to the mid game, this deck could be seriously good.

Draft: F
You won’t get enough Warp cards for this to be playable.

Heart of the Vault
Ranked: A+
This feels like one of the strongest cards on rate in the set and it was the first Legendary I crafted. It is fantastic in the Workshop Forge deck, but can be great in some kind of Praxis mid-range strategy as well.

Draft: A
This will out value your opponent pretty easily and the body alone could win the game.

Sandglass Sentinel
Ranked: F

Draft: D
While this threatens a lot of damage, I don’t think it quite makes the cut enough of the time. If you need some late game in a spell heavy deck, you can play it but it can be hard to have too many spells left by the time you can cast this.

Moment of Creation
Ranked: C
This could be a reasonable finisher in some kind of control deck, but I fear there may be better options.

Draft: D
If you have a ton of spells I would consider this, but in a normal deck it probably doesn’t do enough.

Bring Down
Ranked: B+
There are enough high value flying targets and juicy silence targets that this is a strong option for Hooru decks.

Draft: C+
There are plenty of fliers to kill, and this is a very efficient choice with the silence effect being a mediocre but not dead fall back plan.

Kothon, the Far-Watcher
Ranked: A
The rate is ideal and the ultimate gives this enough punch to make it an important player for Hooru decks.

Draft: A
A very powerful option that defends you in the early game and helps win the late game.

Aerialist Trainer
Ranked: B
The rate is strong enough that if there is a viable Hooru flier deck, this will be an important piece. I am not sold that the deck is a great option at this point though.

Draft:B
This gets a lot better if you have a nice quantity of fliers, but it is pretty strong even without a flier to target.

Eilyn’s Choice
Ranked: B+
This does two powerful but narrow things and I think the package makes for an attractive card.

Draft: B
Killing large threats will be primarily how you use this, but the upside of an extra choice is welcome.

Spellshield Architect
Ranked: C
The rate is not exciting, but Aegis is a very potent ability and I won’t rule this out just yet.

Draft: C-
You will rarely cut this from your Hooru decks, but I don’t like that it trades poorly with opposing 2/2’s. Granting a two drop Aegis is often not exciting, but this gets more utility later by protecting your stronger units. This is a solid weapon wielder as well.

Master’s Lesson
Ranked: D
The joke here is to target Silverwing Familiar or Icaria in the late game, but this can be hard to pull off and probably too slow even if you do.

Draft: D-
It will be hard to have enough units with 2+ abilities to make this viable, but if you have 4+ I would consider it.

Shelterwing Rider
Ranked: B-
The rate is strong enough that you should consider this in a heavy Hooru deck. This plays VERY well with Protect, but mainly it beats down very hard.

Draft: A-
This wins games in a hurry and plays very nicely with weapons. Strongly consider drafting Protect a bit higher if you have it. A nice combo with Spellshield Architect as well.

Shield Bash
Ranked: D-
This might be playable in a Fencing Master deck, but otherwise I think it’s too slow.

Draft: C-
This will never be that bad, but it isn’t that good either. A key card to target if you have Fencing Master though. It also plays nicely with Relic Weapons.

Champion of Order
Ranked: C
While it is very vulnerable, if you have solid control of the game I don’t hate this as a finisher. It gets out of hand very quickly if unchecked.

Draft:C+
It will be hard to meet the influence requirements in a timely fashion, and this is quite vulnerable to any removal, but if you can meet the requirements and stick this for a turn you will very likely win the game.

Duelist’s Blade
Ranked: D
The rate isn’t strong, but granting Aegis is some cool upside. Overall probably not good enough.

Draft:B+
This can pick off a few units or one larger unit making it a very solid removal option.

Highwind Glider
Ranked: D
Probably too slow, but control decks might have a problem beating this.

Draft: B
This shores up some air defenses and wins any stable game quite nicely.

Meditative Stranger
Ranked: D
This ends up being too slow to save your Strangers in time I think.

Draft: D
The rate isn’t very good here.

Nostrix, Lord of Visions
Ranked: B
The rate is definitely there for this to be a strong finisher. The problem is how weak it is against aggressive decks and that the ability doesn’t help that much against Harsh Rule. Still, if there is a mid-range Hooru deck, this could be viable.

Draft: A+
It will be very hard to lose if you cast this.

Aid of the Hooru
Ranked: C
This is a very sweet card, but the cost is prohibitive in most decks. It is a very fun one to try and cheat out with West-Wind Herald.

Draft: F
Sadly, I don’t think even controlling decks can count on getting to 12 power in time for this to help.

Thanks for reading, and come back soon for the Argenport and Skycrag cards next!
-Ben Chapman
@bchap55