2.3 Preview: Nethershriek
9July 26, 2014 by Hectares
Chicken? Gnome? Shriek! We’ve been patiently waiting to spoil this card…
Nethershriek is Death Current with a body. It’s less direct because it needs to land in a lane with an opposing creature, however, the wording makes the thought of giving it Mobility very tempting. The lane variance can be mitigated with some board fill. Because it’s a spell you can level it with a variety of other cards and also get added benefits from both Tarsus Deathweaver and Crypt Conjurer.
This card can slot into many decks (Doomsling 2.0?) and will definitely find a home in competitive constructed play. Here is a one spot you might like to try the 2.3 Nekrium legend:
AN Deathdraw
3 Tarsus Deathweaver
3 Ironmind Acolyte
3 Ghox, Metamind Paragon
3 Metamind Overseer
2 Metamind Adept
2 Aetherforge Oracle
2 Brightsteel Gargoyle
1 Crypt Conjurer
1 Oreian Justicar
3 Nethershriek
3 Varna’s Pact
2 Epidemic
1 Shallow Grave
1 Overwhelming Force
Stay tuned for the announcement of upcoming precon showdown Ghox’s Socks VS Pion! Perhaps there will also be another spoiler in a certain Minesweeper-enhanced stream in the near future.
Category SolForge | Tags: Nethershriek, preview, rotf, rotf 2.3, rotf add-on, set 2.3, spoilers
Sweet. New cards! I like the “creature as a spell” mechanic, makes things interesting.
Is the level 2 worded correct? If it is, it’s not exactly like “Death Current”, it’s a bit weaker. But I’m pretty sure it’s just a wording issue.
Doomwing in a can, eh? Interesting…
It’s me or it’s the first spell with an unique picture per level.
Normally spells would have the same art but since this makes a creature, it would make sense to have different art.
Back to the Deathweaver well, eh. Kind of boring in that regard.
There are other implications of its being a spell that are more subtle and might make for some interesting situations – getting free spell plays comes to mind – but I feel like the Deathweaver combo is so obvious and strong that it’s going to overshadow everything else.
Everflame Mystic is probably worth mentioning as it could fill a lane and generate free Shrieks almost as soon as it’s played. Master of Elements will likely be too slow to get good a combo there. And… Static Shock?
Aetherforge oracle is also an interesting interaction card as it’s one of the cheapest ways to level a card for free.
Everflame Mystic was particularly what I had in mind, though chaining with Shock is relevant as well. Plus I imagine we’ll see more free spell play options with future releases.
One specific aspect of Mystic I like here is that Nethershriek might make it viable to give Mystic aggressive or mobility. With careful board setup you could get a good chunk of value out of that, probably quite a lot more than most free post-combat spell plays.
I can imagine a shell that looks something like this:
Everflame Mystic
Deathweaver
Borean Mystic
Nethershriek
Varna’s Pact
So here you have a pile of nice two-card combos. Borean combos with Everflame and Nethershriek, Everflame lets you cast free creature-generating spells, Tarsus pumps your creature spells, Pact can potentially get extra Shriek triggers (though hard gating makes that a dicey proposition). Sprinkle in additional removal, mobility, aggro, and/or underdrops to taste and maybe you have a deck…?