As the year comes to a close, we look forward to what's in store for the Core Set refresh that we might be seeing sometime next year.
Magic
Unnacceptable Montrosity - 9 Mana 12/12 Common, (Creature: Mystic), Ward. Protected. Frontline.
Magic get's their own upgraded Helian Elite in 9 mana. This gives budget ramp magic deck more options to put in the board if you don't have the legendary Polyhymnia and Echophon in your collection.
Dralamar, Breaker of Crystals - 6 Mana 4/ Legendary5, (Creature: Aether), After you play a spell, refresh mana equal to its mana cost.
Good but not great, for it's ability you will need to be above 6+ mana for it to be useful. If this was 5 mana card, it might be more deserving of it's legendary stature.
Nature
Frisky Fox Pup - 1 Mana, 2/3 Common, (Creature: Wild), Ward. Confused.
Bye Hog. Hello Fox. Having a ward helps to make that 1st turn "sticky" creature on your board. I expect this to become the new staple for most Nature decks.
Hevner, Grim Shuck - 8 Mana, 5/5 Legendary (Creature: Wild), Frontline. Overkill. Confused. Ward. Gain +1/+1 for each wild creature in your void.
This card has the possibility of becoming an absolute monster! At turn 8 eight you'd probably have a decent amount of wild creatures in your void that will buff this card to massive stats with ward and overkill. All your opponent have to do is click the concede button.
War
Valknir Flamecaller - 2 Mana 2/2 Rare, (Creature: Viking) Roar: Give +1/+1 to your other vikings.
With a plethora of new viking cards, War aggro will see a boost in the core refresh and it get's the perfect card to compliment it's fast and furious gameplay. Wait till you see the next card below and it's not hard to imagine how War can absolutely snowball it's way to victory.
Sound of Drums - 3 Mana, Rare, (Spell), Give +3 strength to your vikings until the end of turn.
Need that last "oomph" to finish your opponent or maybe turn the tables and re-gain board control? Then this card needs to be in your arsenal. At 3 mana, it gives you some room to put a couple of more blitzky vikings in play and/or buff your board for a lethal attack.
Wandering Blacksmith - 3 Mana 3/3 Rare (Creature: Olympian) Roar: Reduce the mana cost by 2 of a relic in your hand.
Tenderizer has been tearing it up recently due to the popularity of Control War decks and if Wandering Blacksmith is able to reduce it's cost to a 5 mana relic then it will just make it even harder to deal with. The stats alone as a 3 mana 3/3 itself is not that bad.
Death
Swift Pox - 4 Mana Common, (Spell) Destroy an enemy creature with 6 or less health.
Death gets another removal spell and without having to deal damage to your own god. I'm expecting this to be a staple in budget Board wipe decks.
Stonespeaker - 4 Mana, 4/4 (Creature: Anubian) Afterlife: Heal your god for 3.
Death has been getting a lot of solid creature cards in the Divine order set and it's no different in this core refresh. The 4/5 stats and heal afterlife makes this a solid card for new and current players alike.
Deception
Ronellan Sparrow - 1 Mana 2/2 Common (Creature: Guild) Ward, Hidden for a turn.
Talk about having a sticky first drop. This dude is not only hidden in the first turn but also has ward. This might be the first card with this set of abilities making it a great addition to hidden rush builds.
Ronellan Worldwhisperer - 2 Mana 2/2 Common (Creature: Guild), When this creature attacks a god, draw a card.
A steal your opponent's card always have a special place in my heart. I know that a 2/2 creature can be easily removed without much resistance but I still look forward to play this in the new set and the probability of a having "steal deck" meta in the horizon.
Selfless Guildmate - 1 Mana 1/1 Rare (Creature: Guild) Roar: Give another one of your guild creature +3 strength.
Guild decks are so good because of The Hollow and I think it will be even better with this card. Along with Dark knives and Assassin aim, Deception might have the best tools in the game to quickly end a match.
Light
Selfless Protector - 1 Mana 1/3 Common (Creature: Olympian) After one of your creature dies, pull it to the board and destroy this creature.
Light's problem has always been how to sustain board control and in some ways this drop might be able to help solve that. There's a couple ways to play this creature, you can play it before ramming one of your creatures to trade with your opponent's and get it back immediately. You can also play this and add your board to still give you a way to survive an AOE effect (excluding Apocalypse now).
Prophet of Doom - 3 Mana 1/4 Epic (Creature: Olympian) Roar: Increase the 6 mana spells in your opponent's hand by 1.
I like the premise of this card but I'm not sure how effective it will be in the meta. It's a notable card because of its mechanic rarely or haven't seen on this god. It might need to get buffed to see consistent play.
Militant Theist - 3 Mana 2/3 Rare, Roar: Target a creature. If it's yours, give it +1/+1. If not give it -1 strength.
I love the swiss army knife capability of this card. Control a pesky aggro creature like Marsh Walker or buff one of your creatures like a Shield bearer. I will not be surprised to see this in a lot of deck builds.
Smug Jerk - 1 Mana 1/1 Rare (Creature: Mystic) Ward. Protected Frontline.
Frontline on a 1/1 creature seems to be a disadvantage even with the Protection. But there's a lot of a potential to combo this card with other health buffing cards that Light has in it's arsenal. Having this card on your hand with Empyrean Pacifist or a Trial Spirit might help you build a solid early game.
Light of the Emissary - 4 Mana Rare (Spell), Give +2/+2 to each of your creatures with a base strength of 2 or less.
Our boy Asterius comes a little too late in some occasions specially against faster aggro decks so you might want to include this card to your deck to ensure you maintain board dominance. It helps that it can also buff your creatures even after Asterius is already in play as it relies only on the base strength of your creatures to be effective.
What else to watch out for in the core refresh set?
New cards for Imp, Guilds and Amazon Tribes are looking solid and it's possible we might see it more in the meta rather than just being memed in our favorite GU streamers' channels.
For the complete set of core refresh cards, you can check out Gods Unchained reddit post through this link.
Did I miss some cards that you think is worth a mention? Please feel free to comment below and let's start a discussion.
May the mulligans be in your favor!