The card reveal season for Hearthstone’s Forged in the Barrens expansion continues onwards and has revealed a new spell that uses the newest Ranked Spell mechanic.
The newest spell to be revealed is Condemn (Rank 1), an Epic Priest spell in the Holy school that costs 2 mana and deals one damage to all enemy minions, upgrading when you reach five or 10 mana. When Condemn reaches its second rank at five mana, damage dealt becomes two to every enemy minion. Upon rising to the final rank at maximum mana, the damage dealt goes up to three.
As the third Rank Spell to be revealed, Condemn is similar to Shaman’s Chain Lightning which helps answer opposing boards. The new Priest spell has the ability to answer wider boards than Shaman, which has an easier time dealing with taller boards.
At its first iteration, this card is comparable to Arcane Explosion, which isn’t the best card. But, it can answer early aggressive decks like Stealth Rogue, an aggro list that runs a lot of one health minions which can’t be targeted normally. Upon reaching rank two, Condemn is similar to either Blizzard without the freeze effect, or Breath of the Infinite if you’re holding a Dragon, two powerful damage thresholds to be compared to. With the final rank dealing three damage, there’s no collectible spell that only hits enemy minions for exactly three damage, but there are cards like Hellfire which hit your own.
Condemn is an interesting card to evaluate as the damage dealt at different turn breakpoints are nothing special. When you reach the absolute late game stage, dealing three damage isn’t too spectacular. However, due to the ramping potency of ranked cards, this allows you to answer specific threats at different points in the game.
If you’re trying to answer aggressive and midrange decks, either early ranks of Condemn are passable cards for that purpose. In addition to this, if you top deck the new Priest Spell in a faster matchup once you reach 10 mana, three damage can clear most weaker minions that are lingering around at that point.
Forged in the Barrens will release at the end of the month on March 30. Players can pre-purchase the expansion in one of two different bundles from Blizzard’s online store or in the Hearthstone client.
