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Kessler, The Void Walker Warlock & Healing Herbs Of The Brackus
Written By - Matt Waller & Thomas NeilsonNovember 18, 2023
Herbs & Hollows
Herbs & Hollows
Our newest set of campaign promos bring some appealing options for the brewers, with Healing Herbs Of The Brackus providing a powerful healing tool that additionally supports the various Brackus cards. Kessler, The Void Walker Warlock potentially offers 3 additional copies of Majik Void Hollow to any deck willing to jump through a few hoops to try shutting their opponent out of a turn.
Healing Herbs Of The Brackus
Healing Herbs Of The Brackus
Unified
(Consume 5)
Reduce the (DCM) of your Warlord by 10+X, where X is the total number of "Brackus" Bounty Realm cards in all player's discard piles.
If this card is in your discard pile, you can eradicate this card face-up and pay (Consume 5), then if you do, search your deck for up to 3 "Brackus" Bounty Realm cards with different names, and add the searched cards to your hand.
You can only activate each effect of "Healing Herbs Of The Brackus" once per turn.
Healing Herbs is an interesting heal card for decks interested in recuperating DCM against aggressive strategies, and decks not particularly interested in building around the Brackus card package can still find value in using the in-discard effect to chain Herbs over multiple turns, although this is a bit of a consume heavy cost for healing. Additionally, decks not built around the Brackus package could potentially find additional value in using Herbs to find Spirits Of The Brackus Pond in relevant matchups. Decks like Quartzheart Burnforge may benefit from Healing Herbs, although for many control lists, Alburdunn's Mayoral Announcement is likely to be more appealing as long as you don't mind sharing your healing with your opponent.
The more interesting aspect of Healing Herbs comes in the potential of building around the existing "Brackus" cards, although the overall package is currently lacking. Mystic Waters From The Brackus and Sawmill On The Brackus entirely support the Brackus synergy with tutors, card draw, and additional healing options. Spirits Of The Brackus Pond is an interesting option, but as a hate card for a few archetypes is difficult to build around. Blessed By Brackus Waters is currently the most interesting thing to do with the Brackus support cards, offering a powerful in-discard option for reviving multiple Bounty Warriors.
Ultimately the Brackus package remains in need of additional support, and Herbs alone isn't likely to cut it. Still the card may be a useful control tool in lists that may not be able to use mist effects as effectively, such as value oriented builds of Marianas.
Kessler, The Void Walker Warlock
Kessler, The Void Walker Warlock
Warrior
Atk: 1
(Swift) - (During either player's turn, you can reveal this card from your hand and pay (Consume 5); Conscript this warrior from your hand.)
(Perish) - "You can pay (Bloodbourne 12), and if you do, all players cannot activate Unified cards for the remainder of the turn.
Kessler, The Void Walker Warlock calls back to Ecrutek, The Wandering Warlock, swapping Ecrutek's damage prevention mode for a Void Hollow effect, locking players out of activating Unified cards. Whilst not as universally useful as his Wandering counterpart, his perish ability is potentially incredibly strong if you can build around it. Gone But Never Forgotten is an interesting option to take advantage of Kessler, letting you revive and shockwave him to trigger the perish ability, whilst netting a card and being able to redo the combo from the discard pile.
At a combined bloodbourne of 19 however, this combo is quite taxing, especially as unlike Ecrutek, Kessler does nothing to stop incoming damage, and your opponent may be able to put enough pressure on board in response to the perish ability to threaten lethal if you choose to pay the bloodbourne. Legions Lounge host Matt Waller has been trying out Kessler, and here's some of his initial thoughts about the card so far.
"Kessler is another one of those warlock cards, swift, with a perish that is quite valuable but at a cost. In this case it is the effect of void hollow silencing as a perish ability. Through testing I have found that if you have a way to consistently kill him and activate his effects early on, he is quite good. However, if you just leave him on the field, a lot can happen to him, making the play not always worth it.
It is in my mind a tempo card, one that needs to be played at the right time against the right decks, due to its high bloodbourne cost of 12, I have found that a vast majority of the time if you have a way to kill him on a turn that someone is planning to combo out, it can stop them quite fast, given they don't have a way to remove him. For example if you play kessler against frost, you are going to end up hurting yourself as most of the time they simply set 5 fortifieds, play a stoga and pass the turn.
If you are playing this against something that has a lot of reveal or eradication/mill effects, it is quite good, so something like undead, titans, dragons, alehouse. This works as a great way to force your opponent to slow down to your pace if their deck plays very fast.
Currently I can see it as a up and coming sideboard tech for a lot of really fast decks. It is important to note that against most decks you need a way to kill him as well, especially against alehouse when they can shuffle him away. It is important to note, be careful with Kessler against Death's Doorstep, as they could find a way to kill him on your turn if you leave him up and then you are silenced."
Whilst Healing Herbs Of The Brackus and Kessler, The Wandering Warlock may not be as universally powerful as some of the other maindeck and sideboard options we've received from the other Campaign Promos this season, they offer some incredibly interesting options for brewers looking to break the meta.
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