Heroes have been getting a large number of new archetypes in the past few sets, and Masquerade looks to be alleviating the pull, with solid new support cards for Rogues and Fandorians, while also giving a little push to the Dark Wood Archetype!

While technically a separate set, the Sapphire Empress Structure deck will be releasing at the same time, and will be incredibly impactful for the Fandorian archetype, which is looking to pack a hell of a punch after the deck releases. New cards like Fandorian Gjallarhorn help to give the deck even more consistent starting tools, as well as removal, making the deck much more comfortable in punching through early board states. 

One of the tools that Fandos will be receiving in the main set, is Thornhaven's Royal Scepter. This exalted packs a board in a box, letting you pop out the 5 Attack Liger Tokens, and turn them into Fandorian Warriors for utility and value. Possibly the strongest card Fandos will be getting is Fandorian Royal Procession, a value card that might be stronger than Wall Of Grand Resistance. With the existing powerful base of the archetype and the incredibly strong new support cards, I could see Fandorians pushing past the other Hero archetypes and fighting for a top metagame spot!

Rogues are also getting a strong base of cards in the set, helping to round out the various existing synergy pieces in the archetype. Discard synergies, Rogue synergies, Dice synergies, and even face-down Erad synergies for Monte are all getting boosts through the various powerful cards in the archetype. Notably, these pieces like Cinnabar, The Scarlet Rogue, and Rogue Secret Passage - Library both support the smaller synergy packages laden in the archetype, while also offering strong generic support to glue the deck together, with less need to rely on other archetype or generic Hero tools.

Other offerings like Graves, The Rogue Showman, and Angelica's Rogue Acquisition offer more powerful tools to fill out the archetype.

Last but not least, the Dark Wood archetype is picking up some incredibly fun looking synergies, with a solid number of new Warriors from the Directors Cut cards. I've been experimenting with Steadfast Courage lately, and the new Dark Wood Warriors, like Gisheln, Dark Wood Slayer, look primed to synergize with the effect damage buff. While the archetype will almost certainly need to look into other directions and archetypes to flesh out decklists, it looks to be an incredibly fun archetype to push heroes into a more aggressive/burn focused direction.

Additionally, the Hero Fractured Warrior, Sir Cervante, The Fractured Slayer seems like a strong metagame flex card in metas with very relevant Warriors, especially ones which can be repeatedly revived, such as against Grimm, Sharn, Angels, or Ethelhime.

Angels have almost all of their support in MOM pointed for one archetype in particular: Night Watchers. This archetype looks to be taking an almost Undead twist on the Angel archetype with more sacrifice, mill, and revive synergies. While I've already talked about this archetype a little in the October Metagame Snapshot, let's take another quick overview of the archetype, especially with the reveal of a key Exalted for the archetype.

Mot, Night Watcher Commander is a clear centre point for the archetype, as an engine to both Conscript your Night Watchers, and tutor them to your discard pile to later revive. With both Help From The Chaos Divine and Unholy Summons being able to tutor for Mot, it'll be easy for Night Watcher decks to bring her out early. Unyielding And Unholy is a solid way to give your Night Watchers Condemn, and the once per turn is a reasonable way to filter away cards in a pinch, or enable sacrifice synergies. While the Warriors currently shown offer some clear synergy lines, the archetype does look a little light on connecting pieces, and I expect that the archetype will need to lean more heavily on generic pieces or other archetypes to stand.

A few Warriors like Amariel, Abyssal Night Watcher and Raquael, Night Watcher Silencer do have some unique abilities that might find their way into more generic Angel lists, like Sanctify focused decks.

We can also see a few pieces to introduce the Light Archetype with Mothman, Protector Of Moons Light and Unholy Orb Of Dying Light. Mothman both offers another Warrior with Brilliance, while also working well with Archon and his Rift ability. As for the Orb, while it may be primarily a card for Night Watchers at the moment, the sacrifice/revive ability also works with Light Warriors to bring back Archon. The archetype will need a lot more to stand on it's own, but it's some cute potential to start with.

There aren't too many generic tools in the set, but both Seraphim Severance and Archon, The Fractured Avenger are powerful point-and-click removal tools that aren't as reliant on setup pieces compared to Bow Of The Archangel. While they aren't as powerful, their flexibility and ability to hand-trap makes them solid considerations for any Angel list looking to better tackle Explosive lists with strong disruption like Sharn and Ethelhime.

Now the Bounty realm is getting some exciting support this set, with it's second Bounty Warlord and the rest of it's left side!

To start, Bounty is receiving 3 new Majik Masks. The first is Majik Mask - Freakshow Pierrot, this piece lets you turn any Warrior into a "Freakshow" Warrior, which potentially enables some neat Keyword doubling with Freakshow Mirror-Face, Doppleleta. The next is Majik Mask - Jester's Regalia, which is a much clearer piece for any Majik Mask list. While (Bloodbourne 25) is expensive, the Static buff offers a solid Atk bonus, especially if you can equip it for free with a card like Majik Mask Minion or Majik Mask Monstrosity, Malediction. Last is Majik Mask - Stitched Abyss, whose unique stax ability provides a punishing effect if you're able to keep it stuck to an opposing Warrior.

Alongside the Masks is Majik Mask Dressing Room, a support card for the archetype which helps to find Majik Mask cards and to move them around the field, while also generating solid card advantage.

Marianas was also evidently successful in her heist of Castle Crimson, picking up two strong high end cards! Ancient Relic - Seamark Sextant lets you chain together Warlord attacks to build up Infamy, while also letting you spend that Infamy to make more Ghost Pirates! Track-Line Cannon is a long awaited piece for the archetype too, as a new prime removal tool for Marianas to blow up cards across the board, while sliding along your backline.

Additionally, alongside the Pierrot is one more piece for the Freaks, with Big-Top, Freakshow Carnival Carnivore! The (Carnivorous) keyword looks to be a strong enabler for the Freakshow Perish effects, and alongside Doppleleta you can draw even more cards and buff up Big-Top even further.