Throne of the Tides will be released later this month, but with the full spoiler out and many players getting ready for the New Core Constructed emphasized World Championship, it's never too early to start analyzing the new cards.

The bottles, in particular, have been making a huge splash in Limited, and some of them seem particularly good for Constructed formats as well. Frankly, some of the effects on the bottles are ridiculous for Constructed, and it would be unsurprising to see many of them running around in Rotterdam this November. I wanted to spend some time to take a look at the uses for each bottle in New Core because of this. Will each one be guaranteed to impact New Core? Definitely not, but some of them will help define what classes will be wanting to do for the next few months, so it doesn't hurt to see what they're capable of.

The bottles will be looked at assuming that you are playing them with a hero that immediately lets you get its destroy effect. Some bottles may be playable without a matching hero, and if so then I will mention that in its highlights. If it doesn't appear to be good enough if you play it in a deck without a matching hero, then I'll simply not mention it being used in a deck without a matching hero.

[Bottled Death]

The Death Knight bottle is touted as perhaps the best one in Limited for being a solid removal trick, and potentially a board-sweeper against more aggressive decks. In Constructed, this just doesn't fly. -2 Health doesn't even kill a [Boomer], let alone anything getting pumped by an [Aspect of the Wild] or [Grand Crusader]. It will be hard for this one to see play in any Constructed format, whether it is block, New Core, or whatever.

[Bottled Life]

While the Death Knights have perhaps the worst Constructed bottle, Druids have one of the best. A Druid hero can use this to immediately get two 1/1 treants on turn 1, which combined with a Stashed [Magni, the Mountain King] or [Cairne, Earthmother's chosen] is a whopping three tokens on turn 1.

Given R&D's push for Druids to play with tokens again, this seems particularly good with token pumps such as [Stevrona Forgemender] and the new [Surge of Power]. The rush of tokens also ensures how easy it should be to have something that can be powered up by [Gift of the Earthmother]. While this strategy seems fairly solid, the tokens can also push you into the direction of a [Deathwing the Destroyer] that you can play as early as turn 3 with the right draw. [Verdant Bloom] and of course the Stash Magni and Cairne allies help a ton for achieving this.

A turn 3 Deathwing seems good enough against...well, pretty much everything in the New Core format right now, and should be pretty much an auto-win against any [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] control deck. Sure, you could argue that they could stave destruction with [Twilight Citadel] feeding Deathwing's effect, but they'll be skipping so many turns just to not lose their resources that you will have plenty of time to rebuild. Eventually, they will run out of gas and eventually have to start sacrificing resources.

However, the question is whether Deathwing is any good after that. It's possible that it is just better to lay some beatdowns with your army of token allies. No matter what route you end up going, [Bottled Life] will be a part of it, and it is definitely one of the most powerful bottles for Constructed.

[Bottled Wild]

Not a chance. This one is at least better than the Death Knight bottle since it allowed for some earlier lopsided trades against your opponent, but Hunters can be doing better things with their resources in this format.

[Bottled Knowledge]

For anyone who plays Magic, this is a Careful Consideration for three resources which seems, frankly, absurd. If there's one bottle that I feel rivals [Bottled Life] and [Bottled Light] as the best Constructed bottle, it is this one.

For those who do not play Magic, let me explain careful Consideration for a moment. Careful Consideration was a four cost instant speed card-drawing ability that drew its player four cards, and then they discarded three cards. However, if the card was played during their main phase like it was not an instant speed ability, then they only discard two cards.

[Bottled Knowledge], with a Mage hero, gives you two immediate instances of “draw two, discard one”. It is the same as a sorcery speed Careful Consideration, except that it costs one less, and has the option of being used later. Think about how powerful digging four cards deep can be. Oftentimes this will show you close to 10% of your deck, if not more. It's enough card filtering that it can set up your resources for the next few turns, while also finding you critical cards in specific matchups. It also isn't uncommon for this effect to find you more copies of [Bottled Knowledge], which then in turn lets you dig deeper.

The discard effect can also be an easy benefit for control decks. [Arcane Barrage] is the first card that comes to mind. [Gilblin Deathscrounger] is another potential option, which makes [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley] a potent option. The effect is so powerful that I think [Bottled Knowledge] can even see play in non-Mage hero decks, assuming you have access to playable Mage allies. The discard effect becomes more relevant outside of Mage if you go the recursion route as well, such as with a Shaman or Paladin thanks to cards like [Spark of Life] and [Vigil of the Light].

Get familiar with this card. Play it, love it, and play it some more. It's personally my favorite bottle, and rivals the Druid and Paladin bottles as the best card from the cycle for New Core.

[Bottled Light]

Speaking of [Bottled Light], it shouldn't take you long to put two and two together and realize that [Bottled Light] is a natural fit for a deck running [Grand Crusader]. If you haven't figured it out, [Grand Crusader] is nuts. So anything that makes the three cost Protection talent even better is also going to be insane.

It also opens up some engine possibilities. [Trade Prince Gallywix] has gone underplayed for quite some time, primarily because of the existence of [Mikael the Blunt]. With Mikael leaving Core, you should start expecting to see the Goblin leader a lot more in Constructed decks, namely anything running [Bottled Light]. Not only does it give you a bigger discount on the bottle, but it also has a pretty sweet synergy with [Gilblin Hoarder]. The two-cost monster ally can keep re-using the bottle each turn to bring back dead allies, and the monster is also given Time is Money by the Trade Prince, making this a potentially devastating recursion engine that even non-Paladins can get behind.

That being said, this card is at its best in a deck with a Paladin hero. Not only is it card advantage, but it's resource advantage. You get four resources worth of allies for three, two cards for one. I mean, with great targets such as any cheap Bronze Dragonkin (yo dawg I hear you like triggering multiple Bronze dragon effects in one turn) along with bombs like [Lordann the Bloodreaver], it is easy to see why this may be one of the most played bottles from the set.

[Bottled Mind]

It's a [Mental Anguish] that is a lot less bad when they have few cards in hand. However, would you be playing [Mental Anguish] in a format where you have to compete against card draw like [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]? It's definitely a questionable decision, although it is also hard to argue against the effectiveness of a discard-two effect against any non-girdle deck. After all, card draw is rather weak outside of those plate classes, and this effect gets a lot more devastating against things like Dan Clark's DMF winning Hunter deck from Philadelphia.

I think the existence of the girdle/citadel draw engine along with cards like [Bottled Light] probably make this bottle a trap. It looks promising, but it's actually a huge disadvantage for you to run it in this format.

[Bottled Cunning]

It's not bad. Unexciting, but not bad. This bottle has a couple of important powers (namely that it gives Stealth), can be easily triggered since there are ton of playable cheap Rogue allies (the early Worgen allies, [Murloc Coastrunner], etc), and has the potential to be an immediate +4 ATK if you need it. This also enables Rogue poisons, if that's your sort of play style.

That being said, this bottle is also short of being able to kill a couple of important allies like [Boomer] and [Lordann the Bloodreaver]. Also, this kind of removal is probably the last thing you want when your opponent has some +2/+2 ongoing in play like [Aspect of the Wild]. Like [Bottled Mind], I think [Bottled Cunning] is a Constructed trap. Don't fall into the trap.

[Bottled Elements]

This one is interesting. It's a little expensive, but can lead to some blow-out games. Any activated power certainly works well with this, and it also has the potential to end games with huge allies. It's too bad there are no Worgen Shaman so that you can get filthy with [King Genn Greymane], but [Erunak Stonespeaker] isn't a bad ally to ready twice in one turn. Neither is [Dagax the Butcher]. 15 damage in one turn is hard to argue with, and is some reach damage that can make this bottle pretty exciting.

Do I think it is guaranteed to see Constructed play? No. But I am not going to dismiss it since it does show some potential.

[Bottled Void]

This card is an unfair rate in any aggro-on-aggro matchup. It's a freaking 12 point swing, and has a metric ton of aggressive Horde allies that make this bottle playable without a Warlock hero. It's also hard to argue with something that works with [Intensify] for zero resources, although to be fair I think [Intensify] has more exciting Warlock cards to be playing with in this set coughsoulswapcough.

[Bottled Rage]

Probably made for Murlocs. Otherwise, get out of here. It's in my pick for the worst bottle in Constructed formats. You don't even want to use this on the turn you play it with a Warrior hero since then you lose your hero from taking advantage of its effect.

[Bottled Spite]

This is great in Limited, but it probably isn't enough in Constructed. Those +2/+2 pumps really hurt the card, although if token decks become popular, then this thing is probably sweet. It's also a very easy way to make [Timriv the Enforcer] ridiculous, and is the primary reason that I am not dismissing this bottle from having some sort of Constructed potential.

That's about what I expected from all 11 bottles. Some are good, some are unexciting. Some are terrible, and some are downright disgusting for New Core. Which bottles do you think will be the most exciting in New Core?

-Mike Rosenberg