Hearthstone: Karazhan, the Final Batch

Hoo boy, what a doozy. We got twenty-four cards revealed in a stream yesterday, which happened literally while I was reviewing the previous twenty-or-so cards that trickled down from Blizzard over the past week. So I took some time to let the cards sink in, and see the expansion as a whole. Karazhan’s cards as far as balance and meta-relevancy goes doesn’t seem to be as awesome and all-important like League of Explorers or Curse of Naxxramas. I feel like Karazhan will probably end up being more similar to the Blackrock Mountain expansion, spawning a bunch of new archetypes with several individually cool cards… but Blackrock Mountain at least had the dragon theme throughout the expansion. Karazhan… is just weird. It pushes certain archetypes (discard Warlock, beast Druid, thief Rogue, dragon Paladin, secret Hunter and honestly secrets in general, spell-focused decks) and gives tools for several new ones, has a couple of cool legendaries and unique-effect cards, but I dunno, I don’t feel [i]that[/i] enthused for the set? New cards and new content is more than welcome, and I will be sinking all my gold into the adventure, but I’m highly doubtful that it will shake the metagame the way that League of Explorers did. Or maybe I’m wrong. Well, let me review the 24 new cards now and worry about the meta later…

Spirit Claws: Shamans didn't have any cards shown at all prior to this big batch, and, well... it's an interesting card. 1-mana 1/3 that becomes a 3/3 as long as you have a minion with Spell Damage? Shamans are the only class that can activate this little bonus without wasting a card slot -- I mean, Azure Drake's cool and all, but you're not going to wait until turn 5 to play this card. Shamans have a one in a four chance of activating Spirit Claws' effect with the Wrath of Air Totem summoned from their hero power... but honestly, it's a big random effect since the totem itself can be easily killed off. But if you do get the combo to work, and have a 3/3 weapon swinging around by turn two and basically own the board the way that Warriors do with Fiery War Axe, it could be decent. Certainly a lot better than Cursed Blade. Ultimately, though, I think it's way too volatile and it could be reduced back into its 1/3 form quite easily. Shamans are in a spot where they have way too many good cards in their aggro, midrange and evolve decks, and Spirit Claws competes with cards like Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem and Lightning Bolt as part of the Shaman early game options... and if you're trying hard to make this work (by lobbing in two-mana Spell Damage minions like Bloodmage Thalnos or Kobold Geomancer) it doesn't work all that well in Shamans.

EDIT: This bit was snuck in around, oh, late September. I was totally, totally wrong about Spirit Claws. It's as powerful, if not more powerful, than Tunnel Trogg, because, well, a 3/3 weapon for 1 mana isn't anything to sneeze about. And the fact that it gives Shaman two one-mana drops that can potentially go from 1/3 to 2/3-3/3 by turn two is just insane. It's a 25% chance that you roll a spell damage totem, true, but the presence of a single Bloodmage Thalnos, or indeed rolling spell damage totems with Tuskarr Totemics, makes this thing just absolutely devastating and easily going to be Tunnel Trogg's replacement once he rotates out of standard.

Arcane Anomaly: In addition to having a cool-looking piece of artwork, the Arcane Anomaly is a one-mana 2/1 that gains 1 health every time you cast a spell. I don't really think it will see play... compared to Mana Wyrm, Flamewaker and Violet Teacher, all cards that benefit every time you cast a spell, gaining one health is just honestly not that appealing. The Mana Wyrm definitely outclasses it entirely. Being a neutral card and being dirt cheap means that it might probably find a home in some more exotic classes -- as a combo activator in a spell-centric Rogue deck, maybe? I dunno. It's a card that I don't really see being played a lot after the initial Karazhan craze, though some spell-heavy decks might include him as the one-drop as opposed to Argent Squire or something. 

Avian Watcher: For whatever reason we're getting a lot of Secret synergy cards in this expansion, and I'm a big iffy considering how scummy Mad Scientist and Mysterious Challenger both were. Avian Watcher is a 5-mana 3/6 that becomes a 4/7 with Taunt if you control a secret. It's quite good, actually... a five mana Twin Emperor that has a condition is great value, comparable to a Fen Creeper with +1/+1 or a Sludge Belcher that combines all its stats in one card. It can probably find a home in Freeze Mage decks, which like to have Taunt minions and already run Ice Block and Ice Barrier anyway. I'm a bit iffy on the long-term playability of the card, though... it seems a bit too conditional to trigger, and some secrets, well, are triggered way too easily. Hunters' especially.

Maelstrom Portal: The third Portal spell revealed after Mage's awesome-in-arena Firelands Portal and Druid's pretty-fucking-awesome Moonglade Portal, the Maelstrom Portal is exclusive to Shamans and... kind of underwhelming. Again, mind you, not that Shaman need more game-breaking cards. But Maelstrom Portal is basically Arcane Explosion (2 mana deal 1 damage to all enemy minions) with the added caveat of summoning a random one-drop. Which is a nice little mana efficiency thing, but ultimately not that impactful compared to dropping a Totem Golem. It's a nice alternate board clear compared to Lightning Storm, but Arcane Explosion very rarely sees any play, and I don't think Maelstrom Portal will see much play either. As the stream shows, the Portal cards can actually summon outside of your class -- which was ambiguous -- so in Maelstrom Portal's case it's to its benefit because all the cool one-mana Warlock minions are yours to summon if you are blessed by the RNG god.

EDIT: Again, I was wrong about this, because holy fuck Shaman are getting a crapton of cool shit this expansion. It's nowhere as insanely powerful as Spirit Claws, but with Shaman taking a slightly more spell-damage-centric deck by slotting in Bloodmage Thalnos and two Azure Drakes (both of whom are card draw engines to boot), an additional board clear suddenly makes Midrange Shaman such a powerful monster. Maelstrom Portal isn't quite as powerful a board clear as Lightning Storm, but the fact that Shamans can have three to four of these board clears in their deck, plus two copies of Hex, means that they're virtually unmatched, except maybe by Mage, in terms of sheer board-wipe potential. Add that to the already snowbally minions that Shaman has access too, in addition to the extra bonus body that Maelstrom Portal can spawn -- sometimes you even get absolutely great ones like a Mana Wyrm, a Selfless Hero or a Voidwalker, and even the worst 1-mana minion, which is probably like the 1/1 nerfed Abusive Sergeant, doesn't make you cry like getting a Moat Lurker off the Darnassus Portal.

Swashburglar: To help synergize with the Ethereal Peddler, Rogues get a pretty awesome one-mana minion, the Swashburglar, which I think is one of my favourites of the set. He's a one-mana 1/1 that does the Burgle/Huckster effect as a battlecry. Between the Swashburglar, Undercity Huckster, Burgle, Grand Crusader, Gang Up and Nefarian, a Rogue thief deck is starting to show its roots. The Swashburglar is very cheap, too, and at one mana he's definitely great for triggering your combos. He's also a Pirate, too, if that matters... not that any Rogue Pirate deck has really survived the rotation. Regardless it's a pretty neat stealing tool, and a card that feels like it can have a fair amount of potential. It's one of the few one-mana drops for Rogue that isn't bound to some condition like having a weapon or needing a combo to activate. It's definitely similar to Babbling Book, but unlike the Book, Rogues actually can utilize a one-mana 1/1 very well. 

Wicked Witch Doctor: A four-mana 3/4, which is sub-par stats... 3/4 is a statline for an average 3-drop. She has the effect of summoning a random basic totem if you cast a spell. There's a fair bit of these "if you cast a spell" type of cards in this big reveal, but compared to the Arcane Anomaly above, the Wicked Witch Dotor is honestly useless. If it's a random totem, well, that's a different story -- we all know how disgusting Tuskarr Totemic can be if he summons the Totem Golem or the Mana Tide Totem -- but the Wicked Witch Doctor, I think, is just a bad card. It's too slow and has too little stats for its mana cost, I think, compared to a lot of tools that Shamans have... and besides, we all know that Shamans associate four mana with 7/7 and the 3/4 statline with two mana. That's okay, though. Shamans were loved by Blizzard last expansion, it's fine for them to have sub-par cards in this one.

Medivh’s Valet: The final mage card in this expansion, Medivh's Valet has the most hilarious name, and he's a 2-mana 2/3, which is vanilla stats... that does 3 damage if you control a Secret. Yep, more Secret synergy. He's a River Crocolisk that can cast a Darkbomb for free. Is he worth it, and is he worth cutting out cards from freeze mage or tempo mage decks? My gut says no, but he's cheaper and deals damage so that could honestly be useful. But personally I don't see him making a lot of splashes... but Blackwing Corruptor saw a fair amount of play, so this could be a pretty cool and powerful tempo play. 

Arcane Giant: After being denied a giant last expansion, we get a new one here, a 12-mana 8/8 that gets a discount for each spell you've cast this game. And as anyone who's played a Yogg deck knows, you can cast a fair amount of spells and whittling this down to like, a 4-mana 8/8 is decent value... but really, will a spell-centric deck want to play giants? It might help them to gain control of the board even moreso than they already have, but I don't know. On first glance it seems not that good, but I could be wrong. Also why isn't this a mech? Are the arcane golems mechs or not mechs? Zoobot and the Guardian are mechs, but not the Arcane Giant? Not that it matters, mind you, since mech decks are pretty much dead in standard. But hey.

EDIT: I am wrong. Arcane Giants are absolute monstrosities in Yogg decks, and usually Yogg Druids and Yogg Mages. You basically drop two of these motherfuckers down, since Mages in particular don't exactly need too many spells as it turns out -- Babbling Book, Forgotten Torch and Cabalist Tome generate so much additional spells to trigger Yogg-Saron, Flamewakers and Antonidas, that it doesn't matter that you're cutting a Flamestrike or two. And in Druid the sheer buffing potential that they can do is just gross, in addition to being no slouch in the spam-spells department.

Cloaked Huntress: Cloaked Huntress is already good enough with 3-mana 3/4, premium stats, but she makes your Secrets cost 0 while she's on the field. It's not even a 'for this turn' only like Mage's never-played Kirin Tor Mage, where the Hunter is forced to hold on to the Huntress until they have drawn like two or three secrets. But theoretically Hunter decks can now vomit out an entire hand's worth of Explosive, Freezing, Bear, Dart, Snake, Misdirection and Cat Traps without paying any mana. Mind you, though, that they will have to have had the cards in their hand, which is significantly harder to do compared to Mad Scientist fetching them out of your deck and playing them for free. The Cloaked Huntress just allows you to play them for free... but all of them instead of just one. As Mad Scientist and Mysterious Challenger have shown, allowing you to play a crapton of secrets in one turn is insanely great value. I think it'll be good, both in a dedicated Secret Hunter deck (which I think will still just be mainly delaying until the inevitable Call of the Wild turn) and those Yogg-Saron/Lock-and-Load decks. Oh, man, Yogg-and-Load decks with this card can be absolutely batshit insane.

Cat Trick: A new Hunter secret to capitalize on these Secret-synergy cards, Cat Trap Trick punishes your opponent if they casts a spell by summoning a Jungle Panther for free. Jungle Panthers cost 3 mana, so this card, like the Bear Trap, is definitely value. And, man, can you ever do anything to a Hunter now? Attack its face? Explosive Trap. Attack its minions? Snake Trap. And that's if neither of them are Freezing Traps or Misdirections. Use your hero power? Dart Trap. Play a minion? Snipe. Play a spell? Cat Trick. Hunter traps are going to be the masters of mind-games, and summoning a Jungle Panther is definitely a good thing for Hunters, who really like their beasts and their Houndmasters and Kill Commands. We also don't have a lot of cards that counter spells since Loatheb left Standard, so this is definitely more than welcome. Definitely will see play in secret-dedicated Hunter decks, and who knows? Maybe Cat Trick is good enough to join the big three main Hunter traps being played right now -- Freezing, Bear and Explosive. I'm kinda optimistic about this card.

Nightbane Templar: In addition to looking cool with her sweet artwork, the Nightbane Templar is more support for dragon decks (we already got the Netherspire Historian, Book Worm and technically the Curator and Zoobot)... except she's Paladin-exclusive. Sweet! I play a Dragon Paladin deck, and I kind of dislike my opening. Nightbane Templar is a three-mana 2/3, which is sub-par stats, but if you're holding a dragon, you summon two 1/1 Whelps. Comparable to Blackwing Technician in that both are three-mana non-dragons that get a stat boost if you're holding a dragon... Nightbane Templar gains an extra stat point in total compared to Blackwing Technician's 3/5, and if the enemy doesn't have AoE it's a bit hard to clear everything at once (Swipe makes you sad). Plus the 1/1's also benefit from the Steward of Darkshire if you run her in a Dragon Paladin deck for whatever reason, and can help clear boards subjected to Equality. We've seen how stats split up over multiple bodies can be better, and while I don't necessarily think this is strictly better than the Technician -- they're comparable and more or less equal, I think -- the Templar is definitely a cooler looking addition. The Nightbane Templar is definitely worse on those situations that you're forced to play her without activating her effect by a single health point, and a comparison is that the Templar is a Razorfen Hunter (who's never played) who summons an extra 1/1 token. Having dragons on the battlefield is of minimal consequence -- it's the hand you want them in -- so the tokens being dragon don't really matter all too often.

Pantry Spider: The cutest spider in the world is a 3-mana 1/3, which is horrible stats. Yeah, it's a beast, and it has the battlecry of summoning another 1/3, which makes it technically a 3-mana 2/6, split over two bodies. Ultimately, though, it's basically just summoning two good one-drops (Mana Wyrm, Sir Finley, Tunnel Trogg... lots of one-mana 1/3's) with three mana. Hunters will love the Houndmaster/Kill Command potential, but I don't think it's good enough to be played. The Big Bad Wolf seem to be better and more of a threatening board presence, I think, but this isn't a strictly bad card. Sometimes you do want to just swarm the board, and while it's a relatively bad card for zoo Warlocks, it's great for beast-synergy Hunters and Druids, or the Zoobot decks that might be rearing their heads soon. 

Silvermoon Portal: You give a +2/+2 buff and summon a random two-drop minion for four mana. It's basically combining a weaker version of Mark of the Wild, which costs two mana, and the two mana for the minion... which, compared to the other Portal cards is honestly quite inefficient. At three mana it would've been great, but at four mana I think I'd rather have Blessing of Kings. We all know that the two-mana slots have a lot of whiffs from our Shredder piloting days -- an unwanted Doomsayer being chief among them -- though of course there are good ones. I don't think Silvermoon Portal is honestly all that good, just an average, balanced card.

Menagerie Magician: Zoobot's big brother, the Menagerie Magician is the last card in this expansion that supports the triple-tribe-zoobot deck with Curator and Zoobot, and he's a 5-mana 4/4 that gives +2/+2 buffs. While the Zoobot has safer stats for its cost, the Magician has rather crappy stats, but gives bigger buffs. It's a bigger gamble than the Zoobot, in that the return investment if you manage to trigger three buffs is amazing, but if you only get two it's just okay, and if you get one or don't get anything it's a bad card. Definitely going to be played in those zoobot decks, though, I'm sure. Not sure which class is the best for it yet -- the stream used a Paladin with Vilefin Inquisitor so the hero power becomes a Murloc generating machine and the deck can be filled with better beasts and dragons (and Paladins have good dragon synergy), while Druids and Hunters intrinsically have great beasts. I dunno. We'll see.

Priest of the Feast: Our first Priest card is... Priest of the Feast. Which, if revealed during a time when Priest isn't in dire straits, would've been a great, decent, card. I personally don't think Priest is that bad, but it does need some help since the best Priest deck right now is one that involves just stealing all your opponent's cards, and the odd C'Thun or N'Zoth deck or two that just prays it can heal enough in the mid and late game... what Priest needs is a really good one or two-drop that isn't dependent on dragons, and Priest of the Feast... isn't. He's a four-mana 3/6, which is of course premium stats, and he heals your hero for 3 every time you cast a spell, which puts him in the same category of being triggered by spells like the Arcane Anomaly and Wicked Witch Doctor... except, y'know, it's not a card that Priest really needs right now. It's a great, balanced card, but considering the amount of good four-drops that Priests have right now the last thing they need is a semi-good one that competes for the slot, while not doing anything to alleviate the early game pressure Priest is facing.

Deadly Fork: Deadly Fork is a three-mana 3/2 that lobs a (three-mana!) 3/2 weapon to your hand. I loved the idea of picking up the fallen minion and then stabbing your minion with it... and the idea of this Blood Elven rogue just running around with a fork instead of a dagger is hilarious. But it's a bad card, really, and I honestly would've preferred a weapon outright -- what is the point of nerfing Blade Flurry to oblivion if you're not going to add cool Rogue weapons? Deadly Fork's biggest failing, I think, is the fact that you have to re-cast the weapon fork instead of it auto-equipping it for you. It really could've been a four-mana 3/2 with the deathrattle of equipping a 3/2... a 3/2 minion costs two mana, and Fiery War Axe is a 3/2 weapon that costs two mana, so why? Why did Deadly Fork get penalized so much? You spend three mana to drop the minion (which only has as much stats as a two-drop), then spend three mana to equip a weapon that should've only costed two? Damn this card is bad. You're better off playing Southsea Squidface or Deadly Poison.

Onyx Bishop: Our second Priest card is the Onyx Bishop, which, while cool-looking, is basically a vanilla 3-mana minion with 3/4 stats rolled together with the two-mana Resurrect. Which... honestly isn't that good. Resurrect isn't a spectacular card in itself, though the effect is certainly cool, but the fact that it's two mana and a spell means it's cheap enough for you to do something else, and the lack of flexibility that Onyx Bishop has, being a big five mana thing, means that, hey, other than the odd chance of you getting a 4/7 Injured Blademaster back, it's probably going to kind of suck, summoning Northshire Clerics and Wild Pyromancers and whatever the hell Priests play in the early game. The Onyx Bishop really could've been a slightly more value-filled statline or a cheaper mana cost and I still don't think he'll see much play. Honestly, they did so much cool creative shit with the card design for all the other classes, this is just lazily slapping together a Spider Tank and a Resurrect with cheap glue. We could've had his effect be 'Discover a friendly minion that died earlier this game and summon it' with a slight penalty. We could've had him have decent stats like 5/5 and he adds the dead minion to the hand. We could even have had the Priest Thoughtsteal theme (which I hate, by the way) and have him discover a minion, both from yours and your opponent's, that died earlier this game. It's not just m'eh in gameplay, it's so m'eh in design as well.

Purify: Well, Priest of the Feast is an okay card but not what Priest needs right now, while Onyx Bishop felt like a m’eh “let’s combine a spell and a decently-statted minion together” card, hopefully Priest’s third card in this expansion is at least decent, right? The class needs all the help it can get, after all. Purify is… at first I thought this card read ‘silence a minion, draw a card’. The reason Silence (the card, not the effect) is never ran in Priest is that it’s a waste of a card slot and simply silencing a minion without dropping a body on the board the way Spellbreaker and old!Ironbeak Owl did was kind of not what you want a card to do. So for two mana more than Silence you get a single card draw, which isn’t optimal at all considering Priest has access to Northshire Cleric… and then I reread the card and it says silence a friendly minion. And then it's just utterly bad, easily one of the worst cards in the game. Which minion are you going to be happy to silence for two mana? For two mana? Wailing Soul gives you a body and silences all your minions, and he never saw play even with dudes like Zombie Chow and Deathlord being very common cards. I suppose you can use Moat Lurker and Purify to remove a minion... at which point I'm wondering why you aren't running Entomb or the Shadow Words. Ancient Watcher? Eerie Statue? Yeah, 6 mana for a 7/7 and 4 mana for a 4/5, both of which require two cards... the card draw doesn't matter that much because ultimately you're wasting your deck slots with combo pieces that honestly don't offer much of an advantage. What the fuck, this card, really. The only way that I see it being used is if in the future we get a card that says 'Shuffle three Purifies into your enemy's deck". 

Menagerie Warden: Holy shit this card is awesome. Is this the card that Beast Druids finally need to clinch its existence? The Warden is a 6-mana 5/5, which isn't horribad, but it has the battlecry of summoning a copy of a friendly beast. The most obvious curving is from a 4/6 Druid of the Claw on turn 5 straight into a turn 6 play that summons a 5/5 and a 4/6, upon which your opponent just concedes out of frustration. Stranglethorn Tiger is another great 5-mana beast that Beast Druid decks already play. Savage Combatant, Stampeding Kodo, Addled Grizzly and Druid of the Flame are also premium targets, but even if all you get is, like, a 1/3 Pantry Spider it's still pretty decent. Add that to all the cool tools that Beast Druid received over WOTOG (Mark of Y'Shaarj and Fandral Staghelm being primary among them) and in this expansion (Menagerie Warden, plus Zoobot and Menagerie Magician both buffing beasts) might we finally see the fabled Beast Druid deck come into existence? Menagerie Warden seems far, far more impactful than previous attempts to make Beast Druid work like Druid of the Fang, Knight of the Wild and Wildwalker, for sure.

Ironforge Portal: Our final Warrior card after Fool's Bane and Unleash the Taunts is Ironforge Portal, which is a five-mana spell that gives you four armour and summons a four-mana minion. Which is just... value. It's a Shield Block that instead of drawing a card summons a four-mana minion, which is just quite impressive. It's a great card to slot in a fair amount of Warrior decks, and while Warrior decks are generally quite refined and specific, I can see this card being used moderately, if only for the chance to summon a fucking 7/7 Flamewreathed Faceless out of it... though the variance on four drops is quite massive. You can get, like, a Dreadsteed or a Faceless Shambler or a non-battlecried Twilight/Midnight Drake. But most of the time four-drops are decent. The aforementioned 7/7, plus C'Thun's Chosen, Ancient Shade, Murloc Knight, Sen'jin, Bloodhoof Brave, Cult Master... At worst it's a Shieldmaiden that's cheaper but gives a weaker body and slightly less armour, and Shieldmaiden is played everywhere. 

Runic Egg: One mana 0/2 that has Loot Hoarder's deathrattle. It's just bad. No one's going to pop this thing for you, and unlike Dragon or Nerubian Eggs you don't really get a board out of losing the thing. Loot Hoarder gives you a body and has the identical effect as Runic Egg for a single mana more. I don't think this card will see play, it's just bad in my opinion.

Moat Lurker: Oh shit, Devour! From Warcraft III! Well, kinda. Moat Lurker 'eats' a minion, removing it from play, and upon the Lurker's death the minion is returned. Kudos for the very interesting card design, and Moat Lurker can be used offensively -- to temporarily remove an enemy minion (and permanently if you panda or silence this dude) or to trigger a deathrattle on one of your own. It counts towards N'Zoth, so Moat Lurker on things like Sylvannas Windrunner, Cairne Bloodhoof, Tirion Fordring, Anub'arak and all those dream deathrattle legendaries is absolutely insane. But taking a look at the card itself... the Moat Lurker has some truly atrocious stats at being a six-mana 3/3 that you probably will never want to use him for removal, and only on your own minion because wasting 6 mana to only temporarily remove an enemy minion is just bad. But as a combo piece to trigger deathrattles and N'Zoth effects, Moat Lurker is such a unique card that I think it'll be tried out a couple of times. I know I will. Whether it's just a cool effect that might not work (*cough*Varian*Y'Shaarj*cough*) or if it'll actually boost N'Zoth even more obscenely, we'll see.

Arcanosmith: A four-mana 3/2 that summons a 0/5 with Taunt. At first glance it's bad. It's like a Bloodfen Raptor that summons a slightly stronger Shieldbearer, which calculates to three mana. Yeah, the shield token that Arcanosmith summons has a health more than Shieldbearer, but it's still ultimately a zero mana Taunt, which does nothing to delay your opponent other than maybe tank a hit or two. A 3/7 with Taunt would be insane, but this isn't it. Taunts with one health already don't see play -- the Mogu'shan Warden is only borderline decent thanks to some possible Inner Fire hijinks. Bolster decks, maybe, with Protect the King? But then why wouldn't you run Bloodhoof Brave instead? So yeah. The art and concept of creating a magical force-shield thing is cool, but Arcanosmith joins the Thespian, Onyx Bishop and Runic Egg at trying to be variations and combinations of older cards that is just kinda bad.

Violet Illusionist: Holy shit, this card. 3-mana 4/3 is premium stats already, even if it's slightly worse than 3/4, but she gives your hero immunity during your turn. Obviously it protects against those Explosive Traps, and Warlocks can afford to summon Pit Lords, Flame Imps and trade with Wrathguard with no repercussion -- Pit Lord's actually decent in this regard with the Illusionist active -- but the main appeal with this? Weapon trading. Hunters, Warriors, Paladins and Shamans cheer for being able to kill minions with absolutely no repercussions. Especially Warrior. Remember Fool's Bane, the 3/4 Weapon that can attack as many times as you want in a turn as long as you don't hit a hero? Yeah, well, you can just whack something like a Ysera or Soggoth four times and not take damage, or just wipe a board of Giants and Twin Emperors and not take damage. Shamans can get even more obscene board control with Doomhammers. Warriors already don't care about damage taken while weapon-bashing, this makes them even more obscene in that regard. Violet Illusionist is kind of crap if you don't have some insane weapon combo prepared in your deck, but with proper cards, man... it's going to be awesome. 

So to recap, here's what I think how the cards will end up being, rated in five categories...

• Awesome: [Absolutely great, things that make powerful decks even more powerful] Barnes, Menagerie Warden, Cloaked Huntress, Cat Trick, Swashburglar
• Good: [Decent with some setup and whatnot, might spawn new archetypes] Netherspite Historian, Zoobot, Violet Illusionist, Book Wyrm, The Curator, Medivh the Guardian, Enchanted Raven, Moonglade Portal, Kindly Grandmother, Medivh's Valet, Kara Kazham, Fool's Bane, Ironforge Portal
• Average: [Okay card, but relatively outclassed by other cards] Arcane Anomaly, Menagerie Magician, Arcane Giant, Prince Malchezaar, Avian Watcher, Firelands Portal, Babbling Book, Nightbane Templar, Ivory Knight, Priest of the Feast, Ethereal Peddler, Spirit Claws, Malchezaar's Imp, Silverware Golem, Protect the King
• Filler: [...might be decent in arena?] Pompous Thespian, Pantry Spider, Silvermoon Portal, Onyx Bishop, Wicked Witchdoctor, Maelstrom Portal
• Bad: [Free dust] Runic Egg, Arcanosmith, Moat Lurker, Moroes, Purify, Deadly Fork

That's it for the review of individual cards. The entire set is out, and we got a couple of very interesting cards, though kind of a shame that there are some really underwhelming cards the overall quality of the cards seem to be average to above-average... though like everyone else I'm honestly a bit miffled about Priest getting the middle finger. What, couldn't have swapped Book Wyrm as a Priest card and throw Purify away? Here's my predictions about how this will impact the meta:

• Druids get the Beast synergy that has been built up since the start of the game, and a very excellent Portal spell.
• Hunters might finally branch out of midrange with their insane secret synergies, though they did get Pantry Spider and Kindly Grandmother as support for Beast decks.
• Mages get a cool arena spell, a weird little minion that generates spells and a secret synergy minion. It helps to boost existing spell and tempo decks and opens up secret synergies, too.
• Paladins get a pretty cool dragon synergy card, which combined with Book Wyrm and the Zoobot buddies might actually help dragon Paladin be great again. Ivory Knight is also a pretty cool card that makes Paladins even more unkillable with Forbidden Healing in the game.
• Rogues get a shitty fork, but the two cards that support a burgle/thief playstyle look very interesting. While I doubt that it'll be competitive, Burgle Rogue definitely will be a far funner deck to play than Milkshake Priest.
• Shamans get a lot of tools in the last expansion, but even the cards they got here aren't half bad (well, the Witch Doctor isn't one that'll see play, I think) just kind of overshadowed by Flamewreathed Faceless, Tuskarr Totemic, Tunnel Trogg and the rest.
• Warlocks start to branch out, and like Beast Druid a lot of synergies for the discard mechanic which they're trying to build up, are finally introduced. A cool late game spell might actually be a decent finisher for zoo Warlock decks, though like Shaman, Warlocks are already in a good spot, these are just nice little presents for it.
• Warriors get a couple of deceptively simple but potentially insane spells, plus the absolutely fun-looking Fool's Bane, which is one of the coolest concepts they have for the game. Warriors don't need anything good at all, dominating the metagame as they do, but hey, the cards look really cool.
• Priest... RIP Priest, I'm afraid. One of its cards is outright the worst card of the expansion, and the other two are mediocre at best. Compared to, hell, even Rogue, where two of its cards at least support an archetype... Wow, Priest just got shafted real hard.