The Kabal then get their turn for reveals since Monday after we wrap up the Grimy Goons, and we'll be covering every single card released until now in this post. Can I just say that how much I love the implementation of M:TG style multi-colour/class factions into Hearthstone? There's the fact that the Goons, Kabal and Lotus are just so freaking flavourful with the descriptions of their activities and their respective brands of crime, the nice little combination of tri-class cards and gimmicks is absolutely fun. I really want some actual multi-class cards and maybe when I'm not as busy I'll talk about older cards that could've been turned into multi-class cards. But as for now, Gadgetzan time!
Also can I just say that I absolutely appreciate how... quickly these cards are being revealed, relatively to the pretty agonizingly slow 'five cards a week' thing that went on for Whispers of the Old Gods and Grand Tournament? There's honestly sometimes a bit too much to process at once and I love it.
Also the Herioc Brawl is this week's Tavern Brawl. Good luck for all of you people confident enough in your abilities with a lot of gold to burn. I'm confident that I have a decent chance to break even, but at the same time I don't even have all the Classic cards yet and I'd rather spend my gold on Gadgetzan packs when the expansion hits. I mean, I have enough Old Gods cards as it is -- Xaril, Deathwing II and Ragnaros the Lightlord are really the only two that I want but don't have and I'd rather not gamble.
We last left off with Dispatch Kodo, so let's pick up the reveals since then...
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| The mrglrglglgggoons. |
- Smuggler's Run: WHY IS THIS NOT A MURLOC-CENTRIC CARD? The artwork in this card is just so awesome. A bunch of crazy mafia murlocs on a motorbike? I saw the art panel on BlizzCon and I am very, very happy and just geeking out when the art director just talks about all the cool weapon concepts they did and used for these artwork, and shame on you for not clapping during his presentation. Smuggler's Run has an awesome artwork. Its effect is giving minions in your hand a mass +1/+1 for 1 mana, and most of the argument here is more or less the same with the other 'give minions in your hand +1/+1' argument. It's inconsistent for the random cards, you sacrifice early tempo for a sick late turn, and it's either going to be too slow or insanely powerful. Smuggler's Run is the spell version of it, and it's dirt-cheap, meaning that you might just want to consider running this instead of the 2-mana 1/1 Grimestreet Outfitter... but I dunno. It's decent. The dream, of course, is to play Smuggler's Run on turn one, buffing cheap minions in your hand, turning the Grimestreet Outfitter into a 2-mana 2/2 that buffs everything in your hand, which makes the Grimestreet [googles] Smuggler a 3-mana 4/6. That gives a third buff to another minion in your hand. If you're lucky enough to hit huge targets like Tirion, Sylvanas or Soggoth with it, or really buff up the new Paladin legendary, Burnbristle Whatshisface... hell, 5-mana 4/4 guy that buffs your hand at the end of each turn suddenly might drop as a 5-mana 6/6, which is scary. So yeah. How consistent these Goon buff decks will end up being is a question of seeing the whole set and playing with it, but the potential that multiple buffing cards have is just so much better than the paltry thing that Mistcaller does.
- Doppelgangster: It's a 5-mana 2/2 that summons two copies of itself as a battlecry. In other words, kind of like an Echoing Ooze, but you do the buffing while he's still in your hand. Obviously, with cards like Smuggler's Run and that one Paladin Grimestreet dude that buffs your entire hand instead of dealing random buffs, Doppelgangster can be horrifyingly powerful since he receives buffs in your hand. The thing is, spending 5 mana for three 2/2's is already a mana more efficient than the new Force of Nature, and thus is great in all Druid swarm decks... but a single buff makes it a 3/3 that summons two other 3/3's, which gives a grand total of 18 stats for 5 mana. And that's just with a single click in buffing. A pretty cool card, honestly wished Blizzard did more, well, 'wild' cards like this and the Dirty Rat. If you can get this buffed to monstrous amounts, the only real thing that can stand in its way is a Mass Dispel. And, well, once you're done trading with your small army of very efficient 5/5's? Evolve that shit! Three 6-mana minions aren't anything to scoff at, considering the power level of 6 mana.
- Grimestreet Protector: A 7-mana 6/6 with Taunt is massively understatted, but it does give adjacent minions Divine Shield. Meaning that it's good if you're already winning on the board, but it's not that good if you're behind. The 'adjacent minions' thing isn't something new, we've seen it with Flametongue or Defender of Argus, both of which also flop without friendly minions. I don't think that the Protector will end up being a staple. Maybe a one-off? Maybe simply because with all the buffing you do, it's likely to hit the board as a 7-mana 7/7 or 8/8. I dunno. Divine Shield isn't as permanent and bursty as an attack buff, so there's that.
- Grimy Gadgeteer: Another example of awesome artwork. Just look at the insanity on that goblin contraption o' doom! It's a 4-mana 4/3 for Warriors that's... easily one of the stronger cards in the Grimy Goons club, because it buffs cards in your hand +2/+2. Every turn, making it better than the, oh, Gnoll that hunters got. It's a very powerful card, but for that reason I don't see him surviving often.
- Thorium Knuckles: Okay, a 4-mana 2/3 weapon is shit, but the ability, buffing a minion for speaking the truth alone, is kind of shitty, to be honest. The Knuckles seem to be wholly generate, not rusted and generally I kind of panicked and brought the earphones alone. The Knuckles don't seem to be replacing Fiery War Axe too often.
- Rat Pack: A 3-mana 2/2 Hunter-only Beast that summons as much 1/1 tokens as the attack it has when it dies. So Houndmaster and Abusive Sergeant can hit this dude. The Deathrattle makes it more resistant to AoE's, unlike the Doppelgangster, but on the other hand... it's just a bunch of 1/1's. Obviously it's not a bad card, but after seeing what Hunters got to synergize with their 'buff minions in your hand' gimmick -- namely, the mini-C'Thun Kodo -- this just felt like too inconsistent of an effect to pull off. It can potentially gain more value than the Infested Wolf, because there's actually a very easy way to buff a card before it dies, since unlike the Dispatch Kodo it's not the attack when Rat Pack comes into play. Abusive Sergeants, Houndmasters and Forlorn Stalkers can all buff the Rat Pack in-field, while all the Grimy Goons card can buff the Rat Pack in your hand. Ultimately summoning a bunch of weak 1/1 tokens that don't have charge is not the most impactful thing in the world, especially not for Hunter (Druids would love it, though) but it's a very, very interesting card.
- Knuckles: Hilariously, I cracked open a King Mukla card from my Tavern Brawl pack the week that Knuckles was revealed. Knuckles is a huge monkey with the Thorium Knuckles weapon equipped onto both his knuckles! What a fancy monkey. Why isn't he in the trailer? Really wished that he was. Knuckles is a 5-mana 3/7, stats that are comparable to.... Bolf Ramshield, who never saw play. He's also a beast, with the effect of damaging the enemy hero for equal to his damage whenever he damages a minion. So like Trample from M:TG, but better. Again, all the talk about buffing things in your hand apply to Knuckles, too. Being a beast, Knuckles receives the buff from the Trogg Beastrager meaning you can target him specifically. You can just hang on to Knuckles in your hand until you turn him into like a 7/11 or something, drop him down and just have him clear house. Man, the SMOrc-y ness of this card! Face plays taunt? Me still go face. I love it. Whether it's going to be good enough to be played is one thing, but it is one of the more interesting cards in the set.
- Don Han'Cho: I love the visual design of Don Han'Cho. Blizzard had toyed around with the two-headed Ogre race's split personality in various ways, most notably the 'clumsy' mechanic in GvG, and in the game Heroes of the Storm, the Ogre hero Cho'Gall is controlled by two people. Don Han'Cho doesn't quite embody the two-headedness of ogres that well other than his very excellent design, where someone got to make an excellent suit for one side of his body, complete with a tie and a dapper hat, while the other side is just a dumb ogre face with an undershirt. Really love this design. The Don is a 7-mana 5/6, which is fairly weak (5/6 is bad for a 5-mana without effects, let alone a 7-mana) but his effect is very, very simple. Buff a random minion by +5/+5. At the end of the day it's random, and it is 7 mana (though Don might've been buffed by some of the lesser cards) but hitting just one important minion with a +5/+5 buff... Holy shit. Knuckles, King Krush, Grommash Hellscream, Leeroy Jenkins, Soggoth the Slitherer, C'Thun, Dispatch Kodo... they all love the buff, and for the charge minions in particular it's easy to turn them into lethal damage. Time will tell if the 'buff cards in your hand' archetype would be powerful and consistent enough to withstand the ladder and the competitive scene, but Don Han'Cho is a very simple card with a very devastating effect if done right. Like, you play Brann Bronzebeard, then you play Don Han'Cho for a +10/+10 buff on, oh, a Grom Hellscream. A 14/19. With Charge. And an Enrage effect. Holy fuckballs. No wonder that Don Han'Cho isn't available to Shamans. Can you imagine an Al'Akir given a +10/+10 buff before he even hits the field? Like swatting insects indeed. You hit a C'Thun with this, give him an extra bunch of shots. You hit a Rat Pack, or a Dispatch Kodo, or a Doppelgangster... man, it seemed such a boring legendary when it was revealed. "Oh, just the hand buff thing. But 5 attack." But 5 attack is pretty fucking good.
- Madam Goya: After the Don, we cut away from the Grimy Goons and move to the only member of the Jade Lotus we glimpse this week... even though Madam Goya is a fully neutral Legendary. One of the few Legendaries so far that isn't an all-new original character to Hearthstone, Madam Goya is the leader of the black market in World of Warcraft -- very fitting that it's a Pandaren that runs the black market. I approve! Madame Goya is a 6-mana 4/3, which of course is atrocious stats, but she allows you to cheat the system, so to speak, by instantly swapping out a minion for another one in your deck. So obviously the best deal would be shuffling a Wisp, or a totem, or a Silver Hand Recruit, or something disposable and swap it out with, like, Deathwing or Ysera or Ragnaros or Thaurissan or Tirion or Y'Shaarj or Grom Hellscream or one of those big-end babies. The thing is, though, you also shuffle a weak minion into your deck, thereby making it an inevitability that you draw into a shitty 1-mana 1/1 or a totem in the future, so unlike Barnes summoning a weaker copy, Madam Goya actually makes your deck slightly weaker in the process. That said, though, Turn 6 Ragnaros! Shuffling a minion into your deck can have a lot of fun implications, too, like another (if more unreliable) way to recycle win conditions like Reno Jackson, C'Thun or N'Zoth. Or to permanently steal a minion that's been Shadow Madness'ed, or something. Ultimately it feels a lot too gimmicky and just straight-up weird, and the stat penalty is pretty harsh... but I dunno. Barnes ended up being pretty freaking good, so the madam just might be decent? You do have to build your deck so no battlecry minions are in it, though, something that you have some leeway with Barnes and not quite with Goya.
- Leatherclad Hogleader, Spiked Hogrider & Tanaris Hogchopper: These three are very, very similar and are clearly designed as a set. They differ in their stats (6-mana 6/6, 5-mana 5/5 and 4-mana 4/4 respectively) but they are all fat Quillboars riding teeny-tiny motorbikes that gain Charge under specific circumstances. The Hogchopper looks the coolest, and the Hogleader looks the meanest, but the Hogrider has to be my favourite by just how utterly beefy this pig-man is and how absolutely tiny his ride is. The 6/6 gains Charge if your opponent is holding 6 or more cards, the 4/4 gains Charge if your opponent is holding no cards, and the 5/5 gains Charge if there's an enemy minion with Taunt. Right away the Hogrider seems to be the most easy to proc, simply because your enemy having a Taunt minion seems relatively simple. Whether it's worth it to run these relatively middling minions who may or may not have Charge, though, is another question entirely. The 4/4's going to be extremely hard to play because decks that empty their hands quickly tend to hold a card or two in reserve anyway. The 6/6 might be easier to proc against Control decks, but them having more than 6 cards means a relatively high chance to have an answer to the Hogleader. Ultimately they are interesting conditional Charge cards, but won't see much play, I think.
- Volcanic Potion: And we move into the Kabal! The post for the Kabal that Battlenet blogged a while back is hilarious, far moreso than the Grimy Goons' introduction. Man, I really want some stories or animated shorts starring these characters. We've seen a fair amount of Kabal cards in the first day of reveal, a good chunk of them being Priest cards, but now we get another potion. The Volcanic Potion is a 3-mana deal 2 damage to all minions, which is weird. It's basically the same with Warlock's Demonwrath, other than the demon-sparing effect, and maybe it's less good because of that -- Mages do run a lot of two-mana minions themselves, like Cult Sorcerer, Thalnos or Sorcerer's Apprentice. But Blizzard pushing Reno decks and the fact that Mages are missing that small niche of a mid-game AoE strong enough to clear out totems and whatnot that doesn't cost 6-7 mana means that there might be room in the game for Volcanic Potion.
- Kabal Chemist: The final tri-class card for the Kabal, the Kabal Chemist is a 4-mana 3/3, which isn't very good stats especially when the effect is nowhere as powerful as Kazakus. You get a random potion, which tend to be powerful. The Volcanic Potion and Dragonfire Potion are both powerful AoE's, the Pint-Size Potion is also immensely powerful, and the Potion of Madness can really be an unexpected monkey wrench. The problem is that it's not a Discover effect, neither will you be happy to get things like Dragonfire Potions when you have a board yourself. It does tie together a nice theme that Warlocks will also receive potions, so the theme for the Kabal seem to be cheap potion spells instead of adding +1/+1 buffs to your hand like the Goons. It's... wildly different, I guess? Not sure if the Kabal Chemist is going to be good. Theoretically it's a more specific version of Babbling Book, and we all knew how that card turned out, so she may just be powerful enough?
- Abyssal Enforcer: When a Hellfire and a Dread Infernal love each other very much, you get this dude. Yeah, big strong demons are back! The Abyssal is a whooping 7-mana 6/6, which is pretty bad stats -- basically Chillmaw without Taunt -- but you get a free Hellfire with it as a battlecry. Which... again, is sort of similar to Chillmaw. Sure, you hit your own board, but then that's what Warlocks do with Hellfire anyway so suddenly it's a 3-mana 6/6 with a built-in Hellfire, which is a lot better. And, man, it's been so long since Warlocks got something powerful and demon-y instead of living cutlery (as much as I love Silverware Golem), mummy curses and fat council-people! I've honestly been neglecting the Warlock deck since, shit, LoE, maybe? Warlocks have never been bad in terms of gameplay, but Zoo decks and Discard decks just don't really capture the feel of what Warlocks should do -- playing powerful game-breaking spells in exchange for selling their own souls (or their cards, in Discard's case) but that particular gimmick ended up being emphasized with Shaman's Overload. No, instead Warlocks just are pigeonholed into very, very boring Zoo Decks, especially with the nerf of the Molten Giant and the powerful demons from GvG and Naxxramas having been out of rotation. Hopefully the Abyssal is a great sign of better things to come in the future.
- Kabal Lackey: Apparently this dude is a Goren, which is a race I didn't know existed in the Warcraft universe. You learn something new every day! The Lackey is a 1-mana 2/1 with Kirin Tor Mage's effect, where the next secret you play this turn costs 0. Kirin Tor Mage saw absolutely no play, mostly because Mages only really run Ice Block and the odd Ice Barrier or two. The set has included a new secret below, but honestly I don't really see you wasting a slot for Kabal Lackey when you can run Mana Wyrm and Babbling Book instead as 1-drops.
Inkmaster Solia: Mages don't have a stellar record of playable Legendaries, Archmage Antonidas aside. Flame Leviathan was unique but useless in a Mage deck, Anomalus was kind of useless as well, and Rhonin was barely playable but you have so many better options. Inkmaster Solia (who has a wonderful piece of art done for her) is the pretty lady that's responsible on tattooing the magical, sinister tattoo brands that all members of the Kabal have. As a card, she's a 7-mana 5/5, obviously shit stats... but she runs on the Reno Jackson-style 'one copy of each card in your deck' thing that the faction leader Kazakus also has. Her effect, though, isn't as extreme as a full heal or a custom powerful spell, but just makes the next spell you cast this turn cost 0. Now it's not the worst effect out there, but do you really want to spend 7 mana to get a bonus 5/5 to go along with your Flamestrike or Firelands Portal? Granted, a 5/5 is decent value if you're playing a 7-mana spell like those, and definitely the card gives great value if you're shooting a Pyroblast, but Mages have way, way more spells in the 1-4 mana range, and the chances of Solia really working is... not impossible, but relatively hard to pull off. Especially if you're running a Reno-style Mage deck, which means you only have one copy each of Flamestrike, Blizzard, Firelands Portal and Pyroblast, the big spells you'd want this card to hit. Oh, plus the Kazakus Potions, of course. Though maybe the expansion will give us a really powerful high-cost spell that'll make Solia from 'a cool thing if she gets set off' into 'holy shit this is awesome!'? I dunno. It's a card that can potentially be powerful and insane, but equally potentially to just be an underwhelming, situational legendary.
Valeera's summer holiday job. - Potion of Polymorph: Another potion card that you can get from Kabal Chemist! It's... a perfectly fine card. It's a cheaper Polymorph (4-mana) but it's also a secret, so which minion gets hit by it is totally up to how well your enemy plays around secrets. And if you're a Warlock or a Priest and get this card from the Kabal Chemist, it's actually somewhat bad unless Mages have another Potion secret. It can be compared to Mirror Image, and is arguably more or less as easy to play around. With Mirror Image, though, they still have the original minion they summoned (and chances are they predicted the secret and removed the copy you summoned anyway) whereas with Polymorph Potion you've removed a minion. Now it's absolutely worthless against Zoo or Aggro decks, where they don't really care if a Possessed Villager or a Firebat gets turned into a 1/1 Sheep, so it's not a card I see being put into decks. But the fact that Mages have a lot of 'gain random spell' effects makes the existence of this card somewhat relevant. It doesn't do what Cat Trick does for hunters, though, so it's a bit of an 'eh, whatever' card.
- Seadevil Stinger: While I'm disappointed that it's not called "Warloc" or "Murlock", the Seadevil's effect is pretty cool. It's a 4-mana 4/2, which is kinda bad stats -- though somewhat above-average for a Murloc -- but as a battlecry it makes the next Murloc you summon cost health instead of Mana. It's kind of like Cho'gall, except in a murloc-centric deck you actually do want to play murlocs, as opposed to Warlocks not really using any expensive spells that make Cho'gall worthwhile. (Tangentially, maybe that'll change with some great potions this expansion?) This duder here looks like pretty average, and not exactly the best card out there, but it's cool that they're giving Murlocs to other classes other than Paladins. Warlocks do synergize well with a lot of cheap minions -- which is what the Murlocs are -- but time will tell if this will end up being good. My gut says not really, but you never know.
- Bomb Squad: A 5-mana 2/2 that deals 5 damage to an enemy minion... but has the disadvantage of dealing 5 damage to your hero when it dies. The artwork is great, though! What an adorably confused goblin. In a vacuum, it's not the worst card out there. You can drop this and deal 5 damage (5-mana 5-damage is a bit expensive, but not entirely unreasonable) and then use a Brewmaster, a Purify or Madam Goya to sneak your way out of the Deathrattle... or to deal the 5 damage to an enemy Sylvanas without anything on the board, then laugh as they get a 2/2 that deals 5 damage to them... but honestly why go through so much hassle just to deal 5 damage? Dealing 5 damage to your hero may be too harsh a penalty for a relatively weak effect, especially since the Bomb Squad is on the field for your enemy to pop at their leisure. The only real good application is to drop this then Evolve her, which is actually half-decent since she gets transformed into a 6-drop. So yeah, while undoubtedly a very interesting card I highly doubt it'll see much of a place in the metagame.
- Backstreet Leper: Quick mini-edit because this card was revealed an hour after I posted this post. Backstreet Leper is... well, the old Leper Gnome, sort of. He's a 3/1 instead of a 2/1 (like the old Leper Gnome) or 1/1 (like the current Leper Gnome) with the exact same Deathrattle of 2 damage to the enemy hero. He costs three mana, though... which is frankly ridiculous. A two mana increase for a mere 2 stat increase? If the Backstreet Leper was a 3/2 or 2/3 he would've been somewhat fine, but as a 3/1 he's dust fodder. The Leper Gnome's Deathrattle is powerful because it's cheap -- it's basically one mana deal 2 damage with the potential of the minion dealing some damage before it dies. Backstreet Leper is 3 mana deal 2 damage, which is just stupidly bad.
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| It's like Two-Face and Don Corleone had a kid. |
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| In her spare time she teaches Danny Rand how to hit like iron. |
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