Sadly, they revealed that the entire expansion will only have nine tri-class cards, which is extremely underwhelming considering the first batch are very boring 'discover one card from each class' ones. This means that one slot across the three factions will be the leaders -- though Kazakus is awesomeballs -- so the third trio needs to be really good. It's a bit of a shame, really. I've been dipping my toe into M:TG a little and just looking at the pretty artwork and complex mechanics, and I really wished Hearthstone had, y'know, done away with some of the bland cards like Auctionmaster Beardo below and had a bit more multi-class cards.It's a good thing that the next batch -- which are all members of the Grimy Goons -- had a lot more interesting cards, with the Paladins in particular seemingly gunning for a "buff minions in your hand" style of play.... which is interesting! Worrying that it might be slightly uninteractive, but hey.
And I absolutely love the flavour of the in-lore reason that the Goons being summoned leaves directions for other minions to pick up guns and weapons and whatnot. Will talk a bit more in the review itself.
- Auctionmaster Beardo: The first actual Legendary to represent a (albeit minor) character from World of Warcraft, Auctionmaster Beardo is... very underwhelming. He's a 3-mana 3/4, Spider Tank stats, that allows you to refresh your hero power after using a spell. When Garrison Commander allows you immediate access to two hero power uses every turn as long as he's on the field, and him never seeing play... yeah. Ditto for 'use your hero power as many times as you want' Coldarra Drake, who never saw play other than in very weird Executus combo decks... Beardo seems to be the biggest absolute flop of a legendary in this set.
- Shakru, the Collector: No idea what Shakru is supposed to be. A Saurok, I think? Coolest Saurok I've ever seen, if so. He (She?) is the Rogue Legendary of the set, and interestingly enough, like the Paladin chest-cannon dude Shakru is also relatively cheap, a 3-mana 2/3 with Stealth, and the effect of basically doing the Swashburglar effect whenever he attacks. It's... okay? It's another effect on the line of Swashburglar, Burgle and Undercity Huckster, and potentially allows you to make some huge Ethereal Peddler combos, and one with a potentially continuous effect, but honestly the relatively severe stat penalty makes me wonder if he's going to see play at all. Fellow similar-effect cards like the Huckster or Swashburglar get away by only losing a point or two than the average. Yes, Shakru does gain Stealth, which is a point in favour for him, but a 2/3 on turn 3 doesn't really seem to be strong enough. He's definitely decent, and we've seen understatted minions being playable before, but I'm just not sure if I want more non-Rogue class cards with only Ethereal Peddler synergizing with burgling. We'll see if the
- Grook-Fu Master is a 5-mana 3/5 with Windfury. He's one cost cheaper than Windfury Harpy (who never saw play, and neither did their bigger Windfury cousin the Grotesque Dragonhawk) and has one less attack. Stupid Hozen, no one's going to use you. Blizzard really seems to like to play it safe with regards to these Windfury minions, because, well, let's face it -- despite the theoretical strength of attacking twice, the only real good Windfury cards are Doomhammer and Whirling Zap-o-matic. Grook-Fu Master seems to be one of those 'filler' cards that will just be tossed aside. Could've at least made him interesting and give him a beast tag, but I guess Hozen are sentient enough?
- Trogg Beastrager: The Trogg Beastrager is something similar to the Forlorn Stalker from Whispers of the Old Gods, a card that buffs some minions in your hand, and he's got somewhat of a similar effect. The Beastrager is a lot more limited, though. He's a 2-mana 3/2, so base 2-mana stats. and as a battlecry he gives a Beast in your hand +1/+1. It's... okay? It's not the most spectacular thing. The Houndmaster has the advantage of a bigger boost and having immediate impact on the board, but the Beastrager allows you to just drop a 3/6 Carrion Grub on turn 3, which then can be boosted by the Houndmaster into a 5/8... that's the dream, for sure. The randomness of the Beastrager probably makes it less of a consistent tool, though the entire existence of the Dispatch Kodo revealed a few days later suddenly makes the Beastrager's limitation suddenly a far, far more consistent and targetable effect than the other 'give a random minion +1/+1'.
- Grimestreet Outfitter: Okay, so this dude is a Paladin card! Somehow. Despite gangsters dealing guns really should be the antithesis of paladins. Oh well. The Outfitter gives all minions in your hand +1/+1, and he's a 2-mana card, meaning it's a bit of a tempo loss to potentially have absolutely powerful turns afterwards. If the Grimestreet Outfitter was the only one of its kind it would suck -- the way Mistcaller never got any play -- but the fact that you can combo him with the Grimestreet Smuggler and Enforcer means that the buff is cumulative. It's a bit more control-y than most, but it really seems to be a powerful effect. The Outfitter might be the weakest of the 'give minions in your hand +1/+1' cards, but he's also the cheapest and his effect is on all minions instead of a random beast like the trogg.
- Stolen Goods: Holy shit, this suddenly made I Know A Guy suddenly appealing! Stolen Goods is a 2-mana card for Warriors, and it gives a random Taunt minion in your hand +3/+3. It's almost a Blessing of Kings for half the price, albeit it targets only Taunt minions in your hand. Warrior C'Thun decks already run Twin Emperor Vek'lor, and this card basically makes your turn 7 into 'summon a 7/9 and a 4/6 with Taunt.' Soggoth the Slitherer becomes an 8/12 that cannot be Hexed or Polymorphed, which is just utterly impenetrable. Even without running Soggoth or Vek'lor, Warriors already run a lot of Taunt minions, with Bloodhoof Brave easily coming to mind for the non-C'Thun variety, but even a buffed Fierce Monkey or Sen'jin Shieldmaster is pretty freaking good. And this new card below, the Alley Armorsmith? Man, a +3/+3 buff that pre-empts your enemy is pretty damn good. I might be a little too optimistic, but it's definitely a nice, new level of card effect that is a lot more refreshing than just 'buff other minions'. Who knows? Maybe finally Bolster Warrior decks can finally get its day.
- Alley Armorsmith: Another Warrior card, a 5-mana 2/7 -- relatively decent stats for a Taunt minion. It also has the effect of gaining armor for each damage it deals, sort-of similar to Armorsmith, but potentially a lot more powerful, especially with cards like Stolen Goods and Bolster able to buff him and actually allowing him to gain you a fair amount of armor. It's just a pretty solid card all around. I'd say that it's better than the Paladin legendary because armour is a lot more valuable than health... and, y'know, more armour is very much desirable to Warriors. We'll have to see if Alley Armorsmith ends up replacing Bravehoof Brave as the Control Warrior's resident mid-game Taunter. Also, holy shit, this is just a gigantic middle finger to Zoo Decks.
- Grimestreet Smuggler: The second Tri-Class card for the Grimy Goons is this fancy Tauren lady... who's honestly a bit of a boring thing. I guess not every card can be like Kazakus, but come on! She's very decent, a 2/4 for 3 mana that gives a random minion in your hand +1/+1, better for her stats compared to the Grimestreet Outfitter (I will get these Grimestreet X dudes all confused at some point). I dunno. It's a very decent card, that's for sure, but I really expected the Tri-Class cards to be something more... exciting than this.
- Grimestreet Enforcer: This one would be very good, actually. 5-mana 4/4 isn't the worst thing out there (certainly beats Mistcaller in that regard, poor old dude) and while it only affects cards in your hand with the +1/+1 buff, in conjunction with cards like Small-Time Recruits to bulk up your hand with minions, as well as the Grimestreet Smuggler and Outfitter to add even more buffs... yeah. Theoretically it's very snowbally, and these cards actually make Wickerflame Whatshisface actually be a lot better since you don't have to play him as a 2/2, but just wait until he gets more and more buffs and drop him as a 6/6 or a 7/7 or something.
- Grimestreet Pawnbroker: Another Warrior card, but the Pawnbroker potentially is one of the strongest among the newest ones revealed in that she's a weapon buff to your hand. She's a 3/3/3 which isn't the worst statline either, barely a penalty. All I can think of at this moment is 'holy fuck Gorehowl', and how annoying it would be to deal with 4/3 Fiery War Axes. I mean, we already have weapon buffs running around in the game but the all require you to have equipped the weapon already and all these 'buff cards in your hand' type cards just look potentially very, very powerful.
- Shaky Zipgunner: Love the artwork for this one. Dunno why. I just like Gnolls, I guess. Zipgunner is a 3/3/3 as well, and instead of a battlecry, he adds +2/+2 to a single target as a Deathrattle. He's definitely a bit of a better fit in current Hunter decks, what with the Forlorn Stalker synergies. The buff is bigger, and it doesn't have to be a beast... yeah, Trogg Beastrager, you just kind of got outshined by this gnoll. This looks like a pretty good card, assuming, of course, the handbuffing gimmick doesn't actually end up flopping. But I seriously doubt that it would be anything but good.
- Worgen Greaser: A lot of people give this card a lot of grief for being a boring vanilla minion. Which I honestly don't... care about? Carrion Grub ended up being relevant, so who knows? Maybe a 4-mana 6/3 might be useful in some way. It's a stat distribution we've never seen before, and far more offensive than Lost Tallstrider. Ultimately it's still definitely filler though.
- Hired Guns: Ditto for this card. 3 mana 4/3 Taunt, which makes it a strictly better Ironfur Grizzly, but all the same I'd rather play a Fierce Monkey (identical stats, but reversed), or a Sen'jin Shieldmasta if I'm so desperate for a taunt. There might be some synergy with the new Warrior cards, maybe? Not very spectacular, though somewhat decent in the Arena. Ultimately it just falls into the same category as Pompous Thespian and Evil Heckler that Taunts with a higher attack stat and lower health just isn't the most efficient thing. It's just a forgettable card, but one thing I'll have to say, though. The artwork's fun.
- Blowgill Sniper: A very... basic card? It's not as basic as the Worgen Greaser, but it's just basically a Bluegill Warrior (2-cost 2/1 Murloc) but instead of having Charge, he has the Elven Archer's ability of dealing one damage. It's... an okay card? I still think Flame Juggler is better simply because he has 2 more health and wins out in sheer power of stats, and in a world where Stormpike Commando, Ironforge Rifleman and Elven Archer never saw play, I don't think the Blowgill Sniper will see any play other than maybe zoo decks. The Blowgill Sniper does have a far more appealing statlie than those three, though, and I love his artwork so I really hope he ends up being good.
- Dirty Rat: In a break from the Spell Damage gimmick that Kobolds have, the Dirty Rat is a neutral epic Taunt (insert 'potential Warrior Taunt synergy'). He's got a statline comparable to the very popular Deathlord, a mana cheaper with 2-cost and two health less with 2/6. But where Deathlord summons a minion for your opponent upon death, the Dirty Rat forcibly summons a minion from your opponent's hand as a battlecry... the hugest gamble ever. On one hand, forcibly dragging out an un-buffed C'Thun or a Yogg-Saron on the early games, or disabling combo battlecry minions like Alexstrasza, Leeroy Jenkins, Ancient of War... or you might just pull out a Boulderfist Ogre or a Tirion or a Thing From Below or a Ysera and you'll be sad. In Priest, Shaman or Mage you can conceivably rip out a minion just to shoot a removal at it, whatever the minion is. A very, very, very interesting card, that's for sure. It might not be the most consistent card ever, but as far as RNG cards go this is a pretty cool, crazy one. Ultimately it's not a card that's going to be good in Ladder, because most of the time you'll probably not luck on the big combo cards -- though the off chance that you disable their N'Zoth or C'Thun is quite awesome -- because mostly if you pull out a strong minion you do kind of hand them a means to remove Dirty Rat for free, which doesn't happen with Deathlord.
- Dispatch Kodo: A 4-mana 2/4 Beast that has a C'Thun effect when he drops into the field. It can get buffed by the Trogg and the other Grimestreet cards that Hunter has access to, but the statline is just so... underwhelming. Don't get me wrong. Flame Juggler and C'Thun both are very powerful cards for their respective mana costs, but Flame Juggler is powerful due to the sheer impact taking out a minion in the early game can be, whereas C'Thun deals upwards to 18 damage randomly quite easily... the Kodo can probably only get a couple of buffs, dealing 4 random damage at most when you drop him. It's kind of like Reliquary Seeker or Avian Watcher where they're basically kind of dead, understatted cards in your hand until you can get them to play, which is honestly quite bad in Hunter decks... and while it's not the type of playstyle that Hunters tend to use, it really could be a good card if buffed. Say, two buffs make it a 4/6 that deals 4 damage randomly for 4 mana. Three buffs make it a 5/7 that deals 5 damage. For 4 mana. And with the Zipgunner granting more buffs than most other cards, and the Beastrager being specifically targeted towards Beasts... is it consistent enough to build a deck where Dispatch Kodo is the only beast? I don't think so -- I'd rather have Kill Command and Houndmaster synergies than a conditional and delayed mini-C'thun, but the fact that you might be able to pull off a decent value even with one or two buffs is actually half-decent. If you're running hand-buffing cards you probably want to cut out some beasts anyway, maybe just Dispatch Kodo and maybe Savannah Highmane, relying on Call of the Wild, Animal Companion and whatever for extra beasts. I dunno.
- Backroom Bouncer: Backroom Bouncer is a bit of a weird card. He enters the board as a 4-mana 4/4, a point worse than your average vanilla 4-drop, and like, oh, the Boogeymonster or Lotus Assassin or Finja or Shakru, you don't have to make the Backroom Bouncer attack and damage/kill an opponent to gain buffs. Other minions must die for him to get... measly +1 Attack. The theoretical unlimited buffs you get by having minions die all the time is kind of moot when you consider that Midnight Drake already enters the board as a high-attack 4-health minion for 4-mana depending on the cards in your hand, and Frostwolf Warlord gets far larger buffs for a single mana cost more and your minions don't have to die. Flesheating Ghoul (who gains +1 Attack for all minions, not just friendly ones) doesn't saw play, and while the Backroom Bouncer arguably has more efficient stats, it's honestly not that good of an effect.
Judging by the trailer, cards we can expect to see in the future include a 3-mana little gnome dude that seems to be part of the Kabal and a 4-cost female pink-haired gnome police officer with a club (we see them on the pre-Blizzard symbol barrage of preview cards). There are the faction leaders themselves, of course, Don Hon'cho of the Guzzlers; Aya the little Pandaren girl and her huge bodyguard of the Jade Lotus, whose names I can't recall at the top of my head. There's a bunny that features prominently in the trailers, presumably part of the Jade Lotus. Two prominent members of the Kabal are a female Draenei and a bunch of imps, plus what appears to be Kazakus transformed into a dragon form? Huh. We've had hints in the newspapers that minor WoW characters Mayor Noggenfogger and Madame Goya, the goblin mayor of Gadgetzan and the Pandaren mistress of the black market respectively, may play a role as cards. Plus there's always Talan the Bartender, who you can talk to in Facebook.
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