Hearthstone: The Rest of Gadgetzan [Card Review]

So yeah, we've got the rest of the expansion revealed a couple of days ago. It just took me a while to type up this review because I've been kind of busy. So we'll go with the more exciting class cards first before finishing up with, well, the less exciting neutrals. I'm very excited for Gadgetzan -- I think it's easily one of the best-designed expansions with a lot of the filler neutrals being very fun even if not all the cards are well designed (*cough*BackstreetLeper*cough*).

But hey, I'm excited for this. There's a lot of thought put into the design, especially from a visual standpoint -- I'm pretty sure that Gadgetzan has the best aesthetic of all the Hearthstone expansions, which isn't a low bar to clear. The Gadgetzan update hits our servers on 1st or 2nd December, which is in two or three days.

• Celestial Dreamer: [Druid] The Dreamer is a 3-mana 3/3, which is kinda sub-par, but she has a battlecry that turns her into a 3-mana 5/5 if a friendly minion has 5 or more health. Which might not be the hardest thing to pull off, considering, y'know, Jade Golems. It's slightly too gimmicky for my tastes, though, but it's definitely a very efficient minion that's meant to be played at a later stage... but you won't feel too bad playing on curve if you really have to. 

  

  Trying so hard not to be a joke

• Shadow Rager: [Rogue] Oh, hey, a Rager card that isn't entirely shit! I think Ice Rager was worth a chuckle, but Am'Gam Rager was just beating a dead horse with a stick. I was a little pissed when someone told me that they printed a fourth Rager card... until I saw it, and it's actually... not bad! It's not good, mind you -- a 3-mana 5/1 is still very fragile and won't survive the first trade, but it's got Stealth which suddenly changes everything. Sure, the Shadow Rager dies to any AoE, but it is significantly more durable than its cousins and more impactful than Moroes. With Rogues gaining access to Shadow Sensei, maybe this is the minion you want to buff? It's not the best card out there, but it's nice to have a Rager card that isn't shit. 
• Luckydo Buccaneer: [Rogue] The Luckydo Buccaneer is a 6-mana 5/5 Pirate, that becomes a 6-mana 9/9 if your weapon has 3 attack. The thing is... Blizzard nerfed Blade Flurry and never ended up giving Rogues those cool weapons that they said Blade Flurry was limiting the design space of. Whispers, Karazhan and Gadgetzan all didn't give Rogues a single weapon, so this kind of feels somewhat bad. It's in the perfect mana spot to be triggered by Assassin's Blade, though, so there's that, so maybe you play this in a Pirate Rogue? The Rogue kit is all over the place this expansion, though. They've got a little of the Jade Golem synergy, a little stealth synergy, a little miracle synergy and a little pirate synergy and I honestly would've liked them to just pick one or two and focus more on it. Though I'm definitely not in the group of people who's doomsaying about Rogue. Rogue isn't in a bad spot! It's just expensive to make a good Rogue deck -- they're perfectly fine even at the moment, and giving them the very powerful Jade Golem synergy is going to make them even more powerful. In other words, this is a good card if you're running Assassin's Blade or Deadly Poison. Otherwise, the Luckydo is better off waiting for a time when Rogues get better weapons.

  

  Sylvanas for your opponent,
  Big-Time Racketeer for you.

• Lotus Illusionist: [Shaman] Because Shamans don't have enough power. Lotus Illusionist is a 4-mana 3/5, barely a stat penalty, and if she gets to hit face, she gets transformed into a 6-mana minion. As we all well know, six mana is the premium statline for evolution and everything. Sylvanas! Cairne! Thaurissan! Aya! Savannah Highmane! And five health isn't too easy to take out on turn four. I guess she gets countered with taunt, but I like her. She's a very interesting card that has a chance to be very good, but at the same time gives the enemy a fair amount of time to remove. Again, Shamans are getting pretty decent cards this expansion, which are all fun-looking and not all overpowering which is nice. 
• Finders Keepers: [Shaman] Very simple card. For one mana, you discover a card with Overload. It also gives you Overload 1. Discover is a very powerful effect, yet still somewhat balanced, and Shamans definitely want Overload cards, who by and by tend to be really powerful. Lightning Storm, Lightning Bolt, Flamewreathed Faceless, Feral Spirit, Doomhammer, Lava Burst, Totem Golem, Jinyu Waterspeaker, Elemental Destruction, Ancestral Knowledge... the only real misses with this card are probably Dust Devil and Forked Lightning, and even those aren't half-bad. Whether you want to waste a card slot for it, though, is a whole other question entirely, and I think the answer leans to no. 
• Alley Cat: [Hunter] A 1-mana beast that summons a 1/1 as a battlecry. It's cute. Arguably better than Fiery Bat, since there are two bodies for your enemy to deal with. Also, it's cute. There's not really much to say about it. It's like a Living Roots that always summons two 1/1's... but they are beasts, so it's definitely powerful. I think I'll just breeze through the Hunter cards -- they're very simple and relatively decent cards.
• Smuggler's Crate: [Hunter] For 1 mana, give a random Beast in your hand +2/+2. Obviously very good -- you want to target your Dispatch Kodos and Rat Packs, but hitting basically anything else, like, Knuckles, or King Krush, or Savannah Highmane, are all great. It's definitely a viable turn 1 play, so long as, y'know, you do have a beast in your hand. Great card, just wonder what smuggling and crates have to do with beasts getting more powerful.
• Hidden Cache: [Hunter] A new hunter secret! You basically do the +2/+2-to-a-minion-in-your-hand effect when they play a minion. Again, even more buffs are great, and you'll probably want it in those kind of decks, but I'm not sure -- I'd rather have another minion to help play with the minion synergy. 
• Public Defender: [Warrior] 2-mana 0/7 with Taunt. The artwork of a Tauren lawyer is cool. The fact that this is basically a Shieldbearer on super-steroids? Not really. Yeah, it gets buffed with Stolen Goods, Grimy Goons synergy and Bolster, but I'd rather wait a turn or two and play something that's actually good. It's not the worst thing out there since in the end dropping even a 2/9 Taunt for 2 mana is half-decent, so in a proper deck he could be great, but it's not the most spectacular card out there.
• Sleep with the fishes: [Warrior] 2-mana, deal 3 damage to all damaged minions. Very... unconventional AoE, that's for sure. As long as you don't have any damaged minions on your side of the board (save for things like Acolyte of Pain), Sleep with the Fishes can be combo'd with Whirlwind or Ravaging Ghoul to just deal a 4-damage AoE on all your enemy's minions. Is it ever better than Brawl or Execute? I don't think so. Cool effect, though, and of course they're going to make a pun on the phrase in a gangster-themed set. 
• Hobart Grapplehammer: [Warrior] So, one of the few legendaries that was left to reveal was the Warrior legendary. Hobart is the smallest Warrior Legendary to date, a mere 2-mana 2/2... but he gives all weapons in your hand AND deck +1 Attack. It's comparable to the Mistcaller, except it affects weapons and doesn't have a crippling statline. It's another in a series of weapon-support cards Warriors are receiving alongside Grimestreet Pawnbroker and the Naga Corsair we'll talk about below, and with Upgrade and Bloodsail Cultist being available to Warriors, yeah, weapon-focused decks are having more and more tools. It's a very good card, as literally all but the worst Warrior deck run two Fiery War Axes. I don't think it's going to be an auto-include, but it's sure a very good card in decks with lots of weapons.
• Freezing Potion: [Mage] 0-mana freeze an enemy minion. Very simple card, cheaper than that one Spare Part card that does the same thing. It's a 'not bad' card to gain from the Kabal Courier, but definitely not one you want to put into your deck -- the effect's too weak, and even if it triggers Ice Lance and Cryomancer (below) Mages have so many better options to choose from. It does make Babbling Book and Cabalist's Tome a little worse, which is a good thing to keep those cards in check. 
• Cryomancer: [Mage] The Cryomancer is a 5-mana 5/5 that gains +2/+2 if the enemy is Frozen. On paper this is very good. A 7/7 for 5 mana is obviously great value, and a 5-mana 5/5, if you're really pressed for a body, isn't bad either. And Mages have a lot of freeze effects, with Frostbolt and Ice Lance in particular being very popular. But there's one real problem with Cryomancer and it's that it doesn't particularly synergize well with current decks. Tempo decks don't want minions that don't discount, generate or have effects with spells. Freeze decks want their consistency and stalling and Cryomancer doesn't work that well into that. Secret decks will, y'know, run predominantly secrets. Definitely a cool card with some cool artwork, though. See what I did there? Heh. Cool. Heh. 
• Greater Arcane Missiles: [Mage] Arcane Missiles on steroids! For a whooping seven mana, you deal three damage to three random targets. Now, interesting thought. Does spell damage enhance the damage-per-missile, or just adds a missile? The way Arcane Missiles work is that it adds a single missile... how will it work with these fatter missiles? In any case, it's a very respectable expensive spell that is a great option to put into Reno-Solia mage decks. As a standalone card it's perhaps worse than Firelands Portal, but it's definitely great if you get it for free.

  

  The Purify that Priests
  deserve.

• Kabal Songstealer: [Priest] This Arakkoa is a 5-mana 5/5 that silences a minion. Finally, a Silence Priest card that's actually good! Spellbreaker and Ironbeak Owl both suffer for having shitty stats for their mana cost, and while Spellbreaker is half-decent, it's still way too fragile since some one-drops can even deal with him. The Kabal Songstealer is a class card, though, and can afford to be stronger. He's a simple silence minion, but the 5-mana 5/5 body is a lot more durable and exciting, and definitely better than Mass Dispel and Silence at disabling enemies.
• Greater Healing Potion: [Priest] More potions! The Greater Healing Potion is a 4-mana spell that restores twelve health. Holy mother of fucks, yeah, for all of you complaining that Paladins get all the best healing, they're definitely compensating with this. It's a great healing tool, that's for sure. Whether Priests will want to run it... I don't think Dragon Priest will run this, but it's definitely a very good, unconditional Twilight Darkmender -- it's cheaper, heals more and doesn't require C'Thun triggers, but it doesn't come with a body. Definitely an inclusion in Reno Priest decks. To note that this is specific to friendly characters, though, so no Auchenai shenanigans with this one. Which is fine.
• Unlicensed Apothecary: [Warlock] The Apothecary is a 3-mana 5/5 Demon! Which is pretty awesome stats, of course, but as all well-statted demons the Unlicensed Apothecary has a drawback, which is dealing 5 damage to your hero if you play another minion while he's alive. The solution, of course, is just not to play any other minions while the Apothecary runs amuck in the field. Warlocks are getting more and more good spells to play around with anyway so you can just theoretically buff up the Apothecary with things like Demonfire or Bloodfury Potion and just have him dismantle the enemy. Even if he eats like a removal or something, chances are you might've just summoned a 3-mana 5/5 for free. Pretty cool card. I love it.  
• Crystalweaver: [Warlock] A four-mana 5/4 that buffs all your demons by +1/+1. Very good addition to zoo Warlock, actually, and any demon synergy cards are very much appreciated. Warlocks love swarming the board with cheap demons like Voidwalker, Flame Imp, Imp Gang Boss and the like, and the Crystalweaver doesn't even get a stat penalty for his buff effect. Pretty simple card, but a cool addition to the Warlock arsenal. 
• Blastcrystal Potion: [Warlock] What an interesting potion! Again, this really pushes the potions as primarily removal tools (with the exception of the odd buffing potion that Warlocks get). The Blastcrystal Potion is a four-mana assassinate... except you're still paying five mana, since you're destroying your own mana crystals. Obviously in the late-game it doesn't matter, and Warlocks having a relatively cheap removal option is definitely appreciated. Again, the Kabal classes all need alternate means to do things like removal or deal damage to properly construct a Reno deck, and Blastcrystal Potion is a pretty cool way to do it. 

  

  Not a vampire, despite her
  fashion sense.

• Kabal Trafficker: [Warlock] I love this card! Again, I love how demon-y the Warlock kit for Gadgetzan is, and after a string of expansions where Warlocks have kind of lost their way and are just given weird things like cutlery and fat councilmen, they're returning to more demon synergy. The Trafficker is a very fair card, a 6-mana 6/6 that gives you a random demon to your hand at the end of each turn. It's very powerful, and its statline isn't half bad. I mean, sometimes it's probably not the demon you want -- having things like Pit Lord or Abyssal Enforcer isn't always good, and you don't want to play them all the time, but by and by demons are really good. Which brings us to...
• Krul the Unshackled: [Warlock] Remember Voidcaller? The little shadowy demon that summons a demon from your hand for free? Well, Krul the Unshackled is the boss of all Voidcallers. He's got a very awesome art, and probably hangs out with Raza in the

  

  Demons are back!

  weekend to compare glowing chains. Krul is a 9-mana 7/9, not terrible stats, and his battlecry is summon all demons from your hand. It's the Deathwing Dragonlord effect, but it happens as a battlecry and not as a deathrattle, and unlike dragons, you actually don't want the battlecries of many demons. Like, Flame Imps, Pit Lords, Doomguards, Succubi... you don't want their battlecries to go off. And with the Kabal Trafficker giving your hand some demon replenishment since you're likely to have played a fair amount of demons through the game, Krul being awesome is definitiely likely. Even summoning a Jaraxxus for free isn't half-bad, and neutral demons like Malchezaar or Illidan aren't even terrible to bring out with Krul. Of course, you need to run a Reno deck to activate Krul, but Reno Warlocks are fun anyway so why not? Definitely one of my favourite legendaries in the set. 
• Genzo, the Shark: Genzo is a neutral 4-mana 5/4 with a Jeeves-esque effect where both players have to draw until they have 3 cards, but instead of happening at a set time, Genzo's effect happens when he attacks. It's a simple effect and probably cool for decks that have trouble refreshing their hand (Hunters, I'm looking at you) and definitely decent in Zoo. While unique it's slightly boring, but it can be pretty scarily effective. We'll see. I do love how he's holding actual Hearthstone cards with alternate card-backs.

  

  On Saturdays he goes
  bowling with Yogg-Saron.

• Mayor Noggenfogger: The final legendary of the set, Mayor Noggenfogger is an actual character from World of Warcraft -- one of the few Legendaries  from this set to actually be from Warcraft -- and he's featured pretty prominently in the preview newspapers. Unfortunately, his card is kind of shit. He's a 9-mana 5/4, which is atrocious stats, but he'd better have a great ability, right? Nope, it's just, well, all targets are chosen randomly. Presumably this means spells and minions, so it's hard to remove even a 5/4 when you can't aim where that Druid of the Claw is hitting, but at the same time, you're still not getting anything from spending 9 mana, because your targeted spells and minions go haywire too. The only good place to play Noggenfogger is if your opponent's board is full, so there's a very huge chance the minions just hit each other, but if you're going to go for a gambit like that why not just play Yogg-Saron instead, who might actually be advantageous to you?



Probably gets bullied by
Onyxia and Nefarian.





• Wrathion: Behold, the son of Deathwing! Why isn't he a dragon? Just because he's in his human form doesn't mean he's not a dragon! But, man, I love Wrathion, and he's like the only character in the entire set to be an actual Warcraft character -- and it's testament to the team's designing quality that I don't mind dudes like Kazakus, Han'Cho, Aya, White-Eyes, Solia and Krul because their artwork and the sheer story given to us via the newspapers and blog posts really paint them as colourful personalities that the lack of actual proper characters isn't distracting at all. But Wrathion is a character, the good-aligned son of Deathwing, and possibly the final surviving black dragon. Wrathion is a 6-mana 4/5, which is two mana too expensive for his statline... but he lets you draw cards. How many, you ask? Potentially your entire deck, if your entire deck is made up of dragons. You draw a card, and if it's a dragon, you draw another card until you reach something that isn't a dragon. So if you strike out, you basically spend 6 mana to summon a 4/5 body and draw a card. Which... is kinda bad but not that bad. if you're lucky, you get a free Arcane Intellect or Nourish. The trick, really is how many dragons you need in your deck to make this consistent? Put in too much and you'll mill half your deck when Wrathion hits the board. Put in too little and both dragon-synergy effects and Wrathion's effect will fail to pop off. It's definitely a card that I love the design of, and I really wished there were more excavation-style effects like him.
• Weasel Tunneler: A very interesting neutral epic card, the Weasel is a 1-mana 1/1. Bad, right? Yeah, pretty bad. You want at least a 2/1 for your 1-drop, and even then the 2/1 needs to have an effect or two. But the Weasel's a 1/1 that has the Deathrattle of shuffling itself into your opponent's deck, potentially fucking up a draw or two when they desperately need a removal or a minion and they draw this jerkwad instead. It's a very interesting card, like Dirty Rat, but ultimately you're sacrificing a slot or two in your own 30-card deck just to muck around with this. You could theoretically put this in a Beast Hunter or Beast Druid deck where you get the bonus of buffing the Weasel up and using him to trigger 'if there's a beast' effect since buffs don't get translated to the Weasel when he burrows into your enemy's deck. A very, very unique card, but one that might make your deck weaker by playing him. Love the design, though.
• Gadgetzan Socialite: A 2-mana 2/2 that restores 2 health as a battlecry. Very simple card, basically a scaled-down Earthen Ring Farseer and more neutral healing options for classes that need them, or for Reno decks. Not much for me to say about it. 
• Street Trickster: A neutral 3-mana 0/7 with Spell Damage +1. It's also a demon, for all it's worth, making him in a very exclusive club with legendaries Illidan and Malchezaar as neutral demon cards. Unless you're gunning for Priest Inner Fire hijinks, why would you ever play this card over Kobold Geomancer? Kinda bad. Cool artwork, though I'm surprised he's not like Kabal-exclusive or anything.

  

  That's CAPTAIN Small-
  Time Buccaneer to you.

• Small-time Buccaneer: A neutral pirate that looks like a gnome cosplaying as Captain Jack Sparrow, the Small-time Buccaneer (no relation to the Buccaneer) is a one-mana 1/2 Pirate that is a 3/2 as long as you have a weapon equipped. It's an inversion of the popularly played Pirate cards normally buffing your weapon, and it's more akin to the Bloodsail Raider (gain charge if you have a weapon) or Dread Corsair (discounted cost if you have a weapon). Is he going to be impactful enough, though? Having an early game is great, but most Pirate classes already have them in the form of Swashburglar and regular-Buccaneer for Rogues and N'Zoth's First Mate for Warriors. It's a decent card, but not one I'm especially excited about.
• Blubber Baron: The Blubber Baron is a 3-mana gains +1/+1 every time you play a Battlecry minion while he's in your hand. Like Bolvar, but a lot easier to trigger. He starts off pretty badly, though, and you need to play at least three battlecry minions before he starts to get good. Won't be seen anywhere but arena, I think, but man, what a funny looking artwork.
• Defias Cleaner: The Defias Cleaner is a 6-mana 5/7, fair single-point-penalty stats, with the effect of silencing a Deathrattle minion. Which... isn't bad! Relative to his cost, the Defias Cleaner is more cost-efficient than Spellbreaker and definitely moreso than poor Ironbeak Owl, and Deathrattles are pretty high on the list of cards that are great targets for silence. Ultimately I don't really see him being run other than in Reno decks, but he could be cool. Hell, he could be used on your own minions, which could be used on... Moat Lurker? The Beast? Eh. Decent arena card. The fact that the Grimy Goons are going to have a relatively huge presence in the Gadgetzan expansion means that, well, sometimes you really want to silence things that aren't Deathrattle minions and that makes the Defias Cleaner bad. Just play a Spellbreaker. 
• Naga Corsair: The Naga Corsair is a neutral Pirate, with a very nice 4-mana 5/4 statline. She gives your weapon +1 Attack, which is also pretty good, again, being great in Rogues and particularly Warriors. Bloodsail Cultist Warrior decks need more weapon support to help buff their Arcanite Reapers to even bigger heights and while the Naga Corsair doesn't exactly give durability, making her slightly worse than the Cultist or Upgrade, she's a decent body that also helps trigger Bloodsail Cultist. She's a decent card, that's for sure.
• Red Mana Wyrm: So it's a Mana Wyrm on steroids. Like, Kazakus's red mana (which sadly isn't an in-game feature, neither is Kazakus's giant dragon form) is like magical steroids. So the Mana Wyrm doubles its stats into 2/6, and its effect doubles into gaining 2 attack per spell casted. His cost also balloons up to... six mana? Okay, that's just insanely expensive. At four he'd be a very powerful card, at five he's decent... but six? Also, the Red Mana Wyrm is a neutral card, which boggles me. Why can't he be given to Mages? Or make him a tri-class card? I dunno. It's just whatever.
• Streetwise Investigator: Rogues get Stealth and Stealth-buffers this expansion as their little gimmick, and this one asshole just wants to rain on their parade. He's a 5-mana 4/6 neutral that basically makes all Stealth effects on your enemy disappear, like a very expensive but neutral Flare. It's like Eater of Secrets where it's a great tech card if you're facing a class that runs Stealth. Otherwise, I don't think he'll see much play. 

  

  Imported from Pandaria.

• Ancient of Blossoms: 6-mana 3/8 with Taunt. Oh, and he's a neutral. It's a bit weird why this Ancient of Blossoms is a neutral card instead of a Druid card, and why it's wandered all the way to Gadgetzan of all sets. It's not a very good Taunter, I think? It's a Fen Creeper that costs 1 more mana and has two more health, and while I'd pick this over Lord of the Arena... at the end of the day unless you're playing some serious Bolster shenanigans it's not going to have too much impact. And even if you need a mid game taunter wouldn't you rather play things like Druid of the Claw or Allery Armorsmith? It is a neutral so it might see some unexpected uses, but I don't think it's going to be that good.