Battlenet blog about creating the Adapt mechanic! Over the week quite a fair amount of cards have been released. Also, the art blog offers some really great insight at the visual design of the cards, which is something that's definitely understated when people are all talking about how viable cards are and stuff. Also we're apparently getting the Time-Lost Proto Drake as a card? Also, the third part of the Malone/Doyle saga has been released. The video with Professor Doyle is a little less remarkable than the previous two, but basically they made it to the foot of the volcano and poor Professor Doyle's expedition sketches got burnt down, and we finally get to see what the full Kaleidosaur card looks like.
Eddie's journal is a little more illuminating. Apparently after their encounter with the Murloc tribe, Eddie's camp and underwear got burnt down by what appears to be Fire Flies. Also Eddie apparently owns the Alley Cat, whose name is called Reginald. Apparently, as they avoid fire elementals, instead of seeing the Un'Goro crater walls, they instead see nothing but the jungle. They encounter Kalimos and his little buddies, but as the volcano erupts and the elementals chase them, they're kidnapped by a Pterrordax.
Crackling Razormaw
Crackling Razormaw's a Hunter minion, a 2-mana 3/2 Beast that Adapts another Beast as a battlecry. It's a pretty simple card, possibly comparable to a lesser Houndmaster that doesn't have as severe a stat loss but only gives a single type of buff instead of the Houndmaster giving stat bonuses and Taunt. I previously said Adapt's roughly equal to one mana's worth of stats, so I guess done right the Razormaw might help out in a general Beast Hunter deck, and suddenly giving Windfury or Poisonous to another minion that's ready to attack ain't something to laugh at. Not sure if he's ultimately going to make the cut or not, but he's certainly a nice companion piece to Kindly Grandmother as the Hunter's resident two-mana drop. Without a Beast on board it's just a Bloodfen Raptor which is just bad, I guess.
King Mosh
Warriors join Hunter this time around as having a gigantic bestial dinosaur as the Class Legendary. One of the giant Devilsaur bosses in the World of Warcraft version of Un'Goro crater, King Mosh is a 9-mana 9/7 Beast, which is obviously not the best statline out there. It's a total of 16 stats, comparable to the 9-mana dragons, but a lot more fragile than the 8/8's and 4/12's that Malygos, Alexstrasza and their ilk have. But King Mosh's suboptimal stat distribution belies a powerful battlecry: Mass Execute. Obviously, Execute is a 2-mana spell, and King Mosh allows you to destroy every single damaged minion on board, which control warriors love a lot. Of course, Mosh eats your own damaged minions, but honestly if it didn't then it would be a bit too broken. King Mosh is comparable to Sleep with the Fishes, a spell from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan that only saw fringe play, mostly because it costs 2-mana, and it only deals 3 damage to damaged minions so it doesn't act like an answer. Mosh allows you to just Whirlwind and murder everything on board. It's definitely slow in a 9 mana slot, but it does work quite well against a board filled with Jades. The Beast tag, for what it's worth, does let it be drawn by the Curator. I don't fully think that King Mosh is going to be in every deck, but it's definitely a great Control Warrior card, and definitely a better legendary than poor Varian Wrynn.
Raptor Hatchling
A card blatantly meant to interact with the swamp queen quest that requires you to summon a whole bunch of one drops is Small Raptor. He's a cute little baby raptor, a 1-mana 2/1 Beast that shuffles its mommy, a 1-mana 4/3 Beast. Theoretically it's 2-mana 6/4, which in itself is such a huge value, but the value's kind of offset, similarly to White Eyes, by the fact that mama raptor is shuffled into your deck instead of summoned immediately by a Battlecry or Deathrattle effect. It does allow you to continue playing one-mana cards without losing tempo, though, helping to complete the quest while not topdecking another 2/1 minion in the late game. How powerful a vanilla beast that shuffles another vanilla beast (albeit an overstatted one) will remain to be seen, but I have a hunch that Raptor Hatchling's going to be pretty good, if nothing else to help enable the Hunters' Quest.
Terrorscale Stalker
The Terrorscale Stalker is a Saurok, and he has a similar effect to Princess Huhuran or Feign Death. The Terrorscale isn't a beast, and has a slight stat penalty, losing a point fro the standard for a 3-mana, but it comes in early so it can help trigger those Kindly Grandmothers, or Small Raptors, and as deck builders will note, the more of a single effect you have in a deck, the more consistent it is. Huhuran is powerful, of course, but the fact that you only have a single copy of that effect makes the deck utilizing her as a whole a little less inconsistent. Terrorscale Stalker fixes that a little, I think. The fact that the Terrorscale Stalker is a lot cheaper mana-wise than Princess Huhuran means that he's a lot easier to combo than the Princess. The big problem is that Terrorscale Stalker suffers from the same problem that Rat Pack does -- it's a 3-mana card, and Hunter tends to be pretty heavy on the three-mana slot. I think it's a perfectly balanced card, especially with that slightly lower stat-line.
Thunder Lizard
Speaking of 3-mana 3/3's, Thunder Lizard is a neutral beast with the battlecry that allows you to Adapt it if you played an Elemental in the previous turn. Which I don't think will really see the cut into Elemental decks? It's one thing if your effect is as powerful as the Tol'vir Stoneshaper (turning into a 4-mana Psych-o-Tron with an extra health ain't no joke), but a simple Adapt to a 3-mana 3/3 isn't something that I really want to run in an Elemental deck, I don't think. Cool artwork, though.
Lightfused Stegodon
Jeez, it's the Quartermaster on steroids! The Lightfused Stegodon is the Paladin's dinosaur, and it's a 4-mana 3/4, which is perfectly one mana less stat-wise. Its battlecry? Adapt all your Silver Hand Recruits. Hitting one Recruit would break even. Hitting three, or four? Man, this dude's going to be insane in Wild with Muster for Battle. And giving the Silver Hand Recruits the Attack buff is basically a free Bloodlust. Giving them the Poisonous adaptation's going to make them a board clear. I really think this dude's a pretty powerful card, one that suddenly makes the 1-mana summon two 1/1 dudes suddenly feel appealing.
Hemet, Jungle Hunter
A very strange card, Hemet the Jungle Hunter is an upgrade to the hilariously bad Hemet Nesingwary from Goblins vs Gnomes, unquestionably the worst of the worst as far as Legendaries go. His effect this time around thankfully has nothing to do with his old, crappier incarnation. Hemet is now a more respectable 6-mana 6/6, and as a battlecry he destroys all cards in your deck that costs less than 3. It's... a very interesting card, which in theory will allow you to get rid of any early-game cards you failed to draw before turn 6, and with a few exceptions those tend to be bad anyway. Obviously not a card you want to play in Pirate Warriors, One-mana Hunters, Jade Druids or Rogue decks, but it is still a pretty interesting card that pulls off a pretty impressive 'thin out your deck' play. Maybe use Hemet to kill every single 1-drop card in your Carnassa Hunter deck, then play Queen Carnassa the next turn, thereby guaranteeing that you'll keep drawing cycle cards? It's going to leave your deck very vulnerable to fatigue, though. I'm not entirely sure what deck New Hemet is going to be used in, some kind of heavy-duty control deck I suppose, but honestly it's going to be a 'wait and see' card.
The Last Kaleidosaur/GalvadonSo after accidentally having its effect be leaked by other language translations, the Paladins' Quest Legendary, Galvadon, is finally confirmed to be a 5-mana 5/5 Beast that Adapts FIVE TIMES as a Battlecry. While the value of Adapt is still questionable until we actually see it in play (remember when we all thought Grimy Goons was going to be good?) Adapt really looks like each Adapt costs somewhere between half to one and a half of a mana. In addition to already having respectable vanilla stats, Galvadon can adapt five times. Which mean he can be a 11/5 with Windfury, Divine Shield and Stealth. Which is just scary and absolutely makes Al'Akir's nonexistent mouth hang agape in jealousy. Galvadon has the potential to really be broken despite his innocuous "eh, same thing but five times" battlecry.
Now what about the quest, though? It's... cast 6 spells on your minions. Which actually doesn't really seem as tricky as the Rogue's Quest, but it's going to take some time before you can get 6 spells out. The only real good buffing Paladin spells at this moment are Blessing of Kings and Dinosize. Even with the Quest, I don't see Blessing of Might, Blessing of Wisdom or Hand of Protection being played, neither Lay on Hands or Forbidden Healing are ever getting cast on minions, and Seal of Champions is rotating out. I guess we'll see Silvermoon Portal or Divine Strength being played after all? It's an interesting quest and an interesting reward. We'll see how well this stacks up against the other quests we've seen so far.
Blazecaller
So yeah, if you're playing Elementals, Blazecaller's definitely a dude you want to put in your deck. It comes on turn 7, so it comes perfectly after the Shaman's Fire Elemental and the Mage's 6-mana version of Pyros. It's a 7-mana 6/6 that deals 5 damage as damage if you played an Elemental the previous turn. And judging by Blackwing Technician, who's also a one-mana-more-expensive-for-his-stat and has a conditional damage dealing battlecry, Blazecaller's a pretty powerful effect. I honestly think that if I make an Elemental Shaman deck, Blazecaller's going to be my 7-drop instead of the Stone Sentinel. It's actually looking pretty good in my opinion, a lot better than the likes of Ozruk.
Servant of KalimosServant of Kalimos is adorable! Also, another neutral Elemental. He costs one mana's worth of stats less, a 4/5 statline for 5 mana. The Servant of Kalimos is also an Elemental, mind you, and its battlecry is one of the better ones -- if you play an Elemental last turn, Discover an Elemental. Discover is a pretty powerful card, and depending on your class you can get some really good Elementals, too. Blazecaller, Kalimos himself, Al'Akir, Ragnaros Lightlord, Fire Elemental, Water Elemental... I think it's a card you'll want for your turn five play if you're running an Elemental deck. A card that discovers another card without stat penalty is actually pretty good, though, again, you really need a dedicated Elemental deck to make it work.
Ravenous Pterrordax
A curious dinosaur that joins Clutchmother Zavas in the ranks of new Warlock beasts, which is something that I honestly didn't expect to ever see. The Pterrordax is a 4-mana 4/4 with the Battlecry of destroying a friendly minion to adapt twice. Warlocks do have ways to make disposable minions with the brand-new Nether Portal, or from Possessed Villager or Forbidden Ritual, though without Imp Gang Boss or Implosion in Standard, it's a bit hard to find disposable 1/1's. I guess killing a Power Overwhelming'd minion is something, except P.O. is leaving Standard as well. Killing like a Flame Imp or Voidwalker will always feel bad, and yes, theoretically it's a huge, huge value boost since you get to Adapt twice, which means you might get something as big as a 4-mana 4/6 with Divine Shield or something. Ultimately I don't think Adapting twice is really worth destroying a friendly minion, though, and it'd be horrible if you topdecked this dude. An empty board means the Pterrordax is a bad 4-mana 4/4, but it's worse if you have a board with valuable minions like Doomguards and the like.
Evolving Spores
A Druid 4-mana spell that adapts all your minions... and it's honestly not very appealing. Gentle Megasaur does the same thing to all Murlocs, and still comes with a body that doesn't even get a stat-to-cost penalty. A 4-mana Adapt really depends on the type of adaptation you get, really. Some adaptations are just bad when done en masse. A mass +1/+1 is overcosted at 4, especially since Mark of the Lotus does it for 1-mana. Mass Stealth, likewise, is a shit choice considering Conceal is also priced at 1-mana. I don't really see the point of making all your minions get Taunt, +3 Health, spell-proof, or get the 1/1 Deathrattle (you'll want to cast Evolving Spores on a full board, and when they die they'll just swarm the board with the maximum amount of 1/1's which isn't that good for 4 mana). I guess mass Divine Shield or mass Poisonous is somewhat decent for trading, but do you really want this card to just do that? The +3 Attack or mass Windfury are probably best for finisher purposes, but it's not reliable that you get those, and besides Druid still has Savage Roar around. So no, I don't think this card is super reliable or will really be played.
Spirit Echo
Spirit Echo is a card that I didn't expect to see as a Shaman card of all things. It's something that Rogues would really love to have considering their new quest. But Shaman gets yet another strange new toy with Spirit Echo, which is surprising considering their repertoire in the Un'Goro set is split evenly between Murlocs and Elementals, leaning more towards the latter side. Spirit Echo... kinda synergizes with those two, but also kinda don't. Like, Elementals benefit from playing other Elementals, so obviously having a recycle mechanic is useful (ditto for Jade Shaman too, actually), and getting a Kalimos or Blazecaller or Stone Sentinel back, so long as you have an activator, would be pretty great. Of course you still have to pay the cost when you re-play those minions, but it's still pretty good. Now whether you want to pay three mana to give an entire board 'return this card to your hand when it dies', and then have to pay the mana to summon Kalimos or Megafin or Aya Blackpaw or whatever again... I dunno. My gut says that Spirit Echo is good, but situational. We'll see. It's 3 mana, so it's kind of cheap, and comparable effects like Echo of Medivh and Blood Warriors did see play.
Tortollan Primalist
There's not enough Tortollans in this set! For a brand new race, we've got, what, three, four of them in total? The Primalist doesn't seem quite good either. He's a 8-mana 5/4, which is disastrously bad stats, and his effect? A glorified Servant of Yogg-Saron. Yes, you get to choose the spell, so if you get something that definitely targets the enemy (Consecration, Flamestrike, all Secrets) it's good, but is it worth paying 8 mana for a 5/4? Yes, you'll probably want to get the value, but Discover means that the three spells are going to be from your class, which begs the question -- instead of playing this understatted card that has a not insignificant chance to whiff, why not put in said spell?
Spikeridged Steed
Well, at least we're getting a somewhat decent Paladin buff card to play with the quest. It's a +2/+6 and Taunt, which is kind of like a better, more expensive version of Power Word: Tentacles... but the value doesn't stop there, because you summon the 2/6-Taunt as a Stegodon when the buffed minion dies. It's actually not a bad play. I'm not entirely sure if you want to spend your turn six buffing a minion and doing nothing else, and that really seems to be the big weakness of the Paladin Quest -- Galvadon is insanely good, but when are you really going to get the chance to play all the buff cards? Regardless, though, if you do end up playing the Paladin Quest, I'm pretty sure Spikeridged Steed makes it into the deck. (Side-note: this card wins the 'most difficult to pronounce mentally' prize.)
Stegodon
Some sources are citing that the Stegodon from the Spikeridged Steed is actually a collectible card in the set itself? What a fucking boring card that is, then, our first real 'boring statline swapped around' card in the set. It's a slightly more defensive Sen'jin, and that's more or less it.
Cornered Sentry
"Clever girl!"The Sentry's a pretty interesting card. She's similar to Dirty Rat in that she's a 2-mana 2/6 Taunt, but instead of summoning an opponent's minion from their hand, she summons three 1/1 Raptors for the opponent. The flavour's certainly there, this lady explorer just stumbled into the wrong neighbourhood and is now attacked by a group of angry tiny raptors. On one hand, unlike Dirty Rat you don't deny powerful battlecries. But on the other hand, you also minimize the chance of giving your opponent a free huge body on the field, and while three 1/1's can definitely do some work, if Leeroy Jenkins is any indication they tend to not matter much against a 6/2, let alone a 2/6. Plus, this followed up with a Ravaging Ghoul is just amazing. Just don't give the Raptors to a Hunter, lest they do a lot of Adapt/Houndmaster/Beast shenanigans with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment