Hoarding Dragon: It's kinda like Hungry Dragon, a 4-mana 5/6 dragon... but it's arguably a lot worse. Hungry Dragon gives your opponent a 1-mana minion, something you can deal with no problem... and he still doesn't see play. Hoarding Dragon's disadvantage is in the form of a deathrattle, yes, and you get N'Zoth synergy and all that jazz, but it gives your opponent two coins. And practically every deck in the meta currently -- Rogue, Mage and Priest being the big ones -- can get a fuckton of value from coins. So yeah, not the dragon I'm looking for. Great art, though.
Psychic Scream: What a card, man. I've been playing a lot of Priest variants recently -- highlander, big, dragon and the odd token list -- and Psychic Scream feels just so insanely powerful. A 7-mana non-conditional board clear? Sure, you don't actually get rid of the big minions, but shuffling them into the deck buys you a lot of precious turns to actually draw into your own win conditions. So long as you don't give them a valuable minion (so no Big Priest usage here) shuffling cards they can't really synergize with like Northshire Clerics doesn't really hurt you that much. Definitely effective against druids, where instead of Jade Idols they're drawing into single vanilla golems that are far easier to deal with (or, even better, Spreading Plague tokens), effective against aggro where you nullify the buffs they may have had, and particularly effective against shamans and paladins if they have tokens on the field. Because there's nothing worse than drawing into a vanilla 1-mana 1/1. It requires some fiddling to really get a feel as to when to best use this card, but holy shit, man, now against Priest you have TWO big removal spells to look out against. As if Priest didn't need more good cards. Almost makes up for that year where all they got was Purify. Almost.
Voidlord: Ooh, control warlock tools! I certainly like me some control warlock tools. Voidlord's pretty cool. He's a 9-mana 3/9 with taunt, which isn't... isn't super-horrible. He's like a slower Primordial Drake. But he summons three 1/3 tokens with taunt as a deathrattle, making the Voidlord some sort of Sludge Belcher on steroids. Even better if you can cheate him out with Krul, or re-summon him with Gul'dan. I've gone on record on saying how much more awesome Bloodreaver Gul'dan could be if we got better mid/late-game demons than just Doomguard and Dreadlord (and as it turns out, those are enough to make Gul'dan viable) and Voidlord might be that huge late-game bomb that you need. I'm not sure he's an auto-include, but Voidlord's definitely an interesting tool I'm happy to be included in warlock lists.
Fal'dorei Strider: Ah, obligatory Drider D&D reference! Fal'dorei Strider is essentially a better version of Beneath the Grounds from TGT, one of my all-time favourite cards. It's a lot less interesting because you don't shuffle things into your opponent's deck, but it's definitely a better card than Beneath the Grounds (assuming it works the same). A 4/4 body for 4 mana isn't bad in itself, but summoning three 4/4's down the line? It's a 4-mana 16/16. Now it's obviously delayed, and it's not going to work all the time, but at the same time Rogues do draw through their deck at an amazing rate, so it's pretty cool addition to the Rogue arsenal. Whether it's going to see play isn't something I'm particularly sure about.
Hungry Ettin: Hungry Ettin is a card that made me go 'whoa, value!' when I saw that he's a 6-mana 4/10 with taunt. That's like Primordial Drake stats, but for 2 extra health and 2 mana less! So what's the catch, here? Well, just like Hungry Dragon, you give your opponent a free minion. But unlike Hungry Dragon, you give a 2-cost minion. And by god, there's a lot of great 2-cost minions that your opponents will be glad to have. Stubborn Gastropod and Patient Assassin will simply murder your Ettin without a fuss, in particular. I dunno, though -- is the gamble of giving your opponent a poisonous minion, or a super-value card like Pyros, enough to justify playing a 4/10 taunt for 6? In comparison, Nesting Roc is a 4/7 conditional taunt for 5, and even that is getting cut out of many Hunter decks now. It's a bit hard to say -- I can potentially see the Ettin being a conditional inclusion because there are easy ways to deal with 2-drops, like setting up a Mind-Control Tech turn or a SW: Pain... but to me it looks more like an arena card than anything.
Cataclysm: By pure luck, I am a player who has opened the entire discard warlock package from Un'Goro and Frozen Throne naturally. That's three legendaries, folks, that are wasted for a near-dead (but fun!) archetype. And Cataclysm is the sort of card that I look at and go 'holy shit, it'd be great in a quest Warlock deck!' It's 4-mana, destroy all minions, discard your hand. And discarding your hand at turn 4 basically means you get your quest complete... which frees up turn 5 to just plop the portal and go from there, somewhat negating the fact that you're missing, y'know, a hand. It gets even better if you get Silverware Golems and Zavas boosts from Cataclysm. And even even better if Malchezaar's Imp triggers before he dies. Ultimately we'll have to see if this card will single-handedly rescue discard warlock. My gut says no, but I really do want this deck to work. I also find it hilarious that Cataclysm is, like, the third Warlock super-massive board clear? Not a good card ultimately, but one that I think is decently designed.
Call to Arms: For 4 mana, you recruit 3 minions that cost 2 or less. It's a paladin card, and essentially a better Small-Time Recruits because you, well, actually recruit the minion onto the board... but I really don't see any good 2-cost minion or less that you really want to desperately spend 4 mana to summon. Like, I guess you can get Shielded Minibot in wild, and in standard you can get... Argent Squire? So many of the 2-drops that Paladin runs are murlocs that have battlecries (Vilespin Inquisitor, Hydrologist) that I'm not sure that you'd want to run this. I suppose the fact that you're fine with summoning those with Finja makes this card somewhat possibly viable? I don't really see it. Great artwork, though.
Lynesa Sunsorrow: A 7-mana 1/1 that casts all buff spells you've casted earlier in the game into the minion. For one, it really makes Evolving to 7 mana scary as hell. And Lynesa is... not a bad card, because every deck's running Spikeridged Stegodon, and honestly a simple Stegodon buff on Lynesa is enough to make her an oversized Sludge Belcher. It certainly looks more appealing than Bolvar Fireblood does... but on the other hand, do you really want to be playing this over Tirion or Ragnaros? I don't really think so. Definitely a good card, but one that I don't really see being played all that much.
Kobold Hermit: We have a trio of shaman cards released at the same time, revolving around the synergy of Windshear Stormcaller below that synergizes with, well, basic totems. And Kobold Hermit... honestly isn't good. He's a 2-mana 1/1 that basically allows you to discover a basic totem. And the tempo loss is just kind of bad since it's an actual card you put into your deck as opposed to just pushing a button that always exists. A 2-mana 1/1 is worse than Tuskarr Totemic's 3-mana 3/2, and the basic totem certainly isn't worth an additional 1 mana. Great art, though, with those candle totems.
Primal Talismans: And Primal Talismans is even worse. You give your minions a Soul of the Forest-style deathrattle, but instead of 2/2 treants you have them summon a basic totem? And it costs 3 mana? The thing about basic totems is that 75% of the time they're 0/2 bodies, and it's so much easier for your opponent to deal with them. Yes, it might buy you an extra turn to play with Windshear Stormcaller, but I don't really see Primal Talismans being particularly playable.
Windshear Stormcaller: A 5-mana 5/5 that, if you have 4 basic totems on board... you summon Al'Akir! It's a great card, unquestionably, if you can get the effect off. Al'Akir is fucking dope, yo. But getting all 4 basic totems survive, and playing Windshear Stormcaller? Yes, you could do some very weird combo with things like Grumble bouncing totems back to your hand, but it's just so impractical of a combo. Not to mention that if you're banking on spamming Kobold Hermits, note that there's only 7 slots on the battlefield, meaning that you can't have too many minions on the battlefield (i.e. 4 totems, Stormcaller and Al'Akir, plus another), making the combo even harder to pull off. And even then, it's not a win-the-game-instantly like Uther of the Ebon Blade's four horsemen, but rather you summon Al'Akir. At which point why not just play the elemental package itself? Not a bad concept, and definitely a fun one, but probably won't be a top-tier meta deck.
Lesser Amethyst Spellstone: Oh man, another good spellstone! The 'lesser' one is still crap, 4-mana deal 3 damage with lifesteal, but the regular amethyst deals 5 lifesteal damage, and the greater one deals 7. It's a powerful tool for control warlocks, and the way to upgrade isn't quite as impractical as, say, the paladin or warrior spellstones. You deal damage to your face with your cards, and lots of existing cards already deal damage. Flame Imp, Abyssal Enforcer, Hellfire... plus a bunch of new cards... And Amethyst Spellstone even heals your hero, which makes ti far more attractive to abuse self-damaging tools. Amethyst Spellstone is a powerful card in my opinion for control warlocks, and I for one am excited to use it.
Kobold Librarian: Poor kobold, he's burning his own books. But the Kobold Librarian is a damn good card, though. Unlike the Kobold Hermit above, which is a poorly-stated minion, Kobold Librarian has basic stats for 1-mana 2/1, meaning you don't even get a tempo loss. And the Librarian basically gives you a free hero power -- drawing a card and dealing 2 damage to your hero. Drawing a card is always good, and you basically summon a cheap 2/1 in addition to getting a free hero power. It's definitely a card that works well with Amethyst Spellstone, with the only caveat being that whether Warlock can actually fit this into their decks simply due to the sheer amount of demons they play. Maybe take out the pirate package?
Vulgar Homonculus: Speaking of demons, we've got this fatso. The Vulgar Homonculus is Felguard done right, a 2-mana 2/4 with taunt, which is definitely decent stats for 2 mana. It's also a demon, mind you, which allows Bloodreaver Gul'dan to summon more taunt demons (alongside Voidlord, if you decide to play him). The problem with Gul'dan is that the only taunt demons you tend to summon are just Voidwalkers, since Felguard's shit and Lakkari Felhound's only good in the sub-par Krul-zakus control list, so Vulgar Homonculus only asks for a meager 2 damage to your hero. I may be somewhat overhyping the Vulgar Homonculus, but I definitely like it a lot.
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