We'll go with class cards first before neutrals, and then, just like Knights of the Frozen Throne, I'll put a prospective ranking of all the cards for Standard Constructed in the bottom.Astral Tiger: A druid 4-mana 3/5 that shuffles itself into the deck when it dies. It's definitely a cool anti-fatigue tool, but seems more likely to be useful when Jade Idol rotates out. You could argue that you can draw the tiger out with recruit mechanics or whatever, but I don't see it happening very well. Cool design, probably not that playable.
Barkskin: One mana spell that gives a minion +3 health and you gain 3 armour. It's a cheap spell that will activate your Spellstone, and far more flexible to fit into your curve than Oaken Summons. Any druid deck can use minion buffs, whereas not all druid decks can afford to play a recruit-tiny-minions deck. But really -- most of the time, Earthen Scales is strictly better. So yeah, don't see this being particularly good outside of arena.
Rhok'delar: Rhok'delar is the hunter's legendary weapon, and perhaps rather sadly in my opinion, is a weapon to synergize with the all-spells deck that To My Side belongs in. It's perhaps not doable at the moment, although the archetype is a somewhat... interesting one in wild or with future expansions, perhaps? Hunters do get a crapton of spells in this expansion, which is neat, but even with all the spells they have in standard at the moment I don't see it working out. Rhok'delar is a 7-mana 4/2 that generates and fills up your hand with Hunter spells, which is definitely good value if your hand is empty... but on the other hand, you do have to build an all-spell deck... which I personally don't think we quite have the required support for yet. I'm not saying that it's bad, but I mostly think that it's for an archetype that doesn't quite have enough support just yet.Candleshot: Great art! It's a 1-mana 1/3 weapon that makes the hunter immune while attacking. It's essentially three free pings, and another option for hunter's 1-mana drop (which, at this point, is basically just Alleycat and the new Dire Mole) so yay for that! Notably with Hunter's Mark you can kill anything. Not much to say about Candleshot beyond that, though. It's a cool design, I suppose, and very balanced. I do like it, although I don't think it quite makes it into constructed viability, though.
Flanking Strike: A bigger On the Hunt. For 4 mana, you deal 3 damage (can't go face, sadly), and you summon a 3/3 wolf. Another way to look at it is that it's a strictly better beast version of Fire Plume Phoenix, but in spell version. Definitely playable, even in non-spell-only decks. It's a very solid card in arena and might be constructed viable, because it's one of the many ways to simply control the board and build it in a minion-less deck. Even if the all-spells only archetype ends up not working out (and I don't think it will), Flanking Strike looks like a decent spell nonetheless.
Cave Hydra: The mechanic unofficially called 'cleave' by many fanmade cards, which is the same ability that Foe Reaper and Scourgelord Garrosh's weapon has, now has made its way to Hunter! Cave Hydra is a very solid minion. It's a 3-mana 2/4 beast, only one attack less than the gold standard for a 3-drop, and it damages minions next to whomever it attacks! It's just a shame that it's not a 4-costed minion because god dang, Hunters have a fuck-ton of cards in the 3-drop slot (Animal Companion, Bearshark and Eaglehorn Bow all being premier cards in that slot). Still, it is a neat little way to perhaps swap around with Bearshark if you're building a deck that wants to control the board more than be aggressive.
Shifting Scroll: The last mage card to be released is another 'random mage spells' card, but I do like that it's actually... not that good! Shifting Scroll is essentially Shifter Zerus in card form, which means it's shit, but it doesn't have a cost. Which is very important, because if you get it out of, say, Cabalist's Tome or Ruby Spellstone, it's a spell that actually takes a turn to transform into a random, playable mage spell. And when it does transform, a random mage spell is certainly better than a random minion like Zerus does. So it's not a good card, but it's definitely a well-designed one in my opinion.Potion of Heroism: A 2-mana spell that gives a minion Divine Shield, and draws a card? It's a more expensive Hand of Protection (which never sees play) but with card draw built in. And if Iron Hide versus Shield Block is any indication, card draw is definitely a very valid way to make a card go from 'maybe I'll take this in arena' to 'yeah I'll put it into my deck'. It's a neat card for sure, and perhaps goes into the mega-buff deck that they showed off on stream, but ultimately it's perhaps lives and dies depending on Paladin itself.
Gilded Gargoyle: Ah, a weaker Tomb Pillager! That's not to say that Gilded Gargoyle is bad, though. It's just... weaker! And in a class that already has a fuckton of great cards and great deathrattle synergy, Priest really is a class that can afford plopping down a 3-mana 2/2. And even then, a 3-mana 2/2 that gives you a coin isn't necessarily that bad. The thing with Gilded Gargoyle is that, well, most Priests already have 30 good cards so even in Razakus Priest decks that would benefit the most from coins, I don't see Gilded Gargoyle being played. Maybe in a Razakus deck that uses the N'Zoth package?
Psionic Probe: Kind of a shittier Mind Vision, I think, because unlike Mind Vision, Psionic probe can whiff if your opponent's deck just doesn't have any more spells. But it does draw from a narrower subset of cards than Mind Vision -- a random spell triggers your Lyra if nothing else. I dunno. Seems balanced, if not particularly good.
Twilight Acolyte: I don't think I talked about Twilight Acolyte before? I don't feel like I have. In either case, though, I think he's an actually pretty decent card. A 3-mana 2/4 isn't bad, but it's a card that is part of the dragon package, and allows to swap the Acolyte's 2 health with another minion... allowing Priest to finally deal with 4-attack minions at last. And turning an enemy minion to have 2 health? That just makes it susceptible to Potion of Madness, Shadow Word: Death and Cabal Shadow Priest, which makes the Twilight Acolyte perhaps one of the more formidable, if slightly fancier, weapons in the priest's arsenal.Cavern Shinyfinder: And here's the missing puzzle in Kingsbane decks -- a weapon tutor card. Cavern Shinyfinder is not that bad as a 2-mana 3/1, losing one stat point from the vanilla test of 3/2. It's fragile as all hell and susceptible to pings, but as a battlecry it draws a weapon from your deck. If the only weapon in your deck is Kingsbane (and it likely is since the only other weapon card played by Rogues is Shadowblade, which isn't super-duper necessary) and that means you kind of guarantee the Kingsbane draw a lot better, because in mulligans there are three cards that you basically means Kingsbane. Shinyfinder lives or dies on Kingsbane's back, so we'll see if Kingsbane is good.
Healing Rain: God I love this card. Such a cool design! Shaman used to have Healing Wave, one of my favourite cards, and it's about damn time that Shamans get another good healing card. Healing Rain costs 3 mana, and restores 12 health among all friendly characters, which means that you might very well heal your entire board. If you have no damaged minions, you essentially heal 12 to your face for 3 mana. And if your enemy has a Northshire Cleric you might very well mill the Priest dry! Pretty cool control tool, although I'm not 100% sure it'll see standard play.Crushing Hand: A bigger Stormcrack! It is costed exactly the same at 2, except it deals 8 damage and overloads for 3. Overload works with the Sapphire Spellstone, and cheating out huge amounts of damage is far more palatable than Stormcrack's measly 4 damage. And 8 damage is a lot! I'm not sure which Shaman deck can use it, but I do like the design of Crushing Hand.
Dark Pact: You destroy a friendly minion, and restore 8 health to your hero. It's bad, I think, in the way that Unwilling Sacrifice is bad -- you still lose a minion. And while Dark Pact is a cheap heal, and Warlocks do tend to have cheap minions... you still probably won't play this. The fringe application of activating deathrattles probably won't matter either.Hooked Reaver: A 4-mana 7/7 demon! With Taunt! It only becomes that if your Warlock has 15 or less health, and it's a measly vanilla 3/3 if you bring him back with Bloodreaver Gul'dan or Krul or recruit it with the Lackey, though, so it's not as ideal as it seems. Hooked Reaver does feel like a pretty cool finisher card the way that the Dragonkin 9/9 from Blackrock Mountain is, though. It's definitely another good demons in an expansion that gives Warlock a lot of good demons, and one with enough limitations that it doesn't make demon decks too overpowered. I like it.
Kobold Barbarian: It's just bad, right? The identically-statted Ogre Brute never saw constructed play, and Ogre Brute always has a 50% chance of hitting the target you want. Unless there's one minion, in which case the Barbarian is just as good as the Ogre Brute, Kobold Barbarian always attacks with less than 50% accuracy all the time. So yeah, probably one of the duds in this expansion.
Woecleaver: Warrior's legendary weapon is a Recruit-synergy weapon, an 8-mana 3/3 that Recruits a minion after the hero attacks. I think it's honestly a bit too expensive, because it comes down at least on turn 8. I'm still on the fence about the relative power level of Recruit, and just how powerful it is... and I'm not sure if I want to use an 8-mana 3/3 weapon. It's definitely balanced, though, and I definitely can see enough cards to properly build a Recruit Warrior deck... I'm just not entirely sure that it's going to be that viable. More of a wait-and-see card for me, honestly.Gemstudded Golem: It's like Ironwood Protector in druid, in that it's a taunt that can only attack with 5 or more armour. Except Warriors gain armour a lot faster than druids, and a 6-mana 5/9 is so much better than a 4-mana 3/6. Gemstudded Golem's 5/9 is comparable to Hungry Ettin's 4/10, and temporarily not being able to attack is certainly a lot better than the Ettin's maybe-summon-a-Gastropod-to-fuck-up-your-day drawback. The Golem's also a neat target for recruit decks that has lots of stats as well. Neat card, I say.
Master Oakheart: What a bizarre card! Oakheart is a 9-mana 5/5, but it recruits three minions -- each with 1, 2 and 3 attack. Not cost, mind you, attack. I'm just scratching my head thinking of just what insane combos I can cheat out with this. Bolvar Fireblood is a candidate, that's for sure. Hadronox or Lord Jaraxxus would be a fun one. Tar Lord, Tar Creeper and Tar Lurker for sure. Pyros? Finja? Maexxna? Ixlid? It's a card that gives a fair amount of deckbuilding challenges, and it's either going to be very bad or very good. At the moment I can only think of a Taunt druid list, because they have 1-attack (Crypt Lord, Druid of the Swarm), 2-attack (Saronite Chain Gang) and 3-attack (Ironwood Golem, Hadronox, Grizzled Guardian). Oakheart is a well-designed card, and while I'm genuinely baffled on how good this card is, I do look forward to the decks that try to make this work in the future.
The Darkness: I cast magic missile upon the darkness! It's... it's a cool card! It's probably not good, though. It's a 4-mana 20/20 that starts off dormant like Sherazin, and it shuffles three candles into the enemy deck. It''s actually a neat stealth counter towards Highlander decks, although by no means is will playing the Darkness just fuck over a highlander priest the way that Skulking Geist was towards Jade Druids. It does delay the Raza turn, although the highlander priest can just Shadowreaper the Darkness all to hell. And while having a big 20/20 that you have no way of killing until it awakens is pretty scary, it's, well, just ultimately a big body and the opposing player will be able to save a removal to deal with it. It also is a play that absolutely does nothing on turn 4, so you do get a huge tempo loss in playing this card. So yeah, a fancy card that's more fun than competitive, I think.
Corridor Creeper: A 7-mana 5/5 beast that costs 1 less every time a minion dies while this is in your hand? At least it's a minion, not just friendly minions, but even then I don't think it's playable enough even in beast-synergy decks. It's not as rapid a discount as other potential 0-costed minions like Kabal Crystalrunner, Thing From Below or Arcane Tyrant. Definitely a cool card in arena, though.
Shimmering Courser: A 4-mana 3/3 beast that only you can target with spells and hero powers? She definitely won't see play in Hunter because Bearshark is almost always better than her, but it'll perhaps be able to see some play in buff decks. I'm not sure Buff Paladin will be as good as the reveal stream makes it out to be, but I've always loved these 'can't be targeted' mechanics and wished we had more synergy with them. Courser is a cool design, I think, that perhaps finds a great place in Paladin. Spikeridged Steed this and your enemy has no option but to run minions to trade with it. Pretty neat and balanced card, IMO.Void Ripper: Remember Confuse? From... TGT, I think? Now it's attacked to a 3-mana 3/3 demon! That's neutral! Confuse's a wacky meme card, and Void Ripper is a strictly better version of it. I'm not sure what deck or even class Void Ripper fits in, to be honest.
Ebon Dragonsmith: This card is a dragon! Yay dragons! It's a 4-mana 3/4 that discounts the cost of a weapon in your hand by 2. I don't think warriors or hunters play this, and since priest is probably the only proper class with dragon synergies in standard (and I don't see them playing Dragon Soul in a dragon deck, name notwithstanding) I don't see Ebon Dragonsmith's dragon tag mattering that much. It's probably decent in wild, perhaps? I'm not sure, though, because cards like that Blackwater Pirate from Old Gods never saw play either, so I don't see Ebon Dragonsmith making too many waves.
Kobold Monk: Cool art, huh? It's a neat card, a 4-mana 3/6, which means it's actually a decent vanilla statline, that gives your hero spellproof. It perhaps doesn't work against Quest Mages when they've completed it, but it definitely absorbs at least 6 damage or a removal from spell-heavy decks like Mages and Priests. A cool design, even if I think current constructed decks are too optimized to afford a card like this.
Shrieking Shroom: D'awww he's adorable. Also, a Myconid! D&D references ahoy! The Shroom is perhaps not good at all, though, being a 3-mana 1/2 that summons a random 1-cost minion. Two 1/2's for 3 mana isn't particularly good, even if you protect the Shrieking Shroom, and sometimes you just whiff and get like 1/1's or whatever. It's been compared to Primalfin Totem, but it's like one whole mana more expensive for exchanging the 0/3 into a 1/2... which makes it look super bad.
Scorp-o-matic: 2-mana 1/2 mech that destroys a minion with 1 or less attack? Sure, it kills, like, Crypt Lords and Doomsayers, but why wouldn't I just play a Stampeding Kodo? Cool card, but perhaps not constructed viable. Worth noting is that it could be combo'd with Aldor Peacekeeper to murder anything, and it's not random like the Kodo, so it might perhaps be a neat removal... but I'm not sure if it beats out other types of removal.Gravelsnout Knight: I love the card art! But it's pretty crappy, to be honest. A 1-mana 2/3, but you summon a random 1-cost for your opponent? When Hungry Dragon, a far more sizable 4-mana 5/6, doesn't see play, I don't think Gravelsnout Knight would, especially since it's in turn 1 where you're trying to maximize as much tempo as possible.
Sleepy Dragon: Hey, here's a candidate for those big recruit decks! Obviously, a 9-mana 4/12 vanilla with taunt isn't good enough to put in decks, but recruited out it's great, and it's another big dragon to put in any big decks that try to synergize with dragons. I think it's just shy of being placed in actual, proper dragon decks, though.
Violet Wurm: Purple Worm! More D&D references! It's a strictly better Sated Threshadon. For a single mana point more, you get 3 more attack, and the 1/1 tokens you get are beasts (as I assume grubs are) instead of murlocs. Definitely great in arena, although I don't think it's quite broken enough for Constructed unless you're trying to make a Recruit Hunter deck -- which I don't think is viable.
Fungalmancer: A shittier Defender of Argus! It's one mana more, but has one less health, and doesn't give taunt? Sure, the stat boost is a lot more than Argus, but I do think it's a lot crappier. It does allow you to go a bit more aggro since it's like a mini-Bonemare buff spread over two bodies... but you need two bodies for Fungalmancer to work. So no.Green Jelly: A shittier Hogger, as much as I love the card art. Jelly's got less stats than Hogger (3/3 vs 4/4) and the taunts it summons are weaker (1/2 vs 2/2). Hogger doesn't see play, so Jelly probably won't. Definitely a card I'll be mostly happy to see in arena, though.
Trogg Gloomeater: A 5-mana 1/5 taunt/poisonous? Pay 3 less mana and play Stubborn Gastropod instead. Where Venomancer doesn't see play, Trogg Gloomeater is just strictly worse.
Corrosive Sludge: A bigger Acidic Swamp Ooze, with less optimized stats. Acidic Swamp Ooze or Gluttonous Ooze are both strictly better (even though Corrosive Sludge's art looks cool as hell), but I think Sludge's inclusion is more of an arena thing so that the weapon-filled arena also has a common weapon-counter card with a high incidence appearance rating. In constructed, you're better off running either Gluttonous or Acidic Swamp Ooze, or Harrison Jones.
Cursed Disciple: Two Magma Ragers, for only one mana more... isn't much better than a Magma Rager. Cute, and definitely annoying in arena... but I don't see it having any place in constructed.
Shroom Brewer: It's basically a bigger Earthen Ring Farseer, with all the 3's turned into 4's. Definitely great in arena, and maybe usable in control warlock decks? It's definitely a neat design, and maybe replaces Earthen Ring Farseer in Warlock decks.
Sneaky Devil: A 4-mana 2/2 demon with stealth and the Raid Leader effect. It's a strictly better Raid Leader, costing 1 more mana but getting stealth and the demon tag. Ultimately I still think it's a bit too understatted for most zoo or aggro decks, and you'd rather play cards with decent stats like Dire Wolf Alpha or Flametongue Totem or Crystalweaver instead. Cool design, though.
Boisterous Bard: A 3-mana 3/2 that gives all your minions +1 Health! Cool design, but, like Sneaky Devil, probably not that relevant outside of arena.
Stoneskin Basilisk: A 3-mana 1/1 with divine shield and poisonous? It's a bit too fragile for my tastes, although divine shield and poisonous together is a pretty scary combination. The best I can see for this card is as part of a Zombeast, which honestly isn't even that bad.
Sewer Crawler: A Razorfen Hunter with the stats reversed! It's better than Razorfen Hunter because it's the beast that gets the 2/3 body, and beasts tend to have more synergy... but eh, it's still crap.
Kobold Apprentice: You staple an Arcane Missiles onto a 2/1 body and give it a 3 mana cost? That's honestly a bit too much, and I think that Apprentice would be more balanced (and unplayed) if it costed 2 mana. Compare it to cards like Mad Bomber (2-mana 3/2, but can lob everywhere) or Disciple of C'Thun (same stats, but you target 2 damage)... yeah, it's pretty bad.
Dragonslayer: a 3-mana 4/3 that deals 6 damage to a dragon. So we're pre-emptively putting the 'crab' card in the same expansion that they're making huge dragons? I do like that it's not an obnoxious tempo swing the way that Golakka Crawler is, though, and that it's not an instant-destroy effect (oh god, if Dragonslayer just instant-destroys a 9-cost dragon it'd be Big Game Hunter all over again). Pretty cool card design, and will see play, I think, if dragon priests become popular. If nothing else, you kill Cobalt Scalebanes as a neat little counter.
Toothy Chest: Mimics! A crappier Validated Doomsayer -- the effect is exactly the same, but where Validated Doomsayer is a delayed 7/7 for 5 mana, which is a huge tempo gain if he survives, Toothy Chest is at max a 3-mana 4/4. Which is crap.Fungal Enchanter: More fungus people! It's a smaller Darkscale Healer -- lots of variations on Basic/Classic cards in this final batch of cards -- which is just fine, isn't it? It'll probably find a home mostly in priest decks, I think? It's probably not quite strong enough to be constructed-viable, but it's more well-statted than Darkscale Healer.
Plated Beetle: A River Crocolisk with the deathrattle that gives you 3 armour. It's perhaps not good enough to be put into Warrior decks, I think, even with all the armour synergies, but perhaps in Druid, which has armour synergies and beast synergies? A cool design, I think, and perhaps a card we're somewhat sleeping on.
Wax Elemental: It's a 1-mana elemental with a cool-looking artwork, but it's just a Target Dummy with a divine shield. And, yeah, you probably attack Wax Elemental twice to break the shield, but at 0 attack it's going to be more of a nuisance than anything.
Dire Mole: The humble Dire Mole closes off this humongous review piece, but it's actually a good card! Hell, perhaps out of the slew of more boring neutral cards, Dire Mole is perhaps one of the most viable one, being a very viable 1-drop beast for hunters (they have, what, a grand total of Alleycat in 1-mana?) and aggro druid (which only has Enchanted Raven). A 1/3 for 1 isn't horrible for decks that can buff up Dire Mole with buffs on turn 2 (Crackling Razormaw and Mark of Y'Shaarj respectively), and a 1/3 is definitely a lot harder to kill than the Alleycat's two 1/1's. Definitely a card that I say might be more powerful than it looks.
That's all for the K&C card reviews, and until tomorrow... well met! I know I'm Dungeon Running the first moment I get the expansion, and am most likely going to try out mage, priest and warlock, all of which just looks fun.
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So yeah, here's my quick ranking from 1 to 5, with 1 being unplayable, 2 being maaaaybe unplayable, 3 being average, 4 being good and 5 being the auto-includes. Like what I did for Knights of the Frozen Throne, when we're deep enough into the K&C meta I'll look back at how I rated these cards and see how much I got right.
Keep in mind, though, that this ranking is strictly for standard constructed, so while there are some cards that may look awesome in wild (Level Up!) or when the rotation hits (Greedy Sprite) or in arena (Unidentified Elixir) they're perhaps too weak in the standard meta. We'll come back in a couple of months to see how accurate I am in my predictions.
Druid:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Branching Paths, Lesser Jasper Spellstone
- 3: Twig of the World Tree, Greedy Sprite
- 2: Ixlid Fungal Lord, Astral Tiger, Oaken Summons, Barkskin
- 1: Grizzled Guardian, Ironwood Golem
- 5: N/A
- 4: Flanking Strike, Cave Hydra
- 3: Kathrena Winterwisp, Lesser Emerald Spellstone
- 2: Seeping Oozeling, Candleshot, Wandering Monster
- 1: Rhok'delar, To My Side, Crushing Walls
- 5: Leyline Manipulator, Lesser Ruby Spellstone
- 4: Dragoncaller Alanna, Aluneth, Raven Familiar
- 3: Dragon's Fury, Explosive Runes, Arcane Artificier
- 2: Deck of Wonders
- 1: Shifting Scroll
Paladin:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Lynessa Sunsorrow, Val'anyr
- 3: Benevolent Djinn, Call to Arms, Potion of Heroism
- 2: Lesser Pearl Spellstone, Unidentified Maul
- 1: Level Up, Drygulch Jailor, Crystal Lion
- 5: Psychic Scream
- 4: Twilight Acolyte, Duskbreaker
- 3: Lesser Diamond Spellstone
- 2: Dragon Soul, Twilight's Call, Unidentified Elixir, Gilded Gargoyle
- 1: Temporus, Psionic Probe
- 5: Fal'dorei Strider
- 4: Kingsbane, Lesser Onyx Spellstone
- 3: Sonya Shadowdancer, Elven Minstrel, Cavern Shinyfinder
- 2: Cheat Death, Evasion
- 1: Sudden Betrayal, Kobold Ilusionist
- 5: N/A
- 4: Grumble Worldshaker, Unstable Evolution, Healing Rain
- 3: Murmuring Elemental, Crushing Hand, Kobold Hermit
- 2: Lesser Sapphire Spellstone, Windshear Stormcaller
- 1: The Runespear, Primal Talismans
- 5: Voidlord, Kobold Librarian
- 4: Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Vulgar Homonculus
- 3: Skull of the Man'ari, Hooked Reaver
- 2: Cataclysm, Possessed Lackey
- 1: Rin the First Disciple, Dark Pact
- 5: N/A
- 4: Gather Your Party, Drywhisker Armorer
- 3: Geosculptor Yip, Reckless Flurry, Bladed Gauntlet, Gemstudded Golem
- 2: Woecleaver, Lesser Mithril Spellstone, Unidentified Shield
- 1: Kobold Barbarian
Neutral:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Spiteful Summoner, Arcane Tyrant, Shroom Brewer, Dire Mole
- 3: Master Oakheart, Carnivorous Cube, Shimmering Courser, Hungry Ettin, Furbolg Mossbinder, Kobold Monk, Lone Champion, Sleepy Dragon, Violet Wurm, Green Jelly, Dragonslayer, Fungal Enchanter, Plated Beetle
- 2: Marin the Fox, The Darkness, Zola the Gorgon, Corridor Creeper, Void Ripper, Ebon Drgaonsmith, Shrieking Shroom, Guild Recruiter, Fungalmancer, Sneaky Devil, Boisterous Bard, Sewer Crawler, Stoneskin Basilisk
- 1: King Togwaggle, Dragonhatcher, Grand Archivist, Rummaging Kobold, Scorp-o-matic, Gravelsnout Knight, Feral Gibberer, Silver Vanguard, Trogg Gloomeater, Corrosive Sludge, Cursed Disciple, Hoarding Dragon, Kobold Apprentice, Toothy Chest, Wax Elemental
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