Scaleworm: Scaleworm is a neutral 4-mana 4/4 Beast that becomes a 5/4 with Rush if you're holding a dragon. And... and I'm not sure it'll work in Standard, honestly. The only dragon we're getting with this expansion, as far as we know, is the hunter legendary Emeriss, and we are losing a lot of the strongest dragons and dragon-synergy cards with the rotation. We still have Duskbreaker, Primordial Drake and Cobalt Scalebane... but at the same time, I'm not sure if a 4-mana 5/4 with Rush is strong enough. I guess it could be equated to a cheaper version of Blackwing Corrupter that comes out a turn earlier, but has to trade with a minion? It's fine, I think, and I guess it's a way for dragon decks to fight for prominence in the early-mid-game if they fall behind, but at the same time I don't really think dragon decks, from what we know thus far, have a leg to stand up to the strongest meta decks come the rotation. Card itself is good in theory.
Vex Crow: A 4-mana 3/3 beast for Mages that summons a random 2-cost minion every time you cast a spell. And... I dunno. Violet Teacher never saw play in Mages since all the way since Classic, and yes, Violet Teacher merely summons 1/1's, whereas Vex Crow will probably summon a 2/2 on rough average... but at the same time, Vex Crow's also a far weaker 3/3 body that's susceptible to removal, and while there's the chance of highrolling a Sorcerer's Apprentice, there's also the chance of getting Doomsayers or 2/1's, and that just sucks. I dunno. I don't think this is a good card.

Blackwald Pixie: Some TGT-esque stuff going on here, with Blackwald Pixie being a 3-mana 3/4 that refreshs your hero power with her battlecry. It's a far, far weaker effect than, say, Garisson Commander, Auctionmaster Beardo and Coldarra Drake, all of which have either permanent or continuous effects, whereas Blackwald Pixie just does it as part of her battlecry. She could find a place in some weird Uther of the Ebon Blade combo, and maybe you run her in a Baku deck? 3-mana 3/4 is premium stats, but I'm genuinely not sure if her effects are good enough, and if her mana cost is flexible enough for wacky combos.

Coffin Crasher: This dude's a Priest minion, a 6-mana 6/5 with the deathrattle of summoning another Deathrattle minion from your hand. 6-mana 6/5 isn't great, but it's not godawful either. Obviously the dream is to cheat out Obsidian Statue, probably as a slower, more conditional version of Barnes, but at the same time... I dunno. He just feels too slow, and without the aid of N'Zoth for a proper Deathrattle combo, and even if Coffin Crasher actually synergizes with Awaken the Makers (the quest wants you to summon deathrattle minions) I don't really see him finding a place in current decks. Card looks really decent, though.


Emeriss: Holy shit, the Emerald Dream dragon isn't actually a druid card! Emeriss is a HUNTER Legendary, and a gigantic-ass dragon. She's a 10-mana 8/8 that, as a battlecry, doubles the attack and health of all minions in your hand. Which means... 16/16 KING KRUSH! Or, more realistically, 14/4 charging Leeroy Jenkins that you can then Faceless Manipulate. It's a very interesting combo, and if Emeriss was given to any other class but Hunter I'd cry foul. The thing is, it's Hunter, whose entire game plan tends to just be aggro. Or currently, be a spell deck. And Emeriss is a card you play on turn 10 with minions or combo pieces in your hand, which feels like it's too much of an ask for Hunters. It's going to be super-awesome if you manage to pull it off, though, so I'm definitely intrigued -- more of a fun card than a game-breaking card, which might not be what hunter needs... but shit, it's cool. Somewhere in Wild, Don Han'Cho is weeping.
Ravencaller: Huh. This's a weird card. Ravencaller is a 3-mana 2/1 that, as a battlecry, adds two random 1-cost minions to your hand... and 1-cost minions, on the average, tend to be good. But at the same time, you tend to really only want 1-cost minions when you're playing like a swarm deck, either aggro decks or zoo decks, and neither of those can afford to run a 3-mana 2/1 which loses you a lot of tempo. It could be okay, I guess, in decks that care about your hand size? But I feel there are better ways to trigger Mountain Giants, and I'm still unconvinced hand-druid is still a thing.
Sound the Bells: A paladin spell, that is essentially Divine Strength (+1/+2) but it has Echo. And it costs 2 mana. Yeah, this is bad. Divine Strength is 1-mana, and never saw play... and if you play multiple Sound the Bells? Two uses of Sound the Bells is just +2/+4, way shittier than Blessing of Kings, and three uses is +3/+6, which is miles and miles shittier than Spikeridged Steed. Probably one of the worse cards in this set.
Cheap Shot: A Rogue spell, 2-mana, deal 2 damage to a minion. Oh, it also has Echo. Is there like a memo in Blizzard that says "all Echo cards must cost 2 or more?" Giving Rogue an Echo card that costs 0 or 1 is asking for trouble, I know, but it does mean that Cheap Shot is kinda shit -- Rogue can already deal 2 damage for zero mana with Backstab, and the standard for 2 mana is cards like Eviscerate (4 damage) or Shiv (draw a card, 1 damage). Cheap Shot isn't as bad as Sound the Bells, I think, because Rogue as a class can make use of spamming spells in a single turn for Auctioneer or Edwin, but at the same time I don't think Cheap Shot is the way to go.

Cursed Castaway: A Rogue Pirate, a 6-mana 5/3 with Rush, and it has a deathrattle of drawing a Combo card from your deck. It's comparable to Starfire, I think -- deal 5 damage, draw a card, except Cursed Castaway sometimes sticks around as a 5/2 or 5/1, and is also a Pirate (for what it's worth in this meta). It's also a deathrattle, which might be relevant with N'Zoth in Wild. Overall, unless the new cards bring in some sort of fancy synergy, I don't see her seeing a lot of play, but she's definitely an interesting design.


Chameleos: Oh man this card is cool as shit! Chameleos is a chameleon, a 1-mana 1/1 beast and that statline doesn't matter, because she changes into a random card your opponent is holding every turn. It's like Shifter Zerus, but it doesn't suck! Chameleos straight-up gives you information about the enemy's hand, and while it's just one card, it does two things -- one, tell you information about the enemy's hand, and two, it limits the pool of the cards you can get compared to Zerus, which is "all of them". Chameleos seems to be designed to just be an intelligence tool until the mid-game or late-game, when you presumably drop him as one of your opponent's late-game cards? I'm not sure if the information is important enough to sacrifice one card slot (and one hand slot, too, likely) and you still have to draw Chameleos, but god damn she's a very cool card. Whether she sees play or not I'm genuinely unsure, but I do love this card a whole lot!
Duskhaven Hunter: A hunter minion, she's a 2/5 with Stealth that displays the Pumpkin Peasant stats. So she's a slightly more powerful Jungle Panther, but without the beast tag... and sometimes she's a weird 2/5 Stealth? I dunno. It doesn't seem particularly practical, especially in hunter and without the beast tag. Probably neat in arena, though.

Toxmonger: Huh. Toxmonger's a 4-mana 2/4 that gives all 1-mana minions you play, not summon, Poisonous. So it doesn't work with Unleash the Hounds. They probably mean for you to use this with like Quest Hunter, or Ravencaller and stuff, to spam 1-mana minions... but at the same time, cards like Ravencaller and Toxmonger are all too low-statted and are a bit of a tempo loss. And there aren't enough Rush and Charge 1-mana minions (as of now, anyway) for Toxmonger to really work as a combo to clear the board. I mean, there's Stonetusk Boar and Haunting Mastiff, but then you'd have to run Toxmonger. And besides, even if the effect's admittedly very good, it only works with play, not summon, and the 2/4 body is kinda weak. I dunno. Don't see this working.
Witching Hour: BEAST DRUID? Oh man, they're not giving druid any Ultimate Infestation tier cards this time around, huh? Witching Hour is a 3-mana card that summons a random beast that died this game. So they kind of show off Witchwood Grizzly, which is definitely tempting -- a 3/12 taunt ain't bad -- but the Grizzly pops up at turn 5, and it's nowhere as dirty or unfair as the Big Priest or Possessed Lackey/Voidlord combos. Plus, it's even random, so... I dunno. We'll have to wait and see. Gut feeling says its bad, though.

Cathedral Gargoyle: Another Dragon-synergy card, this time for Paladin. A bit surprising, since the two Dragon Paladin cards, Dragon Consort and Nightbane Templar, are both in Wild. And that makes me really think if this set or the next will be adding more dragons. Cathedral Gargoyle is theoretically great if you can play it with dragons -- it's a stronger Annoy-o-Tron, or a Shielded Minibot with Taunt. And Shielded Minibot was great. But while the Cathedral Gargoyle's certainly a pretty powerful tool, I don't actually think the dragon paladin shell around it is necessarily there yet.
Uh, you mix up “play” and “summon” a few times. For Toxmonger you get the interaction right(it doesn’t work with Unleash the Hounds etc.) but you write and italicize “summon”. For Coffin Crasher you mention that it summons a Deathrattle minion from your hand and in parentheses note that Awaken the Makers requires you to summon Deathrattle minions which is correct. However you say that this is “reverse-synergy”, couple it with the fact that N’Zoth is leaving, and say that you don’t think it’s gonna fit into current decks which implies that you don’t think the interaction works.
ReplyDeleteWhoops, that was meant to be "Play, not Summon", but somehow I goofed. I did get the interaction for Toxmonger correct, though.
DeleteFor Coffin Crasher, I just flubbed things -- that's what happens when you try to do this half-asleep as you rush down many, many cards. Have been fixed. I think Coffin Crasher's a really well-statted card, but I don't really think Coffin Crasher will fit into the current standard meta.