Boomsday Project Card Review/Reaction #6

Bunch of new cards! Not much to say here. This was briefly taken down and uploaded with a way's worth of new cards.

The Soularium: The Warlocks' legendary spell is... interesting? At the point of writing we've barely seen any Warlock cards, only the honestly pretty m'eh Omega Agent, so I'm not sure if we're going to get any sort of huge discard boost. I mean, every time we get a discard warlock synergy card, everyone gets mildly excited only for discard warlock to still be a dud. I mean, the quest, Zavas, Cataclysm and Lana'thel are still in the rotation, so maaaaybe we're getting somewhere? Soularium drawing three cards for 1 mana and discarding them is interesting, because maybe you just want to discard three cards to progress the quest (or maybe there's a Silverware Golem style minion printed in this set) or if it's somewhat later -- or, more likely, if you're not playing a discard synergy deck -- you just get a three-card advantage and maybe you just machinegun them into the board. It's otherwise a pretty mellow legendary spell, I'm afraid.

Void Analyst: An interesting demon synergy card! One of Gadgetzan's Crystaweaver's biggest weakness, I think, is that the Cyrstalweaver himself isn't a demon, which made including him in a demon zoo Warlock deck a bit of a toss-up. Void Analyst is a 2-mana 2/2 demon, but with the deathrattle of giving all demons in your hand +1/+1. In a vacuum, she's an okay card? Hand-buffing has been proven to not be quite that strong, though it is worth noting that most Warlock decks nowadays want to keep your Voidlords and Doomguards in your hand until you can cheat it out with Skull of the Man'ari... but those same deck also run Bloodreaver Gul'dan, who you wouldn't want to bring back Void Analyst with. I guess Even Warlock could play this? They only run Homunculus, Reaver and Dread Infernal, after all. Ultimately an interesting card, but not one I see a lot of potential in seeing play in the current Warlock decks.

Thunderhead: First up we've got a bunch of interesting Shaman elementals. Thunderhead here is a 4-mana 3/5 that after you plays a card with Overlord, you get two 1/1 Sparks with Rush? It's the same effect with Voltaic Burst, which I suppose synergizes with this card, but I honestly think that you don't really want to play Thunderhead with Voltaic Burst -- there are a fair amount of other Overload cards that are better than Voltaic Burst. Yes, there's a lot of talk about how Voltaic Burst is good with Dire Wolf Alpha or Flametongue Totem, but that sort of requires a turn 3 play at best and you overload, which means that it isn't going to do the early-game board control that Jade Claws or Maelstrom Portal used to afford. Thunderhead himself looks decent, and if there are more cheap Overload cards printed might be good, but I personally don't see this happening, and especially not when there are so much better ways to play Shaman -- either Even or Shudderwock -- than a weird Overload synergy gameplan.

Storm Chaser: Storm Chaser is a card who I'm going to reserve my judgement until I actually see the Shaman legendary spell. She's a 4-mana 3/4 elemental that tutors a spell that costs 5 or more. Man, we are seeing lots of card-tutoring effects in this set, huh? At the moment the only expensive spell Shamans have in Standard are Volcano, Bloodlust and the Spellstone. In Wild we can add Everyfin is Awesome to that list. So I'm genuinely quite curious -- a card that guarantees tutoring Bloodlust isn't horrible at all, but probably not worth the tempo loss of playing an undercosted 4-drop. That's not to say Storm Chaser is a bad card, mind you -- it's just waiting for this set to reveal the card that you really want to draw.

Omega Mind: The Shamans also get an Omega card, a 2-mana 2/3. Vanilla stats! And if you have 10 mana crystals, your spells have Lifesteal this turn... which, well, Volcano! Maybe you don't run two Healing Rains, and just keep Omega Mind around. On a faster-paced game you have an additional 2/3 card, and on a slower game maybe you combo this with your Volcanos and Lightning Storms to get a lot of extra health. Certainly better stats than poor, unused Hallazeal, for sure. Even Shaman could use this too, I think.

Dreampetal Florist: Hey, if you're having some second thoughts about what to put into the seven-mana slot of your Psychmelon Druid deck, look no further than Dreampetal Florist! She's a 7-mana 4/4 that, at the end of your turn, reduces the cost of a random minion by seven. WHAT THE UTTER FUCK! I mean, I thought Floop was amazing, I thought Psychmelon was great... But this just pushes Druid over the edge, honestly. Forget Treants, combo druid just got a whole lot easier with this card. It's an end-of-turn effect so you're guaranteed a tick of the Florist's insane seven-mana discount by your next turn, you get a 4/4 body, and, hell, you can even rather reliably tutor this card. It's not even a one-time battlecry, either, so if by some miracle the Dreampetal Florist survives, you get another discount. Great card, honestly. Pretty fucking amazing. Not sure what else I can say... be wary of Florists and Melons.

Meteorologist: Another Hand-Mage card, and this isn't one that I think is going to be as good as the Astromancer. Meteorologist is a 6-mana 3/3, which is horrible stats, and deals as much damage as cards in your hand to a random enemy. Yeah, sure, with an empty board this is potentially 9 damage to the face, but you have to put a 6-mana 3/3 into your deck, and your hand has to be full? Why wouldn't you run like, practically any other huge mage spell? I don't want to say "this is trash" until we see the entire set, because maybe there's something I'm missing... but this is kinda trash.

Necrium Vial: A card given to Rogues... this is... just bizarre, isn't it? It's not even like Necrium Dagger where "it's neat, but I don't see it working just yet". Necrium Vial triggers a friendly minion's Deathrattle twice. Which is a powerful effect! But it costs five mana? Considering Play Dead only costs 1, I'm genuinely not sure what Deathrattle is so valuable that you'd be willing to pay five mana to do it twice. A Carnivorous Cube with Leeroy, maybe? As much as I've enjoyed the Deathrattle synergy given to Rogues, Necrium Vial is one I don't see really working out.

Security Rover: Now Security Rover is an interesting one. He's a 6-mana 2/5 mech for warriors, which, whenever it takes damage, summons a 2/3 Taunt mech. It's like Grim Patron and DoomHogger had a baby, and that baby is a robot! Mind you, you do still have to play a 6-mana 2/5, which is terrible -- but magnetize kind of helps to save this by giving you a way to heal and buff the Security Rover, while you constantly summon little 2/3 Taunt babies. I suppose you can set up Blood Razor to trigger on the turn you play Security Rover, so for 6 mana your play is summoning a 2/4 Rover and a 2/3 Taunt, which... isn't bad? I dunno. On first glance I really kind of wished Rover was a little stronger, but without looking at the full batch of Magnetic minions that Warriors are going to have, I'm not willing to dismiss Rover quite that soon. It's a pretty interesting effect that definitely could be abused.

Replicating Menace: A neutral card and a mech, and... a strange one? Replicating Menace is a 4-mana 3/1, which is pretty crappy, but summons three 1/1 Microbots. Like a very, very bad version of Piloted Shredder. The only real saving grace is that it has Magnetic, meaning you can play this as a buff. It's comparable to Eggnapper, but costs one more and sometimes the stats have Charge... I dunno. Doesn't look that good to me. Yes, it's better with the Dr. Boom hero card since it has Rush,  but so does practically every other Mech out there with Dr. Boom.

Arcane Dynamo: A brain jellyfish? Wait, what? This is an awesome monster design, even if I don't necessarily think it's a particularly impressive card. It's not a beast, but I don't think this is a naturally occurring jellyfish either. The Arcane Dynamo is a 6-mana 3/4 that allows you to Discover a spell that costs 5 or more... and sadly, I really don't think it's going to really see much play. What is it with spells that cost 5 or more, by the way? Storm Chaser also has the same wording. I suppose a good comparison for Dynamo is the Ethereal Conjurer from League of Explorers, who is a 5-mana 6/3 but discovers just a spell, or druids' Raven Idol that's just a 1-mana cost spell. And, sure, Arcane Dynamo discovers from a narrower pool, and especially for classes with the big-bomb legendary spells, you can discover a second copy of Kangor's Endless Army or the Boomship or whatever. The thing is... I'm not sure it's worth running a 6-mana 3/4 for the chance to roll that dice to maybe get the spell you need. Interesting card, but ultimately I think it's too weak.

EMP Operative: Oh, the Crab of this set. Of course it's going to happen. EMP Operative is a pretty simple counter card, as she just straight-up destroys a mech without any fuss. No stat gains like Golakka Crawler or Eater of Secrets, no set damage like Dragonslayer.... she just destroys a mech. And she's a 5-mana 3/3, which honestly is kind of a terrible body. Way too bad to put into your deck 'just in case' in the vein of Skulking Geist. As far as counter cards go, it's not the best but it's neat that this exists.

Seaforium Bomber: It's Iron Juggernaut junior. A 5-mana 5/5 that shuffles a bomb into your opponent's deck that deals 5 damage when drawn. Iron Juggernaut was a 6-mana 6/5 that shuffles a 10-damage bomb, and it never saw play. And, yeah, Augmented Elekk is a thing, but it's not going to help this particular card see any play, really.

Mecha'thun: Wait, what the FUCK? We're getting a robot C'Thun? No, Mecha'thun doesn't actually have anything to do with the C'Thun mechanic in Wild, which is a bit of a doo-doo shame, nor does he actually synergize with C'Thun in any sort of way, but fuck, what a bizarre card! Mecha'thun is obviously meant to be more of a meme/joke card, but it's definitely an interesting minion. A 10-mana 10/10 Mech with the Deathrattle of "if you have no cards in your deck, hand and battlefield, win". It's our second alternate win condition other than the Paladin Death Knight, and it's... it's interesting, for sure. Mecha'thun wants an empty deck, hand and battlefield, and not as a battlecry, either -- as a deathrattle. It has to die as the absolute last minion on board, while you've dumped your hand and deck. Assuming it doesn't get silenced or transformed, of course.

Now obviously we need to acknowledge that Mecha'thun is a horrible win condition. If you want to draw through your deck quickly and then win by some way, there are many, many other ways to do so. Like, Death Knights alone are a simple thing to point as 'change the game to work for a new win condition' cards. It's not even like Rin from K&C because Mecha'thun demands that it be basically the final, last card you kill and not just a mana/tempo investment the way Rin works. But Mecha'thun is a card you'll want to play when you go for the glory, and there are some interesting ways to activate Mecha'thun. Rogues can easily cycle through their deck with Myra's Unstable Element, but there's the problem on how to cheat out and kill Mecha'thun in the same turn, and also getting rid of everything on your side of the battlefield. Druids are another class with an easy way to cycle through their deck with Nourish and Ultimate Infestation (and if you really want to Mecha'thun, put Hemet Jungle Hunter to shoot out any cards that's not part of your combo) and ramp to ten mana. And then it's a matter of playing every single card from your hand, trade away every minion, then play Mecha'thun, Innervate and Naturalize with those as the absolute last cards in your hand. Warlocks are another one -- Hemet your deck, then play Mecha'thun, pray to god it survives, and then play Cataclysm to discard your hand and kill everything on board. Shame Bloobloom costs 2 mana.

Overall, a pretty damn bizarre card, and one I'm positive won't ever see any real competitive play, but god damn if it won't be hilarious the one time you manage to get this to work. If nothing else, the existence of Mecha'thun makes Spiteful Summoner turns and random mech generation to be a bit more... interesting. If nothing else, maybe you can put Mecha'thun into your deck jut to use as a huge 10-mana 10/10 to magnetize things to in order to guarantee a big bomb for your Kangor's Endless Army, or to play with the Boomship?

(I spent way more time talking about Mecha'thun than I thought I would)

A little addendum that I've been quietly adding to this post in order to not clog up the final post.

Luna's Pocket Galaxy: The mage's legendary spell is... interesting? It pushes for an interesting archetype, in any case. A 7-mana spell that changes all the cost of minions inn your deck to one is undoubtedly a powerful effect, but is it worth spending 7 mana to do nothing? Worth noting that this is easily comparable to the Druid Quest from Un'Goro, but Barnabus the Stomper actually gives you an extra body on the board during the turn that you discount your minions, and Druid has access to both Kun and Aviana. Yes, the reveal video (gloriously acted, by the way, worth checking out) notes this potential combo where you discount your entire deck, topdeck Stargazer Luna, and then do a combo with Archmage Arugal, multiple Sorcerer's Apprentices and Archmage Antonidas to do the Quest Mage OTK... but eh. Maybe you use this with Aluneth, but Aluneth sees the most use in aggro mage and while spending six mana to equip Aluneth might be an acceptable tempo loss, I'm not sure if spending turn 6 and 7 basically doing nothing is worth it for aggro mage. Ultimately, a card that's going to be fun if you discover it from outside your deck, but will require some huge deck-building tinkering to make actually work as the 'star' of the deck.

Dr. Morrigan: The Warlock legendary card is... not that good, honestly. 8-mana 5/5 with the deathrattle of 'swapping' her with a minion from your deck? If you really do want the recruit mechanic, why not just play Possessed Lackey, which is cheaper and also recruits specific Doomguards and Voidlords? If you want a minion that doesn't die and is just an inexhaustible resource, Bloodreaver Gul'dan is such a far more stable and less finnicky end-game card. Warlocks just have way too much power on their fingertips at the moment that a card like Dr. Morrigan honestly just looks straight-up bad.

Subject 9: Subject 9 is a pretty unexpected card, honestly. A neutral legendary Beast, Subject 9 is a 5-mana 4/4 that draws five different secrets from your deck. And that's... that's not that powerful, isn't it? Mysterious Challenger was powerful because he's a 6-mana 6/6, not that huge of a statline loss, and also immediately puts all the secrets into play. Subject 9 draws five different secrets, yes, but what deck plays more than five different secrets? Mages tended to just go with three at the maximum or they really dilute their deck. Paladins don't really play more than two or three either, and even then both Mages and Paladins want to cheat these out with cards like Bellringer Sentry and Arcanologist/Kirin Tor Mage combos. That leaves Hunter, I guess, who actually want to play their secrets in order to activate their spellstone, but that's such a slow play! As a hunter you want to play your secrets and upgrade your spellstone before turn 5, so playing an understatted minion on turn 5 and only upgrading your spellstone at turn 6. Nah, this card seems pretty weak.

Also, it's not until this point that I realize that the Nightmare Amalgam and the boss Experiment 3C is actually subtle foreshadowing to the Boomsday Project!


The Storm Bringer: Shaman's legendary spell is another one that fails to impress. It's a 7-mana spell that can be drawn by the Storm Chaser, yes, but its effect is decidedly underwhelming. You transform your minions into Legendary minions. And yes, you're more likely to get bigger minions like Deathwings and Lich Kings more than not -- the odd Chameleos you get out of Storm Bringer is going to be the low roll compared to the relatively okay legendaries you're going to get. But if you have a board big enough to play Storm Bringer, why not just play Bloodlust and kill the enemy? Or to guarantee some increase in value by playing Thrall Deathseer? Not a card that I actually see as particularly powerful, if we're being honest.

Galvanizer: This little feller is a little 2-mana 1/2 mech that reduces the cost of your mechs in your hand by one. He's cute, and a fun possible early-game card for mech decks, but Fire Plume Harbinger is a similar card for Elementals, and that card never really saw play outside of specific Shudderwock combo usage, so while Galvanizer isn't exactly bad, I don't think we're going to see a lot of him. Potentially powerful if we do get a powerful combo that involves a mech down the line, of course. Cute artwork, though!

Prismatic Lens: A paladin epic spell that costs 4, draws a minion and a spell, and then... swaps their costs? I'm just genuinely baffled at what this is meant to do. I guess you draw a secret and a huge minion like Tirion or Ysera, and then play them for one? But then you have a huge, expensive secret just taking up space in your hand. Not the worst play, and not a bad card, but it's still kind of bizarre. Maybe you go the other way around, and swap a Wisp's 0-mana cost for your Kangor's Endless Army or something? Still feels awkward and bizarre, though, because you can't just do something like the Curator or Oaken Summons where you guarantee only two or three of the specific 'wants' that a card tutors is in your deck -- your deck is going to be 90% spells and minions, so this is just a bit of a miss for me.

Dyn-o-matic: A Warrior mech, Dyn-o-matic is... kinda weird? He's like a mixture of Corrupted Seer and Goblin Blastmage, in a way. He's a 5-mana 3/4 that deals 5 damage spread randomly across non-mech minions. It's a decent effect, for sure, and you could take it like stapling a Cinderstorm to a 3/4 body. It's decent, and that's without the whole self-damage deal that Warriors like to do, like with Acolyte of Pain, Armorsmith or Frothing Berserker. It's admittedly on the weaker side, though -- a pretty fair card that I'm not sure really cuts it in constructed or not. It's a card that I won't be surprised to see fail, but not too surprised if it works either.