Rastakhan's Rumble Card Review #3

Well, I didn't really have much of an opportunity to talk about these cards due to my laptop being in the repair shop and everything, so there's a significant amount of cards I have to talk about. Here's a significant portion of the older ones. Will be succinct with a lot of these, although at least I do find it neat that I'm able to talk about the cards with a wider perspective of the other cards in the set as they are released.

(Also: Yay, my laptop's back! Don't expect TV show reviews for a while, though)

Griftah: A lengendary 4-mana 4/5 that discovers two cards (apparently always neutral cards?) and you give one to your opponent at random. Kind of an interesting mechanic, but ultimately kind of pointless, isn't it? It's basically a more controlled version of Tanglefur Mystic from Witchwood (and you'll be forgiven for forgetting that card exists), in that you can guarantee a shit card for your opponent at the cost of getting one for yourself, or vice versa. I don't see this seeing any sort of constructed play.

Da Undertakah: Unlike Griftah, Da Undertakah is a far more interesting neutral card. An 8-mana 8/5 that gains the deathrattles of 3 friendly minions that died earlier? It's not the best card out there (Blizzard seems to be very wary at printing good neutral legendaries, it seems) but it does seem like a fun card to put in any Deathratle-themed deck. Maybe this is the sort of a finisher-value minion that a Deathrattle deck might want? There is a Necrium Blade rogue deck out there, as is Quest Priest. 8/5 is even a pretty good statline for a minion you do want to die. It's not the best legendary out there, but I actually can see an Undertakah deck working out well! Particularly great in Wild, I do think, with a lot more potent Deathrattle synergies there. Kind of excited for this one for sure.

Mojomaster Zihi: Yeah, let's get through all of the neutral legendaries. This last one is... interesting. He is a 6-mana 5/5 that sets each player's mana crystals back to 5, which is kind of a huge anti-combo tech card, basically forcing decks like, say, Mecha'thun or Shudderwock to have to build back up to turn 10, and in any given matchup against Druid you can basically annul their ramp. But at the same time, you yourself have to reach turn 6 to play this, and even then you get a pretty iffy 5/5 minion. It's sort of the same problem that a card like Gnomeferatu or Skulking Geist faces, I suppose -- pretty neat when you meet the exact archetype that this card is techning against, but against most other decks it's barely passable.

Arcanosaur: An interseting card. A 6-mana 3/3 Elemental that basically Hellfires the board if you played an elemental in the previous turn. Priest's Duskbreaker is basically the same thing, except with dragons... and Duskbreaker is 4-mana. And holding a dragon is far, far easier to do than to play a tribal card in the previous turn. Elemental Mage is admittedly one of the Elemental decks with the most support currently, but this isn't something that's going to make it suddenly insane, I think. Even if Elemental Mage suddenly becomes awesome in this meta, Arcanosaur isn't going to be part of it.

Elemental Evocation: A Mage spell that is essentially Preparation, but for Elementals. Significantly better than Arcanosaur for Mage decks, but I don't know... While I have faith that Elemental Evocation is a really powerful card, I don't really have faith for Elemental Mage as a whole in either Wild or Standard. I suppose the addition of helper cards can't hurt, but I don't see this particular package being super-relevant at the moment.

Scorch: Scorch is an interesting spell, again, another one that works alongside Elementals. 4 mana deal 4 damage, but if you played an elemental, the spell costs 1 instead. It's comparable to Wing Blast from Hunter, but at the same time Scorch can only target minions. My gut instinct is to say this card is actually not that good -- it's not really powerful enough to fit into the elemental mage deck list, I think, especially since that deck wants to keep non-elemental minion cards to a minimum (hence why Arcanosaur is an interesting card in that list).

Splitting Image: A new mage secret, and what a fun artwork this one has! It's... it's kind of an interesting card, though, sort of a combination of Snake Trap and Molten Reflection of sorts? Whenever your minion gets attacked, you summon a copy of it? I don't think it's ever going to be as ever-present as, say, Explosive Runes was. It's not a bad Secret, but it's not a hard secret to work around by using spell removal or simply running minions into another one of yours -- and besides, I'm not 100% sure what minion, exactly, Mage is so willing to copy. Ragnaros, I guess? Not bad, but not good, I think.

Grim Rally: An interesting card for Warlock. A 1-mana spell that gives all your minions +1/+1, but you have to destroy your own minion? It's like Mark of the Lotus, but both worse and better. Worse because, y'know, you have to destroy a friendly minion, and a wide-board zoo deck doesn't want to lose minions. But maybe you play a variant deck that plays, oh, Devilsaur Eggs or something that wants to be destroyed? Ultimately, though, while probably a pretty powerful card, Grim Rally is not likely to see play in Zoolock, I think, unless you're really trying to do something cute.

Seance: A 2-mana Priest spell that's basically support for Princes Talanji -- you add a copy of a minion to your hand. Could be one of your big bombs, could be one of your enemy's. It's definitely a card that you would want in this sort of 'steal' Priest, and Seance is essentially a more flexible Convert (remember Convert?). It's a neat support to a legendary card that seems fun to play, if not necessarily the most powerful card in the meta.

Wardruid Loti: Druid's legendary troll champion is... honestly a bit of a disappointment for me. She's a 3-mana card with a Choose One ability, and you choose one of four beasts -- 1/4 Spell Damage +1 (a sturdier Kobold Geomancer), 1/2 Poisonous and Stealth (essentially a Giant Wasp), a 1/6 Taunt (a slightly cheaper Mogu'shan) or a 4/2 Rush (one of the choices for Druid of the Scythe). None of these are particularly great to get for 3 mana except maybe the rusher and the poison-stealth, and while there's something to be said for the insane flexibility of Loti, I'm genuinely not sure if any of her forms are genuinely powerful enough. Maybe in some sort of a weird token druid list? I really don't see it, to be honest. She's a good card, but good cards don't really make it into high-tier constructed decks. Loti's a legendary that's sort of like Cenarius or Gruul or Toshley, cards that are great when you don't have a lot of options, but edged out by far better options eventually.

Spirit of the Raptor: An... interesting card. Spirit of the Raptor is a 1-mana Spirit that, after your hero attacks and kills a minion, gives you a card draw. We really haven't seen all of the druid cards, and while there are certainly some that synergize with "use your hero power to kill things", I do think that it doesn't really quite make a deck just yet, because I'm genuinely not sure what the finisher of this deck is -- you have all these cards that sort of gain value when you use your hero power to kill minions, but what's the big bomb?

Gonk, the Raptor: ...because it certainly isn't the loa, Gonk. Gonk is a 7-mana 4/9 beast with the passive effect of basically giving your hero the same effect as that one giant worm that Hunter had in Old Gods, which is allowing your hero to attack as long as it kills something. Sure, this means you can gain extra value with any card that increases your hero's attack (so long as you kill something), but... but that's basically only really ever useful against Token decks, and also if you have a lot of health/armour to spare when you're at turn 7 and can play Gonk. I dunno -- it's all an interesting package for sure, but I'm not sure if it's enough to make a deck. Gonk himself has a pretty poor statline, and even if you machinegun minions down with your hero (and that's assuming you use Gnash or Malfurion the Pestilent to buff up your hero's attack) it's still basically amounts to a board clear that really hurts your face. I do think that they purposefully gave druids a pretty underwhelming set of cards this expansion, just like how they kicked Warlock in the teeth for the past couple of expansions.

Stampeding Roar: Especially since some of the Druid cards don't really play with the Gonk package. Stampeding Roar joins Predatory Instincts in making a weird Beast-buff decks, and for 6 mana, Stampeding Roar instantly summons a random beast from your hand and adds Rush to it. It's... it's a decent effect, of course -- druids do have some powerful beasts that they would love to summon and buff for 6 mana. Tyrantus and Charged Devilsaurs are the obvious ones, as is Hadronox, but even cards like Witchwood Grizzly means that you bypass the health-penalty battlecry. And giving it Rush? That really should never be underestimated. I'm not 100% convinced that Beast Druid is suddenly going to be top-tier, but Stampeding Roar is probably going to be a good little tech tool for Hadronox Druids or something.

Mark of the Loa: Basically a buffed-up version of Mark of the Wild and Power of the Wild mixed together. you either get +2/+4 and Taunt for 4 mana, which is... honestly kind of bad -- you get +2 health more from Mark of the Wild for two entire mana. Or you summon two 3/2 Raptors, which is exactly double Power of the Wild, but without the benefit of buffing your whole board instead. Pretty sure this card won't see much play -- Druid's got way better buffs than this.

Treespeaker: An... interesting card. Treespeaker is the missing "end-game" card for the Treant package that was given to us during Boomsday Project, a 5-mana 4/4 that transforms all of your 2/2 Treant tokens into 5/5 tokens. It's a very fun and flavourful ability for sure, sort of like a Level Up, but I'm still unconvinced that the current Treant package is honestly powerful enough that even a card like Treespeaker isn't probably going to matter all that much. Again, druids are able to do a whole lot of powerful things without having to resort to a pretty iffy mechanic.

Farraki Battleaxe: A weird weapon for Paladin -- and the only paladin card on this page. 5-mana 3/3, with the effect of buffing a minion in your hand by +2/+2... but only if you Overkill. This is comparable to a Gadgetzan-era weapon for warrior, the Brass Knuckles, but Brass Knuckles's effect always procs. Sure, it's a 4-mana 2/3, and only buffs +1/+1, but Farraki Battleaxe honestly seems even more unwieldier -- it's basically an overpriced Fiery War Axe if you're against a more control-oriented deck. I dunno. It's not a horrible card, but one that probably is utterly outclassed by Val'anyr, Silver Sword and Vinecleaver.

Sightless Ranger: A Rushing 3/4 neutral minion with the Overkill effect of summoning two 1/1 Bats is neat enough... until you realize that she's 5 mana. And while you might be optimistic and say that the card is going to be a value-making token generator against token Shaman or Paladin decks, against most other matchups she's just going to be a shitty 5-mana 3/4 Rush... and you'd rather play actual, good Rush minions.

Captain Hooktusk: The Rogue legendary champion is a pirate! And she's... she's an interesting one all right. Hooktusk is an 8-mana 6/3 pirate that summons three Pirates from your deck, and grants them Rush. And is that impressive? I'm not really sure. A vast majority of pirates are low-cost minions, with the exception of the new Ticket Scalper (which is great with Rush), that crappy legendary from TGT and maybe Southsea Captain. It's certainly a great finisher, but it's also one with a pretty huge ask of having drawn none of the pirates you want by turn 8. As cool as it is to recruit out Ticket Scalper and get the Overkill effect, it's also pretty bad if you, y'know, draw Ticket Scalper. Captain Hooktusk is honestly a pretty great effect, even if it won't one-shot-kill your opponent it's going to control the board pretty well -- but she's going to need some bigger pirate buddies before she really shivers your timbers.

Bloodsail Howler: A new Rogue Pirate, and  Bloodsail Howler is... he's a decent card, a 2-mana 1/1 that gains +1/+1 for each other Pirate you control. Extremely vulnerable to silence, and probably not as stable as Bloodsail Corsair, but a bit of a greedier card. It's another one that plays to Pirate's old way of nice, cheap, early-game minions -- which probably would work in an old-school pirate deck somewhat well, but not on a Hooktusk deck where it's only ever going to be summoned in its un-buffed stage.

Bloodscalp Strategist: A 3-mana 2/4 minion that, if you have a weapon equipped, allows you to discover a spell. It's... it's kind of comparable to a conditional Stitched Tracker, I think. Stitched Tracker allows you to generate a copy of a card from your deck, though, which tends to be better than having a random spell... and Bloodscalp requires you to have a weapon equipped. Ultimately not the worst card generator out there, honestly, but not the best. I'm not even sure you run it with Zul'jin, even.

Master's Call: Now this is interesting! Master's Call is like a far weirder version of Tracking, a 3-mana spell that allows you to Discover a minion from your deck... and if all three of them are beasts, you draw all of them! Hunter has historically been a class that's pretty crappy with card draw, and a card that can potentially draw three cards in one go? And thin your deck, Tracking-s There are some questions due to the vague wording of the card, which is going to affect how good it is -- does it allow you to discover duplicates of the same minion (as with Dire Frenzied minions, for example)? What happens if you only have two minions in your deck? If you don't proc the "draw all three cards", do you draw the minion or is a copy generated by discover? Ultimately, a potentially very powerful card draw.


Zul'jin: Before you read any further, watch this. AmazingLP did that amazing Luna's Pocket Galaxy reveal last expansion, and I really, really love their work. Sure, that video goes give a pretty optimistic view of just how many huge minions you have in your deck, but Zul'jin is a pretty interesting hero! While Deathstalker Rexxar sacrifices the pressure-putting Hunter hero power in favour for one that endlessly creates value, Zul'jin just unleashes Spell hell for 10 mana, unleashing every single spell you've played this game. It's one that probably would require a fair bit more deckbuilding than Deathstalker Rexxar, but honestly there are a fair bit of powerful Hunter spells that will benefit you no matter the board state. Animal Companion, Master's Call, Unleash the Hounds, the Secrets, Emerald Spellstone, Revenge of the Wild,  Deadly Shot... I'm not convinced that Boomzooka is ever going to see play, but Zul'jin acting as a far more stable Yogg-Saron definitely feels like a card that might finally give Control Hunter its finisher. Interestingly, Zul'jin's hero power is basically like an upgraded version of the Mage hero power, dealing 2 damage anywhere, so you can still use it to push damage to face. A significant portion of Hero cards tended to focus more on the hero power as opposed to the battlecry (other than Gul'dan, every other hero card's battlecry seems to be a bonus tacked on), and Zul'jin is an interesting one where the upgraded hero power is the bonus, while the battlecry is the huge bomb you want. Very interesting card for sure. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back and watch that reveal video.

The Beast Within: An interesting buff spell? 1-mana spell that buffs a minion by +1/+1, but forces the minion to attack a random enemy minion. Sometimes in the early stages of the game this doesn't matter when the enemies aren't that many, but do you really want to play a 1-mana spell that buffs a minion by +1/+1? See, the real interesting thing that this card does is allowing a minion to attack twice -- once granted by the card, and a second one being its natural attack, sort of giving it a restricted Windfury buff of sorts. Ultimately, though, I do think this will end up being a bit too impractical to use.

Crowd Roaster: A neutral minion this time around. A 7-mana 7/4 Dragon that, if you're holding a dragon, deals 7 damage to an enemy minion. It's comparable to Blazecaller, except, as I've noted above, 'holding a dragon' is way, way easier to accomplish than 'play an elemental the previous turn'. It's way more passive, so to speak, and far easier to accomplish. A 7/4 might be a less stable body than the Blazecaller's 6/6, but it does deal a huge amount of damage. I guess it's Blackwing Corruptor on steroids, except it, too, is a dragon. While not the best dragon card out there, it's definitely a fun card to consider for dragon decks.

Emberscale Drake: With War Master Voone, it seems that dragon warrior is an archetype they're pushing! Emberscale Drake is basically a cheaper version of Shieldmaiden -- a 5/5 that gives your hero 5 armor. Emberscale Drake is cheaper by 1 mana, but has the (again, relatively easy) ask of you holding a dragon. Not the best or most novel card out there, but one that's pretty solid for dragon packages, I think. I'm not 100% sure what sort of dragon warrior will be born from all the weird tools accessible to the, but I for one am excited to experiment.

Spirit of the Rhino: An... interesting Spirit card, honestly. It's a cheap, 1-mana Spirit with the same Stealth-for-1-turn deal, but its effect is arguably one of the more powerful ones -- your Rush minions are immune for the first turn that they're summoned, which is... pretty exciting! Obviously the most powerful cards with Rush are the likes of the new legendary, Akali, as well as some older ones like Darius Crowley. I'm curious if this actually stacks with Dr. Boom granting Rush to all mechs. It's a powerful card, as immunity for a card that wants to take damage for its first turn is going to be pretty powerful. Very neat card, I say.

Akali the Rhino: A card that made me go "what?" before seeing the Spirit, Akali is an 8-mana 5/5 Rushing minion with the Overkill of drawing another Rush minion and giving it +5/+5. The thing, though, is that for the turn that you play Akali, you are kind of spending 8 whole mana on summoning a 5/5 beast that kills a minion and draws a card. Is that good? Is that better than summoning, say, Darius Crowley, who is cheaper and grows on its own? Even if both cards are granted immune the turn that they pop into the game, I'm not quite sure if I'd rather have Darius or Akali. It's... it's interesting, really. Akali's value really depends on how many rush minions you have in your deck, and how many of them are good. Going head-on for a 5/5 removal, and then drawing a 6/8 Vicious Scalehide that immediately trades and heals you is a powerful swing turn, but on the flip-side if Akali just can't tutor any more Rush minion, then it's just an overpriced 5/5 Rusher. It's... it's a card that I'm genuinely curious about. My gut instinct says that it's bad, but it definitely has the potential to maybe be powerful.

Linecracker: A 7-mana 5/10 that doubles his attack any time he Overkills. Not a bad minion to get out of effects like evolution, Boomship or Free From Amber style spells, but not one that you'll put into your deck. He's way to slow, and comparable cards like Scaled Nightmare and Boogeymonster -- both of whom have easier activators -- never saw play.

Bog Slosher: A fucking weird one, here. Bog Slosher is a 3-mana 3/3 Elemental with the panda ability, returning a minion to your hand... and buffs it by +2/+2? It's... it's honestly kind of a weird card and while I'm not 100% sure what deck Bog Slosher is going to find itself in, it's a pretty interesting effect! The card itself is very, very solid, and I can totally see Bog Slosher fit into an elemental deck, or a battlecry-oriented deck. Most interestingly, it might work as an alternate Zola/Grumble requirement for the Shudderwock combo, although I'm not 100% sure what you take out to fit Slosher in. It's a neat, solid card. I'm just having a bit of a trouble thinking of what deck it's going to stick around in.

Totemic Smash: Not the most powerful spell out there. 1 mana deal 2 damage, with the Overkill effect of summoning a random basic totem. On the surface, it's basically a Holy Smite that sometimes gives you a benefit, because Overkilling with 2 damage isn't going to be available to you most of the time. It's mostly interesting due to its inclusion in Shaman spell pools, though, as it's another spell that can go face, and can be generated by cards like Hagatha or whatever. And maybe you play it in that weird Malygos Shaman list? Certainly you'd rather have Totemic Smash than Frost Shock, I'd wager.

Big Bad Voodoo: Another interesting card, a 2-mana spell that basically gives a friendly minion a Deathrattle that Evolves them. It's a neat, weird variation on Ancestral Spirit, and one that is both better and worse, due to the whole shebang with Evolve. It has the same "oooh, value!" interaction with Zentimo, but I don't really see Big Bad Voodoo working out all that well, honestly. Neither Evolve cards nor Ancestral Spirit see much play nowadays, and while Big Bad Voodoo seems to be a pretty fun card, I don't see it being meta-defining any time soon.

Spirit of the Frog: A 3-mana Spirit that's... quite interesting. You basically cycle through your deck, because any time you cast a spell, you draw a spell from your deck that costs 1 more. You can potentially just sling burn spells at your enemy's face or board, going from Lightning Bolt to Crackle to Lava Burst to Jade Lightning, of course, so long as you have mana to spend. And suddenly Haunting Visions doesn't look super-bad. It's meant to combo with Krag'wa, and... it's interesting -- you can quite literally cycle through a huge chunk of your deck's spells before you get to Krag'wa, and this genuinely opens up a whole ton of different deck-building questions. How do you survive to get to that huge turn before you play Spirit of the Frog followed by Krag'wa? Do you play Hagatha or Witch's Cauldron in that deck?

Krag'wa, the Frog: And the mighty Krag'wa is definitely an interesting loa. A 6-mana 4/6 that, as a battlecry, returns all spells you've played in the previous turn back to your hand. This can just straight-up double the burn spells in your deck! You don't have to play this alongside Spirit of the Frog to be good either (unlike Gonk or Bwonsamdi) -- the two just work particularly well in the same deck. I can definitely see Krag'wa being used independently just as a finisher in a more spell-oriented version of even Shaman, where you suddenly reload on cards like Jade Lightning, Lightning Bolt and (if you're a Wild player) Crackle. It's definitely a card that's going to take a fair bit of experimentation to make a proper deck that works well, but honestly I'm just pretty dang excited to experiment with this big fat frog.

Mass Hysteria: -insert Ghostbusters joke- Mass Hysteria is actually a pretty interesting card! It's really fun to see just the sheer amount of weird board clears that Priest has. Mass Hysteria is basically a Brawl, but played out in such a way that the minions actually fight, instead of "one minion wins the brawl". It's particularly powerful against boards filled with Giants or buffed-up Silver Hand Recruits, but in a lot of aspects it's not quite as good as, say, Psychic Scream. It's still a pretty fun and interesting board clear, though, and I can totally see this being teched into more control-oriented decks. Wild's Big Priest, in particular, is definitely going to want this card to clear turn-5 boards before they get around to summoning their own stuff.

Regenerate: Basically a smaller version of Flash Heal, Regenerate for Priests heals 3 health for 0 mana. I really don't think you do want to have this card around for its healing effect, but more for the fact that it triggers spells. The only real cards of note that need spell activators are probably just Lyra, Dragon Soul and Shadowreaper Anduin, though. It's neat to have this card in Priest's arsenal, but it's not going to really make waves on its own, I don't think.

Sand Drudge: A 3-mana 3/3 that summons a 1/1 Taunt token when you cast a spell? It's... it's probably not a bad card in Arena, but otherwise it's kind of never really going to see any serious play in any Priest decks. Unlike decks that play Violet Teacher, Priest has no way to reliably buff a wide board of low-health minions, so I don't think this card is ever going to see play.

Mosh'Ogg Announcter: A 5-mana 6/5 that... has a reversed version of the GvG Ogre effect. If it works the same way as Noggenfogger does (it still has to be a legal target) then it's still kinda m'eh, isn't it? I dunno. Misdirecting attack from a 6/5 minion doesn't really sound super-useful.

Snapjaw Shellfighter: Another 5-mana minion that misdirects attacks, but to itself. a 3/8 is notably pretty great stat spread for a defensive minion, and while Bolf Ramshield is kind of a shit card, a 3/8 minion that absorbs damage from adjacent minions can definitely be used to absorb damage, from, say, valuable minions like Flametongue Totem or something. Not likely to see a whole ton of play, though.


Overall, though, despite my skepticism about a fair amount of the cards... it's definitely shaping up to be a fun expansion! The Rastakhan's Rumble cards are clearly not very afraid of doing something different, and introducing a lot of wacky mechanics. I'm not sure if it's all going to work out by the end of this expansion, but I certainly am excited to play with the new cards.