First up, let's talk about the lore bits for Un'Goro. The Heartstone blog has several nice fun pieces of the journals of one Eddie Malone, who's accompanying Professor George H. Doyle (who's totally a professor and experienced) and Elise Starseeker in journeying to Un'Goro. Part one of the journal is just him journeying from Stormwind to Gadgetzan (with a cheeky nod to 'small pirates' attacking him) to Un'Goro Crater. He also notes something about Jeweled Macaws and there's a black-and-white photograph of what seems to be card art. Then there's this absolutely fun little video of bumbling Professor Doyle, shot in live-action with some CGI plants, and he quickly gets separated from Elise during a storm. He talks about the plants like a fire thistle and lily-feather, which causes the professor to have a face full of thorns. He's also apparently looking for the mysterious 'last Kaleidosaur', which is the Paladins' legendary quest. We get to see the artwork for the titular last Kaleidosaur,
Part Two takes place after the events of the video, and the clip of the black-and-white photo is accompanied with Eddie talking about a plant that flings razor sharp petals that he keeps as darts. A minion-that-gives-weapons like the Deadly Fork? They're also attacked by lizard-people who may or may not be Saurok, but are rescued by the Turtle People. Who are seen in the corner parts of the key artworks for Un'Goro and are confirmed to be a brand-new race from Hearthstone. Curious, but we don't get much.
Oh, and recently the price of all Hearthstone purchases for non-US countries has been increased due to currency stuff. It's a bit of a bummer that it happened right before an expansion release, but still, it's not like it's in Blizzard's interest to really have severe losses in other countries. There's also a heroic brawl recently, which is an event that either excites you tremendously or you just shrug and not care. I don't, not really, not when the brawl's basically standard ladder with big prizes.
But anyway, screw all that! Card reveals happened yesterday, and I watched the stream. It was absolutely fun! Let's talk about new cards. Dinosaurs! Permanents! Elise! Turtle People! Hype! Here's my quick impressions about the eleven new cards that were revealed to us during the stream. Mind you, this is just my quick opinion. So.
Golakka Crawler
Hungry Crab's bigger, badder cousin! It apparently started out in development as just a big Hungry Crab that gained like, what, +4/+4 if he ate a Murloc or something? But apparently when designing a set Blizzard sets aside a couple of cards that can easily be changed to adapt to a meta. Now I highly doubt Golakka Crawler's ever going to see play even as an anti-Pirate tool, but like Eater of Secrets before it I do hope that it helps to discourage the omnipresence of early-game pirates. Obviously, as Totem Golem can attest, a 2-mana 3/4 is very good, especially if you combine it with the lack of Overload and the destruction effect, but if you're not playing against a Pirate deck the Crawler's just basically the basic vanilla Crocolisk. The Beast tag doesn't really matter, I think, and in any case you generally want to use Ooze to destroy the big weapons anyway. Still, the Crawler can remove some of the bigger pirates like the Bloodsail Cultist or Dread Corsair or Southsea Captain for free, which while not crippling is a fun little tech choice. And the fact that the Golakka is an instant removal means that it's actually pretty good, again, as long as you're facing off against a Pirate deck. It's like Eater of Secrets in that regard, in that it's unbelievably awesome if it gets to, say, kill a 3/4 and be a 2-mana 3/4 all in one go. Don't think you'll want it in a deck with Pirates for the same reason that Hungry Crab doesn't really work in a Murloc deck. Plus he's a huge purple angry crab! I like how he looks, even if I don't think he'll see a lot of play in constructed, or honestly a good anti-Pirate card at all if we're talking on a broader sense.Tar Creeper
The Tar Creeper is our first Elemental card, and apparently nearly every Elemental out there's getting the tag, not just the traditional Shaman/Mage Elementals. Which is cool. From the Tar Creeper's name, maybe the Bog and Fen Creepers get to be Elementals? The stream directly references Lightspawn and other light elementals as getting the tag too, but just which ones will remain to be seen. This dude, though. He's a 3-mana 1/5 Taunt, which is obviously horrible, barely better than the Silverback Patriarch... but it gets 2 attack on your opponent's turn. It's a nice way to introduce a powerful Taunt minion that doesn't add to the huge 'smack your opponent in the face' face-rush that cards like Small-Time Buccaneer tend to do. A 3-mana 3/5 is still not super-duper awesome, essentially a Fierce Monkey (who's rotating out) with an extra health but without the ability to trade or hit face with that piddly one attack. It's basically a cheaper Sen'jin Shieldmasta', a card that's not seeing play outside the arena. So nah. It's neutral so I can see some hijinks with Priests, but it's nice to see a card that's so obviously defensive. Not sure if I'll play this over Second-Rate Bruiser, mind you.
Elise the Trailblazer
When they said 'new Elise Starseeker card' I certainly expected a unique effect, but not this. The developers were right, in that the reaction I had when Elise's new incarnation was revealed got me all 'wait, what?' Does she shuffle five cards with one guaranteed rare into my deck like Prince Malchezaar, making my deck bloated an inconsistent? Turns out she shuffles a literal pack -- which is a 2-mana spell (similar to her LoE incarnation's Map) that breaks open a pack on-screen to add five cards into your hand. It's a lot better to add a bunch of cards to your hand than shuffling into your deck and drawing something you can't play later on, which is Prince Malchezaar's weakness. Oh, and it's confirmed that the drop rate for Epics and Legendaries are higher. It's only Un'Goro cards, though, which fits very well with the explorer flavour... and I'm not sure how to think about it. Elise herself, like her LoE card, isn't terribly penalized for her effect. She's a 5-mana 5/5, which is a one point penalty from the 5/6 baseline for 5-mana. Maybe she'd be far more playable as a 5-mana 4/6, but I'm not complaining too much. The Pack spell card is basically a 2-mana 5-card Cabalist's Tome, only it adds Un'Goro cards. Now as anyone who's ever opened packs knows that there might be a fair amount of filler, but, y'know risk and reward -- you can get legendaries
Explore Un'Goro
A Warrior spell, it's a 2-mana card that replaces every single card in your deck (not your hand, mind you) with Discover cards. While we don't see what the 'token' card is, it's confirmed to be a one-mana 'discover a card', so like Raven Idol except everything's lumped together. It's obviously not meant to be a super-serious card, but a fun card like Renounce Darkness that still has a chance to really strike big. You draw one at a time unless you luck out and have Gadgetzan Auctioneer in play and draw infinitely, or luck into discovering Shield Blocks and whatnot, but Warriors do benefit by being able to tank up so much that they can fool around with a deck fool of discover cards later in the game. Ultimately, though, I don't think it's actually that good since unlike Renounce Darkness, the cards you get are costed one mana more thanks to the Discover cards apparently costing one mana, instead of Renounce Darkness cards where you have less control but the discount allows you to snowball faster. And unlike the Golden Monkey, Explore Un'Goro doesn't hit cards in your hand so useless cards that Control Warriors like to get rid off with Golden Monkey doesn't, y'know, disappear from your hand.
Tortollan Shellraiser
The Turtle People are here, and they are called the Tortollans. This particular Tortollan is an old dude with a turtle-shell shield with the Hearthstone spiral on it for some reason. It's a pretty strong minion. It has a variation of the Dark Cultist Deathrattle, giving +1/+1 instead of +3 Health... but unlike the Dark Cultist, it has Taunt, so it's going to be significantly more difficult for your opponent to kill other minions and deny the Tortollan's deathrattle from going off. It's the same problem that other similar cards like Anubisath Sentinel and Spawn of N'Zoth has, and Taunt solves this remarkably well while still making it manageable for your opponent. A 4-mana 2/6 is not even super-bad stats, being a slightly weaker Twilight Guardian, and Priests like big-health minions to Inner Fire/Divine Spirit anyway. And, of course, it helps to fill out your Awaken the Makers Deathrattle quest, being a Deathrattle minion. Again, not sure how playable he'll be, but my gut instinct says yes. In any case he's a very solid option if you want to make an Amaya Deathrattle deck.
Lakkari Sacrifice
Lakkari Sacrifice is the Warlocks' Legendary Quest. It's one mana, appears in your opening mulligan, all that stuff. So the quest asks you to discard 6 cards, and you get a 'Nether Portal'. Let's talk about the quest first before the reward. How easy is it for a Discard Warlock deck to discard 6 cards? I've actually been playing a Discard Warlock two weeks ago after the S.T. Buccaneer nerf, and I booted up that deck to see how many cards I discarded. And it's not that easy to get to six. Admittedly if I am working for this quest I might have swapped some cards out -- put Succubus and Darkshire Librarian back in -- and as the next card on this list will show, the expansion will at least include a couple of cards to help in discarding cards.So what's a Nether Portal? It's a 5-mana spell that summons the portal itself... which is a Permanent, to borrow a M:TG lingo. We've seen things like this in Karazhan's Adventure mode, or in certain Tavern Brawls. Indestructible things in the battlefield without health and attack. And the developers made it clear. The portal can't be Polymorphed, can't be Twisting Nether'd, can't be silenced, can't be DOOOOOM!'d, can't be damaged, and can't be removed by any other means than conceding the game. And I thought a portal that summons a free 3/2 Imp every turn isn't super-good... but it summons two. Yes, it's not as powerful as Jade, but it does actually get around one of Discard Warlock's weaknesses, which is that they lose a substantial amount of tools when they discard cards, so in the late game they just need some extra oomph, some extra board presence. And a portal that vomits out 3/2 demons on either side of it? Sure, the portal takes up one slot on your side of the board, but an indestructible portal that creates two 3/2's that don't fireblast your face? I'd say that it's actually pretty powerful, especially if you have cards like Crystalweaver that benefit from a lot of demons on the field.
Lakkari Felhound
Of course, the current batch of Discard cards aren't super-good. While Silverware Golem is a great supporter for the archetype, Darkshire Librarian is just okay, Succubus isn't that good and Dark Bargain is never played. So only Doomguard and Soulfire are your discard cards. But what if you put in more powerful cards with the Discard mechanic? Yeah, now we're talking. Enter the Lakkari Felhound, a 4-mana 3/8 Taunt. That's Ancient of Blossom stats, and that's a 6-mana card with no synergy. The Felhound discards two cards, just like Doomguard, and it's also a Demon. The price of discarding two cards would be too steep for a simple taunter, but when you factor that playing a single Lakkari Felhound works in activating one-third of the quest, suddenly it becomes a lot less of a disadvantage. It's a pretty strong monster especially if you get it out on curve -- how is any three drop going to able to deal with the Felhound? And that's before you get a free Silverware Golem thrown in. Or maybe a free draw if Malch's Imp is around. It's a decent card that definitely is going to make it into Lakkari Sacrifice decks, but I really hope we get more Discard cards -- the Felhound is powerful only because it potentially fulfills the Lakkari Sacrifice's requirements, not because it's a super-powerful card the way Doomguard or Soulfire (inarguably the two best Discard cards) are.Also, finally, after three years, Hearthstone puts in a Felhound, so all six of the original World of Warcraft Warlock demons are reunited. And as a Warcraft III fanboy Felhounds are a very cool monster that I'm just waiting to see added into Hearthstone.
Arcanologist
Oh, hey a tutor card! For Secrets! Arcanologist is a Mage-exclusive minion, a 2-mana 2/3 that draws a Secret from your deck. Not play it the way Mad Scientist or Mysterious Challenger does, but as anyone who's ever played other card games you know just how powerful the Tutoring mechanic can be. While Discover is kind of sort of a similar tool, you can design your deck around it. It's why the Curator is still being played -- drawing a card is a powerful effect. Drawing a specific card? And getting a body at the same time? That said, the last expansion did give Mage a couple of great Secret synergy cards that just aren't good enough to see play but maybe with a card that guarantees your secrets being drawn, we might get a decent Secret deck running? I dunno. Mage secrets aren't bad, they're just... situational and doesn't really impact or fuck up the enemy's next turn the way a Hunter's Trap does. So I dunno. Theoretically this is a very solid, very powerful card, but whether it'll see a lot of play in the meta...
Dinosize
Apparently each class has their own 'dinosaur' as part of their flavour. Well, Priests, Mages and Shamans get Elementals, Rogues get plant monsters because they're hipsters, and the other five each have their own mascot dinosaur, so to speak, though it's not as strict as Gadgetzan was with its factions. The Paladins' dinosaur is the stegosaur (well, Stegodon in Azeroth-speak) but what if you don't have dinosaurs (which we don't get to see in this batch)? Make your own, duh! Dinosize is an 8-mana spell that sets a minion's attack and health to 10, like Keeper of Uldaman on steroids. It's a pretty valid turn 10 play, you hero power to summon a dude and turn it into a 10/10... basically a Faceless Behemoth. Definitely a pretty powerful buff card if done right. I'm thinking of what minion I would hit with this -- Wickerflame Burnbristle is particularly good, becoming a mammoth that hits for ten and heals for ten. You can heal and buff a damaged Ragnaros Lightlord. You can buff a charging Stonetusk Boar into a big fat beatstick. Suddenly an innocuous Young Dragonhawk becomes 'deal 20 damage if this thing survives'. Oh man, it's a shame Djinni is out of Standard rotation. Someone really needs to make that cool one-turn-Djinni kill happen. I'm not sure if it's super-good, mostly because it's an 8-mana buff card and we're currently in an aggro meta but who knows? It's a solidly-designed card, very creative and flavourful and has a pretty cool looking artwork.
Sherazin, Corpse FlowerSherazin looks like she's high on drugs! She's a 4-mana 5/3 Rogue legendary minion, which is only one point less than a Tomb Pillager, but her effect is absolutely unique. She goes dormant, and if you play 4 cards in one turn she blooms back up. It's a very curious effect that turns it into a permanent on the board similar to the portal created by Lakkari Sacrifice, and a very flavourful one! I'm not sure if she's super-good, mind you. Sure, she's basically unremovable other than silences, entombs and polymorph effects, coming back again and again with that shit-eating grin of hers, but playing 4 cards in the same turn is not going to be someone you can probably do more than once or twice because sooner or later the Rogue runs out of cards, right? I mean, yeah, sure, the current iteration of Rogue can play like a gajillion of cards to get Edwin out in one turn, but I'm not sure if a mere 5/3 is worth the trouble. It's a nice bonus, mind you -- it's like a sneaky graveyard mechanic, as the presenters said, and if this was in a card game with a graveyard/discard pile, Sherazan would read 'if this card is in your graveyard, when you play four cards in a single turn special summon it.' It's a very cool mechanic, not necessarily one that will be top-tier I don't think, but the effect is powerful enough and the animation is absolutely cool. It's a very, very cool mechanic, very flavourful card, but I personally think it won't be that good and will be kind of an 'awesome but impractical' card like Anub'arak.
Swamp King DredBig dinosaur! No, it's not Dread, not Dredd. Dred. With a single d. Swamp King Dred is a 7-mana 9/9 and a Beast, which is obviously an insane statline, way eclipsing the vanilla stats of Dr. Boom. Even the 9-mana King Krush isn't this highly statted. But its effect? It's so hungry and angry that it's going to attack and eat any minion your opponent plays. Your opponent knows this is happening, though, so they might just drop things like Deathrattle minions or Magma Ragers (ha!) and you'll be sad when your big Dred gets killed without doing a single attack, because your opponent chooses what minions to feed him, so to speak. In a way it's nice because it forces your opponent to either sacrifice minions that attack equal to 9, or have a removal option, and at the very least slow down their game plan by making inefficient trades. It also basically just eats all Stealth minions that are played after it. Yes, the Poisonous mechanic does kill Dred in one shot, but how many people are playing Emperor Cobra? Pit Viper wasn't even played and it's a 1-mana card in the Rogue class... but on the other hand, while we haven't seen a lot of it in this particular batch of reveals, one of the possible Adaptations that the Adapt mechanic is Poison. So.
Also, it's a Beast. I honestly am not attracted to the whole 'attack every minion your opponent plays' thing although that's certainly cool... Tundra Rhino combo, baby! Turn 6 Tundra Rhino, Turn 7 you get a charging 9/9 behemoth! Also it's a dinosaur! Yeah.
Overall nothing that really super-stand out as being O.P. cards, with a lot of them focusing more on absolutely batshit unique effects. Sherazin and Elise are absolutely bonkers, Lakkari Sacrifice is very cool and so is Swamp King Dred... really looking forward to more cards.
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