So, anyway. Lots and lots of new cards. These are the reveals for the past... half-week, I think? Images will be edited in later 'cause I'm lazy.
Bring it On
When I first saw this card I laughed out loud. What a shit card! Ironhide was half of this card's effect, but with one less mana. Bring It On gives you 10 armour for 2 mana... and then gives a double-Thaurissan discount on all your opponent's minions? Is this an actual insult? Like, shit, I was actually pissed off when I first saw this card. Then I stopped and thought... putting double the armour gain into basically a half-Reno armour into a single card is convenient, if nothing else. But when is it worth it to do an effect comparable to Milhouse Manastorm, unarguably the worst legendary in the game? Obviously, when you're trying to set up the enemy for Brawl. Of course, if you're using Bring it On at all your opponent's probably going to guess that, 'hey, this dude's giving me free discounts to make me play into a Brawl' and withhold certain cards so... yeah. Probably fun to mind-game people with in lower ranks, but otherwise, a pretty shit card. Still, it got elevated in my mind from 'horrid insult to the playerbase' to 'shit but they're doing something interesting', which is... a bit more okay.Coldwraith
Coldwraith is another freeze-synergy card, this time for Mages which will have a far easier of a time to freeze stuff than Shamans do. And unlike shitty ol' Shatter, or the sub-par-if-not-activated Cryomancer, Coldwraith has a very okay 3-mana 3/4 statline on a pinch. If an enemy happens to be frozen, you get a bonus card draw. It's a very decent card, it's just that decent probably doesn't quite cut it for constructed. It's definitely a cool card design, and I do like the concept behind it, I'm just sad that Mages have way, way too many multi-purpose cards for a card like Coldwraith to find a proper home in a high-ranking deck. Like, the card's okay. It's just not quite right for mages as they stand in Hearthstone.Voodoo Hexxer
Everyone called for a freeze-synergy Shaman card to be revealed after the dire Ice Breaker was, and we got Voodoo Hexxer. Will it make Ice Breaker work? Hell no! But is Voodoo Hexxer a good card? Definitely. He's comparable to Alley Armorsmith, with the exact same stats (5-mana 2/7 Taunt) but instead of armouring up every time it attacks, Voodoo Hexxer simply just freezes the enemy. It's... a little underwhelming, to be honest, but it's still a decent card. As a 5-mana taunt it's okay in and of itself, although the ability to freeze probably only matters to hinder pirate warriors from hitting you the next turn. Unlike the Armorsmith it doesn't give you super-value, it just... freezes stuff, which, while a neat bonus, isn't super-impactful. It's a pretty balanced card all around, and a great freeze activator -- it just needs some extra oomph to get there, and Ice Breaker is definitely not it. In itself the Hexxer is a pretty great, solid card, it just needs to find a proper home, just like a good chunk of the cards reviewed here.Bearshark
Hahahaha, this card! It's actually quite decent, too. I don't think it'll actually make its way into the already overcrowded three-mana slot for Hunters, what with Animal Companion, Eaglehorn Bow and Rat Pack having a bit of a monopoly on that mana slot, but it's actually different enough from them to be considered as an alternative. The Bearshark is a 4/3 for 3 mana with the Faerie Dragon effect (we really need to keyword that -- I've seen it be called spellproof or hexproof or untouchable or something along those lines), which renders it immune to a fair bit of early-game spell removal like Frostbolt... while the Hunters buff their beasts almost exclusively with minion battlecries (Houndmaster, Crackling Razormaw) so it doesn't matter for the Hunters themselves. Unfortunately, though, it's still a 4/3. If it was a 3/4 for 3 with the same ability, it would be insane. As it is, though, a 4/3 still dies to your Fiery War Axes, or to other 3/2 minions, and can't get rid of the ever-popular Tar Creeper. It's not a bad card, though -- if it survives to the next turn to get Houndmaster'd, it'd be a rampaging mountain of value. Historically minions with spellproof (or whatever you're calling it) have been relatively sparse, with only Faerie Dragon and Soggoth really seeing any kind of marginal play, and even then in first-tier decks they tend to be cut out for other chioces. Bearshark's a decent enough play, though probably not always better than Animal Companion's choices (though definitely more consistent). Definitely a card you want in arena, and a card you will be happy to make a zombeast out of. I actually hope this card's better than it looks the way Rat Pack was relatively underestimated, if only because the artwork's so, so damn silly and awesome and I want to see him everywhere.Hadronox
Hadronox is the Druid legendary, and he's a big creepy demonic spider! He's like, the Nerubians' pet in Azjol-Nerub or something. I need to do a proper lore section for these cards. Perhaps I will. Hadronox is a huge Druid Beast, sitting at 9-mana... with the relatively piddly 3/7 statline. But it acts as a N'Zoth for taunts! Which I was super-excited for. Sure, Warriors have their Taunt Quest decks, but Druids actually have the best Taunt minions. Jade Behemoth, Druid of the Claw, Dark Arakkoa, Ancient of War (which doesn't get summoned by Hadronox, but still), Ironbark Protector... hell, he even works with Curator and vice versa! yet my heart sunk when I realized Hadronox's ability is a deathrattle instead of a battlecry. It does make Hadronox insanely scary if you don't have hex or polymorph, and in wild, with Sludge Belchers and shit he's going to be scarier. He also gets summoned by N'Zoth, allowing for infinite (well, if not infinite then a metric fuckton) amounts of Sludge Belchers. I'm not sure if Hadronox will actually see a lot of play because between his statline and his effect being a deathrattle instead of a battlecry, but he's certainly very exciting. You know what's great with Hadronox? C'Thun decks. Not sure if a Geomancer-taunted C'Thun is going to be summoned by Hadronox, but even then you can get Hadronox to summon both Twin Emperors and Dark Arakkoas, and that alone's going to be insane. I'm not sure if Hadronox will work, but a card that inspires me to make a deck is definitely great design in my books.Abominable Bowman
Ha ha, get it, Abominable Snowman? I actually chuckled at this. The artwork's pretty dang cool-looking, too, with the Abomination's two smaller hands functioning together to hold the bowstring and to reload the arrows. That aside, though, it's actually a pretty underwhelming card. I won't say that it's bad, but I don't think this dude will see much play unless in very dedicated Deathrattle decks. He's a 7-mana 6/7 that summons a random beast that died this turn as a deathrattle. And therein lies the problem -- Hunters have a lot of weak beasts. Alleycat, and the cat it summons. The little 1/1 spiders, rats and 2/2 hyenas summoned by other common minions. If the Abominable Bowman actually rolls the actual Savannah Highmane or the Infested Wolf then it's actual insane value, but unless you dedicate a Deathrattle Hunter that does not feature weak beast tokens, the Bowman's going to find a hard place to fit in. Like, on paper a 6/7 that summons a 1/1 on Deathrattle gets vanilla stats... but vanilla statted minions aren't viable on the ladder. Mind you, it's not neccessarily a bad card. I can see a more Deathrattle oriented deck where you run N'Zoth, Terrorscale Stalker and Spiritsinger Umbra... but then you'd be sacrificing on so much of the mid-game and early game beast synergies hunters are good at. I don't necessarily see Abominable Bowman being great with the cards we have at the moment, but make no mistake, it's definitely an interesting card that might prove itself to be useful in the future.Fatespinner
This is one of the more interesting cards of the expansion, and I really, really love it. A lot of the biggest complaints directed to Hearthstone as a game is how RNG it gets sometimes, a complaint that I think people hype out of proportion but definitely valid. Fatespinner is a card that isn't a simple bunch of stats and keywords, so it plays differently every time you play it, but it's dependent on you and not RNG. You pick a Deathrattle... secretly! It's a 5-mana 5/3 that either Hellfires the board (and Druids have been begging for AoE, by the way) or mass-buffs the board with +2/+2. And depending on the board state, either one can be great. Like, maybe your enemy is a simple spell mage with very few minions. Why not give your board a mini Savage-Roar? Most of the time the damage might be the right choice, but the addition of the guessing game and mind-games for your opponent is amazing card design, and the particularly popular Egg Druid archetype actually works well with either one of Fatespinner's abilities. It's probably not the most meta-defining card out there, but it's certainly one of the most interesting ones.Bolvar, Fireblood
Hey, new Bolvar! Bolvar Fordragon's greatest achievement in his life (well, in his death) was becoming the new Lich King after the fall of Arthas Menethil, the iconic second Lich King. He's cool, he's a fiery scary noble corpse. He did kind of have a shit card back in GvG, but since this is a Lich King expansion it's kind of appropriate for him to make an appearance, right? Sadly, though, he's not actually super-good. Which is fine. Unlike Lana'thel, New!Bolvar came out in a class that keeps getting great Legendaries for like four or five expansions straight. New!Bolvar isn't super-bad either, it's just that right now there's not many ways to properly play with Divine Shield synergy. We'll have to wait and see. Otherwise, a 5-mana 1/7 with Divine Shield that grows... isn't particularly good. Comparing him to Lana'thel, Lana'thel doesn't need to be on the board to gain buffs, but Bolvar Fireblood gains +2 instead of +1 per tic. He does require you to have a board set up, though, to either trade or Blood Knight up, so... I dunno. He doesn't seem too good, in my opinion. But that's okay. Arthas is the one true Lich King and we know that.
Light's Sorrow
Light's Sorrow has Bolvar's effect, but in weapon form. It's a 4-mana 1/4 weapon, pretty shit, that gains a single point of attack every time a Divine Shield is popped. It's not as bad as Ice Breaker, because it's easier for you to pop Divine Shields, but I really hope, again, that there are more ways to get Divine Shields onto the board otherwise this card's going to be really hard to even activate. Plus, just like most weapons, it dies to Oozes despite its powerful 4 durability. I'm more of a 'wait and see' mentality with Light's Sorrow, until we see all the Paladin cards, but as for now it seems bad.
Corpsetaker
What the hell. 'Winter is coming' indeed. The card honestly surprised me because I thought this was a legendary at first, before I realized I could put two of these into my deck. The Corpsetaker, other than being a cool Game of Thrones reference with her summoning quote, is herself an insane minion. She's a 4-mana 3/3... which honestly is insane for a card that can potentially become a life-stealing mini Al'Akir. Like, what the fuck! She copies the following four keywords if there's a card with them in your deck: Lifesteal, Taunt, Windfury and Divine Shield. So in paladins, all you need is Wickerflame Burnbristle in your deck and a single Windfury minion to get her full value. Even then, if it's only Wickerflame, you get a bigger Wickerflame himself! Shamans straight-up get a mini Al'Akir for the simple cost of putting an Al'Akir in your deck, which, chances are you're already doing anyway. If she gets her full value, if unanswered the Corpsetaker is going to just deal 6 damage while heal you for 6, and she has Divine Shield and Taunt to deal with! She's probably not going to be consistent all the time, but if you get three out of four of her keywords she's already pretty badass.Bonemare
What the hell, this card! It's an insane heap of value. For the simple disadvantage of 'you need another minion in play' -- something that isn't that hard to actually do, especially for Paladins and Shamans -- you roll in together a 5/5 body, a Blessing of Kings and Taunt. It definitely costs a lot more than a total of 7 mana. And yes, if you're forced to play Bonemare alone you get a 7-mana 5/5 which is horrifyingly bad, but the upside is so good that I actually can see this thing run in an actual constructed deck. You basically get a 5/5 body, and a maximal of a charging 4/4 and a sudden taunt. Bonemare's going to be a nightmare (see what I did there) in Arena, and honestly I can see some Constructed lists fitting Bonemare in. Cool card, definitely.Animated Berserker
This card's a bit weird. He's a Warrior one-drop with a 1/3 stat-line, with the continuous effect of dealing a damage to any minion you play while he's active. Which is insanely weak outside of a proper Enrage/Patron style deck. It's another Whirlwind-style activator similar to Whirlwing, Ravaging Ghoul, Death's Bite and Blood Razor, but at the same time there's not a lot of cards in Standard that really work well with the Enrage mechanic, what with Patron hanging out in wild (with no way to give them charge, too). Like, there's the obvious Bloodhoof Brave, Grommash Hellscream or Frothing Berserker synergies, but are those enough to justify putting the relatively weak Animated Berserker into your deck? It's a cool concept that I'm happy to be included as a card design, don't get me wrong, and I think it's cheap and harmless enough to be included in some lists. Has potential, I think? Certainly him + Grommash Hellscream's a pretty good play, and far more viable than, say, Grommash and then possibly wasting a Whirlwind to do nothing but enrage the Hellscream patriarch. Hey, Frozen Throne! Bring me more Enrage cards!Sanguine Reveler
It's a pretty interesting card. A 1-mana 1/1 that becomes a 3/3 if you destroy a friendly minion? Obviously you want to play it in a Deathrattle deck. A zoo-y deathrattle deck. In wild I can easily see him being dropped next to Nerubian Eggs and Haunted Creepers and just getting value upon value, but in standard? Obviously we haven't seen all the Warlock cards yet, but for now he does kind of look unspectacular in standard. He could be an easy Devilsaur Egg activator, which is cool, but he's definitely going to need a fair bit more cheap early-game deathrattle minions to really work properly. The thing to probably watch out is that if you topdeck this while you don't have a target, you can't actually play him without sacrificing one of your minions, and if you drop him on an empty board he's just going to be a lowly 1/1... neither of which are very great at all. Still, in a proper deathrattle/zoo deck the Sanguine Reveler's definitely going to find a home. Is this time for Zoolock's return? We've been saying that since forever. Overall, a cool and interesting card. See, Blizzard, you don't actually have to lead with crap like Lana'thel and Ticking Abomination.Howling Commander
FUS RO DAH! Come on, I'm not the only one thinking it, right? This little Dovahkiin cosplayer isn't the best card out there, but she's a tutor card and tutor cards have been historically played pretty well in other TCGs. In Hearthstone, the Curator is the most effective and honestly a bit of a sleeper hit. But is Howling Commander good? Obviously a 3-mana 2/2 is horrid, horrid stats, and drawing a Divine Shield card... isn't the best thing ever, especially since the Commander herself doesn't actually have Divine Shield himself so she doesn't actually try and work with the new Bolvar or whatever. She does allow you to draw Tirion Fordring (no, Wickerflame isn't good enough to warrant this, and definitely not New!Bolvar) on demand. Is that good enough to warrant a deck spot? Probably not. We'll need to see all the Divine Shield minions in this expansion, of course. Paladins do kind of need card draw, which is okay, so I guess?Venomstrike Trap
Oh, hey, another new secret for Hunter! Putricide loves secrets, right? This one's actually great, a combination of the Bear and Snake Traps. It gets activated similar to the Snake Trap, after a minion is attacked, but it summons a minion from the game itself, the 2/3 Emperor Cobra with Poisonous. Is it particularly good? Not really, since unlike the Ironfur Grizzly from the Bear Trap, Poisonous isn't super-relevant on your opponent's turn since they still control what trades into what, but at the same time it could completely screw up your opponent's turn. It looks okay, and certainly won't be bad if you get it free from a Putricide. The mere existence of Putricide means that this card's going to see play through him even if it's not in actual decks. Though honestly, why not? Free snakes!
No comments:
Post a Comment