Ultimate Infestation
Ultimate Infestation is... lots of 5! People describe this as a 'value overload', which makes sense. The first and last effects that Ultimate Infestation does, 'Deal 5 damage, summon a 5/5 Ghoul', is a more consistent version of the very played Firelands Portal, which is one of the better cards in Mage's arsenal particularly in arena. So for three extra mana, you... gain five armour, and draw five cards. Which is pretty insane. That's equivalent to stapling Sprint (Draw 4 cards; 7 mana) and Shield Block (5 Armor, 1 card; 3 mana) onto Firelands Portal, but only increasing the cost by a piddling 3 mana. It's insane value! It's ten mana, though, so it takes up your whole turn, but it does multiple things at once. It deals damage, builds up your board, refills your hand and heals you, so honestly I wouldn't even call this wasting your turn ten the way, say, plaing Glacial Secrets would. And this is a Druid spell, which means they can probably cheat out Ultimate Infestation with Innervates and shit. The card is going to be too slow for some decks, but at the same time it's such a powerful value bomb and late-game draw that it might very well find a place in more control-y style druid. Jade decks would definitely love to draw five Jade Idols at once, though the jury's still out on whether Jade Druid will still be viable after Frozen Throne rotates in. Most likely an auto-pick in Arena, though, right?
Desperate Stand
It's a buff spell that basically puts in the Paladin secret Redemption onto a minion, which means you can control which minion gets brought back and not leave it to your opponent to dictate the trades. Whether this card will actually be worth a slot in your 30-card deck is a wholly different thing altogether, however. The card, like many others in Frozen Throne, seems absolutely fair and a pretty balanced effect, but I'm not entirely sure if that makes Desperate Stand playable in constructed. Redemption certainly wasn't, and only saw play thanks to Mysterious Challenger or when it's generated out of a Hydrologist. so I'm not sure if a more expensive (albeit targetted) version of redemption is going to be enough to see play in constructed ladder.
Shadow Ascendant
The Shadow Ascendant works on the same principle as many other cards that never saw play in constructed. Young Priestess, Master Swordsmith... the expansion's also going to have Cobalt Scalebane who adds +3 Attack at the end of turn, which seems a lot better than a mere +1/+1 buff. Granted, Shadow Ascendant does have a pretty decent statline with 2/2, and it buffs other minions on the board, but it suffers from you kind of needing to have other minions on the board. It is true that Priest historically never got any properly decent two-drops until Radiant Elemental (Wyrmrest Agent's awesome but can only be played in Dragon decks; Mana Geode is too impracticcal) but I am not convinced that Shadow Ascendant is going to be good enough to find a place in most priest decks out there, simply because there's way too many other Priest toys you probably want to slot into your deck. Not a bad card by any stretch, but probably not one that's going to see widespread constructed play. I dunno, though. Maybe if she adds +2 Health at the end of turn she would be a continuous Kabal Talon-priest and that'd be scary as fuck, but we got a +1/+1 buff and that doesn't seem as strong in Priest.
Skulking Geist
Ring the bells, the Jade decks have fallen! The Jade decks have fallen! That's the reaction of the Hearthstone community when the Skulking Geist was revealed. It's an amazing hate card in the vein of the Eater of Secrets, Black Knight or the crabs towards Jade decks, with the added benefit of sometimes fucking up other types of decks as well. Mind you, I can't really think of any other 1-cost spell that's as crucial as Jade Idols. This is a far more drastic 'deck-fuckery' card compared to the earlier-revealed Gnomeferatu, and I'm pretty sure that while it's not going to be an auto-include in every deck, the presence of Skulking Geist in the meta is going to stem the tide of the Jade Druids. He's a 6-mana 4/6 that just wrecks any future Jade plays, because it fucks up not only the deck, but also the hand, making it absolutely impossible for Jade Idol to be re-shuffled into the deck. Which I'd argue really should've had a cap or a mana cost increase in the first place, but this is actually not that horrid of a counter. Skulking Geist's biggest problem is its poor statline, 4/6 for 6 mana, which, while probably going to win you games against Jade Druids, isn't going to do much against most other classes. Like, sure, in other matchups maybe you burn a Warrior's Upgrade (unlikely to be significant against pirate warriors since Skulking Geist comes in at turn 6) or Whirlwind, Shaman's Evolve, or an Egg Druid's Mark of the Lotus, or a Warlock's Mortal Coil... like, yeah, maybe you burn like a couple of Power Word Shields, Arcane Missiles and Mirror Images, but honestly at turn 6 those are probably inconveniences to the Mage or Priest. And Paladins don't actually run secrets in their deck, relying on Hydrologists to produce them. So Skulking Geist is probably only really good in a single type of matchup, being an under-statted annoyance against most other decks... but maybe you can use him to thin out your deck like Hemet Jungle Hunter, with the Jade counter as a bonus? That's woefully impractical, though. It's not going to be a meta-defining card that everyone runs the way BGH or the owl used to be, but at the same time the presence of Skulking Geist will really fuck up Jade Druid decks, and honestly that deck's so hard to counter that this card's presence, while a little childish, is kind of a neat counter card more in like with the Black Knight.
Ice Fishing
For two mana, you draw 2 Murlocs from your deck. It's a tutor card, and it's even a discount from the Arcane Intellect standard of '3-mana draw-2-cards'. Tutoring is a pretty powerful effect, but do you really need it in a Murloc Shaman deck? The Quest Murloc does need draw, and Ice Fishin is pretty much premium draw, though I'm not entirely sure just how desperate they need to run two of these. Primalfin Lookout does usually help to bulk up my hand before Megafin gets summoned. Still, I think I'm severely underestimating Ice Fishing, because drawing 2 cards from your deck -- two specific cards to boot -- is a pretty powerful effect. So I dunno. It's a card that does fix the Quest Murloc's biggest weakness -- lack of steam -- but can you really fit this card into a Murloc Quest's gameplay? Definitely an interesting card, perhaps it'll be far, far more powerful than my underestimation of it.
Roll the Bones
I'm not sure how good this is. Unless you're absolutely sure that your deck is, like, around 50% Deathrattle cards, this card will either whiff (if your deck doesn't have that much deathrattles) and be a way-overpriced two-mana-draw-a-card, or you'll mill yourself (if your entire deck is deathrattles). It's an interesting card, though, because deathrattle rogues (and lord knows I experimented with it thanks to really loving Unearthed Raptor) doesn't actually use that much deathrattles. There's N'Zoth, of course, and the Wild-only Unearthed Raptor, but I'm pretty sure Rogues still want to play cards like Eviscerate and SI:7 Agents even in a deathrattle deck. Alternatively, you could put this into a Jade Rogue deck that also features a bunch of deathrattle minions (Jade Swarmer and Aya are both deathrattle minions, after all). It's honestly a bit of a bizarre card to evaluate, and certainly seems a lot less consistent compared to Ice Fishing, a completely different drawing tool.
Acolyte of AgonyAh, a stream of less exciting commons. Still, these cards are a lot cooler than the stuff they revealed early in the expansion run, simply because I can imagine myself using them in Arena and stuff. Acolyte of Agony has nothing to do with Acolyte of pain. She's a 3-mana 3/3 with Lifesteal, which is a totally fair, if unimpressive, card. Blizzard apparently values Lifesteal at around 1 mana, if the stat reduction is any indication. Which is fair, I guess. The Acolyte of Agony seems similar to Earthen Ring Farseer, except the 'heal 3' portion happens when she attacks next turn instead of immediately, with the added bonus of constantly healing 3 for the next few turns as she goes through her life and eventual death. She's a perfectly fine minion, and having a passive effect means that she's more valuable when you bring her back from the dead with things like Resurrect and Eternal Servitude. The problem, again, is whether you even want to run this card, because there's no real situation where this is better than Kabal Talonpriest or even Curious Glimmerroot, right? An okay, if slightly underwhelming, card.
Drakkari Defender
Drakkari Defender is an insane 2/8 Taunt for 3 mana, a statline that Wild or long-running players will be familiar with -- the Deathlord from Naxxramas. Deathlord has a huge disadvantage in that as a deathrattle your opponent gets a random minion from their deck summoned for free... which can sometimes lose you the game if they pull like a Ragnaros or a Ysera. Sometimes it wins you the game because the Deathlord denies their Reno Jackson battlecry. Sometimes it whiffs and pulls out like a Leper Gnome or something. Drakkari Defender? He borrows the Earth Elemental's "overstatted cheap Shaman Taunt minion" trick and gets Overload. THREE Overload. That's honestly a bit too much, and a 2/8 statline is nowhere as good as the Earth Elemental's insane pile of stats. Add that to the lack of actual synergies that the Drakkari Defender can do, Susceptibility to Shadow Word: Pain, Potion of Madness and stuff like that... and I'm afraid this is kind of just a bad card. Why do you need such a huge body in turn 3, when Shaman have far, far more efficient Taunt minions like Thing from Below or Earth Elemental? Or even White Eyes and the upcoming Voodoo Hexxer, who does other things while taunting. I dunno. Cool troll (literally cool, he's an ice troll, hur hur) but he's probably pretty crap as a card.
Fallen Sun Cleric
Shattered Sun Cleric's smaller undead cousin, the Fallen Sun Cleric has exactly the same effect, except scaled down immensely. Do I really want a 2-mana 2/1 that buffs a minion by +1/+1, though? I guess she can find her way into zoo warlock decks or seomthing, but even there I don't think you'd ever want to run Fallen Sun Cleric over things like Dire Wolf Alpha. I dunno. It's not even like the Sunborne Val'kyr or Defender of Argus where their buffs can be pretty significant. Fallen Sun Cleric seems pretty weak, and definitely feels like nothing more than a simple pack filler. Her cheapness is cool, and she's a very decent pick in Arena, but I don't think we'll see much of her on the ladder.
Deathspeaker
This is actually pretty awesome, isn't it? The Deathspeaker is a 3-mana 2/4, so a mere 1-stat penalty. But you can give a friendly minion immune for the turn, which means that, shit, suddenly trading minions gets to be super-advantageous for you. The Deathstpeaker is awesome for both trading in the early game and later on in the late game when you can get your larger drops to survive while trading. It's pretty great especially in Arena, I think, where board control is king. A pretty powerful control card, in my opinion, but still relatively fair and balanced considering his relatively below-average statline. I really like cards with interesting effects like this or the Mindbreaker that don't cripple the statline so much like, say, the Nerubian Unraveller who suffers a pretty hefty stat penalty. Plus I really like Nerubians in general, so having another Nerubian prophet hang out with us is definitely welcome.
Play Dead
D'awww look at that cute widdle buds. Cute widdle undead buds. Play Dead allows you to trigger a friendly minion's deathrattle, essentially a cheaper version of Feign Death from way back in GvG... but Feign Death saw minimal play and it costs a mere 2 mana to trigger all your friendly minions' Deathrattle. Mind you, when Feign Death was released Deathrattle Hunter wasn't a big thing. I'm not sure if Play Dead is going to make it into the Hunter lists, though -- wouldn't you just rather play cards like Huhuran or Terrorscale Stalker? It is the repetition of an effect in your deck to make sure it's more constant, though, so I dunno. The card seems fair, seems appropriate for the set and has one of the cutest artwork. So.
Shadowreaper Anduin
Hooo the artwork for this card. I think I still prefer the Shadowreaper Anduin, the barely-holding-itself-together wraith from the promotional artwork, but shit, dude, undeath does not do you well. Shadowreaper Anduin is a pretty expensive card to cast, 8 mana (and you get the requisite 5 armour). At this point we've seen all but one of the Priest cards, which means that Shadowreaper Anduin's battlecry -- mass Shadow Word: Death the board -- is actually beneficial if you're playing cards like Archbishop Benedictus or Obsidian Statue with their 4-health. Also, Ysera, Primordial Drake and a bunch of other 4-attack high quality minions. The hero power is what's important, though, and it's... Voidform. Anduin was one of the heroes who had the ability to change his hero power from the early pre-expansion days of Hearthstone with Shadowform, and dealing 2 (or 3) damage for 2 mana is honestly pretty OP if it can last. Many people speculated what evil Anduin's hero power would be. Would the hero power be Shadowform with Lifesteal? Would the hero power deal 4 damage? That'd be too overpowered. Shadowreaper Anduin's power now reads 2 mana, deal 2 damage... every time you play a card, refresh this. Which means that Anduin will synergize with the last three Priest legendaries. Benedictus will supply Anduin with a deck's worth of cards to refresh his hero power with (yeaaaah Benedictus is still kinda shite though), Lyra is a far better card generator that will just infinitely recycle your spells if you can keep her on board, and most importantly... Raza the Chained's effects last the entire game. As someone who got Raza from a pack and played a lot of him, I can tell you for certain that Raza's 0-mana hero power is maintained even when you play Shadowform or Finley's the hero power, but the biggest problem is that Anduin never had a way to refresh his hero power without playing some weak card like Garrison Commander. At first glance Shadowreaper Anduin is kind of weak, but when you start putting the deck together in your head... Raza, Kazakus, Lyra and Shadowreaper Anduin... an instantly-refreshing hero power is so infinitely more dangerous when you don't have to pay 2 mana to cast it, making Raza's effect amount fo like a 6-mana discount per turn instead of a 2-mana discount per turn. Alone, it's pretty underwhelming but holy hell, I think this may be the one Death Knight I'm the most excited about.
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