Plus, y'know, we've got a bunch of new cards to be trickled down until April. So...
[removed and re-uploaded back because I did a huge boo-boo with the Treants. They cost 2 mana, not 1. Also added a couple of new cards.]
Houndmaster Shaw: First up is the hunter legendary, Houndmaster Shaw, a 4-mana 3/6 with a passive that gives all your other minions Rush. It's comparable to Tundra Rhino, of course, except you don't get any sort of stat penalty. I suppose the best card to compare Shaw to is druid's Fandral Staghelm, but activating both Choose One effects is arguably a far stronger effect if allowed to snowball, and while giving, say, the four wolves from Emerald Spellstone Rush would be awesome... it is also Rush. Which means it's very balanced, and it can't hit face. It's definitely extremely interesting, though, essentially allowing Shaw (if he survives) to control the board. Again, time will tell if this is good because I'm somewhat unconvinced about the power level of Rush in general.
Rotten Applebaum: A neutral 5-mana 4/5 with Taunt and a deathrattle that restores 4 health to your hero. It's a shame that N'Zoth is rotating out, isn't it? I think Rotten Applebaum is definitely a neat fit into a lot of N'Zoth decks, comparable to the likes of Sludge Belcher -- it protects your face in a slightly different way. Instead of summoning a 1/2 buddy, it has an extra chunk of health and it restores health to your hero. It's decent, I think, nothing too spectacular but also definitely a good card. Definitely amazing in arena.
Witchwood Apple: For 2 mana, you add three 2/2 Treants to your hand. So you can play them for 2 mana each?. Meaning you pay 8 mana total for three 2/2 Treants on the battlefield, two entire mana more expensive than the unplayed post-nerf Force of Nature. Unless we're getting some Silver Hand Recruits style synergy with Treants, I don't see this card being good. Ever.
Wispering Woods: 10/10 for the pun, but I'm unconvinced it's a good card. See, it's an interesting design. For 4 mana, you summon a 1/1 Wisp for each card in your hand, rewarding a huge hand size with druid can actually do reasonably well with Nourish and Ultimate Infestation. And the value's so much better than things like Stand Against Darkness or Call in the Finishers. But a control-style deck doesn't want a bunch of fragile 1/1's (that might not even fit on the board), and an aggro style deck doesn't want to keep cards and bulk up your hand. I don't see any way this is better than Living Mana, sorry, unless, again, we get some Wisp synergies.
Rebuke: Loatheb in spell form! That's essentially what you're getting. You lose the 5/5 body, and the effect now costs 2, but it's Loatheb in spell form. It's a great card, of course, for the simple fact that Loatheb is probably one of the best cards in the game, and the way Paladin tends to work in this meta is to build up a board -- whether Murlocs or Silver Hand Recruits -- and then pray to outrun the enemy before they drop an AoE. So Rebuke theoretically helps to stop that. It's significantly worse than Loatheb since even in matchups that you don't need the effect Loatheb's still a body. Still, a very interesting card that I could definitely see being particularly good.
Vivid Nightmare: An... interesting card. It's a 3-mana Priest spell that I feel would end up like Carnivorous Cube -- either very good since someone figured out the perfect set of cards to combo with it, or like so many other 'wacky effects' style of cards like Mirage Caller or Sudden Genesis. You essentially replicate a minion with their health reduced to one (not set to one, meaning you can heal the minion back up), which is interesting. The obvious interaction is to do a wacky combo with Prophet Velen and Mind Blast, or to use it in a Big Priest to more efficiently kill off your Obsidian Statues or whatever, but I dunno. It has potential, but I kinda think I need to see the rest of the set.Glinda Crowskin: Warlock's legendary is a 6-mana 3/7 that gives all minions in your hand Echo... and it's interesting. I instantly think "oh, zoo!" but I don't think zoo can afford losing the tempo that playing a 3/7 on turn 6 would give them. That's the difference between Glinda and Shaw, I think -- Shaw's not a tempo loss, and is durable enough on the turn he's played and cheap enough to combo out on a later turn, whereas Glinda's likely to just eat up mana and lose tempo. Echo's a really powerful and abuseable mechanic with the right cards, but you really need something cheap to play on the turn you play Glinda, because waiting for the next turn to, say, play five Gnomeferatus and mill five cards isn't going to probably work because Glinda'll probably get removed. Giants would definitely work, though obviously it'll require some setup. And a board full of 0-mana giants basically wins you the game, doesn't it? I guess it'll work better in wild with Arcane Giant or Molten Giant, though.
Nightmare Amalgam: I don't think that Nightmare Amalgam will necessarily see a whole lot of play, but it's such a hilarious concept! It's a Spider Tank, a 3-mana 3/4, but it's all the tribes. Or, well, at least Elemental, Murloc, Demon, Mech, Dragon, Beast, Pirate and Totem. Not sure if they'll add in extra tribes if they ever introduce more tribes. The thing is, though, is that the Amalgam is a simple vanilla minion without any sort of effect, and I'm not sure if that's going to warrant putting it in when, say, Murloc decks don't ever play Puddlestomper and Beast decks never play River Crocolisk. Very interesting effect, and maybe there's something I'm missing, but it is a neat card to pad out your synergy style decks, I suppose. (Note that Amalgam gets eaten by both crabs, gets pact'd by Warlocks and gets slain by the Dragonslayer. It's all of their strengths, and all of their weaknesses)
Witch's Apprentice: A little Hex-frog, a 1-mana 0/1 Taunt that basically has the Babbling Book effect for Shamans. And that's apparently the theme they're going for? It's a neat little card, I suppose, although 0/1 Taunt is a fair bit worse than the Babbling Book's 1/1 and I don't think the beast tag is ever relevant. It's hilarious, flavour wise, but I'm not sure how good random shaman spells will be. Of course the pool will change once the new expansion presumably introduces a lot of spells, and there's future expansions to boot. But right at the beginning, when the Standard rotation hits, there's still not going to be that many spells that you want, or are straight up too situational to use. Lesser Sapphire Spellstone, Cryostasis, Totemic Might and especially Ice Fishing are glaring ones that you don't ever want to get, and even then there are cards like Primal Talisman or Bloodlust that are just really situational.Hagatha the Witch: And the "WE CANNOT MAKE THAT CARD" Shaman hero hyped up during the reveal stream, Hagatha, is 8-mana with the battlecry of dealing 3 damage to all minions on board... emphasis on all, so Hagatha is a shit choice for a traditional zoo/bloodlust Shaman deck. It clears the board for you to do stuff, I suppose, with her hero power... a passive hero power that adds a random Shamans spell to your hand after you play a minion. And it's... it's interesting. Again, the current pool of Shaman spells isn't super exciting, and Hagatha's a weird one in that she asks you to play a deck that swarms minions, but also has a battlecry that nukes your own side of the board. And while you get the spells for free compared to Deathstalker Rexxar instead of spending 2 mana, which is great... you still have to cast them. It's really hard to say either way, because Hagatha has such a huge chance of being a broken card as much as she has whiffing out. We'll have to see depending on the rest of Witchwood's card selections, I suppose.
Muck Hunter: Huh. It's the Leeroy Jenkins equivalent of Rush, except instead of being a 6/2 that summons two 1/1's, Muck Hunter is a 5-mana 5/8 rushing minion that summons two 2/1's for the opponent. A 5/8 is way more stable than 6/2, and even with the 'substraction' of the Mucklings hitting Muck Hunter, she still ends a 5/4, a far more stable body instead of Leeroy dying to the whelps. Muck Hunter of course can't go face, but if you time it right with, say, Blood Razor or other Whirlwind effects or weaker minions on the board, you could very easily clear the 2/1 tokens from the board and be left with a rushing 5/7, which is honestly pretty good. Muck Hunter's a very balanced card, I think, and one that wouldn't surprise me if it saw some usage in a deck or is unplayable. Do like the design, though.Redband Wasp: A warrior 2-mana 1/3 beast that rushes, and has Enrage: +3 Attack. Or, well, what would've been parsed that way if Enrage wasn't removed. It's an Amani Berserker with a little swapping around of stats, and the potential to trade with a 1-health minion... but I don't really think it's that powerful, honestly, because, shit, a 1/3 that sometimes becomes a 4/2 or 4/1 just isn't that good, and I don't think Rush necessarily is that good.
Lord Godfrey: Warlock's second legendary is the villainous undead Gilnean, Lord Vincent Godfrey, actually one of my favourite lore characters from the Gilneas storyline. He's also a pretty powerful legendary, too, I think -- Godfrey's a 7-mana 4/4, which is pretty shit stats... but it unleashes Defile upon the board. A 2-damage Defile. It can basically nuke the board, and as anyone who's played around with a Tainted Zealot/Defile combo can attest, Defile's monstrous when it deals 2 damage. With Godfrey, you're even guaranteed to get a 4/4 body sticking on the board at the end of it. I don't necessarily think that Godfrey will find a slot in any of the current Warlock decks per se, but god damn it's a powerful effect.Hunting Mastiff: A 2-mana 2/1 beast for Hunters with Echo and Rush, the two new mechanics in this set. And... I dunno. I just don't really see that much usage for this card? It's too expensive to combo with Scavenging Hyena, and it doesn't do enough to swarm the board for an aggro deck list. My opinion about Hunting Mastiff is more of a "wait and see" because the stat distribution isn't bad and the two keywords are neat in conjunction, but there's honestly only so much you can do with Rush. There is potential with this card, admittedly, but at the same time, it's also ultimately just a repeatable Bluegill Warrior. It's definitely very interesting, though, and if there's one class that can make use of this little doggy it is Hunter.
Forest Guide: An interesting card. A 4-mana 1/6 minion for Druids, that draws a card for each player. It's a weird fat version of Skull Kid and I do like the flavour... but, y'know, Grove Tender was never played, and you draw a card for your opponent as well. And a 1/6 body isn't the best thing ever -- Crypt Lord only saw play because of the Taunt and the potential to get bigger. Fun effect, but I don't think it's actually a good card -- perhaps the victim of Druid's reign over the ladder during the Un'Goro/Frozen Throne era?WANTED!: A new Rogue spell, dealing 3 damage for 4 mana... which is pretty bad. If you kill it, you get a Coin. And Coins are admittedly nice for Rogue, but do you really want to run a 4-mana deal 3 damage spell, when other classes give you 3 damage for half of that mana cost? I don't think the inefficiency is worth the extra Coin. Notable that Counterfeit Coin is rotating out, so Rogues don't actually have that many options to generate Coins... but I don't think Wanted is the way to go.
And that's about it. A fair bit more exciting than the silly even/odd cards, in my opinion, and I'm definitely pumped up to see even more cards from Witchwood.
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