Astromancer: First up, we've got a mage minion that's 7-mana and has 5/5 in stats, which summons a random minion with a cost equal to the number of cards in your hand. It's comparable, of course, to Spiteful Summoner, with the added caveat that "not drawing one of your many big spells" is, in my opinion, fairly easier of an ask compared to having a huge hand. That said, Control Mages have been using Mountain Giant in a pretty decent capacity, and we've got a fair amount of draw mechanics (Aluneth) and card generation mechanics (Ruby Spellstone) so it's not that hard for control lists to at least gain some value with Astromancer. The problem is really whether it's worth it to run this card at all, especially since unlike Spiteful Summoner you can't really ever get a 10-drop with this effect. Ultimately interesting, but unless there's some huge synergy cards introduced for Astromancer, she's not one I suspect will see much play.Celestial Emissary: Another elemental for mages, and this time it's another 2-mana 2/1 like Shimmering Tempest with a Battlecry effect of giving your next spell this turn Spell Damage +2. It's... it's bizarre, honestly, you have to cast that other spell this turn and it doesn't stack, and it's not a permanent effect. Throw in the fact that he's a 2-mana 2/1, and I genuinely find it hard to think of what play would be particularly good with Celestial Emissary that doesn't just involve me putting a Bloodmage Thalnos in my deck instead. I don't want to immediately bash a card without seeing the rest of the expansion, but this is one that I think I can safely say won't be that powerful.
Giggling Inventor: A neutral 5-mana 2/1 that summons two Annoy-o-trons. Giggling Inventor might very well be the new Saronite Chain Gang, the mid-game minion that splits apart stats into multiple extra bodies, and these Annoy-o-trons come with Divine Shields. Sure, the individual 2/1 and 1/2 bodies might not look that much, but these are still Divine Shielded bodies that honestly I think can play a fair bit of role in any deck that just wants to stall to a late-game. Shudderwock Shaman? Token Druid? It's a card that seems innocent, but has just enough stats to really feel like it could do a whole lot.
Cloning Device: Priests' theme in this expansion is apparently cloning, and Cloning Device allows you to discover a copy of a minion in your opponent's deck for 2 mana... which I think is just absurdly expensive. Sure, you do get the Discover bit added to it, but what makes cards like Shadow Visions and Primordial Glyph acceptable as a 2-mana discover card is that Visions gets you another spell from your deck which you likely want extra copies of, whereas Glyph gives you a bonus discount. A lot of the 1-mana Discover cards like I Know A Guy or Journey Below never really saw play, and Cloning Device costs double that. At that pooint, why aren't you just playing Thoughtsteal?
Zerek's Cloning Gallery: The legendary Priest Spell is definitely a far more exciting one. Standing at a humongous 9 mana, Zerek's Cloning Gallery fills your board with a 1/1 copy of each minion in your deck... which is pretty insane. The only real big problem is that this costs 9 mana, which might be a tad too much... but this basically guarantees that you complete your Priest Quest, and gets Barnes-style copies for any sort of Resurrect/Big Priest deck. Is this how Big Priest gets its groove back? Stall until turn nine, play Zerek's Cloning Gallery, then bring everything back with Spellstones and Eternal Servitude? Even if you don't go the Big Priest route, I can honestly think of a lot of great usage out of a huge ton of 1/1 copies of minions. Prophet Velen and Malygos is another set of 1/1 minions that could really, really fuck someone's day up. It's a crazy effect, and while I am hesitant to say that it's going to be the next, oh, Shadowreaper Anduin or whatever, Zerek's Cloning Gallery still looks like it's a card that can potentially wreak some huge, huge havoc sometime down the line.
Blightnozzle Crawler: A Rogue card this time around, and Rogues, if you couldn't already tell from the promotional blogs, videos and comics, are all about poison. Blightnozzle Crawler, in addition to having one of the cooler-looking artwork for mechs in this set, is an interesting minion. He's a 4-mana 2/4 mech, severely understatted, but as a deathrattle summons a 1/1 Rushing Poisonous Ooze. That Ooze will just murder anything it comes across, but on the other hand, if Blightnozzle dies on your opponent's turn they probably will remove the Ooze before you have a chance to properly utilize the Poisonous, whereas killing it on your turn might prove to be a bit of a challenge since Blightnozzle Crawler has the defensive spread of 2/4, and unless I'm missing something, Rogues don't have any way to reliably kill their own dudes the way Warlocks do. Interesting design, but not one I expect to see much of.
Star Aligner: Kind of a bizarre neutral minion. Star Aligner is a 7-mana 7/7 that, if you control 3 other minions with 7 health, you deal 7 damage AoE to all enemies. And yes, that includes face. It's pretty damn hard, though -- I can't think of anything good that you can easily summon with 7 health save for Doomsayer, and that's obviously not sticking on the board. The text of Star Aligner also specifies 7 Health, not "7 Health or more", so you can't even rely on something like Lady in White to buff up your entire deck. Hell, you can't even, say, summon a couple of Violet Wurms and Charged Devilsaurs, because if they take damage they won't have 7 health and that sucks for you. It's such a bizarre effect and one that's honestly pretty fun, but ultimately feels more like a Blood of the Ancient One deal to me -- ultimately too impractical to see consistent play.
Cybertech Chip: A Hunter spell costing 2 mana that gives your minions "Deathrattle; add a random mech to your hand". It's a mech-flavoured version of the old card Infest, and costs one mana less. I'm... I'm genuinely unconvinced spending 2 mana to gain value is particularly good for a hunter, especially since there's the ask of having a board, and then having those minions die first. And it's not like Deathrattle Hunter is hurting for any good Deathrattles that can directly impact the board... and also, why not just play Deathstalker Rexxar if you want the extra card-generation? An interesting card nonetheless, and maybe one you play in a mech deck, but not one that I think is going to particularly see a lot of play.
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