Pogo Hopper: First up is the Rogue minion, Pogo Hopper, who's a cute little robot bunny! Pogo Hopper, I think, plays off the Infinite Murloc/Infinite Wolf minions that were seen during the Taverns of Time limited Arena event, although far less good than them. You see, unlike, say, Jade Golems, Pogo-Hopper starts off as a 2-mana 1/1. Sure, it gains +2/+2 for each other copy you've played this game, and Rogues can certainly do so in multiple ways -- traditional Shadowstep/Quest bouncing into the hand (haha, bounce, pogos, get it?) or with the new Lab Recruiter that does the gang up effect. Some people have even noted a possible combo where you burn your deck with Myra's, and then throw in Lab Recruiters and Pogo-Hoppers to make sure that all you're getting are just huge jumping bunnies. And it's a well-designed card, don't get me wrong, but the initial Pogo-Hopper is just kind of such a tempo suicide and unlike Jade Idols, these things can actually be silenced back to a 1/1, and there are a fair amount of decks that run silence effects. Pogo-Hopper's not a card that I can see fitting into any current Rogue decks, but it's certainly interesting enough to potentially spawn some sort of fun combo down the line.
Academic Espionage: Far scarier, I believe, is the Rogue epic spell, Academic Espionage. How is this not a legendary spell? Academic Espionage is a 4-mana card that shuffles 10 burgled cards into your deck... but they all cost 1. And it's... well, it's random, so that tells me that it's probably going the way of Renounce Darkness. But the fact that the discount is all the way to one mana? Sure, sometimes you get 1-mana Redemptions, Totemic Might and Snap Freezes and you're sad, but are you really that sad when there's also the potential to get 1-mana Tirion Fordrings, Al'Akirs, Pyroblasts, Tyrantuses, Ultimate Infestations and King Krushs? Again, it's probably not quite as stable as your general Miracle Rogue game plan, because sometimes you whiff and you get ten Paladin Secrets or some shit like that. but the off-chance that you actually get something glorious from this is honestly so much fun! There's a lot of fun potential to abuse this even further, honestly. Gadgetzan Auctioneer is the obvious one, but you can get a fun mileage with Myra's Unstable Element, Witchwood Piper, and especially Tess Greymane. So basically you're just hoping for a lot of minions to get the tempo game, play Witchwood Piper to draw the discounted minions, and then replay them with Tess. Again, part of it is random, but you have two of these in your deck, so you can definitely try and try again. And, yes, it is four mana... but maybe you don't play it on turn four. Maybe you just wait to combo this with Preparation, or you wait until the late-game to drop this. I dunno. I don't think it's a particular game breaker, but holy shit it does look like a pretty fun card to play with. Worth noting that if you get a bunch of spells with this, it's extremely countered by Skulking Geist.
Crystology: A paladin spell that, at first glance, looks like a shittier version of Call to Arms or Small-Time Recruits... but it's drawing two one-attack minions from your deck, not one-cost. So like Master Oakheart, sort of. It's a way to specifically tutor for Lynessa Sunsorrow, which admittedly isn't that good. Or you could tutor for the new legendary, Kangor, which... is a bit better, but I also don't think is super good either. I'm not quite sure if there are currently any one-attack minion on Paladin's roster that you really want to tutor, because you're not really itching to just get Stonehill Defenders and Righteous Protectors -- there are far easier ways to just draw into them naturally or to cheap them out. It's not necessarily a bad card, it's just one that I don't think quite has a combo that works for it yet, and probably would feel more like Forge of Souls where the tutor effect is good on paper, but it won't really find a home in a deck.
Crystalsmith Kangor: This is a bit surprising! Considering the name of the legendary spell, I thought that the paladin's legendary, Crystal-smith Kangor, would be a mech-synergy card himself. I'm not sure how I feel about Kangor, honestly. He's a 2-mana 1/2 with Divine Shield and Lifesteal (and that statline makes him Crystology-able), and also has the effect of doubling all healing... and I'm just a little bit confused just what the combo is. Kangor's Lifesteal doesn't really matter due to his small attack statline, and even if you buff him, there are other better lifesteal minions to buff. The doubled healing is... is cute, but there's not a whole ton of healing synergy that Paladin has in Standard, unless we're getting some heal synergy. And no, Blackguard and the Spellstone don't count. In Wild, even, Forbidden Healing and Ragnaros Lightlord tended to heal a huge chunk of your health anyway so doubling it just feels too greedy, so I'm not quite sure just what Kangor is for. Very interesting effect, but the statline is honestly kind of bizarre. I am cautiously pessimistic, I guess, although if this does somehow lead to the genesis of a Control Paladin list (which I doubt would happen in this expansion, at least) I would certainly be quite pleased. Overall, it's not a bad card at all, despite my somewhat negative talk -- I'm just baffled what deck this fits in is all.Eureka: Shamans get Eureka, a six-mana spell that allows them to summon a copy of a random minion from their hand. Wasn't it Priest that was supposed to be the 'clone' spell? Eureka reminds me of old GvG-era card Ancestor's Call, albeit Eureka's two mana cheaper, only summons from your hand instead of both players, and doesn't actually 'spend' the minion in your hand. Everyone's screaming Malygos again, but really, unlike Flobbidinous Floop or Gloop Sprayer, I don't really think that Eureka's good enough to really see meta play. It's too expansive, and I don't think Shamans can really stand to play a mostly-spell list. And even then, spending six mana just doesn't seem to be that practical of a combo-setup to me.
Gloop Sprayer: Speaking of Druid, we get the Gloop Sprayer, a very interesting card! For 8-mana you get 4/4, and you summon a copy of each adjacent minion. Described by many as "Fungalmancer meets Faceless Manipulator", it's actually a pretty damn scary card. You get to summon full copies of two minions on the board -- Malygos! Hadronox! Floop'd versions of those two! Cube! -- and suddenly you get even more game-ending combos and securing just how powerful your late-game is going to be. And you get an extra 4/4 body on top of it all. The only real problem this card has is that it's the definition of a 'win more' card, but honestly, in this mostly-control meta, it's probably one where Druids can actually afford to run Gloop Sprayer. It's a powerful effect, the problem that remains is just to find the right deck for it.
Omega Assembly: Omega Assembly, on first glance, doesn't look that good. Discover a mech for 1 mana is... decent, I guess. But if you have 10 mana crystals, you get all three Mechs for 1 mana! Not quite the huge tempo swing that the other Omega cards have been, but still a pretty fun and very efficient value generator. And then you remember that Warrior is getting the new Dr. Boom hero card, which means that, yes, it fits perfectly well with the Mech synergy that New Boom promotes, and both cards encourage the warrior to take things to the late-game. Definitely a powerful card that definitely fits in well with Mech Warrior.Eternium Rover: And if you think Mech Warrior only gets late-game bombs, Eternium Rover here is an adorable 1-mana 1/3 mech that is just so much better than Warrior's previous 1-mana 1/3 mech, Warbot -- a card I am intimately familiar with thanks to it being part of Warrior's standard starter pack in Dungeon Runs. Eternium Rover has that same statline, but instead of a rather disappointing Enrage effect, Rover here has a variation of Armorsmith's effect, giving you 2 armour any time it takes damage. It's not the most exciting effect, admittedly, but it does help you survive to get to turn 10 and play your Omega Assemblys and your Dr. Boom hero and all sorts of mech shenanigans. Plus, you can magnetize things to Rover, which is probably why this card is actually pretty damn powerful. Definitely a great little buildaround mech, and I am really, really curious to have a look through all the available mechs in this expansion and GvG to see just what utterly wild decks I can build.
The Boomship: Any self-respecting supervillain needs a cool, ominous ship to hover over the heroes as he cackles madly, and Dr. Boom has the Boomship! A 9-mana legendary spell, the Boomship is certainly an interesting spell. It recruits three minions from your hand, and immediately gives them Rush, which is just pretty damn insane! One of the biggest weaknesses of a Recruit Warrior deck is that if you ever draw into your late-game big bombs, they just sit in your hand and you feel bad about not being able to play them. Well, with the Boomship, you can unload three of them in one huge tempo swing, and then they all Rush and slap your enemy's minions. And if that's not appealing enough, Charge supercedes rush, so if you happen to run cards like Charged Devilsaur and Grom Hellscream, you can very well find a way to slam them into your opponent's face as part of an OTK. It's not a particularly stable OTK, admittedly, but I dunno. I feel optimistic about this card, for sure.
Fireworks Tech: Hunter now, and the first card we're talking today is Fireworks Tech, a 2-mana 2/1 minion that buffs a friendly mech with +1/+1. And if it has deathrattle, Fireworks Tech triggers it. I'm not sure if it's that good, though -- it tries a bit too much and wants a bit too much. Admittedly, Hunter does seem to be receiving a fair amount of mechs, and at least some of them have deathrattles... but if you topdeck Fireworks Tech she's just a shitty 2-mana 2/1 and that feels absolutely bad. At the end of the day I'm not sure if you really want to play this over, say, Play Dead or Terrorscale Stalker if you're doing deathrattles. I guess the combined effect might prove to be the thing that makes Fireworks Tech good? Interesting effect, but with the current Hunter mechs (Spider Bomb and I guess Goblin Bomb), I remain unconvinced that Fireworks Tech, at least, is going to be good.
Boommaster Flark: Hunters' legendary card this time around is not a beast, but rather, a crazy goblin scientist. Boommaster Flark is a 7-mana 5/5 that summons four Goblin Bombs, making him somewhat comparable to... Onyxia, I guesss? Or the original Dr. Boom? Flark's Goblin Bombs basically allow you to go face, because they are 0/2 mechs that deal 2 damage to the face with deathrattle. And this is where things get interesting. In Wild, you can do some combo shenanigans with Feign Death, a hunter spell that casts all the Deathrattles on the board, and that's 8 immediate damage to the face. If you're particularly ambitious, maybe you even combo the four 0/2 mechs with Mimiron's Head and attempt to build Voltron. But in standard... yes, four 0/2 bodies can just be ignored by the enemy, but they are mechs, which mean they can be magnetized and forced to trade. You can use cards like Play Dead, Terrorscale Stalker and Fireworks Tech to trigger these deathrattles. I have been pleasantly surprised at just how functional this deathrattle/egg/cube Hunter list have been, and while Flark might just end up being a bit too impractical and too cute, Four times hero power, four bodies on the board and the potential to replicate face damage isn't anything to laugh at. I suppose we just have to wait to see what other deathrattle boosts Flark will have.Goblin Bomb: Oh, and just like Stegodon back in Un'Goro, the Goblin Bomb token is actually collectible as a neutral card. I've nothing much to say about this one -- outside of Flark summoning four of these at once, Goblin Bomb isn't necessarily better of a smorcing tool than Leper Gnome, and I think there are a fair bit of better low-mana Mechs for any mech deck.
Missile Launcher: Missile Launcher is another neutral mech, a 6-mana 4/4 with Magnetic and an effect that's basically Baron Geddon, but one damage instead of two. The effect isn't terrible, especially if you're playing a deck that doesn't mind nuking the board (the traditional Warrior with Frothing Berserker, or maybe you magnetize this to Flark's bombs). And Magnetic means that the 4/4 stats tend to charge. But 4/4 for 6 mana is so damn expensive, and I am unconvinced that Missile Launcher's going to actually see any sort of play outside of random card generation.
Mechanical Whelp: This one is actually quite interesting. A 6-mana 2/2 Mech, the Mechanical Dragon has the deathrattle of summoning a 7/7 mechanical dragon. Note that it's just straight-up deathrattle, none of the "on your opponent's turn" that Skelemancer has. Plus, both the Whelp and the Dragon are Mechs, meaning that you do get some Magnetic synergy thrown in for what it's worth. Where Mechanical Whelp gets interesting, though, is in Hunter and Priest. Forget Devilsaur Egg, combo-ing Mechanical Whelp with the new Priest minion, Reckless Experimenter, makes this basically a 3-mana 7/7! Move over, Flamewreathed Faceless. And we've seen that Hunters are proven to be great with Deathrattle synergy, and they're getting some Mech synergy as well... I dunno. I might be overhyping Mechanical Whelp, but this feels like the interesting neutral minion that might just see a fair bit of play in multiple classes.
Cosmic Anomaly: These two were revealed around the same time that this review came up, so let me just cover them. The existence of Cosmic Anomaly basically makes Celestial Emissary look kinda bad, yeah? Sure, Cosmic Anomaly is twice as expensive, but the Spell Damage +2 is permanent, and a 4-mana 4/3 body is far, far more durable than a 2-mana 2/1. Evolved Kobold saw some fringe play in some mage lists a couple of expansions back, and Cosmic Anomaly honestly seems pretty good! If there's going to be a minion that's going to capitalize with the Spell Damage synergy that Boomsday seem to be half-heartedly giving mage, it's Cosmic Anomaly. Plus, that artwork just looks quite boss.Shooting Star: Basically a smaller Cone of Cold, Shooting Star is a dirt-cheap 1-mana card that deals 1 damage to three minions that are next to each other. And, of course, this just makes both Arcane Explosion and Cone of Cold look particularly bad, doesn't it? Sure, Shooting Star doesn't freeze, nor does it hit the entire board, but it's a pretty interesting tool to stack up with Spell Damage, as well as trigger any sort of Flamewaker-style effects. Particularly powerful against any Silver Hand Paladin decks that are still running around. It doesn't have the flexibility of hitting face, sadly, which is probably a reason this won't be run quite as much, but it's definitely an interesting, useful spell.
Lots of interesting cards, and I am just quite hyped that we're getting a new expansion in less than a couple of weeks!
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