Hearthstone: Rastakhan's Rumble

So while I was busy squee-ing about the Warcraft III remaster, I sort of brushed aside the Hearthstone expansion, but it's not like I wasn't excited! It's just that very, very little in terms of gaming news can even hope to compete with a Warcraft III remaster for me. Nostalgia is a powerful tool, yes?

Anyway, the new expansion is called the Rastakhan Rumble, and I have been really, really clamouring for a troll-themed expansion. I love goblins and worgens as much as anyone else, but I really genuinely was chomping at the bit for more trolls (and pandaren, while we're at that) to be added into Hearthstone. Granted, the actual cards revealed are... m'kay? They look neat, but not particularly as groundbreaking or "oh my god I can't wait to play with these" like previous expansions have been. I'm far, far more excited about the theme of the actual set than anything.

Set similar to One Night in Karazhan where this is a location in World of Warcraft, but in the past when it was at the peak of its glory, Rastakhan Rumble takes place in the Gurubashi Arena, and apparently takes place so far in the past that King Rastakhan of the Zandalari trolls -- an elitist tribe that has been living in seclusion until Battle of Azeroth -- were still hanging around with the other troll tribes.

The concept of this is that the nine classes are representative of nine teams, each championing a specific Loa (troll animal god), and each class will be getting two legendaries -- a loa and a troll champion. As far as important Warcraft lore characters go, we can see that Zul'jin is the troll champion for the Hunter class, and the Darkspear's patron loa of death, Bwonsamdi, is the priest class's loa.

King Rastakhan himself is apparently an alternate shaman hero skin only available via pre-purchasing the pre-order. Which is very tempting, honestly, because a troll hero is something that I really do want... (We still don't have a worgen, tauren or draenei either) but the pre-order this time around is kind of worse than all the previous expansions.

Anyway, let's talk about a bunch of new cards! These will be the only real new cards that we'll see until the trickle-feed starts, although since they're going to release Rastakhan's Rumble before 2018 ends, it's probably going to be sooner rather than later. A quick rundown of the new cards...

Sul'thraze: A warrior weapon costing 6 mana with 4/4 stats, featuring the new keyword Overkill, which gets triggered if you kill a minion with excess damage, sort of combining "Slay" and "Breakthrough" from Elder Scrolls Legends. Or Trample, for M:TG players out there. It's an... it's an interesting mechanic, for sure, but I'm just not sure if Sul'thraze is that good. Fool's Bane didn't see play and that didn't need you to overkill minions, but I guess Sul'thraze can go face? It's neat, but I'm not 100% sure it's competitive. Neat anti-token weapon, though.

Spirit of the Shark: A cycle of 'spirits' will appear, one for each class, representing the loa of the class, and all of them are 0/3 quasi-totem like things, that have Stealth on the first turn, and having a passive effect. Spirit of the Shark belongs to the Rogue class, costs 4 and basically has that Dungeon Run boss effect of causing both battlecries to trigger twice. Oh, and combos too. Rogues have been doing some nasty shit with deathrattle in Standard, so it's not like they can't use this, but a 4-mana 0/3 is a wee bit expensive. I guess a trick with these spirits is whether you can cheat them out? I dunno. Interesting mechanic, but not too impressive. It's like a super expensive Brann.

Spirit of the Bat: The Warlocks' Spirit is a 2-mana 0/3 that will give a minion in the Warlock's hand +1/+1 whenever a friendly minion dies. It's kinda cheap enough and buffing things in your hand is sort of a new gimmick that Warlock is doing with Soul Infusion, but until I see the entirety of this set, I'm going to reserve my judgement on this. I'm not convinced if killing off their minions is going to be something Warlock's going to be able to do consistently either. Still, if we do have enough toys to play, Spirit of the Bat could be integral to the Hi'reek deck. Speaking of which...

Hi'reek: The bat loa (which are treated as beasts instead of their own tribe, which is fair, I guess) and one of the Warlock legendaries, Hi'reek the Bat is presumably the endgame goal for the Spirit of the Bat and other hand-buffing stuff, being an 8-mana 1/1 that will fill the board with copies of itself. And it's... it's mighty expensive is what it is. It's cool, but even without the Mass Dispel vulnerability, I'm unconvinced that summoning a board full of like 8/8's or whatever is going to be that good, especially when your opponent will probably be saving removals when they realize you're playing a Hi'reek deck. I don't want to say this deck is shit without looking at the rest of the expansion, but it's definitely not looking super-good for Hi'reek.

Shirvallah: This tiger loa is the Paladin's beast-god, and he's a 25-mana 7/5 with Divine Shield, Rush and Lifesteal. It gets discounted similarly to giants, in this case being discounted with the amount of mana spent on spells, so Shirvallah is sort of this funky finisher to control paladin decks that play cards like Spikeridged Stegodon or Dinosize? I can actually see this being played, although it certainly is slow and isn't an automatic game-winner. It's a very fair card, and while not quite as dependent on the deck as Hi'reek, Shirvallah is going to need a fair bit more support from this new expansion before he's good.

Sharkfin Fan: A neutral 2-mana 2/2 Pirate that summons an extra 1/1 Pirate token after your hero attacks. It's a simple card, and one that's honestly pretty solid in most pirate decks (Warriors and Rogues, although nowhere as prolific as the past). Druids could make use of Sharkfin Fan too, I guess, but as Hench-Clan Thug has shown, it's likely Rogue that's going to make the best use of this card. Just be glad Sharkfin Fan can't fit in Odd Rogue.

Cannon Barrage: Speaking of Rogue pirate synergy (and the key arts show that the rogue troll champion is pirate-themed), Cannon Barrage is a 6-mana spell that just shoot out 3 damage to a random enemy, repeated for each pirate. It's like a mini Knife Juggler machinegun, sort of. You always get 3 damage, I think, and you get extra shots depending on the pirates on board. Say you have, like, three pirates, that's 6 mana deal 12 damage spread in increments of 3. On paper, that's good, but the randomness and the 'ask' of having a board full of pirates might make this a wee bit inflexible? Amazingly flavoured, for sure.

Void Contract: HELL YES. Admittedly I'd probably be more excited for this Warlock spell if Aviana hadn't been nerfed recently, but Void Contract is an 8-mana spell that destroys half of each player's deck. And when you're facing off against things like Kingsbane decks or "slowly creeping to an eventual combo" deck, you really don't have many counters. Even Wild with its Dirty Rats and Deathlords and Gnomeferatus don't really quite work all that well. Void Contract is insanely powerful for a pretty huge mana cost and half of your own deck (compared to Azari, where it's all benefit to you other than the mana sink and time sink) , but maybe you just make sure you get a shot at blowing up their Malygos or Kingsbane or Shudderwock or their win condition. It's huge rick for a huge reward, and a great way, I think, to design a counter card.

Pyromaniac: Mage 3-mana 3/4 goblin that draws a card anytime you kill a minion with your hero power. Coldwraith doesn't see play, so I kind of doubt Pyromaniac is going to, honestly. It's better than Coldwraith, but Mage has a lot of better things to do.

Hex Lord Malacrass: Our first troll champion is a mage legendary, and a recurring villain in WoW lore, being the penultimate boss of the Zul'aman raid. Malacrass isn't that impressive of a card, though, being a 8-mana 5/5... but that battlecry is definitely intriguing. You add a copy of your opening hand to your hand (except for Malacrass himself, so you can't go infinite), which is just... huh. That adds a whole new level to the mulligan phase. Do you keep a powerful but expensive card in your opening for the chance of getting value when you redraw it with Malacrass? 8-mana 5/5 that draws specific cards is pretty dang powerful, so Malacrass would definitely fit pretty snugly in a control mage deck. I had brushed Malacrass off as being pointless, but I'm warming up to him.

Surrender to Madness: A Priest spell where you destroy 3 of your mana crystals to give all minions in your deck +2/+2. It's... it's really weird that this is a Priest card instead of a Warlock one, since flavour-wise it's very Warlocky, but let's just be thankful that Warlock didn't get this spell, yeah? 3 mana crystals is a huge price to pay, and while it might be great in a longer Benedictus game, I don't think this card's going to see a lot of play.

Immortal Prelate: A Paladin 2-mana 1/3 that basically has the Kingsbane effect. Insanely powerful with things like Dinosize and Spikeridged Stegodon. And while I would've dismissed this effect in any other class other than Paladin considering how vulnerable to silence this is, I can maaaaybe see this dude seeing play? If nothing else, it's going to eat a silence that the other party won't be able to use against Lynessa Sunsorrow or whatever. Not the best card, but not a bad card, I think.

Springpaw: A Hunter 1-mana 1/1 beast with Rush that adds another 1/1 beast with Rush to your hand. Pretty solid card, honestly. Very simple, basically a Fire Fly with tags and keywords and stats swapped around, and Fire Fly was deceptively powerful. Springpaw has beast synergies and the potential to be a ping, so I'm pretty sure aggro Hunter lists will make a slot or two for Springpaw.

Baited Arrow: Another Overkill card, and this is something that just costs insanely much. For 5 mana, you deal 3 damage... and summon a 5/5 devilsaur if it overkills. That's just way too much work compared to the stability of Flanking Strike, honestly. And even if you do use Baited Arrow on a Silver Hand Recruit or a totem or something, you did just spend 5 mana to do that.

Rain of Toads: Very flavourful Shaman spell. For 6 mana, you summon three 2/4 toads with Taunt, with an Overload of 3. A wee bit too expensive overall, but this is technically just a bigger and better Feral Spirits, costing double the mana cost and just one extra overload, but adds an extra body and makes them 2/4's instead of 2/3's. A great and balanced spell, I think, and even if it doesn't see play, at least that's one card that I won't consider a whiff when I play Hagatha.

Savage Striker: Druid 2-mana 2/3 that, as a battlecry,  deals damage to an enemy minion equal to the hero's attack. It's kind of underwhelming, I think, even if it's not bad. It's not like you lose anything other than using your hero power. Sometimes you get a 2/3 that deals 1 damage, sometimes you get a 2/3 that deals 3 damage. Not the best card, but not horrid.

If/when I feel like it, I'll maybe do a post-expansion talk for Boomsday. I've been playing the wild meta, though, and there's scant little Boomsday card that made it there... and a lot of Boomsday card sort of fell on the wayside anyway. We'll see. If I do decide to do one of those, it'd be a lot shorter than my normal fare.