Blessing of the Ancients: 3-mana spell with Twinspell and the Mark of the Lotus effect. Way too expensive, particularly with Mark of the Lotus and Power of the Wild being far, far better options. Fun art, weak card.
Arcane Fletcher: 4-mana 3/3 that draws a spell from your deck whenever you play a 1-cost minion. Would lead to an insanely awkward deck that's a bizarre mixture of one-drops and spells. Very impractical, won't see play.Ursatron: 3-mana 3/3 mech with the deathrattle of drawing a mech. Very solid card for Mech decks, definitely will see some experimentation in Wild Mech Hunters which would love the cost and effect. Hell, Wild Mech Hunters are running Jeeves to draw cards! But people are wrapped up in that silly Oblivitron nonsense.
Hunting Party: 5-mana, copy all beasts in your hand? Won't see play, honestly. It's too expensive, it doesn't come with a body (like Voone!) and there are better resource-generating cards.
Rapid Fire: 1-mana Twinspell that deals 1 damage. Might see play with Vereesa, I guess, but far too impractical and weak for that, I think. Not horrible, though.
Magic Dart Frog: Great artwork on this one! Also a pretty great effect. Magic Dart Frog is essentially a better Flamewaker, isn't it? 2-mana 1/3 is a lot less durable, but far cheaper and could be chained with a lot of the new cheap spells Mage got in this expansion. Weaker than Flamewaker, I guess, thanks to not having the ability to go face. Definitely a fun card, if nothing else, and I do think it's a minion that's not to be underestimated.Kirin Tor Tricaster: An interesting card, a 4-mana 3/3 with Spell Damage +3... but your spells cost 1 more. I guess you can off-set this with Sorcerer's Apprentices and whatnot, which is a fair point. I don't want to write this card off since Spell Damage +3 is pretty significant, but making your spells cost more seems like too steep a downside, and if you're relying that much to do a two-card, six-mana combo to get spell damage +3, why not just run actually good spell damage minions?
Mysterious Blade: Shit, it's actually a good weapon -- a 2-mana 2/2 that becomes a 3/2 as a battlecry if you control a Secret? It's not too huge of an ask, particularly since Secret Paladin has gotten a fair amount of support. A great weapon, honestly, probably will pick up the void left by Unidentified Hammer as Paladin's early-game weapon.
Hench-Clan Shadequill: 4-mana 4/7 that has the Zombie Chow deathrattle of restoring health to the enemy. It's... it's a neat card, for sure, and, yeah, you can probably talk about Silence Priest (something that the expansion stream seem to be highlighting), but I dunno. Corrupted Healbot is arguably a lot more powerful and that didn't see play. Of course we do have a lot more new silence toys, but I don't think Shadequill is that powerful. Think it's more for an Inner Fire style priest, I guess.
Unsleeping Soul: A pretty powerful silencing effect, basically Purify and duplicating the silenced minion. It's pretty powerful for what it does, since you get an additional silenced body in addition to the highly-statted mininon you remove the disadvantage from. Maybe in the new value-oriented Standard, this deck could see some play? My gut's saying this is a bit too expensive. S'not terrible, I guess, but I'm not convinced silence priest will be a thing at all in this expansion.Convincing Infiltrator: HAHAHA look at that Faceless One with a random wooden mask! "Convincing" for sure! What a lark! It's actually a pretty powerful effect, too, a 5-mana 2/6 Taunt with the deathrattle of blowing up a random enemy minion. This dude is a smaller Obsidian Statue, sans lifesteal, but I definitely can see him being played. The stats are definitely a bit on the low side, but I can see this being used in a more controlling Priest that tries to get to an endgame.
Waggle Pick: Togwaggle's pick is... an interesting weapon. A 4-mana 4/2 with a Deathrattle that randomly Shadowsteps a minion? It's... it's admittedly a bit of a high cost, and you really have to make this work with a combo. Nothing particularly interesting comes to mind at the moment -- I guess you can save the charge to "rescue" big value minions like Tak? Or recycle huge battlecry cards like Reno or Tess? I dunno. Seems strong, but needs a proper deck to really work in.
Daring Escape: God, Quest Rogue flashbacks! For 1 mana, you return all of your friendly minions back to your hand. We're really going all in with this bouncing mechanic, huh? Man, I can totally see this being used in those mill decks over in Wild with Coldlight Oracles and shit. It's cheap, and it's pretty powerful. We've seen a bunch of pretty powerful battlecry cards in Rogue over the years, and even if Waggle Pick and Daring Escape might not be super-powerful in the current expansion, I'm sure they'll find a way to be great in future ones.
Mutate: Shamans now! Mutate is... a 0-mana evolve. Won't see play, honestly -- the effect's neat, the cheap cost is neat, but Unstable Evolution (and both Evolve and Thrall Deathseer in Wild) have Mutate completely beat out. It's interesting to add this to the pool of Shaman spells that are randomly generated, but it's not one you'll want in your deck.
Witch's Brew: 2-mana restore 4 health, and it has... Echo without actually saying Echo? What the shit? Card's all right. Far too outclassed by Healing Rain, though.Scargill: Murloc stuff! Scargil is the legendary, and... he's an interesting one for sure, a 4-mana 4/4 that makes all your Murlocs cost 1. Which could be pretty insane in Wild. This is certainly a far, far better legendary murloc than the Shaman Quest (sacrificing turn 1 in a swarm deck is bad), and particularly in Wild where we have more powerful murlocs -- most notably Old Murk-Eye. I'm not 100% sure a traditional swarming zoo Murloc deck would really work, but this set does add a lot of wacky, fun tools for it. Definitely will try it out.
Underbelly Angler: 2-mana 2/3 that adds a random Murloc to your hand whenever you play a Murloc... which is pretty powerful, I think, if you're playing the Murloc swarm style deck. It doesn't trigger off of summoning, but I guess it'd be a bit too powerful if that's the case. Reloading your hand with resources is definitely something that Murloc swarm decks would love to do, and Underbelly Angler doesn't have a tempo loss like other previous versions of this (Primalfin Lookout, Slitfin Spiritwalker) does. Pretty neat!
Soul of the Murloc: It's 2-mana Soul of the Forest, but with 1/1 Murloc tokens! Seems pretty good. It doesn't trigger things like Underbelly Angler, but it does keep the swarm (school?) of Murlocs on the board even after a board clear, and we've got a bunch of cards like Toxfin that care about having Murlocs on-the-field. I don't see the deck working out in Standard, I don't think, but in Wild, with Everyfin is Awesome? Yeah, I can definitely see that sort of deck working out for sure.
Darkest Hour: Warlock time, and this is a 6-mana spell that destroy all of your minions, then summons minions from your deck to replace them. Utterly impractical, and, yeah, the pipe dream of killing a board of Imps to summon Deathwings, Yseras, Lord Jaraxxus and all sorts of other huge things is neat, but the deck that runs both tiny things and huge things simultaneously probably won't work out.Jumbo Imp: We've been having a fair amount of Imp-summoning synergies, and here's the payoff -- Jumbo Imp is basically a giant (vanilla 8/8) that reduces its cost from 10 whenever a demon dies while this is in your hand. So like Corridor Creeper, only bigger and far more specific at what dies. I do like that it doesn't just work with Imps, though, making deck-building a bit more flexible. Not sure if it'll work out as the huge final bomb of an Imp-centric deck, though I guess the potential Imp deck is more of trying to buff your board with Grim Rallies and the like moreso than waiting for Jumbo Imp to kill your enemy? And Jumbo Imp's just a bonus? Seems all right.
Impferno: Pretty powerful spell! For 3 mana, you deal 1 damage to all enemy minions, while giving your own demons +1 attack. It's a weird effect, but it is a board buff, bundled together with an AoE. The combo is apparently with the new neutral card Mad Summoner, and... yeah, that'd be a powerful play. I'm not sure if Imp decks would work, but while it's certainly not Defile, Impferno's a pretty powerful card regardless.
Vicious Scraphound: 2-mana 2/2 Mech that gives you armour equal to the damage it deals. Fun little card, fun artwork, and pretty great with magnetize. There's only so many mechs you can put into a Warrior deck, though I honestly think that Vicious Scraphound would see far more play from discovery effects more than anything. It's definitely pretty neat.Sweeping Strikes: For 2 mana, you give a minion the "cleave" effect that Foe Reaper and Magnataur Alpha has. Neat to see the effect crop up again, but Warriors honestly have a lot of better ways to deal with a board instead of relying on a minion damaging three things at once.
Mad Summoner: Neutral cards now, and we'll start with the ones that I think are interesting enoughbefore moving on to the glut of more boring ones. Mad Summoner is a 6-mana 4/4 that fills everyone's board with 1/1 imps, which is, of course, beneficial in combination with specifically Impferno. I'm not 100% convinced Imp Warlock will be a thing, but if it does, the Mad Summoner/Impferno combo would certainly be a pretty powerful tool in their arsenal.
Sunreaver Spy: Probably a card that helps to make the Secret Paladin archetype work, a 2-mana 2/3 that becomes a 3/4 if you control a Secret. The only class that can play Sunreaver Spy on turn 2 is, of course, Paladin, and while the stat increase isn't as powerful as Secretkeeper, it's still a pretty neat little tempo move. Too weak for Wild, for sure, but I do think this dude can see some usage in Standard if Secret Paladin works out.Dalaran Librarian: 2-mana 2/3, vanilla stats, that silences adjacent minions. Another potential Silence Priest enabler, and it's definitely nice to have a lot of options -- one of the bigger problems of old Silence Priest is that they basically had Purify and Silence, and that's about it. It's neat in exactly that deck, and maybe on very rare occasions against Freeze Mage... but otherwise, won't see play. Nice flavour, though.
Arcane Watcher: An interesting card for the silence priest archetype as well. A 3-mana 5/6 is pretty powerful, far better than the Shadequill, I'd say, but it can't attack... unless you have spell damage. So you can either purify it or just throw down a Thalnos or something. Pretty interesting twist on the 'can't attack' style, and I think it might be pretty neat in those silence priest decks.
Potion Vendor: 1-mana 1/1 with Fungal Enchanter's battlecry. Will definitely see play in Heal Druid if that becomes a thing. Simple but neat. I like it.
Toxfin: 1-mana 1/2 Murloc that gives a friendly Murloc poisonous. Also simple, and pretty useful as essentially removal in any zoo Murloc decks. More of a tech card than anything, but I like this one.
Safeguard: Oh, the pun. Safeguard is this year's "powerful, sticky taunt" minion comparable somewhat to Rotten Applebaum, a 6-mana 4/5 that births a 0/5. And I think both are Mechs, so there's definitely some synergy there. I still think that Sludge Belcher's more powerful in Wild, and unless there's specific token or mech synergy, Applebaum still beats Safeguard out, but definitely one of the better -- and funnier -- neutrals.Mana Reservoir: 2-mana 0/6 with Spell Damage +1. Also an Elemental. Also won't see play, because we had a card that's more or less the same in Gadgetzan's Street Vendor. There are better cards to give you spell damage, better cards for elemental synergies and better cards for Inner Fire combos.
Faceless Rager: Holy shit, an actually good Rager card? He's a 3-mana 5/1 as usual, but it copies a friendly minion's health! Sure, it's nowhere as powerful as Faceless Shambler, but a 3-mana 5-attack minion that can potentially get a pretty high health stat if you play him off-curve? It's not like the new Corridor Creeper or anything, but it's actually a card that could see some actual play, and an actually good arena card.
Potral Keeper & Portal Overfiend: Reviewing these two together because they have the exact same effect -- shuffling 3 portals into your deck, each of which summons a 2/2 demon with rush when you draw them. Both are also demons and have amazing art, the difference is the numbers -- Keeper is a 4-mana 5/2 while Overfiend is a 6-mana 5/6. There are some obvious synergies with things like Elekk, and being demon synergies (and demons that are likely to die when you summon them, too) also makes it a nice fit for the theoretical Imp/swarm Warlock decks. You can maybe have fun with them with things like Plot Twist? Overall, while they might look like a gimmick, I actually wouldn't discount them being ultimately playable. Either way they make for good arena cards.Spellbook Binder: Also another "good card, but simply outclassed", this is a 2-mana 3/2 that draws a card if you have a minion with Spell Damage. The ask isn't that hard, and the drawing effect is great, but why would you ever run this over Loot Hoarder or Novice Engineer?
Violet Warden: Speaking of Spell Damage cards, this one is 4/7 Taunt and Spell Damage +1. Interesting, but there are a lot of better Spell Damage minions out there. You always want cheaper ones in any case.
Eccentric Scribe: 6-mana 6/4 that dies and turns into four 1/1 tokens. It's like a smaller, shittier Violet Worm, and only relevant when combined with all of those cards that summon 6-cost minions. It's not horrible when you get an Eccentric Scribe, but it's definitely not top of the list of cards you want.
Proud Defender: It's exactly the same as a Stegodon (4-mana 2/6 Taunt) that sometimes becomes a 4/6 Taunt if you have no other minions. It's the same condition as Lone Champion, but Lone Champion's effect of Taunt + Divine Shield is far better than a mere stat boost that honestly isn't anything too impressive. Neat in arena.
Magic Carpet: The flavour of a 3-mana 1/6 that grants small minions +1 Attack and Rush is hilariously fun. Huge fun of the design, and it's not super bad, because we've seen cards like Hobgoblin and Steward of Darkness see play before. I'm just not convinced that a 1-cost-centric deck will be good at all.
Violet Spellsword: 4-mana 1/6 that gains attack as a battlecry based on the spells you're holding. I'm pretty sure we saw a card with an effect like this in Boomsday, Brainstormer or something, and that never saw play. Neither will this.Recurring Villain: The flavour is fun, this sinister Sherlock Holmes villain that keeps coming back if his scheme is fulfilled -- in this case, if it dies with 4 attack or more. You could do it with something as simple as Dire Wolf Alpha or more elaborate buffs... it's just that it's ultimately just a below-average vanilla body that comes back. Fun flavour, probably pretty weak.
Arcane Servant: Hey, it's a vanilla River Crocolisk, but an Elemental! Hello, card no one will play!
Burly Shovelfist: Hey, it's Rabid Worgen, but three times bigger! Also won't see play. Go for Amani War Bear instead for a big rusher.
Hench-Clan Sneak: Hey, it's Jungle Panther, but a 3/3 instead of a 4/2, which makes this strictly worse than Jungle Panther!
Underbelly Ooze: Hey, it's Grim Patron, but bigger, and far more expensive. (3/5 for 7 mana?) The way it's worded is that it'll summon a copy of its damaged self so it's far weaker than Patron. Weak card.Dalaran Crusader: Hey, it's Silvermoon Champion, but a 5/4 instead of a 3/3, and 5 mana instead of 3! It's decent, but only relevant in Arena or when you get it through discover or evolve effects.
Heroic Innkeeper: Hey, it's a more expensive Frostwolf Warlord that racks up more buffs based on the minions you control! Also looks like Jaina for some reason. Too expensive.
Soldier of Fortune: 4-mana 5/6 that gives your opponent a coin whenever it attacks! Comparable to Hungry Dragon, but with the potential to really fuck you up since it can give Coin basically indefinitely. There are a lot of better minions to play in Silence Priest, and even Hungry Dragon saw no play.
Flight Master: A 3-mana 3/4 that summons a 2/2 Gryphon for both players, which is cute but why would you put this in a constructed deck?
Tunnel Blaster: 7-mana 3/7 Taunt that... Hellfires the board when it dies? I dunno. I can mostly just shrug. S'neat in arena sometimes maybe, but there are better taunts.Whirlwind Tempest: 8-mana 6/6 that turns all minions with Windfury into Mega-Windfury. Now we've got an interseting card. Fun artwork, too! By and by I don't see this hugely under-statted card being played a whole ton, but there's going to be some crazy-ass deck that will try and cheat Whirlwind Tempest out to get some hilarious kills with a buffed-up Walking Fountain or Corpsetaker or something. This is the sort of weird-ass effects that I like filler cards to have, for sure.
Azerite Elemental: Another wacky elemental, Azerite dude here is 5-mana 2/7 that gains Spell Damage +2 at the start of every turn. Yeah, there are a bunch of Spell Damage synergies in the neutral batch, but Azerite Elemental is a card that I think would be played without any of those, and you're just trying to maximize its power and buffing it to power up your Kill Commands, Lightning Bolts or whatever cheap spells. 2/7 is a respectably bulky body, but it also needs at least a turn to 'charge' its effect before it snowballs. Probably a lot more impractical than just cheating out Malygos, but it's, again, a fun weird filler card.
As usual, I'm doing a little ratings system. I don't particularly think a whole ton of the new archetypes will work out, but I do feel a bit optimistic for some of them, particularly heal druid and burgle rogue. Imp Warlock definitely has potential, too. I don't think it murloc shaman or secret paladin are going to be super-good, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Lots of fun cards here (particularly some of the legendaries), but I genuinely don't feel particularly excited about a significant amount of the expansion -- mostly due to the rotation more than anything.
Druid:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Crystal Power, Keeper Stalladris
- 3: Lucentbark, Dreamway Guardians, Lifeweaver
- 2: Acornbearer, Crystal Stag
- 1: Crystalsong Portal, Blessing of the Ancients, The Forest's Aid
Hunter:
- 5: N/A
- 4: N/A
- 3: Ursatron, Nine Lives, Marked Shot
- 2: Shimmerfly, Vereesa Windrunner, Unleash the Beast
- 1: Oblivitron, Arcane Fletcher, Rapid Fire, Hunting Party
Mage:
- 5: Kalecgos
- 4: Mana Cyclone
- 3: Magic Dart Frog, Khadgar, Conjurer's Calling, Power of Creation
- 2: Messenger Raven, Kirin Tor Tricaster, Magic Trick, Ray of Frost
- 1: N/A
Paladin:
- 5: N/A
- 4: N/A
- 3: Mysterious Blade, Commander Rhyssa, Never Surrender, Duel
- 2: Bronze Herald, Dragon Caller, Nozari
- 1: Desperate Measures, Lightforged Blessing, Call to Adventure
Priest:
- 5: Forbidden Words
- 4: Convincing Infiltrator
- 3: Madame Lazul, Catrina Muerte, Mass Resurrection
- 2: EVIL Conscripter, Hench-Clan Shadoqwuill, Shadowy Figure, Lazul's Scheme
- 1: Unsleeping Soul
Rogue:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Underbelly Fence, Hench-Clan Burglar, Heistbaron Togwaggle, Togwaggle's Scheme
- 3: Unidentified Contract
- 2: Tak Nozwhisker, EVIL Miscreant, Daring Escape, Vendetta, Waggle Pick
- 1: N/A
Shaman:
- 5: Sludge Slurper
- 4: N/A
- 3: Underbelly Angler, Scargil, Swampqueen Hagatha
- 2: Muckmorpher, Walking Fountain, Soul of the Murloc, Hagatha's Scheme
- 1: Mutate, Witch's Brew
Warlock:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Arch-Villain Rafaam
- 3: EVIL Genius, Jumbo Imp, Impferno
- 2: Eager Underling, Aranasi Broodmother, Plot Twist, Fel Lord Betrug, Rafaam's Scheme
- 1: Darkest Hour
Warrior:
- 5: N/A
- 4: Omega Devastator
- 3: The Boom Reaver
- 2: Vicious Scraphound, Clockwork Goblin, Blastmaster Boom, Wrenchcalibur, Improve Morale, Dimensional Ripper
- 1: Sweeping Strikes, Dr Boom's Scheme
Neutral:
- 5: Hecklebot
- 4: Hench-Clan Hogsteed, Barista Lynchen, Safeguard
- 3: Potion Vendor, Toxfin, Sunreaver Spy, Faceless Rager, Archmage Vargoth, Hench-Clan Hag, Portal Keper, Portal Overfiend, Mad Summoner, Unseen Saboteur, Archivist Elysiana
- 2: EVIL Cable Rat, Arcane Watcher, Azerite Elemental, Sunreaver Warmage, Jepetto Joybuzz
- 1: Arcane Servant, Dalaran Librarian, Mana Reservoir, Spellbook Binder, Flight Master, Hench-Clan Sneak, Magic Carpet, Spellward Jeweler, Proud Defender, Traveling Healer, Soldier of Fortune, Violet Spellsword, Dalaran Crusader, Recurring Villain, Eccentric Scribe, Violet Warden, Chef Nomi, Exotic Mountseller, Tunnel Blaster, Underbelly Ooze, Batterhead, Heroic Innkeeper, Whirlwind Tempest, Burly Shovelfist, Big Bad Archmage
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