I'm honestly unsure if I am even qualified to do a "look back at my old scores" for Rise of Shadows, for the simple reason that I probably played like three or four games of Standard for the total time that Rise of Shadows was the newest expansion, and in Wild, there weren't that many new cards that were used. We'll see, I suppose. I could always go and look at the sites in fan-tracker sites, but that's work, y'know?
Anyway, as of the time of writing, these are all (or, well, most) of the cards that have been revealed, courtesy of playhearthstone.com.
Of course, some of the more hype cards are the Quests, and while the Druid one seemed... all right in my books (although probably too weak for wild), Corrupt the Waters, the Shaman Quest, is a lot more interesting. Playing six battlecry cards is definitely not a huge ask for Shamans to do, because, well, as Shudderwock decks proved in the past, even without the infinite combo (which you can still do, albeit harder, in Wild) the battlecry shaman decks are kind of on the cusp of playability. Playing 6 battlecry cards is definitely going to be easy, but is it enough to sacrifice the turn one tempo? A hero power that you have to use isn't the best thing out there, unlike, say, Druid's passive hero power, but causing all battlecries to trigger twice for two mana is pretty powerful. It's equivalent to having a body-less Brann Bronzebeard on call. Overall, I can actually see this one working out, even if it probably won't dominate as powerfully as Caverns Below did.
Some people theorized that you could combine both Corrupt the Waters and Unite the Murlocs in Wild, but I'm pretty sure that it's going to be way too unwieldy. I like the design of this one, though. It's neat.
I guess Reno Jackson's a Mage now for some reason? Process of elimination, I wager. Raid the Sky Temple is interesting. Casting 10 spells is something that basically all Mage decks will do anyway, and I don't think Tempo Mage decks really have a solid one-drop anyway (unless you're in wild, at which point you have Kabal Lackey)... and the reward is a hero power that basically gives you a randomized version of Primordial Glyph. Which is pretty dang powerful, of course, but at the same time, I'm not sure if losing the Fireblast hero power is going to ever be worth it for Mage, because holy shit, the Fireblast hero power is very useful. I could kinda see a more tempo-oriented Mage deck that switches to value/control in the late-game maybe panning out in Standard (which mostly stems from my admitted lack of knowledge about the Standard metagame), but probably not in Wild.
People have also said that you could combine this with Open the Waygate in Wild, by finishing this quest first while playing tempo mage, and then switching to finishing Open the Waygate completely with the upgraded hero power, before killing the enemy with the Arcane Giants or Antonidas combo if you can't kill them with the tempo mage deck, but I think that's a bit too cute to work. I would love to play it if it worked, though.
Granted, the old Paladin Quest was kinda poo, but Making Mummies... doesn't seem that powerful either? Playing 5 Reborn minions is going to be something I hold off on until we see the full range of Reborn minions, but even if they are all on the power level of Reckless Mummy, you have to play five... and then you swap your hero power with one that summons a 2/2 copy of a friendly minion. If you're playing a Making Mummies deck, presumably more often than not they're going to be a Reborn minion... which honestly isn't still all that powerful since sometimes the hero power will kind of be dead if you don't have a minion on-board. The miniature replication is interesting, but... I dunno. I kinda get Herald Volazj vibes from this. It is admittedly cheaper, but I'm not sure if it's going to be super good. Again... I'm not going to call this card trash or anything until I see all the Reborn minions, but the reward honestly makes me think that this is probably not the best quest in the set.
All the League of Explorers characters basically show up with battlecry/Reno effects that sort of demand you have a Reno deck... and, historically, Reno decks have all been control decks for the simple fact that Reno Jackson himself is one of the most oppressive and powerful Reno tools out there. And while in Wild I don't really see any one of these four panning out (well, maybe Elise), in Standard it's a bit more interesting because you can potentially build your deck in completely different ways without the obligation of "well, of course I have to include old Reno and Kazakus, they're powerful!", which in turn, will lead your deck into a very Control-oriented one.
Also, these are all class cards, which, of course, limits their usage a lot. Reno the Relicologist is a 6-mana 4/6 that unleashes a 10-damage Arcane Missile machinegun on your opponent's board. Which basically makes him kind of a C'thun-style board clear, of sorts. 10 damage is pretty impressive, I suppose, but not that impressive. Again, particularly in Wild, where it's going to be pretty piddling. A tempo deck that can deal 10 damage to the board on turn 6 while summoning a 4/6 is interesting, I suppose, but it's certainly not going to be the powerhouse in your deck, just... maybe more equitable to Meteor?
Dinotamer Brann is still 2/4, but costs 7-mana, and summons King Krush for free. Which is just oodles of value, and you can summon two King Krushes in Wild with old Brann. I don't have a whole ton to say here... control Hunter has historically not been great, so while the effect is pretty neat, I really don't think Dinotamer Brann will work out.
Elise the Enlightened takes the statline of Trailblazer Elise, and is a 5-mana 5/5... and it will duplicate your hand, which is probably the most powerful effect out of these four. People are whispering about Malygos decks, which I can totally see working, but the simple value of her basically being old Nourish with a body attached to it, and the potential for duplicating some legendaries is nothing to sneeze at. I'm too lazy to think up of specific examples, but I can totally see combo decks making use of Elise.
Sir Finley of the Sands have apparently leveled up since League of Explorers, now a 2/3 instead of a 1/3, and... you discover an upgraded hero power. Which means Sir Finley of the Sands is kind of almost completely worthless in Wild since Baku or Genn are always strictly better. And even in Standard... as powerful as the upgraded hero powers are, how powerful are they really going to be that you'll want to build a Reno one-off deck just to accommodate it? In particular, you're never guaranteed to get the Paladin upgraded hero power, and even if you do, the Silver Hand Recruit synergy cards are all one-off in your deck and you're not always going to play Finley on turn 2. I dunno. Probably the weakest out of the four Explorers, methinks.
Armagedillo is a hilarious card concept... but I dunno. It's a hand-buff card, and even with the buffs done to things like Glowstone Mechanic they're all still kinda unplayable and way too slow? Armagedillo is a 6-mana 4/7 Taunt, which is... decent if not spectacular body, and it's a continuous effect that gives all Taunt minions in your hand +2/+2. It's probably one of the strongest hand-buff cards out there if you assume all the cards in your warrior deck are Taunt cards (not hard to achieve, and probably doable in Wild with Fire Plume's Heart)... but even then, you probably get one shot at buffing your hand before Armagedillo gets killed. It's comparable to Grimstone Enforcer in the past, which is still pretty powerful but also didn't make handbuff Paladin great. My gut instinct says that unless we're getting some extreme hand-buff-taunt support, this onis going to be a whiff.
For non-legendaries, click after the break.
BEEEES!!! is a hilariously named card, even if at first glance I thought it was a pile of gold coming to life. For 3 mana, you deal 4 damage by summoning 1/1 minions to attack it, which is... actually pretty creative. What makes Bees more powerful than something comparable like Wrath is that you actually summon minions to attack it, which means that if you use it on your own minion, you can trigger Overkill synergies (Ironhide Direhorn, Oondasta and Ticket Scalper seem to be popular ones the fandom likes), while as removal, you can combo this with cards like Knife Juggler or Cult Master. In Wild, I actually like the design of the card a lot -- I can totally see a token druid deck using this as a choice removal coupled with Addled Grizzly, making it an 8-damage removal that sometimes leaves tokens on board. Pretty cool card.
Hidden Oasis is one that's actually pretty boring. A 6-mana 6/6 Taunt is kinda unplayable in constructed, and restoring 12 health for 6 mana is also kinda unplayable in constructed. Which means that the only times this card is super-useful is when it's played with either Fandral Staghelm, Keeper Stalladris or the new Druid quest's passive hero power active... and if you need to go that far just to have what's essentially a buff Antique Healbot, I don't think it's quite enough. Sure, the flexibility is kiiinda neat and maybe with a couple other heal synergies it might make that dream Lucentbark deck work... but nah.
Two big hunter beasts, both costing 6 mana. Wild Bloodstinger is actually pretty great in Wild, I think. 6-mana 6/9 is straight-up a great statline, two more health than a Boulderfist Ogre, but the fact that it comes with the Dirty Rat disruption battlecry, and has the potential to just straight-up remove a combo piece? In particular, Shudderwock straight-up dies to this thing. So does Emperor Thaurissan, a key combo enabler. While it doesn't outright kill Mecha'thun, it's going to basically disrupt any Mecha'thun combo decks heavily... and, again, dealing 6 damage to it straight-up is pretty damn great. Of course, like Dirty Rat, it's also a card that's kinda dead in your hand if you're up against any sort of combo decks or anything that uses Giants. Still, it's an interesting tech card! I don't foresee this seeing a lot of play for the simple reason that tech cards kind of don't see a lot of play in constructed... but I like that this card exists.
Scarlet Webweaver is... interesting. On one hand, a 6-mana 5/5 that reduces a random beast in your hand by 5? That's... interesting, but why not just play that big beast you're trying to play? It's kinda like why Dreampetal Florist didn't really work out. Sure, you can reduce the cost of King Krush so he's suddenly a 4-mana 8/8 charge, but then you also took the tempo loss of playing a 5/5 beast on turn 6 instead of playing... oh, I dunno, Savannah Highmane or something more impactful. And one of the best combo beast cards is Tundra Rhino, and a 0-mana Tundra Rhino is amazing... but you can't guarantee it hitting Tundra Rhino, and Tundra Rhino's only going to be useful in a deck with many beasts anyway. So... interesting and deceptively powerful, but impractical, I say.
Paladin's the card with the most minion released, and all three of them work with Salhet's Pride, a 3-mana 3/1 that draws two 1-health minions from your deck. Which... admittedly, there are a lot of powerful ones, even without the ones we see here. Righteous Protector, Argent Squire, Acherus Veteran, Selfless Hero, Twilight Drake... and Crystology is apparently sorta-kinda being played in Standard (I've never seen it in Wild myself), but Crystology is a 1-mana spell. Salhet's Pride is a 3-mana 3/1 minion that then has to die before it draws you cards. And at that point it kinda feels pretty underwhelming? Again, this might be because I'm way more attuned to the Wild metagame where Paladins are sort of pigeonholed into the Baku/Genn decks, and Salhet's Pride's not that powerful there... but even then, it kinda feels very gimmicky.
Brazen Zealot is a 1-mana 2/1 that's sort of like a less-restrictive Undertaker. A 1-mana 2/1 that gains 1 attack for each minion you summon. Which is great and all... but also very, very fragile because, y'know, it dies to Mages and Druids almost immediately it shows up. It dies to random Knife Juggles. It dies to anything resembling an AoE. Interesting effect, and probably powerful in a Paladin token deck, but I don't see it being super-powerful.
Sandwasp Queen is... a bit more boring. A 2-mana 3/1 that adds two 2/1 Sandwasps. It's kinda like Fire Fly, of course, but way more offensively oriented, and... and I dunno. I actually like this one a bit more than the other two? Because Sandwasp Queen is a decent (if not particularly game-breaking) card on its own, whereas Brazen Zealot and Salhet's Pride can just sort of die off on their own. If nothing else, Sandwasp Queen can help you swarm the board quickly. Again... none of these three feel particularly powerful to me, and while at least the Zealot and the Sandwasp are pretty great cards to see in arena or whatever, I don't think they're going to suddenly make Paladin tier-1.
Psychopomp is an interesting direction to take resurrect Priest. It definitely isn't going to fit anywhere in Wild Resurrect Priest, something that the wild community in general's going to breathe a sigh of relief because that deck's kinda powerful already. A 4-mana 3/1 that summons a random friendly minion that died this game, with Reborn? That's... that's pretty damn powerful. You're never going to play this on turn four, but later on in the game? With a Convincing Infiltrator that comes back? In wild, in some sort of a more generic dragon priest control deck? Or just a value deck where you bring a reborning Obsidian Statue? Pretty powerful effect, and basically what Onyx Bishop wishes he was. Because with Onyx Bishop, sometimes you whiff and you bring back a shitty vanilla minion. With Psychopomp, at least if you bring back a disappointing one (like, say, your other Psychopomp), it's at the very least a 3/1 that has Reborn, and a 4-mana 3/1 that summons a Scarlet Crusader? That ain't half bad. He just needs a proper deck to fit into.
Rogue gets Plague of Madness, which is kind of like Weapons Project, but way more powerful (and also way more likely to backfire) because both players get a 2/2 Knife with Poisonous. Anyone who plays single-player content will know that Poisonous weapons are pretty powerful, and anyone who played with Weapons Project knows how devastating that card is when paired with Harrison Jones, Acidic Ooze or Gluttonous Ooze. The thing is that Weapons Project's 2/3 weapon is just never that powerful to justify a two-card combo. But Plague of Madness's potential removal? Yeah, that's probably good enough. Wild has way too many removal for Rogue to probably want this (which could very much backfire!) but in Standard, I definitely can see this working out.
Shaman has three cards. Weaponized Wasp is... interesting? It's a 3-mana 3/3 that deals 3 damage if you have a Lackey. Meaning it curves perfectly from a Turn 1 Sludge Slurper, to Turn 2 Lackey, to Turn 3 Weaponized Wasp. Sludge Slurper's the only playable Lackey card in Shaman, and I'm not sure if they'll be running EVIL Cabal Rat any time soon just to play this wasp. And unlike Murkspark Eel, an inactivated Weaponized Wasp does not pass the vanilla test, and having a Lackey on board is sometimes not that practical. It's a powerful tempo tool nonetheless, though, and you can just wait for turn 4 if you suspect your opponent has removal. It's not going to be good enough in Wild I don't think, but I can see it working out if they print two or three Lackey-synergy cards for Shaman.
Plague of Murlocs is just straight-up good in Wild, for the simple reason that Wild has waaaaay better minions than Standard. Transforming all minions into random murlocs is risky because all you need is a single Murloc Warleader for your opponent's threatening board to still be a threatening board. And while Wild has some really scary Murlocs too (Old Murk-Eye, anyone?), Plague of Murlocs just basically shuts down Big Priest and ruins their day. Combined with Dirty Rat, it can straight-up murder any combo deck. And honestly, I don't think any Murloc Shaman deck will mind too much to have their board of murlocs be changed to slightly-different murlocs. It's way more powerful in certain situations than something like Devolve (which sometimes doesn't deal with Big Priest boards... a bunch of 8-mana heavyweights are still scary, after all), and it seems to be meant to be combined with something like Lightning Storm or Earthquake to properly wipe out a board. I really like this. It seems to be a card that's going to see more play in Wild than anything else.
Earthquake is a very, very interesting spell. For 7 mana, you deal a 5-mana AoE, then a 2-mana AoE. So bother putting it into your deck as opposed to something like Elemental Destruction or Volcano? Well, because it allows deathrattles to trigger first. So token druid decks with Soul of the Forest? You wipe out their board (incidentally, Earthquake also deals cleanly with Spreading Plague), then wipe out the treants that pop out from it. Murloc decks that play Soul of the Murloc? Same thing. Not all Shaman decks will run this because at 7 mana it's just too dang expensive, but I can definitely see control shaman putting Earthquake in as a tech choice if token druid or similar decks pop up.
Impbalming is an interesting spell. For 4 mana, you destroy a minion... then you shuffle three 1/1 worthless imps into your deck. Which... I dunno. If this was any other class other than Warlock, which can draw cards at command, I'd say this is a crappy card. But it is in the Warlock class, which makes this... maybe playable? I am still uncertain if that sweet, sweet Supreme Archaeology/Plot Twist/Darkest Hour deck everyone is dreaming about is ever going to work, and I really don't think Impbalming giving extra deck fodder is going to help out particularly significantly in that regard. And... yeah, you could get cute and say that these Worthless Imps are neat sacrificial fodder and maybe there are a lot of decks that could use extra sacrificial fodder... but I'm pretty sure I'd take, like, egg cards or deathrattle cards any time of the day. It's still a very, very interesting card. My gut instinct says unplayable, but at least it's an interesting unplayable one that has the potential to be good in case of something that synergizes with it well.
Expired Merchant is a straight-up powerhouse in Wild. 2-mana 2/1, discard your highest cost card, then add 2 copies to your hand when it dies. You definitely want Expired Merchant to die on your turn, honestly, because losing this to a silence or anything that causes its deathrattle to not activate is going to lose you not just the 2/1, but also a high-costing card. Honestly, no one's going to use this in a straight-up discard warlock deck, but as a card to just replicate the highest-costing card in your hand, well... a second Bloodreaver Gul'dan, anyone? N'Zoth? Howsabout a third one, then, since this isn't even a legendary? Honestly, this card looks pretty powerful for the duplication effect, if admittedly perhaps one that's going to take a bit of combo setup to do. Unlike the others that require setup here, though, Expired Merchant explicitly goes for the long-game, and costs maybe, oh, 3 mana with Mortal Coil to set off.
As far as Discard decks go... it's the reverse of other cards like other discard synergy cards in the Rastakhan set, which focuses mostly on the lowest-costing card in your hand... and... I still don't think this is going to make Discard Warlock a Tier 1 deck or anything, but as someone who has been (un)lucky enough to naturally get all of the discard warlock legendaries out of packs over the years, I'm actually happy to see something that makes my janky-ass Discard Warlock deck actually potentially work.
A simple card, Murmy is basically Deadscale Knight -- a 1-mana 1/1 Murloc with a keyword, in this case Reborn. Which means that Murmy is essentially like Mecharoo or Possessed Villager, but with the Murloc tag and without any interaction with deathrattle-synergy cards... but interaction with something like the new Paladin Quest. Actually probably pretty neat in something like Murloc Shaman in both Wild and Standard for the simple reason that Mecharoo is great in any Mech deck. You keep the tribal tag around even after you trigger the first death. Pretty simple but solid one.
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