Note: this article was briefly taken down and reposted because of me misreading a lot of the cards revealed later on. Really have to stop making articles half-asleep.
High Priest Amet: Okay, this is an interesting one. A 4-mana 2/7? Pretty powerful statline, especially for a Priest. That 7 health's going to be useful for Inner Fire/Divine Spirit shenanigans. But the effect is that Amet is going to set the health of everything you play while he's on board into the same thing as his current health. So play Amet and a Nortshire Cleric together on the same turn, and the Cleric will be a 1/7, meaning your opponent has to deal with multiple potential Divine Spirit/Inner Fire recipients. And the downside is pretty interesting, too, because as Amet gets his health reduced, he's going to potentially debuff your minions to have low health too... but, y'know, you're a Priest. You can heal him up. Honestly, Amet looks like such a great combo enabler that I can totally see him being one of the breakout legendaries of the set. If not becoming the backbone of a powerful new legendary deck, then he's going to be something everyone experiments with.
Anka the Buried: Originally, I saw this Rogue legendary minion as cute but I'm not sure where she goes. A 5-mana 5/5 that changes all deathrattle cards in your hand into 1-mana 1/1's? That's like a weird variation of the Bwonsamdi gimmick, and we knew how that flopped on its face. But then I look at the deathrattle cards out there... and I remember Mecha'thun is a deathrattle card. And then I remember Rogue has a reliable way to kill their deck with Myra's Unstable Element... and suddenly, a combo deck that features Anka the Buried, Mecha'thun and Unstable Element doesn't seem that far-fetched. Again, I'm actually going to look forward if this is going to be something genuinely powerful and reliable, or if it's going to be a weird janky deck. And that's without Anka herself being honestly pretty neat on her own, generating instant discounts to the cards in your hand. Jury's out if that Mecha'thun Anka deck is going to work, but man, I do like this card a lot.
Dark Pharaoh Tekahn: Hooolee shit, Dark Pharaoh Tekahn! Tekahn's dourness has made him easily my favourite of the playable Lackeys in the Dalaran Heist, and the Neferset themselves have always had a special place in my heart, Warcraft-lore wise. And Tekahn's basically that old Rogue quest reward in minion form. 5-mana 4/4, and he will permanently turn all your Lackeys into 4/4's for the rest of the game, which is insane. Warlock currently only has two Lackey generators -- EVIL Cable Rat and EVIL Genius, and depending on how many more they will get in this expansion, we might actually really see a powerful Lackey Warlock deck come to fruition. EVIL Recruiter is another one that's going to make this potential tempo Warlock deck work, too... and honestly, it's going to depend on how many Lackey cards we get in this expansion and the next. Good stuff!
Hack the System: the Warrior quest is... interesting. You have to attack 5 times with your hero, and the reward is a 2-mana summon a 4/3 vanilla minion that gets refreshed every time you attack. And... I dunno. It just feels underwhelming, y'know? 2 mana 4/3 minions once or twice every turn isn't anything to sneeze at, but the 'refresh' is a lot less interesting than Shadowreaper Anduin's, and attacking five turns before you can abuse the 4/3 generator seems to be pretty steep. It's usually Aggro Warriors that want to attack a lot with weapons and whatnot, but that quest reward is more tempo or control oriented? I dunno, I can see a Wild deck with something like two N'Zoth's First Mates to fulfill this Quest and ditch the 2-armor hero power entirely, but in the same vein, I don't think such a gimmicky deck has enough power level to survive the Wild meta.
Colossus of the Moon: 10 mana neutral legendary 10/10 with Reborn and Divine Shield. He's going to meet the same fate as Soggoth or Tyrantus, basically... that statline and keyword combination is surely impressive, but no one's going to put him in their deck. Recruit, Rez Priest or Y'Shaarj decks have better options, but he's going to be devastating in Arena and one you'll cheer for when you play cards like Evolve or Conjurer's Calling. Pretty neat card to have in the pool, even if the Colossus itself probably won't see a ton of play.
Cloud Prince: Secret tempo mage decks might be a memory of the past for Standard, but it's never really left in Wild. One of the more consistent tier-2 or tier-3 decks, it appears that Secret Mage's going to get a whole lot of new toys to play with, and one of the more powerful ones is Cloud Prince. A 5-mana 4/4 that deals 6 damage (it can go face!) if you control a Secret? That's freaking Fireball, for one mana more, and comes with a 4/4. It's Medivh's Valet's bigger brother, and this is definitely going to be the mid-game card that Secret Mage never knew it needed. Easily going to be one of the most powerful cards in Secret Mage in Wild, and honestly, might very well single-handedly shoehorn the return of Standard Secret Mage.
Arcane Flakmage: Flakmage is another pretty powerful card. A 2-mana 3/2 that basically nukes the enemy board for 2 damage, every time you play a Secret? Shit, with multiple ways to make Secrets cost less (again, particularly in Wild), the Flakmage honestly looks like a pretty damn powerful tool to help Secret Mage control the board and keep their own minions alive. The fact that it triggers every time you play a Secret is unfortunate because the Flakmage herself could be removed in the meantime, but honestly, the cheap cost of this minion, as well as the 2-damage board nuke, is pretty damn powerful.
EVIL Recruiter: Heralded by many as one of the star non-legendaries of the set, the EVIL Recruiter is a godsend for zoo Warlock, a 3-mana 3/3 that destroys a Lackey to summon a 5/5 extra body. That's essentially a net 4-mana 7/7 divided into two bodies, plus the inherent battlecry you get from the Lackey. And one of which is a Demon, which isn't always relevant, but a nice bonus for Warlocks. You'll always want to play Recruiter at turn 4 to guarantee the Lackey surviving to be killed by the Recruiter, but honestly, that amount of stats is just pretty damn impressive, and the drawback is basically "did I draw a Lackey generator in the first three turns?" Honestly, while I'm not sure if we're getting more Warlock Lackey-generators, I actually do think that this is going to be a pretty powerful consideration for zoo or general tempo Warlock decks, even if that Tekahn Lackey warlock deck doesn't work out.
Riftcleaver: While perhaps not making as many waves as EVIL Recruiter, the Riftcleaver is a far, far better removal option than something like Impbalming. It's basically the Lich King's Obliterate spell attached to a body. And honestly, a 6-mana 7/5 demon body is not the worst it could've been attached to. It draws a lot of comparisons to Illidan Stormrage, sure, but a powerful removal ability is nothing to sneeze at as compared to Illidan's Violet-Teacher-lite ability. Honestly, I do really think that Riftcleaver's going to be a pretty powerful asset for Warlocks.
Bloodsworn Mercenary: Another pretty powerful card, this time for Warrior, the Bloodsworn Mercenary is a cheaper version of a Faceless Manipulator with infinitely more upsides packed into it. It's 3 mana instead of 5. It also comes with a 3/3 body, and summons an extra copy. It can be doubled with battlecry-synergy effects. All for the cheap, cheap requirement of having your minion be damaged, which is laughably trivial for Warriors to do. Sudden Genesis weeps in comparison to this card. Honestly, probably a pretty damn useful all-purpose cards in Warrior decks. It's not going to be the one that suddenly makes Warrior super-powerful the way something like Dr. Boom Mad Genius does, but it's definitely going to be a powerful tempo-swing tool for a lot of Warrior decks.
Overflow: Druids get a 7-mana spell that allows them to draw 5 cards while restoring 5 health to all characters. That includes the enemy! And it's a fun tech card, I suppose... not sure if the healing synergy matters as much as some people make it out to be. It's like old Nourish, only you draw more and reload more with the added drawback of healing your opponent... but honestly, five face health ain't nothing to a dedicated aggro token druid. It's not the most impressive card, and I'm pretty sure everyone that's hyping this up really have Ultimate Infestation PTSD. Needless to say, outclassed in Wild, but probably will be experimented with in Standard.
Anubisath Defender: A 5-mana 3/5 Taunt (so a Sen'jin) that costs 0 if you cast a big spell on the same turn. Arcane Tyrant, a vanilla 4/4 with the same effect, saw a fair amount of play in Jade Druids of old because they played Ultimate Infestation and Nourish, and that's like, four cards out of an entire deck. Wild Jade Druid cut out Arcane Tyrant nowadays, though, but the Anubisath Defender admittedly has a better statline and a keyword, and, again, might see play in Standard at least if not in Wild. A decent improvement over a previous playable card, all it needs is a deck that wants to use it.
Hunter's Pack: For 3 mana, you generate three random hunter cards -- a beast, a secret and a weapon. And honestly, the specification that these are all hunter cards is pretty damn great since hunter beasts, by and by, are pretty great. The only real whiffs are probably Acidmaw and Starving Buzzard. Secrets are always good, and even the worst will sometimes lead to your opponent misplaying, and the only whiff for hunter weapons is honestly Rhok'delar in wild if your deck isn't built as a spell hunter deck. Pretty great reload tool for Hunter, and synergizes well with the Zul'jin hero card. Honestly, after the whole "class identity" deal, it's surprising to see Hunter get a pretty damn powerful (and honestly pretty cheap) resource generator.
Pressure Plate: A pretty interesting Hunter secret, and the first since Cat Trick to be triggered by a spell. Instead of summoning a Jungle Panther, though, Pressure Plate just casts Multi-shot and destroys a random enemy minion. A pretty powerful effect... but probably not that exciting once everyone starts to play around it by trying to play around this secret. It's still pretty powerful as a potential removal, though, and while it's definitely not a five-out-of-five-two-mana-removal card like the community gut feeling seems to think it is, it's still a very solid card in its own right.
Desert Spear: It's like Piranha Cannon from Gadgetzan, but good. A 3-mana 1/3 weapon is shit, but you get a 1/1 rushing beast token, and that Rush is what makes this weapon go from gimmicky to potentially good. While it doesn't wow me too much, and I'm not sure what deck specifically wants to put this into Hunter's famously crowded 3-mana spot, it's neat enough to be a decent arena card.
Tortollan Pilgrim: An 8-mana 5/5 that, as a battlecry, discovers a spell in your deck and casts a copy of it. It kinda reminds me of the Kobold Archivist dude from Kobolds & Catacombs, except instead of spending the spell, the Pilgrim actually casts a copy of it. And unlike the Tortollan Primalist, you can choose a spell from your deck, instead of getting a bunch of potentially useless spells. While not the most powerful card out there, it's definitely going to be useful if you're building a Reno style deck, and there definitely is a motivation for doing exactly that in this set.
Tip the Scales: Paladin Murloc is a thing now in Standard? For 8 mana, you recruit 7 minions from your deck, which people have been comparing to the Boomship or to Mysterious Challenger, and the latter comparison is apt. At a late turn, you just cast an expensive card to instantly thin out your deck and play out all of the cheap cards (Secrets in Mysterious Challenger's case, Murlocs in Tip the Scales' case), leaving only the late-game cards. I'm not sure if there's even the inkling of Murloc Paladin in Standard, but Wild's Anyfin combo Murloc Paladin has been a decently-performing deck even without this card. I can definitely see this as a one off to just summon all of your Murlocs to set up Anyfin can Happen... or just outright murder your opponent.
Micro Mummy: The card that's going to enable the paladin quest whether it works or not, Micro Mummy is a Reborn 2-mana 1/2 that basically has the Master Swordsman effect. Which is a neat, if not the most impressive, ability for a Paladin minion to have. At least it's Paladin, which has a history of loving huge wide swarm decks. Even if quest paladin doesn't end up working out (and I really don't think it will, unless we get some really broken Reborn stuff later on), Micro Mummy can conceivably show up as just a generic aggro paladin booster. It's a very solid card.
Grandmummy: Ha ha, the name! Oh man, such a shame that this particular reborn card isn't one that Paladin gets, what with their quest and all. A 2-mana 1/2 with Reborn, and a deathrattle that buffs fellow minions? Pretty interesting combination of stats, but I really don't see the Grandmummy particularly filling any sort of niche in Priest, becuase I really don't think zoo Priest is a thing.
Whirlkick Master: An interesting rogue minion in the same vein of Underbelly Angler, a 2-mana card (1/2 this time around) that theoretically can continue generating Combo cards as long as you play Combo cards. The problem is that the quality of Combo cards are definitely not quite as consistent as Murlocs (which, at the worst, is still a body on the board that gets buffed by your Warleaders), and there are a bunch of Combo cards that are just way too expensive to play. Kidnapper in particular, but also the expensive Spectral Pillager, Sabotage and Shado-Pan Rider in wild. Interesting and potentially decent card, but probably not that great. Like, even if you aim to drop an Edwin VanCleef at the end, I really don't see this deck working out particularly well.
Hooked Scimitar: And we get a new combo card to boot, a 3-mana 2/2 weapon that becomes a 4/2 if you combo it. That's just so vanilla, y'know? Like, it's a slightly better Perdition's Blade, and is just so outclassed by Kingsbane or the Baku Rogue hero power in Wild... not the worst thing to come out of a Whirlkick Master, I suppose, but still, it really feels more like a decent arena card more than anything.
Bazaar Mugger: A Rogue card, a 5-mana 3/5 Rush that adds a random minion from another class to your hand. And... I dunno, it just feels kind of underwhelming? The burgle mechanic is always pretty neat, and being minions specifically is a nice little restriction, but a 3/5 rushing body for 5 mana? I know I tend to underestimate Rush personally, but I really do feel that the card itself isn't really that good, and honestly comes in a bit too late to activate other "burgled cards in hand matter" cards like Underbelly Huckster or whatever. Neat in like arena or solo adventures, but I don't see it being relevant in constructed.
Splitting Axe: A 4-mana 3/2 shaman weapon that, as a battlecry, summons copies of your totems. You kind of have a finite board space, and other than Totem Golem, most of your totems are 0-attack minions. Cute effect, but definitely too impractical in Wild, and probably useless in Standard as well, unless we have some insane Totem synergies incoming.
Plague of Flames: It's a one mana plague for Warlock, and it's a pretty impressive one. You destroy all your minions, and destroy a random enemy minion for each one you have. Obviously meant to be used with something like worthless Imp tokens, a more removal-oriented version of Darkest Hour or something. It's certainly far better-statted than that horrible Dark Bargain card from waaaaay back when (bet no one remembers that) and... I think Plague of Flames is pretty neat! I'm not sure how useful it is, but I guess it's a cheaper Twisting Nether with an additional cost of having a board of your own... but, y'know, you also destroy your own board. I'm not entirely convinced this is a good card, honestly, but I also think it has enough potential to not be bad. Perhaps the one that I'm the most easily swayed about here.
Diseased Vulture: Not quite as impressive as the Riftcleaver or the Recruiter, but Warlock also gets the Diseased Vulture, a 4-mana 3/5 that summons a random 3-cost minion every time the Warlock damages itself. And as anyone who has played masochistic warlock since Kobolds and Catacombs, that's not a particularly hard thing to do. So many Warlock cards deal damage to the hero, and that's not even counting the hero power itself, since the Vulture doesn't specify 'cards' like the Amethyst Spellstone. The Vulture is like the Vex Crow on Steroids, since a 3-mana minion is going to be, on average, something like a 3/3 or a 3/4? And there's no chance of summoning something like a Doomsayer either. Another powerful tool for Warlock for sure. Is Warlock suffering in Standard? Because they clearly didn't need help in Wild!
Into the Fray: Warrior's on this Taunt/Handbuff run, and Into the Fray is a more powerful version of Paladin's old Smuggler's Run, a 1-mana spell that hand-buffs taunt minions by +2/+2. I'm still unconvinced that Taunt Handbuff is ever going to work out as an actually meta deck. It's probably going to be fun, and might be decent in Standard? I dunno.
Frightened Flunky: Easily the only card so far that made me go "okay, maybe Taunt Handbuff Warrior might have a chance", Frightened Flunky is a cheaper and arguably better version of Stonehill Defender, a card that saw near-ubiquitous play back in the day. And a 2-mana 2/2 with Taunt is honestly not bad enough, and it can cycle into itself very well. Very solid card even as a standalone, and even if taunt handbuff warrior does not work out, the Flunky really does seem like a very, very solid card nonetheless.
Plague of Wrath: It's basically King Mosh's "kill everything damaged" battlecry on a five-mana spell card. An interesting alternative to Brawl, I suppose, and certainly far, far easier to fit into your deck compared to Mosh... but probably won't see play in Wild. Brawl and Warpath are kind of pretty damn comprehensive as far as removal tools go.
Livewire Lance: A 3-mana 2/2 weapon is a severe stat drop from the already unplayable post-nerf Fiery War Axe, but you get a Lackey every time you attack. And Lackeys are cool and all, but unless I miss something, Warriors really don't need Lackeys as much as other classes like Rogue or Warlock, so unless we suddenly get some huge synergy, it's kinda-sorta a card that has great potential, but one that might find itself in the wrong class.
Fishflinger: A 2-mana 3/2 Murloc that as a battlecry, adds murlocs to both players' hands. Clearly, murlocs are basically kinda shit in a non-murloc deck, being vanilla minions at best. I'm not sure if it's powerful enough to make its way into more refined Murloc decks (particularly Wild Murloc Shaman or Wild Murloc Paladin), and definitely weaker than Underbelly Angler, but it's a neat little card that helps to generate murlocs from outside your deck. Pretty interesting design, if nothing else.
Desert Obelisk: What people are dubbing the 'meme' card of the set, this is like a far, far worse version of Star Aligner. And sure, Star Aligner ended up working out in Wild for a while until they nerfed Aviana, but Desert Obelisk is a 5-mana 0-attack minion that needs three copies of itself (instead of "anything with 7 health" like the Aligner). Sure, there are ways to copy a Desert Obelisk. The paladin quest hero power. Faceless Manipulator. Herald Volazj. Vivid Nightmare. Spirit of the Dead. But even then what you get are three over-costed mini-Ragnaroses that shoot damage to random targets. Way too much effort for too little payoff. When you actually get to a point where you can copy multiple minions, why not copy actually good ones?
Mogu Cultist: Another wacky combo deck, the Mogu Cultist at least is a lot more potentially game-winning than the Desert Obelisk. Fill your board with the Mogu Cultists, and they combine and become Highkeeper Ra. Sort of similar to Blood of the Ancient One, but as 1-mana 1/1's, they're simultaneously a lot more fragile, but a lot easier to cheat out with something like... oh, Glinda Crowskin granting Echo or Rogue's Lab Recruiter shuffling a bunch of Cultists into the deck. Highkeeper Ra is also a lost more useful than The Ancient One's big vanilla body. Ra is a 20/20 that also unleashes a 20-damage AoE on your enemy's board, including the hero, so it's actually pretty neat that while Highkeeper Ra isn't quite an alternate victory condition like Mecha'thun, it's still a lot more likely to kill your opponent after the effort you put into it, unlike The Ancient One. While currently I don't see a Mogu Cultist deck working, I do appreciate the card design, and unlike Desert Obelisk, I can definitely see this eventually finding a home with some combo we haven't thought up of yet.
Infested Goblin: Comparable to the Igneous Elemental of the past, the Infested Goblin is a 3-mana 2/3 Taunt that as a deathrattle adds two 1/1 taunts to your hand. And everyone's theorizing if it's going to make it in the theoretical taunt warrior deck... but I dunno. It's just so slow, y'know? Like, I kinda wanna see the dream scenario of taunt warrior working out, that you drop a 3-mana 4/5 taunt that generates 3/3 taunts in your hand or something... but handbuff has historically been relatively unplayable, so I really don't see this particular iteration working out either.
Neferset Ritualist: A far more powerful version of something like Shroom Brewer, Potion Brewer or Boisterous Bard, the Neferset Ritualist will just straight-up fully heal minions adjacent to it. And while the positioning's probably going to be a wee bit awkward, it's not that much of a drawback, and any deck with heal synergies, particularly Priests, is defintiely going to want to consider this. Not the most exciting card, but an interesting one.
Wasteland Assassin: A 5-mana 4/2 with stealth and reborn. And... it's a Jungle Panther that summons a slightly weaker Jungle Panther upon death. All right as an arena card, but probably not powerful enough to see constructed play.
Vilefiend: It's an all right arena or solo adventures card. 2/2 Lifesteal is just all right to be in the "neat to have out of random effects" category while solidly not being anywhere near constructed viable.
Anubisath Warbringer: A deathrattle hand-buff card? Yeah, it's... it's not bad to get out of something like Evolve or in Arena, y'know? But it's never going to see constructed play. Artwork's cool.
Generous Mummy: A 3-mana 5/4 with Reborn? Holy shit that's good. A minion that discounts your opponent's entire hand? Yyeeeeaaaah that's not going to see play.
Sunstruck Henchman: A 4-mana 6/5 that has a chance to fall asleep? The ogre cards from GvG are fun, flavourful cards, but they never really saw play in serious competitive Hearthstone for a reason: unreliability. Will be all right in Arena or solo adventures, but that's about it.
Titanic Lackey: After a bit of a yes-no-maybe dodging around the question, we're officially getting a new Lackey added to the original pool of six. Are we just getting this one, or are we getting five new ones? Regardless, Titanic Lackey's both a blessing and a curse. A defensive Lackey that's essentially a reverse version of the Goblin Lackey is definitely a very, very useful tool, but that does mean that the Lackey pool is diluted and skewed from "almost always tempo-related". I personally do think that adding extra tokens to the Lackey pool is amazing, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment