We'll start things off with Hunters first, and I think we've seen most of what Hunters have to offer in this expansion? It's kind of all over the place, but Clear the Way and Diving Gryphon are both building towards a Rush tempo hunter archetype. Diving Gryphon's a great rusher card, a 3-mana 4/1 rush that immediately tutors for another Rush minion. It's essentially a Shadow Bolt in minion form that draws another specific card, and you can combo this with Dire Frenzy for some neat combos by having the Gryphon chain into a larger Gryphon. Clear the Way is the sidequest, and while it certainly isn't a winning condition by any means, a 1-mana delayed 4/4 Rush is pretty neat value, and certainly one you could accomplish very easily with the aid of Diving Gryphon, Springpaw and a bunch of other cheap Rush minions. I'm not sure if the deck has enough to make up a 30-card deck, but it's certainly a neat one.
Veranus is a pretty awesome card! It's Hunter's Mark on all of your enemy's minions, or a one-sided Equality, bundled with a vanilla body. A 6-mana 7/6 with a powerful effect? And the Dragon tag? I'm not sure dragons are going to be super relevant in hunter, but Veranus does look like a pretty damn powerful legendary. Nerfing health is significantly more powerful than something like Eadric's attack nerf, and Hunters have a lot of ways to deal with single boards like Unleash the Hounds, Explosive Trap or Deathstalker Rexxar. A pretty interestingly powerful removal tool for sure!
We've got a lot of "cast many spells" cards over the past couple of expansions like Mana Cyclone, Raid the Sky Temple and the upcoming Learn Draconic, and the other new mage legendary, Chenvaala, is... a 3-mana 2/5 elemental that summons 5/5 elementals every time you cast 3 spells in a turn. It's basically Dragon Soul in a class that can only support it, and it's a body and an elemental. Ultimately I still don't think it's particularly super-overpowered -- it's a lot more clunky compared to something like the Flamewaker or Mana Cyclone, and a 5/5 elemental is neat value. It's good enough to probably find a home in a deck here or there, though.
Speaking of cheap spells mattering, Arcane Breath! One thing that always makes mages even more powerful is having cheap spells, and Arcane Breath is a neat one that's not only fair (it's basically Arcane Blast from TGT, but without the spell damage bonus), but with the added potential of cycling into another spell if you're holding a dragon. A spell you discover at that, meaning that you can chain this to more value-generating spells or removal if you need. I'm not sure about the viability of dragon mage specifically, but maybe you just run the new Malygos and Azure Explorer and call it a day just to activate Arcane Breath?
Dragoncaster is neat. It's like a reverse Arcane Tyrant, where you pay the 6-mana 4/4 body cost upfront to make a subsequent spell cost zero, a la Inkmsater Sonia. I'm not quite sure if it's that good, though. I guess you can, oh, I dunno, Puzzle Box or Pyroblast for essentially 6 mana and get a 4/4 alongside it. Which is neat and all, but I do have a feeling that this is just a mite too impractical and clunky. None of these cards that I don't like are bad, though, and even the ones that don't see play aren't inherently weak, they'll just be cards that don't really have enough support.
A trio of Shaman cards. Cumulomaximus is... it's a neat overload synergy card, sort of comparable to something like Blazecaller or Weaponized Wasp, dealing damage while it lands on the board... but the ask is that you have overloaded mana crystals, which isn't something that you might reliably have while also having 5 free mana. It's not a bad card, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being the next Spirit Claws or whatever.
Nithogg is... weird? It's a 6-mana 5/5 dragon that summons a bunch of 0/3 eggs that hatch into 4/4 rushing drakes, and... and I dunno, it just allows your enemy to really fuck things up since the 0/3 eggs are just kinda there defenseless. Sure, the dream scenario of basically doubling Nithogg's power with the Shaman's hero power quest or with Shudderwock or something is neat, but ultimately the 0/3 eggs that take a turn to hatch probably ends up being a bit too impractical.
Bandersmosh is... there's a chance this ends up being good. There's a chance this ends up circumventing the cost problem some of the more powerful legendaries have. It's going to do some degenerate things in Wild -- a 5-mana 5/5 Aviana or Ragnaros or whatever is certainly powerful as all hell, but at the same time it might just end up being the next Shifter Zerus. I'm trying to be optimistic about this one, though, mostly because its card art just looks so happy.
Amber Watcher is a great card. Remember how Antique Healbot was good? And Healbot is still seeing some play even in wild! Well, Amber Watcher is basically the same thing, but she's a 4/6 instead of a 3/3, which is basically vanilla stats. And she's a dragon, which is a more valuable tag in this expansion, and also she can restore health anywhere. Control Paladin might be back, and I'm actually very, very optimistic about the chances of this one.
Sanctuary is... it's a neat side-quest. Taking no damage for a turn might be pretty damn valuable, and sometimes you just play this on turn 2 and you just get a 3/6 taunt for free, essentially a more powerful Sen'jin. But it's so easy for enemy heroes to deal damage. Half the classes have a way to deal damage with their hero power while they build up a board, and if you topdeck Sanctuary at any point other than turn two and your enemy doesn't have a good first turn, this one's just kind of a dead draw. A very interesting card design, not a particularly good one.
Dragonrider Talritha is... she's an interesting flavour. She's a 3-mana 3/3 that ends up jumping into a dragon onto your hand, Val'anyr style, and she's like this dragon rider that jumps from dragon to dragon after each of her mounts die. That's great value, but she's so vulnerable to silence, hand-buffing isn't the best thing out there, and I'm not sure if the base 3/3 stats is going to make her work. Talritha is a card that I wouldn't be too surprised by if she turns out to be strong, but I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up being another gimmick legendary either.
Rogue now! Dragon's Hoard isn't particularly exciting, but functional. It's a better Pilfer, in that you discover a card from another class, and it's a legendary... which is either going to be very good or end up with such a specific synergy you can't use it.
Flik Skyshiv is the non-dragon legendary and it's basically like the arena-only card Fatecleaver, a 6-mana 4/4 that acts like a Vilespine Slayer... it kills a minion, but also wipes it from the hand, deck and the battlefield. Presumably any new copies generated by other cards after Flik's battlecry won't be affected. Which means that Flik Skyshiv's going to wipe out your opponent's entire Pogo-Hopper deck by simply landing on the field, and those decks that spam Khartut Defender will suddenly have their entire board cleared with a single card. It's a powerful effect, I'm just not sure if decks will actually end up running Flik for the off-chance that they can use her against Pogohopper.
Necrium Apothecary is basically what Myra Rotspring wishes she could be. A 4-mana 2/5 is decent stats, and all it needs is a combo activator to both tutor a deathrattle minion from your deck and gain its deathrattle. You can actively filter what deathrattles you want, making it highly possible for you to, oh, I dunno, do the Stalagg/Feugen combo, or to just abuse Sylvannas's deathrattle. It's a pretty powerful effect, more powerful and reliable than Myra's, and I'm sure we'll figure out a powerful combo with this that's reliable.
And... Warlock! Valdris Felgorge made everyone excited in that he's a 7-mana 4/4 minion... that draws 4 cards. It's Sprint with a body! More importantly, it also increases your hand size to 12, which... it's pretty great for handlock! Free Mountain Giants, bigger Twilight Drakes... and... and is that kinda it? It's a neat little mechanic that breaks the formula of Hearthstone, but ultimately it's just kind of a Sprint that comes with a body. Which don't get me wrong, is still powerful, but I genuinely don't think that the hand size modification is particularly that powerful.
Abyssal Summoner sure helps with this, I guess. A 6-mana 2/2 that summons a taunting demon with stats equal to your hand size? With Valdris, this is insane, but even in regular Handlock you just vomit a lot of stats into the battlefield. Is it enough with the sheer power levels being lobbed around? I don't think so, but it's certainly something.
Nether Breath is just efficient. Without a dragon, it's a shitty 2-mana 2-damage ping, but if you're holding a dragon, it's a cheaper Shadow Bolt with lifesteal. A great card! Crazed Netherwing is a 5-mana 5/5 that unleashes Hellfire if you're holding a dragon. Like Duskbreaker and Abyssal Enforcer before it, a pretty neat card for sure! 5 mana might be a wee bit too late for the Hellfire effect, but eh, it's still pretty dang good.
The only druid card revealed in-between the original release showcase in Blizzcon and now is Secure the Deck, which is. the sidequest. Attacking twice with your hero isn't super-hard, and 3 Claws is neat, but as Gonk and his support cards have proven, it's not an archetype or even something that you really want to be doing a lot with Druid. I suspect this one won't see any play, you spend so much just to get 3 Claws and while that's not terrible, that's kind of a huge amount of resource to lose in the early game.
Envoy of Lazul is basically the same thing as Curious Glimmerroot, only that it comes up earlier and is more specific about your opponent's hand. I'm not sure if it's going to ever find a place in Priest, particularly in Standard, though. Like, it's a decent card, but I'm not sure if you ever play this other than maybe finding for a decent card in your highlander deck.
Breath of the Infinite is a neat little AoE. We don't have Duskbreaker anymore in Standard, which is why this is extra-appealing, but a conditional 3-mana consecration is pretty damn powerful! I really don't have much to say here. It's not a spell that's good enough in Wild, I don't think, but one that might basically replace Duskbreaker in standard's version of dragon priest.
Warriors only get two cards revealed, but they're both legendaries! Ancharrr is kind of a reverse Raiding Party, you equip the weapon and you draw pirates as you attack. And I guess you can buff Ancharrr, and a 3-mana 2/3 that tutors 3 pirates aren't bad, but I dunno. It feels too slow for the traditional pirate warrior deck. I'm not a huge fan of this one.
Galakrond the Unbreakable is the last (?) Galakrond card we're seeing, and it's... it's a neat one! We haven't seen too much of the Warrior package, but Galakrond's battlecry basically just draws and immediately empowers minions from your deck. Which is great! Its invoke ability is giving your hero +3 attack this turn, essentially a weaker Heroic Strike, and... and it's an interesting power that definitely is geared more towards either aggressive damage-pushing with the invoke/hero power ability, or just tempo control. It's a pretty neat Galakrond card, but I don't think it wowed me as much as the previous ones did. It's neat, though!
These two legendaries are a lot more exciting! Kronx Dragonhoof is going to make Galakrond decks so much more powerful. It's the Kazakus to Galakrond's Reno Jackson, it's the Twin Emperor Vek'lor to Galakrond's C'Thun... except it does that and more. It's a 6-mana 6/6 that tutors Galakrond, meaning you basically guarantee a Galakrond play next turn. But if you already draw Galakrond? Well, Kronx isn't content on just being a tutor card, it's also going to unleash a 'devastation', which is a choice of four effects: summon an 8/8 taunt, essentially cast Holy Fire, buff your board by +2/+2, and nuke the enemy board for 5 damage. What the fuck. This is Kalimos on steroids, and only the Holy Fire option seems underwhelming. Pretty amazing card, and honestly, you'll probably want to wait until you play Galakrond before playing Kronx, unless you really need Galakrond that turn. Either way, a pretty fucking powerful card.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza is also probably going to be a day one craft for me. She's a 9-mana 8/8 that plays off the Reno mechanic, and it just adds two random 0-cost dragons to my hand. Which is like Brightwing's effect on steroids! Not a whole ton to say, she's just pretty damn powerful. Dragons in general are great, and sometimes you get a 0-mana Deathwing Mad Aspect or Ysera or Nefarian or something. It's a great card, what can I say?
Oh, and I guess there is Shu'ma. A reloading Onyxia, but with a 1/7 body instead of a big 8/8. Onyxia doesn't see play, a comparable card like Moroes doesn't see play, and overall it's just got too little of a body for both its main body and its tokens. Neat and might be annoying when you do meet it, but I don't see Shu Mai here showing up in many decks.
Zul'drak Ritualist! It's like Cornered Sentry, but with bigger numbers, and it summons three 1-cost minions... which has the chance to backfire really, really badly. There are better taunt cards to play. Neat filler card, though.
Bad Luck Albatross is neat. It's a neat vanilla-test body beast that, when dies, shuffles two 1/1's, which both fucks up highlander decks, and also potentially ruin draws in the future. It's basically going to be comparable to Gnomeferatu, I guess, where it's probably only going to see the most play as an option in highlander decks.
Dread Raven isn't super impressive, since most of the time it's just a vanilla 3/4 beast that sometimes becomes a 6/4, but people are already building up ways to combo this with Scarlet Webweaver, Tundra Rhino and the otherwise-obscure Hunting Party spell. And I can kinda see that. It's not particularly great outside of that specific OTK deck, though.
A pair of mechs! Camouflaged Dirigible is a 6-mana 6/6 that grants all your mechs stealth for a turn. Probably never going to see play -- we've got better mechs in Boomsday Project, but someone somewhere's going to figure out a OTK that involves this hiding like a super-buffed-up Snip-Snap or something. Hot Air Balloon is a neat cheap mech, but it just gains health at the end of your turn, and that's not very good. I guess it's a neat ever-growing base body for a magnetic play, but you'd probably just run Mecharoo instead anyway.
Kobold Stickyfinger is neat little weapon-disruption tool, and one that's severely punishing, as it steals your opponent's weapon instead of just destroying it and drawing a card. It's the tempo equivalent to Harrison Jones's value, and sometimes it's great to steal your opponent's weapon and get, like, a free Super-Collider swing or something. But sometimes you just don't quite get that much value from stealing your enemy's weapon, and the stats is pretty shit if you're not facing a weapon deck. Ultimately it's basically going to be like Hungry Crab or Eater of Secrets, just a neat little tech cards waiting in the sidelines.
Two more dragon synergy cards! Chromatic Egg is such a fun card, a 5-mana 0/3 egg... which allows you to discover a secret dragon to hatch into. And by and by, most dragons are great! This expansion does admittedly introduce a bunch of smaller 3/2 dudes, but if you basically get a delayed Ysera or Malygos or any of the huge 4/12's and 8/8's and 12/12's for 5 mana? Yeah. It's probably going to see the most play in decks that can abuse deathrattle synergies, but a lot of Rogue's deathrattle synergy cards depend on activating the deathrattle and I'm not sure if the Chromatic Egg's deathrattle will function if you copy it without having the battlecry attached to it. A very neat card, but I don't think it'll work out particularly well.
Dragon Breeder's a Zola the Gorgon, but with on-curve stats and specific on dragons. It's good if dragons are good, but not probably going to be essential!
Transmogrifier is a delayed version of Arch-Villain Rafaam, where it's a 2-mana 2/3 that turns cards you draw into random legendaries... and it's bad in the same way that Prince Malchezaar is bad, I feel, in that the impact is too little and too random. With Arch Villain Rafaam or Elise Starseeker, you sort of control when you want to ditch your whole deck for a huge value play. Tarnsmogrifier is just you rolling the dice every turn to replace a card you're drawing (or multiple cards, if you shove this in warlock) into legendary cards... and I dunno. It just feels insanely impractical, and even Plot Twist decks have better synergy than this.
And that's it for now. That's a lot of cards, a lot of powerful cards, and it's definitely going to be a pretty powerful expansion!
No comments:
Post a Comment