Anyway, here is me reacting (and I guess reviewing, although I'm not the most qualified to do reviews at the moment, being kind of out of touch with the current meta) to the Hearthstone cards. Keep in mind that I'm primarily a Wild/Arena player, so, uh... yeah, I know absolutely nothing about what the Standard meta looks like nowadays.
I'll talk about the classes I find the most interesting first, then the neutrals and the ones I don't think will be super-interesting after the break.
Demon hunters first!
We have two cards from the Basic set that haven't been revealed when we first talked about Demon Hunters and I guess we'll get through those two first. Sightless Watcher is a 2-mana 3/2 that sort of casts a non-discard Tracking for your next turn? It's a solid two-drop, but I feel like it's sort of overrated since it doesn't immediately draw. A solid two-drop if you get him in, like, arena or from random effects, and one that wouldn't break your deck, but one that's easily replaced. Inner Demon's an 8-mana +8 attack for your hero, sort of like a super-overcosted mega-Heroic-Strike, which could be useful as a finisher with Kayn Sunfury, but it's a bit too expensive, I feel.
Immolation Aura is also a card I'm not super-impressed by, but one that's pretty practical, I feel. It's basically 2-mana for two castings of Whirlwind. It's all right, it can help deal with Divine Shield and Stealth minions very well, but it's not going to be a card you put into all DH decks.
Everyone's getting two free legendaries with the Initiate set, and they're... eh? Nethrandamus is perhaps the least exciting one, a 9-mana big dragon that summons two 0-cost minions (Wisps) but upgrades the cost of the tokens he summons everytime a friendly minion dies. Which admittedly isn't the hardest thing to do in an Illidari rush-token deck, but you have to drawn Nethrandamus and hold him in your hand while doing all of this, and if you top-deck Nethrandamus he's just a shitty version of Onyxia, a card no one ever puts in decks nowadays. The upside if you get Nethrandamus to the 8-10 cost ballpark, I suppose, is equivalent to playing Dragonqueen Alexstrasza sans battlecries, but I dunno. A neat legendary to give to everyone, though!>
Altruis the Outcast is a bit more interesting, a relatively decently-statted 3-mana 3/2 that unleashes Arcane Missiles any time you 'Outcast' a card from your hand, which is another fun way to incorporate Outcast without actually tossing the keyword into every single card. Altruis is pretty solid, particularly if you're going to face off against a lot of token-y style decks. Not the most impressive legendary, but one that I wouldn't be sad putting into my deck.
The legendary everyone is talking about and losing their heads above is Kayn Sunfury, introduced in this hilarious video courtesy of Wronchi Animation. A 4-mana 3/5 Charge isn't impressive... but all friendly attacks ignore Taunt. This includes all minions you have on the field, this includes the Demon Hunter Hero, this includes any minion you recently play (Leeroy Jenkins can ignore taunt!) and Demon Hunter sure is a class that is relatively well-equipped for the aggro style. So many of the best and most troublesome minions in both Standard and Wild do have Taunt built into them somewhere, and Kayn just ignores everything. A very, very scary card, and one that I wouldn't be surprised to get hit with a nerf at some point down the line.
More great minions for Demon Hunter, as if the cards they already got aren't great enough already. Crimson Sigil Runner is a 1-mana 2/1 that draws a card as an outcast effect, comparable to Kobold Librarian, a card that practically every single Warlock deck runs. 1-mana draw a card is premium, and the fact that this is an Outcast effect honestly isn't going to be that hard. The moment you draw this card, where it's on the right-most part of your hand, just play it!
Priestess of Fury joins Imprisoned Antaen in another pretty fun huge demon that Demon Hunters have. A 7-mana 6/7 with the effect of unleashing a 6-mana Arcane Missiles at the end of the turn? She's honestly comparable to a multi-target Ragnaros that can still trade. The effect might not seem like much, but a guaranteed Cinderstorm at the end of each turn will rack up pretty quickly.
Coilfang Warlord might not make the cut in actual constructed decks, especially in Wild, but he's a very, very solid card that's going to dominate in Arena. An 8-mana 9/5 with Rush that summons a 5/9 with Taunt? Honestly, I do think that the Coilfang Warlord might even be good enough to play in Constructed, just the right amount of stats and keywords to be a removal that also helps to throw down a huge taunting presence afterwards.
Not all Demon Hunter cards can be winners, and these... aren't necessary bad cards, they're just ones that you'll probably take out of your deck once you start refining it or once newer cards show up. After all, Demon Hunter already get like 10 new basic cards, 10 Initiate cards and 15 cards from the expansion. Netherwalker is very solid, a simple 2-mana card-generator that lets you discover a demon. I think I like her a bit better than the Sightless Watcher as a 2-drop, if we're being honest.
Ashtongue Battlelord is a Sen'jin with the added caveat of having Lifesteal, which Demon Hunter does like, but I'm not sure if that's powerful enough to put into your deck. It's one of the better 4-mana taunts I've seen for sure, though, it's just that the rest of the DH cards are just so dang awesome-looking. Fel Summoner is a 6-mana 8/3 that basically acts like a Voidcaller... but she's so expensive. I guess that's a pretty good statline, forcing your enemy to kill it otherwise she smacks the enemy face for 8 damage, but I dunno, I don't think this one's going to work all that well. You'd rather play one of the big demons instead of the Fel Summoner.
We'll talk about Mage first, which has an interesting fun little archetype of no-minion mage decks. And I feel like we don't quite have enough cards that care about no-minions to really succeed, at least not in wild. Maybe Standard's meta is slow enough for them to muck around with this? Both Font of Power and Apexis Blast are basically the Mage equivalent to Animal Companion or To My Side, though, giving minions to a Mage deck with no minions. Font of Power basically allows you to keep 3 Mage minions (which might be a crap-shoot), and Apexis Blast is basically a Firelands Portal discounted by two mana if you have no minions. Which is good, right? But I'm not sure if it's enough incentive to forego your Sorcerer's Apprentices and whatnot.
Evocation, though, looks like it's going to be powerful whatever deck you put it in. For the low cost of one mana, you can fill your hand with a lot of random mage spells that get discarded at the end of turn. Like Soularium, but it doesn't fuck up your deck! You just get a bunch of random spells, and mage spells are pretty good, most of the time you get some measure of burn spells, and Evocation might very well allow you to just unleash a board clear or some face damage that you otherwise wouldn't have. It's a pretty dang powerful spell, and it's small wonder they classified this one as a legendary one.
Incanter's Flow is also a card that looks like it's going to be powerful whatever mage deck it finds itself in, for 2 mana you discount all the spells in your deck by one. I can already see the craziness this is going to do with Quest Mages in Wild, and I'm actually interested to see what sort of degenerate combos that we can pull off with this. Theoretically, you can discount your entire deck by 2 if your deck contains all spells, and that's pretty fucking awesome. Easily one of the scarier cards Mage gets this expansion for sure.
Not super-duper impressed with the next two -- Deep Freeze is neat, you get two Water Elementals and a Freezing Potion bundled into a 8-mana spell, which is good value. I'm just not sure what deck runs this. Likewise, Starscryer is a neat little Loot Hoarder-esque card that tutors a Spell from your deck specifically, but I'm not sure if that's useful enough unless your Mage deck has like, only a small amount of specific spells.
There are also a bunch of random Secret synergy cards. Apexis Smuggler is a 2-mana 2/3 that passes the vanilla test, and every time you play a secret, you get to discover a spell. Which is neat, I can see Wild Secret Mage cards actually running this card considering how easily Wild Secret Mages can cheat out secrets. Netherwind Portal is a new mage secret, summoning a 4-cost minion for 3 mana, comparable to Cat Trick, I suppose. Is it good? Yeah, sure, spending 3 mana for a 4-cost minion, particularly with all of the fun stuff mage can do with secrets (particularly, again, in wild) isn't terrible, but I dunno. Mages have a lot of better secrets in both Standard and Wild, I feel.
Next up is the Paladins, which has a very interesting "Libram" archetype. So far, we get three Libram spells. Wisdom, Justice and Hope. Libram of Wisdom is kind of overpriced, a 2-mana buff that gives +1/+1, but recycles itself when the minion dies. Like Reno's hat from League of Explorers, a card no one ever uses. Libram of Justice is basically 6-mana Light's Justice mixed with Equality exclusively for the enemy, which is pretty dang powerful, but perhaps a bit overpriced for 6 mana. And Libram of Hope gives us a mega Annoy-o-Tron (Taunt/Divine Shield 8/8) and restores 8 health.
One thing that all of these have in common? They're good effects, but a mite bit too expensive.
Which is where these two cards -- Aldor Attendant and Aldor Truthseeker -- come in. They basically permanently discount your Librams for the entire game. The Attendant is a 2-mana 2/3 that discounts all Librams by 1, and Truthseeker is a lower-statted minion (5-mana 4/6) that discounts the Librams by 2. Note that this is all your Librams, and that includes the new copies of Libram of Wisdom that you get from killing off your Wisdom-buffed minions. And suddenly you can easily envision that with a couple of decent draws, you could discount these powerful spells, and I do like that these are basically just a little package that you can insert into another deck. Your deck doesn't even have to be specifically tailored around Librams, you just have to insert the package into any Paladin deck. Will it work? Yeah, I do think so. Libram of Hope and Justice are very powerful control tools, and Wisdom, while minimal-impact, will be extremely frustrating to deal with when you have an endless way to +1/+1 your tokens and gain favourable trades.
And finally, we have Lady Liadrin, 7-mana 4/6 that adds a copy of all spells you casted on friendly characters to your hand. Not exactly specifically synergistic to Librams (again, another aspect I do like), but it's definitely going to add the Libram of Hope and Wisdom back to your hand. This presumably includes stuff like Blessing of Kings and whatnot, and it's basically Lynessa Sunsorrow only instead of casting all the spells on Lynessa, you get them back in your hand. Which, uh, probably means you don't want to play too many Librams of Wisdom if you want to get higher-impact spells back in your hand with Liadrin. A very fun effect, though!
Hand of A'dal is just a decent buff card, basically equivalent to the original Power Word: Shield, a buff and a draw. Not the most exciting card, but probably one that can see its way wedged into decks here and there.
We get a mini Murloc package alongside that one fishing rod weapon, and... it's not terribly impressive? Imprisoned Sungill goes dormant, but all you get is basically a slightly-stronger Murloc Tidehunter. Which isn't terrible, but it sure isn't good either. Murgur Murgurgle, though, is pretty fun, and I don't think you even have to run him in a Murloc Paladin deck necessarily. His base stats is 2-mana 2/1 with Divine Shield, making him a slightly weaker Shielded Minibot, but Murgurgle Prime is an 8-mana 6/3 Divine Shield that summons four random Murlocs with extra divine shields. Which could range the gamut from being crappy 2/1's to Warleaders and Amalgams, but the dbut it's a pretty decent board reload, I feel. It's just the problem of whether decks can find a slot for Murgurgle, and maybe he simply makes it into highlander lists for being a decent minion.
Hunters have... an interesting mix of weird cards, but easily the most interesting card is Beastmaster Leoroxx, an 8-mana 5/5 that summons 3 beasts from your hand. Now it's not exactly the Boomship, but you can definitely combo this with hand-buff cards (which Ashes gave a bunch of to Hunter, like Scavenger's Ingenuity) and huge charge minions (King Krush, Charged Devilsaur, etc) to absolutely get hilarious lethals. And even if you're not going for the meme Triple T-Rex Takedowns, Leoroxx summoning a bunch of Highmanes or whatever isn't that terrible either.
We get a hand-buff-beast card too in Helboar, a simple 1-mana 2/1 that buffs a beast in your hand by +1/+1. Not super-interesting, but will be a neat addition should the archetype be useful. Scrap Shot is also another beast-hand-buff card, comparable somewhat to Flanking Strike of K&C fame. For 3 mana, deal 3 damage and buff a beast in your hand with +3/+3. The buff is pretty great, but I feel like Hunters are such an aggro/tempo heavy class that the playstyle might be just a wee bit too slow for them. We'll see.
Another card that benefits from beast hand-buffing is the Augmented Porcupine, a 3-mana 2/4 that, as a deathrattle, unleashes its attack value as random damage distributed to all enemies. Not the most impressive card, but a solid one.
The Hunter Prime, though, is... it's pretty fun. Zixor, Apex Predator is kind of underwhelming,a 3-mana 2/4 Rush, but Zixor Prime is an 8-mana 4/4 Rush that summons three copies of itself. 8-mana for four rushing 4/4 beasts is pretty decent, but give Zixor Prime some buffs and... well, we're talking. I can totally see a deck with cards like Scrap Shot and Master's Call and Scavenger's Ingenuity that just focuses entirely on making just the biggest Zixor Primes you'll see.
Imprisoned Felmaw is the obligatory imprisoned demon for hunter. A 2-mana 5/4 that attacks a random enemy is... it's solid for arena, but definitely is too unpredictable and too much of a tempo loss for constructed.
Mok'nathal Lion is a pretty fun one, a 4-mana 5/2 with Rush that will copy a deathrattle from a friendly minion. The base stats is... it's all right, I suppose, 4-mana 5/2 rush isn't the worst thing in the world, but then you also get a fun deathrattle from an allied minion. Pretty great, particularly with the amount of crazy deathrattles in wild!
Pack Tactics is comparable to Wandering Monster, I suppose, a secret that triggers and summons a 3/3 copy of a minion that gets attacked. You can use this to duplicate a minion you have. Don't think it's strong enough to see much play, though.
Nagrand Slam is a bit too expensive, and the random factor of not being able to direct where the 3/5's attack isn't going to help matters either. In Wild, this is almost entirely outclassed by Call of the Wild. A fun card to have with Zul'jin, but Wild Spell Hunter decks have access to much better cards than Nagrand Slam. A solid one, though.
Darkglare is a pretty amazing card. It's got vanilla stats for a 3-drop, and every time your hero takes damage, you refresh 2 mana crystals. Basically means that your hero power ends up being free! Basically means that you ramp up by one if you play this with a Flame Imp! There are a lot of ways to abuse this, I feel, and it's probably one of the stronger Warlock cards in general from this set.
Kanrethad Ebonlocke is actually a pretty dang powerful card, and it's one that I feel that the base version might be stronger than the Prime version. A 2-mana 3/2 that discounts all demons by 1 is inherently powerful, particularly in a zoo demon deck. The Prime version is a 8-mana 7/6 that summons three demons that died this game. Which isn't exactly ideal for a zoo deck, but maybe the huge swing and board refill is just enough. Regardless, it's an interestingly versatile legendary. I'm a fan.
Speaking of versatile legendaries is Keli'dan the Breaker, which is a 6-mana 3/3 that destroys a minion, but then plays out similarly to M:TG's Miracle cards -- if you play it the turn it's drawn, you get a bonus effect, which is basically Twisting Nether. Which is awesome, assuming you draw this, and it's something you can perhaps manipulate into happening in a Plot Twist deck. At worst, Keli'dan is a Siphon Soul that comes with a 3/3 body, which honestly isn't even that bad. And then sometimes it's just a great board claer. I don't think you need to specifically play this in a Plot Twist deck, but it just gets so much better if you do.
Okay, Discard Warlock? I'm pretty sure there isn't enough Discard Warlock cards left in Standard, although Expired Merchant sure is and that's going to be useful. And in Wild there's certainly a lot of Discard Warlock cards -- both decent and terrible ones -- that's waiting for the day the archetype becomes good. Nightshade Matron itself is a pretty good card, a 4-mana 5/5 Rush. That's decent, and it also discards your highest cost card... Which, whether it be the Nightshade Matron or Expired Merchant, you want to try and get it to be the Hand of Gul'dan, a 6-mana card that lets you draw 3 cards whether you discard it or play it. Which is pretty great, actually! I don't think it's the sudden return of Discard Warlock, and maybe you just place exactly these two cards into a Zoo deck, but honestly, a pretty interesting duo of cards.
Enhanced Dreadlord is... it's a fair card, I suppose. 8 mana's hella expensive, but a 5/7 Taunt that summons a 5/5 Lifesteal upon death is... it's not the worst card you can get. It's not something you'll put in your deck, but one that you wouldn't be sad to get out of random effects or in arena. Unstable Felbolt is... you deal 3 damage to an enemy minion but also a friendly one. Useful if you don't have any minions, but otherwise Warlock's got better tools.
For Shaman, Druid, Priest, Rogue and Warrior, click after the break!
Shaman's also got a couple of interesting cards. Last time we saw a bit of a mini-evolve package I wasn't super impressed by, but the rest of their cards are... okay? Marshspawn and Shattered Rumbler seem to play off the 'if you cast a spell last turn' bit like Torrent did, but I don't think that it's quite as easy to have 'play spells last turn' effects placed on minions. That said, both of these are super solid so many some deck out there manages to make it work. I don't really see it working out all that well, though. Marshspawn is a 3-mana 3/4 that discovers another spell for you, which I suppose is neat, you could go a turn 2 spell into Marshspawn into a turn 4 spell to Rumbler. And the Rumbler unleashes a 2-damage AoE if you plays a spell last turn, which is pretty good, too. I'm just not sure if the impracticality will end up causing people to not care about this playstyle -- there's a reason Elemental decks sort of dropped out of favour, after all. Plus, y'know, wouldn't you just rather play Galakrond or Evolve?
Serpentshrine Portal is another one that's comparable to Flanking Strike, only this time it's for Shaman. 3-mana, deal 3 damage, summon a random 3-cost minion... and overload 1? I'm not sure if the overload's worth it, especially considering the fact that the 3-cost minion might be a dud like a 1/1 desert hare or something. I dunno. This one doesn't impress me at all.
The Lurker Below seems pretty underwhelming, more of a tech card than anything. A 6-mana 6/3 that basically does a Rolling Fireball style effect, dealing 3 damage to each continuous minion as long as it dies, which... could be a 3-damage AoE on a board of totems or treants or silver hand recruits, but otherwise the Lurker Below is just a shittier Fire Elemental. Not impressed, but a decent one.
Totemic Reflection is... totem synergy? 3 mana, give a card +2/+2, and you gain a copy if it's a totem. Pretty great on your Mana Tides and EVIL Totems, I suppose, and if you see this as a potential way to double up on your best totems, it's actually not that bad. Vivid Spores is Curse of Naxxramas's Reincarnate, but on your whole board. Far more powerful than Soul of the Murloc, and honestly, I could definitely see this being utilized a fair bit as a finisher for a value Shaman.
So Rogue's heading in two directions -- stealth and secrets. Blackjack Stunner and Hanar are already great Secret-synergy cards, but apparently those are the only Secret-synergy cards we get. Which is a good start, but probably won't be enough to make a deck. Bamboozle is a great Secret, though, basically evolving a minion into one that costs 3 more when it gets attacked, which could lead to some hilarious shenanigans. Dirty Tricks isn't a bad Secret either, allowing you to draw 2 cards for free when your opponent casts a spell. Bamboozle, Dirty Tricks and Ambush certainly are a fair bit more powerful than the K&C-era Rogue Secrets, and while I don't think Secret Rogue's going to be great, at least not this expansion, it's a start.
The other archetype is stealth, and while Rogues do have a bunch of strong Stealth minions already, we get another one in Spymistress, a power-creep on the classic Worgen Infiltrator, a 1-mana 3/1 with Stealth. Very solid, very offensive. So long as no Whirlwinds or Immolation Auras hit her.
The big legendary for Rogue, Akama, is a 3-mana 3/4 Stealth, which isn't super-terrible, but Akama Prime is a 6-mana 6/5 that has permanent Stealth, which seems pretty damn great even without taking into consideration the Stealth-synergy cards Rogue is getting this expansion. Basically, Akama Prime continues to have Stealth even after attacking, and can only be removed by board clears or something like Deadly Shot or Rotnest Drake, which, depending on the deck you're facing, might not even be an option for the opponent. Worst-case scenario, this means Akama Prime guarantees 5 damage to the face if you can deal with any taunts they have. But that's not counting...
...these Stealth-synergy cards. Ashtongue Slayer is a 2-mana 3/2 that buffs a Stealthed minion with +3 attack and immune, allowing your Akamas and Spymistresses to basically get buffed and either deal damage to the face, or to get a free trade. Greyheart Sage is a 3-mana 3/3 that draws you 2 cards if you have a Stealthed minions. Pretty great cards to play around with Stealth. Like Secret Rogue, though, I'm not sure if there's enough to build a deck, although Rogue does have a fair bit of random Stealth minions to play around wiht.
Cursed Vagrant is... interesting? He's a 7-mana 7/5 that summons a stealthed 7/5 upon death. It's like two Ravenholdt Assassins rolled into one, and theoretically it has value and synergizes with the other stealth stuff, but I feel like it's a wee bit too slow.
Priest is weird, due to the whole weird change in class identity they have in Standard. I know what I'm doing with Priest in Wild, and that's bringing back Spiteful Priest and Raza Priest, but the new cards are... they're weird. Imprisoned Homunculus is a pretty good imprisoned card, particularly in Standard where Priest no longer has a good, reliable 1-drop. He's a 1-mana 2/5 Taunt, which is great, but of course he only shows up at turn 3. Not necessarily terrible, though, because Priest can make use of that health-heavy statline, and Priest isn't as tempo-driven as some of the classes that I brushed off the imprisoned demons of.
Reliquary of Souls is a very boring card initially, just a 1-mana 1/3 with Lifesteal... but Reliquary Prime is insane, a 7-mana 6/8 with Taunt and Lifesteal, and the same ability that the unicorn from Kobolds & Catacombs have -- only you can target the Reliquary with spells and hero powers. Which means, yeah, you can buff the Reliquary Prime, it can trade and you can heal it, and unlike the crappy statline of the unicorn, Reliquary Prime's 6/8 Taunt and Lifesteal is a very, very solid statline on its own. Probably one of the better cards Priest gets this expansion, and design-wise, one of my faovurites.
Priest gets a lot of buff spells both from this expansion and the new basic/classic cards. Psyche Split is a good one to put on Reliquary Prime, giving it some extra stats and, more importantly, copying it post-buff. It's a better Faceless Manipulator! I like this one.
The other Priest spells aren't super impressive. Renew heals 3 health and allows you to cycle into another spell. Cheap and efficient, but not impressive. Apotheosis is another buff spell for minions, and for 3 mana, +2/+3 and Lifesteal is... it might not be enough.
Soul Mirror is the obligatory Priest Huge Board Wipe spell of the expansion, where you summon copies of enemy minions and they attack their copies. Vaguely comparable to Lightbomb, I suppose, without damaging your own board, but if your opponent has a lot of low-attack high-health minions, Soul Mirror basically allows you to get copies of them. I wasn't super impressed with it the first time I saw the card, but thinking about it a bit more, it's basically a board-clear against attack > health minions; and it allows you to damage the enemy board while summoning one of your own for health > attack minions. Actually a fair bit more impressive when you think about it that way.
And we get a bunch of random dragon synergy cards just because. Dragonmaw Sentinel is a shittier Wyrmrest Guardian; Lifesteal's not as good as Taunt, especially for a two-drop. Skeletal Dragon's actually a decent one, a 7-mana 4/9 taunt that continually adds a dragon to your hand. It's not going to be super-awesome or an auto-include in most dragon decks because Kabal Trafficker was never ran in Demon decks, but Skeletal Dragon's a dragon itself and is a decent 4/9 Taunt statline. I dunno. It's better than Bone Drake, I feel, and Bone Drake was ran. Very solid card.
Warriors have... an interesting mix of cards this time around. Warmaul Challenger is definitely a very flavourful card, and one that's a pretty great removal against smaller tokens, leaving behind a decent body against smaller enemy minions... but otherwise, it's cute but impractical. Bladestorm is an interesting card, where you basically unleash Whirlwinds until a minion dies. Useful for two different board-states -- one with lots of tiny tokens with the same health amount, or against a board with a single huge minion. Very cool card design, probably a bit too impractical to see play.
Bloodboil Brute, on the other hand, is a very solid one. 7-mana for 6/8 Rush isn't even that bad, but you can discount it with every damaged minion on board, and that includes your enemy's. A two or three mana discount makes this extra-good, so yeah, probably a pretty good card!
Another one that cards about damaged minions is the Bonechewer Raider, who becomes a 4/4 Rush if there's a damaged minion. Again, a very solid card, giving a pretty decent body on board for 3 mana. Not a bad card at all!
Scrap Golem is... it's decent. 4/5 Taunt that gives you 4 armour, maybe a bit more if you manage to buff this with Armagedillo or whatever, but probably most relevant in wild if you can magnetic things onto this one. With Dr. Boom Mad Genius being unnerfed soon back into his 7-mana glory, Scrap Golem's actually probably going to be useful in that deck, not necessarily as a powerhouse in the deck, but as a card you'll love to discover.
These three, I'm not super excited about. Imprisoned Gan'arg is just decent, a cheaper and delayed Fiery War Axe that comes with a 2/2 body. It's actually kind of decent, but probably too slow in Wild. Sword and Board is like a smaller, cheaper Bash, but I don't think it's powerful enough to see inclusion. Corsair Cache is a decent enough weapon tutor, and the buff is nice. Probably will see play in standard; wild has a lot of better weapon tutors.
Druids also kind of feel all over the place, but Ysiel Windsinger scares me. She's like Aviana, but for spells, and I have to eat my own words with Kael'thas Sunstrider. He's not awesome all the time, but the one or two times that a Kael'thas Druid have managed to dominate by casting a free Ultimate Infestation or Spreading Plague or Overflow tend to be such huge tempo swings that it's a bit hard to get back from it. Ysiel operates on a similar thing, and while at the moment I can't think of any particularly degenerate combo (other than maybe U.I.) mark my words, Ysiel is a ticking time bomb that'll birth some hideous combo druid that'll eventually get her nerfed.
Germination is basically Faceless Manipulator, but a spell and one mana cheaper, but can only target friendly minions with the bonus of giving it Taunt. Pretty decent, probably not good enough to see constructed play. Overgrowth is two mana crystals for 4 mana. Interesting card to print, but definitely a bit too slow compared to Breath of Dreams and Wild Growth.
A bunch of spells that cost 0 if you have 7 mana crystals, which... are all right? I can see them included here and there in druid lists, but they don't seem uber-powerful. They just feel boring. Ironbark is basically Mark of the Wild, but more defensive (+1/+3 and Taunt instead of +2/+2 and Taunt), and sometimes it's free. Bogbeam is 3 damage to a minion for 3 mana, and sometimes it's free. Neither are terrible, both are probably good in arena, but neither are exciting.
Glowfly Swarm is a card that basically swarms the board with 2/2 tokens for each spell in your hand, which is a cool card concept, and I suppose you can make a Spell Druid deck. Fungal Fortunes also seems to want you to make a Spell Druid deck. Which I suppose you can do, but I'm not sure if Glowfly Swarm is a good enough incentive to do so. I mean, if you want 2/2 tokens, wouldn't you play treant synergies instead?
Neutrals now, and we'll rapid-fire this. Thanks to Demon Hunter receiving a bit more cards than the other classes, we actually have a little bit less neutral cards than we normally do this time around.
A trio of Augmerchants. They are all 1-mana 2/1's, and they deal 1 damage to a minion and do an extra effect. It's... it's interesting? You can use them as a ping in a pinch, I suppose. The Ethereal Augmerchant's Spell Damage seems pretty useless and wouldn't really be something you want to devote a card slot to, and Rocket Augmerchant's Rush is kinda weird -- can't really think of anything practical. Guardian Augmerchant's Divine Shield is perhaps the best, where you basically trade away a single health point in favour for the Divine Shield, which is better. Ultimately, I don't think these are super good enough to fit into a deck, but they're an interesting little gimmick for sure.
Infectious Sporeling is a very interesting thing! A 1-mana 1/2 that can turn anything it touches into more Infectious Sporelings! I love the flavour, and you can basically use this to polymorph enemy Yseras and Deathwings into 1/2's (that, admittedly, is going to be able to do the same to your board). But the Sporeling needs to survive a turn to do so, and that might be asking a bit too much. Probably doable with Magic Carpet, but I'm just not sure if that's too gimmicky or actually something you might be able to feasibly do.
Blistering Rot is a constant Echoing Ooze effect, a 3-mana 1/2 that continually poops out copies of itself. So you basically really want to buff this up in like, Paladin or Priest or Druid or something and keep making big blobby minions. Note that it only makes tokens with copied stats, though, so it wouldn't copy, like, Taunt from Mark of the Wild or Divine Shield or whatever. A very cute card, even if it's probably not a good one.
Imprisoned Vilefiend is... it's all right. A 2-mana 3/5 Rush that initially goes dormant. I feel like I am just completely under-valuing Dormant, but it's really not that appealing, yeah? So far only the Priest's Homunculus and the Demon Hunter's Antaen really feel like they're even good, the rest really feel like they're just kind of huge tempo losses.
Maiev Shadowsong also becomes a collectible minion, and she's... interesting? A 4-mana 4/3 is decent, and it basically forces a minion to go Dormant for 2 turns. It's very situational, and I guess you can use her to bypass Taunts or shut down effects or something in a deck without removal... but I dunno. I feel like there are better cards to remove threats or whatnot. Cool flavour, though.
Souldbound Ashtongue is just asking for your face to get Shield Slammed for 15 damage. The upside, a 1-mana 1/4, isn't even necessarily that great.
Bonechewer Brawler and Bonechewer Vanguard are two Taunts that basically keep gaining +2 attack any time it takes damage. The Brawler is good because he's cheap, but the 2-mana 2/3 statline isn't the most ideal for this sort of always-growing statline. Vanguard's 4/10 Taunt, though, is a lot more interesting, since it does mean that the body is more likely to survive and grow from continued battles, and it's going to be pretty good in Priest, which can heal and buff this, or in Warrior, that can do increments of damage. Maybe you can muck around with the Augmerchants to help damage these?
Overconfident Orc is basically a crappier Tar Creeper. Which means that it's probably actually all right in Standard, which doesn't have a good 3-mana neutral taunt at the moment, but definitely nowhere as good in Wild.
Rustsworn Initiate is a 2/2 that summons a 1/1 with spell damage upon death. Kind of a pack filler, but not the worst. Rustsworn Cultist is a 4-mana 3/3 that basically casts Soul of the Murloc, but summons imp tokens instead of murloc tokens. Probably actually quite decent, and I can see some Zoo Warlock lists running this. Probably not the most powerful card out there, but an interesting one.
Scavenging Shivarra is a poor man's Priestess of Fury. A 6-mana 6/3 with a single battlecry of a 6-damage arcane missiles? Yeah, you could definitely do better than that.
Disguised Wanderer is a 4-mana 3/3 that deathrattles into a 9/1. Comparable to that Cursed Disciple card from Kobolds & Catacombs, I suppose, and maybe there's some fringe situation where the 9/1 is super-powerful, but with 1 health it's so easy to remove, y'know? Felfin Navigator is a decent big Murloc that buffs a Murloc board. Probably actually a decent card to add into more swarmy Murloc decks, actually, comparable to Gentle Megasaur.
Replicat-o-tron is... it's an interesting card, it basically transforms neighbours into copies of it. In standard the card's just a pack filler, but I can imagine someone doing something crazy with this in Wild if you manage to magnetize a Wargear or Snip-Snap or a Zilliax onto Replicat-o-tron and then just keep generating tokens that keep getting transformed into Replicat-o-tron. Probably not a great deck, but a fun one to try and make work.
Ruststeed Raider is a 1/8 Taunt and Rush that's a 5/8 on its first turn. And a 5/8 Rusher that also leaves behind at least an irritating high-health taunt body is... it's not terrible, really. Comparable to Militia Commander, but this one also has Taunt. Amazing in Arena, I feel.
Waste Warden is such an interesting card, a 5-mana 3/3 tech card that deals 3 damage to a minion and everything of the same tribe on board. Pretty great against Murlocs and Pirates, but probably not so much against Dragons (which tend to be big), Beasts (also big) or Mechs (unless it's a post-Snip-Snap board). A very interesting card nonetheless, and a tech card that I love the design of.
Dragonmaw Sky Stalker is actually comparable to Cairne Bloodhoof, except you shuffle around the numbers a bit for a bigger initial body and a smaller back body. Also, the first body is a dragon to trigger dragon synergy. It's probably good enough in dragon decks? I don't really think so, though.
Frozen Shadoweaver is kind of boring, just a big Glacial Shard. Terrorguard Escapee is interesting, a 3/7 for 3 mana that summons three 1/1 tokens for the opponent. Comparable to Zul'drak Ritualist or Cornered Sentry, but not the most efficient usage of a card, particularly since this one doesn't have taunt. Burrowing Scorpid is... it's an interesting one, a 4-mana 5/2 that deals 2 damage, It's decent, and you get the bonus of getting Stealth if it kills the target. I'm just not sure what deck you put it in, but it's a pretty cool card.
Supreme Abyssal is... it's interesting? A highly overstatted 12/12 for 8 that can't attack heroes. It's not terrible to get out of, like, evolve or whatever, but probably not a card you'll put into your deck considering Deathwing Mad Aspect was also a 8-mana 12/12 with a battlecry that not every control warrior deck puts in. Scrapyard Colossus is a 7/7 Taunt that also summons a 7/7 Taunt upon death. Great in arena, great to get out of random effects, way too expensive to see play in constructed.
Magtheridon is comparable to The Darkness, and he's a 4-mana 12/12 that summons three 1/3's for your enemy that you must kill. There are ways around this, like, oh, having a board ready, or Lightning Storm or Shadow Word: Horror or whatnot, but at that point it's no longer a turn 4 play. Magtheridon being active at least activates a Twisting Nether effect, though, so it's going to be interesting to set this up? Magtheridon being dormant does mean that it gives your enemy time to save up removal cards, though, and that could be a problem for the card in general. I do like the idea, though I don't think Mags will be super playable.
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