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Yeah, since when did Murlocs evolve human noses? I understand there are nostrils on Murlocs but this is a full fledged nose... with a bridge and extending cartilage!
People are forgetting the most important synergy with this card: Grimscale Chum. That's not even a joke, turn 1 2/1 buff your Hydrologist, turn 2 2 mana 3/3 discover a secret to keep your murloc alive, turn 3 Warleader or new discovery murloc, turn 4 truesliver turn 5 finja, im seeing a nice murloc deck with some buffs scattered in here and there to make them even stronger. Water paladin is going to be a thing!
Why this card is good: you dont need to put secrets in your deck to get secrets, and paladin could use any 2 drop at this point
This is a fascinating card indeed. It has parallels with Dark Peddler, as both are 2 mana 2/2s that discover a card. Obviously, if you want to play an aggro murloc paladin, this card is way better than a lot of the other murlocs in the game, so this card goes in the deck. However, I want to evaluate the card in a broader context: Do you play this in a general board control-centric, aggro/tempo/handbuff paladin without the murloc theme?
"But Dark Peddler had obscenely powerful options such as Soulfire, Power Overwhelming, or Flame Imp!" goes the cry. Yeah, that's why Dark Peddler was auto-include in every warlock deck ever since it was printed, whether zoolock, handlock, or renolock. You don't have to be THAT good to see play in constructed decks. In fact, let's look at all the secrets in Standard after Un'Goro is released. (I'll assume for the moment no new secrets are coming in the new expansion, if they reveal one I'll update this post.)
Noble Sacrifice: Situational but potentially extremely good in an aggressive deck. Can make a difference early when your opponent attacks with a 2-health minion, or it can undo your opponent's huge attack later to help you push for lethal. Flexible and impactful. Low-value but you're not topdecking it so who cares?
Redemption: Summons a one health minion with a potentially large upside. It could have divine shield, or a useful deathrattle, or have some nifty passive effect. Worst comes to worst, the resummoned minion gets pinged off, but even then, that could often entail a rogue or druid opponent taking significant damage in the process. Is a generally alright card a lot of the time but depends greatly on how much synergy your deck has with it.
Repentance: At best, badly punishes your opponent playing a large minion such as a large taunt, ruins your opponents tempo, and edges them out of the game. At worst, it hits a cheap drop and does nothing. (Even then, value-wise, you're not getting 0 for 1'd like you would if you played this from your hand.) Enables you to play mind-games with your opponent; "I really need to play this taunt, and I think he picked a Redemption, but did he really?"
Eye for an Eye: Traditionally laughably bad, but when you're just a little off lethal, you can deter your opponent from attacking your face until you draw burst. Sometimes, your opponent will have no way to defuse this bomb, and 6+ damage for no card cost could easily swing a game in certain board states. You usually don't pick this but there's an occasion here and there where it's good, and it'll often be there for you when that perfect moment comes.
Getaway Kodo: This card is what you choose when you're looking for a value injection. This could copy a mid-to-late game drop such as Tirion Fordring you use to close out games. Even if this hits something smaller like an Argent Horserider, that's an entire mid-game drop longer you can sustain before running out of gas. If you otherwise have no idea what to pick, you can pick this card and it will be useful. It isn't anywhere near as situational as any of the other secrets.
In conclusion, the options this card can provide, although weak individually, form an extremely versatile and powerful engine when combined in a discover card such as Hydrologist. There are plenty of opportunities where at least one of the secrets offered will make all the difference in a tight game. There are few enough secrets in Standard that the odds of finding just the one you want are high, and if you have a few different options in mind, finding one of them is as good as guaranteed. Even on the odd game that the secret is a complete bust, it's still a 2 mana 2/2 murloc.
By the way, I love this card's design. You have to think about how well your deck synergizes with each secret, giving an entire dimension of intricacy to deck building and deck piloting. How well can I ping off a one-health giant brought about by Repentance? How many minions do I have that are amazing to resummon with Redemption? How many high-value cards do I have to return with Getaway Kodo? Which of these synergies are important and which ones aren't? Do I choose Getaway Kodo, Repentance or Eye for an Eye against Jade Druid?
Solid card in Constructed (for its deck, weak as it may be right now). Solid card for arena. Overpowered in neither. Hard to play to its highest potential, but also tricky to play around. Fun to play, and fun to play against. I rate 10/10 for amazing card design. Keep it up, Blizzard.
It may have more potential if it allows you to discover other class secrets
but what if you get it from megafin? shaman doesn't have secrets
What? Why don't they just put everything in 1 class, that way they're sure that class will be played. Why do you think murlocs should be a thing only one class can pull off? Isn't class variety, and multiple classes being able to do the same thing in different ways, a good thing?
Besides, murlocs have been both a Paladin and a Shaman thing for a while now, with Grimscale Chum and Murloc Knight on one side and Call in the Finishers and Siltfin Spiritwalker on the other.
Same thing applies for Beast Druid and Beast Hunter; they're just different decks with different playstyles, even though they both share a tribe. Sure, beasts would be more powerful if all beast cards were in the same class, but do you really want a game in which there is only one good archetype everyone in the game plays the same class?
still can't get over how adorable she looks. She even got her fins in a ponytail,
For paladin, discover a secret is actually better than pulling one from your deck. Makes it much harder for you opponent to play around, that and being able to get Avenge is really good.
Well not exactly Avenge unless you are playing vintage.
Maybe they are about to introduce a new secret for the Paladin in this expansion.
does discover in standard follow standard rules?
Yep.
This also applies to over hundreds of cards that have RNG mechanics.
So imagine how broken and unreliable is wild.
Th obvious comparison to draw here is between this and Arcanologist so lets compare them
Arcanologist:
2 2/3 (Better body)
Draw a random secret from your deck (Less choice, but more consistent because you know what secrets you can draw.
Is 1 mana less than a Secret so it can create good curve on turn 2
This:
2 2/2 Murloc (Worse body but has murloc synergy)
Discover a Secret (You get to choose but you don't have consistently good options)
Is one mana more than a secret so it could create a strong reactive play on turn 3
All in all I have to say arcanologist is better mainly because of its body. This minion will have trouble sticking on the board for long and won't be able to trade very well unless it has some buffs and it seems to slow of a card for fast-paced merlon decks. If control paladin becomes a thing I can see this being used, but with this meta unlikely.
Archanologist is also better because you can put only one secret in the deck, so you know what you are going to draw
I'd also like to add that Murloc makes it a non-bo with Finja and Anyfin decks.
I don't see how this is an obvious comparison. One is for paladin secrets in a paladin deck, the other is for mage secrets in a mage deck. It's like comparing Dark Peddler to Jeweled Scarab.
That face is certainly... Something.
They should make some Shaman secrets that aren't collectible spells but can be discovered if you get this guy from your Murloc quest legendary (or Neptulon in Wild), then they'd really be secrets!
I guess avenge was really op. At least with mysterious challenger. If only avenge was still in basic set, then this card might've been great.