Five cards that will exceed expectations, five that will disappoint, and five that just might—if the stars align—not be completely terrible.
THE GOOD (five strong cards that aren't getting the respect they deserve)
Forbidden Flame: Yes, it's inefficient removal, but it's also extremely flexible—more so than most of the other Forbidden cards. Adequate against both aggro and control, and always capable of triggering your Flamewaker or Archmage Antonidas. You'll never be sorry to have this in your back pocket.
Carrion Grub: An ideal 3-drop for a beast-oriented hunter, or even a fairly standard midrange list. It's extremely hard to remove a 2/5 on curve, which means this is probably the best, most reliable partner Houndmaster has ever had.
Ancient Harbinger: You pay a premium of 1 (maybe 1.5) mana to put a sturdy minion into play that demands to be removed; if your opponent can't remove it, you get to draw your deck's most important minion. I'm not sure people appreciate how important—and difficult—it will be to actually get C'Thun in your hand; most games right now aren't long enough for you to even have a 50 percent chance of naturally drawing a specific legendary. The meta might slow down, and C'Thun decks will surely be slower than average, but this card will still have an important role to play in making them reliable.
Hogger, Doom of Elwynn: Potentially massive value and utility, especially in a traditional control warrior list. Might just fill the hole that Dr. Boom is leaving behind (for warrior—he's not so hot for classes that can't trigger him easily/cheaply). People might be wary because he looks a lot like Troggzor the Earthinator, the Great Disappointer, but the difference is that you can actually control whether his ability is triggered or not.
Feral Rage: Better than Healing Touch, which used to be played in the pre-Healbot days, and better than Ice Barrier, which still is played. Gives druid a sort of warrior-lite ability to stack health (attractive for super-slow lists), but it's versatile too, capable of clearing minions or even going face. And it's pretty solid with Fandral Staghelm, whom I expect to see in nearly every competitive druid list in coming seasons (certainly every list that includes two or more of Wrath, Living Roots, Power of the Wild, and Raven Idol). People are seriously sleeping on this one.
THE BAD (five cards that players have unrealistically high expectations for)
Doomcaller: It's an awesome, exciting card, and I understand why people like it, but if you really think it's going to see play, prepare for disappointment. The meta might slow down, but if I will eat my hat if it slows down enough that you can draw and play C'Thun, get him killed, play a vanilla 8-drop to shuffle him back into your deck, draw him again, and play him again. You'll be lucky to draw him even once if you're not running Ancient Harbinger!
Faceless Summoner: Obviously a strong card, and it'll be a powerhouse in arena, but people who think this will make a big splash on the ladder are kidding themselves. It might not get played it all—it has no immediate impact on the board, no natural synergies, and no obvious role in any mage deck. It's just a little too expensive to offer nothing more than stats and board presence (cf. the mighty new Flamewreathed Faceless).
Steward of Darkshire: An easily-removed, tempo-negative 3-drop with a strong ability that's hard to trigger when it counts. With Haunted Creeper leaving Standard, there's no good way for paladin to summon 1-health minions without paying mana (or maybe I've just failed to foresee the new Wisp and Imp Master meta), which means that this is an aggro card you can't really play until turn 5 or so. It has lots of intriguing combo potential (with other new cards of dubious merit, like Rallying Blade and Stand Against Darkness), but I just don't see what competitive deck can make it work reliably. Hobgoblin paladin was never very strong, and I think Steward will be less impactful than Mr. Goblins and Gnomes.
Blood Warriors: A super-conditional version of Echo of Medivh—a card that barely saw play in competitive decks for a class with much stronger combo potential. This card is not playable.
THE UGLY (five cards that were universally panned—and are probably terrible—but have some major theoretical upside)
Tentacles for Arms: Scorn a unique card that offers infinite value at your own peril. Yes, it's probably too slow even for the slowest, grindiest warrior, but we won't know that for sure until we see the new meta. This thing effectively gives warrior two hero powers at once—it's the only card in the game that cannot be destroyed, transformed, or in any way removed. If there's a lot about a card that seems broken, count on somebody to find a way to break the game with it.
Darkshire Librarian: There probably still aren't enough cards built around this mechanic to make a top-tier deck, but this is a big step in the right direction. Tiny Knight of Evil into this gal is a very strong opener, and unlike many of the discard minions, she actually has a little upside even when you don't trigger Tiny Knight or Fist of Jaraxxus (she's like a mega-Loot Hoarder if you manage to drop her from an empty hand).
Demented Frostcaller: It's strange that people rated this card very poorly but rated Shatter fairly highly. The two are pretty much meant for each other—if one works, the other will work too. This guy seems too expensive (and Shatter too conditional) but he has the potential to completely lock an opponent down—particularly an opponent who plays limited numbers of big minions—and generate hyper-efficient minion kills with Shatter and Ice Lance.
Giant Sand Worm: Like Tentacles for Arms, this one is probably going to prove unplayable, but the text is so insane that it demands a long second look. Could this be the board clear control hunter has always fantasized about? If you can stick one, its value with Stablemaster or Bestial Wrath is absolutely astronomical. But yes, alas, it'll probably just get Entombed or BGHed or something. We can dream.
Power Word: Tentacles: This is, objectively, a bad card. That's not going to stop some combo priest from OTKing you with it.
Doomcaller is going to be super good tech for control heavy matches. Sort of like when people used to tech in Deathwing when they saw a lot of control matches. I think he's going to be the equivilant of a Golden Monkey for C'htun control decks.
Blood Warriors is one of those cards I think may actually be decent in warrior. Warrior (except control) is more minion heavy and gets a lot of value out of minions on board (both for trades and effects). Additionally the new pirate motif that is incoming has pretty fantastic weapon synergy and may be able to generate a gross amount of value out of their weapons by copying cards like Bloodsail Cultist.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that this card seems pretty bad at first glance, but I think it's worth experimenting with heavily.
i agree with somes but Hogger and feral rage are quite good and very well recibe by people in general, as hogger is a good counter for c´thun and feral rage is just waay too good, power word tentacles, yes is way worst than velen´s chosen, but velens is realy broken, i mean really broken, and the power level or the meta in general will be going down quite a bit, and if you take all this in account, power word tentacle is in fact quite good, a lot of health and +2 attack will make any small minion very good and trade extremely effcient, since prist like high health minions and cyclopian horror will be a tech card agains zoo-ish low curve rush type of decks, not a auto include, a tech card
Spiteful Smith and Tentacles for Arms is theoretically amazing. Play Spiteful Smith and then get it damaged in whatever way you deem necessary, then play your tentacles for arms and remove and threats (while you tank damage with your 30 armour or whatever). This way you can keep on spewing out 4 dmg attacks each turn and your opponent finds it difficult to set up with the threat of a 4 dmg attack and a spiteful smith attack coming at anything he can play. Countered by high attack taunts most of the time, but as a warrior you have 2 execute 2 shield slam and other various forms of damage in bash/slam/whirlwind and more.
When abused it might be crazy strong. You cannot really trade with multiple minions into it, since you would be stopped by a 2/2 taunter each time, so thats not going to work. You have to hit it once with something big. But even then, even then you get at least a 2/2 which is basically 8/8 worth of stats on 7 which is in line of what a minion can have on that mana spot, so not so terrible.
The absolute worst thing that could happen if it gets Hexed/sheeped etc,..but thats something most high cost minion have to deal with. Yes it has no immediate impact and thats where it might be problematic and thats the only reason why this minion could turn out not as great.
But i think its better than it looks.
It funny how you mention an interaction I didn't even think of till the stream. With Hogger I mean and not being able to run multiple minions into him.
When I saw that I was like "oh...damn that's actually better than I thought". Maybe worth experimenting with :D
Embrace the Shadow is going to be the card that defines the standard metagame for Priest.
Cool that I'm not the only one excited about this card. It more than doubles the damage threats that came from Auchenai (two more heal->damage in your deck, but two extra mana to play with), making it quite flexible. The Circle clear now costs 2 mana (or 4 for the extra 2-4 damage ping off). Makes it a threat to clear the better-stats-than-curve Corrupted Healbot to get the heal over face damage, Darkshire Alchemist and Flash heal give targeted damage potential, and other nice potential plays that can be threatening and not just reactive, which has been an issue with Priest.
Darkshire Librarian: is NOT, I repeat, NOT a "step into the right direction". It literally does NOTHING and has not even an upside to it. We have enough "discard" enables, but little to no cards that benefit from it. If you wanna push the "discard" theme, we need more cards like Tiny Knight of Evil (which is not nearly enough to warrant discarding a card and therefore bad) or Fist of Jaraxxus (better, but the card and effect are terrible). Something like a 4/4 demon with the text of "If discarded, summon it" or something.
Darkshire Librarian: is NOT, I repeat, NOT a "step into the right direction". It literally does NOTHING and has not even an upside to it. We have enough "discard" enables, but little to no cards that benefit from it. If you wanna push the "discard" theme, we need more cards like Tiny Knight of Evil (which is not nearly enough to warrant discarding a card and therefore bad) or Fist of Jaraxxus (better, but the card and effect are terrible). Something like a 4/4 demon with the text of "If discarded, summon it" or something.
completely agree, thats not the right direction, in most cases this is a worst Succubus
i think you are rigth with most of the overrated, but i think is not the same compare twin emperor with cairne, cairne is a deathrattle, twin emperor is a battlecry and as we all se in the stream, a 10 attack cthun is not hard at all, so those prerequisites are not a big deal, and if you dont have a 10 or more attack cthun by turn 7, well the decklist kinda sucks hahahaha and i insist, this is not at all like cairne
Blood Warriors is one of those cards I think may actually be decent in warrior. Warrior (except control) is more minion heavy and gets a lot of value out of minions on board (both for trades and effects). Additionally the new pirate motif that is incoming has pretty fantastic weapon synergy and may be able to generate a gross amount of value out of their weapons by copying cards like Bloodsail Cultist.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that this card seems pretty bad at first glance, but I think it's worth experimenting with heavily.
That's a really good point! I was stuck in the mindset of thinking about patron (where it's simply not useful) or control (where there aren't enough targets/activators). If pirate warrior works—and Bloodsail Cultist is really good—Blood Warriors might be just what it needs. Pirate decks tend to run out of cards and grind to a halt.
Still, the problem is the condition. You have to run something that damages all of your own guys (which has anti-synergy with pirates, a generally low-health tribe), and draw it, and have enough mana to play it the same turn as Blood Warriors, etc. etc.
i agree with somes but Hogger and feral rage are quite good and very well recibe by people in general, as hogger is a good counter for c´thun and feral rage is just waay too good, power word tentacles, yes is way worst than velen´s chosen, but velens is realy broken, i mean really broken, and the power level or the meta in general will be going down quite a bit, and if you take all this in account, power word tentacle is in fact quite good, a lot of health and +2 attack will make any small minion very good and trade extremely effcient, since prist like high health minions and cyclopian horror will be a tech card agains zoo-ish low curve rush type of decks, not a auto include, a tech card
I based my decisions about what was underrated and overrated on the fan polls right here at Hearthpwn (Jolman42 put together a handy community tier list using poll responses). Hogger was rated in the bottom half of the new legendaries. Feral Rage was rated about the same, right next to Forbidden Ancient (which is terrible) and below rubbish like Twilight Geomancer. PW:T was the 12th-lowest-rated card in the entire set.
By the way, calling it now: Nat, the Darkfisher (third-lowest-rated) is going to see play in aggro paladin. Get that Divine Favor synergy working!
Darkshire Librarian: is NOT, I repeat, NOT a "step into the right direction". It literally does NOTHING and has not even an upside to it. We have enough "discard" enables, but little to no cards that benefit from it. If you wanna push the "discard" theme, we need more cards like Tiny Knight of Evil (which is not nearly enough to warrant discarding a card and therefore bad) or Fist of Jaraxxus (better, but the card and effect are terrible). Something like a 4/4 demon with the text of "If discarded, summon it" or something.
As I explained, it does have an upside: If you play it from an empty hand (which is not unrealistic in a fast deck), there's no discard, but you do get a free card draw. And that's what makes it a step in the right direction—whereas Succubus is terrible if you don't have Tiny Knight in play or Fist in hand, Librarian is a perfectly average 2-mana play even if it doesn't trigger anything (you're not going to fatigue with an aggro warlock, after all) and pure value if it does.
I like your categorization (Good-Bad-Ugly). One problem though with Ancient Harbinger is that you have better and more flexible cards that will allow you to stay alive until you draw your 10-mana card. I'm not saying it's unplayable but as with Doomcaller, it could fit in certain classes (I'm thinking of Priest tbh for both).
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'There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact'
That's a really good point! I was stuck in the mindset of thinking about patron (where it's simply not useful) or control (where there aren't enough targets/activators). If pirate warrior works—and Bloodsail Cultist is really good—Blood Warriors might be just what it needs. Pirate decks tend to run out of cards and grind to a halt.
Still, the problem is the condition. You have to run something that damages all of your own guys (which has anti-synergy with pirates, a generally low-health tribe), and draw it, and have enough mana to play it the same turn as Blood Warriors, etc. etc.
I based my decisions about what was underrated and overrated on the fan polls right here at Hearthpwn (Jolman42 put together a handy community tier list using poll responses). Hogger was rated in the bottom half of the new legendaries. Feral Rage was rated about the same, right next to Forbidden Ancient (which is terrible) and below rubbish like Twilight Geomancer. PW:T was the 12th-lowest-rated card in the entire set.
By the way, calling it now: Nat, the Darkfisher (third-lowest-rated) is going to see play in aggro paladin. Get that Divine Favor synergy working!
As I explained, it does have an upside: If you play it from an empty hand (which is not unrealistic in a fast deck), there's no discard, but you do get a free card draw. And that's what makes it a step in the right direction—whereas Succubus is terrible if you don't have Tiny Knight in play or Fist in hand, Librarian is a perfectly average 2-mana play even if it doesn't trigger anything (you're not going to fatigue with an aggro warlock, after all) and pure value if it does.
If you play with an empty hand, a 4/3 for 2 is pretty good as well. Either treat them the same or don't compare them. The card has no upside attached to itself and the effect is "do nothing" effectively, except in fringe cases. You will NEVER ever get to an empty hand when you play it on curve. You can compare it to Darnassus Aspirant, which has a similar "do nothing" effect, except that this card provides something and than takes it away, which is SO MUCH better, it's not even funny. You get ahead and then return to neutral state. Liberian puts you BEHIND and then returns to a neutral state. Do you see why one is worth to be played and the other is not? You get no advantage from it. In the fringe case of being played from an empty hand, you get more value from Succubus to be honest. Loot Hoarder has -1/-1 but always nets you the unconditional draw (which you don't really need as warlock to begin with).
Doomcaller is going to be super good tech for control heavy matches. Sort of like when people used to tech in Deathwing when they saw a lot of control matches. I think he's going to be the equivilant of a Golden Monkey for C'htun control decks.
I don't think it's bad by any means, but it's the fourth-highest-rated card in the whole expansion (not counting Am'gam Rager), and that is totally unrealistic. It's a very niche card.
Consider control warrior (old, pre-Elise CW): Replace Ysera with C'Thun, Dr. Boom with Vek'lor, the Shieldmaidens with Ancient Shieldbearers, and the Belchers with Crazed Worshippers. So far, so good. But how do you make room for Brann, Beckoner of Evil, Disciple of C'Thun, Twilight Elder, and C'Thun's Chosen? Maybe you don't replace Death's Bite with a different weapon, but what else can you cut? Removal? Armor gain? No matter what you do, you're going to have a faster deck. I don't think C'Thun decks, even warrior, are going to be going to fatigue.
I'm not saying discard warlock is suddenly going to be a thing, but Librarian is objectively better than Succubus. Succubus is always bad unless your hand is empty (except if Fist of Jaraxxus goes off and hits a worthwhile target; +1/+1 to TIny Knight is never worth losing a card). Librarian is never bad, and is actually good if your hand is empty.
The odds of Librarian being silenced/transformed are miniscule. Stolen by Shadow Madness vs. priest, maybe. But you will get the card 99 percent of the time. Again, not saying it's going to be played, just saying it's a good design—a better design than Succubus, anyhow.
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Five cards that will exceed expectations, five that will disappoint, and five that just might—if the stars align—not be completely terrible.
THE GOOD (five strong cards that aren't getting the respect they deserve)
Forbidden Flame: Yes, it's inefficient removal, but it's also extremely flexible—more so than most of the other Forbidden cards. Adequate against both aggro and control, and always capable of triggering your Flamewaker or Archmage Antonidas. You'll never be sorry to have this in your back pocket.
Carrion Grub: An ideal 3-drop for a beast-oriented hunter, or even a fairly standard midrange list. It's extremely hard to remove a 2/5 on curve, which means this is probably the best, most reliable partner Houndmaster has ever had.
Ancient Harbinger: You pay a premium of 1 (maybe 1.5) mana to put a sturdy minion into play that demands to be removed; if your opponent can't remove it, you get to draw your deck's most important minion. I'm not sure people appreciate how important—and difficult—it will be to actually get C'Thun in your hand; most games right now aren't long enough for you to even have a 50 percent chance of naturally drawing a specific legendary. The meta might slow down, and C'Thun decks will surely be slower than average, but this card will still have an important role to play in making them reliable.
Hogger, Doom of Elwynn: Potentially massive value and utility, especially in a traditional control warrior list. Might just fill the hole that Dr. Boom is leaving behind (for warrior—he's not so hot for classes that can't trigger him easily/cheaply). People might be wary because he looks a lot like Troggzor the Earthinator, the Great Disappointer, but the difference is that you can actually control whether his ability is triggered or not.
Feral Rage: Better than Healing Touch, which used to be played in the pre-Healbot days, and better than Ice Barrier, which still is played. Gives druid a sort of warrior-lite ability to stack health (attractive for super-slow lists), but it's versatile too, capable of clearing minions or even going face. And it's pretty solid with Fandral Staghelm, whom I expect to see in nearly every competitive druid list in coming seasons (certainly every list that includes two or more of Wrath, Living Roots, Power of the Wild, and Raven Idol). People are seriously sleeping on this one.
THE BAD (five cards that players have unrealistically high expectations for)
Doomcaller: It's an awesome, exciting card, and I understand why people like it, but if you really think it's going to see play, prepare for disappointment. The meta might slow down, but if I will eat my hat if it slows down enough that you can draw and play C'Thun, get him killed, play a vanilla 8-drop to shuffle him back into your deck, draw him again, and play him again. You'll be lucky to draw him even once if you're not running Ancient Harbinger!
Faceless Summoner: Obviously a strong card, and it'll be a powerhouse in arena, but people who think this will make a big splash on the ladder are kidding themselves. It might not get played it all—it has no immediate impact on the board, no natural synergies, and no obvious role in any mage deck. It's just a little too expensive to offer nothing more than stats and board presence (cf. the mighty new Flamewreathed Faceless).
Steward of Darkshire: An easily-removed, tempo-negative 3-drop with a strong ability that's hard to trigger when it counts. With Haunted Creeper leaving Standard, there's no good way for paladin to summon 1-health minions without paying mana (or maybe I've just failed to foresee the new Wisp and Imp Master meta), which means that this is an aggro card you can't really play until turn 5 or so. It has lots of intriguing combo potential (with other new cards of dubious merit, like Rallying Blade and Stand Against Darkness), but I just don't see what competitive deck can make it work reliably. Hobgoblin paladin was never very strong, and I think Steward will be less impactful than Mr. Goblins and Gnomes.
Blood Warriors: A super-conditional version of Echo of Medivh—a card that barely saw play in competitive decks for a class with much stronger combo potential. This card is not playable.
Cyclopian Horror: Depending on the speed of the meta, it might be marginally better than Sen'jin Shieldmasta. That's not saying much. The Brann Bronzebeard combo is fun, but don't count on it.
THE UGLY (five cards that were universally panned—and are probably terrible—but have some major theoretical upside)
Tentacles for Arms: Scorn a unique card that offers infinite value at your own peril. Yes, it's probably too slow even for the slowest, grindiest warrior, but we won't know that for sure until we see the new meta. This thing effectively gives warrior two hero powers at once—it's the only card in the game that cannot be destroyed, transformed, or in any way removed. If there's a lot about a card that seems broken, count on somebody to find a way to break the game with it.
Darkshire Librarian: There probably still aren't enough cards built around this mechanic to make a top-tier deck, but this is a big step in the right direction. Tiny Knight of Evil into this gal is a very strong opener, and unlike many of the discard minions, she actually has a little upside even when you don't trigger Tiny Knight or Fist of Jaraxxus (she's like a mega-Loot Hoarder if you manage to drop her from an empty hand).
Demented Frostcaller: It's strange that people rated this card very poorly but rated Shatter fairly highly. The two are pretty much meant for each other—if one works, the other will work too. This guy seems too expensive (and Shatter too conditional) but he has the potential to completely lock an opponent down—particularly an opponent who plays limited numbers of big minions—and generate hyper-efficient minion kills with Shatter and Ice Lance.
Giant Sand Worm: Like Tentacles for Arms, this one is probably going to prove unplayable, but the text is so insane that it demands a long second look. Could this be the board clear control hunter has always fantasized about? If you can stick one, its value with Stablemaster or Bestial Wrath is absolutely astronomical. But yes, alas, it'll probably just get Entombed or BGHed or something. We can dream.
Power Word: Tentacles: This is, objectively, a bad card. That's not going to stop some combo priest from OTKing you with it.
Embrace the Shadow is going to be the card that defines the standard metagame for Priest.
Doomcaller is going to be super good tech for control heavy matches. Sort of like when people used to tech in Deathwing when they saw a lot of control matches. I think he's going to be the equivilant of a Golden Monkey for C'htun control decks.
Blood Warriors is one of those cards I think may actually be decent in warrior. Warrior (except control) is more minion heavy and gets a lot of value out of minions on board (both for trades and effects). Additionally the new pirate motif that is incoming has pretty fantastic weapon synergy and may be able to generate a gross amount of value out of their weapons by copying cards like Bloodsail Cultist.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that this card seems pretty bad at first glance, but I think it's worth experimenting with heavily.
i agree with somes but Hogger and feral rage are quite good and very well recibe by people in general, as hogger is a good counter for c´thun and feral rage is just waay too good, power word tentacles, yes is way worst than velen´s chosen, but velens is realy broken, i mean really broken, and the power level or the meta in general will be going down quite a bit, and if you take all this in account, power word tentacle is in fact quite good, a lot of health and +2 attack will make any small minion very good and trade extremely effcient, since prist like high health minions and cyclopian horror will be a tech card agains zoo-ish low curve rush type of decks, not a auto include, a tech card
Spiteful Smith and Tentacles for Arms is theoretically amazing. Play Spiteful Smith and then get it damaged in whatever way you deem necessary, then play your tentacles for arms and remove and threats (while you tank damage with your 30 armour or whatever). This way you can keep on spewing out 4 dmg attacks each turn and your opponent finds it difficult to set up with the threat of a 4 dmg attack and a spiteful smith attack coming at anything he can play. Countered by high attack taunts most of the time, but as a warrior you have 2 execute 2 shield slam and other various forms of damage in bash/slam/whirlwind and more.
One decent T10 play would be Spiteful Smith + Inner Rage (on spiteful smith) + Tentacles for Arms = 4 dmg attack and 6/5 spiteful smith
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Darkshire Librarian: is NOT, I repeat, NOT a "step into the right direction". It literally does NOTHING and has not even an upside to it. We have enough "discard" enables, but little to no cards that benefit from it. If you wanna push the "discard" theme, we need more cards like Tiny Knight of Evil (which is not nearly enough to warrant discarding a card and therefore bad) or Fist of Jaraxxus (better, but the card and effect are terrible). Something like a 4/4 demon with the text of "If discarded, summon it" or something.
i think you are rigth with most of the overrated, but i think is not the same compare twin emperor with cairne, cairne is a deathrattle, twin emperor is a battlecry and as we all se in the stream, a 10 attack cthun is not hard at all, so those prerequisites are not a big deal, and if you dont have a 10 or more attack cthun by turn 7, well the decklist kinda sucks hahahaha and i insist, this is not at all like cairne
Idk why I have high hopes for Herald Volajz and everyone is dismissing him.
Really though underated number 1 is Malkorok. I really see him as one of the strong points of the set.
Other underated cards IMO are Infest, Y'Sharrj and Scales Nightmare. Excited for all of those.
I like your categorization (Good-Bad-Ugly). One problem though with Ancient Harbinger is that you have better and more flexible cards that will allow you to stay alive until you draw your 10-mana card. I'm not saying it's unplayable but as with Doomcaller, it could fit in certain classes (I'm thinking of Priest tbh for both).
'There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact'
Sherlock Holmes
The card has no upside attached to itself and the effect is "do nothing" effectively, except in fringe cases. You will NEVER ever get to an empty hand when you play it on curve.
You can compare it to Darnassus Aspirant, which has a similar "do nothing" effect, except that this card provides something and than takes it away, which is SO MUCH better, it's not even funny. You get ahead and then return to neutral state. Liberian puts you BEHIND and then returns to a neutral state. Do you see why one is worth to be played and the other is not? You get no advantage from it. In the fringe case of being played from an empty hand, you get more value from Succubus to be honest. Loot Hoarder has -1/-1 but always nets you the unconditional draw (which you don't really need as warlock to begin with).
One card I think a lot of people are sleeping on is Nerubian Prophet. I just imagine him in midrange shaman and it can be bonkers.
If in opening hand it can be a turn 3 4/4, not bad at all.
Playing second? Imagine this:
Turn 1 Tunnel Trogg
Turn 2 Totem Golem
Turn 3 coin out Feral Spirit
Turn 4 Eternal Sentinel into Nerubian Prophet
Seems crazy unless opponent has brawl or Circle combo to clear all.
Can even keep it after a big board clear. Either way I think there are lots of ways to get a lot of value out of this minion.
I'm not saying discard warlock is suddenly going to be a thing, but Librarian is objectively better than Succubus. Succubus is always bad unless your hand is empty (except if Fist of Jaraxxus goes off and hits a worthwhile target; +1/+1 to TIny Knight is never worth losing a card). Librarian is never bad, and is actually good if your hand is empty.
The odds of Librarian being silenced/transformed are miniscule. Stolen by Shadow Madness vs. priest, maybe. But you will get the card 99 percent of the time. Again, not saying it's going to be played, just saying it's a good design—a better design than Succubus, anyhow.