This Legendary breaks the trend other Shaman Legendaries have put out in which the cost goes down by 1 per expansion. The first Shaman Legendary (Al'Akir the Windlord) costs 8. The second one (Neptulon) costs 7. The third one (The Mistcaller) costs 6. The fourth one (Hallazeal the Ascended) costs 5. This one however doesn't cost 4 so it breaks that trend.
This is the first Shaman minion in the game with a Deathrattle.
It was 3 and a half hours late from its promised reveal time, but here we are with the Shaman Legendary of the expansion. Unfortunately though, not everyone’s happy about it. It's powerful, but that's kinda the problem. Midrange Shaman is tearing up Standard right now, and some have theorized that this makes Midrange Shaman even stronger. Good news though, is that this card is more for Control and not much for Midrange. Control Shaman has not been extensively popular, but with this card, as well as the new Jinyu Waterspeaker, perhaps it sees a rise in popularity. Sure, it most likely won't beat Midrange Shaman but it might make Control Shaman a viable tier 2 or 3 deck that you see more often. Once TGT and LoE rotate out, Control Shaman may become a dominant deck. The problem with that though is that Elemental Destruction also rotates out there and when that happens, the best thing we can use to combo with Hallazeal the Ascended is Lightning Storm (which isn’t terrible, but it’s no ED).
Jeez, we haven’t even gotten to talking about the actual card yet and I made a whole paragraph. Anyway, as a 5/5 Taunt, it's already strictly better than Booty Bay Bodyguard (but of course, that isn't saying much). It shuffles a 5 mana 10/10 (reminiscent of the 4 mana 7/7 and 0 mana 5/5) with Taunt in your deck. This serves as both extra protection as well as increasing your deck size against fatigue. It also has some rather nice synergy with Ancestral Spirit. You can play it on either the White Eyes to shuffle another Storm Guardian into your deck, or play it when you already have The Storm Guardian out and make it summon another one when it dies.
This is the second 3 mana 1/1 in the game, preceded by Moroes.
This is the second card in the game with the word "sergeant" in it, preceded by Abusive Sergeant. Strangely enough, both are 1/1 minions (though Abusive Sergeant used to be a 2/1) which is ironic because "Sergeant" in the fifth rank in the military.
If one looks closely at the artwork, they may notice wanted posters, one with the person in Burgle, an Annoy-o-Tron and a Murloc which seems to resemble Giantfin.
This was the last card revealed before the reveal stream.
So here is the last card revealed before the stream and it’s quite an interesting one. It's a Neutral one but it honestly might as well be a Grimy Goons card because that’s where it’s going to be good. Without hand buffages, it's a Twilight Flamecaller with -1/-1 and activates on Deathrattle instead of Battlecry (except in a few very niche circumstances). Doesn't sound very exciting, right?
But when this card is used in a hand-buffing deck (most likely Paladin because it has the ability to buff everything in your hand whereas Hunter and Warrior doesn’t), this card has potential out the ass. Just one buff (easily achievable via Grimestreet Outfitter or Smuggler's Run) and it's already better than Twilight Flamecaller, essentially a Consecration that costs 1 less and has a 2/2 body on it. Get even more buffs on it, and it's absolute value that Trump would appreciate (the Hearthstone player Trump that is). Basically anything above 2/2 is absolutely insane value.
The only problem is that the effect is a Deathrattle instead of a Battlecry, which gives it a similar problem to Anomalus. But let's face it, if it was a Battlecry, it would be WAY too powerful. I mean Anomalus would suddenly go from 0-100 if its effect was a Battlecry as well (and didn’t kill itself that is).
Here is the Warrior Legendary that everyone is excited about, but to be honest, I don't think this card is that good. How many weapons do you run in your deck? 2 Fiery War Axes, but then the rest is situatonal. 2 Death's Bites in Wild. Maybe 2 Arcanite Reapers in Aggro Warrior. Maybe 2 Brass Knuckles’ in hand-buff Warrior. At most, you'll probably run 4 weapons in your deck. Giving weapons +1 Attack does allow them extra reach (if you saw in the stream, the buff allowed Frodan to kill an Azure Drake), but look at Upgrade! That's only played in Aggro Warrior and for 1 mana gives +1/+1 to your weapon, not just +1 Attack. Of course, you don't HAVE to play this on turn 2, but if you are, you're not playing Fiery War Axe on turn 2. Is giving +4 Attack to all of your weapons across your deck that good. No, honestly I don’t think so, so I honestly think this card isn't that good.
Well, it's been a while since we saw a Pirate, and this one's also a Naga. When you compare this to Southsea Squidface, the weapon loses 1 Attack in exchange for the minion gaining 1 Attack and activating immediately. This actually matters because sometimes you actually want the weapon buff right away and you don't want to wait for a minion to die for the weapon to get buffed. This seems like a fair trade off. In that respect, I think this card is a little bit better than Southsea Squidface because you get the buff immediately and it has +1 Attack over the Squidface. I think this will see play in Pirate decks.
Anduin and Wrathion have been shipper together by many (even Blizzard employees) which is fitting because the class he would perform best in is Priest.
Well, Wrathion's finally in the game, and the Anduin + Wrathion bromance is a reality for Dragon decks. Many people will try him out in Dragon Priest but will it be as successful as people suspect. Perhaps so, but it is rather difficult to evaluate. If you draw two or more cards, it's great. Sometimes that will happen and you might end up drawing three or maybe even four cards with this dude. However, there will be those occasional times where you'll only draw one card because not every minion in a Dragon deck is a Dragon and you might draw a spell. If you do only draw one card, then honestly wasn't amazing. Simply a 4/5 for 6 with Taunt that drew a card. Not absurdly terrible but not very good either. This makes this card very reliant on draws and luck in a similar to way to Flame Leviathan. That doesn't take away the potential that it has though.
Well, Blizzard still hasn’t given up on Taunt Warrior. We now have a 0/7 Taunt. Admttedly it's not that bad since it offers a lot of protection, especially against early game minions. 7 Health for 2 mana is VERY strong. This is especially a nice target for Stolen Goods, offering a 4 mana 3/10 in terms of toal cost and stats. It does however nerf Arena Warrios a bit since a 0/7 Taunt in Arena will not help you fight and only serves as protection.
This is the first "Ancient of" card that is Neutral instead of Druid-exclusive.
Aside from Forbidden Ancient, this is the first "Ancient of" card that isn't a 5/5 (this is probably why Ancient of Lore wasn't given a stat boost when it was nerfed).
This is simply the obligatory "huge common" of the set, which every set has at least one of (and WoTOG had a bunch of them). While not the most competitive, the "huge common" slot is rather rare and helpful for new plays looking for big cards to put into their deck that's somewhat viable for them. Quite frankly, I welcome these types of cards and they are very helpful for some situations, especially for newer players, as well as for Arena.
If you look at Bog Creeper, it actually sees more play than you might think. For simply 1 additional mana, it permanently gains +3 Attack, essentially combining this card and Blessing of Might into one card. For this reason, I think Bog Creeper is better than this card but this card will still be nice in Arena.
Here is our first potion revealed on the stream. It's very simple. You just freeze an enemy and it doesn't cost you anything. Like many 0 cost cards (mostly spells), it may not look like anything at first glance, but honestly, I think this card is better than it looks. It may look underwhelming but it does have a number of applications. It gives immediately value, and more opportunities for Shatter, gives the new card, Cryomancer a free +2/+2, gives a free Flamewaker trigger and even gives Gadgetzan Auctioneer some potential in Mage. I doubt Miracle Mage becomes a thing from this one card but it definitely does push that direction. Not only that but it also triggers Ice Lance for 0. Suddenly, you no longer have any situations where you'll have to use an Ice Lance to freeze and waste 4 damage. Also, it provides a free trigger for Archmage Antonidas.
It also is useful in Arena where you can freeze anything and stall for an additional turn. It's also rather nice to get from Kabal Chemist. Overall, despite the simplicity and deceptive looks, this card is rather nice. This is probably going to sound weird, but I'm honestly going to call this card "Good".
We may have gotten through Grimy Goons week 2 weeks ago but that doesn't mean every hand-buffing card was revealed. Like this one for example. You play it, then a random Beast in your hand gains +2/+2. As a 1 mana card, you can play it on turn 1 (which is nice because Hunters have limited options for turn 1), then play a Beast on turn 2. Either a King's Elekk, Huge Toad, or Kindly Grandmother. KE and HT become 5/4's with good effects for 2, and KG becomes a 3/3 that summons a 3/2. These all sound pretty nice, don’t they? Which is why this simply is a great Hunter card.
Well, this is a VERY weird Secret since it's possibly the only Secret in the entire game that doesn't have any board impact or strategy. You just play it, then when it triggers, it buffs a completely random creature in your hand. It's pretty much impossible to play around, not that it really needs to be played around. People may not be too happy about Hunters getting a new Secret but this is one that doesn't really work in Secret Hunter since Secret Hunter tends to not run very many minions.
So here is a very weird card from the stream. Naturally, it would be compared to Jeeves. There's been some debate over whether or not this is better than Jeeves, and in general, mixed opinions about the card. I think this card is kinda average in my opinion. It's not terrible, but I don’t think the card is that good. Jeeves guaranteed you card draw for one turn (that is, when the requirement was met of course). Not so much this. You get a much better body for the cost which is nice but there are quite a few times where this may end up not attacking, thus being just a 4 mana 5/4 that has a somewhat soft Taunt on it.
Remember Light's Champion from TGT? Well, here we have essentially a MUCH better version of that since there are a lot more possible targets for this card (like a LOT more possible targets, it was absolutely pathetic how much targets Light's Champion had). Just like Bomb Squad, it kinda acts like a counter for Sylvanas Windrunner. Your opponent plays Sylvanas, and you can play this to counter it. Suddenly Sylvanas is now just a 6 mana 5/5 with a lot less threat than usual. Not only that but if you're one of those who thought White Eyes would be too powerful, here we have a card that allows you to Silence that. White Eyes however costs 5 so you could only Silence it on curve with ramp (or The Coin), but still, it seems like it could be a viable tech card.
Well, here's a cool card (see what I did there?) that has nice synergy with the new card, Freezing Potion and it also curves well from a turn 4 Water Elemental, then play this on turn 5 and get a 5 mana 7/7. That may not be as good as a 4 mana 7/7, but this doesn’t overload you for 2. It doesn't even need to be a minion, you can freeze the enemy hero and have it trigger as well. Perhaps with this, Ice Lance and a bunch of other freeze cards (yes, maybe even Shatter), a new type of Freeze Mage might appear. Not the best Mage card but playable.
This is possibly the first card in the game with the name of another card within its name (in this case, Arcane Missiles).
The wording of this card is different from cards like Arcane Missiles and Avenging Wrath, but instead it's similar to the boss card Flame Burst from Illidan Stormrage's boss in the tutorial. Rather than an inconsistency in the wording, this could be worded this way so people would know that this would scale up by 3 from Spell Damage instead of just 1, and also lets people know that the missiles can hit the same target.
This is a very interesting Mage spell that's like Avenging Wrath. Just, every missile it shoots deal 3 damage, instead of shooting a bunch of small pings. Avenging Wrath doesn't see any play, so maybe one might immediately call this off as bad. Truth be told though, this does have more potential than Avenging Wrath, namely with Spell Damage, in which it's important to note that Spell Damage +1 (easily achievable via Cult Sorcerer or Bloodmage Thalnos) makes this card deal 12 damage as opposed to 10 because each missile now deals 4 damage instead of 3. It won't happen often but simply imagine trying to use this with Malygos. 24 damage. Sign me up!
Then of course, there's the obvious synergy with Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker, which fortunately, both of those separate cards can be played on the same turn as this one.
This is the third card in the game that destroys Mana Crystals, preceded by Felguard and Darnassus Aspirant. The word "Blastcrystal" may refer to the destruction of one of the Mana Crystals and creating an explosion.
As most of us (hopefully) know, tempo is one of the more important aspects of Hearthstone. You want to know the best way to use your mana, especially at a point where you can start playing off curve. Because of this, one might read the text "destroy a Mana Crystal" and immediately deem this card as bad. However, I think this card is better than that, mainly because the drawback is less prevalent the further into the match you are, and once you're at 10 mana, the drawback does literally nothing since you'll gain that 10th mana crystal back. Of course, you will practically never play this on curve. You'll mostly place this once your opponent has a larger minion in play where this drawback won't matter as much. Surely on turn 7+, you'll have the ability so spare 1 mana, right? That's mostly when you’ll float some mana. Because of that, I think this card is actually fairly good and will see play at least in Renolock.
One can notice different shaped potions which look like the potions from Kazakus, as well as a book with a symbol that somewhat resembles the Skyrim logo.
Here is one pretty exciting Warlock card. It's very much like Mana Tide Totem, in which if your opponent doesn't kill it, you'll just keep getting Demons, and even as a 3 mana 0/3, Mana Tide Totem sees play in many Shaman decks, but this is a 6 mana 6/6. There's a number of really good Demons to get from this, and most of the worst ones to get aren’t even that bad. You basically get a new minion added to your hand every turn (and as an end of turn effect, you're guaranteed at least one activation) which is awesome. Speaking of awesome, it has really amazing synergy with a certain other card we’ll get to later.
Here is our first filler-ish type of card from the stream. It's not filler because it's a Neutral common. It's filler because it's kind of a boring card with a very simple effect seen on many cards already. If we look at Voodoo Doctor, you'd probably run that instead, right? 1 more mana for +1 Health isn't really worth it. It's a decent card in Arena because you can trade with a minion then heal it back up, but even then, Voodoo Doctor might be better.
This card was attempted to be voted for in Kabal week but because voting failed, it was not revealed until the stream. At the time, many suspected that the voting was rigged.
It was suspected (most likely as a joke) that the effect of this card would be "Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, the next Demon you play this turn costs (0)".
Out of every class in the game, Warlock has the highest average class Legendary cost, with an average of 8. Druid is second place with an average of 7.8.
The card art appears to depict a Voidwalker wrapped in chains that look like the ones from Raza the Chained. The gnome is either controlling the demon or is being possessed by it.
Here is the Warlock Legendary and it's a pretty crazy one. As for when you have no duplicates in your deck, you get to play every Demon in your hand for 0 and avoid any negative Battlecries of cards like Pit Lord and Doomguard. Can be compared to Deathwing, Dragonlord but for Demons and activated on Battlecry rather than Deathrattle. Deathwing, Dragonlord was cool and pretty crazy but it was also slow because its effect was a Deathrattle. This however happens immediately meaning you instantly summon a massive number of minions to fight for you. This however does play into AoE so you will need to make sure your opponent doesn’t have it before playing this card.
It also has perfect synergy with Kabal Trafficker. It does have flaws being that it's expensive so it’s inherently slow, and that it does play into AoE but that doesn’t take away from how much potential this card has to be good.
So here we have a very simply Common for Hunters. A 1/1 for 1 that summons another 1/1. Doesn't sound too great at first, but it is a bit better than that as it does make a 2/2 Beast in some regard, and Enchanted Raven sees play, so why shouldn't this, right? It immediately summons two Houndmaster targets and is in general a nice card to get buffed by cards like Trogg Beastrager or Smuggler's Crate. The fact that it's 2 1/1’s means one can pop a Divine Shield off.
I was originally going to call this "Average", but after reading what I said, I definitely think it can get away with a "Good".
This is the second card in the set with artwork that depicts Murlocs but doesn't involve Murlocs at all, preceded by Smuggler's Run. Cards from other sets with this trait include Shadow Word: Horror and Hellfire.
"Sleep with the Fishes" sn a term referring to someone thrown into a body of water, drowning and dying, either killed by drowning or was already killed and the body was disposed in the water. This line was popularized in the movie "The Godfather". Interestingly enough, the summoning quote for Meanstreet Marshal is "you gonna sleep with the fishes".
Here is a rather weird card. It does have potential in combination with Ravaging Ghoul to equal a 5 mana Flamestrike that puts a 3/3 minion on the board (and requires two cards), but Warriors already have Brawl which accomplishes the same purpose and this is also a two card combo inherently making it less reliable. In general, Brawl is also easier to activate. I feel like this combo is simply outclassed by Brawl.
Of course, by no means do I call this card because honestly, even if it does use two cards, it's a neat combo to Flamestrike your opponent's board (and most likely your own as well). It's also combo-able with Whirlwind or Revenge allowing more potential options as cards to activate this and clear a board. I think this card has a place but in general is outclassed by Brawl.
Shamans have a 4 mana 7/7 and Mages are getting a 5 mana 7/7. It only seems fair that Druids are getting a 3 mana 5/5, right? Memes aside, the effect is more difficult to activate and its one of those cards that's basically required to play off curve since it's almost impossible to actually activate this effect on turn 3. You'd have to do insane ramping or coin out… *sigh*, a rager. Off curve, the card is a nice 3 mana 5/5, but otherwise, it really isn't too great. This card would’ve been a LOT better in Paladin, Hunter or Warrior with the ability to buff things in your hand. I honestly don’t know how this isn’t in one of those three classes, other than thematics.
This is more of the obligatory drawback cards for Warlock. As 3 mana 5/5 with no immediate drawback, it does have immediate potential in that regard. It's controllable as well, to not take damage, you simply don't summon any minions. Of course though, summoning minions is an essential part to any type of deck as even spell based decks have minions in them. At 5 Health it's difficult to kill it off, meaning the 5 Health can actually act more as a drawback than a benefit, but obviously it does allow that extra 5 damage to get in. 5 damage on turn 3 is very difficult to do in most cases. We have only a few limited tools capable of this. Shadow Strike is one, or a Fireball with its cost reduced by Sorcerer's Apprentice, or Lava Burst which ends up overloading you for 2… as well as another "raging" card we'll get to later. Yeah, try dealing with 5 Health on turn 3 without having to face some unfavorable situations. Because of that, it definitely has potential. But of course, a drawback is a drawback and sometimes it can actually matter quite a bit.
Here is another Warlock card and this one has potential, especially with its Demon synergy. It has synergy with Kabal Trafficker and Krul the Unshackled, which definitely pushes a Demonlock and Reno-Demonlock Theme. Definitely appreciated. Fortunately, it curves well from a turn 3 Imp Gang Boss and you'll be able to buff the boss and maybe an Imp from it. You may also be able to buff cheaper targets like a Voidwalker.
Just to clarify, it only means Demons on the board, not in your hand and/or deck, just the board. You probably can reasonably get 2 Demons on the board allowing a total of +2/+2 equaling 4 mana 7/6 worth of value (just shy of a 4 mana 7/7), which gains you reasonable value from the card. The absolute dream would be to play Krul the Unshackled, then next turn, play this and buff 4 or 5 Demons. It will very rarely happen, but it will feel so satisfying when it does. Even without that dream combo, this is simply a good card.
This is quite an interesting card to say the least. It may not look too great at first, but its effect does give it a soft Taunt because your opponent will not want you to transform this into a 6-drop, especially because of the good ones you can get. In that regard, it's a Sen'jin Shieldmasta with an upside which actually seems pretty good, and it can be protected by a Taunt. If you do attack a hero with it and transform, it's really good especially because of the number of really good quality 6-drops there are. Beware though because you may end up getting a "little friend", and I mean a VERY "little friend".
This is the first Discover card in the game with Overload.
This is the first Discover card in the game that Discovers based on a class-specific keyword (in this case, Overload). This makes it possible to get a card from a different class via this card (i.e, if you're a Mage and get this from Spellslinger).
"Finders Keepers" is a term that refers to claiming ownership of an unowned or abandoned item.
Here's a card that's gotten some really mixed feedback lately. Some feel that the Overload make it bad whereas others think the card is insane and that the Overload is justified. There are lots of strong minions (Earth Elemental, Flamewreahed Faceless) with Overload as well as powerful spells (Lightning Storm, Elemental Destruction, Feral Spirit). I would also like to remind people that when Ancestral Knowledge was first announced in TGT, many people said it was bad and would never see play. That was wrong though as it did see play in Aggro Shaman.
You can easily discover a board clear or powerful minion with this card which means this card is actually stronger than it looks. The worst thing you could discover with it would be another copy of itself, but in that case, just don't pick it.
This is the fourth Rager (fifth if you count Core Rager) in the game preceded by Magma Rager, Ice Rager and Am'gam Rager. The latter of these two cards are intended as joke cards to play on the fact that Magma Rager is the worst card in the game.
It's possible that the reason this is a Rogue card is because it looks cool with the Rogue border instead of fitting any thematics. The only other existing examples of this are Ysera's Dream Cards using the Hunter background to enforce the "Emerald Dream" theme.
Absolutely broken. With Stealth, it's absolutely guaranteed to live and 5 Attack, what 5 ATTACK!!! This is more broken than Dr. Boom, what was Blizzard thinking printing this card?
Rating: Very Good (Absolutely Broken)
SERIOUS REVIEW:
Well, people have been rather upset about what Rogues got in this expansion. I don't even play Rogue very often yet I agree that what they got is just terrible for the class. We thought that if we waited for the other cards, Rogue could redeem itself. Not when they get this joke card which is yet another card to play on the fact that Magma Rager sucks. Did this really need to be a Rogue card? I don't see why it couldn’t have been a Neutral. No sharing thematics, nothing.
Did Rogues overall get the short end of the stick? In my opinion, yes but that doesn’t mean every Rogue card is bad. They got Counterfeit Coin which is a REALLY nice Rogue card and here they got this pretty cool card right here. It's a 6 mana 9/9 with a very easy to meet prerequisite. You just need your weapon to be at 3 Attack or more. Easily accomplishable via Deadly Poison, or play Assassin's Blade on turn 5, then this on turn 6 and it's as simple as that. If your opponent doesn't have removal for it, they're in a bad spot. In Arena, if you have ways to buff your weapon, this is really good but otherwise, it's kinda average.
Blizzard wanted less Silences in the game. They wanted Silence to be a tech choice and not something you always have in your deck which is why Ironbeak Owl and Keeper of the Grove was nerfed. If that's the case, then what's this card right here? It’s a 5/5 for 5 which Silences minions. At the cost of 5, it perfectly Silences a turn 5 White Eyes (rip Storm Guardian) and in general a really strong card since you're sacrificing one stat point for a Silence. Pre-nerf Ironbeak Owl sacrificed two, and pre-nerf Keeper of the Grove sacrificed three. Once again, it's also another perfect Sylvanas Windrunner counter. Simple but deceptively powerful, and it's also AMAZING in Arena, definitely helps Priests there.
Here is our final potion of the set and it's just excellent. In fact the card is so good that it needed to the word "friendly" in its card text to prevent it from being broken with Auchenai Soulpriest. For good reasons too, 12 damage for 4 mana would be absolutely insane, especially in combination with Prophet Velen. Speaking of Prophet Velen, you can use this card along with him to essentially have a Reno Jackson without the no duplicates requirement. Requires two cards, and most likely on two separate turns, yes but we can all agree that it's tempting.
Even without Velen though, you're healing for 12 and it only costs 4 mana. That's A LOT of Health. 12 Health and you can easily get back in the game as your opponent will need to deal another 12 damage. While obviously, you'd normally heal yourself with it, the fact that it can heal any friendly character means that in EXTREMELY desperate situations, you can heal a minion you control and have it stay alive longer.
Perhaps this is part of a Reno-Heal Priest where you play Reno Jackson, Raza the Chained, Kazakus and a bunch of healing cards to stay alive forever. Not only does it fit there but it fits into almost every type of Priest deck. Reno Priest, Shadowform Priest, Control Priest, C'Thun Priest, maybe even Dragon Priest.
How many cards did it take? Well, here it the Yogg-Saron of the expansion. It absolutely INSANE. Basically every attack, spell, Battlecry, Hero Power is redirected to any random target as long as it's legal (so no, you can't Purify enemy minions or Execute the face). Oh, you played a Frostbolt? Here, target your own thing? Oh, you want to use Lesser Heal to heal yourself. Heal to your opponent instead. Oh, you played a Pyroblast on your opponent's face. Deal it to your own face instead. But of course, all attacks are random so your opponent will have a really tough time killing this, especially when both sides of the board are filled. It becomes absolute chaos. It's pre-nerf Yogg-Saron levels or bonkers but thankfully, I don’t think this will be as broke as Yogg-Saron. Probably won't see any Constructed play but for fun decks and moments with your friends. Oh my god, it's absolute MADNESS!!!
Were you going to live the dream of playing a Stealth Rogue deck? Were you one of those people who was excited for a turn 3 Shaku, the Collector or Shadow Rager, into a turn 4 Shadow Sensei? Well, you can still do that without this card interrupting you, but after turn 4, this card can counter it. It may not seem like much, but this is a decent tech card, especially against Miracle Rogue where you can unstealth the stealthed Gadgetzan Auctioneers. This means that if Miracle Rouge becomes extremely popular (which it might because of Counterfeit Coin), this card could work as a nice tech card to stop that and easily kill the stealthed Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
Overall a decent tech card and pretty decent in Arena.
Here is a nice little Pirate card. Particularly good for Rogue because they can play a turn 2 dagger and buff this to a 3/2, and good for Pirate Warrior because they can play this on turn 1, then Fiery War Axe on turn 2. Cogmaster was played in Mech decks where it acted as a 1 mana 3/2, so this should be played in Pirate decks where it too is a 1 mana 3/2. It's also a Pirate itself so it benefits from the other available Pirate synergy. It's simple but it’s good.
Here is a very creative card that has been praised by the community for its creativity and flavor. It's hard to gauge how exactly good the card is but there are some applications for it. Namely, it shuffles a bad card into your opponent's deck that they don’t want to draw which can effectively invalidate their draw, though it requires you to play a 1 mana 1/1 with no real upside to it. It also can mess up your opponent's Small-Time Recruits or Desert Camel which can mess up their game plan. It can even work as an anti-Reno card though that will require two of them to work and in that situation, I feel as if Beneath the Grounds would work better and Beneath the Grounds doesn’t really see any play. I don't think the card is necessarily that great but it does have its uses.
This card right here is very deceptive. It may not look like a lot at first but honestly, I think this card is oozing with potential. Specifically in Grimy Goons decks where it gets buffed in the hand by both the minion effect and this card's effect. It basically gains +2/+2 from a Grimestreet Outfitter instead of just +1/+1. Hand-buff decks seem to already have a lot of its game plan figured out. This card definitely seems like a natural fit in there potentially allowing a 3 mana 7/7 (better than a 4 mana 7/7) or 8/8. Because of its 3 mana cost, you could maybe follow it up with a Grimestreet Protector. Taunt and Divine Shield value.
Mana Wyrm is back here yet again, changing his body up and it seems that he grew up a bit after he was just an itty bitty 1/3 minion. He’s grown stronger and can now harness the spell power better.
In all honesty though, how good is this card? It requires 2 spells to be cast in order for it to be worth the cost, though because of its effect, it has a soft Taunt which does make better. Rogues potentially could Conceal it, then cast a bunch of spells to buff this. That’s similar to what Miracle Rogue does. Has potential in Rogue but otherwise, the card is just average. It's bad in Arena because you don't get many spells in Arena and in that case, it's simply a 5 mana 2/6 without text.
This is the third Neutral Demon in the game, preceded by Illidan Stormrage and Prince Malchezaar. This is the first Neutral Demon that isn't a Legendary and the first Neutral Imp.
This is the first (and only) minion in the set with Spell Damage and it's the last card in the set.
COMPARABLE CARDS:
Just about any Spell Damage minion.
REVIEW:
Well, it seems that Neutral Demons are considered "acceptable" for Blizzard to print. Here's our third one and the first non-Legendary one. It's a very weird card as well. As a 3 mana 0/7, it does have some survivability to it (nice since most Spell Damage minions are easily cleared) but it's just… so weird. We already have some cheaper options and ideally, you want a cheap Spell Damage minion for combos. I don’t really know what I can say about this card. It’s survivability is nice but it's just really awkward to play as a 0/7.
Rating: Average
AND THAT IS EVERY CARD FROM THE MEAN STREETS OF GADGETZAN, REVIEWED!
Link to Part 1
Link to Part 2
SECTION 9 (Posted November 28th)
White Eyes and The Storm Guardian
FUN FACTS:
COMPARABLE CARDS:
REVIEW:
It was 3 and a half hours late from its promised reveal time, but here we are with the Shaman Legendary of the expansion. Unfortunately though, not everyone’s happy about it. It's powerful, but that's kinda the problem. Midrange Shaman is tearing up Standard right now, and some have theorized that this makes Midrange Shaman even stronger. Good news though, is that this card is more for Control and not much for Midrange. Control Shaman has not been extensively popular, but with this card, as well as the new Jinyu Waterspeaker, perhaps it sees a rise in popularity. Sure, it most likely won't beat Midrange Shaman but it might make Control Shaman a viable tier 2 or 3 deck that you see more often. Once TGT and LoE rotate out, Control Shaman may become a dominant deck. The problem with that though is that Elemental Destruction also rotates out there and when that happens, the best thing we can use to combo with Hallazeal the Ascended is Lightning Storm (which isn’t terrible, but it’s no ED).
Jeez, we haven’t even gotten to talking about the actual card yet and I made a whole paragraph. Anyway, as a 5/5 Taunt, it's already strictly better than Booty Bay Bodyguard (but of course, that isn't saying much). It shuffles a 5 mana 10/10 (reminiscent of the 4 mana 7/7 and 0 mana 5/5) with Taunt in your deck. This serves as both extra protection as well as increasing your deck size against fatigue. It also has some rather nice synergy with Ancestral Spirit. You can play it on either the White Eyes to shuffle another Storm Guardian into your deck, or play it when you already have The Storm Guardian out and make it summon another one when it dies.
Definitely has a spot in Control Shaman.
Rating: Very Good
Sergeant Sally
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So here is the last card revealed before the stream and it’s quite an interesting one. It's a Neutral one but it honestly might as well be a Grimy Goons card because that’s where it’s going to be good. Without hand buffages, it's a Twilight Flamecaller with -1/-1 and activates on Deathrattle instead of Battlecry (except in a few very niche circumstances). Doesn't sound very exciting, right?
But when this card is used in a hand-buffing deck (most likely Paladin because it has the ability to buff everything in your hand whereas Hunter and Warrior doesn’t), this card has potential out the ass. Just one buff (easily achievable via Grimestreet Outfitter or Smuggler's Run) and it's already better than Twilight Flamecaller, essentially a Consecration that costs 1 less and has a 2/2 body on it. Get even more buffs on it, and it's absolute value that Trump would appreciate (the Hearthstone player Trump that is). Basically anything above 2/2 is absolutely insane value.
The only problem is that the effect is a Deathrattle instead of a Battlecry, which gives it a similar problem to Anomalus. But let's face it, if it was a Battlecry, it would be WAY too powerful. I mean Anomalus would suddenly go from 0-100 if its effect was a Battlecry as well (and didn’t kill itself that is).
People wanted good AoE and here we have it.
Rating: Good
Hobart Grapplehammer
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Here is the Warrior Legendary that everyone is excited about, but to be honest, I don't think this card is that good. How many weapons do you run in your deck? 2 Fiery War Axes, but then the rest is situatonal. 2 Death's Bites in Wild. Maybe 2 Arcanite Reapers in Aggro Warrior. Maybe 2 Brass Knuckles’ in hand-buff Warrior. At most, you'll probably run 4 weapons in your deck. Giving weapons +1 Attack does allow them extra reach (if you saw in the stream, the buff allowed Frodan to kill an Azure Drake), but look at Upgrade! That's only played in Aggro Warrior and for 1 mana gives +1/+1 to your weapon, not just +1 Attack. Of course, you don't HAVE to play this on turn 2, but if you are, you're not playing Fiery War Axe on turn 2. Is giving +4 Attack to all of your weapons across your deck that good. No, honestly I don’t think so, so I honestly think this card isn't that good.
Rating: Average
Naga Corsair
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Well, it's been a while since we saw a Pirate, and this one's also a Naga. When you compare this to Southsea Squidface, the weapon loses 1 Attack in exchange for the minion gaining 1 Attack and activating immediately. This actually matters because sometimes you actually want the weapon buff right away and you don't want to wait for a minion to die for the weapon to get buffed. This seems like a fair trade off. In that respect, I think this card is a little bit better than Southsea Squidface because you get the buff immediately and it has +1 Attack over the Squidface. I think this will see play in Pirate decks.
Rating: Average/Good
Wrathion
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Well, Wrathion's finally in the game, and the Anduin + Wrathion bromance is a reality for Dragon decks. Many people will try him out in Dragon Priest but will it be as successful as people suspect. Perhaps so, but it is rather difficult to evaluate. If you draw two or more cards, it's great. Sometimes that will happen and you might end up drawing three or maybe even four cards with this dude. However, there will be those occasional times where you'll only draw one card because not every minion in a Dragon deck is a Dragon and you might draw a spell. If you do only draw one card, then honestly wasn't amazing. Simply a 4/5 for 6 with Taunt that drew a card. Not absurdly terrible but not very good either. This makes this card very reliant on draws and luck in a similar to way to Flame Leviathan. That doesn't take away the potential that it has though.
Rating: Average/Good/Other
Public Defender
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Well, Blizzard still hasn’t given up on Taunt Warrior. We now have a 0/7 Taunt. Admttedly it's not that bad since it offers a lot of protection, especially against early game minions. 7 Health for 2 mana is VERY strong. This is especially a nice target for Stolen Goods, offering a 4 mana 3/10 in terms of toal cost and stats. It does however nerf Arena Warrios a bit since a 0/7 Taunt in Arena will not help you fight and only serves as protection.
Rating: Good
Ancient of Blossoms
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This is simply the obligatory "huge common" of the set, which every set has at least one of (and WoTOG had a bunch of them). While not the most competitive, the "huge common" slot is rather rare and helpful for new plays looking for big cards to put into their deck that's somewhat viable for them. Quite frankly, I welcome these types of cards and they are very helpful for some situations, especially for newer players, as well as for Arena.
If you look at Bog Creeper, it actually sees more play than you might think. For simply 1 additional mana, it permanently gains +3 Attack, essentially combining this card and Blessing of Might into one card. For this reason, I think Bog Creeper is better than this card but this card will still be nice in Arena.
Rating: Average
Freezing Potion
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Here is our first potion revealed on the stream. It's very simple. You just freeze an enemy and it doesn't cost you anything. Like many 0 cost cards (mostly spells), it may not look like anything at first glance, but honestly, I think this card is better than it looks. It may look underwhelming but it does have a number of applications. It gives immediately value, and more opportunities for Shatter, gives the new card, Cryomancer a free +2/+2, gives a free Flamewaker trigger and even gives Gadgetzan Auctioneer some potential in Mage. I doubt Miracle Mage becomes a thing from this one card but it definitely does push that direction. Not only that but it also triggers Ice Lance for 0. Suddenly, you no longer have any situations where you'll have to use an Ice Lance to freeze and waste 4 damage. Also, it provides a free trigger for Archmage Antonidas.
It also is useful in Arena where you can freeze anything and stall for an additional turn. It's also rather nice to get from Kabal Chemist. Overall, despite the simplicity and deceptive looks, this card is rather nice. This is probably going to sound weird, but I'm honestly going to call this card "Good".
Rating: Good
Smuggler's Crate
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We may have gotten through Grimy Goons week 2 weeks ago but that doesn't mean every hand-buffing card was revealed. Like this one for example. You play it, then a random Beast in your hand gains +2/+2. As a 1 mana card, you can play it on turn 1 (which is nice because Hunters have limited options for turn 1), then play a Beast on turn 2. Either a King's Elekk, Huge Toad, or Kindly Grandmother. KE and HT become 5/4's with good effects for 2, and KG becomes a 3/3 that summons a 3/2. These all sound pretty nice, don’t they? Which is why this simply is a great Hunter card.
Rating: Good/Very Good
Hidden Cache
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Well, this is a VERY weird Secret since it's possibly the only Secret in the entire game that doesn't have any board impact or strategy. You just play it, then when it triggers, it buffs a completely random creature in your hand. It's pretty much impossible to play around, not that it really needs to be played around. People may not be too happy about Hunters getting a new Secret but this is one that doesn't really work in Secret Hunter since Secret Hunter tends to not run very many minions.
Rating: Somewhat Bad
Genzo, the Shark
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So here is a very weird card from the stream. Naturally, it would be compared to Jeeves. There's been some debate over whether or not this is better than Jeeves, and in general, mixed opinions about the card. I think this card is kinda average in my opinion. It's not terrible, but I don’t think the card is that good. Jeeves guaranteed you card draw for one turn (that is, when the requirement was met of course). Not so much this. You get a much better body for the cost which is nice but there are quite a few times where this may end up not attacking, thus being just a 4 mana 5/4 that has a somewhat soft Taunt on it.
Rating: Average
Defias Cleaner
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Remember Light's Champion from TGT? Well, here we have essentially a MUCH better version of that since there are a lot more possible targets for this card (like a LOT more possible targets, it was absolutely pathetic how much targets Light's Champion had). Just like Bomb Squad, it kinda acts like a counter for Sylvanas Windrunner. Your opponent plays Sylvanas, and you can play this to counter it. Suddenly Sylvanas is now just a 6 mana 5/5 with a lot less threat than usual. Not only that but if you're one of those who thought White Eyes would be too powerful, here we have a card that allows you to Silence that. White Eyes however costs 5 so you could only Silence it on curve with ramp (or The Coin), but still, it seems like it could be a viable tech card.
Rating: Average/Other
SECTION 10 (Posted November 29th)
Cryomancer
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Well, here's a cool card (see what I did there?) that has nice synergy with the new card, Freezing Potion and it also curves well from a turn 4 Water Elemental, then play this on turn 5 and get a 5 mana 7/7. That may not be as good as a 4 mana 7/7, but this doesn’t overload you for 2. It doesn't even need to be a minion, you can freeze the enemy hero and have it trigger as well. Perhaps with this, Ice Lance and a bunch of other freeze cards (yes, maybe even Shatter), a new type of Freeze Mage might appear. Not the best Mage card but playable.
Rating: Average
Greater Arcane Missiles
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This is a very interesting Mage spell that's like Avenging Wrath. Just, every missile it shoots deal 3 damage, instead of shooting a bunch of small pings. Avenging Wrath doesn't see any play, so maybe one might immediately call this off as bad. Truth be told though, this does have more potential than Avenging Wrath, namely with Spell Damage, in which it's important to note that Spell Damage +1 (easily achievable via Cult Sorcerer or Bloodmage Thalnos) makes this card deal 12 damage as opposed to 10 because each missile now deals 4 damage instead of 3. It won't happen often but simply imagine trying to use this with Malygos. 24 damage. Sign me up!
Then of course, there's the obvious synergy with Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker, which fortunately, both of those separate cards can be played on the same turn as this one.
Rating: Average
Blastcrystal Potion
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As most of us (hopefully) know, tempo is one of the more important aspects of Hearthstone. You want to know the best way to use your mana, especially at a point where you can start playing off curve. Because of this, one might read the text "destroy a Mana Crystal" and immediately deem this card as bad. However, I think this card is better than that, mainly because the drawback is less prevalent the further into the match you are, and once you're at 10 mana, the drawback does literally nothing since you'll gain that 10th mana crystal back. Of course, you will practically never play this on curve. You'll mostly place this once your opponent has a larger minion in play where this drawback won't matter as much. Surely on turn 7+, you'll have the ability so spare 1 mana, right? That's mostly when you’ll float some mana. Because of that, I think this card is actually fairly good and will see play at least in Renolock.
Rating: Good
Kabal Trafficker
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Here is one pretty exciting Warlock card. It's very much like Mana Tide Totem, in which if your opponent doesn't kill it, you'll just keep getting Demons, and even as a 3 mana 0/3, Mana Tide Totem sees play in many Shaman decks, but this is a 6 mana 6/6. There's a number of really good Demons to get from this, and most of the worst ones to get aren’t even that bad. You basically get a new minion added to your hand every turn (and as an end of turn effect, you're guaranteed at least one activation) which is awesome. Speaking of awesome, it has really amazing synergy with a certain other card we’ll get to later.
Rating: Very Good
Gadgetzan Socialite
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Here is our first filler-ish type of card from the stream. It's not filler because it's a Neutral common. It's filler because it's kind of a boring card with a very simple effect seen on many cards already. If we look at Voodoo Doctor, you'd probably run that instead, right? 1 more mana for +1 Health isn't really worth it. It's a decent card in Arena because you can trade with a minion then heal it back up, but even then, Voodoo Doctor might be better.
Rating: Somewhat Bad/Average
Krul the Unshackled
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Here is the Warlock Legendary and it's a pretty crazy one. As for when you have no duplicates in your deck, you get to play every Demon in your hand for 0 and avoid any negative Battlecries of cards like Pit Lord and Doomguard. Can be compared to Deathwing, Dragonlord but for Demons and activated on Battlecry rather than Deathrattle. Deathwing, Dragonlord was cool and pretty crazy but it was also slow because its effect was a Deathrattle. This however happens immediately meaning you instantly summon a massive number of minions to fight for you. This however does play into AoE so you will need to make sure your opponent doesn’t have it before playing this card.
It also has perfect synergy with Kabal Trafficker. It does have flaws being that it's expensive so it’s inherently slow, and that it does play into AoE but that doesn’t take away from how much potential this card has to be good.
Rating: Good
Alleycat
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So here we have a very simply Common for Hunters. A 1/1 for 1 that summons another 1/1. Doesn't sound too great at first, but it is a bit better than that as it does make a 2/2 Beast in some regard, and Enchanted Raven sees play, so why shouldn't this, right? It immediately summons two Houndmaster targets and is in general a nice card to get buffed by cards like Trogg Beastrager or Smuggler's Crate. The fact that it's 2 1/1’s means one can pop a Divine Shield off.
I was originally going to call this "Average", but after reading what I said, I definitely think it can get away with a "Good".
Rating: Good
Sleep with the Fishes
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Here is a rather weird card. It does have potential in combination with Ravaging Ghoul to equal a 5 mana Flamestrike that puts a 3/3 minion on the board (and requires two cards), but Warriors already have Brawl which accomplishes the same purpose and this is also a two card combo inherently making it less reliable. In general, Brawl is also easier to activate. I feel like this combo is simply outclassed by Brawl.
Of course, by no means do I call this card because honestly, even if it does use two cards, it's a neat combo to Flamestrike your opponent's board (and most likely your own as well). It's also combo-able with Whirlwind or Revenge allowing more potential options as cards to activate this and clear a board. I think this card has a place but in general is outclassed by Brawl.
Rating: Average
Celestial Dreamer
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Shamans have a 4 mana 7/7 and Mages are getting a 5 mana 7/7. It only seems fair that Druids are getting a 3 mana 5/5, right? Memes aside, the effect is more difficult to activate and its one of those cards that's basically required to play off curve since it's almost impossible to actually activate this effect on turn 3. You'd have to do insane ramping or coin out… *sigh*, a rager. Off curve, the card is a nice 3 mana 5/5, but otherwise, it really isn't too great. This card would’ve been a LOT better in Paladin, Hunter or Warrior with the ability to buff things in your hand. I honestly don’t know how this isn’t in one of those three classes, other than thematics.
Rating: Average
Unlicensed Apothecary
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This is more of the obligatory drawback cards for Warlock. As 3 mana 5/5 with no immediate drawback, it does have immediate potential in that regard. It's controllable as well, to not take damage, you simply don't summon any minions. Of course though, summoning minions is an essential part to any type of deck as even spell based decks have minions in them. At 5 Health it's difficult to kill it off, meaning the 5 Health can actually act more as a drawback than a benefit, but obviously it does allow that extra 5 damage to get in. 5 damage on turn 3 is very difficult to do in most cases. We have only a few limited tools capable of this. Shadow Strike is one, or a Fireball with its cost reduced by Sorcerer's Apprentice, or Lava Burst which ends up overloading you for 2… as well as another "raging" card we'll get to later. Yeah, try dealing with 5 Health on turn 3 without having to face some unfavorable situations. Because of that, it definitely has potential. But of course, a drawback is a drawback and sometimes it can actually matter quite a bit.
Rating: Average/Good
Crystalweaver
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Here is another Warlock card and this one has potential, especially with its Demon synergy. It has synergy with Kabal Trafficker and Krul the Unshackled, which definitely pushes a Demonlock and Reno-Demonlock Theme. Definitely appreciated. Fortunately, it curves well from a turn 3 Imp Gang Boss and you'll be able to buff the boss and maybe an Imp from it. You may also be able to buff cheaper targets like a Voidwalker.
Just to clarify, it only means Demons on the board, not in your hand and/or deck, just the board. You probably can reasonably get 2 Demons on the board allowing a total of +2/+2 equaling 4 mana 7/6 worth of value (just shy of a 4 mana 7/7), which gains you reasonable value from the card. The absolute dream would be to play Krul the Unshackled, then next turn, play this and buff 4 or 5 Demons. It will very rarely happen, but it will feel so satisfying when it does. Even without that dream combo, this is simply a good card.
Rating: Good
Lotus Illusionist
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This is quite an interesting card to say the least. It may not look too great at first, but its effect does give it a soft Taunt because your opponent will not want you to transform this into a 6-drop, especially because of the good ones you can get. In that regard, it's a Sen'jin Shieldmasta with an upside which actually seems pretty good, and it can be protected by a Taunt. If you do attack a hero with it and transform, it's really good especially because of the number of really good quality 6-drops there are. Beware though because you may end up getting a "little friend", and I mean a VERY "little friend".
Rating: Average/Other
SECTION 11 (Posted November 29th)
Finders Keepers
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Here's a card that's gotten some really mixed feedback lately. Some feel that the Overload make it bad whereas others think the card is insane and that the Overload is justified. There are lots of strong minions (Earth Elemental, Flamewreahed Faceless) with Overload as well as powerful spells (Lightning Storm, Elemental Destruction, Feral Spirit). I would also like to remind people that when Ancestral Knowledge was first announced in TGT, many people said it was bad and would never see play. That was wrong though as it did see play in Aggro Shaman.
You can easily discover a board clear or powerful minion with this card which means this card is actually stronger than it looks. The worst thing you could discover with it would be another copy of itself, but in that case, just don't pick it.
Rating: Good
Shadow Rager
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JOKE REVIEW:
Absolutely broken. With Stealth, it's absolutely guaranteed to live and 5 Attack, what 5 ATTACK!!! This is more broken than Dr. Boom, what was Blizzard thinking printing this card?
Rating: Very Good (Absolutely Broken)
SERIOUS REVIEW:
Well, people have been rather upset about what Rogues got in this expansion. I don't even play Rogue very often yet I agree that what they got is just terrible for the class. We thought that if we waited for the other cards, Rogue could redeem itself. Not when they get this joke card which is yet another card to play on the fact that Magma Rager sucks. Did this really need to be a Rogue card? I don't see why it couldn’t have been a Neutral. No sharing thematics, nothing.
It's another rager and it sucks.
Rating: Very Bad
Luckydo Buccaneer
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Did Rogues overall get the short end of the stick? In my opinion, yes but that doesn’t mean every Rogue card is bad. They got Counterfeit Coin which is a REALLY nice Rogue card and here they got this pretty cool card right here. It's a 6 mana 9/9 with a very easy to meet prerequisite. You just need your weapon to be at 3 Attack or more. Easily accomplishable via Deadly Poison, or play Assassin's Blade on turn 5, then this on turn 6 and it's as simple as that. If your opponent doesn't have removal for it, they're in a bad spot. In Arena, if you have ways to buff your weapon, this is really good but otherwise, it's kinda average.
Interestingly, it does make Deadly Fork better, but just use Deadly Poison or Assassin's Blade instead. It overall is just really solid Rogue card.
Rating: Good
Kabal Songstealer
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Blizzard wanted less Silences in the game. They wanted Silence to be a tech choice and not something you always have in your deck which is why Ironbeak Owl and Keeper of the Grove was nerfed. If that's the case, then what's this card right here? It’s a 5/5 for 5 which Silences minions. At the cost of 5, it perfectly Silences a turn 5 White Eyes (rip Storm Guardian) and in general a really strong card since you're sacrificing one stat point for a Silence. Pre-nerf Ironbeak Owl sacrificed two, and pre-nerf Keeper of the Grove sacrificed three. Once again, it's also another perfect Sylvanas Windrunner counter. Simple but deceptively powerful, and it's also AMAZING in Arena, definitely helps Priests there.
Rating: Very Good
Greater Healing Potion
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Here is our final potion of the set and it's just excellent. In fact the card is so good that it needed to the word "friendly" in its card text to prevent it from being broken with Auchenai Soulpriest. For good reasons too, 12 damage for 4 mana would be absolutely insane, especially in combination with Prophet Velen. Speaking of Prophet Velen, you can use this card along with him to essentially have a Reno Jackson without the no duplicates requirement. Requires two cards, and most likely on two separate turns, yes but we can all agree that it's tempting.
Even without Velen though, you're healing for 12 and it only costs 4 mana. That's A LOT of Health. 12 Health and you can easily get back in the game as your opponent will need to deal another 12 damage. While obviously, you'd normally heal yourself with it, the fact that it can heal any friendly character means that in EXTREMELY desperate situations, you can heal a minion you control and have it stay alive longer.
Perhaps this is part of a Reno-Heal Priest where you play Reno Jackson, Raza the Chained, Kazakus and a bunch of healing cards to stay alive forever. Not only does it fit there but it fits into almost every type of Priest deck. Reno Priest, Shadowform Priest, Control Priest, C'Thun Priest, maybe even Dragon Priest.
Rating: Very Good
(all nine Priest cards were rated as "Very Good")
Mayor Noggenfogger
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How many cards did it take? Well, here it the Yogg-Saron of the expansion. It absolutely INSANE. Basically every attack, spell, Battlecry, Hero Power is redirected to any random target as long as it's legal (so no, you can't Purify enemy minions or Execute the face). Oh, you played a Frostbolt? Here, target your own thing? Oh, you want to use Lesser Heal to heal yourself. Heal to your opponent instead. Oh, you played a Pyroblast on your opponent's face. Deal it to your own face instead. But of course, all attacks are random so your opponent will have a really tough time killing this, especially when both sides of the board are filled. It becomes absolute chaos. It's pre-nerf Yogg-Saron levels or bonkers but thankfully, I don’t think this will be as broke as Yogg-Saron. Probably won't see any Constructed play but for fun decks and moments with your friends. Oh my god, it's absolute MADNESS!!!
Rating: Other
Streetwise Investigator
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Were you going to live the dream of playing a Stealth Rogue deck? Were you one of those people who was excited for a turn 3 Shaku, the Collector or Shadow Rager, into a turn 4 Shadow Sensei? Well, you can still do that without this card interrupting you, but after turn 4, this card can counter it. It may not seem like much, but this is a decent tech card, especially against Miracle Rogue where you can unstealth the stealthed Gadgetzan Auctioneers. This means that if Miracle Rouge becomes extremely popular (which it might because of Counterfeit Coin), this card could work as a nice tech card to stop that and easily kill the stealthed Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
Overall a decent tech card and pretty decent in Arena.
Rating: Average
Small-Time Buccaneer
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Here is a nice little Pirate card. Particularly good for Rogue because they can play a turn 2 dagger and buff this to a 3/2, and good for Pirate Warrior because they can play this on turn 1, then Fiery War Axe on turn 2. Cogmaster was played in Mech decks where it acted as a 1 mana 3/2, so this should be played in Pirate decks where it too is a 1 mana 3/2. It's also a Pirate itself so it benefits from the other available Pirate synergy. It's simple but it’s good.
Rating: Good
Weasel Tunneler
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Here is a very creative card that has been praised by the community for its creativity and flavor. It's hard to gauge how exactly good the card is but there are some applications for it. Namely, it shuffles a bad card into your opponent's deck that they don’t want to draw which can effectively invalidate their draw, though it requires you to play a 1 mana 1/1 with no real upside to it. It also can mess up your opponent's Small-Time Recruits or Desert Camel which can mess up their game plan. It can even work as an anti-Reno card though that will require two of them to work and in that situation, I feel as if Beneath the Grounds would work better and Beneath the Grounds doesn’t really see any play. I don't think the card is necessarily that great but it does have its uses.
Rating: Average
Blubber Baron
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This card right here is very deceptive. It may not look like a lot at first but honestly, I think this card is oozing with potential. Specifically in Grimy Goons decks where it gets buffed in the hand by both the minion effect and this card's effect. It basically gains +2/+2 from a Grimestreet Outfitter instead of just +1/+1. Hand-buff decks seem to already have a lot of its game plan figured out. This card definitely seems like a natural fit in there potentially allowing a 3 mana 7/7 (better than a 4 mana 7/7) or 8/8. Because of its 3 mana cost, you could maybe follow it up with a Grimestreet Protector. Taunt and Divine Shield value.
Rating: Good
Red Mana Wyrm
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Mana Wyrm is back here yet again, changing his body up and it seems that he grew up a bit after he was just an itty bitty 1/3 minion. He’s grown stronger and can now harness the spell power better.
In all honesty though, how good is this card? It requires 2 spells to be cast in order for it to be worth the cost, though because of its effect, it has a soft Taunt which does make better. Rogues potentially could Conceal it, then cast a bunch of spells to buff this. That’s similar to what Miracle Rogue does. Has potential in Rogue but otherwise, the card is just average. It's bad in Arena because you don't get many spells in Arena and in that case, it's simply a 5 mana 2/6 without text.
Rating: Average
Street Trickster
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Well, it seems that Neutral Demons are considered "acceptable" for Blizzard to print. Here's our third one and the first non-Legendary one. It's a very weird card as well. As a 3 mana 0/7, it does have some survivability to it (nice since most Spell Damage minions are easily cleared) but it's just… so weird. We already have some cheaper options and ideally, you want a cheap Spell Damage minion for combos. I don’t really know what I can say about this card. It’s survivability is nice but it's just really awkward to play as a 0/7.
Rating: Average
AND THAT IS EVERY CARD FROM THE MEAN STREETS OF GADGETZAN, REVIEWED!
Click the image to go to my custom Time Traveler class.
Section 10 posted.
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Section 11 posted. That's every card reviewed!
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Thank you very much!
Really enjoyed all of the reviews! I think you were generally more tame to extremes than I am in card reviews, but that's probably a good thing.
Very well written and very good opinions.
A+