Hey guys, this is Demon here bringing you a review of the cards from the new expansion, Journey to Un'Goro. Yes I do realize that this is very soon to start reviewing cards, but this expansion will have a much quicker card releasing period compared to previous card sets, so I wanted to start this now so I wouldn't get overwhelmed later. If you've read any of my previous card review threads, this will follow the same format. As always, fun facts and comparable cards will be included amongst the reviews. But before I get into this, there are some notes to keep in mind as always:
I am by no means a professional Hearthstone player, and I am not someone who plays every single day. This is just my opinion, so if you come across a card you think is good, but I rated bad or vice-versa, that's fine, you're entitled to have your own opinion. Probably the most important note is that these are just predictions too, because you never actually know how good a card will be until it's actually released. Some cards end up being a lot better than anticipated (Dr Boom, Grim Patron, Mysterious Challenger, Elise Starseeker, Infested Tauren, Shaku, the Collector, etc.) as well as others than perform worse than anticipated (Troggzor the Earthinator, Varian Wrynn, Grimy Goons in general).
So, just take this with a grain of salt.
Here is my ratings for anyone unfamiliar:
Very Good
Good
Average
Somewhat Bad
Very Bad
Other
Rotation Reviews
Druid
Druid admittedly doesn't take a very big hit in terms of its more played archetypes but does take a bigger hit in its lesser played archetype.
The 3 main cards Druid loses consist of Living Roots, Raven Idol and Mulch. Living Roots was a staple in several Druid archetypes but was a very prevalent card in Token Druid where you could easily spawn 2 Saplings, then buff them with Power of the Wild or Mark of the Lotus. In addition to that, it loses Raven Idol which around when LoE was released, primarily acted as a token generator with Violet Teacher in Token Druid, but you could find it played in other Druid decks too. It truly reached its peak when Fandral Staghlem was released in WotOG, in which it effectively acted as an Arcane Intellect for only 1 mana.
Mulch acted as hard removal for Druid, which was very rare, and a good hard removal card was needed. Mulch was not the card they deserved, but it was the one they needed. The downside of giving your opponent a random minion would sometimes give your opponent a bad minion which made the card amazing, but at the same time, the times where your opponent got a good minion would be catastrophic for you. Nonetheless though, it’s a very noteworthy card to include in this list for its prevalence in Druid.
Honorable Mentions
In terms of the lesser played archetypes, it does not look good for them. Beast Druid is losing some of the cards that originated the archetype. With Druid of the Saber, Savage Combatant and Mounted Raptor gone, it seems that Beast Druid is forever dead now. Beast Druid was always the deck that was always "not quite good enough". With these cards gone, Beast Druid will most likely never make a comeback again.
Astral Druid loses its namesake card, which completely kills the deck in Standard. The deck cannot function at all without Astral Communion. With Aviana gone, its combo decks with Kun the Forgotten King will become weaker as they can no longer play Aviana, then Kun, then their next big minion (usually Malygos or C'Thun). With Aviana gone, the deck is now just Kun, then whatever for its full mana cost. I can’t say that the decks will completely die, but losing Aviana will definitely make them weaker.
Hunter
Hunter actually doesn’t lose that much in terms of its good cards. Really shows how many bad Hunter cards were made, but at the same time, it’s good for the class because they need to catch up. Hunter only loses 3 cards in terms of its main set of good cards. All of which were played in pretty much every Hunter deck. Hunter loses some of its burst damage with Quick Shot, one of its better secrets with Bear Trap, and one of its best midrange/control minions with King's Elekk which granted information about your opponent’s deck and sometimes you would draw a key card in your deck. All things considered though, Hunters actually go through the rotation rather well. All it really needs is a direct damage card and another good midrange minion like King's Elekk.
Honorable Mentions
For the honorable mentions, Lock and Load was always a card that had so much potential to be good, but it wasn’t until WotOG came out with Yogg-Saron that the card was actually played, and the card was also played in Secret Hunter as well in a pseudo card draw mechanic, because if there's an aspect Secret Hunter is weak in, it's card draw. So, not only does the card rotating out impact Secret Hunter, but it also means that we're simply losing a really cool card that didn’t shine as much as it could’ve.
Although it hasn't seen any play recently, Desert Camel had its own deck called Camel Hunter’s namesake card, in which, you played Desert Camel into Injured Kvaldir, so that's why I put it on the list. Ram Wrangler saw some play in Midrange Hunter when TGT first came out, and it was a really fun, but when it came out, also generally a good card. It hasn’t really seen any play since then, but I’m sure most of us have had those moments where you play this, and you get a gigantic beast like King Krush. The moments are no longer with us.
Mage
Mage however is taking a larger hit than the previous two classes. It's losing one of its most powerful cards in Standard, Flamewaker. It's no secret, the card was damn powerful for Mages. You would just play a bunch of spells, then ping off everything you possibly could. Arcane Blast also scaled up with Spell Damage better than any other card in the game, and you could deal massive damage with just a 1 mana card. It's no surprise these were both auto-includes in Tempo Mage.
Forgotten Torch was played in Freeze Mage where you could easily stall the game and get the Roaring Torch which essentially acted as a 3-cost Fireball. Ethereal Conjurer hasn't seen too much play recently, but was played quite a bit in Tempo Mage where you could easily gain access to another spell.
Honorable Mention
The honorable mention for Mages is the Coldarra Drake. Not because it saw any play (it saw play for about 1 or 2 days after TGT was released), but because this was the card everyone always wanted in Reno Priest from Kabal Courier, to combo with Raza the Chained. With Coldarra Drake gone, it will no longer be possible to infinitely blast your opponent down with Hero Powers in Standard. It'll still be possible in Wild, but good luck getting it.
Paladin
Paladin doesn't take a huge hit overall, but notably is losing Anyfin Can Happen, the backbone behind the Murloc Paladin decks. This rotation kills the deck in Standard. Keeper of Uldaman, was a card that saw play in practically every type of Paladin deck, and it was just a really good card. Mysterious Challenger was the main card of the infamous Secret Paladin that caused player to flip their shit when it was the deck that everyone was complaining about in TGT, and I mean EVERYONE. It was basically the Pirate Warrior of TGT. When WotOG came out, Paladin as a whole was substantially weaker because it lost many of its really good cards which weakened Secret Paladin. Many people, even to this day, still tried to make it work. With Mysterious Challenger gone though, the deck will officially be completely dead in Standard.
Honorable Mentions
When TGT was released, Murloc Knight was absolutely crazy powerful, especially in Arena, but you would still find it played in just about every type of Paladin deck. Midrange Paladin, and yes, even some Secret Paladins would run the card. The card sadly hasn't aged well. It received a slight nerf with Murloc Tinyfin released in LoE, but continued to be nerfed even further when more card sets were released. It recently received a HUGE buff in MSoG with Finja, the Flying Star, but that ultimately wasn’t enough to bring the card back to its former glory. It still deserves a mention because of how insane the card was in TGT.
Dragon Consort was the building foundation for Dragon Paladin. A deck that many people tried out, but ultimately, Priest and Warrior ended up as the dominant Dragon classes. The card wasn't bad at all, but Dragon Paladin simply didn’t have the same support and power that Priest and Warrior had. It wasn't until Karazhan that Paladin would receive another Dragon Paladin card, Nightbane Templar. Despite the amount of promise the card showed, as well as its pre-release praise, Dragon Paladin simply never took off very well. With Dragon Consort gone, Dragon Paladin has no hope of coming back.
Solemn Vigil was a card that would see some play in Midrange Paladin. It was by far the best "Costs (1) less for each minion that died this turn" card, and realistically the only one that actually saw play.
Priest
Flash Heal acted as a way to cheaply, and quickly heal yourself out of range of something bad, and could also act as a very cheap way to deal lots of the damage with Auchenai Soulpriest. Twilight Whelp acted as a one-drop for Dragon Priest, in which, although it didn't look like anything spectacular, it really was. Not only was it a Dragon itself, but playing it would effectively give you a Zombie Chow without its negative Deathrattle. It was also an early game Dragon, which was ultimately part of why Priest was one of the better Dragon classes.
Museum Curator [/card]and [card]Wyrmrest Agents are some of the only 2-drops Priest had. 2-drops in Priest were far and few between. 2-drops that could be played on turn 2, and in any Priest deck were even rarer. Museum Curator finally fixed the issue for Priest when LoE was released. It served to be a VERY good Priest 2-drop, but lost some of its best targets when Naxx and GvG rotated out. Wyrmrest Agent was a phenomenal Dragon Priest card, acting as a 2/4 for 2 with Taunt. It was one of the most powerful Dragon support cards and another card that carried Dragon Priest.
Excavated Evil was one of the best AoE’s for Priest. Sure, it was no Lightbomb, but it definitely took its spot as the dominant Priest AoE when Lightbomb rotated out. It was ridiculed as weak when it was first revealed for being worse than Hellfire, but remember that Priest is the healing class, that and good AoE in Priest was always welcome. The effect of shuffling into your opponent’s deck, although bad against Control, was good against Aggro because it would effectively invalidate one of their draws. Entomb was one of the best Control Priest cards ever made. You got rid of a minion without triggering any Deathrattles, and took it yourself to draw it latter.
Honorable Mentions
Resurrect was mostly just a fun card when it was first released, but when Onyx Bishop was released in Karazhan, it actually almost made Resurrect viable. On top of that, the card was just really awesome when it worked. Resurrect Priest loses one of its resurrecting tools. Holy Champion was always one of those cards that just "wasn’t quite good enough". The card ALWAYS had the utmost potential to be a stupendously powerful card, but it just never made the waves it could’ve made despite how awesome it could’ve been, and now all hope for it is lost when it rotates out.
Although Confessor Paletress hasn't seen that much play for a while, I just had to include it somewhere here. It's a card that we all love playing with, and I'm sure most of us have had a lot of fun with it at some point. When TGT first released, not only was it a fun card, but it actually was fairly viable too with many Priests running it. It served to have the ability to be EXTREMELY powerful, and often times it would just win you the game right then and there. It however started losing its power when WotOG came out, because it lost some of its really good Legendaries, and introduced some bad ones, and since fallen out of favor. It will now rotate out never to be seen again in Standard.
Rogue
Conceal is another card being rotated into the Hall of Fame set. It had its obvious application in Mircale Rogue with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Gang Up being rotate out means the Mill Rogue will lose of its key cards. Gang Up was essentially for filling your deck so your opponent would fatigue quicker than you, and also so you would get more Coldlight Oracles into your deck to make your opponent draw more. Will Mill Rogue be completely dead in Standard as a result of this loss?
Although it hasn’t been seeing much play lately, Unearthed Raptor was a really good Rogue card which spawned a new archetype for Rogue, that being the Deathrattle Rogue. Deathrattle Rogue cards were then pushed in WotOG with cards like Journey Below, Undercity Huckster and Xaril, Poisoned Mind. In general, Unearthed Raptor was also a very good card at the time. In fact, when LoE was released, it was arguably the best 3 mana 3/4 in the game.
Tomb Pillager is probably the biggest loss for Rogues. Tomb Pillager was an auto-include in Miracle Rogue and Deathrattle Rogue, and you could even play him in other Rogue decks. Basically, the only Rogue deck he didn't fit into was Mill Rogue. We all know how amazing Coins are in Rogue. A powerful Rogue effect combined with a 5/4 body for 4 and you’ve got yourself a very strong Rogue card that all Rogue players will miss.
Honorable Mentions
Beneath the Grounds was a card that had a lot of potential since its release in TGT, but ultimately it simply didn't fit the Rogue’s general playstyle since you needed to wait to get value (unless you were very lucky and your opponent drew one right away). Despite what first thoughts might think, it didn't fit in Mill Rogue since you would possibly mill the Ambushes, and thus they won't go off. If this happened, than the card was actually bad because it increased your opponent’s deck size. When Reno Jackson was released, this card had the ability to counter Reno, and people actually tried it. Even more potential arised in MSoG when Kazakus, Inkmaster Solia, Raza the Chained and Krul the Unshackled was released. People tried it out but in general, has not worked as well as it could've. Primarily because of the meta.
Burgle was the card that ultimately was the initial foundation of the Burgle Rogue deck. Two card sets later in WotOG, Blizzard released Undercity Huckster, and then in the next set, they released Swashburglar and Ethereal Peddler (the first real support card for the archetype). With Burgle being gone, Rogue loses one of its ways to make the Burgle Rogue work, and ultimately loses its namesake card.
Dark Iron Skulker is a very interesting card, because at some point, the card was played in a LOT of Rogue decks, and for good reasons. It could basically serve as a Consecration + a 1 mana 4/3. Yeah, that's pretty strong. As more card sets were released though, the card started fading out and the card isn’t seeing the amount of play it used to. It's still worth noting for the power level it had.
Shaman
I think we're all going to delighted with what Shaman is losing. It's losing many of its very powerful cards that made up the Shamanstone. Shaman is losing both Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem, 2 of the strongest Shaman cards in the game. These two cards could be found in every Shaman deck, yes all of them. Aggro, Midrange, Control, Jade, etc., you name it, it's there. As these are very strong Shaman cards that carry the class, it's indeed going to take a hit from that, but unfortunately, we still have all the strong cards we got from WotOG and Karazhan still in the game. This is a start though as Shaman will be losing the strong early game it had.
Healing Wave was a way to restore Health when Shaman was still in trouble and lacking it. Vitality Totem just wasn't enough, so here came Healing Wave. The potential to heal for 14 for just 3 mana was amazing, and the card saw play in Control Shaman. Thunder Bluff Valiant was a card you would find in Midrange Shaman to buff your Totems up, and if it stayed on the field for multiple turns, it would become a nightmare for your opponent. It was arguably the best and most played Inspire card in the game.
Honorable Mentions
Ancestral Knowledge was a way for Shaman to draw cards. Card draw was one of Shaman's weakest aspects and this card, despite looking weak at first, saw play in both Aggro and Midrange. Lava Shock was a card that would occasionally pop in and out, and it was a very unique card because unlocking your Overloaded Mana was a very special and useful ability for Shaman, and until Eternal Sentinel came out in WotOG, no other card did this. It's worth mentioning for how useful the card was when it worked and we won't be able to use it in Standard again.
Speaking of Overload, Elemental Destruction is also rotating out. Shaman will be losing the biggest board clear they have, and Hallazeal the Ascended will become weaker, losing its main combo card. With Elemental Destruction gone, the best card we can use with Hallazeal is Lightning Storm or Volcano, which isn't terrible but it's not on the same vain that Elemental Destruction was.
After Tuskarr Totemic was nerfed in April of last year, the card hasn’t really been seeing any play, but it was an extremely powerful Shaman card prior to the nerf. If you've been living under a rock, Tuskarr Totemic originally could summon any Totem, so yes it could summon Flametongue Totem, Mana Tide Totem, and even Totem Golem (and it could also summon Vitality Totem before it was rotated out). Summoning a Mana Tide Totem or Totem Golem could instantly win you the game right then and there. It was nerfed so it could only summon your Hero Power Totems. Despite increasing the chances of getting Spell Damage, that little buff right there wasn’t enough to overcome the nerf of losing the three special totems. It's mostly here for how powerful it was pre-nerf.
Warlock
Power Overwhelming saw play in pretty much every Warlock deck. It was undeniably powerful, allowing for an additional 4 damage for just 1 mana. Primarily it was used in combination with Leeroy Jenkins to the point where the drawback of the minion dying didn’t matter. Dark Peddler was one of the best cards Warlock has ever gotten in quite a while, and in general was just really good, especially in Warlock where you could easily discover a Mortal Coil, Power Overwhelming, Soulfire or Voidwalker, as well as discovering some of the good Neutral 1-drops such as pre-nerf Abusive Sergeant or pre-nerf Leper Gnome.
Demonwrath was the AoE that made Demon decks work as it would basically be a Consecration that costs (1) less. The only downside was that it would be bad against other Demon decks. In general though, it was a very powerful card for Demon decks. Speaking of Demons though, Warlock is losing one of its best minions, Imp Gang Boss. One of the kings of Zoolock himself is rotating out. He was very powerful in Warlock because getting 1 Imp out would get you 3/5 worth of stats on 2 Demons for only 3 mana. As a 2/4, it also had stats good enough to withstand an attack meaning you could often get 2 Imps.
Honorable Mentions
Dreadsteed was a really cool card with a really cool idea. Sadly, it's also probably the best card Warlock got in TGT. While the card was never extremely competitive, it has had its moments of shining. After TGT was released, Kripp made a deck all about the Dreadsteed, and the card has also had its shining moments in boss encounters and Tavern Brawls (most notably the Yellow Brick Road brawl). On top of that, the card also has a very touching story behind it. The card’s flavor text is a reference to Crescendo1909, a Redditor and Hearthstone player who had been fighting cancer prior to the release of TGT. Fist of Jaraxxus was the first Discolock support card and is another card that traces its origins back to the beginning of when they were making it.
Warrior
The loss Warrior experiences is actually not that significant, in terms of class cards anyway. It's losing Alexstrasza's Champion which was a staple in aggressive Dragon Warrior decks. With most of the Dragon synergy being in BRM, Dragon decks in general will be losing many cards. It's not that unlikely however that we will still get Dragons in Un’Goro. Revenge would sometimes be found in Control Warrior as a 3 damage AoE to everything, and Bash was pretty much an auto-include in Control Warrior.
Honorable Mention
Of all the Warrior cards I could've chosen for an honorable mention, I chose Fierce Monkey. Fierce Monkey was primarily an Arena card, as at the time of LoE's release, Warrior was in a really bad spot in Arena. It however did also see some play in Constructed in some Warrior lists as you can’t deny that a 3/4 Taunt for 3, as generic as it might be, is pretty decent.
Neutral Legendaries
Unforunately, Sir Finley Mrrgglton is the only card from the demented Pirate Warrior that is being rotated out. Sir Finley's effect, while requiring you to build your deck in a certain way, if you did build it that way, his effect was undeniably powerful. Sir Finley was the card that would allowed you to build archetypes for classes you normally couldn't play with. If you’re playing an Aggro deck but your Hero Power is more control oriented, you could Finley and swap it with a different Hero Power. It was also one of the more creative Discover cards from the game.
Brann Bronzebeard was one of those Legendaries, that like Barnes, you could fit into just about any deck. You didn’t have to build around. Brann would just fit like a charm in there (unless you were playing a Deathrattle deck, or some weird gimmick deck with not very many minions). His effect by itself was powerful for several different deck types. It’s sad to see this guy go because he was simply awesome, no matter the deck.
Do you remember when LoE was being revealed and people called Elise Starseeker a gimmick card? Yeah, turns out they were wrong and she actually is powerful. She fit well into Control decks, in which you would play the Golden Monkey at the right time (when your removal tools didn’t matter anymore), and get minions to replace them. Not only was she good, but she was also fun.
With Emperor Thaurissan gone, combo decks will definitely take a hit from this guy. As one of the best Legendaries in the entire game, Thaurissan fit perfectly into combo decks of all kind, Freeze Mage, pre-nerf Patron Warrior, Worgen Warrior, Malygos decks, OTK-Velen Priest, anything of the like. He would also fit into Control decks in general. He was just so god damn good, and I will miss him.
Justicar Trueheart will be a bad loss for both Priest and Warrior players. She was more or less an auto-include in Control Priest and Control Warrior. Healing for 4, or getting 4 Armor every turn was simply very powerful.
Reno Jackson is arguably the most important and most played card rotating out. Reno gave birth to a whole new deck archetype which had the ability to stay alive against Aggro. Later in MSoG, Reno gained some new friends, Kazakus, Inkmaster Solia, Raza the Chained and Krul the Unshackled, which would give new power to Reno Mage and Reno Priest. Warlock admittedly wasn't really affected too much from Krul but the option is still there. It's a card that has been historically praised by many and many will hate to see it go. Also worth mentioning that Highlander decks will become weaker without Reno. Will Kazakus and Solia/Raza/Krul be enough to justify running a Highlander deck? Only time will tell.
Chillmaw was a powerful card for Dragon decks. The ability to deal 3 damage to everything was of course very powerful and ultimately why she was so strong in Dragon decks. The Taunt just made her even stronger, and Dragon decks will not want to see her go.
On top of that, we also lose two of the most iconic characters in Warcraft lore, as well as two of the best Legendary minions in the game, Sylvanas Windrunner and Ragnaros the Firelord. It's no secret that they were both VERY powerful minions. Sylvanas forced your opponent to mess up their next pay or else have one of their minions stolen, for a very small stat loss by the way. Ragnaros the Firelord’s ability to deal 8 random damage not only effectively gave it Charge but also made it Immune while attacking. You could easily kill a big minion without damaging your Ragnaros or deal a lot of face damage and put your opponent on a clock to kill it. On top of that, it was an 8/8 body itself. The best (and usually only) way to deal with was hard removal or else you were screwed.
Honorable Mentions
Gormok the Impaler saw some play in Zoolock where you could easily fill the board with token from cards like Imp Gang Boss or Imp-losion (before it rotated out), and will would be able to more consistently get the 4 damage off. Some Paladins and even Shamans also ran him because their Hero Power could easily spawn minions, and Paladins at the time also had access to Muster for Battle. Since the rotation, Gormok has since fallen out of favor.
Nexus-Champion Saraad saw play in a number of decks, but its main deck of choice was in Mage decks where you would have spell synergy with cards like Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker (the latter of those two, is also being rotate out), but has since fading away.
Rend Blackhand, Chromaggus and Nefarian all saw some play in Dragon decks. Rend Blackhand allowed for easy hard removal on a Legendary minion, but in exchange, had a weak body, 8/4 for 7 (especially that 4 Health) and his ability was really specific. He still saw play though. Chromaggus was good where you could draw cards in the same turn, thus his best bet was in Dragon Priest, where you could easily Power Word: Shield to draw and get two copies of a card in your deck. If he were to survive another turn, he would draw even more cards. Nefarian saw play to grant extra spells against the opponent. He also was a possible inspiration for the Burgle Rogue archetype. Oh yeah, and he was a Dragon too.
Other Neutrals
Huge Toad usually saw play in Midrange Hunter as an option for their 2-drop, along with another card that's rotating out, King's Elekk. With those two gone, the main Hunter 2-drop of choice will probably end up being Kindly Grandmother. Jeweled Scarab saw play in a variety of different decks. Despite his usefulness and play percentage, I don’t think this loss will hurt decks too much. Argent Horserider was an amazing and must-have card for Aggro decks, and some Midrange decks too but I don’t think this loss will be too penalizing. Refreshment Vendor saw a lot of play for healing purposes.
Twilight Guardian was a fantastic 4-drop for Dragons. It not only filled a slot it was lacking in, but also gave it a powerful Taunt minion which Dragon decks previously didn’t have. TGT also introduced Wyrmrest Agent and Chillmaw in the same category which powered up Dragon Priest. The card was an absolute must have for Dragon decks. Blackwing Technician and Blackwing Corrupter also fell into the same category of must have for Dragon decks being powerful Dragon support cards in themselves you’d find in every Dragon deck.
Although Grim Patron hasn’t seen play in a while, he couldn’t just be called an honorable mention, namely for pre-nerf Patron Warrior being an absolutely powerful deck that EVERYONE complained out of the ass, was too OP. The deck was indeed very, very powerful. After the Warsong Commander nerf, the deck, against expectations, didn't die but was noticeably weaker and lately, has been missing from action. Drakonid Crusher saw play mostly in some Warrior lists to gain a 9/9 minion.
Honorable Mentions
Dragon Egg saw play in Egg Druid. Flame Juggler was used quite a bit as a quick way to ping something to weaken it or even kill it. Eerie Statue mainly exists here for the memes, and the meme deck, Silence Priest. Gorillabot A-3 saw play in Mech decks for a short amount of time until only 6 months later, the vast majority of the Mechs in the game rotated out. Tomb Spider saw some play in Hunter decks.
Djinni of Zephyrs was played in classes which have the ability to buff minions and double the value, thus mostly seeing play in Priest. Naga Sea Witch had its own deck for a while, Naga Druid. Naga Druid would play the sea witch, then Aviana, which would reduce the minions back to 1, then a bunch of stuff. It essentially was a quick way to cheat out Aviana and get her ability off quicker.
When you look at the above 5 cards mentioned, this is the only one that effects “all minions” (as opposed to “all characters” or “all enemies”), and this is the only Shaman one (therefore also the only one with Overload.
So, here is the first of 135 new cards from the new set, Journey to Un’Goro (not "Lost Secrets of Un’Goro" as leaked by many sources). Our first one is a Shaman card. I can only imagine how excited people will be about that. This card certainly looks weird and hard to evaluate, but I will admit there is definitely some potential with this card.
As with Spreading Madness, ideally you don't want minions on the board when you play the card, but unlike Spreading Madness, this can't hit faces which definitely is an improvement because the face won't be able to tank up the hits and repeatedly pull yourself closer to dying. Namely when your opponent has a large board versus your small (or even empty) board, this card becomes extremely strong because you can easily deal a lot of damage to many different targets, and because it only hits minions, your opponent’s face won't tank hits that you may absolutely need to hit a minion. Particularly, this card looks strong against Jade Golems because you can easily kill two fairly large Jade Golems and maybe even another minion in the process.
If that wasn't enough, there's also combo potential with Hallazeal the Ascended. With Elemental Destruction rotating out, perhaps Volcano becomes the large board clear of choice to combo with Hallazeal. Because it costs 5, in the late game, you can play Hallazeal, then this to heal for 15 and clear the board (though in the process, there’s the possibility that you kill Hallazeal as well).
Whoa! What’s this? The second out of 135 cards and already, the Mage Legendary? And a new tribal tag? Yes, and yes. We will have the Elemental tribal tag added to the game. While we currently don't have a confirmed full list of every card being granted the tag, I think most people will get the general idea of which cards are effected.
But on to the card, this is a very interesting minion with an extremely cool concept. The card has received very mixed feedback by the community. Some think that the card is really good with lots of potential, namely in curving, Deathrattle synergy and with Elemental synergy. On the other hand though, some others think the card is terrible because you get 3 piles of stats with no effects.
This card provides 3 slightly understated minions for one cards, with the ability to curve. In addition to that, it gives an incentive to play N'Zoth Mage, allowing N'Zoth to summon an additional 2/2 and a 6/6, which will give you another 6/6 and a 10/10 in your hand. In addition to that, there's inevitable Elemental synergy added later in this expansion which will have the ability to carry this card. In addition to that, when Team 5 announced that Sylvanas Windrunner would rotate into the Hall of Fame, they mentioned that this would be to add Deathrattle build-around cards, which potentially can effect this card.
This is a card that we will have to wait until we get a clear-cut picture of how good the card is, but until now, I will rate this Average as it does have Deathrattle potential with upcoming cards, as well as upcoming Elemental synergy.
This is the first card that showcases the new Adapt keyword.
Before this expansion was announced, I made a card called Mini Steambot at my custom expansion, Terrors of Cyber City. It read "Battlecry: Discover a keyword, then apply it to this minion", which is very similar to the Adapt keyword.
Wait, what's this? A new keyword? Why, yes, it is. The Adapt keyword is just one of the crazy new traits of JtU. Adapt is just like Discover where you Discover a new keyword or ability for your minion. They include:
Quite frankly, I love the idea of this keyword. It's cool, and it of course brings in a small new skill cap. In addition to that, you have the versatility. A 5/4 for 5 with Divine Shield is better than a 5/4 for 5 with Taunt (looking at you Booty Bay Bodyguard) in terms of value, but with this card, you can actually pick the times where the Taunt will be better than the Divine Shield to save your life. If you really need this on the board, you can Stealth it too. It also has Brann Bronzebeard synergy (sadly only in Wild), and it’s a Beast so it has Beast synergy. It's an Average though, because some of the adaptations aren't really strong enough on this card.
Awaken the Makers is the first collectable Legendary card that isn't a minion (if you were to include uncollectable cards, Ashbringer from Tirion Fordring's Deathrattle would take the spot).
Awaken the Makers is the first card to include the new Quest and Reward mechanics.
Amara, Warden of Hope was leaked before it was meant to be revealed. It was leaked without Awaken the Makers, so due to its stats and effect, most people thought it was fake.
Amara, Warden of Hope is the first card in the game that can make a character's Health above 30 (excluding Armor of course). This has been a popular effect with fan creations but this is the first time an official card has been printed with such an effect.
Quest is the fourth (fifth if you count Jade Golem, sixth if you also count Spare Parts) new keyword added since the game's release, preceded by Inspire, Discover and Adapt.
The idea of Quests and Rewards have been talked about by players, most notably, Noxious.
So, not only has the new Mage Legendary been released very early, so has the Priest one, and it's a spell? And it introduces ANOTHER new mechanic? The Quest and Reward mechanics can be summed up in detail here, but essentially, it can be summed up as this:
Quest: Do X
Reward: When you do X, receive Y
In addition to that, Quest cards will always appear in your opening hand, to guarantee you will always have it. In the case of this card, that is a very big deal and benefit. You can always play this on turn 1, and continue as normal. The card encourages a Deathrattle Priest, which has existed in the history of Hearthstone, but hasn’t gotten any new cards since Shifting Shade from WoTOG. Naturally, this would easily fit into a N'Zoth Priest where you naturally play a lot of Deathrattle minions. Summoning Deathrattle minions is as easy as it can get. All you have to do is play 7 of them and you get Amara, Warden of Hope. People didn't want Reno to go, and it looks like they will not disappointed.
The ironic thing about this card, is that the Quest mechanic works best with decks that stay live long. Priest and Warrior are probably the two best classes at that. We also have more Deathrattle minions to see, so I’m confident with this card. There's the chance that it may not have a place in Standard, but it certainly has a place in Wild.
Well, for those of you who thought Verdant Longneck wasn’t too exciting, here is a much more intriguing Adapt minion. You don't Adapt it, but rather, your Murlocs. Judging by the wording, it should buff all of your Murlocs in play, and we all know how easy it is to put Murlocs on the field. You plop this down as a 5/4 for 4 with a few Murlocs in play, and all of a sudden, you can give all of your Murlocs Taunt, +3 Attack, Divine Shield or Windfury. Unlike Verdant Longneck, all of the adaptations here are good for Murlocs so you'll never get a bad result here. As with any Adapt minion, there is the versatility. I may sound really optimistic but this card just seems awesome.
This is the first card in the game with the "Discover" keyword printed on it, but doesn’t have a Discover effect or interacts with Discover cards (similar to Brann Bronzebeard with Battlecries or Fandral Staghelm with Choose One cards).
This is the first card revealed from the reveal stream.
Well, it only took 6 cards in the set before we saw the obligatory RNG Clown Fiesta card. It's very much like Renounce Darkness. It costs 2 mana, and replaces everything in your hand and deck. This card replaces all of your cards, whereas its Warlock counterpart only replaced the Warlock cards. Instead of random collectable cards, you however get a 1 mana spell that Discovers a card. The card essentially makes it possibly to play Renounce Darkness in Warlock. To be fair, there’s no clown fiesta card in Warrior yet, so it fills some type of void.
However, unlike Renounce Darkness, the card's cost stays the same, which is actually kind of a big deal because reducing a card’s cost by 1 can actually make a huge difference and turn a bad card into an OP card (Silent Knight – 1 mana turns it into a better Shielded Minbot), and the Renounce Darkness could potentially save you up to 28 mana. This card however will actually require you to spend more mana since the Discover cards cost 1 mana.
Obviously this card won't see any competitive play, but will see some fun gimmick play or even the occasional Tavern Brawl. Even then though, Renounce Darkness accomplishes that better.
This is the first collectable Priest minion that naturally has Taunt (Wyrmrest Agent only has Taunt if you have a Dragon in your hand when you play it).
So, with Awaken the Makers being introduced in this expansion, it was only natural that we would receive some more Deathrattle Priest minions, which is a very lacking spot right now. It definitely fits the bill just well, especially because it has Taunt. If it didn’t have Taunt, I would say that this card is not very good because your opponent could easily just kill your other minions, then kill this. It having Taunt though makes it a lot better because it will harder for your opponent to do that, which will have them relying on hard removal or AoE. On top of that, it’s a 2/6 for 4 with Taunt and a positive effect. Bloodhoof Brave saw some play, so it seems really exciting. While, yes I do think this is a good card, it does have one flaw with it: It's a 4-drop in Priest.
4-drops in Priest have notably been filled to the brim, the go to one being Auchenai Soulpriest. As a result of this, other 4-drops tend to not see that much play. For instance, Holy Champion, as much potential as it had, never saw a lot of play. Hooded Acolyte only saw play in C’Thun Priest, Priest of the Feast did see a bit play, Shifting Shade didn't see a lot but it does have more potential with the Deathrattle decks coming up. Greater Healing Potion you see once in a while in some forms of Priest.
That is the weak side of this card, but I do think this card is better than most of those other cards because of strong stats and a strong effect. It does take it down a peg, but it's not too bad admittedly. I think this will see play in Deathrattle Priest, which will be tried out a lot, especially in Wild.
Before this was revealed, the art for Lakkari Sacrifice was suspected to be the art of the Warlock Quest.
The Nether Portal is just like some cards seen from the Karazhan adventure and the Portal Tavern Brawl which featured "minion" cards that didn’t count as minions and couldn’t be removed from the board.
COMPARABLE CARDS:
Well... I'm drawing a blank right now.
REVIEW:
Well, here is the next Quest and the most interesting one we've seen. It's also probably the hardest one to review. It's a Quest that focuses on the Discard mechanic they pushed in Karazhan, not so much in MSoG, and now back again here. So, as we as all know, the Quests start in your hand so you can get started on them right away. The Quest to fulfill this though as admittedly rather steep, having you discard one-fifth of your deck to get the reward, and needs you to fill your deck with discard cards to get going. Naturally it fits into a Discard Warlock deck (frequently nicknamed "Discolock"), where you discard a lot of cards. You have Malchezaar's Imp to gain back some of the cards you lost, and Silverware Golem to give you a free 3/3, and necessarily it won't even be a discard at all since you’re not losing anything, but instead, quite the opposite. The more I talk about this, the better it seems to get. Just be careful not to discard the portal when you get it, because your deck naturally will be full of cards that discard, and even if you have a large hand, you may not want to take the risk because anything can happen in this game. Notably, this card does have synergy with Deathwing, to clear the board and you’ll most likely instantly get the Nether Portal. The Imps from the portal will give you back some of the advantage you lost.
Speaking of Imps, it’s now time to actually talk about the Portal. You have to pay 5 mana to make the portal, and all you get is only two 3/2 Imps on that turn. Despite the card text, the Nether Portal does indeed summon two Imps at the end of your turn and not just one. The card is inherently slow as a result of this and will take a few turns to get up and go, but it can be nice if the meta slows down (meme quote, yes, but also a true one). It honestly has potential, but naturally it requires a slow meta, and as we’ve seen in MSoG, it only takes one or two cards to make a meta aggressive. However, one of our upcoming cards in this section says hello, and goodbye to some of our Pirate enemies. It also works well with our very next card we’re reviewing.
Rating: Good/Other (I know I probably sound crazy)
Well, with Lakkari Sacrifice, it was obvious that we would have more Discard Warlock cards. As a 3/8, this minion is actually rather resilient for 4 mana, as not even Flamewreathed Facless can kill it without additional assistance. This gives it a good edge up, but discarding two cards is a rather hefty price to pay (look at Doomguard to get an idea of what benefits you should get for discarding two cards). As a 3/8, it is vulnerable to Shadow Word: Pain, but as I said before, that 8 Health is pretty big. Along with the discard synergy cards and the new Warlock Quest, the card is honestly better than it first looks.
It however will only be really good in Discolock, specifically with Lakkari Sacrifice. I don't know if the card will be good enough to run in any Warlock deck, but it will be tried out for discard decks.
A Mage minion, and one focused on Secrets. We saw this in Karazhan and MSoG, so it seems that Secret Mage is still a deck that Team 5 wants to push. Rather that pushing for a Secret Mage, I feel that this card works better in Freeze Mage (with Ice Lance rotating out, that deck may end up being Wild only). Despite being able to draw a card for 2 mana with a 2/3, as well as great curving potential into a 3 mana Secret, the problem with Mage Secrets though, is that you don't want to play most of them early and a vast majority of them are designed for late game use (Effigy for example). The only Mage Secrets you can (and want to) play early on are Ice Barrier and Ice Block which is why I made my comment about Freeze Mage. It still will see play in a Secret Mage deck because drawing Secrets can be useful in the late game where you'll actually use them.
Naturally, people compare this to Mad Scientist from Naxxramas. True that this card isn't as powerful as this, but Mad Scientist was overpowered, and I think we can all agree on that. This card also has the advantage that you can actually decide when to play it rather than being forced to cast it immediately. This does make this card better in a regular Secret Mage, but Mad Scientist will still most likely be better in Freeze Mage. With Ice Lance rotating out, Freeze Mage has a good chance of becoming Wild only unless we get another Freeze card. Ice Lance was put into the Hall of Fame because Team 5 wanted more variety in Mage decks.
I think it's a good card, that's limited in playability and loses some points because it works best in a deck that's likely becoming Wild only, where we already have a better card for this: Mad Scientist. Secret Mage in Wild on the other hand however will be glad to play this over Mad Scientist. If we're able to get a Standard Freeze Mage or Standard Secret Mage, this card will happily fit in. For that, I will give it a "Good", but just by a little bit. Who knows though? Maybe I'm wrong and this card will end up being EXTREMELY good.
Excluding the corrupted counterparts in WoTOG, Elise is one of the three characters in the game that has appeared in two different places. The other two are Medivh (having his own card in Karazhan) and Ragnaros the Firelord (having an alternate hero from Majordomo Executus's Deathrattle).
A Classic Pack has been a fan creation some people have used with a similar premise.
This is the first Neutral Legendary in the set, out of 5.
The Un'Goro Pack is the first card in the game to mention the name of a card set.
Accodring to Peter Whalen, the Un'Goro Pack will always have an Epic or higher card, and has a higher chance of Legendaries compared to regular packs.
Before the stream, Yong Woo confirmed there would be another Elise card, and here it is.
So, here we have an exciting Neutral Legendary. Everyone's favorite, Elise, is back on another quest (pun not intended) and instead of a Golden Monkey, will give un an Un’Goro Pack, which contain 5 random Un’Goro cards. As we saw from the stream, it is possible to get cards from other classes. It's even possible to give us another Elise, the Trailblazer. If the original Elise was anything to go off of, despite its gimmicky nature, it will be good in Control decks. When the original Elise was revealed in LoE, people dismissed it as a gimmick card, but ended up seeing a ton of play. This card will most likely be the same way, especially because the pack can be played whenever you want (provided your hand isn’t too large). It will give you 5 more cards from this expansion. I don’t think more really needs to be said.
From the initial stream and the batch we got beforehand, this is probably the card everyone is excited for the most, because it will destroy Pirates and anyone who’s played this game at all in the past 3 months will now that Pirates are meta, even with the Small-Time Buccaneer nerf. This will definitely help against Pirate decks. Even if your opponent doesn’t have a Pirate, it's still a 2/3 for 2, as opposed to Hungry Crab or Eater of Secrets which are terrible if your opponent isn't playing the decks which they counter. This is definitely more playable as a tech card as a result. Play it in conjunction with Acidic Swamp Ooze and you disable Pirate Warriors in their tracks.
Against non-Pirate classes however, the card isn't that good. Unlike MTG, Hearthstone lacks a sideboard to make better usage of cards like Eater of Secrets or Streetwise Investigator, but I'd still rate it as "Good" as it does counter the meta Pirate decks and will make people think twice before playing them. For those of you worried that Pirate decks will play this, they probably won't. They already have Bloodsail Raider, and if they really needed another 2-drop, they probably could consider running Loot Hoarder, both of which will fair better than this card in that deck.
Well this is a rare sight, a Neutral Common that actually seems like it could be pretty good in Constructed. True as a 3 mana 1/5 on your turn, not all that good, but as a 3/5 on your opponent's turn, with Taunt, for 3 mana. It's actually pretty good and can be a really good card against Aggro decks. Rememer what I said earlier that reducing a card’s cost by 1 makes it A LOT better. Same is true for this, compared to Sen'jin Shieldmasta.
Well, here is a rather interesting Paladin buff card, with an admittedly debatable playability. It does have a few little applications you can do with it. Namely, cheap charge minions like Stonetusk Boar or even Bluegill Warrior can be used effectively with this to deal 10 damage, and put a huge scary minion on the board that your opponent will need to get rid of. It can act as a Pseudo-Pyroblast but not really Pyroblast because it doesn't give +10/+10, but rather sets the stats to 10/10, so on a 4/4 minion, this is effectively an 8 mana +6/+6, which isn't really exciting. However, it's better at minion removing than Pyroblast because you will most likely still have the minion the board and it costs 2 less, though you still need a minion on board.
On turn 10 or later, you do also always have the option of playing it on a Silver Hand Recruit. It also works well with Wickerflame Burnbristle to heal for massive amounts, though because of Emperor Thaurissan rotating out, you can no longer do this in Standard. As an 8-cost spell, it's also a really good spell to get from Ivory Knight. Not just because of the healing but also because now your opponent won’t know if you got this card, or Lay on Hands (when previously LoH was the only 8-cost Paladin spell).
Also, meme potential involving Angry Chicken or Spellbender (when you use it against someone with this card obviously).
This is the third 4 mana 5/3 in the game, preceded by Magnataur Alpha and Armored Warhorse(thanks to RevenantSC for pointing out that I missed Armored Warhorse).
This is the first card in the game with the text "go dormant".
This is the second card of the expansion (and the first minion), which has a token spawning a "minion" that doesn’t count as a minion. Of course, the other is Lakkari Sacrifice.
Very first Rogue card revealed, and it's the Legendary. It's a very weird one in which, it’s literally just a fighting flower, which pretty much confirms that literally anything can be a minion. What else is Rogue going to get?
Their Legendary has a very interesting and unique design. So far, Un'Goro is probably the most creative expansion so far just in these 16 cards revealed so far. Creative however doesn't always mean good, and yeah, this card shows that. First up, it has bad stats, 5/3 for 4 is pretty bad. If we forget that though, the Deathrattle puts itself into a seed where you play 4 cards to put it back into play. The effect is obviously the best in Rogue which normally does plays like this because they have stuff like Backstab, Preperation and Counterfeit Coin. You can only do that so much though, and the minion doesn’t have Charge so you can’t attack with it right away, and because it only has 3 Health, it's rather easy to kill. If you can't play 4 cards in a turn, it effectively becomes a 4 mana 5/3 with a drawback as you now permanently have a space taken up by this guy’s seed. With N'Zoth, you summon a lot of these, yes, but that also means you're taking up so much space on your bad that it's not even worth it. So far, this isn’t a good start for Rogue at all, but maybe they have better cards to look for later.
Although I'm sticking with my decision, I should note that Shaku was deemed as garbage by most people when it was first revealed, yet it's shown to be really good in Aggro Rogue, so maybe this card will be the same.
Thank you. I had almost all of what I said in a document so I copy and paste it. Even with that though, this thread still took me about 4 and a half to 5 hours to make.
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Thank you. I had almost all of what I said in a document so I copy and paste it. Even with that though, this thread still took me about 4 and a half to 5 hours to make.
I appreciate the effort that you put into it. I would never have enough patience to do something like this
It's really hard to see exactly how strong a couple of cards are without seeing the other cards. Mysterious Challanger is absolute trash without Avenge, with it, it made one of the most braindead OP cancer decks of all time.
The individual value of cards is a good indication of their actual value in arena (you can pull of some combos and synergies now though with the recent arena improvements)
Another example would be patrons. They are useless now without the warsong commander but we all know how strong patron warrior was in the hands of a skilled player.
I find the reviews great though, really well made. I appreciate the work you've put into it. It's very well structured and easy to understand. I pleasant read overall.
It's really hard to see exactly how strong a couple of cards are without seeing the other cards. Mysterious Challanger is absolute trash without Avenge, with it, it made one of the most braindead OP cancer decks of all time.
The individual value of cards is a good indication of their actual value in arena (you can pull of some combos and synergies now though with the recent arena improvements)
Another example would be patrons. They are useless now without the warsong commander but we all know how strong patron warrior was in the hands of a skilled player.
This is very true, but I still wanted to post this anyway so I wouldn't get overwhelmed with more cards later on at too much. It already took at excruciating long time to make what I make what I have so far, imagine how long it would take if I had even more cards to write for. In the event that cards get better through other cards, I can change the ratings.
It is worth noting Team 5 will probably print more Deathrattle Priest minions, more Warlock discard cards, and more Mage Secret-synergy cards, all in this expansion. This is return will probably make their respective build around cards (Awaken the Makers, Lakkari Sacrifice and Mage Secrets respectively) better.
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It's really hard to see exactly how strong a couple of cards are without seeing the other cards. Mysterious Challanger is absolute trash without Avenge, with it, it made one of the most braindead OP cancer decks of all time.
The individual value of cards is a good indication of their actual value in arena (you can pull of some combos and synergies now though with the recent arena improvements)
Another example would be patrons. They are useless now without the warsong commander but we all know how strong patron warrior was in the hands of a skilled player.
This is very true, but I still wanted to post this anyway so I wouldn't get overwhelmed with more cards later on at too much. It already took at excruciating long time to make what I make what I have so far, imagine how long it would take if I had even more cards to write for. In the event that cards get better through other cards, I can change the ratings.
It is worth noting Team 5 will probably print more Deathrattle Priest minions, more Warlock discard cards, and more Mage Secret-synergy cards, all in this expansion. This is return will probably make their respective build around cards (Awaken the Makers, Lakkari Sacrifice and Mage Secrets respectively) better.
Fair point. I can already see how this must have been a ton of work.
I have a very strong feeling that the mage quest will be play X amount of secrets. I'm guessing 3 or maybe 4 because you probably can't play secrets all game long and expect to win.
We will see. Maybe with more secret synergy cards it will be.
This was really good, though I am appalled by your inclusion of Elemental Destruction in "honorable mentions."
I mean, it's better than it not being mentioned at all. Hahaha... In all honesty though, ED could maybe be put into the regular category. Admittedly, I did write the rotation section a bit far in advance.
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You forgot about the new hunter legendary Swamp King Dred other than that nice review i can see you put alot of effort into it.
Swamp King Dred will be in section 2. The way I have this formatted is that there are 135 new cards, so I can make 9 sections each having exactly 15 cards in them to equal the total number of cards in the expansion. Because of the early release date, it's likely that we will see more cards be released faster than previous expansions. They have 3 weeks to reveal 119 more cards.
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I enjoyed the review, however I felt that it ignored some very important meta developments such as the complete death of control due to Jade Druid. This oversight made cards like Elise a tad overrated in my opinion as her whole purpose is as a control finisher.
I enjoyed the review, however I felt that it ignored some very important meta developments such as the complete death of control due to Jade Druid. This oversight made cards like Elise a tad overrated in my opinion as her whole purpose is as a control finisher.
That actually is true, Jade Druid is a significant problem for Control decks (thanks to Jade Idol being able to shuffle multiple copies of itself into your deck). You're actually probably right about Elise now that you mentioned that.
That's actually a pretty interesting deck. Good luck on making it work. Are you sure you have enough Dragons though? 6 doesn't seem like very many, but then again, I've never been a huge Dragon deck player.
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I think Arcanologist is a powerful card. Any card that thins your deck is great (think Patches) and you can then play the secret for free next turn with Kirin Tor Mage.
Tar creeper is another exceptional minion. I absolutely love the design and it will be the bane of aggro decks for years to come. It's just a wall in the early game.
I think Arcanologist is a powerful card. Any card that thins your deck is great (think Patches) and you can then play the secret for free next turn with Kirin Tor Mage.
Tar creeper is another exceptional minion. I absolutely love the design and it will be the bane of aggro decks for years to come. It's just a wall in the early game.
It's not only that. Even if you don't have Kirin Tor Mage, mage secrets are 3 mana so if you get Arcanologist on 2 it's not only a novice engineer on steroids but also supports you with a card you can play on the next turn. I know curving out with secrets is often not optimal but it is an option especially if you get that secret for basically almost free.
Mage loses all of it's viable decks (Tempo and Reno) with the rotation so I'm really happy to see they are trying to support something that has never existed before a secret mage. This could also work in freeze because thinning your deck is really important and getting those iceblocks as well but freezemage is currently unplayable, they lose icelance and pirates lose basically nothing so I doubt freeze would be viable again in the forseeable future.
I enjoyed the review, however I felt that it ignored some very important meta developments such as the complete death of control due to Jade Druid. This oversight made cards like Elise a tad overrated in my opinion as her whole purpose is as a control finisher.
That actually is true, Jade Druid is a significant problem for Control decks (thanks to Jade Idol being able to shuffle multiple copies of itself into your deck). You're actually probably right about Elise now that you mentioned that.
That's actually a pretty interesting deck. Good luck on making it work. Are you sure you have enough Dragons though? 6 doesn't seem like very many, but then again, I've never been a huge Dragon deck player.
It is a little low because of Azure Drake but it performs well despite that.
I enjoyed the review, however I felt that it ignored some very important meta developments such as the complete death of control due to Jade Druid. This oversight made cards like Elise a tad overrated in my opinion as her whole purpose is as a control finisher.
That actually is true, Jade Druid is a significant problem for Control decks (thanks to Jade Idol being able to shuffle multiple copies of itself into your deck). You're actually probably right about Elise now that you mentioned that.
That's actually a pretty interesting deck. Good luck on making it work. Are you sure you have enough Dragons though? 6 doesn't seem like very many, but then again, I've never been a huge Dragon deck player.
It is a little low because of Azure Drake but it performs well despite that.
The issue is that for dragons to work (or any constructed deck for that matter) it needs to be unfair and OP. The only current viable dragon deck is priest because it has overstatted minions on curve plus operative is insane, dragon fire potion can act as a super flamestrike etc.
Paladin with dragons is just not strong enough to be constructed viable. Maybe as a fun off meta deck, but wouldn't try to climb to legend with it. Dragon Paladin is on the level of a strong arena deck and that's it. Not "unfair" enough.
Also 6 dragons in a deck are not even close to being enough. You sometimes have issue with no dragons in your hand with dragon priest and it has ~10-12 dragons in it.
Hey guys, this is Demon here bringing you a review of the cards from the new expansion, Journey to Un'Goro. Yes I do realize that this is very soon to start reviewing cards, but this expansion will have a much quicker card releasing period compared to previous card sets, so I wanted to start this now so I wouldn't get overwhelmed later. If you've read any of my previous card review threads, this will follow the same format. As always, fun facts and comparable cards will be included amongst the reviews. But before I get into this, there are some notes to keep in mind as always:
I am by no means a professional Hearthstone player, and I am not someone who plays every single day. This is just my opinion, so if you come across a card you think is good, but I rated bad or vice-versa, that's fine, you're entitled to have your own opinion. Probably the most important note is that these are just predictions too, because you never actually know how good a card will be until it's actually released. Some cards end up being a lot better than anticipated (Dr Boom, Grim Patron, Mysterious Challenger, Elise Starseeker, Infested Tauren, Shaku, the Collector, etc.) as well as others than perform worse than anticipated (Troggzor the Earthinator, Varian Wrynn, Grimy Goons in general).
So, just take this with a grain of salt.
Here is my ratings for anyone unfamiliar:
Rotation Reviews
Druid
Druid admittedly doesn't take a very big hit in terms of its more played archetypes but does take a bigger hit in its lesser played archetype.
The 3 main cards Druid loses consist of Living Roots, Raven Idol and Mulch. Living Roots was a staple in several Druid archetypes but was a very prevalent card in Token Druid where you could easily spawn 2 Saplings, then buff them with Power of the Wild or Mark of the Lotus. In addition to that, it loses Raven Idol which around when LoE was released, primarily acted as a token generator with Violet Teacher in Token Druid, but you could find it played in other Druid decks too. It truly reached its peak when Fandral Staghlem was released in WotOG, in which it effectively acted as an Arcane Intellect for only 1 mana.
Mulch acted as hard removal for Druid, which was very rare, and a good hard removal card was needed. Mulch was not the card they deserved, but it was the one they needed. The downside of giving your opponent a random minion would sometimes give your opponent a bad minion which made the card amazing, but at the same time, the times where your opponent got a good minion would be catastrophic for you. Nonetheless though, it’s a very noteworthy card to include in this list for its prevalence in Druid.
Honorable Mentions
In terms of the lesser played archetypes, it does not look good for them. Beast Druid is losing some of the cards that originated the archetype. With Druid of the Saber, Savage Combatant and Mounted Raptor gone, it seems that Beast Druid is forever dead now. Beast Druid was always the deck that was always "not quite good enough". With these cards gone, Beast Druid will most likely never make a comeback again.
Astral Druid loses its namesake card, which completely kills the deck in Standard. The deck cannot function at all without Astral Communion. With Aviana gone, its combo decks with Kun the Forgotten King will become weaker as they can no longer play Aviana, then Kun, then their next big minion (usually Malygos or C'Thun). With Aviana gone, the deck is now just Kun, then whatever for its full mana cost. I can’t say that the decks will completely die, but losing Aviana will definitely make them weaker.
Hunter
Hunter actually doesn’t lose that much in terms of its good cards. Really shows how many bad Hunter cards were made, but at the same time, it’s good for the class because they need to catch up. Hunter only loses 3 cards in terms of its main set of good cards. All of which were played in pretty much every Hunter deck. Hunter loses some of its burst damage with Quick Shot, one of its better secrets with Bear Trap, and one of its best midrange/control minions with King's Elekk which granted information about your opponent’s deck and sometimes you would draw a key card in your deck. All things considered though, Hunters actually go through the rotation rather well. All it really needs is a direct damage card and another good midrange minion like King's Elekk.
Honorable Mentions
For the honorable mentions, Lock and Load was always a card that had so much potential to be good, but it wasn’t until WotOG came out with Yogg-Saron that the card was actually played, and the card was also played in Secret Hunter as well in a pseudo card draw mechanic, because if there's an aspect Secret Hunter is weak in, it's card draw. So, not only does the card rotating out impact Secret Hunter, but it also means that we're simply losing a really cool card that didn’t shine as much as it could’ve.
Although it hasn't seen any play recently, Desert Camel had its own deck called Camel Hunter’s namesake card, in which, you played Desert Camel into Injured Kvaldir, so that's why I put it on the list. Ram Wrangler saw some play in Midrange Hunter when TGT first came out, and it was a really fun, but when it came out, also generally a good card. It hasn’t really seen any play since then, but I’m sure most of us have had those moments where you play this, and you get a gigantic beast like King Krush. The moments are no longer with us.
Mage
Mage however is taking a larger hit than the previous two classes. It's losing one of its most powerful cards in Standard, Flamewaker. It's no secret, the card was damn powerful for Mages. You would just play a bunch of spells, then ping off everything you possibly could. Arcane Blast also scaled up with Spell Damage better than any other card in the game, and you could deal massive damage with just a 1 mana card. It's no surprise these were both auto-includes in Tempo Mage.
Forgotten Torch was played in Freeze Mage where you could easily stall the game and get the Roaring Torch which essentially acted as a 3-cost Fireball. Ethereal Conjurer hasn't seen too much play recently, but was played quite a bit in Tempo Mage where you could easily gain access to another spell.
Honorable Mention
The honorable mention for Mages is the Coldarra Drake. Not because it saw any play (it saw play for about 1 or 2 days after TGT was released), but because this was the card everyone always wanted in Reno Priest from Kabal Courier, to combo with Raza the Chained. With Coldarra Drake gone, it will no longer be possible to infinitely blast your opponent down with Hero Powers in Standard. It'll still be possible in Wild, but good luck getting it.
Paladin
Paladin doesn't take a huge hit overall, but notably is losing Anyfin Can Happen, the backbone behind the Murloc Paladin decks. This rotation kills the deck in Standard. Keeper of Uldaman, was a card that saw play in practically every type of Paladin deck, and it was just a really good card. Mysterious Challenger was the main card of the infamous Secret Paladin that caused player to flip their shit when it was the deck that everyone was complaining about in TGT, and I mean EVERYONE. It was basically the Pirate Warrior of TGT. When WotOG came out, Paladin as a whole was substantially weaker because it lost many of its really good cards which weakened Secret Paladin. Many people, even to this day, still tried to make it work. With Mysterious Challenger gone though, the deck will officially be completely dead in Standard.
Honorable Mentions
When TGT was released, Murloc Knight was absolutely crazy powerful, especially in Arena, but you would still find it played in just about every type of Paladin deck. Midrange Paladin, and yes, even some Secret Paladins would run the card. The card sadly hasn't aged well. It received a slight nerf with Murloc Tinyfin released in LoE, but continued to be nerfed even further when more card sets were released. It recently received a HUGE buff in MSoG with Finja, the Flying Star, but that ultimately wasn’t enough to bring the card back to its former glory. It still deserves a mention because of how insane the card was in TGT.
Dragon Consort was the building foundation for Dragon Paladin. A deck that many people tried out, but ultimately, Priest and Warrior ended up as the dominant Dragon classes. The card wasn't bad at all, but Dragon Paladin simply didn’t have the same support and power that Priest and Warrior had. It wasn't until Karazhan that Paladin would receive another Dragon Paladin card, Nightbane Templar. Despite the amount of promise the card showed, as well as its pre-release praise, Dragon Paladin simply never took off very well. With Dragon Consort gone, Dragon Paladin has no hope of coming back.
Solemn Vigil was a card that would see some play in Midrange Paladin. It was by far the best "Costs (1) less for each minion that died this turn" card, and realistically the only one that actually saw play.
Priest
Flash Heal acted as a way to cheaply, and quickly heal yourself out of range of something bad, and could also act as a very cheap way to deal lots of the damage with Auchenai Soulpriest. Twilight Whelp acted as a one-drop for Dragon Priest, in which, although it didn't look like anything spectacular, it really was. Not only was it a Dragon itself, but playing it would effectively give you a Zombie Chow without its negative Deathrattle. It was also an early game Dragon, which was ultimately part of why Priest was one of the better Dragon classes.
Museum Curator [/card]and [card]Wyrmrest Agents are some of the only 2-drops Priest had. 2-drops in Priest were far and few between. 2-drops that could be played on turn 2, and in any Priest deck were even rarer. Museum Curator finally fixed the issue for Priest when LoE was released. It served to be a VERY good Priest 2-drop, but lost some of its best targets when Naxx and GvG rotated out. Wyrmrest Agent was a phenomenal Dragon Priest card, acting as a 2/4 for 2 with Taunt. It was one of the most powerful Dragon support cards and another card that carried Dragon Priest.
Excavated Evil was one of the best AoE’s for Priest. Sure, it was no Lightbomb, but it definitely took its spot as the dominant Priest AoE when Lightbomb rotated out. It was ridiculed as weak when it was first revealed for being worse than Hellfire, but remember that Priest is the healing class, that and good AoE in Priest was always welcome. The effect of shuffling into your opponent’s deck, although bad against Control, was good against Aggro because it would effectively invalidate one of their draws. Entomb was one of the best Control Priest cards ever made. You got rid of a minion without triggering any Deathrattles, and took it yourself to draw it latter.
Honorable Mentions
Resurrect was mostly just a fun card when it was first released, but when Onyx Bishop was released in Karazhan, it actually almost made Resurrect viable. On top of that, the card was just really awesome when it worked. Resurrect Priest loses one of its resurrecting tools. Holy Champion was always one of those cards that just "wasn’t quite good enough". The card ALWAYS had the utmost potential to be a stupendously powerful card, but it just never made the waves it could’ve made despite how awesome it could’ve been, and now all hope for it is lost when it rotates out.
Although Confessor Paletress hasn't seen that much play for a while, I just had to include it somewhere here. It's a card that we all love playing with, and I'm sure most of us have had a lot of fun with it at some point. When TGT first released, not only was it a fun card, but it actually was fairly viable too with many Priests running it. It served to have the ability to be EXTREMELY powerful, and often times it would just win you the game right then and there. It however started losing its power when WotOG came out, because it lost some of its really good Legendaries, and introduced some bad ones, and since fallen out of favor. It will now rotate out never to be seen again in Standard.
Rogue
Conceal is another card being rotated into the Hall of Fame set. It had its obvious application in Mircale Rogue with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Gang Up being rotate out means the Mill Rogue will lose of its key cards. Gang Up was essentially for filling your deck so your opponent would fatigue quicker than you, and also so you would get more Coldlight Oracles into your deck to make your opponent draw more. Will Mill Rogue be completely dead in Standard as a result of this loss?
Although it hasn’t been seeing much play lately, Unearthed Raptor was a really good Rogue card which spawned a new archetype for Rogue, that being the Deathrattle Rogue. Deathrattle Rogue cards were then pushed in WotOG with cards like Journey Below, Undercity Huckster and Xaril, Poisoned Mind. In general, Unearthed Raptor was also a very good card at the time. In fact, when LoE was released, it was arguably the best 3 mana 3/4 in the game.
Tomb Pillager is probably the biggest loss for Rogues. Tomb Pillager was an auto-include in Miracle Rogue and Deathrattle Rogue, and you could even play him in other Rogue decks. Basically, the only Rogue deck he didn't fit into was Mill Rogue. We all know how amazing Coins are in Rogue. A powerful Rogue effect combined with a 5/4 body for 4 and you’ve got yourself a very strong Rogue card that all Rogue players will miss.
Honorable Mentions
Beneath the Grounds was a card that had a lot of potential since its release in TGT, but ultimately it simply didn't fit the Rogue’s general playstyle since you needed to wait to get value (unless you were very lucky and your opponent drew one right away). Despite what first thoughts might think, it didn't fit in Mill Rogue since you would possibly mill the Ambushes, and thus they won't go off. If this happened, than the card was actually bad because it increased your opponent’s deck size. When Reno Jackson was released, this card had the ability to counter Reno, and people actually tried it. Even more potential arised in MSoG when Kazakus, Inkmaster Solia, Raza the Chained and Krul the Unshackled was released. People tried it out but in general, has not worked as well as it could've. Primarily because of the meta.
Burgle was the card that ultimately was the initial foundation of the Burgle Rogue deck. Two card sets later in WotOG, Blizzard released Undercity Huckster, and then in the next set, they released Swashburglar and Ethereal Peddler (the first real support card for the archetype). With Burgle being gone, Rogue loses one of its ways to make the Burgle Rogue work, and ultimately loses its namesake card.
Dark Iron Skulker is a very interesting card, because at some point, the card was played in a LOT of Rogue decks, and for good reasons. It could basically serve as a Consecration + a 1 mana 4/3. Yeah, that's pretty strong. As more card sets were released though, the card started fading out and the card isn’t seeing the amount of play it used to. It's still worth noting for the power level it had.
Shaman
I think we're all going to delighted with what Shaman is losing. It's losing many of its very powerful cards that made up the Shamanstone. Shaman is losing both Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem, 2 of the strongest Shaman cards in the game. These two cards could be found in every Shaman deck, yes all of them. Aggro, Midrange, Control, Jade, etc., you name it, it's there. As these are very strong Shaman cards that carry the class, it's indeed going to take a hit from that, but unfortunately, we still have all the strong cards we got from WotOG and Karazhan still in the game. This is a start though as Shaman will be losing the strong early game it had.
Healing Wave was a way to restore Health when Shaman was still in trouble and lacking it. Vitality Totem just wasn't enough, so here came Healing Wave. The potential to heal for 14 for just 3 mana was amazing, and the card saw play in Control Shaman. Thunder Bluff Valiant was a card you would find in Midrange Shaman to buff your Totems up, and if it stayed on the field for multiple turns, it would become a nightmare for your opponent. It was arguably the best and most played Inspire card in the game.
Honorable Mentions
Ancestral Knowledge was a way for Shaman to draw cards. Card draw was one of Shaman's weakest aspects and this card, despite looking weak at first, saw play in both Aggro and Midrange. Lava Shock was a card that would occasionally pop in and out, and it was a very unique card because unlocking your Overloaded Mana was a very special and useful ability for Shaman, and until Eternal Sentinel came out in WotOG, no other card did this. It's worth mentioning for how useful the card was when it worked and we won't be able to use it in Standard again.
Speaking of Overload, Elemental Destruction is also rotating out. Shaman will be losing the biggest board clear they have, and Hallazeal the Ascended will become weaker, losing its main combo card. With Elemental Destruction gone, the best card we can use with Hallazeal is Lightning Storm or Volcano, which isn't terrible but it's not on the same vain that Elemental Destruction was.
After Tuskarr Totemic was nerfed in April of last year, the card hasn’t really been seeing any play, but it was an extremely powerful Shaman card prior to the nerf. If you've been living under a rock, Tuskarr Totemic originally could summon any Totem, so yes it could summon Flametongue Totem, Mana Tide Totem, and even Totem Golem (and it could also summon Vitality Totem before it was rotated out). Summoning a Mana Tide Totem or Totem Golem could instantly win you the game right then and there. It was nerfed so it could only summon your Hero Power Totems. Despite increasing the chances of getting Spell Damage, that little buff right there wasn’t enough to overcome the nerf of losing the three special totems. It's mostly here for how powerful it was pre-nerf.
Warlock
Power Overwhelming saw play in pretty much every Warlock deck. It was undeniably powerful, allowing for an additional 4 damage for just 1 mana. Primarily it was used in combination with Leeroy Jenkins to the point where the drawback of the minion dying didn’t matter. Dark Peddler was one of the best cards Warlock has ever gotten in quite a while, and in general was just really good, especially in Warlock where you could easily discover a Mortal Coil, Power Overwhelming, Soulfire or Voidwalker, as well as discovering some of the good Neutral 1-drops such as pre-nerf Abusive Sergeant or pre-nerf Leper Gnome.
Demonwrath was the AoE that made Demon decks work as it would basically be a Consecration that costs (1) less. The only downside was that it would be bad against other Demon decks. In general though, it was a very powerful card for Demon decks. Speaking of Demons though, Warlock is losing one of its best minions, Imp Gang Boss. One of the kings of Zoolock himself is rotating out. He was very powerful in Warlock because getting 1 Imp out would get you 3/5 worth of stats on 2 Demons for only 3 mana. As a 2/4, it also had stats good enough to withstand an attack meaning you could often get 2 Imps.
Honorable Mentions
Dreadsteed was a really cool card with a really cool idea. Sadly, it's also probably the best card Warlock got in TGT. While the card was never extremely competitive, it has had its moments of shining. After TGT was released, Kripp made a deck all about the Dreadsteed, and the card has also had its shining moments in boss encounters and Tavern Brawls (most notably the Yellow Brick Road brawl). On top of that, the card also has a very touching story behind it. The card’s flavor text is a reference to Crescendo1909, a Redditor and Hearthstone player who had been fighting cancer prior to the release of TGT. Fist of Jaraxxus was the first Discolock support card and is another card that traces its origins back to the beginning of when they were making it.
Warrior
The loss Warrior experiences is actually not that significant, in terms of class cards anyway. It's losing Alexstrasza's Champion which was a staple in aggressive Dragon Warrior decks. With most of the Dragon synergy being in BRM, Dragon decks in general will be losing many cards. It's not that unlikely however that we will still get Dragons in Un’Goro. Revenge would sometimes be found in Control Warrior as a 3 damage AoE to everything, and Bash was pretty much an auto-include in Control Warrior.
Honorable Mention
Of all the Warrior cards I could've chosen for an honorable mention, I chose Fierce Monkey. Fierce Monkey was primarily an Arena card, as at the time of LoE's release, Warrior was in a really bad spot in Arena. It however did also see some play in Constructed in some Warrior lists as you can’t deny that a 3/4 Taunt for 3, as generic as it might be, is pretty decent.
Neutral Legendaries
Unforunately, Sir Finley Mrrgglton is the only card from the demented Pirate Warrior that is being rotated out. Sir Finley's effect, while requiring you to build your deck in a certain way, if you did build it that way, his effect was undeniably powerful. Sir Finley was the card that would allowed you to build archetypes for classes you normally couldn't play with. If you’re playing an Aggro deck but your Hero Power is more control oriented, you could Finley and swap it with a different Hero Power. It was also one of the more creative Discover cards from the game.
Brann Bronzebeard was one of those Legendaries, that like Barnes, you could fit into just about any deck. You didn’t have to build around. Brann would just fit like a charm in there (unless you were playing a Deathrattle deck, or some weird gimmick deck with not very many minions). His effect by itself was powerful for several different deck types. It’s sad to see this guy go because he was simply awesome, no matter the deck.
Do you remember when LoE was being revealed and people called Elise Starseeker a gimmick card? Yeah, turns out they were wrong and she actually is powerful. She fit well into Control decks, in which you would play the Golden Monkey at the right time (when your removal tools didn’t matter anymore), and get minions to replace them. Not only was she good, but she was also fun.
With Emperor Thaurissan gone, combo decks will definitely take a hit from this guy. As one of the best Legendaries in the entire game, Thaurissan fit perfectly into combo decks of all kind, Freeze Mage, pre-nerf Patron Warrior, Worgen Warrior, Malygos decks, OTK-Velen Priest, anything of the like. He would also fit into Control decks in general. He was just so god damn good, and I will miss him.
Justicar Trueheart will be a bad loss for both Priest and Warrior players. She was more or less an auto-include in Control Priest and Control Warrior. Healing for 4, or getting 4 Armor every turn was simply very powerful.
Reno Jackson is arguably the most important and most played card rotating out. Reno gave birth to a whole new deck archetype which had the ability to stay alive against Aggro. Later in MSoG, Reno gained some new friends, Kazakus, Inkmaster Solia, Raza the Chained and Krul the Unshackled, which would give new power to Reno Mage and Reno Priest. Warlock admittedly wasn't really affected too much from Krul but the option is still there. It's a card that has been historically praised by many and many will hate to see it go. Also worth mentioning that Highlander decks will become weaker without Reno. Will Kazakus and Solia/Raza/Krul be enough to justify running a Highlander deck? Only time will tell.
Chillmaw was a powerful card for Dragon decks. The ability to deal 3 damage to everything was of course very powerful and ultimately why she was so strong in Dragon decks. The Taunt just made her even stronger, and Dragon decks will not want to see her go.
On top of that, we also lose two of the most iconic characters in Warcraft lore, as well as two of the best Legendary minions in the game, Sylvanas Windrunner and Ragnaros the Firelord. It's no secret that they were both VERY powerful minions. Sylvanas forced your opponent to mess up their next pay or else have one of their minions stolen, for a very small stat loss by the way. Ragnaros the Firelord’s ability to deal 8 random damage not only effectively gave it Charge but also made it Immune while attacking. You could easily kill a big minion without damaging your Ragnaros or deal a lot of face damage and put your opponent on a clock to kill it. On top of that, it was an 8/8 body itself. The best (and usually only) way to deal with was hard removal or else you were screwed.
Honorable Mentions
Gormok the Impaler saw some play in Zoolock where you could easily fill the board with token from cards like Imp Gang Boss or Imp-losion (before it rotated out), and will would be able to more consistently get the 4 damage off. Some Paladins and even Shamans also ran him because their Hero Power could easily spawn minions, and Paladins at the time also had access to Muster for Battle. Since the rotation, Gormok has since fallen out of favor.
Nexus-Champion Saraad saw play in a number of decks, but its main deck of choice was in Mage decks where you would have spell synergy with cards like Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker (the latter of those two, is also being rotate out), but has since fading away.
Rend Blackhand, Chromaggus and Nefarian all saw some play in Dragon decks. Rend Blackhand allowed for easy hard removal on a Legendary minion, but in exchange, had a weak body, 8/4 for 7 (especially that 4 Health) and his ability was really specific. He still saw play though. Chromaggus was good where you could draw cards in the same turn, thus his best bet was in Dragon Priest, where you could easily Power Word: Shield to draw and get two copies of a card in your deck. If he were to survive another turn, he would draw even more cards. Nefarian saw play to grant extra spells against the opponent. He also was a possible inspiration for the Burgle Rogue archetype. Oh yeah, and he was a Dragon too.
Other Neutrals
Huge Toad usually saw play in Midrange Hunter as an option for their 2-drop, along with another card that's rotating out, King's Elekk. With those two gone, the main Hunter 2-drop of choice will probably end up being Kindly Grandmother. Jeweled Scarab saw play in a variety of different decks. Despite his usefulness and play percentage, I don’t think this loss will hurt decks too much. Argent Horserider was an amazing and must-have card for Aggro decks, and some Midrange decks too but I don’t think this loss will be too penalizing. Refreshment Vendor saw a lot of play for healing purposes.
Twilight Guardian was a fantastic 4-drop for Dragons. It not only filled a slot it was lacking in, but also gave it a powerful Taunt minion which Dragon decks previously didn’t have. TGT also introduced Wyrmrest Agent and Chillmaw in the same category which powered up Dragon Priest. The card was an absolute must have for Dragon decks. Blackwing Technician and Blackwing Corrupter also fell into the same category of must have for Dragon decks being powerful Dragon support cards in themselves you’d find in every Dragon deck.
Although Grim Patron hasn’t seen play in a while, he couldn’t just be called an honorable mention, namely for pre-nerf Patron Warrior being an absolutely powerful deck that EVERYONE complained out of the ass, was too OP. The deck was indeed very, very powerful. After the Warsong Commander nerf, the deck, against expectations, didn't die but was noticeably weaker and lately, has been missing from action. Drakonid Crusher saw play mostly in some Warrior lists to gain a 9/9 minion.
Honorable Mentions
Dragon Egg saw play in Egg Druid. Flame Juggler was used quite a bit as a quick way to ping something to weaken it or even kill it. Eerie Statue mainly exists here for the memes, and the meme deck, Silence Priest. Gorillabot A-3 saw play in Mech decks for a short amount of time until only 6 months later, the vast majority of the Mechs in the game rotated out. Tomb Spider saw some play in Hunter decks.
Djinni of Zephyrs was played in classes which have the ability to buff minions and double the value, thus mostly seeing play in Priest. Naga Sea Witch had its own deck for a while, Naga Druid. Naga Druid would play the sea witch, then Aviana, which would reduce the minions back to 1, then a bunch of stuff. It essentially was a quick way to cheat out Aviana and get her ability off quicker.
SECTION 1 (Posted March 18th)
Volcano
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So, here is the first of 135 new cards from the new set, Journey to Un’Goro (not "Lost Secrets of Un’Goro" as leaked by many sources). Our first one is a Shaman card. I can only imagine how excited people will be about that. This card certainly looks weird and hard to evaluate, but I will admit there is definitely some potential with this card.
As with Spreading Madness, ideally you don't want minions on the board when you play the card, but unlike Spreading Madness, this can't hit faces which definitely is an improvement because the face won't be able to tank up the hits and repeatedly pull yourself closer to dying. Namely when your opponent has a large board versus your small (or even empty) board, this card becomes extremely strong because you can easily deal a lot of damage to many different targets, and because it only hits minions, your opponent’s face won't tank hits that you may absolutely need to hit a minion. Particularly, this card looks strong against Jade Golems because you can easily kill two fairly large Jade Golems and maybe even another minion in the process.
If that wasn't enough, there's also combo potential with Hallazeal the Ascended. With Elemental Destruction rotating out, perhaps Volcano becomes the large board clear of choice to combo with Hallazeal. Because it costs 5, in the late game, you can play Hallazeal, then this to heal for 15 and clear the board (though in the process, there’s the possibility that you kill Hallazeal as well).
Rating: Good/Very Good
Pyros
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Whoa! What’s this? The second out of 135 cards and already, the Mage Legendary? And a new tribal tag? Yes, and yes. We will have the Elemental tribal tag added to the game. While we currently don't have a confirmed full list of every card being granted the tag, I think most people will get the general idea of which cards are effected.
But on to the card, this is a very interesting minion with an extremely cool concept. The card has received very mixed feedback by the community. Some think that the card is really good with lots of potential, namely in curving, Deathrattle synergy and with Elemental synergy. On the other hand though, some others think the card is terrible because you get 3 piles of stats with no effects.
This card provides 3 slightly understated minions for one cards, with the ability to curve. In addition to that, it gives an incentive to play N'Zoth Mage, allowing N'Zoth to summon an additional 2/2 and a 6/6, which will give you another 6/6 and a 10/10 in your hand. In addition to that, there's inevitable Elemental synergy added later in this expansion which will have the ability to carry this card. In addition to that, when Team 5 announced that Sylvanas Windrunner would rotate into the Hall of Fame, they mentioned that this would be to add Deathrattle build-around cards, which potentially can effect this card.
This is a card that we will have to wait until we get a clear-cut picture of how good the card is, but until now, I will rate this Average as it does have Deathrattle potential with upcoming cards, as well as upcoming Elemental synergy.
Rating: Average
Verdant Longneck
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Wait, what's this? A new keyword? Why, yes, it is. The Adapt keyword is just one of the crazy new traits of JtU. Adapt is just like Discover where you Discover a new keyword or ability for your minion. They include:
Quite frankly, I love the idea of this keyword. It's cool, and it of course brings in a small new skill cap. In addition to that, you have the versatility. A 5/4 for 5 with Divine Shield is better than a 5/4 for 5 with Taunt (looking at you Booty Bay Bodyguard) in terms of value, but with this card, you can actually pick the times where the Taunt will be better than the Divine Shield to save your life. If you really need this on the board, you can Stealth it too. It also has Brann Bronzebeard synergy (sadly only in Wild), and it’s a Beast so it has Beast synergy. It's an Average though, because some of the adaptations aren't really strong enough on this card.
Rating: Average
Awaken the Makers and Amara, Warden of Hope
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So, not only has the new Mage Legendary been released very early, so has the Priest one, and it's a spell? And it introduces ANOTHER new mechanic? The Quest and Reward mechanics can be summed up in detail here, but essentially, it can be summed up as this:
Quest: Do X
Reward: When you do X, receive Y
In addition to that, Quest cards will always appear in your opening hand, to guarantee you will always have it. In the case of this card, that is a very big deal and benefit. You can always play this on turn 1, and continue as normal. The card encourages a Deathrattle Priest, which has existed in the history of Hearthstone, but hasn’t gotten any new cards since Shifting Shade from WoTOG. Naturally, this would easily fit into a N'Zoth Priest where you naturally play a lot of Deathrattle minions. Summoning Deathrattle minions is as easy as it can get. All you have to do is play 7 of them and you get Amara, Warden of Hope. People didn't want Reno to go, and it looks like they will not disappointed.
The ironic thing about this card, is that the Quest mechanic works best with decks that stay live long. Priest and Warrior are probably the two best classes at that. We also have more Deathrattle minions to see, so I’m confident with this card. There's the chance that it may not have a place in Standard, but it certainly has a place in Wild.
Rating: Good/Very Good
Gentle Megasaur
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Well, for those of you who thought Verdant Longneck wasn’t too exciting, here is a much more intriguing Adapt minion. You don't Adapt it, but rather, your Murlocs. Judging by the wording, it should buff all of your Murlocs in play, and we all know how easy it is to put Murlocs on the field. You plop this down as a 5/4 for 4 with a few Murlocs in play, and all of a sudden, you can give all of your Murlocs Taunt, +3 Attack, Divine Shield or Windfury. Unlike Verdant Longneck, all of the adaptations here are good for Murlocs so you'll never get a bad result here. As with any Adapt minion, there is the versatility. I may sound really optimistic but this card just seems awesome.
Result: Very Good
Explore Un'Goro
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Well, it only took 6 cards in the set before we saw the obligatory RNG Clown Fiesta card. It's very much like Renounce Darkness. It costs 2 mana, and replaces everything in your hand and deck. This card replaces all of your cards, whereas its Warlock counterpart only replaced the Warlock cards. Instead of random collectable cards, you however get a 1 mana spell that Discovers a card. The card essentially makes it possibly to play Renounce Darkness in Warlock. To be fair, there’s no clown fiesta card in Warrior yet, so it fills some type of void.
However, unlike Renounce Darkness, the card's cost stays the same, which is actually kind of a big deal because reducing a card’s cost by 1 can actually make a huge difference and turn a bad card into an OP card (Silent Knight – 1 mana turns it into a better Shielded Minbot), and the Renounce Darkness could potentially save you up to 28 mana. This card however will actually require you to spend more mana since the Discover cards cost 1 mana.
Obviously this card won't see any competitive play, but will see some fun gimmick play or even the occasional Tavern Brawl. Even then though, Renounce Darkness accomplishes that better.
Rating: Other
Tortollan Shellraiser
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So, with Awaken the Makers being introduced in this expansion, it was only natural that we would receive some more Deathrattle Priest minions, which is a very lacking spot right now. It definitely fits the bill just well, especially because it has Taunt. If it didn’t have Taunt, I would say that this card is not very good because your opponent could easily just kill your other minions, then kill this. It having Taunt though makes it a lot better because it will harder for your opponent to do that, which will have them relying on hard removal or AoE. On top of that, it’s a 2/6 for 4 with Taunt and a positive effect. Bloodhoof Brave saw some play, so it seems really exciting. While, yes I do think this is a good card, it does have one flaw with it: It's a 4-drop in Priest.
4-drops in Priest have notably been filled to the brim, the go to one being Auchenai Soulpriest. As a result of this, other 4-drops tend to not see that much play. For instance, Holy Champion, as much potential as it had, never saw a lot of play. Hooded Acolyte only saw play in C’Thun Priest, Priest of the Feast did see a bit play, Shifting Shade didn't see a lot but it does have more potential with the Deathrattle decks coming up. Greater Healing Potion you see once in a while in some forms of Priest.
That is the weak side of this card, but I do think this card is better than most of those other cards because of strong stats and a strong effect. It does take it down a peg, but it's not too bad admittedly. I think this will see play in Deathrattle Priest, which will be tried out a lot, especially in Wild.
Rating: Good
Lakkari Sacrifice and Nether Portal
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Well, here is the next Quest and the most interesting one we've seen. It's also probably the hardest one to review. It's a Quest that focuses on the Discard mechanic they pushed in Karazhan, not so much in MSoG, and now back again here. So, as we as all know, the Quests start in your hand so you can get started on them right away. The Quest to fulfill this though as admittedly rather steep, having you discard one-fifth of your deck to get the reward, and needs you to fill your deck with discard cards to get going. Naturally it fits into a Discard Warlock deck (frequently nicknamed "Discolock"), where you discard a lot of cards. You have Malchezaar's Imp to gain back some of the cards you lost, and Silverware Golem to give you a free 3/3, and necessarily it won't even be a discard at all since you’re not losing anything, but instead, quite the opposite. The more I talk about this, the better it seems to get. Just be careful not to discard the portal when you get it, because your deck naturally will be full of cards that discard, and even if you have a large hand, you may not want to take the risk because anything can happen in this game. Notably, this card does have synergy with Deathwing, to clear the board and you’ll most likely instantly get the Nether Portal. The Imps from the portal will give you back some of the advantage you lost.
Speaking of Imps, it’s now time to actually talk about the Portal. You have to pay 5 mana to make the portal, and all you get is only two 3/2 Imps on that turn. Despite the card text, the Nether Portal does indeed summon two Imps at the end of your turn and not just one. The card is inherently slow as a result of this and will take a few turns to get up and go, but it can be nice if the meta slows down (meme quote, yes, but also a true one). It honestly has potential, but naturally it requires a slow meta, and as we’ve seen in MSoG, it only takes one or two cards to make a meta aggressive. However, one of our upcoming cards in this section says hello, and goodbye to some of our Pirate enemies. It also works well with our very next card we’re reviewing.
Rating: Good/Other (I know I probably sound crazy)
Lakkari Felhound
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Well, with Lakkari Sacrifice, it was obvious that we would have more Discard Warlock cards. As a 3/8, this minion is actually rather resilient for 4 mana, as not even Flamewreathed Facless can kill it without additional assistance. This gives it a good edge up, but discarding two cards is a rather hefty price to pay (look at Doomguard to get an idea of what benefits you should get for discarding two cards). As a 3/8, it is vulnerable to Shadow Word: Pain, but as I said before, that 8 Health is pretty big. Along with the discard synergy cards and the new Warlock Quest, the card is honestly better than it first looks.
It however will only be really good in Discolock, specifically with Lakkari Sacrifice. I don't know if the card will be good enough to run in any Warlock deck, but it will be tried out for discard decks.
Rating: Average/Good
Arcanologist
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A Mage minion, and one focused on Secrets. We saw this in Karazhan and MSoG, so it seems that Secret Mage is still a deck that Team 5 wants to push. Rather that pushing for a Secret Mage, I feel that this card works better in Freeze Mage (with Ice Lance rotating out, that deck may end up being Wild only). Despite being able to draw a card for 2 mana with a 2/3, as well as great curving potential into a 3 mana Secret, the problem with Mage Secrets though, is that you don't want to play most of them early and a vast majority of them are designed for late game use (Effigy for example). The only Mage Secrets you can (and want to) play early on are Ice Barrier and Ice Block which is why I made my comment about Freeze Mage. It still will see play in a Secret Mage deck because drawing Secrets can be useful in the late game where you'll actually use them.
Naturally, people compare this to Mad Scientist from Naxxramas. True that this card isn't as powerful as this, but Mad Scientist was overpowered, and I think we can all agree on that. This card also has the advantage that you can actually decide when to play it rather than being forced to cast it immediately. This does make this card better in a regular Secret Mage, but Mad Scientist will still most likely be better in Freeze Mage. With Ice Lance rotating out, Freeze Mage has a good chance of becoming Wild only unless we get another Freeze card. Ice Lance was put into the Hall of Fame because Team 5 wanted more variety in Mage decks.
I think it's a good card, that's limited in playability and loses some points because it works best in a deck that's likely becoming Wild only, where we already have a better card for this: Mad Scientist. Secret Mage in Wild on the other hand however will be glad to play this over Mad Scientist. If we're able to get a Standard Freeze Mage or Standard Secret Mage, this card will happily fit in. For that, I will give it a "Good", but just by a little bit. Who knows though? Maybe I'm wrong and this card will end up being EXTREMELY good.
Rating: Good
Elise the Trailblazer and Un'Goro Pack
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So, here we have an exciting Neutral Legendary. Everyone's favorite, Elise, is back on another quest (pun not intended) and instead of a Golden Monkey, will give un an Un’Goro Pack, which contain 5 random Un’Goro cards. As we saw from the stream, it is possible to get cards from other classes. It's even possible to give us another Elise, the Trailblazer. If the original Elise was anything to go off of, despite its gimmicky nature, it will be good in Control decks. When the original Elise was revealed in LoE, people dismissed it as a gimmick card, but ended up seeing a ton of play. This card will most likely be the same way, especially because the pack can be played whenever you want (provided your hand isn’t too large). It will give you 5 more cards from this expansion. I don’t think more really needs to be said.
Rating: Good/Very Good
Golakka Crawler
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From the initial stream and the batch we got beforehand, this is probably the card everyone is excited for the most, because it will destroy Pirates and anyone who’s played this game at all in the past 3 months will now that Pirates are meta, even with the Small-Time Buccaneer nerf. This will definitely help against Pirate decks. Even if your opponent doesn’t have a Pirate, it's still a 2/3 for 2, as opposed to Hungry Crab or Eater of Secrets which are terrible if your opponent isn't playing the decks which they counter. This is definitely more playable as a tech card as a result. Play it in conjunction with Acidic Swamp Ooze and you disable Pirate Warriors in their tracks.
Against non-Pirate classes however, the card isn't that good. Unlike MTG, Hearthstone lacks a sideboard to make better usage of cards like Eater of Secrets or Streetwise Investigator, but I'd still rate it as "Good" as it does counter the meta Pirate decks and will make people think twice before playing them. For those of you worried that Pirate decks will play this, they probably won't. They already have Bloodsail Raider, and if they really needed another 2-drop, they probably could consider running Loot Hoarder, both of which will fair better than this card in that deck.
Rating: Good
Tar Creeper
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Well this is a rare sight, a Neutral Common that actually seems like it could be pretty good in Constructed. True as a 3 mana 1/5 on your turn, not all that good, but as a 3/5 on your opponent's turn, with Taunt, for 3 mana. It's actually pretty good and can be a really good card against Aggro decks. Rememer what I said earlier that reducing a card’s cost by 1 makes it A LOT better. Same is true for this, compared to Sen'jin Shieldmasta.
Rating: Good
Dinosize
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Well, here is a rather interesting Paladin buff card, with an admittedly debatable playability. It does have a few little applications you can do with it. Namely, cheap charge minions like Stonetusk Boar or even Bluegill Warrior can be used effectively with this to deal 10 damage, and put a huge scary minion on the board that your opponent will need to get rid of. It can act as a Pseudo-Pyroblast but not really Pyroblast because it doesn't give +10/+10, but rather sets the stats to 10/10, so on a 4/4 minion, this is effectively an 8 mana +6/+6, which isn't really exciting. However, it's better at minion removing than Pyroblast because you will most likely still have the minion the board and it costs 2 less, though you still need a minion on board.
On turn 10 or later, you do also always have the option of playing it on a Silver Hand Recruit. It also works well with Wickerflame Burnbristle to heal for massive amounts, though because of Emperor Thaurissan rotating out, you can no longer do this in Standard. As an 8-cost spell, it's also a really good spell to get from Ivory Knight. Not just because of the healing but also because now your opponent won’t know if you got this card, or Lay on Hands (when previously LoH was the only 8-cost Paladin spell).
Also, meme potential involving Angry Chicken or Spellbender (when you use it against someone with this card obviously).
Rating: Average
Sherazin, Corpse Flower and Sherazin, Seed
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Very first Rogue card revealed, and it's the Legendary. It's a very weird one in which, it’s literally just a fighting flower, which pretty much confirms that literally anything can be a minion. What else is Rogue going to get?
Their Legendary has a very interesting and unique design. So far, Un'Goro is probably the most creative expansion so far just in these 16 cards revealed so far. Creative however doesn't always mean good, and yeah, this card shows that. First up, it has bad stats, 5/3 for 4 is pretty bad. If we forget that though, the Deathrattle puts itself into a seed where you play 4 cards to put it back into play. The effect is obviously the best in Rogue which normally does plays like this because they have stuff like Backstab, Preperation and Counterfeit Coin. You can only do that so much though, and the minion doesn’t have Charge so you can’t attack with it right away, and because it only has 3 Health, it's rather easy to kill. If you can't play 4 cards in a turn, it effectively becomes a 4 mana 5/3 with a drawback as you now permanently have a space taken up by this guy’s seed. With N'Zoth, you summon a lot of these, yes, but that also means you're taking up so much space on your bad that it's not even worth it. So far, this isn’t a good start for Rogue at all, but maybe they have better cards to look for later.
Although I'm sticking with my decision, I should note that Shaku was deemed as garbage by most people when it was first revealed, yet it's shown to be really good in Aggro Rogue, so maybe this card will be the same.
Rating: Very Bad/Somewhat Bad
Link to Part 2
Link to Part 3
Link to Part 4
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Wow, this is pretty cool. Your effort is noted.
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I appreciate the effort that you put into it. I would never have enough patience to do something like this
Check out my fun evolve decks
Evolve C'thun: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/743008-evolve-cthun
Evolve Jade: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/753851-evolve-jade
Evolve Elemental: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/813707-evolve-elemental
It's really hard to see exactly how strong a couple of cards are without seeing the other cards.
Mysterious Challanger is absolute trash without Avenge, with it, it made one of the most braindead OP cancer decks of all time.
The individual value of cards is a good indication of their actual value in arena (you can pull of some combos and synergies now though with the recent arena improvements)
Another example would be patrons. They are useless now without the warsong commander but we all know how strong patron warrior was in the hands of a skilled player.
I find the reviews great though, really well made. I appreciate the work you've put into it. It's very well structured and easy to understand. I pleasant read overall.
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I have a very strong feeling that the mage quest will be play X amount of secrets. I'm guessing 3 or maybe 4 because you probably can't play secrets all game long and expect to win.
We will see. Maybe with more secret synergy cards it will be.
This was really good, though I am appalled by your inclusion of Elemental Destruction in "honorable mentions."
Super usefull!
You forgot about the new hunter legendary Swamp King Dred other than that nice review i can see you put alot of effort into it.
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I enjoyed the review, however I felt that it ignored some very important meta developments such as the complete death of control due to Jade Druid. This oversight made cards like Elise a tad overrated in my opinion as her whole purpose is as a control finisher.
"Dragon Paladin has no hope of coming back." I dunno about this. I feel it could be the strongest dragon deck after Rotations with a deck like this:
The main premise of the deck is to buff cards like Twilight Drake and the whelps summoned by Nightbane Templar with divine shield through the use of Steward of Darkshire.
Keep up the awesome work on this thread! I'll be back to check it out the next time they release a new card for sure
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Great write up! I really enjoyed reading that.
I think Arcanologist is a powerful card. Any card that thins your deck is great (think Patches) and you can then play the secret for free next turn with Kirin Tor Mage.
Tar creeper is another exceptional minion. I absolutely love the design and it will be the bane of aggro decks for years to come. It's just a wall in the early game.
Mage loses all of it's viable decks (Tempo and Reno) with the rotation so I'm really happy to see they are trying to support something that has never existed before a secret mage. This could also work in freeze because thinning your deck is really important and getting those iceblocks as well but freezemage is currently unplayable, they lose icelance and pirates lose basically nothing so I doubt freeze would be viable again in the forseeable future.
The only current viable dragon deck is priest because it has overstatted minions on curve plus operative is insane, dragon fire potion can act as a super flamestrike etc.
Paladin with dragons is just not strong enough to be constructed viable. Maybe as a fun off meta deck, but wouldn't try to climb to legend with it. Dragon Paladin is on the level of a strong arena deck and that's it. Not "unfair" enough.
Also 6 dragons in a deck are not even close to being enough. You sometimes have issue with no dragons in your hand with dragon priest and it has ~10-12 dragons in it.