The issues I see are the following: Firstly, you need to have the Saphire spellstone in Hand when you Play your overload Cards. That makes your Hand worse, because you have an (at this time) unplayable Card in Hand or you just do not have the spellstone and it doesn't get upgraded when you Play Lightning Storm or Flamewreathed Faceless. Secondly, you can't Combo it with big minions, because it costs 7 mana. And a 10 mana Combo with a 3 drop is just a 2 mana value gain (four 3 Drops for 10 mana) which is not enough. Thirdly, in the bad cases, this Card is just that: Bad. If you have only damaged or bad minions on board and/or the spellstone is not upgraded at least once, it is very rarely a good Play. And finally and most importantly, the insane comboes like when your lich king survived undamaged (maybe with an ancestral Spirit on him) and you summon three copies for 7 mana, then it seems to be a win more Card since you already have an undamaged lich king the second turn.
1). Are you sure the card needs to be in your hand to be upgraded? In that case, it's really bad. I've thought it works like the quests.
2). Why I can't combo it with big minions? There are big minions with reduced costs, and I can play this card on the next turn if the minion survives.
3). Sometimes it's good to summon three copies of a damaged minion - especially if it has a great Deathrattle. Sometimes it's good to summon three stealthed minions. But yes, sometimes it will be just a "win more" card.
1) of course I don’t know for sure, but I think it is. If I am wrong and it can be upgraded in your deck, then upgrading it will be no big issue and the spellstone becomes a lot more consistent and of course better.
2) yeah, I forgot the giants and in particular snow fury giant that has good synergy with overload. Still, if the giants are the only combinable minions, it will be inconsistent because they are only two, or you need to put a lot of giants in like with the naga sea witch, restricting your deck building. And unlike with the naga, playing the spellstone will still cost 7.
3) my problem is that the good cases have so many “if’s” that I don’t believe they can consistently be pulled of. That is, if I am right with my assumption that the spellstone only upgrades in your hand. Otherwise it might be playable. But I always had problems to get good value out of Spirit Echo and that only costs 3 mana. And the spellstone costs 7 mana. In my experience, expensive cards need at least an easy condition or no condition at all to be good. With bonemare you can have any minion on board to get full value. Even if you play a 1 mana minion, you only lose charge. A 1 mana minion will not suffice for the spellstone.
All in all with current cardpool I'd say Spirit Echo is better ~70% of the times as it doesn't have any requirements while in hand. I also like it more as it is the better value card(works with battlecries). What Jadestone has going for it is that it can directly end games by copying minions that have stuck around from previous turn. Without the knowledge of rest of the set we cant be sure of anything but for now I'd stick with 1x of one or the other with my decks. But for the sake of conversation I'll answer some points.
1) Most likely it is in hand as you said, I wouldn't call it horrendous card just because of that, it just means that it has to be played in slower shaman lists ( which may or may not work, I'll play em anyway ^^ ). In the end there are tons of good/decent overload cards that activate it bit by bit, and those slower lists often have decent amount of cards in hand ( AoE's and so on). Good cards that I think are completly usable are Jade Claws, Jinyu Waterspeaker, Volcano, Lightning Storm, even Feral spirits. Those cards dont require even the actual overload synergy cards to be played but are good on their own while you can also run Earth elementals or Flamewreathed Flameless with Snowfury Giant.
2) As you said Snowfury Giant is probably the only bigger minion that you can combo on same turn but I'd say comboing minions that have stuck on board is not impossible.
3)The "if's" are definetly there but there are also big benefits. If you think what kind of minions will you want to copy the answer most likely will be snowfury giants/ big minions OR deathrattles. In both cases you are playing slower deck that might have enough power in its cards to be able to hold this card longer in your hand. Also big thing with N'zoth based shaman lists ( atleast the ones I play ) is that shaman has access to few good DR minions but those are scary ones, the ability to copy them is really good. Best DR's are probably White eyes(works with Storm Guardian too)/ Aya / Carnivorous Cube / maybe even Cairne.
TL;DR;
Spirit Echo is probably better ( especially with Carnivorous cube entering for DR decks ), but I wouldn't call this card out just yet as we haven't seen the possible synergy cards yet.
Assuming you're running Snowfury Giant and have sufficient card draw, you can probably get snowfury down to 0 and then play this. 7 mana and two cards for four 8/8's? Yeah, not bad, but I assume it only upgrades when in your hand, so definitely a late game play. But you'll probably be saving some of your lightning storms and volcanos for later game anyway. Also, if you have four snowfury giants then they get damaged, evolve them into deathwings. Bam
There are two things needed before I can rate it properly.
First, if you need to have the card on hand. I imagine that you won't, otherwise the card would be quite garbagey. I feel this works like Thing from Below, i.e., it will work even if it's on your deck.
Second, other shaman overload card synergy. We all know how much Tunnel Trogg enable overload mechanic in shaman.
Also, just how broken is this card gonna be in Wild? It's easily abuseable. Leeroy was mentioned, but Thaurissan really allows a multitude of shenanigans.
Even a Keleseth buffed Southsea Deckhand with this spell and Bloodlust while you have Doomhammerequiped (or any other weapon, really). A more absurd, over the top alternative. Just to note that there are more than one way to charge your way into lethal. At least this spell is highly costed.
There are two things needed before I can rate it properly.
First, if you need to have the card on hand. I imagine that you won't, otherwise the card would be quite garbagey. I feel this works like Thing from Below, i.e., it will work even if it's on your deck.
Second, other shaman overload card synergy. We all know how much Tunnel Trogg enable overload mechanic in shaman.
Also, just how broken is this card gonna be in Wild? It's easily abuseable. Leeroy was mentioned, but Thaurissan really allows a multitude of shenanigans.
Even a Keleseth buffed Southsea Deckhand with this spell and Bloodlust while you have Doomhammerequiped (or any other weapon, really). A more absurd, over the top alternative. Just to note that there are more than one way to charge your way into lethal. At least this spell is highly costed.
Taken from the official Kobolds and Catacombs website (emphasis mine):
"Every Spell Stone card has a specific trigger condition; each time you fulfill that condition while a Spell Stone is in your hand, the Spell Stone becomes more powerful."
Slower Shaman lists run plenty of overload cards like Lightning Storm, Volcano, Feral Spirit, etc. Snowfury Giant's ability to cost zero mana looks to be enough of an enabler for the combo to justify using the Spellstone, but these things are best played out to see if it is enough.
So now with Grumble, Worldshaker this card have gain much value. 8 mana for Rag, Ysera, etc.
Yes, he improves the spellstone's applications, no doubt. At least you can take the minion in your hand when the chance presents itself and wait for the spellstone to be ready for the combo.
But: The main issue I have with this stone is the same. The good outcomes seem to be too inconsistent. I mean there are such great combos with Moat Lurker like killing something big and evolving it. Or killing your own deathrattle minion and get it back (e.g. Sylvanas Windrunner ). Or adapting a Exploding Bloatbat to be poisonous. Alas, all these combos turned out to be much too inconsistent to justify the inclusion of the respective cards. And I still have the feeling that the Sapphire Spellstone is too hard to upgrade consistently and even if you do that, the combos are difficult to prepare (you need to have a good minion to survive a turn, either for the spellstone or for the worldshaker. In conclusion, I still think this spellstone is not good enough.
obviously on the board
Surprise!
Assuming you're running Snowfury Giant and have sufficient card draw, you can probably get snowfury down to 0 and then play this. 7 mana and two cards for four 8/8's? Yeah, not bad, but I assume it only upgrades when in your hand, so definitely a late game play. But you'll probably be saving some of your lightning storms and volcanos for later game anyway. Also, if you have four snowfury giants then they get damaged, evolve them into deathwings. Bam
There are two things needed before I can rate it properly.
First, if you need to have the card on hand. I imagine that you won't, otherwise the card would be quite garbagey. I feel this works like Thing from Below, i.e., it will work even if it's on your deck.
Second, other shaman overload card synergy. We all know how much Tunnel Trogg enable overload mechanic in shaman.
Also, just how broken is this card gonna be in Wild? It's easily abuseable. Leeroy was mentioned, but Thaurissan really allows a multitude of shenanigans.
Even a Keleseth buffed Southsea Deckhand with this spell and Bloodlust while you have Doomhammerequiped (or any other weapon, really). A more absurd, over the top alternative. Just to note that there are more than one way to charge your way into lethal. At least this spell is highly costed.
Earth Elemental
My Hearthstone Playlist on YouTube
Why make it so complicated.
Hooked HearthStone player
Greets SinFull
(Sin is in)
27-48 damage combo with Fire Plume Harbinger, Grumble, Worldshaker, Leeroy Jenkins, Windfury or Rockbiter Weapon, Lesser Sapphire Spellstone lvl 2 or 3.
1. Reduce cost of Grumble
2. Play Grumble with Leeroy
3. Leeroy+windfury/rockbiter+spellstone
Wild Combo:
Thaurissan on Leeroy + this card final stage + Abusive sargeant = 32 dmg. OTK
Without Abusive = 24 DMG
I just beat a Control Mage that had 50 health(20 armor) with 4 Snowfury Giants with Windfury
this card has made Concede Shaman viable again. really enjoying Shaman again right now