This card doesn't even have to be run in zoo its just removal that can be played for 6 or 5 mana sometimes and I think it has applications in standard and in wild.
Specifically after spell stone rotates out of standard this card will act as extra hard removal for a weakened control lock, and in wild it could be used in place of spell stone some reno lists don't even run spell stone and just stick to blast crystal and demon bolt is a strictly better card.
Most cards in set are good, so I'll just try my best to find a card that looks bad but turns into a real good card.
Snapjaw Shellfighter, it looks really bad, which is a definition of a sleeper. But, the ability to protect minions is just insane enough that could rise in certain archetype. Sure, it has no effective battlecry, deathrattle, or even try to take care of board control, etc. But it FULLY protects minion that are great for midrange minions. So I see it as one of the greatest epic minion, if not, It'll be seen as an annoying tech.
No other minions can do it except Wee Spellstopper, and it was pretty understatted and a useless specific card for mage. Now it's give damage immunity and silencing that shellfighter is already a bad idea.
Agreed with Treespeaker....this card has an insane power level but everyone is dismissing it because the treant deck isn't top tier. I think this card is the future of druid and we're guaranteed to see it at some point
While nobody really plays the card, Floop's Glorious Gloop is a fantastic card in this deck, as you are always generating 3+ minion boards. Also, it combos very well with Living Mana in board-based matchups because you typically only have 1 mana crystal to spend the turn after you play it, and Floop's Glorious Gloop can turn 1 mana into a ton of mana when you trade wide boards.
I will definitely experiment with Treespeaker at some point.
Isn't it obvious? It's Dozing Marksman, as his flavour text suggests.
But in all honesty I think there are many cards with great potential and we can't really decide which will be the most played one, until we actually test them and compare the power levels of the decks they are used in. I personally think, that Gurubashi Offering is one of the underrated cards. I am not saying it's 5 stars or anything, but I just think people are downgrading it due to its effect not being an immediate one. I think, that we can easily play it on turn 1, behind a taunt or after a clear and we will get the health bonus. But even if someone decides to throw a charger at it, it would act as a soft taunt.
and then you gain.. 8 armor and lose the minion too.. that card is horrendously bad 0/2 taunt for 1 is also terrible
Yeah, so? Think of it as a neutral spell that grants you armour, but has a delayed effect (and it's counterable).
I think that in some control decks (e.g. warlock) the 8 health gain might be very attractive. You won't play this minion on the board, when it can be easily traded off, you play it when a) the opponent doesn't have a board and is obligated to use a spell or a silence and b) when you have a taunt/a bunch of taunts, which the opponent can't get through. I think that the 1-mana cost makes it easy for us to squeeze it after a board clear. If the opponent uses an answer other than a silence - let's say zoolock - then this minion can save us 5 health (Doomguard), 6 health (Leeroy Jenkins) or 4 (Soulfire), which is still nice.
The only deck, which I consider it will act as a true counter to this card, is odd rogue and their 2-attack weapon. I won't be able to play the offering after a board clear and w/o a taunt, but on turn 1, if they decide to coin into their HP and give up tempo, then the outcome is still good.
The offering could have been stronger as a 0-cost minion (and 6 armour gain to compensate the effect), it could have been broken as a deathrattle minion and useless, if the deathrattle triggered only on the opponent's turn. It's not great, but it has some potential.
No, sorry, the card is absolutely terrible. Iron Hide was trash and this is clearly worse. A neutral spell that grants you armour, has a delayed effect and is counterable even sounds terrible. Trading a card (and tempo, since this is a turn 2 play) for 8 POTENTIAL armour is never a good idea.
Despite talking trash about it earlier in the whizbang thread, I think Gonk, the Raptor has a lot of potential. Druid will really lack removal after rotation, and this seems like a decent tool. The key is to not build your deck around it. I think it'll see play alongside Spirit of the Raptor in Midrange Odd Druid at some point.
Another interesting card imo is Ice Cream Peddler. Probably a pipe dream, but if I had the dust I'd love to try A control-ish freeze shaman that uses Moorabi and co. for value. Add the Elemental package and you could have a cool anti-aggro deck akin to Rush Warrior.
I have a question - why would control decks care about tempo? We are playing the defensive game, warlock has tons of cheap board clears to disrupt the opponent's one. I also use Doomsayers.
Secondly you shouldn't forget how some cards feel weak in some classes, but are good in others. Assassinate isn't played in rogue, because this class can't support a slow play-style. They are quite squishy and prefer the fast game (normally), so they benefit more from spells like Sap and less from Assassinate. We warlocks greatly benefit from health gain due to our damaging hero power. Iron Hide isn't worth the card resource, especially not in warrior (the armour gaining class), but a "spell" that gives 3 more armour can be very useful in warlock.
I would say Cannon Barrage, it's not really being called bad - But I don't think it's getting anywhere near the attention it needs to get. If you have just 3 Pirates on the board on turn 6 and you play this (or prep it before for that sake), it's 12 damage. If your opponents board is empty that's more than a Pyroblast in damage to the face FOR 6 MANA. Now imagine if you have even more Pirates on the board.....
Snapjaw Shellfighter's main problem isn't that though. It's that it only protects from attacks and direct damage spells. A lot of decks run cards that are direct removal, like Sap or Polymorph. I still feel like it's a sleeper card though, maybe it can be used with Rush or Charge cards as a neutral flexible +8 health to a minion... Or with Overkills that have low health. Hmm....
Scarab Egg will be amazing in Even Shaman.
Check Out My KaC Review In Over 11,000 words!
Check Out My TWW Review in Over 14,000 words!
Check Out My TBP Review in Over 21,000 words!
Check Out My RR Review in Over 36,000 words!
Wardruid Loti is in my opinion an efficient card that is dismissed by a lot of people.
otherwise I dunno... Wartbringer ís pretty efficient with Unstable Evolution
and Griftah is not as bad as people make him to be imo
Demonbolt
This card doesn't even have to be run in zoo its just removal that can be played for 6 or 5 mana sometimes and I think it has applications in standard and in wild.
Specifically after spell stone rotates out of standard this card will act as extra hard removal for a weakened control lock, and in wild it could be used in place of spell stone some reno lists don't even run spell stone and just stick to blast crystal and demon bolt is a strictly better card.
Treespeaker and Gonk.
Most cards in set are good, so I'll just try my best to find a card that looks bad but turns into a real good card.
Snapjaw Shellfighter, it looks really bad, which is a definition of a sleeper.
But, the ability to protect minions is just insane enough that could rise in certain archetype. Sure, it has no effective battlecry, deathrattle, or even try to take care of board control, etc. But it FULLY protects minion that are great for midrange minions. So I see it as one of the greatest epic minion, if not, It'll be seen as an annoying tech.
No other minions can do it except Wee Spellstopper, and it was pretty understatted and a useless specific card for mage. Now it's give damage immunity and silencing that shellfighter is already a bad idea.
I like elementals and totems.
This card can be a permanent Bloodlust for Druid attached to a 4/4 body. That's scary.
Agreed with Treespeaker....this card has an insane power level but everyone is dismissing it because the treant deck isn't top tier. I think this card is the future of druid and we're guaranteed to see it at some point
Treespeaker is insanely bad because you can't trade your 2/2 and keep them alive. and if you make them 4-4s they can't attack the same turn.
it is nowhere like bloodlust.
As usual, it'll probably be the 0-cost cards that take folks by surprise.
Sightless Ranger can be interesting in odd paladin or odd rogue
This was what I was thinking. People keep saying dust, but literally my Treant Druid deck carried me from 10 to 5 with a pretty nice winstreak. You have: Witchwood Apple, Landscaping, Soul of the Forest, Force of Nature, Living Mana, Tending Tauren, Cenarius, and Mulchmuncher.
While nobody really plays the card, Floop's Glorious Gloop is a fantastic card in this deck, as you are always generating 3+ minion boards. Also, it combos very well with Living Mana in board-based matchups because you typically only have 1 mana crystal to spend the turn after you play it, and Floop's Glorious Gloop can turn 1 mana into a ton of mana when you trade wide boards.
I will definitely experiment with Treespeaker at some point.
This!
This card is bonkers beyond belief. People just haven't realized it yet because nobody has been playing gardner druid
aaaahhh i wanted to be the first one to say this. seriously if you sneak in a damaged spellzerker the damage can be insane.
No, sorry, the card is absolutely terrible. Iron Hide was trash and this is clearly worse. A neutral spell that grants you armour, has a delayed effect and is counterable even sounds terrible. Trading a card (and tempo, since this is a turn 2 play) for 8 POTENTIAL armour is never a good idea.
Guarantee this sees no viable play.
Despite talking trash about it earlier in the whizbang thread, I think Gonk, the Raptor has a lot of potential. Druid will really lack removal after rotation, and this seems like a decent tool. The key is to not build your deck around it. I think it'll see play alongside Spirit of the Raptor in Midrange Odd Druid at some point.
Another interesting card imo is Ice Cream Peddler. Probably a pipe dream, but if I had the dust I'd love to try A control-ish freeze shaman that uses Moorabi and co. for value. Add the Elemental package and you could have a cool anti-aggro deck akin to Rush Warrior.
Unpopular opinion: Rogue is OP
I have a question - why would control decks care about tempo? We are playing the defensive game, warlock has tons of cheap board clears to disrupt the opponent's one. I also use Doomsayers.
Secondly you shouldn't forget how some cards feel weak in some classes, but are good in others. Assassinate isn't played in rogue, because this class can't support a slow play-style. They are quite squishy and prefer the fast game (normally), so they benefit more from spells like Sap and less from Assassinate. We warlocks greatly benefit from health gain due to our damaging hero power. Iron Hide isn't worth the card resource, especially not in warrior (the armour gaining class), but a "spell" that gives 3 more armour can be very useful in warlock.
Dozing Marksman does NOT work ,with Topsy Turvy, rather, it's a counter since Topsy Turvy, like all Alchemist cards, kills 0 health minions.
I would say Cannon Barrage, it's not really being called bad - But I don't think it's getting anywhere near the attention it needs to get.
If you have just 3 Pirates on the board on turn 6 and you play this (or prep it before for that sake), it's 12 damage.
If your opponents board is empty that's more than a Pyroblast in damage to the face FOR 6 MANA. Now imagine if you have even more Pirates on the board.....
Snapjaw Shellfighter's main problem isn't that though. It's that it only protects from attacks and direct damage spells. A lot of decks run cards that are direct removal, like Sap or Polymorph. I still feel like it's a sleeper card though, maybe it can be used with Rush or Charge cards as a neutral flexible +8 health to a minion... Or with Overkills that have low health. Hmm....
Belligerent Gnome, this card will be really good in aggro as well as stopping it. The new Tar Creeper