Ancestral Knowledge
Card Text
Draw 2 cards. Overload: (1)
Flavor Text
MOMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!!!
Draw 2 cards. Overload: (1)
MOMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!!!
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I don't know why anyone want to pay 4 mana to draw one card (yes its one card because ancestral knowledge was drawn on your turn and the first draw card will just replace it)
The whole point of this card is to be able to cycle through your deck and be able to get to the cards that you actually want in your hand. Although it doesn't work well in the early game this card is the only card draw available for aggro shaman and allows it to keep up with zoo and temp warrior.
This card is straightforward, but has been met with a lot of questions and a surprising amount of hate for being "Worse than Arcane Intellect". Let us try to unpack this card a bit to see how good it is. What is the value of overload, anyway? Do you think of Lava Burst as a 3 cost or a 5 cost? What is this?
First things first. If you have 2 mana 2 overload, that's still 4 mana. 4 mana is 4 mana, so you have to compare this card to other 4 cost cards. However, the fact that part of that cost is overload is a slight upside inherent to the card; the more of the total cost is overload, the more the advantage. Outside of warlock, for instance, 2 mana buys 3 damage and a slight upside (Quick Shot, Frostbolt). Shamans have this in the form of Lightning Bolt. Two mana, 3 damage with the upside of 1 mana of the cost being overload. Alternatively, a 3 mana class minion is worth 3/4 stats and an upside (Dark Cultist); Shamans have Totem Golem, which is a 3/4 for 3 with an upside of 1 cost being in overload. 3 mana buys a 2/3 weapon with an upside (Coghammer); Shamans have Stormforged Axe, which is a 3 mana 2/3 weapon with overload as an upside.
The reason that Overload is actually an upside is because paying mana next turn is better than paying mana this turn. Why? If you pay a card with a partial overload cost, you can use the mana you would have had next turn on the current turn. If you play a minion with this mana, it can attack the next turn, rather than the turn after if you had paid the overload cost up front. Alternatively, you can use Overload cards far sooner than the curve. If you play Earth Elemental on turn 5, you can use it to change the game FAR sooner than if it were an Ironbark Protector. You can play Earth Elemental against Face Hunter and at least they'll have to use their Ironbeak Owl to deal with it, but by turn 8 for Ironbark Protector, Face Hunter usually is either in kill range with direct damage spells and hero powers, or completely out of steam. This part is also why Totem Golem is an insane card; you play your three drop turn 2 and eat your opponent's two drop, giving a safe board to play your own two drop.
I've heard clamoring for this to be 1 overload, but that's insane. At 1 overload this is Arcane Intellect, plus the overload upside. However, is the advantage of 2 overload worth the fact that it costs 1 more than Intellect? The advantage of playing this earlier than the curve is naught because (A) this does the same thing whether played turn 1 or turn 10, (B) it does nothing to change the board, and (C) having exactly 1 mana on turn 3 is tremendously awkward. Playing this on turn 2 is forfeiting the game in most cases. In fact, unlike with Intellect, playing this on turn 3 is also forfeiting the game, which is a massive disadvantage. The only real advantage of this card is leaving 1 more mana open the turn you play it when played later. The obvious use of this is to combo with Chromaggus, but another use for this card is as an "Oh my gosh, I need ONE more burst card for lethal. Can draw into it?" tool. You'll have 1 more mana the turn that you play it to make it more likely you can afford whatever you draw. These are fairly uncommon advantages, however, and the disadvantages are far clearer.
I'd call this generally worse than Arcane Intellect; however, the fact that is for Shaman gives Shaman something. Darkbomb's strict inferiority to Frostbolt and Quick Shot never stopped its usefulness in Warlock decks. However, this probably is only good in decks that really have good use for the card draw, such as Malygos based decks; it isn't like Arcane Intellect where you can simply stick it in any old Mage deck and expect it to do work.
The flavor text made me think of this! XD
This should work well in OTK Malygos shaman. About other decks i'd run one copy of it in my deck MAYBE along with mana tide...but definitely most shaman decks have space for at least one copy of it.
Could Malygos Shaman possibly overtake Malygos Warlock now? Shaman has a LOT of tools which have amazing synergy with the Malygos play style. Ancestor's Call allows you to summon Malygos cheaply, and the entire Overload mechanic works very well to maximize the number of damage spells that can be pointed at the enemy face in one turn. This card helps fix one of the key issues that make Malylock more popular at the moment: the lack of card draw.
Malygos lock is a bit different. In fact maly lock runs a lot of dragons unlike shammy. Since otk shaman does not care much about playing stuff because u will kill your opponent in one turn, overload on this card should not bother players that play this deck.
Something makes me think Ancestral Knowledge originally drew 3, but I can't Recall what that would be...
MTG? Ancestral Recall and Ancestral Visions along with this card might have you confused a little.
He's intending to reference Ancestral Recall. The capitalized "Recall" makes that clear.
Has great synergy with Chromaggus as you can drop him and play Ancestral Knowledge immediately after for a total of 4 cards.
Almost strictly better version of arcane intellect. Unless you have terrible hand control, you start needing draw in mid-late game, where having enough mana for your combo the turn you draw it is much more important than the turn after.
I hope so! CROSSING the fingers!
Shaman has some of the most efficient cards in the game. Every draw mechanic in shaman has the potential to be broken. While 2 mana for 2 cards is insane, overload 2 makes it balanced. The card isnt trash but quiet underwhelming. Shamans will still use atleast 1 copy of it cause carddraw is so powerfull, especially in this class.
Ohh my! My poor shaman, i realyyyy like you! My favorite class. But some overload card... Pleaseeee blizz, reduce at least one overload! :( :(
Great! Totem sinergy!
Oh I hope that in the future Shaman get's cards that get's effected/gain something by overload crystals.
It's effectively 4 mana to draw 2 cards. It's not a turn 2 play or coin turn 1 unless your desperate which makes you basically skip a turn. Definitely a mid game card. Can be combined with Lava Shock although it has already been proven not to be a great card to include, I don't think people will do that even if they run this card. Maybe it'll change with the expansion.
Feels like the new flavor of Shaman is totems though, so putting this card in vs perhaps 2x Mana Tide Totem does not suit the theme of that.
Overall, I like the card.
Look everyone who is saying this is good, oh wow it synergizes with other bad shaman cards. We are not talking about whether you can make a fun shaman deck that can have a 30 percent win rate in casual play. Shaman as a class is bottom of the barrel in tournaments and on ladder. People take it as a Challenge to hit legend using only shaman. They certainly dont use overload decks because they are objectively weaker that all the popular decks. Ridiculous overload mechanics play into that.
Even if this card had no overload, and was way better than arcane intellect, Mage is still a vastly superior class and everyone knows it. What would be so wrong about throwing Shaman a bone instead of continuing the overload gimping. At the very least make it overload 1 so it might be somewhat competitive.
This is a fantastic card for shaman, though that should be obvious. It's also costed just right compared to other comparable card draw.
Another draw card for Shaman is not a bad thing. Often you don't need the draw until mid-late game, where the effect's tempo loss is minimized. If you're going unbound elemental and lava shock route, then it's a very good mana investment, if somewhat clunky. It could find a place in an overload based shaman or even more conventional shaman decks. Mana tide is 3 mana for 1 card most of the time. With the amount of good removal in TGT, I doubt that is going to change much.