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Try pointing this out and get down votes. The Hype is real. I tried to point out that Cabalist's Tome would be too crappy in control mage pre WoTG, and people thought I was crazy. Where's control mage in the meta?? I like Cabalist's Tome personally though, I just dared to go against the hype (and was right) and I see this same thing happening with this adventure. Most all of these cards are bad, but that's a good thing (less power creep).
Novice Engineer exists to cycle. Not gain cards to your hand.
It's something to play turn 1. Same reason stuff like Zombie Chow, Museum Curator and N'zoth First Mate are good
Zombie Chow and N'Zoth's First Mate can trade up into 2-drops, which is what make them really powerful. Museum Curator belongs to a buff-first class and lets you choose a card, and even then, it's not great. If you look at nearly all the good 1-drops, actually, they're good because they can trade into stuff and take tempo.
This would have to be a major exception to see play, hence my OP. It's close, but I say no cigar.
WildLife14, this card does not draw a card though. It creates a random spell that most of the time won;t be too helpful for a freeze mage. Novice Engineer and Loot Hoarder are great in Freeze Mage because they cycle the deck to the cards that are needed, like Emperor Thaurissan for the OTK, burn spells like Fireball, and secrets to prolong life like Ice Block.
And Pyro is right that for a mage, a 1/1 body is kind of bad since they can't really buff it, and their hero power deals a reliable 1 damage (that bypasses Taunt) anyway. The 1/1 of Novice engineer is rarely put to much use, it is just a nice bonus with the card drawer. Babbling Book is essentially a 1 mana gain a random spell, and this is just too weak for meta mage decks right now.
A one mana spell with discover a mage spell would have been better (as we see in Rogue they have a 1 mana spell to discover a deathrattle card, and even priest has the Museum Curator which is a 2 mana 1/2 with discover a deathrattle card. That last one may be slower because of 1 extra mana, but discover is way more powerful and 1 more health is a big deal in the current meta with cards like Ghoul.
To me it's a 1 mana 1/1 draw a Mage spell from outside your deck. It can generate tremendous amount of value, just think of the great spells Mage has: Frostbolt, Arcane Missiles, Forgotten Torch, Polymorph, Flamestrike and so on. I think it will certainly work in tempo and casino mage.
Any 1-drop that doesn't have 0 attack and gives you a card that isn't complete trash (like spare parts) is great, but this card gives you mage spells, those are great cards, so the card is insane
The first chapter of Cabalist's Tome
To give a better picture of what kinds of spells Babbling Book can draw in Standard:
Good Tier (39.3% chance): Arcane Blast, Arcane Intellect, Blizzard, Cabalist's Tome, Fireball, Flame Lance, Flamestrike, Forbidden Flame, Frostbolt, Polymorph, Pyroblast
Average Tier (42.9% chance): Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Cone of Cold, Counterspell, Dragon's Breath, Effigy, Forgotten Torch, Mirror Entity, Mirror Image, Polymorph: Boar, Spellbender, Vaporize
Bad Tier (17.9% chance): Frost Nova, Ice Barrier, Ice Block, Ice Lance, Shatter
Babbling Book has about an 82.1% chance of drawing you a halfway decent spell or better. As far as RNG cards go, that's pretty consistent. Worst case, you get Shatter, which still has considerable potential alongside Freeze effects like Frostbolt and Water Elemental.
Some more trivial probabilities: (Note: categories may overlap)
Probability of getting a damage/transform spell: 53.6%
Probability of getting a Secret: 25.0%
Probability of getting a freeze spell: 14.3%
Probability of getting a draw spell: 7.1%
(Note: Card tiers are roughly based on ADWCTA's Arena tier list, but the concept is very much applicable to Constructed as well.)
And then you realize, in Constructed, every card in the Bad Tier is Good Tier for Freeze Mage, except maybe Shatter (still Average Tier).
Maybe this card will revive Freeze Mage on ladder
Freeze mage isn't dead on ladder because of lack of good cards. It's dead because of all the warriors out there.
better in Wild, 1/1 stats have almost 0% influence on games so, unless the spell you get is good, this just adds a ramdom spell to a deck that may not make good use of it.
if it was 1/2 or 2/1 itd be way better
one final thought : shatter
Just so you do not confuse yourself, this card is very strong bordering on OP, it has immense synergies and even though it is only a 1/1 it still needs to be dealt with, therein lies the power of creatures. The next thing almost all top tier decks are going to play brann bronzebeard with the new expansion(reason The Curator and Barnes) and this card is so sick with bronzebeard as it guarantees value. Furthermore there is all the obvious value of having one more spell. GL on your deckbuilding, just remember to include this card.
Mages rarely ever do anything on turn 1 except skipping the turn or playing Mana Wyrm. This card is great value otherwise but makes you wonder why not just put in the spell you want. Either way you got an early game body with the card. It's good in my book.
random mage baby.
Yogg saron fuel.
aw man, this card would've been SOOO much fun with Duplicate and Echo of Medivh. I really miss the value mage archetype, now you have to play tempo or freeze zzzzz
duplicate is my favorite mage secret.
You can click that little icon with animal with tentacles to change to Wild format. There you can use all cards regardless of set. You're welcome.
It will find its way into constructed Yog decks as well as some reno mages. :)