Rend Blackhand... Everyone has been trash talking this card and it seems pretty reasonable, he's not a great card for those who are already established in Hearthstone. However, for those starting out and buy BRM they will most likely be able to create a basic Dragon Deck by the time all 5 wings are released. So then if they have no other cards, except Basic Set and BRM then Rend Blackhand becomes their ultimate equalizer. Now they can head into Ranked and when their opponent summons Ragnaros the Firelord, now little TImmy finally won't Insta-Lose, he summons his Rend Blackhand and now has established dominance.
Of course he's not the greatest card in the world and Big Game Hunter outclasses a million times over. However I feel everyone has been undermining the potential that Rend provides for newer player. Also we all know one day we will lose to Rend and be super salty.
If the meta shifts to things BGH can't hit (Ysera, KT, etc) then we might see more ofRend Blackhand. I could see that happening if people start running Ysera for the dragon synergy.
rend is not terrible he is just situational. he is way better than anything else in the game for killing a kel thuzad and a ysera or something similar. if legendaries below 7 attack become popular rend will be playable
If he was a 6/6 he would be good. If he was a 4/8 he would be good. But he just dies to almost anything.
Maybe in a Control Warrior heavy meta he'd be good... because they're only laying down one card a turn and will have a hard time removing you back on an empty board without spending 2 cards.
But wallet warrior isn't exactly going to be the most popular deck... ever.
If he was a 6/6 he would be good. If he was a 4/8 he would be good. But he just dies to almost anything.
Maybe in a Control Warrior heavy meta he'd be good... because they're only laying down one card a turn and will have a hard time removing you back on an empty board without spending 2 cards.
But wallet warrior isn't exactly going to be the most popular deck... ever.
dude he kills a legendary for free how do you expect to have viable stats? (if he gets his effect he is 1 for 2 no matter what) if he was 3 mana 4/2 like bgh he would be an autoinclude in dragon decks 10000%. even now i dont see him as complete trash, hes the perfect answer for kel thuzad and ysera and maybe future powerful legendaries below 7 attack
So then if they have no other cards, except Basic Set and BRM then Rend Blackhand becomes their ultimate equalizer. Now they can head into Ranked and when their opponent summons Ragnaros the Firelord, now little TImmy finally won't Insta-Lose, he summons his Rend Blackhand and now has established dominance.
Speaking of basic cards, Polymorph does the same job so much better.
Speaking as a 6'3 Timmy, I can confirm that I will be both grumpy and salty when he is pulled out to kill off my Ragnaros. Having said that, I felt the same about Maexxna.
Maybe I am the first person to ever mention this in any sensible discussion but BGH is not that amazing, and to the best of my knowledge, you can only run a max of 2. If my Rend kills a Ysera, dies to a BGH and then I throw down Rag the turn after I would be OK with this situation.
@tuxedospoon Polymorph is a mage specific card so you can't really compare it.
With the cards released so far I'm not planning on playing Rend Blackhand, but I could definately see this card played by new players. Especially in for example Druid decks, since they lack removal.
Rend Blackhand is the first thing I will try out in my Druid decks.
We can deal with anything thanks to our fat minions and baseline silence, but sometimes I would kill for some form of reliable hardremoval. If the meta shifts to heavy control (with Ysera and friends) Rend could really shine.
And the best thing is that he is here to stay. There will be many more legendaries in the future and not all of them will be in range of the BGH.
He'll be great early on when everyone is trying out dragon decks and playing dragons like ysera, malygos, alexstraza etc
He'll still be pretty good in my opinion its a little bit more situational BGH in the sense if you pull off the battlecry, you get major tempo advancement
I think it's weird, flawed, unique, and very healthy for the game. Just a good, weird-ass card that you won't see often but will be fun to experiment with and will create some nice WTF moments on the rare occasions on which he successfully ruins your day.
So then if they have no other cards, except Basic Set and BRM then Rend Blackhand becomes their ultimate equalizer. Now they can head into Ranked and when their opponent summons Ragnaros the Firelord, now little TImmy finally won't Insta-Lose, he summons his Rend Blackhand and now has established dominance.
Speaking of basic cards, Polymorph does the same job so much better.
Except one of the two also gives you a nice 8/4 minion as a bonus.
Except polymorph only costs four mana
... and doesn't require a dragon to be in your hand
He actually has a lot more application because of the ambiguity of the text. Now every class has a Sylvanas activator the turn after she's played, so if you're opponent doesn't answer her or has nothing to favorably kill and take, you can use this guy. Most commonly I see Sylvanas at 5/4 and a 4/5 on board or something to that effect. Now you can take the 4/5 and drop an 8/4 simultaneously. Also lets you activate Sneed's if you so desire.
As the meta stands, only decks that currently run Twilight or Azure Drakes plus legendaries would run him, but I have a tiny little hunch (just a smidgen) that that may change and this guy will get more inclusion as a result. Also punish Priest for MC on your Rag or what-have you. Basically force a giant tempo loss on them.
4 health is kinda irrelevant. If you hit for example their loatheb with it you already went 1 for 1. And to top it all off, Rend will almost guarantee take down atleast one more minion on the board OR bait a removal.
4 health is kinda irrelevant. If you hit for example their loatheb with it you already went 1 for 1. And to top it all off, Rend will almost guarantee take down atleast one more minion on the board OR bait a removal.
I like 2 for 1 trades.
The point is that your 8mana drop will probably get removed by something like a Swipe or even just Frostbolt + ping or any kind of cheap removal... or they just trade a Piloted Shredder into it.
And after that they still have leftover mana to put a reasonably big threat on the field while you don't have a board because your 8 drop was super easy to get rid of.
That is certainly still a somewhat decent trade but looking at the overall board position the play wasn't all that great in the end Hemet Nesingwary is bad for this exact same reason.
Uhh... 7-drop? It's easy to talk about all the ways someone could respond to this but those answers don't always come up, and that's less removal they can use in the early to mid-game (which is where all this supposedly easy-trade removal/minions tend to get played anyways). People said the same thing about Shredder and Sky Golem; "All it takes is a silence and it's garbage..." Well now look where we are.
The stat distribution is terrible, but for the multitude of players not running Dr. Balanced, this is an excellent 7-mana slot alternative. It's such an awkward slot for most decks without Boom and this guy would basically be a great counter pick to lead into an 8-drop Rag or whatever. Even if they drop on average 3-4 mana to remove this guy, that leaves 4-5 mana to "put a reasonably big threat on the field" in place for a significant turn 8 for you.
It's not ideal, but it's not Nesingwary bad. It will see use at 7-mana and make the board safer for your own legendaries while possibly baiting out some key removal or minions (hence a great 2 for 1 almost automatically).
no matter how you try to slice it this card will be bad. i guess if you literally have NOTHING else to play i could work... if only it was like a 7 mana 4/8 then i would be more viable
So then if they have no other cards, except Basic Set and BRM then Rend Blackhand becomes their ultimate equalizer. Now they can head into Ranked and when their opponent summons Ragnaros the Firelord, now little TImmy finally won't Insta-Lose, he summons his Rend Blackhand and now has established dominance.
Speaking of basic cards, Polymorph does the same job so much better.
hard removal is not available in all classes. paladin and druid for example dont have a hard removal like polymorph and dont forget when you polymorph a KT for example it is 1 for 1, completely fair. but when you summon rend the same with bgh its always 1 for 2 cause you killed something without even trading or wasting something, just with a battlecry effect. 1 for 2 in card games is extremely powerful as card advantage in card games means a lot.
Rend Blackhand... Everyone has been trash talking this card and it seems pretty reasonable, he's not a great card for those who are already established in Hearthstone. However, for those starting out and buy BRM they will most likely be able to create a basic Dragon Deck by the time all 5 wings are released. So then if they have no other cards, except Basic Set and BRM then Rend Blackhand becomes their ultimate equalizer. Now they can head into Ranked and when their opponent summons Ragnaros the Firelord, now little TImmy finally won't Insta-Lose, he summons his Rend Blackhand and now has established dominance.
Of course he's not the greatest card in the world and Big Game Hunter outclasses a million times over. However I feel everyone has been undermining the potential that Rend provides for newer player. Also we all know one day we will lose to Rend and be super salty.
If the meta shifts to things BGH can't hit (Ysera, KT, etc) then we might see more ofRend Blackhand. I could see that happening if people start running Ysera for the dragon synergy.
rend is not terrible he is just situational. he is way better than anything else in the game for killing a kel thuzad and a ysera or something similar. if legendaries below 7 attack become popular rend will be playable
If he was a 6/6 he would be good. If he was a 4/8 he would be good. But he just dies to almost anything.
Maybe in a Control Warrior heavy meta he'd be good... because they're only laying down one card a turn and will have a hard time removing you back on an empty board without spending 2 cards.
But wallet warrior isn't exactly going to be the most popular deck... ever.
dude he kills a legendary for free how do you expect to have viable stats? (if he gets his effect he is 1 for 2 no matter what) if he was 3 mana 4/2 like bgh he would be an autoinclude in dragon decks 10000%. even now i dont see him as complete trash, hes the perfect answer for kel thuzad and ysera and maybe future powerful legendaries below 7 attack
Speaking of basic cards, Polymorph does the same job so much better.
Speaking as a 6'3 Timmy, I can confirm that I will be both grumpy and salty when he is pulled out to kill off my Ragnaros. Having said that, I felt the same about Maexxna.
Maybe I am the first person to ever mention this in any sensible discussion but BGH is not that amazing, and to the best of my knowledge, you can only run a max of 2. If my Rend kills a Ysera, dies to a BGH and then I throw down Rag the turn after I would be OK with this situation.
@tuxedospoon
Polymorph is a mage specific card so you can't really compare it.
With the cards released so far I'm not planning on playing Rend Blackhand, but I could definately see this card played by new players. Especially in for example Druid decks, since they lack removal.
Rend Blackhand is the first thing I will try out in my Druid decks.
We can deal with anything thanks to our fat minions and baseline silence, but sometimes I would kill for some form of reliable hardremoval. If the meta shifts to heavy control (with Ysera and friends) Rend could really shine.
And the best thing is that he is here to stay. There will be many more legendaries in the future and not all of them will be in range of the BGH.
He'll be great early on when everyone is trying out dragon decks and playing dragons like ysera, malygos, alexstraza etc
He'll still be pretty good in my opinion its a little bit more situational BGH in the sense if you pull off the battlecry, you get major tempo advancement
I think it's weird, flawed, unique, and very healthy for the game. Just a good, weird-ass card that you won't see often but will be fun to experiment with and will create some nice WTF moments on the rare occasions on which he successfully ruins your day.
Just so hard to justify playing a 7 mana creature that doesn't even trade evenly with a Piloted Shredder.
I might be wrong but i think his use is going to be very limited.
Except polymorph only costs four mana
... and doesn't require a dragon to be in your hand
... and you have have two of them in your deck
... and works on EVERYTHING
He actually has a lot more application because of the ambiguity of the text. Now every class has a Sylvanas activator the turn after she's played, so if you're opponent doesn't answer her or has nothing to favorably kill and take, you can use this guy. Most commonly I see Sylvanas at 5/4 and a 4/5 on board or something to that effect. Now you can take the 4/5 and drop an 8/4 simultaneously. Also lets you activate Sneed's if you so desire.
As the meta stands, only decks that currently run Twilight or Azure Drakes plus legendaries would run him, but I have a tiny little hunch (just a smidgen) that that may change and this guy will get more inclusion as a result. Also punish Priest for MC on your Rag or what-have you. Basically force a giant tempo loss on them.
4 health. Terrible card. End of story.
4 health is kinda irrelevant. If you hit for example their loatheb with it you already went 1 for 1. And to top it all off, Rend will almost guarantee take down atleast one more minion on the board OR bait a removal.
I like 2 for 1 trades.
Uhh... 7-drop? It's easy to talk about all the ways someone could respond to this but those answers don't always come up, and that's less removal they can use in the early to mid-game (which is where all this supposedly easy-trade removal/minions tend to get played anyways). People said the same thing about Shredder and Sky Golem; "All it takes is a silence and it's garbage..." Well now look where we are.
The stat distribution is terrible, but for the multitude of players not running Dr. Balanced, this is an excellent 7-mana slot alternative. It's such an awkward slot for most decks without Boom and this guy would basically be a great counter pick to lead into an 8-drop Rag or whatever. Even if they drop on average 3-4 mana to remove this guy, that leaves 4-5 mana to "put a reasonably big threat on the field" in place for a significant turn 8 for you.
It's not ideal, but it's not Nesingwary bad. It will see use at 7-mana and make the board safer for your own legendaries while possibly baiting out some key removal or minions (hence a great 2 for 1 almost automatically).
This is one more super greedy card. Hearthstone isn't about greed right now, unfortunately. But this guy can't even remove Sylvanas.. meh.
"The light shall burn you!" - heals face.
no matter how you try to slice it this card will be bad. i guess if you literally have NOTHING else to play i could work... if only it was like a 7 mana 4/8 then i would be more viable
hard removal is not available in all classes. paladin and druid for example dont have a hard removal like polymorph and dont forget when you polymorph a KT for example it is 1 for 1, completely fair. but when you summon rend the same with bgh its always 1 for 2 cause you killed something without even trading or wasting something, just with a battlecry effect. 1 for 2 in card games is extremely powerful as card advantage in card games means a lot.