There was so much Hate for Hagatha the Witch during the reveal stream... it drives me nuts how narrow minded the hearthstone community is. Lets take a few minutes to go over a few of the reasons why Hagatha the Witch should be an instant craft for any Shaman Player.
Lets talk about the battlecry first. Deal 3 damage to all minions. This feels really underwhelming on turn 8 BUT if you are able to make trades with your minions first you are very likely to make good use of that three damage. Don't forget combos with this battle cry, with ten mana you can first cast a Murmuring Elemental and then Hagatha the Witch for 6 damage to all minions. I think the battlecry is perfectly balanced because of the strength of the hero power.
Guys, this is amazing. MANY of shaman control cards happen to be Minions and thus interact perfectly with the hero power. I can already hear some of you saying, 'shaman spells are horrible!!!" I would agree with you if they are cast on a random target... we are looking at you The Runespear... but if we are in control of the random spells then it is a different story.
So what kind of deck would I put Hagatha the Witch in? CONTROL SHAMAN!!!
Control shaman has a ton of tools with lots of healing, removal and AOE. What it was lacking was reliable card draw/generation and Hagatha brings that to us for the late game.
I will be experimenting with a elemental shaman deck using Hagatha the Witch. I can see cards like Grumble, Worldshaker with the core shaman elementals being very nasty.
She would go from meh to AMAZING with one change--if her battlecry said "Hex all minions." She would counter warlocks as a class and give priests a great deal of pain.
Elementals have the tendencies to get more minions to your hand, be it Firefly, Servant of Kalimos or Grumble. Murmuring Elemental could also find its place. I don't think her as useless, at the same time, she is ... okay. In a right shell, she can be powerful, yet at the same time, the randomness can void her as well. Getting Ttemic Might will feel quite bad...
I agree. I think people are sleeping on Shaman spells due to Runespear. Shaman actually has a ton of good spells. They have multiple premium removals (Fist, Hex), many board clears (Volcano, Lightning Storm, Avalanche) value generating cards (Unstable Evolution, Far Sight, Spirit Echo, potentially the Spellstone) and most importantly a ton of burst (Bloodlust, Lava Burst, Windfury, Rockbiter, Lightning Bolt). If you can find a way to play multiple minions a turn, which can be done with elementals or echo minions, I think Hagatha will be a beast to play against. You will always have to worry about your life total and will be facing quite a bit of removal. Similar to Lyra IMO but likely better, especially since Priest has at least as many bad spells as Shaman and most of them are more expensive and clog the hand.
I picked up Runespear as my Day 1 free legend in Kobolds. I played around with it a lot, and you know what? Shaman spells are pretty bad in general. Keep in mind this was discovering a spell, and these are completely random. The best shaman spells are rotating out, I'll miss you evolve, devolve, and Maelstorm portal.
Unless they reveal some incredible shaman spells coming up here I see this only on the Meme deck list for now.
Outvalueing and controlling the board is the control decks oldest win conditions,what do you mean how?
And you have a bit of RNG to help you achieve some better results.
How are you out valuing Bloodreaver? Or Jaina? Or Big Priest? Incremental advantage doesn't really work in a world where the late game is dominated by stuff like that.
I suppose it's possible if you roll enough hexes and devolves, but it doesn't seem like a great gameplan.
I Think the card is good, I'm going to open it on day 1 in a random pack, I'll try it out, then the first 5 spells I'll get from it will be ice fishing, totemic might, ancestral healing, avalanche and frost shock, and I'll never use the card ever again.
My 9-ball is never wrong.
Except that Ancestral healing, avalanche and frost shock are all good cards if you dont have to waste a draw + deckslot on them =P
I agree with you OP, it might be that shaman still is bad but this card gives ALOT of nutrition to the class.
If they print more removal type spells in this set then she could be alright. If, however, we see more of what Shaman got in KOTFT and JtU, then she will give you essentially nothing way too often and will not see play. I also don't like this weird 'infinite value' argument I keep seeing or the comparison to Lyra. With no draw spells in the shaman kit, how do you keep getting minions to continue the chain? Also just how many minions do players expect to play on average after dropping this? If she read "Battlecry: Deal 3 damage to all minions and add 5 random shaman spells to your hand." Would people say that is good enough in the world of T6 Voidlords and Doomguards?
If there's some sort of Free From Amber value spell being released for Shaman, maybe. Otherwise, I think this card is utter trash, because most shaman spells are AOEs or removals that will have very low value in a control match-up
If there's some sort of Free From Amber value spell being released for Shaman, maybe. Otherwise, I think this card is utter trash, because most shaman spells are AOEs or removals that will have very low value in a control match-up
Agreed.
If some sort of Spiteful Shaman is playable, this could work. But right now Shaman's highest cost card is 7, and it's terrible.
How on this earth, is this card ever any better than rexxar? 2 mana less and way more, less random and unconditional value. And even he doesnot exactly dominate the meta.
So, it's confirmed. Instead of reviving Control Shaman with some interesting and refreshing cards I have to stick with the rather mediocre (compared to other Midrange decks) Elemental Shaman which is my main Shaman deck since the release of Un'goro and also the epitome of Curvestone. The battlecry is a Hellfire for 8 mana which, at this point late in the game, isn't impressive at all and could do more harm to you than to your opponent. And, given the Battlecry-heavy nature of the Elementals (e.g. Fire Fly or Servant of Kalimos I'm likely to fill my hand with random spells like Ancestral Healing, Lesser Sapphire Spellstone or Forked Lightning up to the point of actually being in danger of overdrawing. Great, just great.
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There was so much Hate for Hagatha the Witch during the reveal stream... it drives me nuts how narrow minded the hearthstone community is. Lets take a few minutes to go over a few of the reasons why Hagatha the Witch should be an instant craft for any Shaman Player.
Lets talk about the battlecry first. Deal 3 damage to all minions. This feels really underwhelming on turn 8 BUT if you are able to make trades with your minions first you are very likely to make good use of that three damage. Don't forget combos with this battle cry, with ten mana you can first cast a Murmuring Elemental and then Hagatha the Witch for 6 damage to all minions. I think the battlecry is perfectly balanced because of the strength of the hero power.
Bewitch !!!
Guys, this is amazing. MANY of shaman control cards happen to be Minions and thus interact perfectly with the hero power. I can already hear some of you saying, 'shaman spells are horrible!!!" I would agree with you if they are cast on a random target... we are looking at you The Runespear... but if we are in control of the random spells then it is a different story.
So what kind of deck would I put Hagatha the Witch in? CONTROL SHAMAN!!!
Control shaman has a ton of tools with lots of healing, removal and AOE. What it was lacking was reliable card draw/generation and Hagatha brings that to us for the late game.
I will be experimenting with a elemental shaman deck using Hagatha the Witch. I can see cards like Grumble, Worldshaker with the core shaman elementals being very nasty.
I can see a world that it's a sleeper till release. It just needs a bit more support
So how are you winning in Control Shaman? That's the real issue here. Yes, Hagatha is a fine card in that deck, but is that deck good?
I feel that more people were upset about the lack of creativity rather than viability.
She would go from meh to AMAZING with one change--if her battlecry said "Hex all minions." She would counter warlocks as a class and give priests a great deal of pain.
I agree, Elemental Shaman shall love this card.
Elementals have the tendencies to get more minions to your hand, be it Firefly, Servant of Kalimos or Grumble. Murmuring Elemental could also find its place.
I don't think her as useless, at the same time, she is ... okay. In a right shell, she can be powerful, yet at the same time, the randomness can void her as well. Getting Ttemic Might will feel quite bad...
I agree. I think people are sleeping on Shaman spells due to Runespear. Shaman actually has a ton of good spells. They have multiple premium removals (Fist, Hex), many board clears (Volcano, Lightning Storm, Avalanche) value generating cards (Unstable Evolution, Far Sight, Spirit Echo, potentially the Spellstone) and most importantly a ton of burst (Bloodlust, Lava Burst, Windfury, Rockbiter, Lightning Bolt). If you can find a way to play multiple minions a turn, which can be done with elementals or echo minions, I think Hagatha will be a beast to play against. You will always have to worry about your life total and will be facing quite a bit of removal. Similar to Lyra IMO but likely better, especially since Priest has at least as many bad spells as Shaman and most of them are more expensive and clog the hand.
Outvalueing and controlling the board is the control decks oldest win conditions,what do you mean how?
And you have a bit of RNG to help you achieve some better results.
Just Another Legend Player#Kappa
I picked up Runespear as my Day 1 free legend in Kobolds. I played around with it a lot, and you know what? Shaman spells are pretty bad in general. Keep in mind this was discovering a spell, and these are completely random. The best shaman spells are rotating out, I'll miss you evolve, devolve, and Maelstorm portal.
Unless they reveal some incredible shaman spells coming up here I see this only on the Meme deck list for now.
Surprise!
If they print more removal type spells in this set then she could be alright. If, however, we see more of what Shaman got in KOTFT and JtU, then she will give you essentially nothing way too often and will not see play. I also don't like this weird 'infinite value' argument I keep seeing or the comparison to Lyra. With no draw spells in the shaman kit, how do you keep getting minions to continue the chain? Also just how many minions do players expect to play on average after dropping this? If she read "Battlecry: Deal 3 damage to all minions and add 5 random shaman spells to your hand." Would people say that is good enough in the world of T6 Voidlords and Doomguards?
If there's some sort of Free From Amber value spell being released for Shaman, maybe. Otherwise, I think this card is utter trash, because most shaman spells are AOEs or removals that will have very low value in a control match-up
How on this earth, is this card ever any better than rexxar? 2 mana less and way more, less random and unconditional value. And even he doesnot exactly dominate the meta.
Occasionally gives helpful advice.
A very quick deck I put together. I think it has potential.
Will be awesome in elemental shaman.
Trust me!
So, it's confirmed. Instead of reviving Control Shaman with some interesting and refreshing cards I have to stick with the rather mediocre (compared to other Midrange decks) Elemental Shaman which is my main Shaman deck since the release of Un'goro and also the epitome of Curvestone. The battlecry is a Hellfire for 8 mana which, at this point late in the game, isn't impressive at all and could do more harm to you than to your opponent. And, given the Battlecry-heavy nature of the Elementals (e.g. Fire Fly or Servant of Kalimos I'm likely to fill my hand with random spells like Ancestral Healing, Lesser Sapphire Spellstone or Forked Lightning up to the point of actually being in danger of overdrawing. Great, just great.