Hearthpwn

Kun the Forgotten King

FUN FACTS:

• This is the second 10 mana 7/7 in the game, preceded by Varian Wrynn. Both of these cards are class legendaries.
• This is the second Druid legendary with more than one word in its name, preceded by Fandral Staghelm. For reference: (Cenarius, Malorne, Aviana)
• This is the second Druid legendary with a Choose One effect (and therefore has synergy with Fandral Staghelm), the other one being Cenarius.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Just about any 10 mana minion.

REVIEW:

So, if you go on this news page, this is the first card you see, the Druid legendary. I didn’t watch the stream, so I don’t know in what order these came out. For now, I’m just doing two for the classes that got two. It hard to explain but you'll probably notice a pattern.

But talking about the actual card, it’s a 10 mana 7/7 that basically either gives you an underwhelming effect or an EXTREMELY overwhelming effect. You gain either 10 armor, or you reset your mana, and we all know how much Druids love to ramp their mana. By refilling all of your mana crystals, this is basically a 0 mana 7/7, of course, you have to get to 10 mana first, but you can do that a lot earlier by Innervating, and the best part: If you have 8 mana and Innervate this out, it’ll refill you up to 10 mana. If you play this with Aviana, it’s basically a -9 mana 7/7 (of course, Aviana costs 9 which effectively turns it into a 0 mana 5/5 Taunt).

I think most of them time, you’ll choose the mana regenerating effect, seeing as how it’s almost always better. The only time I think you’d choose the armor is when you’re close to dead and it will give you another turn to stabilize and place a 7/7 on the board, which in turn is not bad because they might end up wasting their damage on this instead of their face.

For a rating, I think the first effect isn’t that good, but the second effect. JESUS CHRIST IS THAT A GOOD EFFECT! It’s a very good card.

Rating: Very Good

Lunar Visions

FUN FACTS:

I got nothing...

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Nourish
• Arcane Intellect
• Ancestral Knowledge
• Far Sight
• Thistle Tea

REVIEW:

Well, here is an interesting card we have here. It’s 5 mana to draw 2 cards, but it has an effect, only one that, like Thistle Tea or Flame Leviathan, is unpredictable. You can either draw 2 minions, effectively making this a 1-cost Arcane Intellect, you can draw no minions, making this a 5-cost Arcane Intellect, or you can draw one minion and one spell, breaking even with Arcane Intellect. When compared to the other main draw option for Druids, Nourish, Nourish is more reliable, drawing an extra card, giving you more ramp, and benefits from Fandral Staghelm. Sure, you don’t get the discounts with Nourish like you do with this card, but the upper hands Nourish had outweighs the upper hands this card has, so I think Nourish will end up overshadowing this card.

Rating: Average

Piranha Launcher

FUN FACTS:

• This card, as well as the token, is the first card in the game with the word "Piranha" in its name.
• This is the first weapon in the game with the word "Launcher" in its name. Like all Hunter weapons, the art depicts a ranged weapon rather than a sword or an axe.
• The Piranha token is the first aquatic Beast for Hunters (and possibly in the game).
• This is the first Hunter weapon since Glaivezooka, from GvG.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Assassin's Blade
• Tentacles for Arms
• Fool's Bane

REVIEW:

So far, a lot of people have been dissing on this card. This may be a bit controversial, but I personally don’t think this card is as bad as people are saying it is. Now I’m not saying that this card will be viable and new meta, but I think it’s better than people are saying it is. When compared to Assassin's Blade, this card loses 1 attack, but benefits from Beast synergy. The Piranha's have synergy with cards like Houndmaster, Tundra Rhino and Ram Wrangler. As we know, Hunters have the best Beast synergy, where Carrion Grub saw more play in Hunter, than Druid of the Flame did Druid.

When you say it this way, this card sounds pretty good. The card, however it’s slow as it is a Hunter weapon that costs 5 mana and only has 2 attack. It seems that this would be a decent tool for a Control/Beast Hunter, which this card actually may be run in if it becomes a thing.

Rating: Average

Grimestreet Informant

FUN FACTS:

• This is the second Neutral 2 mana 1/1 minion with a Discover effect, preceded by Jeweled Scarab.
• This is the second card in the game that mentions another class and gives you a card of that class, the other being Grand Crusader. Grand Crusader only mentioned Paladins, this one mentions Hunter, Paladin and Warrior. The card is similar in fashion to The Curator.
• This is the first (second if you count Arch-Thief Rafaam) Discover minion in which its effect isn't limited to Neutral cards or cards of your class, expanding the mechanic further.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Novice Engineer
• Jeweled Scarab
• Swashburglar
• Undercity Huckster
• Grand Crusader

REVIEW:

Well, it’s official, Discover is now a permanent mechanic in the game, which I’m fine with, it’s an awesome mechanic from an awesome card set. This is a very interesting twist on the Discover mechanic. Normally, Discover would only allow you to get cards of your class (and Arch-Thief Rafaam gives you a choice of three unique, uncollectable cards). For this card though, it gives you cards of different classes (unless you’re playing Paladin and you get 3 Paladin cards), it doesn’t matter what class you’re playing or what your opponent is playing, you always get either Hunter, Paladin or Warrior cards.

Of course some class cards are great, and some are terrible (though some cards may be better in other classes). For every Tirion Fordring, there’s also an Eye for an Eye. Each class has its fair share of good, bad, and average cards. Sometimes it’s better than Novice Engineer, or sometimes it’s worse. Sometimes you may want to just draw from your deck.

Rating: Average/Good

Manic Soulcaster

FUN FACTS:

• This is the second 3 mana 3/4 for Mages, preceded by Spellslinger.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Other 3 mana 3/4's

REVIEW:

Our first and only Mage revealed so far and quite the interesting one too as there is a lot of possible things to do with this card. A minion's dying? Put another one in your deck. Want to play two Reno's? Go right on ahead and do so. Want to make gimmicky Mill Mage with Coldlight Oracles? Don’t mind if I do.

Not to mention, it’s a 3 mana 3/4 which means if you don’t get the effect off, it’s not that bad, and adding another card to your deck saves you from fatigue, even if what you add to your deck isn’t that useful to add, it’s still a benefit, and unlike Spellslinger, it doesn’t have the potential to horribly backfire on you.

Rating: Good

Wickerflame Burnbristle

FUN FACTS:

• This is the lowest cost Paladin legendary in the game. Second place goes to Bolvar Fordragon at 5.
• This is the second Paladin legendary in the game with Taunt and Divine Shield, the other being Tirion Fordring.
• The text “damage dealt by this minion also heals your hero” effectively reflects a “lifelink” effect in Magic: The Gathering on creatures like Child of Night. Creatures in other card games also use this effect, such as Fushi No Tori from Yu-Gi-Oh. For some reason though, the card doesn’t copy the text of Mistress of Pain which effectively does the same thing.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Silent Knight
• Mistress of Pain

REVIEW:

Well, Druid wasn’t the only class that got an early legendary reveal, Paladin did too. Its legendary is deceptively simple. At first, it simply looks like a 3 mana 2/2 with Taunt and Divine Shield (which to be fair isn’t that bad of a card on its own) that restores 2 Health to your hero, but that’s not quite the case, being that the card is buffable by effects and gives off more value. Being that is has Taunt AND Divine Shield, and it’s a cheap, and effectively control card, you will heal 4 Health vs Aggro.

The card may be small and underwhelming at first glance, but in reality, it’s deceptively good, like Bloodmage Thalnos. It may not be a meta defining card, but it is a good card that will fit into a variety of Paladin decks.

Rating: Good

Small-Time Recruits

FUN FACTS:

• I got nothing.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Arcane Intellect
• Nourish
• Divine Favor
• The Curator

REVIEW:

Paladin card number 2, and another good one at that too. It’s a good buff for Aggro Paladin, as Aggro decks in general tend to run a lot of low cost (specifically 1-cost) minions. It is comparable to the other draw tool for Paladin, Divine Favor. As crazy, and potentially snowbally as that card is, it has its own drawbacks, namely that you must keep less cards in hand than your opponent for the effect to actually work, or else the card simply does nothing. This card on the other hand, just as long as they are in your deck, you will always draw the 1-cost minions.

Speaking of 1-cost minions, Paladin has another new 1-cost minion revealed that I will get to soon. For the moment though, I’m going to give this card a “Good”.

Rating: Good

Kazakus

FUN FACTS:

• This card has a similar effect to Reno Jackson, only worded differently, meaning there may be new cards in this set and/or future sets with an effect with the same pre-requisite. Twin Emperor Vek'lor originally worked this way while WoTOG was in development before it was made into a C'Thun card.
• The effect is similar to Discover, yet it is not a Discover effect. This is a trait this card shares with Tracking and Totemic Slam.
• This is the first time the word "create" has been used to describe an uncollectable card being produced, and this minion probably fits that the most.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Gnomish Inventor
• Tomb Spider
• Reno Jackson

REVIEW:

Here, we have yet another card that at first glance, may not look necessarily that good, but in reality, this card is F***ING AWESOME!!!

This video here will show you how the effect works, but basically, you choose to make either a 1-cost, 5-cost or 10-cost spell, then you choose two different effects for it, meaning you can create up to 27 different spells with this card (assuming there are always the same 3 options for each step of the process). It’s very flexible. You can choose a 1-cost spell to use in your early game, a 5-cost spell to use mid-game (possibly next turn if you really want to), or a 10-cost spell to have a huge, late game, massive nuclear bomb of mass genocide. There’s never a bad time to draw this card. We haven’t even seen all of the options yet.

There is one drawback to this card. You can’t have duplicates in your deck, but that didn’t stop Reno from being a meta-defining, deck-defining card. A definite auto-include in Reno decks.

Rating: Very Good

Dragonfire Potion

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first spell in the game with Dragon synergy.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Flamestrike
• Lightbomb
• Twisting Nether
• Elemental Destruction

REVIEW:

Out of every class in the game, I think the two classes people want to see the most are Priest and Shaman. Priest to see if they will get any great cards to bring them up, and Shaman for the exact opposite reason.

It’s no secret that Priest is in a bad spot right now (in Standard) at least. What doesn’t help that they got Purify in Karazhan. Priest of the Feast and Onyx Bishop were a step in the right direction for fixing Priest, but it wasn’t enough. If this card is anything to go by, Priest will probably be fixed in this expansion, and will be the undestroyable gods in Wild. Lightbomb damaging your own stuff didn’t prevent it from seeing play, neither will this. This card looks especially amazing in Dragon Priest where most of your minions are unaffected by it.

On top of that, it’s really good AoE for Priest which is good. Holy Nova is good, but if you don’t have any minions on the board, it’s not that impressive. This however does 3 more damage than that for only 1 more mana, a massive upgrade, especially in Dragon Priest.

Rating: Very Good

Drakonid Operative

FUN FACTS:

• This is the third minion (and the first class minion) in the game that depicts a Drakonid, the other two being Drakonid Crusher and Dragonkin Sorcerer.
• This is the fifth 5 mana 5/6 in the game, preceded by Pit Fighter, Usher of Souls, Ethereal Peddler and Prince Malchezaar.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Other 5 mana 5/6's (see fun facts)
• Shifting Shade

REVIEW:

Speaking of Dragon Priest, that deck that just received another amazing tool. It’s a Dragon Pit Fighter that Discovers a card from your opponent's deck. The really good thing about this effect is that it tells you up to three different cards in your opponent's deck. You can look at the Discover options and take note (both figuratively and literally) what your opponent still has in their deck, and take one of those three for yourself to use. Good thing also being that as a Dragon itself, it benefits from Dragon synergy and is an activator for “if you're holding a Dragon” effects. It curves perfectly from Twilight Guardian.

These two cards alone looks like Dragon Priest is going to have an AMAZING buff. Suddenly the class is looking good. Everyone who mocked the class for being bad is going to feel sorry when Dragon Priest comes back up. I think it’s pretty obvious that this card is going to get a “Very Good” rating.

Rating: Very Good

Lotus Assassin

FUN FACTS:

• This is the third card in the game with an effect that activates on killing minions, preceded by Giant Sand Worm and The Boogeymonster. Unlike those two cards though, this card doesn't require you to initiate the attack for the effect to work.  (it does, there was a text update).

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Stranglethorn Tiger

REVIEW:

Our first Rogue card, and one with a cool effect. It starts out Stealthed, then when it kills something, it gains Stealth again. What you can do with this is kill a weaker minion with it, and it will regain Stealth, allowing you to most likely kill something else.

Also, since the card doesn’t specify “attacks and kills”, smaller enemy minions simply can’t ping into it and kill it or else it will gain Stealth again and thus, it won’t be attackable. (it does, the text was updated). It is better than Stranglethorn Tiger in Rogue for that reason. However Stranglethorn Tiger, as a neutral card and a Beast, benefits from Beast synergy (mainly Menagerie Warden). When you think of it that way, this card isn’t that good. And no, the card isn’t that good and it isn’t terrible either, it’s middle-of-the-road and deserves to be ranked as such.

Rating: Average

Counterfeit Coin

FUN FACTS:

• Cards like Cutpurse and Tomb Pillager have given Rogue's a Coin theme, with this card reinforcing that.
• Out of every coin that exists in the game, this is the only collectable one.
• The word "counterfeit" in the card's name implies a crime theme predicted prior to the announcement of this expansion.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• The Coin
• Innervate

REVIEW:

Well here is quite the card here. In any other class, it would simply be a worse Innervate, but in Rogue, it’s more than that. Being able to have a coin in your Rogue deck every single game. Do you know how broken that sounds? Even if there was a 0 mana spell that said “Do nothing”, it still might see play in Rogue simply because of Combo and Gadgetzan Auctioneer, exactly where this card fits, and who doesn’t love to ramp? It does that too!

It also gives the possibility of having two coins in your deck (up to 4 with Tomb Pillager). It’s a deceptively very good card.

Rating: Good/Very Good

Lotus Agents

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first 5 mana 5/3 in the game.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Ethereal Conjurer
• Grimestreet Informant
• Kabal Courier

REVIEW:

Well, here we have another one of these tri-class cards, this time for Druid, Rogue and Shaman. Just like the Grimestreet Informant, adding more classes to Discover from makes for a nice twist on the mechanic, and also makes it harder for your opponent to play around any options, because as opposed to your class and Neutral cards, you can get ANY card of three different classes. Good luck trying to play around that. Let’s also mention that getting cards from different classes can be an advantage (Savagery wouldn’t be that bad in Rogue as opposed to how bad it is in Druid), and adds another piece to an Ethereal Peddler Rogue deck.

Of course, the stats are a disadvantage, 5/3 for 5 is on the underwhelming side and will usually be easy to kill, but 3 Health on Ethereal Conjurer didn’t prevent it from seeing play so I don’t think this will either.

Rating: Good

Kabal Courier

FUN FACTS:

• This and Kabal Talonpriest are the first two cards in the game which depict something relating to the Kabal, which appears to be bird based.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Any 3 mana 2/2
• Dark Peddler
• Grimestreet Informant
• Lotus Agents

REVIEW:

Yet another tri-class card, this time for Mage, Priest and Warlock so we’ve covered all 9 nine classes with these unique cards now. Now is this an upgrade or a downgrade to having the set of the class’s that Grimestreet Informant or Lotus Agents have? Mages have some of the best spells and spell synergistic cards in the game. Priest has its fair share of good cards but also some not to so useful ones, and Warlock is kind of in the game boat. Notably, this does allow Warlocks and Mages to heal as they don’t have class healing, and Warlock already damages itself quite a bit.

Rating: Average/Good

I Know a Guy ("who knew this guy, who knew this guy, who knew this guy's cousin")

FUN FACTS:

• This is the third Discover card in the game that discovers a card based on keywords, in this case, Taunt. The other two cards are Museum Curator and Journey Below, in the case of those two cards, they discover Deathrattle cards.
• This is the first Warrior specific Discover card.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Any Discover card.

REVIEW:

Well, it seems Blizzard is still trying to push that Taunt theme for Warrior’s that we’ve been getting since TGT. Hopefully not every Warrior card in the set tries to push this. Anyway, how good is this card? I think it’s a little bit better than Journey Below since you’re guaranteed to get a Taunt minion which may give you an extra turn or two, and/or save a minion you want to keep alive. Of course, some Taunt minions are good (Sen'jin Shieldmasta), some are bad (Booty Bay Bodyguard), some are in the middle (Sunwalker), and a few others are situationally good (Faceless Shambler). There are lots of targets for this card, and if you get a Soggoth the Slitherer from it, you’re probably in a really good spot. So, those are my two cents about this card.

Rating: Average

Finja, the Flying Star

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first Murloc in the game with Stealth.
• This is the first 5 mana 2/4 in the game.
• This is the fourth card in the game with an effect that activates on killing a minion, preceded by Giant Sand Worm, The Boogeymonster and Lotus Assassin. Out of all four of these cards, this is the only who doesn’t need to survive the attack for the effect to be useful.
• If you look closely, you might notice the Murloc in the picture is using swordfish as blades, creating a pun of their name.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Stranglethorn Tiger
• Ogre Ninja
• The Boogeymonster

REVIEW:

Well, how do I describe this card? It’s a Murloc ninja, that's pretty cool! It's yet another card that triggers off of attacking and killing. At least though, this one has Stealth so you will almost always get an attack off before it dies. When (or if), you kill something with this, you will spawn 2 random Murlocs from your deck, which will likely buff this to better stats. This ability sounds insane until you look at the stats:cost ratio. It’s a 5 mana 2/4, that’s not very exciting. At 2 Attack, you can’t trade into any 5 mana minions without another source of damage done first, so you will probably need to attack some smaller, off curve minion for the effect to work. For that reason, I think this is an Average card at best. It’s also not a good card for an Anyfin Paladin.

Rating: Average/Other

Patches the Pirate

FUN FACTS:

• This is supposedly the mystery card (or at least a version of it) from TGT that was cut.
• The artwork appears to depict a Floating Watcher dressed as a pirate.
• This is the first minion with an effect that summons itself from your deck. Although while TGT was in development, The Mistcaller had an effect which summoned itself from your hand. Source.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Stonetusk Boar

REVIEW:

Well, we finally get to know what the mystery card of TGT was. Admittedly, when I first saw the card, I just thought of it as “garbage” and moved along. Trump however mentioned that the card is better than some people give it credit for.

After watching this video, I can say that I think this card is better than I first thought it was. On paper, this is simply a Pirate Stonetusk Boar, a 1/1 with Charge for 1 mana, and Stonetusk Boar doesn’t see any play even with its Beast synergy. However, it still has potential with its Pirate synergy and its added ability. When you play a Pirate from your hand, this basically will be a 0 mana 1/1 with Charge. Would Stonetusk Boar see play if it costed 0? No, probably not. This card also has the downside that when you play a Pirate, you will always have this card played from your deck, when sometimes you actually will want to still keep it in your deck.

So far, this review sounds pretty negative. But I do have some positive things to say about this card. It has a lot of Combo potential, particularly in combination with Gang Up, as seen in the aforementioned video. You can Gang Up, then play a Pirate and summon three of these (or six if you Gang Up twice but that is a bit on the optimistic side), and be able to dish out some additional damage. As a Pirate, it also benefits from Southsea Captain. I think this will fit in some Pirate deck, but at the same time, it’s really clunky because you don’t always want to play this from your deck.

Rating: Average

Wind-up Burglebot

FUN FACTS:

• This card has a similar effect to The Boogeymonster, but this card doesn't require it to kill what it attacks, it just needs to survive.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• The Boogeymonster
• Giant Sand Worm
• Lotus Assassin
• Finja, the Flying Star
• Grand Crusader

REVIEW:

Well, it is Gadgetzan after all, so Mechs were to be expected, and here is our first one. I mean, I'm not going to try to hide it, this card is pretty bad but we’re going to discuss why it's bad. Okay, it's obvious why it’s bad but we’re going to talk about that anyway.

So, just like The Boogeymonster, you need to initiate the attack for the effect to work. It doesn’t need to kill the creature, it just needs to attack into it and survive, which is an upgrade, but at the same time, it still needs to be played and survive your opponent’s next turn unless you give it Charge. The value you get isn’t even that good to begin with when you compare it to Grand Crusader. Yes, getting a random Paladin card is usually worse than drawing a card from your deck but it gives it to you right away and has synergy with Brann Bronzebeard. This card has neither of those two advantages. The advantages this has over Grand Crusader is that it’s a Mech, which only really matters in Wild unless a lot more Mechs are introduced, and it can draw more than one card, but that won’t happen very often.

Overall, I think this card is worse than Grand Crusader, and Grand Crusader didn’t see that much play, so neither will this.

Rating: Very Bad

Fel Orc Soulfiend

FUN FACTS:

• This is the fourth minion in the game with an effect based on dealing damage to itself, with the other three being Imp Master, Injured Blademaster and Injured Kvaldir. Injured Blademaster and Injured Kvaldir both deal of their damage to itself all at one time, where this and Imp Master deal smaller amounts of damage overtime.
• Out of all four of these cards, this is the only one that doesn't start with the letter "I".
• This ogre doesn’t have an effect that doesn’t make it attack wrong enemies sometimes. The theme of "stupidity" is still present though as it does deal damage to itself. The only ogres that don’t have any part of this theme at are Boulderfist Ogre, Cho'gall and Second-Rate Bruiser.
• This is the second 3 mana minion in the game with a 7 in its staline, the other being Injured Blademaster.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Deathlord
• Injured Blademaster
• Injured Kvaldir
• Imp Master
• Silithid Swarmer
• Coliseum Manager
• Am'gam Rager

REVIEW:

Well, an interesting card to say the least. With 7 Health, it’s pretty beefy. During your opponent's next turn, it’s effectively a 3/5 though, and a 3 mana 3/5 is actually difficult to deal with. 5 Health for 3 mana is really good, especially on curve. Trying to kill it on curve is very difficult most of the time, which means this will usually get an attack in before it dies. In Priest, you will also be able to heal it so it can keep fighting, granted unless you Silence it (Purify value!), you will have to do it every turn which you don’t need to do with Injured Blademaster.

While this is not a bad card, it does have a downside though. If it survives your next turn, it’s simply a 3/3 for 3 on your opponent's next turn with no effect which is not too good, and of course, it is inferior to Injured Blademaster in Priest. For that reason, I would say it’s a decent, balanced card and it will probably be a decent pick in Arena.

Rating: Average/Good

Big-Time Racketeer

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first 6 mana minion with a 1 anywhere in its statline. In this case, it has a 1 in both parts of its statline. With a stats:cost ratio of 0.33, it has the lowest stats:cost ratio of any minion in the game.
• The token is called Little Friend, making that the first ever card in the game, collectable and uncollectable, that has quotation marks in its name.
• If you look closely, you will notice that the goblin in the picture has a yellow tooth.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Twilight Summoner

REVIEW:

Well, here’s a weird card. A 6 mana 1/1, which summons a 6/6 minion (Little Friend), effectively making a 6 mana 7/7 split across two bodies, however the 1/1 part is pretty easy to take care of, meaning this is only slightly better than a 6 mana 6/6. Although don’t call this card out just yet, as this notably both buffs and nerfs Evolve (and Master of Evolution for that matter). You can play this, then Evolve and get two 7-drops for 7 mana, or Evolve a 5 mana into this and cry. Notably, this card also nerfs Moonglade Portal.

Even with the synergies this card has with cards like Evolve, Brann Bronzebeard and Shadowcaster, unfortunately, I think this card is still amongst the Average side, but because of its synergy with Evolve, it has potential making it a little bit better in ratings because of that.

Rating: Average/Good

Pilfered Power

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first card in the game with the word "pilfered" in its name.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Wild Growth
• Darnassus Aspirant
• Mire Keeper
• Innervate

REVIEW:

This is another card that is weird. It's powerful but it’s strange as it seems to fit a deck that run both a lot of small stuff and a lot of big stuff which is very weird to run together. This is nice for Token Druid with its ability to gain several mana crystals as once, and at the same time, with 10 mana will give you that Excess Mana for card draw (or at least, it should). While temporary ramp is powerful, permanent ramp is even better, if you're to play this in the early game with a few small tokens on board, you can really out-tempo your opponent, perhaps closer to playing Kun the Forgotten King and get even more tempo.

Rating: Good

Mark of the Lotus

FUN FACTS:

• This card has the word "Lotus" in its name despite not being part of the Lotus faction (cards for Druid, Rogue and Shaman)

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Power of the Wild
• Divine Strength
• Competitive Spirit

REVIEW:

Here, we have a simple, yet powerful card, especially for, once again, Token Druid. It's essentially a 1 mana Power of the Wild, but you don’t get the flexibility of summoning the Panther or the synergy with Fandral Staghelm. Have mass tokens on the board and pay 1 mana to simply give a whole bunch on minions +1/+1. I don’t think it will replace Power of the Wild, but instead will be run alongside it for four ways to give your tokens +1/+1. There’s not really much I can say other than it’s a really good card for Token Druid.

Rating: Very Good

Meanstreet Marshal

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first card in the game to have the word "Marshal" in it. A Marshal is an officer of the highest rank in the armed forces of some countries.
• This is the third card in the game which depicts a Tuskarr, the other two being Tuskarr Totemic and Tuskarr Jouster. Two out of these three cards are Paladin cards.
• This is the first minion in the game with an effect based on how much Attack it has.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Novice Engineer
• Loot Hoarder

REVIEW:

Here we have another aggressive Paladin card, and a new 1-drop to synergize with Small-Time Recruits. It's simply a 1/2 for 1, that when buffed at least once, will draw you a card. Fortunately, Paladins have a number of ways to buff this, including, but not limited to: Blessing of Kings, Keeper of Uldaman, Dire Wolf Alpha and Abusive Sergeant. If you’re able to consistently activate its effect, it’s pretty good. But if you can’t, then it’s not that good. So, I think this card is simply good. Not terrible, not broken, just in the simplest sense of the word, a good card.

What I don’t like about this card though is that I don’t think this type of effect deserves to be on an Epic. I mean, I guess you can say that about a lot of Epics, but still.

Rating: Average/Good

Getaway Kodo

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first card in the game with the word "getaway" in its name.
• It has a kodo in it, that's not something you see too often in Hearthstone.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Duplicate

REVIEW:

Here, we have a Paladin secret. As we all know, Paladin secrets tend to be the most underwhelming Secrets in the game and most of them haven't seen much play… outside of Secret Paladin of course, there, almost every Secret saw a lot of play.

People have been discussing over whether or not Deathrattles trigger. My guess is that it probably will looking at the wording of cards like Tentacles for Arms, and Blizzard also tends to have a lot of wording inconsistencies (look at Mistress of Pain and Wickerflame Burnbristle for example). This card has a lot of potential in my eyes, more so than most (or maybe even all) other Paladin secrets, since you will be able to return a Tirion Fordring or Wickerflame Burnbristle (to mention that card again), to your hand and troll your opponent, and of course, it works well with both Battlecry and Deathrattle minions. Will this perhaps with in N'Zoth Paladin?

On top of that, the artwork and the name is pretty cool. Overall, it’s a cool and pretty good card. Its only downside is that it is anti-synergistic with the Hero Power and you might end up putting a Silver Hand Recruit back into your hand, but that doesn’t eliminate the potential this card has to be very good.

Rating: Good

Pint-Size Potion

FUN FACTS:

• This and Shrinkmeister are the only two cards in the game which specifically take off a certain amount of stat points and have a minus symbol in their card text.
• In Hearthstone's Alpha, there was a Druid spell called "Demoralizing Roar" which was basically exactly the same as this card but for Druid instead. You can see it here.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Shrinkmeister

REVIEW:

Just like some cards like Counterfeit Coin, this card is deceptive. Once again though, it’s simply fantastic if you realize what you can do. You have combos with several different cards. You can use Cabal Shadow Priest and you have a LOT more targets (you can steal up to 5 Attack minions, so yes, you can steal a Sylvanas Windrunner) to steal. Maybe Shadow Word: Horror becomes a viable combo card with this to kill enemy minion with 5 or less Attack. Even Confuse suddenly might become a viable card with this because you can make enemy minions have 0 Attack, then flip them over and instantly kill them or you can simply use it to make better trades. That’s just scratching the surface of what’s possible with this card too. There’s definitely a bunch of other possible combos to pull off with this card. It’s actually quite scary to think of what this card can do. It’s good that we have a Shrinkmeister effect back into Standard and boy what a card they implemented it on. This card is bonkers! If this keeps up, Priest may simply become killers in Constructed.

Rating: Very Good

Kabal Talonpriest

FUN FACTS:

• This and Kabal Courier, are the first two cards that depict parts of the Kabal, which appear to be bird based.
• This card is essentially a Battlecry version of Dark Cultist.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Dark Cultist (or really any 3 mana 3/4 for that matter, but especially Dark Cultist)
• Temple Enforcer

REVIEW:

Oh wait, this is keeping up. It seems that Blizzard recognizes Priest’s problem are giving them a Battlecry Dark Cultist. Immediate activation, and you get to choose what you activate it on. It isn't strictly better than Dark Cultist, but it definitely is overall better. It’s a 3 mana 3/4, that’s really good, and giving 3 Health effectively makes it a 3 mana 3/7. On turn 2, you can play a 2 drop (if you have something to do other than “The light shall burn you”), then use this and you trade into the opponent’s 2 drop quite nicely and this will stay alive. To put it this way, it’s simple but awesome! Not every Priest card can be awesome, right? Oh, just you wait.

Rating: Very Good

Potion of Madness

FUN FACTS:

• This is the second card in the game with a temporary mind control effect, the other being Shadow Madness. Both cards have the word "madness" in their name.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Shadow Madness

REVIEW:

Priests simply keep getting the best of everything. At this point, I don't even care if they get a bad legendary, so far 5 out of 9 cards are Very Good. I’m not even hiding or making a surprise of how good this card is. It's simply mind blowing. Shadow Madness was a card that some Priest decks would play because although a bit situational, it definitely had the potential to be very powerful. This card, you pay 3 less mana and in return, you just lose the 1 Attack that you can take. This is definitely a worthwhile trade-off. Just like Shadow Madness, it combos greatly with Youthful Brewmaster and the combo with this card is a lot cheaper to do. You can make better trades in the early game and cheaper trades in general. Jesus, Priest is getting good stuff. Will all 9 Priest cards be very good? Only one way to find out.

Rating: Very Good

Second-Rate Bruiser

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first card in the game that has a cost adjusting effect based on the number of enemy minions.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Sen'jin Shieldmasta
• Booty Bay Bodyguard
• Sludge Belcher
• Ironfur Grizzly
• Fierce Monkey
• Squirming Tentacle

REVIEW:

Here’s a card that people are excited for, and it might not be too obvious at first glance. At worst, the card is 5 mana 4/5 Taunt which isn't good but still better than Booty Bay Bodyguard, but the exciting thing about this card: It’s an anti-aggro card! And a pretty decent one at that. If your opponent has at least 3 minions on the board, it’s a 3 mana 4/5 Taunt which is pretty exciting. It doesn’t matter if you have more minions, just as long as your opponent meets the magic number of 3, it’s a 3 mana 4/5 Taunt. Notably this does make it easier to play a Taunt minion and clear the board. As a Mage, you can play this for 3, then Flamestrike or something along the lines of that.

While not many have stated this, this also has synergy with Evolve and Master of Evolution. Play this for 3, then Evolve into a 6-drop. Beware though, the possibility of getting a Big-Time Racketeer is now a reality.

Rating: Good

Kooky Chemist

FUN FACTS:

• This card is comparable to Crazed Alchemist in a similar fashion that Holy Champion is to Lightwarden, or Temple Enforcer is to Kabal Talonpriest
• A "chemist" is someone who experiments with different chemical compounds and substances. It's simply a synonym for "alchemist".
• This is the third (fourth if you count Reversing Switch) card in the game that swaps the stats of a minion, the other two being Crazed Alchemist and Confuse.
• This card appears to feature a man's head on a woman's body perhaps showing what happens when the stats are swapped.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Crazed Alchemist

REVIEW:

So this is basically a Crazed Alchemist with double the cost and double the stats. Not really anything too crazy, or good. It's a very simple and average card that will be decent (although a bit situational) in Arena. The effect of Crazed Alchemist is already quite a bit situational to begin with. If you really need the effect, you probably would just run that instead since it costs less and really, all you’re running it for is the effect. Not going to see play in Constructed, an okay card in Arena.

Rating: Average

Friendly Bartender

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first card in the game that has either the word "friendly" or "bartender" in its name.
• This card contains the very first effect in the game which restores 1 Health.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Earthen Ring Farseer

REVIEW:

Hey, another anti-aggro card! It’s a pretty good sign that Blizzard is making these since we all seem to hate aggro decks. This one although is no Second-Hand Bruiser. It’s very slow, only restoring 1 Health to your hero each turn. Although it can do some big healing if its ignored, the key words there is “if its ignored”, which it probably won't be. It probably won’t very much healing off, and as a result, probably won't be good enough to see play. It's a nice pick in Arena since it is a 2/3, but I don’t expect this to make waves in Constructed.

Rating: Average

Mistress of Mixtures

FUN FACTS:

• This is the second 1 mana 2/2 in the game, the other being Enchanted Raven.
• This is the second card in the game called "Mistress of ______", the other being Mistress of Pain.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Enchanted Raven
• Zombie Chow

REVIEW:

Well, here we have an exciting card here. For one, it’s a 1 mana 2/2, and it has a two-sided effect which can easily be manipulated to be more beneficial to you than your opponent. While the additional Health point of Zombie Chow was a big upside for that card, it also didn't heal yourself. This gives you and your opponent (or just you if you set it up right) healing for 4. It also gives you Auchenai Soulpriest synergy, surely you can take that 4 damage, and when Auchenai dies, you can just heal it back up. It's simple, balanced, but exciting and has potential. It's another anti-aggro card, and better than Zombie Chow in the late game.

Rating: Good

Auctionmaster Beardo

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first card in the game with a "refresh" effect explicitly mentioned in its card text. Amaz used this in his Monk class concept video, which can be viewed here. (skip to 2:36)

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Garrison Commander
• Coldarra Drake
• Any other 3 mana 3/4

REVIEW:

So, here we have a legendary with a rather unique, but gimmicky effect. Whenever you cast a spell, you make your Hero Power usable again. The thing is though, to make the effect usable, you need at least 4 or 5 mana. 2 for the first Hero Power, 0 or 1+ for the spell and another 2 for the second Hero Power. That makes this difficult, and rather impractical to use. You most likely won’t be able to curve out with it. You notably can use this with Inspire minions, but it requires you to get a lot of mana and low cost spells, and you probably will need this guy to survive at least one turn. To be honest, I don't think this card was very well thought out.

The dream would be to have this and a Confessor Paletress on the board, play some spells and use your Hero Power a bunch of times to summon a board full of Legendary minions… but that rarely will ever happen.

The effect isn’t very useful but I will rate it as Average simply because it’s a 3 mana 3/4, premium 3 mana stats.

Rating: Average/Other

Shaku, the Collector

FUN FACTS:

• A wording inconsistency is present on this card: The text says "add a random card" instead of "add a random class card". Look at Swashburglar or Undercity Huckster, then look at this card. The effect however is exactly the same.
• This is the third Legendary minion in the game with Stealth, the other two being Moroes and Finja, the Flying Star.
• When it was first revealed, this card will called "Shakru" instead of "Shaku".

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Swashburglar
• Undercity Huckster
• Jungle Panther
• Cat Trick
• Moroes
• Cutpurse
• Gilblin Stalker

REVIEW:

So, both this and Auctionmaster Beardo were revealed to us by Disguised Toast, and I don’t think either of those were quite what we expected from the expansion. This is certainly not a Legendary I thought we’d see. I thought we’d see this effect on a Common or a Rare, not a Legendary. So whenever it attacks, you add a random card from your opponent's class to your hand. It doesn’t matter what you attack, you just need to attack anything. It has Stealth which means getting that attack in is a lot more reliable, so that it a plus. But at the same time, as a 2/3. You’ll most likely only get 1 or 2 cards from this minion’s effect. and a lot of the time, you’ll probably only get that 1. I don’t think it would be too OP to make it a 2/4. Yes, that would make it better than Jungle Panther, but this is a class card and a Legendary.

Is this a bad card? No, it'll probably see some play in Ethereal Peddler decks, but the card is just disappointing. I guess Rogue's couldn’t get two really good Legendaries in a row.

Rating: Average

Grook Fu Master

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first Windfury minion since Grotesque Dragonhawk.
• This is the first (and probably not the last) card in the set with a one word effect.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Windfury Harpy
• Grotesque Dragonhawk

REVIEW:

Well, there was no way we were going to get through all 132 cards without at least one filler card. Here is our first (and most likely not the only) one, and it sucks. It’s better than Windfury Harpy but that isn't saying much. The problem with, as well as most other Windfury minions, is that it needs to live a turn which isn't very reliable. Won't see any Constructed play, and will probably see very little Arena play. At least, it's not a filler card in a 45 card adventure (looking at you Pompous Thespian), and it's one bad card in a pool of 131 other cards (93 of them yet to be revealed).

Rating: Very Bad

Trogg Beastrager

FUN FACTS:

• The “buff cards in your hand mechanic” has been appearing more often since The Mistcaller from TGT. Other cars with this mechanic include Forlorn Stalker, A Light in the Darkness, Grimestreet Outfitter and Stolen Goods. Technically Bolvar Fordragon and C'Thun also count but they buff THEMSELVES while in the hand (and C'Thun also buffs while in the deck, field or hypothetically anywhere).
• Ironically, this minion has the word “Beast” in its name, but is not a Beast, and it is fairly rare to receive any Hunter minions that aren’t Beasts. Troggs however are not classified as Beasts so it make sense that it isn’t a Beast.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• The Mistcaller
• Forlorn Stalker
• A Light in the Darkness
• Grimestreet Outfitter
• Stolen Goods
• Houndmaster

REVIEW:

So, this card may look like anything at first glance in terms of power level. It may look really good, it may look average, or it may look like a piece of crap. I personally think this card has some potential. Hunters are of course often known for their Beasts, and they tend to run a lot of Beasts and Beast synergy cards like Houndmaster, even if their deck isn't focused around Beasts. Actually, this looks almost as good as Houndmaster since you don't have to already have the Beast in play. It'll work just as long as you have the Beast in your hand, and as a Hunter, you'll probably have a Beast in your hand unless you’re playing an absurdly aggressive Hunter that runs out of steam quickly.

Despite the upsides of this card, there are some problems with the card. Most obviously, the Beast is random so if you hold a lot of Beasts in your hand and there’s a certain Beast you want buffed, it's not a very reliable way to buff it. This situation however is very specific and wouldn't occur all that often. The more prominent problem however is that Hunters are already running a fair amount of 2-drops, from King's Elekk, to Kindly Grandmother, to Huge Toad. This may limit the amount of play the card sees until King's Elekk and Huge Toad rotate out (which is after the first expansion of 2017).

But overall, it's a very solid card that might make it into some Midrange lists and it’s pretty good in Arena if you have a few Beasts, which isn’t very uncommon.

Rating: Good

Grimestreet Outfitter

FUN FACTS:

• This is yet another card which buffs cards in your hand, similar to cards like The Mistcaller and Forlorn Stalker.
• Amaz made a card called "Life Cocoon" in his Monk class concept video, which was a 2 mana spell with the text "Give all minions in your hand +1/+1". It can be seen here. (skip to 19:39)

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• The Mistcaller
• Forlorn Stalker
• A Light in the Darkness
• Trogg Beastrager
• Stolen Goods

REVIEW:

Remember how awesome The Mistcaller looked when it was first revealed? This card looks even cooler and it’s WAY less slow than The Mistcaller. Drop this while you have quite a few minions in your hand and all of a sudden, your Argent Squires become Shielded Minibots, and all of your minions become way more mana efficient for the cost. You can play it on turn 2, and suddenly, you may be able to play a 4/4 or 4/5 with an upside on turn 3, and then maybe a 5/5 or 5/6 on turn 4. It may drain your tempo at first, but you might be able to get a return on your investment, and then some. A little bit optimistic, but also imagine this with Brann Bronzebeard. It fits well into a control deck in which you’ll end up buffing quite a few things. At the cost of 2, the stats will be able to make more of a difference than The Mistcaller, and you’ll be able to drop it faster than The Mistcaller.

Rating: Good

Stolen Goods

FUN FACTS:

• While there are a handful of minions with the "buffing in hand" mechanic, this and Forlorn Stalker are the only two that apply that effect based on keywords.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• A Light in the Darkness
• Bolster

REVIEW:

This, as well as our next card, are two more cards to buff Taunt Warrior. In a Taunt Warrior, this card most of the time says “Give a random minion in your hand +3/+3, since there aren't very many non-Taunt minions you’d run in that deck. The only ones I can think of are Varian Wrynn and maybe Cult Master. Maybe Kel'Thuzad if you’re playing it in Wild.

But on the actual card, it's a really nice Taunt Warrior card, or even just a Control Warrior card. With this, you can get a 6/7 Fierce Monkey on turn 3 or a 5/9 Bloodhoof Brave on turn 4, and out-tempo your opponent and/or make them waste their removal on it. You don’t even need a whole deck dedicated to it to work. It also provides a way to buff Soggoth the Slitherer. It doesn't fit every type of Warrior deck, but it fits splendidly in the ones that it does fit in.

Rating: Good

Alley Armorsmith

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first 5 mana 2/7 in the game.
• An fairly similar card called "Iceborn Vanguard" exists in Amaz's Death Knight class concept. It can be seen here. (skip to 30:19)

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Deathlord
• Armorsmith

REVIEW:

Here we the card that Reynad revealed and it’s a cool and useful card. When I first read it, I thought it said "takes damage" instead of "deals damage". If it said that, it would be CRAZY good. It’s probably for the better from a game balance perspective that it doesn’t say that though. At 7 Health, it survives a lot of stuff most other 5 drops wouldn’t survive (it's safe from Fireball), and if one were to try to run minions into it, it would deal a small amount of damage to them, while gaining a small little bit of Armor at the same time. Of course, we all know of Armor compared to healing, allowing you go over 30 Health and working well with cards like Shield Slam.

Speaking of working well with cards, as Reynad mentioned in his reveal video, this works well with buff cards like Cruel Taskmaster, allowing you to deal more damage, thus gain more Armor. He also mentioned that it works well against Aggro, which it does, and good against control too since it’s a 2/7 Taunt which gives you Armor.

The downside to this card though, is that it's very vulnerable to Priests. It can be stolen by Cabal Shadow Priest, and gets destroyed effortlessly with Shadow Word: Pain, and they can even take it with a Potion of Madness + Youthful Brewmaster combo. This is especially relevant because after this expansion releases, we'll probably see a lot of Priests. Taking that out of the equation though, this card is really good.

Rating: Good

Grimestreet Smuggler

FUN FACTS:

• This is the fourth card in the set that buffs minions in the hand, preceded by Trogg Beastrager, Grimestreet Outfitter and Stolen Goods (at the time this review was written).

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Trogg Beastrager
• Forlorn Stalker
• Blackwing Technician

REVIEW:

Well, here is our fifth tri-class card. Only 4 more to go. This is another Grimy Goons card (Paladin, Warrior and Hunter). When you play it, it’s simply a 2/4 for 3 with no immediate effect or combo potential, which isn’t good. It gives a random minion in your hand +1/+1, so it’s like a 3 mana 3/5 in the same way that Trogg Beastrager is a 2 mana 4/3. The minion it gives is random, so it might give the perfect minion you want +1/+1, or it might give the minion you want the least to have +1/+1.

Good in Arena, not so much in Constructed.

Rating: Somewhat Bad/Average

Grimestreet Enforcer

FUN FACTS:

• This is the fifth card in this set with an effect that buffs cards in your hand, preceded by Trogg Beastrager, Grimestreet Outfitter, Stolen Goods and Grimestreet Smuggler. Counting every single card ever made with this effect, this is the only one with an “end of turn” effect. All others are Battlecries (except for Stolen Goods and A Light in the Darkness because those are spells).
• This is the second card in the game with the word "enforcer" in its name, preceded by Temple Enforcer.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• The Mistcaller
• Forlorn Stalker
• Grimestreet Outfitter
• Grimestreet Smuggler
• Emperor Thaurissan

REVIEW:

Here, we have yet another card with this “buffing minions in hand” theme, which seems to be quite popular in this expansion. To be fair, The Mistcaller is a cool card. It may be a bad card, but it's still a cool card. Blizzard appears to be trying to experiment with the mechanic to try to make it better. The mechanic does have potential to be extremely good in control and fatigue matchups where you get to play more of the minions that have stat buffs.

This card is essentially a mid to late game, and bigger version of Grimestreet Outfitter. Both cards accomplish the same purpose very well and mostly act the same way (with a few small differences of course). This card will act as a small Taunt for your opponent, as just like Emperor Thaurissan, your opponent will generally try to remove it immediately, because if it stays alive for multiple turns, it’ll suddenly generate a huge amount of value. Those times where you can keep it on the field for multiple turns will be simply epic. Fortunately Paladins also got a Legendary with Taunt and Divine Shield. It’s a good card for the same reason Grimestreet Outfitter is a good card.

Rating: Good

Grimestreet Pawnbroker

FUN FACTS:

• This is the sixth card of the set that buffs cards in your hand. Out of every card in the game with this mechanic, this is the only one that buffs weapons, all others buff minions.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Bloodsail Cultist
• Orgrimmar Aspirant
• Grimestreet Smuggler
• Upgrade!

REVIEW:

Common themes are common theme, amirite? So anyway, we have yet another Warrior card revealed, once again using the theme of buffing cards in your hand. But this card buffs a weapon in your hand and not minions, and buffing weapons is better and more impactful stat-wise than buffing minions, because not only does it give it extra attack, it offers another swing with the weapon to increase the damage output further. This alone already makes it better than Grimestreet Smuggler. The weapon is buffs is random but that isn’t a big deal since you don’t normally have a lot of weapons in your hand anyway, mostly just one or two.

As a huge upside compare to Upgrade!, or Bloodsail Cultist, you don’t have to actually have the weapon equipped for it to be buffed. You buff if it in your hand, then you can save it for when you actually need it, and that flexibility is huge. The card works perfectly with a lot of Warrior weapons too, more-so than weapons from other classes if it were a Paladin or Rogue card. You can buff a Fiery War Axe, and suddenly it can now be a mid-game weapon and an early game weapon and can kill more 4 drops. You can buff Gorehowl, and now you can attack face once with it, and you can attack another minion with it. If you’re playing Wild, you can go turn 3 this into turn 4 Death’s Bite. Hell, even Tentacles for Arms becomes decent with this card.

Not to mention, this card absolutely crushes Orgrimmar Aspirant.

Rating: Good/Very Good

Shaky Zipgunner

FUN FACTS:

• This is the seventh card in this set with the "buff cards in your hand" mechanic. Out of every card in the game with this ability, this is the only one that applies the effect via Deathrattle.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Forlorn Stalker
• Stolen Goods
• Grimestreet Pawnbroker
• Grimestreet Smuggler

REVIEW:

Well, it’s card number 7 in the set with this effect. So far, most of them have been decent or good. As cool as the effect is, it admittedly does start getting a bit boring after seeing a lot of cards in the set with similar effects, especially consecutively.

As for the card itself, I think the card is decent. Better than Grimestreet Smuggler simply because of the additional +1/+1 it gives over Grimestreet Smuggler. Interestingly, this is and Forlorn Stalker both synergize with each other, so if you want to build a Deathrattle Hunter, here’s a card you can use. It would be better as a Battlecry, but that would probably make the card too powerful, especially for curving out. As it stands now, you play it on 3, and maybe your 4-drop gets +2/+2, which is a pretty big stat increase. While the effect is always good, it being random means you won’t always buff the minion you want to buff. It’s a decent card for Constructed that will probably see some experimental play, and a good card in Arena.

Rating: Average

Worgen Greaser

FUN FACTS:

• This is the fifth Worgen card in the game, preceded by Worgen Infiltrator, Raging Worgen, Twisted Worgen and Kindly Grandmother (not counting its token card, Big Bad Wolf).
• This is the first 4 mana 6/3 in the game.
• This is the first card in the set without text, and the first one in the game since Enchanted Raven.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Ethereal Conjurer
• Hemet Nesingwary
• Magnataur Alpha
• Ice Rager
• Lost Tallstrider

REVIEW:

Filler card number 2 of this expansion, and it’s another not very good one. It may be better than Grook Fu Master, but not by much. As a 6/3 for 4, it does have potential to kill a lot of stuff, but you can say the same thing about Magma Rager, or even Ice Rager. If they survive, you deal 5 damage for 3 mana, without overloading for 2. But how often does that happen? It’s like playing a 1 Health minion in the late game. It surviving is very rare. At 3 Health, it can easily die to a 2-drop or 3 damage spell like Frostbolt or Quick Shot. As bad as it is in Constructed, it’s not even that good in Arena because it trades rather poorly. It’s basically the Duskboar of MSoG so far (knowing Blizzard, we may get another joke card about Magma Rager and that will be the Duskboar of the set, but for the time being, this is it). I suppose it’s better to get this out of the way now, and reveal the really cool cards later though.

Rating: Very Bad

Hired Gun

FUN FACTS:

• Ironically, this is called a "gun", when it's a minion instead of a weapon, or even a spell.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Ironfur Grizzly
• Bear Trap
• Fierce Monkey
• Squirming Tentacle

REVIEW:

Yep, we got two filler cards in a row, meaning this is our third filler card in the set so far. This one however is actually not that bad. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the card is good enough to see Constructed play, but it definitely isn’t terrible. It’s a 3 mana 4/3 with an upside (like Violet Illusionist). At 4 Attack, it kills almost anything that trades into it on turn 3, and even some things on turn 4. It probably won’t see any Constructed play, but it will be a good card in Arena.

Rating: Average

Blowgill Sniper

FUN FACTS:

• This was the first card revealed after Donald Trump was elected as US President.
• This is the first Murloc in the game with a Battlecry that deals damage.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Elven Archer
• Ironforge Rifleman
• Flame Juggler
• Knife Juggler
• Bluegill Warrior
• Murloc Tidehunter
• Disciple of C'Thun

REVIEW:

Upon first glance, this card may look like utter garbage, specifically in comparison with Elven Archer. To be fair, yes the card is bad, but it isn't as bad as it looks. For, it is a Murloc which has obvious synergy with other Murlocs. It also has the ability to deal damage without killing itself. Yes, Bluegill Warrior deals 2 damage, but it most likely will also kill itself in the process, whereas this doesn’t. If we also compare this to Disciple of C'Thun, that card sees play in C'Thun decks, where it deals 1 extra damage for 1 more mana, and loses the Murloc tag. When you think about it that, either this card starts looking better, or Disciple of C'Thun starts looking worse. It probably could be a 2/2 since Blizzard is okay with making strictly better versions of cards (Evil Heckler).

Rating: Somewhat Bad

Dirty Rat

FUN FACTS:

• This is the first 6 Health 2-drop in the game.
• This is the first Kobold in the game that isn't referred to as a Kobold, or any variation of the word, in its card name.
• This is the first Kobold in the game that has nothing to do with Spell Damage.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Alarm-o-Bot
• Ancestor's Call
• Deathlord

REVIEW:

Here is the HearthPwn exclusive card revealed to us, and unlike the previous three cards we’ve talked about, this one is actually interesting. When I say interesting, I mean "VERY interesting". This card is very similar to Deathlord, in which you get a very high-stated minion for the cost (2/6 is preposterously huge for 2, especially with Taunt), but you get the downside of your opponent summoning a random minion from their hand (or deck in the case of Deathlord). When you first read the drawback for the card, some might think "wow, that’s a bad drawback, my opponent can get a huge minion so early on". Sure, that may happen against Control, but against Aggro, most of the minions are very small, and not only might die to the 2 Attack of this card, but also the 6 Health will make a very resilient wall against Aggro. Overall, it'll probably see play for the same reason Deathlord saw play.

Speaking of that card, there are a number of ways you can use this card. Not necessarily just against Aggro, but against certain decks, you can just force their wind condition out of their hand and ruin their deck. Since this costs 2, it'll also be able to follow that up with a removal spell (or even better, an Entomb). If your opponent is playing a C'Thun or N'Zoth deck, you can force their win condition right out of their hand and kill it, and the deck is ruined (unless the C'Thun deck is running Doomcaller). So while the card would normally be bad unless control, it still has its uses against certain decks of this nature.

But unfortunately, a drawback is a drawback, and of course, it’s RNG based. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from cards like Mulch, it’s that no matter how little of a chance there is of something bad happening, something bad still can, and will happen. If you play this against a Paladin and they get Tirion Fordring on turn 2, it’s pretty much gaming over, right then and there.

So overall, it’s not the card for everyone, or every type of situation, but it still has potential to be a meta-defining card against Aggro, specifically.

Rating: Good/Other

Backroom Bouncer

FUN FACTS:

• This and Backstab are the only two cards in the game that start with the word "back".

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• Flesheating Ghoul
• Dark Iron Dwarf

REVIEW:

We went from a disappointing card, to an exciting and interesting card, and then back to a disappointing card again. I mean, not all of them can be winners, and at least this isn’t as "fillerish" as some of the other cards we’ve seen in this section. That being said, it’s still bad. I would rather play Flesheating Ghoul then this because it’s easier to activate and can act as a soft Taunt. Not going to see any Constructed play, decent in Arena. It’s underwhelming that this is a Rare, and they used really good art on this card.

Rating: Somewhat Bad

Dispatch Kodo

FUN FACTS:

• When voting for reveals was occurring, the art for this card was flipped horizontally.
• This card copies the exact text of part of C'Thun's effect. The effect is not the same, but part of the text is.

COMPARABLE CARDS:

• C'Thun
• Keeper of the Grove

REVIEW:

But good news, we get to end this section on a good note with a very exciting Hunter card. It’s text obviously goes very well with the Grimy Goons theme of buffing minions in your hand. While Paladin's seem to have gotten the longest end of the stick there, Hunters themselves have gotten some tools to make this grow. Namely, they have Trogg Beastrager and Shaky Zipgunner, which work well on curve, and will buff this minion up. If for whatever reason, you're running Grimestreet Smuggler, that works well too.

The card is even fine on its own without any buffs. It may not seem that way until you compare it with pre-nerf Keeper of the Grove, which was a 2/4 instead of a 2/2. It ended up seeing play in just about every Druid deck. Granted, it did have the flexibility of also being able to Silence, but this is a Beast, therefore benefits from Beast synergy with is most prevalent in Hunter.

Not to mention, imagine this with Brann Bronzebeard, after buffing this up a bunch. You can potentially get to the lines of “4 mana deal 16 damage” with Brann, which actually might end up being some weird gimmicky combo deck. Overall, it’s a very good card so far, and there still could very well be more "buffing in hand" cards to come to make this even better.

Rating: Very Good