Overhyped: Spiritsinger Umbra, no good deathrattle effects to combo with, impossible to survive turn 4
Underhyped: Bittertide Hydra insane in Hunter and aggro decks, may even destroy the meta
I disagree on Spiritsinger Umbra simply because i think its going to be nuts in a jade rogue. Jade loses brann, but that doesn't affect rogue at all, and so i think jade rogue gains a lot relative to the other two jade classes, and spiritsinger umbra is that card that is going to make that engine chug.
I completely agree onBittertide Hydra though, that card either clears the board for you at the cost of health (and where your opponent has a board with a zoo deck, they were going to hit your face likely anyway at close to the same health loss to you), and if your opponent uses a big removal spell, the card only burns three health of yours or maybe not any in the case ofHex,Polymorph, and BGH. DEFINITELY going to be one of the top cards in the set IMO.
Giant Wasp I think is underhyped. He demands AOE removal or a small taunt to block him, otherwise he can slam his infinite attack into some really big creatures.
Tears are gonna flow over that mage quest mark my words. As far as freeze mage goes, it's not like they did anything on turn 1 as it is.
Mage quest will do well in tempo, if that's a thing, but it stings losing waker and torches - may be wild only. You've got to cut something for those 6-9 random spell generators, though. What are you cutting from freeze? Burn, forcing you down the combo route every game, and weakening the aggro MU by not being able to just burn them out (hint: common way to win in freeze does not involve alex)? Stall, weakening every MU? Draw, slowing you down massively, and making you less consistent as they're replaced with... random chaff that doesn't synergize. This won't touch Wild freeze; standard freeze is too dead as it stands, and I feel that quest freeze will fail. The quest's strength is that it lets you combo and play around mass heals/loatheb, or come back into a game against aggro with T8 warp+Doom, T9 defensive alex. With less draw, though, you'll hit that defensive alex much less, let alone get to T9 as much, and as for the negating of burst healing.... in standard? Not much healing, to be honest. In wild, regular freeze is more reliable, and regular freeze with pyro swapped for Maly is a better tech for a control and heavy healing meta. 5 mana time walks in MTG don't see a lot of play either, and particularly not when there's hoops to leap through and no chance of reuse, owing to HS having no GY. Overhyped card, IMHO.
You are trying to fit the card into an established deck type. This effect I think is strong enough and mage spells are strong enough (often not just "random chaff" for this to create an archtype around. Honestly I am playing around with the idea of making a Elemental Mage deck with this quest. It may not work out and maybe I am wrong, but taking an extra turn is VERY powerful. Minions on board basically have windfury, minions that you can cast have charge AND you get 15 mana to work with. I think the general quality of mage spells can make up for a lot of the randomness.
I don't really envision that being anything like freeze; certainly an option, and I feel it would fit very, very well into a tempo mage shell - but is the rest of the shell good enough? In wild, it's good enough for it, obv, with Portal as a major strength. Not combo, more tempo, certainly. And Overhyped in that everyone thinks it's utterly broken in combo - whereas I think it's more a srtong lategame in a tempo shell :)
Yeah, part of my mind was saying that, would it be better to just include more tempo cards rather than the giants, and close out "however" with an extra turn?
As a rogue player, I think Bittertide Hydra is great. By all means, play your 5 mana kill yourself card. It allows me to focus on a single target and you lose 30% of your health in the process. Have fun! Backstab, Si, Eviscerate.
I would also like to mention Frozen Crusher. This according to community is one of the worst cards in the set. But in certain elemental decks (not shaman) it might actually see play. Almost unconditional Drakonid Crusher with elemental tag that comes before Blazecaller. Certain decks can taunt it up or silence if needed. And its still an 8/8 for 6. It will get that value trade unless you remove it.
Overhyped: Spiritsinger Umbra, no good deathrattle effects to combo with, impossible to survive turn 4
Underhyped: Bittertide Hydra insane in Hunter and aggro decks, may even destroy the meta
I agree. Umbra will see play, don't get me wrong, but the people are way overblowing how great it is and the combo's it'll pull off. I see it in N'Zoth priest with Crystalline, but I don't see it being used much in other decks unless we get a new Rogue or Hunter deathrattle deck, but I can't imagine them being top tier. It's not the same as Bronn because battlecries have a much bigger effect than deathrattles, and it's one more mana.
Hydra looks nasty in a aggro deck. The only saving grace is that Hunter lacks good early game removal tools to ensure he's played on an empty board. Might show up in a different aggro deck though.
I haven't seen anything about this but wouldn't Stubborn Gastropod (or any targetable poisonous minion) + Shadowflame be a boardclear?
No. Shadowflame is a spell that deals the damage (can be increased by spell damage). The minion that gets destroyed by Shadowflame does not deal the damage. Compare to Wild Pyromancer which deals the damage itself when a spell is played (and is NOT affected by spell damage)
Overhyped: Spiritsinger Umbra, no good deathrattle effects to combo with, impossible to survive turn 4
Underhyped: Bittertide Hydra insane in Hunter and aggro decks, may even destroy the meta
I agree. Umbra will see play, don't get me wrong, but the people are way overblowing how great it is and the combo's it'll pull off. I see it in N'Zoth priest with Crystalline, but I don't see it being used much in other decks unless we get a new Rogue or Hunter deathrattle deck, but I can't imagine them being top tier. It's not the same as Bronn because battlecries have a much bigger effect than deathrattles, and it's one more mana.
Hydra looks nasty in a aggro deck. The only saving grace is that Hunter lacks good early game removal tools to ensure he's played on an empty board. Might show up in a different aggro deck though.
Yeah, I'm imagining Silence priest turn 2 2/5 with spell reduction or 4/5 into turn 3 4/8 into turn 4 tutor and silence effects or taunt or divine spirit/ inner fire into turn 5 8/8 or 5/5 silence... I don't know... seems good.
I haven't seen anything about this but wouldn't Stubborn Gastropod (or any targetable poisonous minion) + Shadowflame be a boardclear?
No. Shadowflame is a spell that deals the damage (can be increased by spell damage). The minion that gets destroyed by Shadowflame does not deal the damage. Compare to Wild Pyromancer which deals the damage itself when a spell is played (and is NOT affected by spell damage)
Ah ok. I wasn't taking into account that Cobra and Patient Assassin are changing to poisonous tag as well.
So I guess getting poisonous on any minion that deals damage on deathrattle wouldn't work that way either. But getting poisonous on Geddon would be a boardclear?
I haven't seen anything about this but wouldn't Stubborn Gastropod (or any targetable poisonous minion) + Shadowflame be a boardclear?
No. Shadowflame is a spell that deals the damage (can be increased by spell damage). The minion that gets destroyed by Shadowflame does not deal the damage. Compare to Wild Pyromancer which deals the damage itself when a spell is played (and is NOT affected by spell damage)
Ah ok. I wasn't taking into account that Cobra and Patient Assassin are changing to poisonous tag as well.
So I guess getting poisonous on any minion that deals damage on deathrattle wouldn't work that way either. But getting poisonous on Geddon would be a boardclear?
Deathrattle would work actually it's still the minion causing it.
Underrated: Living Mana - A great many people have downplayed the power that Living Mana provides. Now that we've seen Spiritsinger Umbra, Token Druid has three cards it can run to immediately regain all lost mana immediately (Umbra + 2x Pilfered Power if they need to. These happen to be practical ways to negate the downside for Druid, so Living Mana makes for a great board refill and puts your opponent in check if they just spent their resources clearing your previous board.
Lyra the Sunshard - A lot of Priest's more situational spells are rotating out with TGT, and since Priest spells are either extremely cheap or have powerful effects, under most circumstances, you'll be able to cycle into something powerful while pumping out value incrementally. The only truly dead card you can get is Shadow Word-Horror, since it doesn't cycle easily, nor is the effect good at all.
Fire Plume Harbinger - Though it has the unfortunate honor of being the best 2-drop elemental Shaman has access to (being a mere 1/1), people are sleeping on its effect. Bear in mind, Al'Akir the Windlord is receiving the new tag, and can consequently now have its cost reduced. Rockbiter Weapon and Primal Fusion are both fine ways to buff this card and greatly augment Shaman's ability to close out games, or can help it pair with Lava Burst if need be.
Ozruk - The sheer amount of options you have to generate Flame Elemental tokens ensure that you'll almost always have a way to pump up Ozruk's health to the extreme. Any skilled player knows how to bait removal to protect their bigger threats, and Elemental decks have enough threats that you can make your opponent use them before you set up a massive Ozruk turn. Most control decks won't have a way to punch through this if you play your cards right.
Tears are gonna flow over that mage quest mark my words. As far as freeze mage goes, it's not like they did anything on turn 1 as it is.
Mage quest will do well in tempo, if that's a thing, but it stings losing waker and torches - may be wild only. You've got to cut something for those 6-9 random spell generators, though. What are you cutting from freeze? Burn, forcing you down the combo route every game, and weakening the aggro MU by not being able to just burn them out (hint: common way to win in freeze does not involve alex)? Stall, weakening every MU? Draw, slowing you down massively, and making you less consistent as they're replaced with... random chaff that doesn't synergize. This won't touch Wild freeze; standard freeze is too dead as it stands, and I feel that quest freeze will fail. The quest's strength is that it lets you combo and play around mass heals/loatheb, or come back into a game against aggro with T8 warp+Doom, T9 defensive alex. With less draw, though, you'll hit that defensive alex much less, let alone get to T9 as much, and as for the negating of burst healing.... in standard? Not much healing, to be honest. In wild, regular freeze is more reliable, and regular freeze with pyro swapped for Maly is a better tech for a control and heavy healing meta. 5 mana time walks in MTG don't see a lot of play either, and particularly not when there's hoops to leap through and no chance of reuse, owing to HS having no GY. Overhyped card, IMHO.
You are trying to fit the card into an established deck type. This effect I think is strong enough and mage spells are strong enough (often not just "random chaff" for this to create an archtype around. Honestly I am playing around with the idea of making a Elemental Mage deck with this quest. It may not work out and maybe I am wrong, but taking an extra turn is VERY powerful. Minions on board basically have windfury, minions that you can cast have charge AND you get 15 mana to work with. I think the general quality of mage spells can make up for a lot of the randomness.
I don't really envision that being anything like freeze; certainly an option, and I feel it would fit very, very well into a tempo mage shell - but is the rest of the shell good enough? In wild, it's good enough for it, obv, with Portal as a major strength. Not combo, more tempo, certainly. And Overhyped in that everyone thinks it's utterly broken in combo - whereas I think it's more a srtong lategame in a tempo shell :)
Well in that we agree. Utterly broken? No. I think the quality of mage spells will help to temper the randomness but it will never eliminate it. There is still far more variance than in a less random deck and hence, less consistency. I think it will be powerful, and people will bitch, it won't be broken though, for the very reasons you laid out already.
I plan on building a highlander deck around it. Why? Because I really like to punish myself. And cause I still love Kazakus.
Crackling Razormaw I see as one of those disgusting sleeper cards that literally nobody is talking about. Has the potential to turn a beast into a Shielded Minibot or itself be a mini Kabal Talonpriest . Might not activate enough, but can still be so gross
Stone Sentinel is also another sleeper card nobody seems to be mentioning. In an elemental deck this will always be active, and while it's active it's a new dr 7. Spoopy
And on the flipside, I think Lightfused Stegodon is complete crap, it's like a Crystalweaver with admittedly much higher flexibility and potential for broken stuff, but a far worse body, and seeing how Crystalweaver isn't played I don't see this making the cut either
Crackling Razormaw I see as one of those disgusting sleeper cards that literally nobody is talking about. Has the potential to turn a beast into a Shielded Minibot or itself be a mini Kabal Talonpriest . Might not activate enough, but can still be so gross
Crackling Razormaw isn't being talked about? I passed over it in my review because I feel like people are all in agreement that it's amazing.
I tried theorycrafting a Druid Quest deck and I have to agree, I don't think it will be better than Jade Druid, a big reason is because we are missing Rag and Sylvanas, but playing 0 mana Y'Shaarj, Ysera, Soggoth, AoW and Bog Creeper still sounds pretty tempting so if I get Jungle Giants from a pack I'll probably try something like this:
I've tried to take care of the need for card draw to really benefit of all your minions costing 0 by including 2x Nourish, Elise the Trailblazer, Hemet, Jungle Hunter and a Fight Promoter. Hemet will make your topdecks better while also having 5+ atk for the quest, Elise as well help you complete the quest and she can give you a way to refill your hand once you've activated the quest and played out all your minions...I might wanna try to find room for a 2nd Fight Promoter depending on how well she performs.
The Curator seems to be a better option than Fight Promoter - ideally, it pulls Alexstrasza and Tyrantus, and you win the game the following turn. Bright-Eyed Scout is also an option - if she pulls a big minion on turn four, you might not have to complete the quest in order to win the game. Having an alternate win-condition will be important for the non-aggro quests - presumably, there will be plenty of games where Druid simply whiffs on completing the quest, but a lucky Scout might save the day.
I considered Bright-Eyed Scout, but didn't wanna include it due to being a 3 attack minion and I want to fulfill the quest as quickly as possible so I feel it might be better running like Shellshifter instead, I may be wrong, maybe I could swap those if Shellshifter turns out to be too crap....however remember that Bright-Eyed Scout will also make your 0 mana minions cost 5 if you play this after Barnabus the Stomper so it kinda has anti-synergy with the quest.
What is Hearthstone to you? A fun and semi-competitive game with wacky effects and crazy RNG outcomes or just a card game you wanna grind as many wins you can get as fast as possible in?
Giant Wasp I think is underhyped. He demands AOE removal or a small taunt to block him, otherwise he can slam his infinite attack into some really big creatures.
As a rogue player, I think Bittertide Hydra is great. By all means, play your 5 mana kill yourself card. It allows me to focus on a single target and you lose 30% of your health in the process. Have fun! Backstab, Si, Eviscerate.
I haven't seen anything about this but wouldn't Stubborn Gastropod (or any targetable poisonous minion) + Shadowflame be a boardclear?
I would also like to mention Frozen Crusher. This according to community is one of the worst cards in the set. But in certain elemental decks (not shaman) it might actually see play. Almost unconditional Drakonid Crusher with elemental tag that comes before Blazecaller. Certain decks can taunt it up or silence if needed. And its still an 8/8 for 6. It will get that value trade unless you remove it.
I think like bronn you need to play on the same turn as your deathrattles to gain value when you have high mana. The best application I see of this is jade rogue. Spiritsinger Umbra > Jade Swarmer > Jade Swarmer > Shadowstep could be a very big turn or even Spiritsinger Umbra > Aya Blackpaw would be pretty good.
The most underrated cards in my opinion are:
Ravasaur Runt
Sherazin, Corpse Flower
Bittertide Hydra
Underrated: Living Mana - A great many people have downplayed the power that Living Mana provides. Now that we've seen Spiritsinger Umbra, Token Druid has three cards it can run to immediately regain all lost mana immediately (Umbra + 2x Pilfered Power if they need to. These happen to be practical ways to negate the downside for Druid, so Living Mana makes for a great board refill and puts your opponent in check if they just spent their resources clearing your previous board.
Lyra the Sunshard - A lot of Priest's more situational spells are rotating out with TGT, and since Priest spells are either extremely cheap or have powerful effects, under most circumstances, you'll be able to cycle into something powerful while pumping out value incrementally. The only truly dead card you can get is Shadow Word-Horror, since it doesn't cycle easily, nor is the effect good at all.
Fire Plume Harbinger - Though it has the unfortunate honor of being the best 2-drop elemental Shaman has access to (being a mere 1/1), people are sleeping on its effect. Bear in mind, Al'Akir the Windlord is receiving the new tag, and can consequently now have its cost reduced. Rockbiter Weapon and Primal Fusion are both fine ways to buff this card and greatly augment Shaman's ability to close out games, or can help it pair with Lava Burst if need be.
Ozruk - The sheer amount of options you have to generate Flame Elemental tokens ensure that you'll almost always have a way to pump up Ozruk's health to the extreme. Any skilled player knows how to bait removal to protect their bigger threats, and Elemental decks have enough threats that you can make your opponent use them before you set up a massive Ozruk turn. Most control decks won't have a way to punch through this if you play your cards right.
Crackling Razormaw I see as one of those disgusting sleeper cards that literally nobody is talking about. Has the potential to turn a beast into a Shielded Minibot or itself be a mini Kabal Talonpriest . Might not activate enough, but can still be so gross
Stone Sentinel is also another sleeper card nobody seems to be mentioning. In an elemental deck this will always be active, and while it's active it's a new dr 7. Spoopy
And on the flipside, I think Lightfused Stegodon is complete crap, it's like a Crystalweaver with admittedly much higher flexibility and potential for broken stuff, but a far worse body, and seeing how Crystalweaver isn't played I don't see this making the cut either
Stampede is probably the most overrated card along with Gluttonous Ooze and Golakka Crawler
What is Hearthstone to you?
A fun and semi-competitive game with wacky effects and crazy RNG outcomes or just a card game you wanna grind as many wins you can get as fast as possible in?
Death to all who oppose the Horde!