I also think people are misevaluating the upgraded hero powers based on Justicar... 2 damage ping is way better at the start of the game then on turn 7 (sometimes)
Yes but after rotation there won t be any good odd spell that costs 5 or more (except flamestrike and dragon fury). Without Ice Block mages will have trouble making a control deck. Although they could run arcane artificiers, the lack of early and late game removal (like frosbolt and blizzard) would make these deck too inconsistent. What s more, with the rotation mages will lose Cabalist tome, Volcanic Potion and Firelands portal, which means a lot of good odd cards will rotate soon. Finally, Dragon fury needs a deck based on big spells, so you can t run too many secrets if you don t want to play a 5 mana cost hellfire. IMO Team 5 MUST give mages more cheap AoEs as dragon fury, but without the limitation on the deck.
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"The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days..."
Overall pretty good and would absolutely see play in odd mage decks which could end up working should they get some anti aggro tools (Jaina is one of the strongest win conditions in hearthstone right now). I guess it depends on if mage is getting more healing or taunts to survive until Jania that will decide whether this gets played or not. This wont see play in any aggro mage because to many even cards are important to what aggro mage does.
You know what the problem is when I see card reviews, people keep looking for the cards to be meta defining. I just watched Regiskillbin's review on Youtube and basically he does not seem interested unless the card is OP or meta defining and that is the problem with card reviews.
These cards revealed today such as Black Cat, Gloom Stag, Murkspark Eel and Glitter Moth in their respective even/odd decks are very powerful cards for their cost, and they are balanced by the fact that in order to get their powerful effects they have to be restricted in an odd/even deck. These cards are what I call building blocks, they help make their respective odd/even decks better. If a class is able to make a top tier odd/even deck, these cards are probably going to be in that deck for their respective class. They are not meta defining by themselves, however they will be pretty damn good in an even/odd deck.
We'll just have to see what more support the even/odd decks get. But I am liking what I am seeing so far. Black Cat is basically a mini azure drake in an odd cost deck and that is pretty good, we'll just need to see if the deck works but cards like this will help.
I also think people are misevaluating the upgraded hero powers based on Justicar... 2 damage ping is way better at the start of the game then on turn 7 (sometimes)
If you ask me - a Justicar effect in mage is really strong, but this is one of those classes, where the benefit of having an upgraded HP doesn't outweigh the sacrifice of consistency. And I'm not saying, that the HP is weak in general, nor that's not that attractive, but rather that you would prefer to keep your even cost cards in your deck, as they are too good to be cut. Of course, it's better to wait and to see how the next expansion will look like, but for now things aren't rose-coloured for odd mage.
look. take a bad card (Ogre Magi), add one mana and draw a card, it becomes one of the best cards in the game. (Azure Drake)
take a bad card (Soot Spewer) and add draw a card, it becomes absolutely broken.
lets see how this works in mage, and if it works well, this card is probably one of the best cards ever printed, right up there with Patches the Pirate, Kobold Librarian, and Duskbreaker
If baku work with jaina then odd mage will be great. But it doesnt, so it can not compensate for the lost of all great even cards mage has. No way team 5 can print enough odd replacement for frost bolt, fireball, polymorph, blizzard, meotor in just 1 expansion
Black Cat could be interesting in some kind of "Odd Big Spell Mage." Big Spell Mage often struggled to control the early game with such a limited set of minions and no real access to card draw or cycle (assuming you didn't run Arcane Intellect, because it's a tiny spell...). This helps a bit with that, and the upgraded hero power from Baku the Mooneater could make it easier to manage the board in the earlier turns before you can activate Dragon's Fury or Flamestrike. You'd also still have powerful end game tools like Frost Lich Jaina and Dragoncaller Alanna.
The trickiest thing here would be Cubelock. Assuming it isn't dominated out of the meta (which seems unlikely), the lack of even cost cards would mean no access to Polymorph, which would be an unfortunate gap (unless the add something for that).
By the way, discount Azure Drake is good and always good.
We shall see more odd cost spell soon properly odd cost big spells because Big Spell Mage has problem at early game with limited to no removal, the upgraded HP will helps to fight for the board along side the elemental package. Then in the late game when 2 damage HP is not that important anymore, we can go for Jaina and get lifesteal and water elementals or Alana and get a board of 5/5 (discount N'zoth?).
Azure 🐈 can work in tempo mage, but all mage cheap burn cards are even. And I highly doubt they will add at least two odd burn cards now.
So for current archetypes it can fit big spell mage, as it fits dk, alex, Alana... But big mage without blizzard, meteor, polymorph? Also big mage doesn't need card draw and spd so much. I would better add single Thalnos instead of this cats
I also think people are misevaluating the upgraded hero powers based on Justicar... 2 damage ping is way better at the start of the game then on turn 7 (sometimes)
RIP Azure Drake TOO SOON
Professional Rank 20 Player
So alanna and jaina are both 9. It could be cool control mage.
Yes but after rotation there won t be any good odd spell that costs 5 or more (except flamestrike and dragon fury). Without Ice Block mages will have trouble making a control deck. Although they could run arcane artificiers, the lack of early and late game removal (like frosbolt and blizzard) would make these deck too inconsistent. What s more, with the rotation mages will lose Cabalist tome, Volcanic Potion and Firelands portal, which means a lot of good odd cards will rotate soon. Finally, Dragon fury needs a deck based on big spells, so you can t run too many secrets if you don t want to play a 5 mana cost hellfire. IMO Team 5 MUST give mages more cheap AoEs as dragon fury, but without the limitation on the deck.
"The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days..."
Overall pretty good and would absolutely see play in odd mage decks which could end up working should they get some anti aggro tools (Jaina is one of the strongest win conditions in hearthstone right now). I guess it depends on if mage is getting more healing or taunts to survive until Jania that will decide whether this gets played or not. This wont see play in any aggro mage because to many even cards are important to what aggro mage does.
You know what the problem is when I see card reviews, people keep looking for the cards to be meta defining. I just watched Regiskillbin's review on Youtube and basically he does not seem interested unless the card is OP or meta defining and that is the problem with card reviews.
These cards revealed today such as Black Cat, Gloom Stag, Murkspark Eel and Glitter Moth in their respective even/odd decks are very powerful cards for their cost, and they are balanced by the fact that in order to get their powerful effects they have to be restricted in an odd/even deck. These cards are what I call building blocks, they help make their respective odd/even decks better. If a class is able to make a top tier odd/even deck, these cards are probably going to be in that deck for their respective class. They are not meta defining by themselves, however they will be pretty damn good in an even/odd deck.
We'll just have to see what more support the even/odd decks get. But I am liking what I am seeing so far. Black Cat is basically a mini azure drake in an odd cost deck and that is pretty good, we'll just need to see if the deck works but cards like this will help.
Breath of Sindragosa I think could possibly work as a good alternative to frostbolt
look. take a bad card (Ogre Magi), add one mana and draw a card, it becomes one of the best cards in the game. (Azure Drake)
take a bad card (Soot Spewer) and add draw a card, it becomes absolutely broken.
lets see how this works in mage, and if it works well, this card is probably one of the best cards ever printed, right up there with Patches the Pirate, Kobold Librarian, and Duskbreaker
First beast in mage - Raven Familiar (2/2/2) second beast in mage - Black Cat (3/3/3)
Is there a trend I see?
If baku work with jaina then odd mage will be great. But it doesnt, so it can not compensate for the lost of all great even cards mage has. No way team 5 can print enough odd replacement for frost bolt, fireball, polymorph, blizzard, meotor in just 1 expansion
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Black Cat could be interesting in some kind of "Odd Big Spell Mage." Big Spell Mage often struggled to control the early game with such a limited set of minions and no real access to card draw or cycle (assuming you didn't run Arcane Intellect, because it's a tiny spell...). This helps a bit with that, and the upgraded hero power from Baku the Mooneater could make it easier to manage the board in the earlier turns before you can activate Dragon's Fury or Flamestrike. You'd also still have powerful end game tools like Frost Lich Jaina and Dragoncaller Alanna.
The trickiest thing here would be Cubelock. Assuming it isn't dominated out of the meta (which seems unlikely), the lack of even cost cards would mean no access to Polymorph, which would be an unfortunate gap (unless the add something for that).
Dust card.
Azure 🐈 can work in tempo mage, but all mage cheap burn cards are even. And I highly doubt they will add at least two odd burn cards now.
So for current archetypes it can fit big spell mage, as it fits dk, alex, Alana... But big mage without blizzard, meteor, polymorph? Also big mage doesn't need card draw and spd so much. I would better add single Thalnos instead of this cats