I think this card is the best of the four revealed today. Mainly because Shaman has less to lose in their odd-cost card pool than Mage/Priest/Druid lose from their even-cost cards. Using Shaman with Genn means a turn 1 totem and being able to get totems for only 1 mana means you can fit them in along with overload cards much easier as you go up the curve. No access to Bloodlust is a downside, but I'm sure there's something you can do with access to cheaper totems over the course of the game.
Obviously a good card in a greymane deck, question is which tier a greymane shaman deck will be but lets asume that Greymane is more controlish and baku is more aggressive this would be some kind of control shaman, with hex and stuff but i think that needs a lot to reach top tier but a staple in those decks for sure, so my guess is will see experimenting for sure, may reach tier3 or smth so rating for now is:
3 Star card.
You just found the real reason they nerfed hex to 4 mana.
In a vacuum this card is strong on turn 2 for securing board. A lot of people are comparing this to valet and while they are pretty similar if we consider that valet requires a very specific opening hand to activate its battlecry turn 2, murkspark should always be active and more consistant turn 2 or 3 board swing.
The problem is that outside of a vacuum we havent seen enough support for even or odd only deck lists to really make a judgement call on whether or not this guy has a home. Something to note is that hagatha is an even costing card so she might have a role to play in this new archetype.
Like many I need to see a bigger payoff for having more totems out on the field and it needs to be even costed. If this went with a baku deck I would be more open to it because being able guarantee the totem you need is much stronger than a 1 costing hero power. Assuming a Genn deck comes around this will of course be a massive early game card to look of for.
If the opponent plays "the Darkness" and we have candles in our deck, this Battlecry doesn't activate right? As the words are not "in initial deck" I wouldn't be surprised if we will have more options to put cards on opponents deck.
The candles cost 4 mana and this cards says "if your deck has only even-cost cards deal 2 dmg" 4 is an even number
"If your Hearthstone has only an odd number of deckslots, double your starting number of deckslots."
We are so screwed.
"If your Hearthstone account has an even number of deckslots, divide their amount by two. If their number is odd, multiply their amount by three and add one."
Murkspark Eel is obviously a really great tool akin to Medivh's Valet and could be great in a Totem focused tempo or aggro deck with Genn Greymane. I've seen a few people say that the loss of Bloodlust in "Even Shaman" would mean the board swarm would be pointless, but I like of a Shaman board flood deck that doesn't use the same old win condition.
Spell Hunter became a thing, so i guess Even Shaman can also be playable or even good.
As a comparison, Spell Hunter is helped by Spellstone and Flanking Strike, both of which are synergic, while yet not being designed with one and only purpose.
Likewise, even if Eel is the only direct support to Genn, they probably made more even cost cards that help deck consistency.
The same probably goes for other classes.
Tbh, i think i'll craft both Baku and Genn for theorycrafting and deckbuilding purposes.
So assuming Genn style decks are going to be good... this is an awesome early tempo play. Not much more to say about that. Only I don't know if Genn/Baku decks are going to be tempo decks. This might just be an early stall card so a Genn Shaman can set up its win condition... which is??? I need to see more if I'm going to give this card as good of a rating as it is, so for now... just good.
You don't need to drop the odd cost cards, you don't lose tempo/value if you still have odd cost cards in your deck in the early game, It doesn't activate at the start of the game like Genn Greymane.
It's a river croc early on, but later on it's a valet.
That being said you're hurting yourself if you ignore requirement text.
It's like putting only 1 or 2 duplicates in a Reno deck, quite usable just don't over-do it.
The more I think about Murkspark Eel and the potential of Even Shaman builds, the more I wonder whether or not we'll see more even costed overload cards. Overload has only ever really been good in cases where it a totally broken way to snowball the board (i.e. Tunnel Trogg), and it often ends up as so significant a hindrance that even powerful synergies like Lesser Sapphire Spellstone aren't good enough to mitigate the weakness.
Having a 1 cost hero power is a good way to mitigate mild overload effects without being totally broken, but the even/odd limitation may make that irrelevant. There aren't that many good even costed overload cards in standard today (Jade Claws, Flamewreathed Faceless, and Jinyu Waterspeaker come to mind). But those will rotate. There's still a lot of potential for this in wild with cards like Ancestral Knowledge and Totem Golem and Fireguard Destroyer, but adding new even overloads to standard could be a good way to make the deck more appealing.
More generally, I think this kind of question is going to be big for the even cost decks. It's pretty obvious that having an upgraded hero power for odd decks is good throughout the game, but if you reach turn 10 with an even deck, the cost reduction is meaningless. If your deck can't use its hero power to win before that, you'll want to find some way to get incremental value out of the reduction.
By itself really good, when u look to what is left to shaman to play... Feels bad. On wild can be really good with all the even costs jade cards. Lets wait for the new shaman cards. Shaman needs too much love now, he just losts all his best cards
I think this card is the best of the four revealed today. Mainly because Shaman has less to lose in their odd-cost card pool than Mage/Priest/Druid lose from their even-cost cards. Using Shaman with Genn means a turn 1 totem and being able to get totems for only 1 mana means you can fit them in along with overload cards much easier as you go up the curve. No access to Bloodlust is a downside, but I'm sure there's something you can do with access to cheaper totems over the course of the game.
I thought Medivh's Valet was rotating out
Professional Rank 20 Player
In a vacuum this card is strong on turn 2 for securing board. A lot of people are comparing this to valet and while they are pretty similar if we consider that valet requires a very specific opening hand to activate its battlecry turn 2, murkspark should always be active and more consistant turn 2 or 3 board swing.
The problem is that outside of a vacuum we havent seen enough support for even or odd only deck lists to really make a judgement call on whether or not this guy has a home. Something to note is that hagatha is an even costing card so she might have a role to play in this new archetype.
I can imagine even elemental control. Could be cool.
Like many I need to see a bigger payoff for having more totems out on the field and it needs to be even costed. If this went with a baku deck I would be more open to it because being able guarantee the totem you need is much stronger than a 1 costing hero power. Assuming a Genn deck comes around this will of course be a massive early game card to look of for.
ups, yeah, english is not my mother language, I mistaken one with another.
This by itself is fantastic. If even Shaman can work, this is a staple in it. Too bad that cards like Thunder Bluff Valiant is even costed though.
Murkspark Eel is obviously a really great tool akin to Medivh's Valet and could be great in a Totem focused tempo or aggro deck with Genn Greymane. I've seen a few people say that the loss of Bloodlust in "Even Shaman" would mean the board swarm would be pointless, but I like of a Shaman board flood deck that doesn't use the same old win condition.
"Even Shaman" will still have access to strong cards like Flametongue Totem and board building cards like Kobold Hermit and Primalfin Totem, and could use Murmuring Elemental to turn Murkspark Eel into a strong mid-game tempo play. Maybe "Even Elemental Shaman" could work as the win condition in place of Bloodlust. It would have this and cards like Fire Elemental for tempo swings, and Kalimos, Primal Lord or some Grumble, Worldshaker combo to finish the game.
Strong card but problem is shaman dont need it
I mean i not sure why shaman want 1 mana totem,currently we have a kobold guy with totem synergy but he cost 5 (odd cost)
It's really going to be difficult to judge this new deck building mechanic when all the cards are released so trying now is just taking a wild guess.
They could be getting some new inspire cards like Thunderbluff Valiant.
Looks good, but now i wonder whats the shaman hero and if it interacts with this mechanic
Spell Hunter became a thing, so i guess Even Shaman can also be playable or even good.
As a comparison, Spell Hunter is helped by Spellstone and Flanking Strike, both of which are synergic, while yet not being designed with one and only purpose.
Likewise, even if Eel is the only direct support to Genn, they probably made more even cost cards that help deck consistency.
The same probably goes for other classes.
Tbh, i think i'll craft both Baku and Genn for theorycrafting and deckbuilding purposes.
So assuming Genn style decks are going to be good... this is an awesome early tempo play. Not much more to say about that. Only I don't know if Genn/Baku decks are going to be tempo decks. This might just be an early stall card so a Genn Shaman can set up its win condition... which is??? I need to see more if I'm going to give this card as good of a rating as it is, so for now... just good.
You don't need to drop the odd cost cards, you don't lose tempo/value if you still have odd cost cards in your deck in the early game, It doesn't activate at the start of the game like Genn Greymane.
It's a river croc early on, but later on it's a valet.
That being said you're hurting yourself if you ignore requirement text.
It's like putting only 1 or 2 duplicates in a Reno deck, quite usable just don't over-do it.
The more I think about Murkspark Eel and the potential of Even Shaman builds, the more I wonder whether or not we'll see more even costed overload cards. Overload has only ever really been good in cases where it a totally broken way to snowball the board (i.e. Tunnel Trogg), and it often ends up as so significant a hindrance that even powerful synergies like Lesser Sapphire Spellstone aren't good enough to mitigate the weakness.
Having a 1 cost hero power is a good way to mitigate mild overload effects without being totally broken, but the even/odd limitation may make that irrelevant. There aren't that many good even costed overload cards in standard today (Jade Claws, Flamewreathed Faceless, and Jinyu Waterspeaker come to mind). But those will rotate. There's still a lot of potential for this in wild with cards like Ancestral Knowledge and Totem Golem and Fireguard Destroyer, but adding new even overloads to standard could be a good way to make the deck more appealing.
More generally, I think this kind of question is going to be big for the even cost decks. It's pretty obvious that having an upgraded hero power for odd decks is good throughout the game, but if you reach turn 10 with an even deck, the cost reduction is meaningless. If your deck can't use its hero power to win before that, you'll want to find some way to get incremental value out of the reduction.
By itself really good, when u look to what is left to shaman to play... Feels bad. On wild can be really good with all the even costs jade cards. Lets wait for the new shaman cards. Shaman needs too much love now, he just losts all his best cards
The best of the even cards imo. Now Shaman needs a even aoe ,and some sort of finisher...