I think what people aren’t considering with this card is how it plays in even shaman. It would not be hard to have at least 1, doable 2, totems out on turn 4.
So you can drop it on curve and get a 4/5 taunt or 6/7 taunt.
This is fine as a 6/7, and people are really underestimating the value of a big taunt on turn ~4 to crush aggro. If you remember, Handlock used to be a pretty good deck, and people are still running variants of Cubelock with Mountain Giant. Although your Hero Power is theoretically worse than tapping in this scenario, the Totem Cruncher comes with Taunt, and you don't have to damage yourself, AND Shaman has (imo) better removal than Warlock between Volcano and Lightning Storm and Tidal Surge, AND they have Healing Rain, which could make this a great card. It could work in Even Shaman as well, but I think this card isn't necessarily a great one for a more Tempo-based deck, which I assume Even Shaman would want to be, since it misses 3 of the 4 pretty important cards listed above for control.
As for the argument that the card is a 4 Mana 2/3, 6 Mana 4/5, etc, it's a lot better than that because you don't pay that cost all on one turn, and you can get use out of your Totems (especially Wrath of Air Totem) before you crunch them.
you have to hit 3 totems for this to be good, and if you have 3 totems out you might as well go for the windshear and try summon al'akir.
What. How do u need to hit 3 totems to that be good? With 2 totens it's already a 4 mana 6/7 taunt ... With 3 its a 4 mana 8/9 taunt... Yeah, if u mean to use hero power before playing the card, yeah, u could be right, but that is not needed.
Now that I've had the chance to use a Silver Hand Paladin deck, the weakness of Totem synergy cards is all too apparent now: Shamans don't have enough ways to summon totems to make synergies with them worthwhile. So far, we've got Kobold Hermit, Primal Talismans, Blackwald Pixie, and Genn Greymane to help out, but I still don't think this is enough. I hope to see at least one totem summoning card this expansion to support the decision to print this card. Maybe then I will have a chance of using the Windshear Stormcaller.
Even if I get enough totems to get good value for this card, cards that destroy your own minions rarely work in non-Warlock decks, and the reward is dubious given the setup and cost for using this card.
I think it could be decent early game in some matchups. One of the biggest issues I see, though, is that it becomes a major dead card after you play either Thrall, Deathseer or Hagatha.
you have to hit 3 totems for this to be good, and if you have 3 totems out you might as well go for the windshear and try summon al'akir.
What. How do u need to hit 3 totems to that be good? With 2 totens it's already a 4 mana 6/7 taunt ... With 3 its a 4 mana 8/9 taunt... Yeah, if u mean to use hero power before playing the card, yeah, u could be right, but that is not needed.
if you hit 1 basic totem, you get 4/3 in stats for 4 mana; you would never put this in your deck. if you hit 2 basic totems, you get 6/3 or 5/4 in stats for 4 mana; you would never put this in your deck.
so you have to hit 3 basic totems to get 8/3 or7/4 in stats for 4 mana, this is marginal to include (salty dog was awful at 5 mana, unconditionally).
if you have a flametongue or mana tide on board, this is unplayable.
hitting 2 basic totems does not mean playing a 6/7 taunt for 4. you need to subtract the 4 stats you took off the board by destroying your own totems.
Why is everyone so hesitant to sacrifice totems? They're mostly situational. The spell power totem only matters if you have AoE spells in hand or that +1 will help you kill something, the healing totem only matters if you have damaged minions and the taunt totem only matters if it's able to stop a minion with 3+ attack. Normally totems are lost for nothing, other than saving you 2+ dmg to the face
1. is Even shaman good? Cheap hero powers from turn 1 is the only way this thing will be consistent
2. Would Senjin Shieldmasta be played if it had 4 attack instead of 3? (In most cases this card will be a 4/5 with taunt) With a chance for it to be a 6/7?
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you have to hit 3 totems for this to be good, and if you have 3 totems out you might as well go for the windshear and try summon al'akir.
Three?
With just ONE totem its a 4/5 TAUNT for 4, which is already over budget
you destroyed your own 2 mana totem, so it's a 4/5 taunt for 6. which is terrible. run tar creeper. run second rate bruiser. run sen'jin. run sunwalker.
6/7 taunt for 8. run bog creeper instead. unplayable.
8/9 taunt for 10. run soggoth. run giant mastadon. i had to look up the name of that card is how unplayable it is.
10/11 taunt for 12. you already lost the game. queue up again.
EDIT: you are evaluating the card as if it reads "gain +2/+2 for each friendly totem", but that is not what it says.
Primal Talismans and Spirit Echo may combo together in a newish shamman totem deck, gimmicky? maybe, but it sound sway more fun than the old thunderbluff valiant thing
I think what people aren’t considering with this card is how it plays in even shaman. It would not be hard to have at least 1, doable 2, totems out on turn 4.
So you can drop it on curve and get a 4/5 taunt or 6/7 taunt.
Are you guys really not seeing the support for cards that allow totems to build on board? I'll give you a moment to think it over.
This is fine as a 6/7, and people are really underestimating the value of a big taunt on turn ~4 to crush aggro. If you remember, Handlock used to be a pretty good deck, and people are still running variants of Cubelock with Mountain Giant. Although your Hero Power is theoretically worse than tapping in this scenario, the Totem Cruncher comes with Taunt, and you don't have to damage yourself, AND Shaman has (imo) better removal than Warlock between Volcano and Lightning Storm and Tidal Surge, AND they have Healing Rain, which could make this a great card. It could work in Even Shaman as well, but I think this card isn't necessarily a great one for a more Tempo-based deck, which I assume Even Shaman would want to be, since it misses 3 of the 4 pretty important cards listed above for control.
As for the argument that the card is a 4 Mana 2/3, 6 Mana 4/5, etc, it's a lot better than that because you don't pay that cost all on one turn, and you can get use out of your Totems (especially Wrath of Air Totem) before you crunch them.
Now that I've had the chance to use a Silver Hand Paladin deck, the weakness of Totem synergy cards is all too apparent now: Shamans don't have enough ways to summon totems to make synergies with them worthwhile. So far, we've got Kobold Hermit, Primal Talismans, Blackwald Pixie, and Genn Greymane to help out, but I still don't think this is enough. I hope to see at least one totem summoning card this expansion to support the decision to print this card. Maybe then I will have a chance of using the Windshear Stormcaller.
Even if I get enough totems to get good value for this card, cards that destroy your own minions rarely work in non-Warlock decks, and the reward is dubious given the setup and cost for using this card.
It's a bad card that might be playable because of Genn.
I think it could be decent early game in some matchups. One of the biggest issues I see, though, is that it becomes a major dead card after you play either Thrall, Deathseer or Hagatha.
its like when they print shaman cards, they make a good card. and go "oh wait, its shaman add 2 more mana too it"
I kill Shaman Totems myself anyways. This will be really hard to activate.
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if you hit 2 basic totems, you get 6/3 or 5/4 in stats for 4 mana; you would never put this in your deck.
if you have a flametongue or mana tide on board, this is unplayable.
hitting 2 basic totems does not mean playing a 6/7 taunt for 4. you need to subtract the 4 stats you took off the board by destroying your own totems.
Why is everyone so hesitant to sacrifice totems? They're mostly situational. The spell power totem only matters if you have AoE spells in hand or that +1 will help you kill something, the healing totem only matters if you have damaged minions and the taunt totem only matters if it's able to stop a minion with 3+ attack. Normally totems are lost for nothing, other than saving you 2+ dmg to the face
To me the checklist for this card to be good is:
1. is Even shaman good? Cheap hero powers from turn 1 is the only way this thing will be consistent
2. Would Senjin Shieldmasta be played if it had 4 attack instead of 3? (In most cases this card will be a 4/5 with taunt) With a chance for it to be a 6/7?
No clue What to think about it
This is good. this is not for finisher. just play it even you dont have totems on board.
Sack your board for an easily removed minion that can't even attack until the opponent gets a go - what could possibly go wrong? The Dustwood tradition continues...
Free to try and find a game, dealing cards for sorrow, cards for pain.
10/11 taunt for 12. you already lost the game. queue up again.
EDIT: you are evaluating the card as if it reads "gain +2/+2 for each friendly totem", but that is not what it says.