PLEASE READ THE RATING SYSTEM FIRST. THIS IS ONLY MY HONEST OPINION AND I'M WELL AWARE I COULD BE WRONG.
I want to give a very special thanks to the Hearthpwn Devs as well as the community. It's your resources and input that make this fun for me. Writing is my favorite thing to do when I'm on the train and not working. Thank you all!
Rating System: Ratings will be based off of how often or how impactful the card will be in the next standard META. This means the next four months or so. It will be based off of that merit and that merit only. The first couple of weeks where everybody is testing everything doesn't count. Credit goes to Trump, the Mayor of Value Town, for the rating system.
One Star – Unplayed.
Two Stars – In a bottom-tier deck OR saw some competitive play at some point past the first week OR a rare choice for a tech card OR a staple in a meme deck OR replaces a card in a deck but it still becomes worse due to the rotation OR is seen in a tournament and used to win.
Three Stars – In a Tier 3 deck OR occasional tech card OR replaces a card in a deck, but doesn’t change it much.
Four Stars – In a Tier 2 deck OR defines Tier 3 deck OR Multiple worse decks.
Five Stars – In a Tier 1 deck OR defines Tier 2 deck OR Multiple decks OR saves a deck from getting worse.
Priest Cards:
Zerek, Master Cloner – One Star – This seems like an effect an Epic minion would have. Priest has many targetable cards and only a few of them make sense to cast on this guy. Unidentified Elixir, Power Word: Shield, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Extra Arms and MAYBE Holy Water, but… running all of these cards in your deck with his effect is just not worth it. Sure you can also trigger this guys effect with healing cards like Binding Light, but that’s just not worth your time. Priest is going to need a lot more support if this card is going to see play, and even then it’s not probable. There’s a lot of talk with using Test Subject, tons of buffs, and a Radiant Elementals to make a giant OTK combo. If that works, this card would be the perfect fit. I don’t see that happening as it’s subject to Silence and being too slow to pull off. While you’re trying to pull this off, your opponent has already gotten the upper hand. This card doesn’t seem like it fits anywhere in the present and the future.
Zerek's Cloning Gallery – Two Stars – It’s an incredible idea with fun flavor, but I’d be lying if I said I saw more than just memes with this card. The main problem with it is that it’s tremendously draw-dependent. Even if you get it early, it can only be played on turn 8-9, depending on if you have The Coin. That means every game, you’ll have to deal with 8 or more turns hoping you draw this AND none of the minions you want to combo this with. That’s hard to do, even with Shadow Visions. This still gets two stars because of the fringe applications it has to offer. First of all, OTK decks are possible with Holy Smite, Mind Blast, Malygos, Radiant Elemental, and Prophet Velen. It’s just very arduous and unreliable because you have to hope you don’t draw any of those cards and that’s difficult. You can also finish off your Quest with the play of a single card, but you usually can finish it before turn 8-9 making it kinda futile. There are also so fun ideas by playing big Deathrattles like Mechanical Whelp, but that’s being impractical. I see fringe functions and memes with this card, but not much else unfortunately. It’s meme-like enough to warrant two stars. I’m sure Trolden will love this card.
Power Word: Replicate – One Star – Priest has a lot of these cards and this one is just a bit too much. Sure, it kind of works in Egg Priest, but that deck’s combos relies on cheaper cards. If you wanna run an OTK deck, it would be in your best interest to just use Vivid Nightmare. If you’re going to OTK your opponent, you don’t care about the attack and health of your minions. You only care about the effect. This is a fair target to use on Zerek, Master Cloner to trigger his effect (because Faceless Manipulator won’t), but I don’t foresee him being played. I’m afraid this card is just too much of the same.
Reckless Experimenter – Four Stars – This could very well be staple of a very, very powerful deck. Priest already has been given a lot of options in the Deatherattle department as well as the OTK department. Combine these two ideas and you could get a force to be reckoned with. Devilsaur Egg, Dragon Hatchling, Dead Ringer, Loot Hoarder, Twilight’s Call, Voodoo Doll, and Carnivorous Cube are all acceptable options with card. This card allows you to be largely in control of what happens, as opposed to waiting a few turns to pull off a combo. If the right combos are given, this will become an easy staple and I do believe that a solid tier-3 deck can be made with a multitude of Deathrattle combos. This will surely be a defining factor of the deck. Using Cubes, The Quest or maybe even Mecha’thun, the functionality, or at least the fun value, is very valid! Priest has plenty of tools that functions with Reckless Experimenter. I’m sure somebody will think of something amazing.
Extra Arms – One Star – Unidentified Elixir is just better. You can argue that Extra Arms isn’t as RNG and therefore easier to build a deck around, but I’d rather have a random effect than an extra 3-mana gain +2/+2. This is basically a 6-mana gain +4/+4 which isn’t great. So, what about the argument of running both of these cards? After all, some decks need as many spells as possible, right? I don’t really see this “Buff” Priest working out with such little tools at their disposal. There are some fun ideas floating around by adding many copies of Extra Arms and More Arms! in your hand by using Test Subject, playing Radiant Elemental, and then making a minion with huge stats for an OTK. Will it work? No. Am I still going to try it? Of course I am.
Test Subject – One Star – It’s obvious what this was printed for. They’re suggesting some kind of Buff Priest, as I stated a few reviews ago. But, wow, is this not what that deck wanted; or any deck for that matter! This is a 1-mana 0/2 that can’t even be played on turn 1. I’m not using Extra Arms so I can have a 4-mana 2/4 on the field. This is just not worth my buffs and spells, even if I get them back when he dies. There seem to be a lot of hope for this deck to come about. If it does, then this rating will be totally wrong. But, there’s already a more reliable OTK Priest out there. This isn’t reliable at all.
Omega Medic – One Star – The community is comparing this to Twilight Darkmender and I think that’s a valid statement. Both cards have fair stats and an effect that allows you to heal for 10 under a certain stipulation. Looking at the two side-by-side, I’d say they’re on the same power level. C’Thun Priest was popular during a time when the META was pretty aggressive. Getting C’Thun to 10 attack was not hard at all and yet, Twilight Darkmender still saw no play. While Omega Medic is powerful and even easier to trigger, I doubt it’s going to be enough to necessitate a deck slot. Healing for 10 isn’t as great as it sounds when you consider the fact there are quite a few aggro decks out there than can beat you before turn 10. I understand that healing effects are powerful in the long run; there’s a reason why Antique Healbot was costed so high. Omega Medic, however, is unreliable and not fitting for the future. I don’t want to hold this in my hand all game, just so I can play a 2/3 AFTER turn 10. It’s not very ideal. Aggro decks will already have the upper hand and will most likely not care about your 10 health on turn 10.
Dead Ringer – Three Stars – I play a lot of Quest Priest, even if it’s not competitive. It’s just a fun deck to play. Dead Ringer could make a fine addition to what could become a viable bottom-tier deck. Quest Priest needs a lot of help and this isn’t going to be enough so I think Quest Priest is off the table. I’m not seeing a Deathrattle minion where you absolutely need to run this as a tech card, except maybe Mecha’thun as a meme. That being said, Reckless Experimenter looks promising and I’m sure this will be a valuable asset to the deck. You want to have as many Deathrattle minions as you can with this deck and I believe it will manage to stick around on the lower end of the ladder.
Cloning Device – One Star – This is just a balanced Drakonid Operative. This is way too slow to see any play, especially since I would much rather use Shadow Visions instead. Drakonid Operative was overpowered because it was a 5/6, which is roughly worth 5 mana. It just so happened that it had a 2-mana effect like Cloning Device tacked onto it that was free of charge. The effect alone isn’t enough.
Topsy Turvy – Four Stars – This might be one of my bolder predictions, but this is actually a better Inner Fire. Although it’s a bottom-tier deck, Combo Priest sees play here and there and always runs Inner Fire, which is an essential part of the deck. For the low, low cost of FREE, you can still make your minions attack the same as their health, just like you would with Inner Fire. Who cares about how much Health your minion has when you’re trying to pull off some insane OTK combo with a 28/2 Radiant Elemental? That’s not the only reason why it’s good. It misses a mill from Skulking Giest as well as the fact that it can be tech to weaken enemy minions. Do they have too much attack? Swap! Is that Stonehill Defender in your way? Make it a 4/1! Not only that, but there is a pretty solid egg deck that’s currently seeing some play and newer decks are to be made with the ever innovative Reckless Experimenter. Maybe this will be a decent staple card in one of those decks? It just might be! This could also have some minor implications with Zerek, Master Cloner, but it’s just not worth your efforts. This has four stars for not only replacing a card in an existing deck, but also for having potential in starting something new. I’d stick to the Combo Priest idea. I don’t think this is an Inner Fire back-up; I think Inner Fire is a back-up for Topsy Turvy.
Mage Cards:
Luna's Pocket Galaxy – One Star – A deck like this didn’t work last expansion. I don’t really think this card, as amazing as it is, is going to make the difference. If you want to make an OTK Mage, use the Quest which isn’t that much different and here’s my reasoning. Both this and Open the Waygate are both suggested to be used as a set-up for an OTK with either Malygos or Archmage Antonidas. The reason why Open the Waygate wasn’t great is because there was a lot of relying on the random cards you got in your hand from all of the random spells. But at least with the Quest, you can always rely on getting it in your starting hand and start working on it with the vast amounts of options Mage had to add cards in your hand that didn’t start in your deck. With this card, it’s not always guaranteed that you’ll have this in your starting hand or even in the first couple of turns. In this case, you have to worry about draw RNG and the fact that Ice Block is no longer usable in Standard. It’s going to be very hard to survive without it considering you’ll need a couple of turns top set this up. Stargazer Luna and Aluneth might help you draw more, but neither of them are going to change the fact that you might draw Malygos or Archmage Antonidas BEFORE Luna’s Pocket Galaxy. Then what? That OTK combo was valid in Quest Mage (even though it wasn’t too competitive), because you had an extra turn that offered you more mana. This card doesn’t offer you any extra mana OR discount if the draw RNG isn’t in your favor. Even one of the better draw cards that Mage has can’t be run in this kind of deck. Are you really going to run Book of Specters in this deck to thin out your deck and HOPE that you don’t burn the spell? You must survive to turn 7 or more, then you have to play a 7 mana "do nothing" in a very aggressive META, and then draw those minion combo pieces afterward, while still not dying. This seems a bit farfetched to me and I’m just seeing it as a tad overhyped. I think a Burn Mage won’t work with this card for the same reasoning: draw RNG. It’s a neat idea, but the META isn’t ready for this card just yet.
Stargazer Luna – One Star – Another card that probably won’t show potential until more cards are released. I appreciate these simple cards that offer many different play styles. The obvious home for this card is a Tempo Mage. Some cards that this works well with are the basics like Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt, and Cinderstorm played with Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This can also be used with Simulacrum and Primordial Glyph. Both of them put a low cost card on the right side of your hand which you can then use to gain value by gaining the effect and drawing another card. I think of this as a Gadgetzan Auctioneer that’s cheaper, but restrictive. It’s restrictive in that it only works with one slot in your hand but cheaper because it’s half the cost. It’s also similar to Lyra, the Sunshard as both of them allow you to obtain a card by playing a card. In other words: this is an incredible draw engine, so why only one star? Tempo Mage is currently off the radar and this will need a LOT more support to see any play. You can’t play Tempo Mage and rely only on this card. You’ll also have to hope that it stays on the board long enough to generate value. My final criticism of this card is that Mage already has a lot more card draw engines that are less restrictive. Aluneth, Arcane Intellect, and maybe even Book of Specters are already good choices for Mage. I know a lot of people want to play this with Luna’s Pocket Galaxy to get as many combo pieces as they can, but I don’t see that deck happening as it’s too reliant on RNG.
Astromancer – One Star – This is one of those cards that’s great, but not without proper support. The effect is very powerful, but if you’re building a deck around this card alone, it’s just not enough. Even Faceless Summoner was only good for a short while and this isn’t going to be much different. That being said, a Control Mage is very possible with the right cards, they just don’t exist yet. Mountain Giant, Aluneth, and Book of Specters are all good choices for a deck recipe such as this but, it’s not going to be enough because you can’t just rely on a few card draw mechanics to summon plain old stats. Decks that run Aluneth tend to be faster and warrant a high usage of cards to be played quite fast. This will lead to a small hand and thus, vehemently limiting the value that this card can output. There is already an existing Control-Elemental Mage but it’s currently a tier-three deck and the 7-slot houses Flamestrike and Baron Geddon. Both are important and almost always guarantee a tempo swing. Astromancer doesn’t, because that deck isn’t built for it. If a Control Mage with this were to exist, it would have to be much different than the one that’s on that ladder currently and so far I can’t see it. It’s a phenomenal card, but the next four months will be a disappointment for Astromancer.
Unexpected Results – One Star – There are no existing decks that run an abundant amount of Spell Damage and I don’t see this as strong enough to build around. The possibility is there to be a one-of in a Tempo Mage, but eventually will fail and will see no play. It’s way too slow of a combo and the reward isn’t worth it.
Astral Rift – One Star – I’m just not seeing this Big Hand Mage archetype being pushed. It was sorta-kinda pushed last expansion with Archmage Arugal, Book of Specters, and Curio Collector. But, I really don’t see that happening with the few mediocre cards that were reveal this expansion. Cards like this, Stargazer Luna, Luna’s Pocket Galaxy, and Meteorologist, and even Book of Specters are either to risky or too RNG based to be made into a deck. With the exception of a rare OTK, there’s not much of a win condition to be had. That being said, there’s plenty of other Mage archetypes out there. Can this fit in? I’ll say no to that. Tempo Mage has no use for this very slow card that can give you bad cards; in which the chances of that happening are fairly high. Similar to that is Control Mage where you would rarely have the need for minions in the first place. It mostly consists of spells. It’s okay in Quest Mage, but that was never top-tier to begin with and this isn’t enough to take it higher.
Meteorologist – One Star – This seems inane to me. Two Cinderstorms seems like plenty to me. A 3/3 body on turn 6 is abysmal, more than ever if the effect is so profoundly dependent on the cards you have in your hand and RNG. I see a few comments saying this card was made with Stargazer Luna and Book of Specters in mind, but I don’t see a deck like that happening. Even if some kind of a Stargazer Luna Deck was to be made, it wouldn’t run this. Stargazer Luna encourages some kind of a Tempo-Burn Mage and this is the opposite of what you want if you’re going to continuously use cards. Just use Blizzard instead. It may not have a body, but at least it’s consistent every time. A card like this needs its own archetype and it’s not here yet.
Celestial Emissary – One Star – I’m not going to jump on the hype-train with this one. Two-card combos sound good if they can fall back on other cards and combos within the deck. If the sole purpose of this being in your deck is for Unexpected Results, you can expect to have a very slow combo in result (pun intended). It’s just not enough. So then, you might think that this is a good combo with Arcane Missiles, Fireball, or any kind of spell. +2 Spell Damage and a 2/1 Elemental is not worth waiting on a two-card combo. This ESPECIALLY goes for Arcane Missiles. When you play Celestial Emissary with Arcane Missiles, it’s a 3-mana deal 5 damage in a split fashion combo. Cinderstorm has the same effect. Here’s where you ask yourself: do I value Cinderstorm’s effect with a 2/1 or an extra deck slot to play something more useful. Sorry, 1-2 drops you can’t play immediately tend to be too slow. This is one of them.
Cosmic Anomaly – One Star – Another plain, vanilla, and simple card that can be extremely impactful. Simple doesn’t always mean bad and this is an example! Blizzard really printed out an excellent card; don’t think I don’t know that! I just don’t see a situation where a Mage deck can take advantage of this minion’s powerful text every single time without holding it in your hand for a long amount of time until you draw the card you want. I think using this with Unexpected Results isn’t worth the hassle and Cosmic Anomaly is not going to stay on the board long enough unless you use some expensively combo it with a spell. I’d much prefer a regular Fireball, than a 6-mana two card combo that deals 8 damage. I don’t think this and Celestial Emissary is quite fitting for what Mage has in store for the next four months.
Shooting Star – One Star – Mixing this with Cosmic Anomaly isn’t worth the Combo and Mage has much better removal than this. On its own, I don’t think it’s playable at all. I’m scared to say this after everybody doubted Cinderstorm (including me), but unless you’re pinging three 1-health minions, this is just going to be a waste of a deck slot. Just use Arcane Explosion or Arcane Missles instead. I just can’t see a Tempo Mage being a thing anymore without Ice Lance and Ice Block.
Research Project – One Star – Hey, look at that! Mage has its own personal Coldlight Oracle! Now we can go back to the times before Coldlight Oracle rotated out and when Mage had playable decks, right? The answer is still no. Just like our beloved Coldlight Oracle, there’s another crucial card in the Hall of Fame: Ice Block. Now the game can’t be stalled out for nearly has long as it used to be, but that’s old news. Quest Mage is nowhere to be seen and this won’t do it any good. What this card needs is an aggressive type deck so you can provide lethal before your opponent can make use of the cards they drew. So far, that doesn’t exist and I don’t see it in the future with the current cards provided.
Warlock Cards:
The Soularium – Four Stars – I think this is a wonderful edition Zoolock that will not only make it more fun, but much more competitive. Not only is it a viable option, but it has potential to mix up the formula of Zoolock a bit. The first thought that came to everyone’s mind is how Warlock is able to throw down a bunch of cheap minions down when they’re drawn. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about them being burnt. It’s a decent way to fill the board during the mid-late game. The way this can shake it up is by possibly adding discard cards like Clutchmother Zavas. If you don’t use her after drawing her with The Soularium, she’ll just end up being a 2-mana 4/4. Will it work? I don’t think so. This won’t see any play in anything other than Zoolock because you can’t risk drawing Cubes or your DK in Even Warlock or Cubelock. This still gets Four for viably fitting into a successful archetype as well as making it better. Now Warlock has cards like Mecharoo and Doubling Imp to make Zoolock great again. This is going to be a very good deck.
Dr. Morrigan – One Star – I’m not really sure why this card was printed. I personally, nor anybody else on Hearthpwn, has offered any niche reason why you can use this. Sure, you can use this to pull a Voidlord or something out of your deck, but so can Possessed Lacky and we all know how well that card works. This is even worse because it can pull out a Kobold Librarian or a Carnivorous Cube. That’s terrible value. Not only that, but it’s not even a Recruit effect. It shuffles itself back into your deck. I would not want to re-draw an 8-mana 5/5.
Ectomancy – One Star – Just use Faceless Manipulator. If you have so many Demons on board that you’re going to get a whole lot of value out of playing this card, chances are you’re already winning and don’t really need to use it. This is overkill. I do see a cute idea where you pull Doomguard’s with Skull of the Man’ari and then duplicate them after playing Bloodbloom. It’s a neat idea, but not reliable at all. Cubelock may not be the best anymore after the nerfs to Possessed Lacky and Dark Pact, but they’re still out there and it’s perfectly fine with using Faceless Manipulator. This is the perfect example of a win-more card that isn’t needed.
Omega Agent – One Star – Obviously, this doesn’t fit into Cubelock or Even Warlock. That only leaves Zoolock. Current Zoolock 5-drops include Fungalmancer, Despicable Dreadlord, and Doomguard. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have these three in my deck than this. I also don’t see an instance where this is strong enough to warrant a deck around it. This is a late-game Doppelgangster, albeit with less effort. Still, that never worked out. At turn 10, you’re opponent will likely have a way to deal with just pure stats. Plain ol’ stats aren’t a win condition. I do like the idea of the progressive moving to the left side of your hand more so you can buff it with Soul Infusion, but even then it’s just not that good. This Handbuff Warlock doesn’t have nearly enough reliable tools to make this efficient.
Nethersoul Buster – One Star – People seem pretty confident with using this with cheap self damage cards like Blood Imp, Kobold Librarian, Crystalizer, and maybe evern Spirit Bomb. The problem is, I can only see this working in aggressive deck like Zoo. Zoolock has to curve well and all of these cards activators are one mana. It’s not worth holding these cards so you can get a few more attack points on your Nethersoul Buster. It’s best you play on curve. In addition to that, I’d rather use the cards that are already in Zoolock, as well as the new Doubling Imp, which shows great potential.
Void Analyst – Two Stars – Usually cards that aren’t good enough to replace other cards get one star, however, this time is a little different. It looks like this expansion isn’t offering something new for Warlock, but rather it’s building on what they already have (with the exception of hand buffing). This isn’t a fit for Even or Cubelock, but I certainly can see this in a Zoolock deck. Flame Imp, Void Walker, Void Ripper, Doomguard, and Despicable Dreadlord are all Demons that can be buffed. However, this card is not nearly as good as having Prince Keleseth in your deck. So, here’s my theory as to why she still gets two stars. She will see some amount of play throughout the META as a poor man’s Keleseth. Zoolock is usually played by FTP players because the deck can be created with basics, commons, and rares. If you don’t have Keleseth, this is a fair option.
Soul Infusion – One Star – With the exception of Void Analyst and maybe Prince Keleseth, this is the only other hand buff card for Warlock. There’s no way a deck like this is going to work with such few tools and it was never good in the first place when MSoG was released. If that expansion was in Standard, then maybe it could happen. Alas, it is not.
Demonic Project – One Star – I’m gonna have to make a gutsy call and say this won’t see play and it’s dramatically overhyped. Even Warlock has plenty of good minions that you wouldn’t want to transform into a random Demon. This doesn’t fit into any other existing Warlock deck and I don’t really see why a Control deck would use this. I do see some applications where you can use this at the right moment like after your opponent finishes a quest or when you think your opponent is holding Shudderwock. But the same thing goes for Rebuke which saw no play. There’s also quite a bit of sub-par Demons you wouldn’t want in your hand. Lakkari Felhound, Void Ripper, Felsoul Inquisitor, Sneaky Devil, Felguard, Witchwood Imp, Blood Imp, and others. If you ask me, you should stick to a deck when you can guarantee combos and synergy instead of using cards like this and hoping something good happens from it.
Spirit Bomb – Five Stars – Dark Bomb is back with a vengeance. This card works much better in this META than it would have back then. It’s a perfect fit in Even Warlock which could always use more removal, it can upgrade your Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, augments aggression in Zoolock (although it’s not better than Keleseth), offers control to proc your Hooked Reaver’s effect, and allows more value out of your healing effects. You could also try and see if you can make this work with self-damage cards like the new Nethersoul Buster. What a flexible card for such a simple effect. Usually, if a card fits into pre-existing decks, it gets three stars. I believe this card is so good, it will actually make these decks just a little bit better as well as seeing play in multiple decks.
Doubling Imp – Three Stars – I think this card is good enough to be an alternative choice in Zoolock. Current 3-drops in that deck are Fungal Enchanter, Happy Ghoul, Tar Creeper, and sometimes a copy of Void Ripper. While those cards are good, I can see decks try this, especially in Zoolock decks that run Prince Keleseth. This would summon 6/6 worth of stats for just 3-mana if you haven’t draw Doubling Imp yet. Even as is, the card summons two 2/2 tokens which is perfect for this kind of deck. It’s simple and not crazy impactful, but it’s viable. No, I don’t think this Handbuff Warlock is going to work at all. There are just not enough dependable buffs to make it work.
Warrior Cards:
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius – Five Stars – This is the centerpiece to a Control deck that will pull Warrior out of the dust and onto some part of the ladder. Warrior players should be extremely excited for this Hero card as it will bring them back to the days where they were still winning when Patches the Pirate wasn’t nerfed. What I like about this card is that there’s no particular win-condition. Instead, it offers you a wide arsenal of tools to help you sustain and board clear until you can find an opportunity to strike. Micro-Squad, Zap Cannon, and KABOOM!, are all methods of clearing while Blast Shield and Delivery Drone are excellent ways to sustain; not to mention the 7 additional armor you get when you play this! All this deck would need are solid Magnetic combos like Zilliax and good card draw. This is where the classic Acolyte of Pain comes in, which works well with one of Dr. Booms Hero Powers. Omega Assembly is another good way to keep your hand full. Warrior also has quite a few good Mech to play with. Security Rover, Dyn-o-matic, Mecharoo, and Eternium Rover are all fair choices to make sure this deck is full of synergy and Control. I think this will be exactly what Warrior needs to pull this all together into one deck. I think this will be a staple for a solid tier-2 deck. The reason why I’m not seeing a tier-1 deck is because I think this deck only counters Shudderwock Shaman. The other decks seem to be too much. The reason why I think this is not my own thought process, but by the creative community of Hearthpwn and other Hearthstone pros. The credit goes to them. Via the new change to Azalina Soulthief, Warrior should consider running this card so long as Shudderwock Shaman because now the reduced cost version of Shudderwock will be in your hand. If you played a deck that has Drywhisker Armorers and maybe a Lifedrinker, you’ get tons of health, damage, and armor with the play of just two cards. That’s and excellent counter and will give you enough sustain to find an out.
The Boomship – One Star – I really do believe that a decent Control Warrior can be a thing with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius being around, but I think adding this is overkill. Once you play Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, all of your minions are going to have Rush anyways. Yeah, I understand that this is going to summon three minions in one shot for just 9-mana, but I think Control Warrior would prefer manipulating the board to their liking with Mechs that they drew from Omega Assembly and taking advantage of their Battlecries instead of other minions for pure stats. It’s not a smart idea to put in big minions like Ysera and The Lich King, just so you can hold them in your hand for a few turns, wait for The Boomship, and then play them. I like the idea of shuffling Charged Devilsaurs in your deck with Deadman’s Hand and then bursting your opponent with this spell, but I highly doubt that will be effective, especially with decks like Hadronox Druid, Cubelock, and Shudderwock Shaman being overwhelming on ladder. If your entire game plan is trying to get stats on the board and HOPE your opponent doesn’t have any Taunts on the field, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Supercollider – One Star – Ah, yes. It’s betrayal on a stick. Betrayal is 3 mana less, deals damage to more than one minion, and saves you from having to take damage by attacking. Why would you pay three mana more, risk damaging your Hero, and only hit one other minion. It doesn’t make much sense to me. Even if this fits into Odd, Fatigue, or Recruit Warrior, they’re still bottom-tier decks and this card is far from what Warrior needs to climb the ladder. I think this has potential to be one of the worst cards in the set.
Beryllium Nullifier – One Star – One thing for sure is you wouldn’t want to play this as a minion on turn 7 or more. It’s beyond bulky and will not provide enough board presence in the late game. The fact that it’s Elusive doesn’t mean that much to me either. That only leaves it to be a buff card for Mechs and I don’t really see this being too worth the price for just a massive “heal” with a few attack points. Again, the Elusive doesn’t mean much, and therefore will just be too unwieldy to see play. I do however see a place for Security Rover in the new and upcoming Warrior, in which case this would curve perfectly into it and be a force to be dealt with immediately before it gets out of hand. However, that combo is reliant on only two cards and this card Magnetic effect is super game-changing anywhere else.
Omega Assembly – Four Stars – Dr. Boom, Mad Genius warrants the idea of keeping a nice full hand so you can flood the board with Mechs and allow them to all have Rush. It may only cost 1 mana, but it’s still one of the best late game cards Garrosh has in his arsenal. The Mech options are looking pretty fair in the new Standard META, but that doesn’t really matter in this case. If you’re running a Mech-Warrior deck with Warrior’s new Hero card, gaining three random Mechs, even if they’re not great, is still pretty worth it because in addition to their value, they’ll also have rush. This is a decent way to keep your opponents board clear and work your way up to a win condition. Keep in mind that this can also be played on turn one. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s possible to try and get the card you need early in the game. This is a solid choice in a deck that will seem to be tier-2 material.
Dyn-o-matic – Three Stars – This is the card that gives Mech Warrior that extra “umph” it needed to be viable. It’s a more accurate Cinderstorm tacked onto a decently stated minion that also has Mech synergy. This provides excellent Mid-Game removal and a decent body as well. The fact that it doesn’t target Mechs is great. Not only are there going to be plenty of non-Mech decks out there, but even Mech decks don’t have all minions have that tribal tag. This allows the damage to become more focused when dealing with a crowded board. It can also damage your Acolytes of Pain for more card draw as well. When played right, it can be quite good. I don’t think every Mech/Control Warrior will run this, but we’ll certainly have a few deck recipes that will run it.
Security Rover – Four Stars – This is one of those clunky cards that I’m afraid to miss rate and then ends up actually seeing play like Dragonhatcher did. I am pretty confident in seeing a Mech Warrior come into play, so I have to imagine that this will be seen as a one-of every now and again. It might be too clunky to have two of them in your deck, but one might offer a few situational combos. We can assess and predict all we want, but clunky doesn't mean bad. Again, remember when everybody (including myself) said Dragonhatcher was unplayable? We'll just have to see! I do take pleasure in the idea of counting this as a 6-mana 4/9, 2/3 of which have Taunt. That’s not too bad considering it can be more. Warrior does have a lot ways to self-damage minions, especially with the new Hero card they got. This card is also phenomenal if you Magnetize something to it, like Wargear. I’m gonna have some faith in this little guy.
Eternium Rover – Four Stars – It has the famous 1/3 statline, a solid effect, it’s a Mech, Magnetize compatible, and it’s an odd-cost card which is always favorable for Warrior. Mech Warrior seems to be coming together to be fairly functional. The high health allows you to keep a bit of early game aggression on the board and it offers extra value depending on how long you can keep it on the field. Since you can Magnetize minions to this, more and more armor can be gained, which is a nice touch. This fits in very well with Bronze Gatekeeper. Not only is it a decent curve, but it stops aggro dead in its tracks, offers a large Taunt, and get’s you more value off of Eternium rover. I think this is attuned well to Warriors fancy new Hero card. Conversely, this will not work out in Odd Warrior. Odd Warrior currently runs Town Crier, Whirlwind, and Shield Slam. Those cards are more valuable to have in Odd Warrior and a newer Mech/Odd Warrior is dreaming a bit too big. Nonetheless, it’s not a bad card at all.
Rocket Boots – One Star – A cute alternative draw card for Warrior, but it’s too specific to see play. There really isn’t any minion within Warrior’s roster that absolutely needs Rush. As for card draw, Acolyte of Pain has always been faithful for Warrior.
Weapons Project – Five Stars - Excellent card. Oozes are no longer needed as this gives you a weapon AND destroys whatever your opponent was holding with an additional 6 armor. I would much prefer a card that gives you a 2/3 weapon as opposed to a 3/3 body so long as it’s one mana less. Twig of the World Tree and Skull of the Man’ari both own control play styles that greatly count on their weapon and Weapons Project can be saved until the moment is right to destroy it. The weapon and armor you give to your opponent won’t matter since they’ll either take enough damage from your minions to lose the armor or you’ll just use Harrison Jones to take destroy it, draw 2-3 cards, and have a 5/4 body on the field. That’s like a mini Ultimate Infestation. Unlike the other cards, this gets five stars because I can see it in not only Mech Warrior, but Recruit Warrior might throw it into it’s deck as well.
Rogue Cards:
Myra's Unstable Element – Five Stars – This card will be used in new versions of Odd, Miracle, and maybe even Quest Rogue. For all three decks, you’ll use this card to draw about ten cards and hope that you can finish your opponent off with a massive swing of value. Drawing 8-10 cards for 5-mana is overwhelmingly powerful. Use this as a final move to end your opponent. I don’t think this will be a reason to push Rogue to the top, but it will surly keep Rogue at tier-2. It still gets five stars because I think this would fit well in Odd and Miracle perfectly. Obviously, there will be memes to be had with this card as well. What makes this dangerous card so safe is the new Rogue epic Academic Espionage which provides a failsafe for you if your massive draw doesn’t offer lethal. This is very powerful and shouldn’t be underestimated.
Myra Rotspring – Three Stars – I see this as a tech card; a very good one at that. It has some serious potential. There's nothing better than having a flexible card and having the option to choose what's best for you at the moment. Deathrattles are all over the spectrum from something simple like drawing a card (Loot Hoarder) to something valuable like healing for 8 (Deranged Doctor). The appeal of this card comes from three different aspects. First of all, you have the option of getting Deathrattles that would usually cost 6-8 mana for only 5-mana. That’s some serious value. Second of all, it’s a Discover card which gives you the ability to choose something for the late game and offer you a form of card draw from your deck in addition to a 4/2 body AND a Deathrattle of your choice. Finally, this card offers flexibility. Like I said above, there are plenty of Deathrattles in the game. This card gives you a selection of three for you to decide which works best for you now; one on the field and one in your hand. The reason why I’m rating this as a three star tech card instead of a four or five star card is because I don’t see it as a staple, nor do I see it to be so essential that it’s put in every single Rogue deck. It’s just tech.
Necrium Vial – Three Stars – I foresee a new style of OTK Rogue being a thing with Necrium Blade, Carnivorous Cube, and Leeroy Jenkins. Decks like this have existed in the past. However, I see this as a non-centerpiece, one-of card in that deck. This will not make Deathrattle Rogue a thing because it’s too clunky and there still aren’t enough tools to make it possible but, using this on a Carnivorous Cube or a Kobold Illusionist with Malygos is a possible tier-3 deck. The more ways to activate your win condition, the better.
Academic Espionage – Five Stars – As much as I love making these prediction posts every expansion, I’m pretty bad at it. I’m the genius that said Spiteful Summoner, Voodoo Doll, and Aluneth would see no play. Seriously, take a look at my other reviews. However, I do make some solid predictions every now and then and one of them was about Tess Greymane. While it was widely praised during its reveal, I shook my head in disapproval. I’m doing that again. This does NOT make Tess Greymane competitive. Just because you give her 10 more cards, doesn’t mean she’ll be ready for action. It will certaintly make her better, but not better than any of the Rogue decks that currently exists and the ones that are about to exist when TBP releases. This still gets five stars because this fits into just about any other Rogue archetype that draws a lot… that’s quite a lot. This is just a nice way to ensure that you have a powerful late game and end up winning the fatigue game. One of three obvious ways to use this card is to combo the 1-mana cards with Rogue combo classics like Edwin VanCleef, Vilespine Slayer, and Gadgetzan Auctioneer. The second way to use this is to just play this after using Myra’s Unstable Element. This doesn’t HAVE to be played on turn four. If Myra’s Unstable Element doesn’t end up giving you the win condition you were looking for, play this to ensure that you aren’t at a race against the clock. This gives you a fair second chance. Third and finally, you can use Witchwood Piper to get a very good card in the mid-game. Imagine drawing a 1-mana UI? Usually, random effects like this are bad because you never know what you’re going to get. In this case, most bad cards you would usually get are now incredibly valuable. Nobody would play Ultrasaur, Bull Dozer, or Furious Ettin, but with this card, they’re 1-mana cards with statlines of 7/14, 9/7, and 5/9 respectively (some with keywords). That’s a lot of value. I truly believe this doesn’t offer a new Rogue archetype like others are a suggesting, but this card is so pandering to the Rogue play style, it’s almost impossible for it to not see play.
Necrium Blade – Four Stars – Even if Deathrattle Rogue became a thing, I still don’t think this would be included. For a Deathrattle Rogue to have enough synergy and a win condition, there needs to be consistency. Having this effect trigger on a random minion is not dependable. This weapons DOES have the ability to define a tier-3 deck and that’s OTK style decks. I see a lot of ideas floating around with Leeroy Jenkins + Carnivorous Cube and Malygos + Kobold Illusionist. While they may not be the most competitive, I believe they can work as they already have in the past. Unlike every other class, I believe that Rogue is capable of relying on just a few cards to win because they have tools like Cavern Shinyfinder and Elven Minstrel. Use those cards to draw what you want, deal 9 damage early, summon Leeroy Jenkins, attack, eat him with Carnivorous Cube, and then attacking face with Nercruim Blade will end your turn with a total of 21 damage to the face. It’s a little unrealistic due to the amount of powerful Taunt minions we see on the ladder, but that won’t ALWAYS be the case due to Rogue’s cheap removal cards like Sap. Rogue can also use Shadow Step to reuse Leeroy’s Charge. As for Malygos, it’s a bit tricky to try and get Kobold Illunsionist to proc, but it’s unquestionably possible because, again, Rogue has cheap damage spells that can target face and deal tons of damage. This is a well designed card and I’m looking forward to seeing it define a tier-3 deck.
Blightnozzle Crawler – One Star – This is really bad, especially since it exists in a class where removal is cheap, instant, and cost-efficient. This is none of those things. Rogue has so many different tools to do this same exact thing, but better.
Pogo-Hopper – Four Stars – A clear staple of what I think can be a functional deck. This reminds of the Mokey-Mokey’s in Yu-Gi-Oh. I love everything about this card. What is there to say that hasn’t already been said? This fits very well in a deck with Rogue classics such as Edwin VanCleef and Shadowstep. The obvious combo is to use Lab Recruiter on one of these cute “cuddly” bunnies and then use your second Lab Recruiter on ANOTHER Lab Recruiter. This offers you infinite Pogo-Hoppers that will snowball more and more as the game goes on. Usually I say stats aren’t enough to win games. But this COULD be very overwhelming with how fast Rogue can draw because this card exists in a META where Sprint, Eleven Minstrel, and Myra’s Unstable Element live in Standard. I’m scared to rate this a five star card so I’m gonna say four stars because I think this will only be a staple in a lower-tier deck, but I think people are going to be diligent enough to make this excellent card design work. We do have to keep in mind that this is NOT like Jade Idol. The community claims you can Lab Recruit a Pogo-Hopper and the Lab Recruit your second Lab Recruiter. That way you can keep shuffling in a scaling minion in you deck infinitely. I see a few people making this claim, but it isn’t true. Jade Idol was infinite in its own standalone state. This card requires a bit more for it to be infinite and the Jade mechanic also had other cards that coincided with it like Jade Blossom, Jade Behemoth, Jade Spirit, and Aya Blackpaw. There are no other “Pogo-Hopper” cards. Just thought I’d point that out! Good work Blizzard! Rogue is my least favorite class and you’re making me want to build a Rogue deck.
Lab Recruiter – Five Stars – I don’t think this is overhyped at all. Remember how impactful Gang Up was? Well, this is a Gang Up with a 3/2 body that can be drawn by Elven Minstrel and targeted with Shadowstep. This is much better and it will surely show up in games when TBP drops. You COULD build a deck that involves this card and Myra’s Unstable Element, but this can also fit into just about any Rogue deck due to the arsenal of good cards they have. The amount of valuable cards Rogue has is uncanny and it gets even crazier when you can shuffle three more into your deck. Fal’Dorei Strider, Leroy Jenkins, and Vilespine Slayer are just begging to be copied. Even if this doesn’t make it into a top-tier deck, I’m positive it will be seen in multiple lower-tier decks. This card is absolutely crazy.
Violet Haze – One Star – It pushes Deathrattle Rogue just another step further, but it’s not there yet. There just aren’t enough good cards to make it happen. What makes this card unplayable outside the realm of a bottom-tier Deathrattle Rogue is the fact that it’s basically Burgle, but worse. I’d rather play Burgle and get the competitive cards your opponent is most likely running, but Burgle only saw fringe play. If you’re looking for a similar effect in Standard, use Hallucination. It may not get you a Deathrattle card every time, but it will give you the option to choose one as well as being a cheap card to proc Combo cards off of.
Crazed Chemist – One Star – It’s a good card for its value, but boy does Rogue have a lot of better options. This would only really see play in a Tempo deck, and it’s just not going to take the spot of Cobalt Scalebane, Vilespine Slayer, and Fungalmancer. Cobalt Scalebane gives you more value over time with no Combo, Fungalmancer gives the same +4 buff without a Combo, and Vilespine Slayer is self explanatory. It just doesn’t beat these cards out.
Hunter Cards:
Boommaster Flark – One Star – This card kind of confuses me in a Standard sense. Sure, it’s awesome in Wild! You can do some crazy things with Feign Death and just go absolutely nuts with it. But in Standard?... What are going to do? The goal of this card is to offer you an opportunity to deal 8 damage straight to the face. So, maybe you’ll want to put a Void Ripper in your deck to immediately kill all of the Goblin Bombs. That’s 8 damage to the Hero all for the low price of… 10 mana? In a two card combo? That doesn’t sound very good to me. Why do that when there’s already one card that can do the same for one mana cheaper: King Krush. Sure, you can argue, we’re in a heavy Taunt META, but at least King Krush can destroy a minion, offers a body on the field and has Beast synergy. Now, I understand that the Goblin Bombs are Mechs and have possible Mech Synergy, but that’s way too slow to trigger such a mediocre Deathrattle. Likewise, we’re in a META where Taunts are all over the place so the King Krush example might not be the best, but one thing will never change for me. Dealing just 8 damage isn’t a win condition nor worth this kind of hassle. I’m sorry, but the dream of Bomb Hunter won’t work.
Flark's Boom-Zooka – One Star – It’s a shame that my favorite card art isn’t going to see much play at all. This is like Lady in White. You build your deck around it and hope you don’t draw the associating cards BEFORE Flark’s Boom-Zooka. Even then, this is a flashy 8-mana removal spell that gets rid of three minions you could possibly want in the future of the game. I would rather play those minions in a strategic, non-RNG manner; not strap them to a rocket and send them to their timely death. There is the option of having three particular Deathrattle minions to pull but not only are there no worthy combos when you consider the RNG.
Goblin Prank – One Star – I’d love to make an “it’s just a prank, bro” joke, but it’s already been said before. I’ll spare you all. Still, this card looks pretty great at first glance until you realize the reason why it won’t work. The whole appeal of Deathrattle Hunter is to keep your eggs and other Deathrattles alive long enough to proc them with Play Dead, Terroscale Stalker, and maybe even Necromechanic. This card may be an egg activator, but Hunter has much better options. If you want to deal an extra 3 damage (the +3 attack on Goblin Prank), maybe you’ll wanna use Flaking Strike instead. At least then you’ll still have a minion on board. It’s a funny card, but not needed or cost-worthy. In other existing Hunter decks, I don’t really this fitting in like Recruit Hunter. I also think Bomb Hunter is way too hopeful.
Necromechanic – Three Stars – Baron Rivendare saw absolutely no play, but that doesn’t always mean a card similar to it can’t see play. The reason this isn’t comparable to Baron Rivendare is because he rotated out a long time ago and we’re in a completely different META with new tools for this to work with. Maybe just one copy of it will be enough to get a sincere amount of value of it. At 6 health, this has quite a high chance of staying on the board. Although the curve may be a little awkward, Play Dead and Terrorscale Stalker will offer some decent plays as you play 2 Devilsaurs instead of just one. You can use Defender of Argus to buff your egg, kill it, and get two more 5/5’s as well. I think the best idea to use this is by eating your King Krush with Carnivorous Cube and then Playing Dead and summoning a stat total of 32/32. That’s a bit of a meme dream, but still totally possible. I think this will make itself right at home in an Egg/Deathrattle Hunter. The Bomb Hunter that’s being floated around will also use this card, but I think that whole deck is going to be to be nothing more than a meme as well
Spider Bomb – Three Stars – The first Magnetic card to ever be revealed. I think this new keyword seems pretty promising, but I don’t think it matters in this case. I think this is mainly good because it’s hard removal in a class that needs more of it, as well as the fact that Deathrattle Hunter is currently fairly viable. You can simply have two Spider Bombs in your deck and have them magnetize together. That could very well be enough! You can combine both of them and then use your Play Dead to destroy two random minions amongst having a 4/4 on the board. That’s some serious value; a Mech deck isn’t even needed! Side note: I think it’s inaccurate to compare this to Deadly Shot, even when both of the effects are exactly the same. It’s extremely important to trigger an effect exactly when you want it. You can’t do that with a Deathrattle unless you use Play Dead with it on the same turn, but that’s a two card combo for 1 more mana. For that reason, it’s not the same as Deadly Shot. This has nothing to do with my rating of the card, just thought I’d share my analysis! That being said, it’s still better in a non-Spell Hunter deck because Hunter can utilize Deathrattles well and this card just so happens to have a pretty strong effect. I think this will be a fine fit in an already existing deck. Mech Hunter currently isn’t there.
Cybertech Chip – One Star – I don’t think it’s fair to compare this to Infest. Not only does a 1-mana distinction mean a world of a difference, but Infest was a 3-cost card. Hunter is a class where the 3-drop slot is heavily populated. Kill Command, Animal Companion, Terrorscale Stalker, and Eaglehorn Bow are pretty essential to have in most Hunter decks. Infest couldn’t fit anywhere. The 2-drop slot, however, isn’t too populated and can use a card like this to take its spot. Hunter, to a great extent, needs card draw and Cybertech Chip provides a form of card draw that isn’t in your deck. This is great. Sadly, this will still see no play. Hunter needs a reliable way to draw and needing a board to draw cards is the opposite of reliable, especially when the cards are random and require you to “pop” each Deathrattle. Sure it’s easy with cards like Lesser Emerald Spellstone and Unleash the Hounds, but that’s an odd curve to rely on. Aggro decks have always been where Hunters have been tried and true. This isn’t aggressive and I don’t foresee a value/control Mech deck for Hunter in the near future. You can argue that Hunter has been playing much slower than usual. Rexxar started out with the infamous Face Hunter that wreaked havoc in the beginning of Hearthstone, but times have changed. Now we see Egg and Recruit Hunter. There are some flaws in this logic, though. Recruit Hunter can’t really fit this anywhere and Egg Hunter runs Prince Keleseth which is kind of irreplaceable. Maybe more Mechs will prove this theory wrong? Not right now. I’m sure it can happen, but not in the next four months.
Fireworks Tech – One Star - Don’t get me wrong. This is one of the most OP cards in the set. But, let’s evaluate this by comparing it to a similar card. If we take away the Deathrattle trigger effect, we’re left with a worse Fallen Sun Cleric. That card is awful and never saw play. Now, let’s throw the effect back onto Fireworks Tech. That’s pretty damn good! The problem is, are there going to be enough Deathrattle Mechs to warrant adding this into your deck? There ARE a lot of great Mechs, to be quite frank. Playing Goblin Bomb and following up with this will result in two immediate face damage points, two future face damage points, and 2/4 worth of stats. There’s also Spider Bomb, Harvest Golem, Mecharoo, and anything effected by Cybertech Chip. It’s powerful, efficient, and doable, but not enough to build a deck around. A Mech Hunter is going to need a lot more to work around than just popping off a few good Deathrattles. If this wasn’t specified towards Mechs, this would be a natural fit in Egg Hunter. What makes Egg Hunter so great is it’s overwhelming ability to flood the board. My faith in a Mech Hunter and Bomb Hunter are quite low.
Secret Plan – One Star – I Know a Guy, Finders Keepers, Dark Possession, and Blazing Invocation are all 1-mana spells that let you Discover something. These never saw play. Even Hallucaution wasn’t good for the effect. It was only used to get extra value off of cheap Combo cards. With the exception of Raven Idol, these cards don’t typically do well and I’m going to place Secret Plan under the same category. I see a few comments in Hearthpwn.com saying to replace Tracking with this. I think that’s a very bad idea. I would much rather use Tracking to thin out my deck in order to get to the good stuff like Rhok’Delar, Deathstalker Rexxar, and Lesser Emerald Spellstone. This doesn’t do that. What makes this card pretty good is the fact that Hunter Secrets are the most versatile in the game. For example, you might want to select Rat Trap of you’re facing decks like Token Druid or Shudderwock Shaman. For Odd Paladin, you might want to pick up Explosive Trap. The palpable issue that you won’t always get what you need. I also think we’re a couple of expansions away from witnessing the dream of a viable Secret Hunter as this is just not enough to make it happen.
Bomb Toss – Two Stars – My reasoning for Bomb Hunter not being so great is the fact that it takes a lot of effort for just some damage to the face. There’s only so many times you can use Play Dead, Terrorscale Stalker, and other activators. Defender of Argus and Mossy Horror are too slow unless it’s worth your while. Devilsaur Egg, Savannah Highmane, and Carnivorous Cubes with King Krush in them are worth your time. Not 0/2 minions that deal 2 damage to the face. I will still give this card two stars because Deathrattle/Egg Hunter typically runs a copy of Grievous Bite. This card definitely has a chance to be an alternative choice since the Golbin Bomb has the ability to be activated by collateral damage throughout the game. It’s not much, but a little extra damage to the face might be worth some experimentation.
Venomizer – One Star – It’s controversial card rating time! Like I have said before, I don’t think Hunter got a lot of great cards this expansion. Could I be wrong? Of course I can. Everybody said that Rhok’Delar and all the other Hunter Spells from the same expansion would not see any play, but that became a deck archetype. Here I go again. I’m still going to make the possible mistake of saying that this won’t be an archetype either. There’s a few good combos with Mechs like Fireworks Tech with Mecharoo which is good, but not enough to make a deck. You can also use this with Missile Launcher which is pretty amazing removal. I just really don’t think that the Magnetize is worth it outside of Missile Launcher. If you’re going to use a Poison effect, you usually want to have a small minion to die immediately and pick off a large minion. If you’re buffing your largest minion, chances are it has enough attack to destroy that minion already. Don’t think that I’m writing this card off as bad because it’s vanilla. I’m just not seeing the archetype or the meme to be good enough to see competitive play.
Druid Cards:
Flobbidinous Floop – Five Stars – There’s really not much to say here. With the incredible ramping power of Druid, you’ll be able to pull off some massive combos that can win you the game and games to come. The value is ridiculous. This card gets five stars for the lone fact that you can squeeze this in Taunt Druid and maybe Malygos Druid and it would be perfectly okay. These are already tier-1 decks. I’m sure when the expansion drops, more and more ideas for this card will be apparent. Druid is tier-1 right now and I see no reason for their reign of terror to end. Unlike Ixlid, the Fungal Lord, it’s much easier to set up an immediate combo with this. This can be a fourth Hadronox or a third Malygos which already offers value on its own. Is this overkill? I honestly don’t think so. With new cards like Dreampetal Florist, more and more decks will want to run this card because the ability to summon large minions has never been easier.
Floop's Glorious Gloop – One Star – It’s not likely you will kill a lot of minions in one turn in a Control Druid, so in theory you would use this in a Token Deck which is currently top-tier. However, I still didn’t give this card three stars for fitting into a deck without changing it much. It’s still one star because it’s a win-more card. I would prefer to be running Power of the Wild or Savage Roar when I have a lot of tokens out instead of running them all dead for more mana. Even if you were in a very particular condition where you would want to trade, you need to kill three minions for it to basically be a pre-nerf Innervate. That’s not nearly worth the work and I think this card is WAY too over hyped. Druid got a ton of good cards this expansion, but this isn’t one of them.
Dreampetal Florist – Five Stars – One word: why? This is Emperor Thaurissan that targets minion cards only. We all know how amazing that card was. Druids do not need any extra help for their already prevailing combos and yet, they got this card. While it’s obvious that a 4/4 isn’t worth 7 mana, the effect plainly makes it cost-efficient with a single mana reduction on a minion and even more so with a second and maybe even a third! This is very possible with the powerful Taunts that Druid runs. Malygos Druid is the most realistic. Instead of Moonfires, you can now afford to run something like Swipe. I don’t think too many Big Druids will run this because they don’t need much more assistance. I wouldn’t doubt if this card alone created a brand new different kind of combo deck, either! Perhaps you’ll want this to hit your Master Oakheart or maybe use her to create a 3-mana 10/10 Mecha’thun. I can see it happening. This fits perfectly into an already top-tier deck and can even become a staple for a whole new deck. A 7 mana discount is nothing to be underestimated, especially when seven can become fourteen and fourteen can become twenty-one.
Juicy Psychmelon – One Star – WHAT?! No this isn’t a typo and please let me explain before this thread gets reported. I understand how absolutely nuts this could be in Wild. In fact, it could very well get nerfed for that exact reason. This is a pure value card and should be recognized as such. I know that. The ability to draw Azalina Soulthief, King Togwaggle, Aviana, and Kun, the Forgotten King only makes that Wild deck more broken than it already is. Drawing 4 for 4 like a special deal at Wendy’s is disgusting and is a huge guarantee that you’ll get the curve you want. So, why on God’s green Earth did I rate this totally busted card only ONE STAR? The first reason is its usability as the game goes on. Let’s say you are able to draw four minions from your deck. What happens with the second copy? You can only run so many large minions in a deck and have it be viable and it’s extremely unlikely you’ll get any value out of the second Juicy Psychmelon. With a value card like this, you want consistency. Running one copy will not give you consistency. My second reason is how necessary this card really is. Druid already runs Nourish, which also allows you to gain mana crystals. The run the ever versatile Branching Paths which offers you a variety of options, but can give you card draw as well. There’s also Wrath and Wild Growth which gives you card draw under very specific circumstances. Stuffing any more card draw into a Druid deck is just overkill and 100% not needed. I’d rather run Nourish and Branching Paths. In addition to this reason of necessity, Togwaggle Druid, is the only deck that could realistically draw four cards in a viable deck. Taunt Druid, Malygos Druid, and Token Druid only run 8 and 9 drop minions. Drawing 2 for 4 is not cost-efficient and because there are so many 8 and 9 drops in those decks, you have a fairly high chance of drawing these anyways at the beginning of your turns. You could argue that Dreampetal Florist will spawn a new kind of deck that would warrant the drawing of these four costs, but I fear the deck might be too clunky. It will also flood your hand with minions and therefore Dreampetal Florist might not hit the Malygos you want it to hit. My final reason is that I don’t see a deck, other than a non-Standard deck, that warrants the need to draw 4 combo pieces from those specific mana values ASAP. It’s hard to see that far into the future, especially with thousands of minds trying to create decks, but it seems unlikely to create a new deck that works this particularly. If my review included Wild, this would be a five star card for Togwaggle Druid. I do believe it would be smart to save your copies of this card when it gets nerfed. I just truly believe that Standard Druid has no use for this. Thank you for reading all the way through; now you can get your torches and pitchforks.
Tending Tauren – One Star – This card has two purposes. The first one is to offer split stats (2 2/2’s and a 3/4 for 6-mana) with Treant Synergy. The second one is to tutor as a buff, ideally for Token decks. I don’t think that this expansion offered enough viable Treant synergy for the deck to be viable and Token Druid already has a better buff in Savage Roar and Power of the Wild. Sure, they don’t have bodies, but Token Druid is more concerned with buffing the board quick and cheap.
Mulchmuncher – One Stars – At the moment, this Treant deck looks like it can’t come together. This is a great, big minion with a Giant effect that allows you remove minions, save mana, and keep a heavy presence on the board, but not good at all if you can’t reduce the cost of it. This is a frightening one-star rating because it’s a Corridor Creeper that doesn’t have to be in your hand. But, I think the Treant tools Druid has are too slow to warrant this card, even if it can be a 5-mana 8/8.
Dendrologist – One Star - Could this be in a Treant deck? If Treant decks show promise, then yes. Currently they don’t. Discovering a spell is good which is why Raven Idol was always run in just about every Druid deck. It was a trademark card for Druids. However, that card was good because you were able to play it on turn one and hold it in your hand until the moment was right. With Dendrologist, you’ll have to play this on turn three or four. That might be too slow, even if you end up getting a spell out of the deal. This Treant style deck doesn’t look promising. There are quite a bit of synergistic plays and combos, but nothing close to a win condition.
Biology Project – Five Stars – An easy contender for a Ramp Style deck. I’m actually a little nervous to rate this five stars at the moment because I fear having too much mana ramp cards in your deck will be blatant overkill. You can’t run Greedy Sprite and Innervate and Wild Growth AND this. However, Big Druid has always proven to be dominant and I don’t see why it would stop now. You can look at this card and be concerned that your opponent will get the same benefit and therefore will have no effect; or it could have a negative effect on you. This is true, but if you build a deck where you can “out Big” your opponent faster and better, which Druid is perfectly capable of, this card will be Malfurion’s best friend. Not only that, but it’s not useless at 10-mana because it will work just like Innervate does. It fits into tier-1 and will certainly be used in many Druid decks to come that involve Big and Ramp play-styles.
Landscaping – One Star – A Treant deck could work, but it’s currently not there yet. That being said, this card HAS to be in a Treant deck. I see a lot of comments saying that this could act as a card on its own in your everyday-average Token Druid deck but this card is just not good enough as a standalone. This wouldn’t go in Malygos Druid because of Prince Taldaram, it wouldn’t go in Taunt Druid because Witching Hour takes the 3-drop slot (anymore would be clunky), and any ramp type deck would just use Greedy Sprite or Druid of the Scythe. Finally, I think it’s just not good enough for anything aggressive. Its only implication is to be in a deck specifically that uses Treant cards for synergy and consistency and that deck won’t work within the next four months, even if it does trigger Mulchmuncher.
Gloop Sprayer – One Star – As crazy as this card can be, I really only see it as a win-more card. It’s gross overkill. If you already have two minions that are worth of duplicating, chances are you’re going to want to use that 8 mana to finish the job instead of creating MORE of a win condition. There are a lot of fun things you can do like summoning big minions like Malygos or The Lich King, break your Twig of the World Tree, play Gloop Sprayer, and then have an insane board, but that’s way too much in my opinion. Big Druid is already dominant and has no need for a card like this and I don’t think any other versions of Big Druid with this in it will be any good.
Shaman Cards:
Electra Stormsurge – Four Stars – This was tough for me to rate. Ultimately, four stars seemed fitting. Before I get to my reason why I rated this four stars, let me explain why this was so difficult. Due to Shudderwock Shaman existing, I can definitely see people wanting to throw this in for extra fun, but it will, in due course, be futile. Sure, Shudderwock Shaman has some great spells to double up on, essentially giving you a total of three Healing Rains or Volcanoes (two copies in the deck, plus the extra play from Electra.) Is this really worth the craft, though? If you play Lighting Storm with this card, it’s a two card combo that will Overload you for four. You can do the same thing with two copies of Lighting Storm. What’s the benefit? You get a 3/3 Elemental and an extra “copy” of a spell. I won’t deny it; that’s great value. Is it enough to warrant spending 1600 dust to do this and taking up a deck slot? It’s good, but is it necessary? I don’t think so. What else would you use this with? Double Volcano seems like overkill, especially since you’re paying an extra 3-mana which will Overload you for not much extra value. Double Healing Rain is actually really good, but how often will you need to do that, especially when you can sustain just fine with only two copies of Healing Rain. I don’t think that’s essential. The only spell I can see this being of use is Bloodlust which is where the five stars comes in. A burst like that could be lethal in a single two-card combo. Shaman has been given incredible mid-range and token cards and I believe that even with Taunts running the META, Shaman will have a shot at being a viable tier-3, maybe tier-2 deck with this being one of the centerpieces. My theory is that you can use cards like Thunderhead, Voltic Burst, and Primal Talismans to make sure you have a full board. Then, use tech cards like Storm Chaser to draw your Bloodlust. On turn 8, you can double Bloodlust assuming you have a full board which is very possible. That’s a pretty reliable win condition.
The Storm Bringer – Two Stars – Usually, this card would be a one star card, hands down. The effect is a bit too random. However, I still think this will see sparse play. I’m pretty confident in a Token Shaman where you flood the board and use Electra Stormsurge to Bloodlust your minions for a final burst. Token decks rely on cheap and/or quick ways to buff up your minions so you can either have an overwhelming board or a quick lethal. While this card itself might not be a win condition, it’s certainly an alternative in case your combo cards are unluckily at the bottom of your deck. If you have a solid board of 3 or 4 minions, chances are you’re going to get value out of it. Even if it’s something like Captain Greenskin or Tinkmaster Overspark, it’s still better than a Totem or a 1/1 Spark with Rush. This has potential to be an on and off option depending on whether or not people have the card. I thought that Token Shaman was possible before this card was revealed so I don’t think it’s necessary. Even then, Token Shaman will probably only be about a tier-2 maybe tier-3 deck, especially since Shudderwock Shaman is taking control.
Thunderhead – Three Stars – A possible factor to a Mid-Range Shaman. I like the idea of using this with Voltaic Burst and other Overload cards to flood the board with useful tokens. This is the main way to set up your turn-8 lethal by using Voltaic Burst and Primal Talismans to flood your board. Using Electra Stormsurge and Bloodlust after that could be a very reliable lethal in a tier-3/2 deck.
Omega Mind – One Star – This isn’t much different from Hallazeal the Ascended which didn’t see any play. Instead of waiting for turn 10 to use this and a spell, just use Healing Rain. Sure, this has a 2/3 body, but aggressive decks are pretty popular right now. Omega Mind won’t do you any good before turn 10.
Eureka! – One Star – I think this is just too expensive. Playing this card, having Electra on the field, and hoping that the only minion in your hand is something like Malygos is just not sensible. I don’t think an OTK deck with Zap! and Lightning Bolt is going to competitive. If you play Electra Stormsurge, then this card, then Lighting Bolt, you can deal 13 damage… on turn 10. This is a three card combo for 10-mana. Even if it was a consistent combo, this deck would still need a lot more to work around this. When we look at existing decks, Shaman has Shudderwock and Even decks. Shudderwock nor Even Shaman has a need for this spell and it’s hard to predict Shaman creating anything newer on ladder within the next four months.
Voltaic Burst – Four Star – This card was one star until I believed in Token Shaman. This is a fast and easy way to fill up your board, but it doesn’t only work with Thunderhead. It can also be a fair removal with Flametounge Totem or you can have placeholders on the field by casting Primal Talismans. It can be a part of a decent tier-2 deck.
Storm Chaser – Four Stars – This was the card that made me say “okay, this is possible.” I would love to see a decent Mid-Range/Token Shaman come about since there are finally decent tools to use in the deck. This card is one of the two centerpieces to make this deck possible. It’s nice and Mid-range because you can draw a Volcano at turn 5 and then clear your opponents board at 6. However, the real reason why you would use this is to grab your Bloodlust and use Electra Stormsurge. That tutor alone is enough to make this valuable.
Menacing Nimbus – One Star – There are quite a few Elementals you wouldn’t want to pull from this card. Snowfury Giant, Ozruk, Cauldron Elemental. Frozen Crusher, Stormwatcher, Grave Shambler, Magma Rager, Unbound Elemental, and Dust Devil are just a few examples of terrible cards you could get from this Menacing Nimbus. There are even some good cards you wouldn’t want to get if you aren’t running an Elemental deck like Servant of Kalimos or Fire Plume Harbinger. We’ll have to see as we move on, but unfortunately, I don’t think this will see play unless a full-fledged Elemental deck takes off. Even Shaman does have a few Elementals, but I wouldn’t want to replace Murkspark Eel, Vicious Scalehide, Direwolf Alpha, or Primalfin Totem.
Beakered Lightning – One Star – Not only are Token and Aggro decks a common theme within the current META, but I think they’re still going to be popular in the future. Shaman could use some cheap AoE, to get rid of all those pesky Silver Hand Recruits. The issue is, the 2-mana deficit you’ll have the next turn is rough. In addition to that, this won’t work in this deck for the late game because you’ll remove some of the tokens on your side of the field (considering you’re playing Token Shaman. In the early stages of the game, this is useless. Even Shaman doesn’t have a need for this either, so it doesn’t seem like it’s Beakered Lighting’s time.
Elementary Reaction – Four Stars – Unlike Menacing Nimbus, I think this will certainly knock something out of Even Shaman. Card Draw that’s half from your deck and half not in your deck is pretty good. Not only that but Even Shaman has plenty of Elementals to trigger the effect AND Elementals have pretty good effects you’ll want to activate twice. This can also work in the upcoming Token Shaman to try and double on powerful effects to survive or to fish out your Electra Stormsurge for your win condition. It’s an excellent draw card and the stipulation to get the copy of the card is a small price to pay for being one mana less than a Mimic Pod. Still, Shudderwock Shaman doesn’t run enough Elementals to warrant play. Four stars for being played in two, maybe even more, quality decks.
Paladin Cards:
Kangor's Endless Army – One Star - I think we should take into account how powerful "specific" resurrections are. When built around properly, cards like Witching Hour can prove to be a win condition in itself. Druids were always confident in resurrecting a Hadronox because Witching Hour allowed the deck to be built in a way where powerful minions AND Hadronox could live, but Hadronox would ultimately come back to haunt you. Same thing goes with Lesser Diamond Spellstone. Although this isn't specific, Big Priest utilized this well by building a deck where the player could guarantee big minions like The Lich King and Ysera would spawn. As for this, the applications aren't there yet. However, if they become evident, this could prove to be very powerful. This is especially the case because you’re using minions with powerful buffs that don’t lose said buffs when resurrected. The problem is with this card is that it currently takes too long to set up, combo/aggro decks run the META, and it’s not good enough of an effect to rely on a one-of legendary that costs 7-mana. I love this card, but it won’t see play.
Crystalsmith Kangor – One Star – Small and simple legendary cards like this are my favorite. This is a very good card, but is too “control” for the upcoming META. Paladins are very aggressive right now. There are some cool ideas with a Divine Shield Paladin, but that’s very out of reach. Drawing this with Crystology and having a deck with Lynessa Sunsorrow and Bolvar, Fire Blood is just not a realistic idea. This COULD be an exceptional addition to a deck that runs Corpsetaker and I really want to try that. I just don’t think it’s enough to be competitive.
Prismatic Lens – One Star – As much as a I love this design, I have to shake my head in dismissal on this one. We have to compare this to a card like Arcane Intellect. They both draw two cards. So, we have to ask ourselves if the tutor and swap effect are worth it. I’m going to say no. A 1-mana Tirion Fordring may be good, but an 8-mana Eye for an Eye is unfathomably terrible. Not only do you have to pay for this kind of price reduction, but you can’t always rely on getting the draws and swaps you want. It’s very random. In addition to that, all Paladin decks that are currently competitive are aggressive. This isn’t a good fit. This is much more suited for a Control or Mid-Range Paladin and I don’t see this coming to fruition this time around.
Glowstone Technician – One Star – Hand-buffing hasn’t worked in the past and it’s not going to work with MSoG rotated out. I’m well aware that this card doesn’t HAVE to be in a deck that follows that archetype. This could very well be a control type card, but it won’t be. Paladin is all aggro all the time right now and a Control Paladin seems out of reach this expansion. Not to mention, 6-mana is incredibly clunky for such a slow effect and poor statline, especially when you consider you still have to pay the extra mana to summon the minions you just buffed.
Annoy-o-Module – One Star – Let’s evaluate this by taking the Magnetic away. Would a Paladin want a 4-mana 2/4 in their deck with Divine Shield and Taunt? Possibly. It can trigger Corpsetaker making it pretty consistant. Now, let’s throw magnetic back into the mix. As a minion, it’s pretty decent. With Mech synergy, it’s a cheaper Spikeridged Steed or a Velen’s Chosen. It’s an amazing buff if put into a Mech deck. The problem is Mech Paladin doesn’t seem to be on the table which makes this card only balanced for non-Mech decks. Balanced won’t cut it.
Shrink Ray – One Star – I don’t see why any Control deck would use this over Equality. In terms of Odd Paladin, the only one that exists is excessively aggressive. Level Up! and Fungalmancer are currently in the 5-drop slot and Odd Paladin doesn’t care about removal at all. In any other deck, I see no point in choosing this over equality, especially since most people use it to clear the board anyways.
Crystology – One Star – As excellent as drawing specific cards is, this will not see play unless some kind of Control Paladin takes charge. The three most popular Paladin decks are all Aggro and have absolutely no use for a card like this. However, this spell has the ability to draw quite a number of useful control cards like Stonehill Defender and Tar Creeper. If we see a world where a Control/Mech deck arises, this has a fair application. So far, not really.
Autodefense Matrix – One Star – Currently shows potential as a standalone card, but I can’t really see a place for it at the moment. The Paladin decks that are currently META are aggressive. This is the opposite of aggro and will not fit in any of these decks. Likewise, Control Paladin has no need for a card like this. Midrange typically runs about one or two secrets, but if it becomes popular, it will be very easy to play around and, in return, won’t offer you much value. Finally, a Blood Knight type deck would be awful with this card. If all of your cards have Divine Shield, you won’t get ANY value out of this, not to mention the Divine Shield will be popped; therefore, it will offer no synergy. Finally, this could be in a Secret deck with Prince Liam and Bellringer Sentry but that hasn’t worked in the past. This isn’t the card to make it work now.
Glow-Tron – Three Stars – This is one of those simple, yet effective class cards that make META decks. It’s great as a turn 1 drop just for the stats alone. Look how amazing Dire Mole can be. This is even BETTER than Dire Mole in Odd Paladin. This can not only Magnetize to itself, but to Mechroo which I believe will replace Argent Squire so there’s more synergy. Do I think this will make Odd Paladin rise the ranks? No, I don’t. But, it’s certainly a perfect fit to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.
Mechano-Egg – One Star – This card has absolutely terrible tempo. Playing this on turn 5 is way too slow considering it’s going to take a lot of effort to crack this thing open, that is if it isn’t transformed or silenced. This is also a completely dead card in your hand if you’re losing. The only upside I can see is the fact that there are quite a bit of cards that curve well into it such as Spikedridged Steed, Sunkeeper Tarim, and Mossy Horror. I really want to like this card because I love egg cards, but this is too big to deal with and both the reward and the deck slot are not worth it. I like the ideas of using Meat Wagon to pull it out or Magnetizing it, but that’s way too slow to summon an 8/8.
Neutral Legendary:
Mecha'thun – Two Stars – As awesome as this card is, I couldn’t think of a competitive way to pop this cards effect off. There are many ways to do it, meme-wise. Hemet Jungle Hunter and Myra’s Unstable Element are great ways to mill your deck, Galvanizer and Prismatic Lens are fun ways to reduce its cost, and you can even try to use Cataclysm to destroy your board AND discard your hand. There’s plenty of ways to make it happen, but it all seems way too difficult to be a deck on the ladder. But, I know there are many creative theory crafters out there that will find a way to make this work consistently… but not competitively. Sorry, but I really only see this as meme material, but boy oh boy is it the ultimate meme.
Subject 9 – One Star – There are only 4 classes that can play this card so it’s easier to evaluate this card by each class. Rogue is the easiest to evaluate because they only have three not-so-great secrets and plenty of other ways to draw them if they wanted to run them. Mage was already given Glacial Mysteries which not only “drew” those secrets for you, but also played them for you. That’s 15-manas worth of spells for 8 mana. Glacial Mysteries was never good and neither will a card that draws them, just so you can spend more than one turn placing them down. You could argue that this is a good card for a Burn Mage where you want to keep your hand full, but I don’t see that as being a competitive deck. Hunter has Professor Putricide and Lesser Emerald Spellstone, but even with this card and 5 secrets, it’s not enough to build a deck. In Wild with Cloaked Huntress you have shot, but not Standard. There’s just not enough follow up and the Hunter secrets don’t work to synergistically in conjunction. Finally, there’s Paladin. Secret Paladin was one of the most dominant decks in the game at one point, but that was because you had Dr. 6 which allowed you to have 5 secrets on the board in one shot while still having a full hand. Subject 9 requires you to have 10-mana and then to empty the cards you just drew. Not only that, but that deck features secrets that worked in conjunction with each other. Those secrets are no longer around in Standard and therefore will not have the same competitive synergy it used to. It’s a fun card, with great artwork, and a viable effect, but it’s not Subject 9’s time.
Zilliax – Four Stars – Mech Warrior has a bright future and it’s partially because of Zilliax, which is basically a better Wickerflame Burnbristle. Unlike some of the other Magnetic cards, I believe that this card functions well as a buff AND a minion. However, the synergy doesn’t just stop at Mechs. This is a very good way to activate your Corpsetaker without taking up multiple slots in your deck. This is also a fair draw from Countess Ashmore and Town Crier, despite never seeing play. It’s flexible, it’s quick, and it’s powerful. I’m sure it will find a home somewhere. Despite all of the things I named, I think that the only realistic idea is to just be a really powerful Mech in Mech Warrior. This IS a good card for Corpsetaker, but not reliable. I’d rather have him in a deck where I can Magnetize him to something like Security Rover. I look forward to him being part of a tier-2 deck. Other Mech decks seem a bit too weak, even with Zilliax so my hope is a little shot for others.
Whizbang the Wonderful – Five Stars – What an absolutely fantastic card. Or, I should say “wonderful” instead. This is one of the best ideas Blizzard has had yet. I don’t think people are understanding the amount of value you get by crafting just one card. Not only do you get 18 decks (540 cards) for the price of just 1600 dust, but this card will last for years to come and generate even more value over time. If you craft this card, all players, especially FTP players, will have little need to by bundles for future expansions. It’s time for some math. Let’s take look at the price of all 18 decks that are currently available pre-Boomsday. I added up the total amount of dust of each pair of decks for each class. Both Warrior decks add up to a total of 18,600 dust, Priests cost 17,300, Mages cost 15,560, Warlocks cost 15,900, Druids cost 11,880, Hunters cost 12,800, Paladins cost 18,500, Rogues cost 10,000, and Shamans cost 13,080. I think it’s safe to say that that is a lot of dust that you would otherwise spend YEARS to collect unless you constantly pay real money for card packs. Nobody likes doing that. If Whizbang the Wonderful was in Standard right now, you would be able to save approximately 133,620 dust (not counting a few duplicates). When The Boomsday Project drops, these pre-made decks will be changed a little bit, but you have to assume that they’re going to be relatively the same and they’ve been getting much more competitive. Not only that, this card will last one full rotation before moving to Wild. That’s about 6-7 expansions of new cards that you won’t have to craft because of this card. Now you can multiply the number we just had per expansion by 6-7 (a little under a million dust). That’s a lot of legendary cards you won’t need to craft considering almost every single pre-made deck contains at least one. It will be a lot less necessary to purchase bundles every time an expansion drops. Not only does this card save you dust, but real world money as well. Whether you’re FTP or PTW, I think it would be ridiculous if somebody didn’t craft this card. Finally, this makes gold quests so much easier. For people who only play one class, you’ll now have two functional decks for every Hero. It’s so worth it in the long run and it helps you explore classes that you rarely try without the hassle of collecting dust and paying money. This was well done Blizzard. It’s five stars specifically because I feel like multiple people will be using this, whether it is competitive or not.
Harbinger Celestia – One Star – This card is AWESOME against a Spell Hunter… That’s it. Otherwise, chances are you’re going to have a 4-mana 1/2 with a minor Battlecry, or something to that effect. There’s not really much else to say. It’s a 4-mana Mirror Entity that’s just not worth the deck slot.
Neutral Epics:
Loose Specimen – One Star – I tried really hard to theorycraft something to make this work. I thought it would be a decent egg activator. It deals plenty of damage and it’s an overstated minion, right? Yeah, well if you want to summon 5-mana 6/6 worth of stats in one card, why aren’t you playing Fungalmancer? That card gives the same stats, allows the eggs to deal damage before they crack, and it isn’t random damage dealt. Current popular egg decks are Priest and Hunter. Hunter relies on Terrorscale Stalker, Play Dead, Carnivorous Cube and a few tech options like Mossy Horror. Priest has Mirage Caller and Duskbreaker. Loose Specimen doesn’t offer that same play-style. This is just not needed, especially when there are many other cards out there that are just better. That being said, I give props to anybody that tries to make this work with Blackhowl Gunspire.
Crystallizer – Five Stars – I have high hopes for Zoolock and I think this is a natural fit. Healing can be very ineffective in the early game for obvious reasons. With this card, not only are you playing a 1/3 for one mana, but it opens up an opportunity for the healing effects on Voodoo Doctor, Lifedrinker, and Fungal Enchanter, to have more value. In addition to that you get an extra 10 armor (assuming you run two). I believe that Zoolock, being a possible tier-1 deck in the future, will put this to great use. This ALSO gets five stars because I’m sure it will see experimentation in Priest and Warrior as well. It synergizes with Priest’s Hero Power, which is a nice curve to have on turn two considering Priests usually use their second turn to Hero Power their opponent at 30 health. Warrior has a great ability to take advantage of Armor as well as use this in Odd Warrior. Will it work in these two cases? It’s possible, but certainly not as well as it will in Zoolock.
Augmented Elekk – Four Stars – Adding competitive stats with an excellent curve is exactly the kind of attributes a card need to see play. This card is pretty great. Queen Carnassa, Dire Frenzy, Direhorn Hatchling, Raptor Hatchling, Astral Tiger, Baleful Banker, Dead Man's Hand, Deck of Wonders, Fal'dorei Strider, Psychic Scream, Archbishop Benedictus, Elise the Trailblazer, Kingsbane, Lab Recruiter, and The Darkness are all of the standard shuffle effects. Out of these cards, I feel like the most logical choices would be curving Fal’dorei Strider after playing Augmented Elekk. Fal’dorei Strider already offers you 16/16 worth of stats across the span of a round for 4 mana. If you throw Augmnted Elekk in the mix, that becomes 31/32 worth of stats for just 7 mana. That’s a very realistic curve. Now, it’s very common of me to say that one combo does not make a card good and that’s true. Here’s the thing: I would also expect this card to be run with Academic Espionage, Lab Recruiter, and maybe even Pogo-Hopper. One other thing I could see happening is with Warrior in it’s Odd deck. It may only be one combo with Direhorn Hatchling, but this particular deck needs all the help it can get to climb out of the bottom-tier. Warrior currently runs Gluttonous Ooze in that deck. With Warlocks and Druids dominating the META, I think it would make sense to try this out as a tech card. The stats are good enough to try it out alone. One final realistic scenario would be the experimentation with Queen Carnassa and the Hunter Quest. Hunter could have a lot of fun trying this out, especially since the aggressive stats and Beast tag coincide so well with Rexxar’s style. Do I think it will work? Probbaly not, but I know there will be a few souls on the bottom rank (such as myself) trying to make it work. I think trying to use this with Dead Man’s Hand, Deck of Wonders, and Baleful Banker are realistic, but not worth the deck slot. Four Stars for being tried out a lot of different ways, but not landing in the top-tier.
Holomancer – One Star – While the effect may be decent, the stats are just too poor to ever see play. At 5-mana, your opponent will certainly have an answer for it and you’ll have just wasted all that mana for a 3/3. I think the idea of giving this Stealth is cute, but far from the realm of realism. Overall, Dollmaster Dorian is much better and that saw little to no play. At least with Dorian, you can cheat out 1/1 minions on your own. In this case, your opponent has complete control, and it’s very easy to get rid of. Congratulations, Holomancer! You just earned the Magma Rager reward.
Seaforium Bomber – One Star – Not a bad card, but it’s a bit too niche to build a deck around. Why bother using this in Rogue with Shadowstep, Augmented Elekk and the Brewmasters, when OTK and Mrya’s Unstable Element Rogue look so much more reliable. Unfortunately, that’s the only class that can realistically pull this off. It’s too expensive and risky trying to run all of the Brewmaster cards, hoping you draw them, bouncing the Seaforium Bomber, and hoping Augmented Elekk stays on the field for long enough for you use multiple times. That’s not even good enough to be a meme.
Omega Defender – One Star – The first Omega card to be revealed. Obvious applications are quite clear at first glance. Druid could very well have enough ramp to make this card worth it. After all, having 10 mana crystals is a pretty easy task for a 12/6 Taunt card. That’s quite the reward. Will, this be what Druid wants in their late game? At the moment, I don’t think so. It’s a great card, but might not be what Malfurion mains want right now when Hadronox, Malygos, and The Lich King are wreaking havoc. As for the other eight classes, I can’t see them warranting flat stats when their opponent also has 10 mana crystals to work with. Druid is the only one who can realistically ramp fast enough.
Star Aligner – One Star – An interesting concept to be sure, but not pragmatic enough to be competitive. A massive board-clear like this is great. However, it’s too difficult to pull off. If you’re going to work on a requirement like the stipulations on this card, they better be your win condition. Deal 7 damage to all enemies is awesome, but not a win condition. I saw some crazy ideas like using Mechanical Whelps and waiting to pop them so you can play this but, boy, is that about the slowest process I’ve ever heard for just a AoE removal.
E.M.P. Operative – One Star – Just because this expansion is Mech themed, doesn’t mean that EVERY deck being built is going to have Mechs. There are plenty of decks that have been suggested that don’t have anything to do with Mechs like a new Zoolock, Mid-Range Shaman, and at least three types of non-Mech Druid decks. Not only that, but the 5-mana slot is a pretty crucial slot in a lot of decks where a lot of useful and popular cards are played. If this is the only card you have on turn 5 while facing a non-mech deck, you’ll be having a very bad time. I don’t think Mech Warrior is gonna be such a force where you have to run this card. That’s the only massively Mech centered deck I see happening.
Weaponized Piñata – Two Stars – A neutral Shifting Shade is the first thing that comes to mind, but not what it should be compared to. The stark difference is the Mech tag. This is quite the target for a Magnetic minion. This could see play as a “sometimes” card for Warrior or a decent card in low-tier Deathrattle themed decks like Quest Priest. Not much else as the random Legendaries aren’t reliable.
Neutral Rares:
Giggling Inventor – Five Stars – With the ability to be spread across multiple decks, I think this card deserves a five star rating, and quite possibly a spot in the top 10 best cards in the set purely for the numerous amount of applications this minion can cater to. First, let’s evaluate the card by itself. For 5 mana, you’re getting 4/5 worth of stats, 2/4 of them having Taunt and Divine Shield. That’s pretty good. What makes it sound better is when you cost the Divine Shield as an extra tick of health. Then it’s a 4/7. We’ve been shown in the past that cards that double up like Saronite Chain Gang or Sludge Belcher tend to be pretty powerful because it’s a lot to deal with, takes more than one attack to destroy completely, and severely stops aggro. The cherry on top is the fact that there’s three minions to play with, two of them being mechs. These keywords can be very powerful if magnetized. Likewise, Divine Shield and Taunt minions are excellent targets for buffs like Fungalmancer. Cobalt Scalebane is another good follow-up because he will generate value overtime behind these two minions which are difficult to kill. Finally, this could be an excellent substitution for an Odd deck or most decks that run Rotten Applebaum. This is much better in most cases. Token Druid, Token Shaman and Quest Rogue can also justify adding this to flood the board and protect themselves as they try to set up their win conditions. Paladins can even follow-up with Sunkeeper Tarim, which offers quite a bit of value since you can run your Divine Shield Minions into your opponents minions, destroy them, and still have 3/3’s on the board. Warriors can cxonsider this for not only Mech/Control Warrior but perhaps Odd Taunt Warrior as well. Overall, this is an incredible snowball killer and is way too versatile to not see any play.
Replicating Menace – One Star – I believe that, at face value, this is just a 4-mana 6/4. Those aren’t phenomenal stats and it’s not much better as buff. It’s certainly not terrible, but nothing I would want to waste a deck slot for. This actually works against Mech revival effects like with Kangor’s Endless Army. Summoning Three Microbots is really bad if they die before casting this spell, because you might end up summoning a Microbot or two; that’s just awful. Unfortunately, I’m not really seeing any synergistic combinations with this guy except for Deathrattle implications and being a buff. I don’t think it is good enough in either of those scenarios.
Arcane Dynamo – One Star – The random effect doesn’t make up for the poor stats. Sure, it’s a Discover card, but you might not always be looking for the card you want. If you’re looking for a spell that costs 5 or more, just run that spell instead of an expensive minion with bad stats that may or may not get you that spell. The only niche that this fits into are Quest Druid and Big Mage and this is just not high-quality to be in decks that aren’t too competitive to begin with. You can also argue that this could get you a third and fourth copy of a good spell like Brawl or UI, but the RNG is not going to work in your favor every time.
Mechanical Whelp – Three Stars – An interesting design that looks clunky at first glance. However, I’m not willing to give it one star. First things first, even if this sees play in Quest Priest, this is not what’s going to make it viable. It’s just not enough and still way to slow, despite the fact you can pull it out with Dead Ringer and the new legendary spell. Likewise, Reckless Experimenter might be too hopeful. A 3-mana 7/7 sounds good until you realize that you’ll most likely have to play this WITH Reckless Experimenter, which costs 8 mana all together. It’s not very likely Reckless Experimenter will stay on the board for too long. Master Oakheart is also dreaming too big. If you draw Mechanical Whelp before Master Oakheart, you have an excessively clunky minion in your hand. Finally, this is NOT going to be used to trigger Star Aligner; it just won’t (although I’m certainly am going to try it). What gives this card sparse applications is the new Warrior deck that I am hoping for. I’m rating that deck at around tier-2 and I think this will be one of the cards that cycle in and out of it constantly. The synergy is pretty obvious. Not only does it have Magnetic aptitude but it also is a great card to have Rush with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. For 6-mana, you’re getting an immediate 2-damage ping AND a 7/7 Mech. In the late game, that’s a reasonable thing to pull off. One thing I’d like to throw in are all of the Hunter Deathrattle triggering effects. Egg Hunter is fairly viable and using Play Dead on this would be insane, but the problem is it just doesn’t fit in the deck. The 6-slot of Hunter contains the Death Knight and Savannah Highmane. Egg Hunter relies on Beast synergy with Katherina Winterwisp and it wouldn’t be wise to throw in a Mech unless the deck was tweaked. I think this card warrents that experimentation. Playing Dead on this card twice is insane value. I see a future in two non tier-1 decks.
Galvanizer – Five Stars – This can be compared to Fireplume Harbinger. This has better stats but it’s effect is for Mechs and the effect is very universal amongst all Mech decks. This is an instance of good card design. This can be used by aggressive Mech decks to flood the board within the first few turns of the game. It can be used by Mid-Range Mech decks to improve their curve in turns 4-6. It even helps curve and syergize with Magnetic cards. Obviously the card has uses, and it’s effect is long lasting unlike Mechwarper whos effect was useless when it left the board. This card mana reduction will stay which is great for cards like Zilliax and maybe even Mecha’thun? The reason why I rated this five stars is because I truly believe this will be a staple rather than just an asset in Mech Warrior. It can provide a lot of value when in the right deck.
Missile Launcher – One Star – Interesting card with some fun ideas to utilize, but at the end of the day, it comes down too late into the game to be useful. There are a couple of ways to use Missile Launcher, all of which are too sluggish. Control Warrior has better ways of damaging everything and has no need for something so heavy. Using this cards Magnetic ability with a card like Toxic Arrow or Venomizer to destroy everything on the board is so undependable and bungling. Hilarious, but not it’s not worth your time. Taken as a whole, it’s just not good enough as a standalone minion, a Magnetic buff, or an erratic combo piece.
Unpowered Mauler – One Star – Hearthstone has a variety of powerful 2-drops. Just play the ones that can attack WITHOUT a stipulation. Even in decks where this could fit in, I still don’t think a 2/4 for 2-mana is worth it. Playing a spell when you don’t want to, even in a Burn Deck, is just not worth allowing this guy to attack.
Spark Engine – One Star – This is basically just a 3-mana 3/2. The minion with Rush won’t mean anything, even if you have the ability to use it when you need it. I feel like if you’re going to but a Mech in your deck, you’re going to want some decent synergy. Giving you a weak Elemental IN YOUR HAND is just not good. This card just makes no sense to me; it’s Firefly for 2 mana.
Spark Drill – One Star – This is just a cheaper and less powerful Fireball that can’t go face or bypass Taunt. Sure, this offers you a couple of 1/1’s with Rush, but those are Elementals and they don’t really help with Mech synergy. They’re just worse Moonfires. This is also a Mech, but there are so many other Mechs I’d rather synergize and Magnetize to; anything that isn’t a 5/1. This is ESPECIALLY because the design of this minion is to die almost immediately. It’s a 1-halth minion with Rush and a Deathrattle. If you don’t attack when this is summoned, you’re losing the value of its Rush ability AND the immediacy of its Deathrattle. This isn’t the kind of effect you want to wait for.
Neutral Commons:
Toxicologist – One Star – Kingsbane Rogue is certainly dead and this isn’t going to be the card that pulls it from the dirt. I also don’t think Rogue is looking for weapon buffs right now. So, where else can this fit? This would be nice to curve into Candleshot, but I don’t think that the benefit is good enough to replace some of the Hunter Deck 2-drops like Loot Hoarder in Egg Hunter and Prince Keleseth in Recruit Hunter. Not to mention, Candleshot is the only weapon in those decks and Candleshot is not a card you wanna wait on playing until you draw Toxicologist. Warrior is going to have better things to do in the future than to buff their weapon from Weapons Project. Shaman isn’t using any weapons at the moment and they’re not very good to begin with. This could be potentially aggressive with Doomhammer, but fitting that into a deck in the current META is a stretch. I don’t think Shaman will be using weapons in the near future. Paladins are using a lot of weapons, but it’s mostly Odd Paladin using Vinecleaver and Unidentified Maul which cater to the Odd Paladin Archetype. Obviously, it wouldn’t work anyways because this is a even costed card. Even Paladin is not going to use this because the only weapon they run is Silver Sword and it would be ridiculous to substitute Dire Wolf Alpha, Drygulth Jailor, or Knife Juggler for this. So, that only leaves the Legendary Weapons from Kobolds and Catacombs. Let’s review them all the other eight since I already said Kingsbane won’t see play. Twig of the World Tree, Woeclever, Rhok’delar, The Runespear, and Val’anyr gain SUCH a miniscule advantage from getting a +1 buff in attack so the deck slot isn’t worth it. That leaves the weapons that have 0 attack: Dragon Soul, Skull of the Man’ari, and Aluneth. Dragon Soul does nothing but generate value over time so, I’m not sure why anybody would want a 1/3 weapon over having Dragon Soul to give you value (even if it’s bad). Skull of the Man’ari COULD be harmful if it’s out too long, but the only deck that runs it is Cubelock and you WANT Voidlord and Doomguard out on the field immediately. If you’re running Demons with good Battlecries, chances are you aren’t running Skull of the Man’ari. The only viable exception I see is Aluneth. This weapon has severe consequences if you can’t make anything happen quickly after playing it. You can become fatigued really easily. This seems like a nice way to get rid of the weapon after drawing 9 cards. But, let’s be real. 2-drops in Mage’s that run Aluneth are Sourcer’s Apprentice, Primordial Glyph, Frostbolt, and Arcanologist. Nobody should ever replace those cards in an Aggro Mage. There are some Aggro Mage decks that run a copy of Amani Beserker, but I’d still rather run that than Toxicologist. Aluneth has worked fine in the past and it doesn’t really need this kind of tech.
Microtech Controller – One Star – This kind of minion has been printed a half a dozen different ways. They never work. This isn’t even good in a Mech deck because you want your Mechs to either have good stats or a useful ability to Magnetize to. A vanilla 1/1 is not going to do that for you. I don’t even think you’ll see this in a token deck because Grim Necromancer is so much better for just 1 extra mana.
Upgradeable Framebot – Three Stars – It’s hard to look at both this card and Am’gam Rager and take it seriously, but a 1-mana discount and a Mech tag makes all the difference. This could very well be a powerful and long-lasting starting minion. Likewise, this could be an exceedingly powerful combo with a Magnetic card. Using this with Bronze Gatekeeper will offer a solid 3/10 Taunt to deal with. If that isn’t the bane of Odd Paladin and Zoolock on turn 3, I don’t know what is. That may be only one combo, but I think this guy is well stated enough to be in Mech Warrior by itself. I have a lot of faith in Upgradable Framebot.
Wargear – One Star – As of right now, this can either be a 5-mana 5/5 body or a 5-mana “spell” that gives a friendly Mech +5/+5. Obviously, the only place where this can fit in would be with a Mech deck and this might be a bit too clunky as a 5-mana beatstick. Mech Warrior might give it a shot. Where this card could also be seen as an experimental option in Odd Paladin since Mecharoo and Glow-Tron will certainly be a part of it.
Faithful Lumi – One Star – There are plenty of other choices for Mech buffs in this expansion. I would much rather run a Magnetic card with an effect and a bigger body than a small buff that can’t even be played on turn one without The Coin. Compare this to Rockpool Hunter. Both of them have fair stats but ultimately are to slow because you have to guarantee you’ll have a minion to use its effect on. Those cards aren’t competitive on their own, but Magnetic cards have the chance of fending for themselves.
Spring Rocket – One Star – This is Disciple of C’Thun, but without the good effect. Classic one star pack-filler.
Goblin Bomb – One Star –The only thing I can really say is that I can think of at least five other cards I would rather have in a Mech deck than this. It’s a cool concept with fun flavor, but this isn’t even good enough to pass for an “egg”. Bomb Hunter is not going to work because it takes a lot of effort to buff and crack these eggs for such a minor benefit.
Skaterbot – One Star – Charge for Warrior gives a card Rush (oddly enough). That saw no play at all. This card doubles as a 1/1 Rush, or a 1/1 buff that gives a Mech Rush. That hardly makes it any better. That being said, I like the idea of using Glinda Growskin to infinitely scale another Mech in Wild, but that’s just Wild.
Cloakscale Chemist – Two Stars – I wouldn’t call it a pack-filler at all, but I still don’t think it’s powerful enough to make a statement. This could be an alternative to something in Even Paladin, but why would you replace Dire Wolf Alpha, Drygultch Jailor, Vicious Scalehide, or Amani Berserker? This could also be an excellent addition to some kind of card that deals with a lot of buffs like what the new Priest cards are trying to push. I just don’t see either of these things happening other than some sparse experimentation and rare alterative usage. It’s a shame, because I see potential in this guy. He just might not be enough.
Electrowright – One Star – 3-mana 3/3 that can sometimes be a 4/4. The only applications I see with this minion are either Big Mage or the new Bloodlust Shaman that looks promising in the future. Big Mage isn’t in the realm of an insane amount of competitiveness right now, and even if it was, this isn’t what it needs to send it higher. As for Bloodlust Shaman, it might be consistent for two reasons. One, you have that new card called Storm Chaser which tutors a spell draw that costs 5 or more. Two, chances are you’re going to have that card in your hand for the whole game and thus, triggering Electowright’s effect. The problem is, it’s an awkward curve. A 3-mana 4/4 isn’t exactly what you want to be playing on turn 6 or higher. I’d much rather be using mid-game to create a board full of tokens. In addition to that, you can’t always rely on the draw and there aren’t going to be nearly enough “big” spells that are going to guarantee this effect to proc everytime.
Brainstormer – One Star - Twilight Drake scales with every single card in your hand. Not just spells, but every card in your hand. This is just worse. Getting it to a 3/5 or maybe a 3/6 is fairly realistic, but you need to have a lot of spells, hope you don’t draw minions (which is bad) and keep them in hand. If you’re keeping spells in your hand, you better have a good reason for it. This is not a good reason. Doing that is terrible against aggro and we are in a decently aggro META at the moment. If you want to be rewarded for keeping a full hand, just play Mountain Giant instead of this card that will give your opponent information about what’s in your hand for a minor benefit.
Piloted Reaper – One Star – Why are people hyped about this card? It’s terrible. Piloted Shredder was broken because it offered a two-drop outside of your deck. It just pulled one out of thin air. Let’s be honest. Are you going to run cards like Loot Hoarder or Millhouse Manastorm just so you can hold them in your hand, play this guy on turn four, kill it, and then HOPE it gets the minion you want? Not only is it random, but you need to hope that there’s a card in your hand to begin with AND the fact that it put you at a card disadvantage; especially if it grabs a minion with Battlecry. It just not worth working around a Piloted Reaper when the benefit is so minuscule.
Bull Dozer – One Star – It’s too expensive, but I’m not ready to call it a pack-filler. I see applications where you can revive it with Kangor’s Endless Army or using it on turn 7 because you used Galvanizer twice. Unfortunately, this clever pun is too vanilla. I think we’re going to be see this card from Discover effects and random summon effects like from Spiteful Summoner. That doesn’t affect my star rating, but I believe we’ll be unconsciously be appreciating this card on the battlefield without ever actually adding him to a deck.
Mecharoo – Five Stars – It’s been said a million times, but, yeah, this is a neutral Possessed Villager which was very good. Obviously Zoolock is going to pick this up so they have their beloved 1-drop again. Not only that, but it’s going to be a fair replacement for Argent Squire in Odd Paladin since two copies of Glow-Tron will replace Dire Mole. Not only that because I feel like Mech Warrior and other smaller Token decks. It has potential to be in quite a few decks in high places.
Steel Rager – One Star – As good as this could be in Arena, Standard decks have so many better ways to utilize the 4-drop slot in their decks. A “4-mana deal 5 damage to a minion as long as there’s no Taunt in the way” is not great.
Bronze Gatekeeper – Three Stars – My hope for Mech decks really rely on Warrior being able to fashion something out. This curves well into low lost Mechs like Upgradable Framebot. Getting such a high health Taunt at turn three will be the bane of all aggressive decks out there. The problem is, that’s the only card it can realistically Magnetize to every time in the early game, unless you do something sub-par like Magnetizing it to Mecharoo. One combo is never enough. However, since I have such faith in Eternium Rover, I will also have to hope that this card will be able to make some decent walls for your opponents to destroy. Not to mention, it could be a late game tech card with cards like Security Rover. That’s quite the hurdle to cross. It’s a fairly aggressive META so this has its applications.
Damaged Stegotron – One Star – I don’t have too much faith in Mech Paladin and I’d rather run Security Rover in Mech Warrior. I tried to think of many ways to fit this into a deck, but everything was either too slow or not worth the effort. First, I thought of Lady in White. Then, I remembered how bad she is and the fact that we could have been doing the same thing with Witchwood Grizzly which didn’t see too much play. Secondly, I thought this would be a good Carnivorous Cube target and technically it is. A Deathrattle that summons 10/24 in stats with Taunt is crazy. However, the curve is way too slow and awkward for that to happen. First you have to play a 6-mana 5/6 Taunt which is terrible. If you don’t have Carnivorous Cube in your hand, this card is just going to sit in your hand and give you no value. If you DO have Carnivorous Cube, that means you have to hold it in your hand all the way to turn seven, just so you can pull this off. So, maybe we want to go the obvious route and try to put this in a Mech deck. I have confidence in Security Rover shocking everybody with how good he can be, so I don’t think Mech Warrior is going to want more 6-drops. As for Paladin, you have to play this big vanilla minion with poor stats before you do something crazy with it, like play Kangor’s Endless Army when it dies or Magnetize it to Zilliax. That’s very slow.
Kaboom Bot – One Star – This is just a bigger and bulkier Volatile Elemental. Sure, Mechs different have synergy than Elementals do, but I don’t think the Mech tag doesn’t change much. There are better 3-drops out there.
Rusty Recycler – One Star – I would not write this card off as a pack-filler. It has quite a few uses. Odd/Taunt Warrior, a Mech Deck, or anything that involves Corpsetaker. The problem is, this isn’t going to be the saving grace of any of these decks and Mech Decks are most likely not going to value this taking up a slot just for the Lifesteal. Similarly, it seems like most people will just run Rotten Applebaum instead because of the better attack value. It won’t see play within the next four months, but just you wait! This will be around in the future.
Coppertail Imposter – Three Star – This was difficult for me to evaluate. This could very well be the ultimate “set-up” card so you can guarantee Magnetizing Zilliax or Wargear to this. That could be good, but I don’t think every deck will use it as it’s nothing more than just a big beatstick.
Explodinator – One Star – This is a 4-mana 3/2 that offers you a task to blow these bombs up for a mediocre reward. That requires effort that just isn’t worth your time, especially for such a poorly stated minion. Bomb Hunter is not going to work and this wouldn’t be good enough in any Mech deck. It’s such a slow and painful process to try and get these Goblin Bombs to blow up, especially when most of the bomb cards have such poor stats like Whirliglider, Boommaster Flark, this card, and the actual Goblin Bomb itself.
Whirliglider – One Star – It’s not a pack-filler because it inspires Bomb Hunter, but my faith in that deck is just so gosh darn low. You could argue that a constant barrage of these bombs would be effective and you’d be right. I just think that’s way too sluggish and cumbersome to pull off.
Wow, don't have the time to read all this but people and posts like you are what make this community so great. Thanks for all the hard work that went into making this!
Wow, don't have the time to read all this but people and posts like you are what make this community so great. Thanks for all the hard work that went into making this!
*Plays "L'Estro Armonico Op. 3, No. 6" record on turntable*
Dear Mr. Pageturner,
A toast, to another sterling docket report. With the leading development in stone of heart, invites another magnificent analysis by Mr. Pageturner. I do concur besides your opinion of Juicy Psychmelon. As that ticket resides in rummage. *sips Cabernet Sauvignon* Invariably contented of your audit. Scads ton exceptional towards Count Shmoes survey. *Clinks glass*
*Plays "L'Estro Armonico Op. 3, No. 6" record on turntable*
Dear Mr. Pageturner,
A toast, to another sterling docket report. With the leading development in stone of heart, invites another magnificent analysis by Mr. Pageturner. I do concur besides your opinion of Juicy Psychmelon. As that ticket resides in rummage. *sips Cabernet Sauvignon* Invariably contented of your audit. Scads ton exceptional towards Count Shmoes survey. *Clinks glass*
I disagree about Stargazer Luna, I bet this card will be good for tempo mage, having more tools for drawing has never been bad. I think Stargazer Luna will be the card that carries tempo mage once Aluneth rotates out.
I disagree about Stargazer Luna, I bet this card will be good for tempo mage, having more tools for drawing has never been bad. I think Stargazer Luna will be the card that carries tempo mage once Aluneth rotates out.
That's what's so great about the community. Different opinions! Thanks for the read!
That's amazing dude! I started reading only the cards that interested me and I ended up reading almost all the cards. I really like what you say about Whizbang the Wonderful , I had never seen it that way before, You're going to convince me to craft him hahaha!
Thanks for the effort!
So glad you liked it! He's easily my favorite card of the set!
Oh you pityless, shameful, awful, evil Jade Idol of a person (yes, this is an insult).
To come here on a Sunday night, at about the time I'm prepping for bed, on a week-end where I brought the kid not once, not twice but THRICE to the park, having no notable news to skim in the worlds of hockey, politics or even here on PWN to free my mind of the terrible vision of the kid failing over and over again at climbing the slide from the wrong side....
How I despise you! And I WON'T take the time to read this nonsense... today, sadly. By the way, now, because of you, I know that the megalodon was most probably a distant cousin of the great white shark, but had theeth that shared a closer resemblance to those of the sand tiger shark.
You better hope that me knowing this will help me on the ladder.
Oh you pityless, shameful, awful, evil Jade Idol of a person (yes, this is an insult).
To come here on a Sunday night, at about the time I'm prepping for bed, on a week-end where I brought the kid not once, not twice but THRICE to the park, having no notable news to skim in the worlds of hockey, politics or even here on PWN to free my mind of the terrible vision of the kid failing over and over again at climbing the slide from the wrong side....
How I despise you! And I WON'T take the time to read this nonsense... today, sadly. By the way, now, because of you, I know that the megalodon was most probably a distant cousin of the great white shark, but had theeth that shared a closer resemblance to those of the sand tiger shark.
You better hope that me knowing this will help me on the ladder.
Pageturner, you’re a legend. I remember reading your Witchwood review and being simultaneously entertained and intellectually inebriated. Thanks for this (again) and I hope I do something that you find awesome someday. :D
Good read, and while I disagree with some of your assessments - A for an effort.
I do have a gripe with that bit though:
Third and finally, you can use Witchwood Piper to get a very good card in the mid-game. Imagine drawing a 1-mana UI? Usually, random effects like this are bad because you never know what you’re going to get. In this case, most bad cards you would usually get are now incredibly valuable. Nobody would play Ultrasaur, Bull Dozer, or Furious Ettin, but with this card, they’re 1-mana cards with statlines of 7/14, 9/7, and 5/9 respectively (some with keywords). That’s a lot of value. I truly believe this doesn’t offer a new Rogue archetype like others are a suggesting, but this card is so pandering to the Rogue play style, it’s almost impossible for it to not see play.
First - Witchwood Piper will not draw a 1-mana UI, as it only draws minions. Second - none of the cards you mention afterwards are applicable, since they are neutrals and Espionage gives you cards from your opponent's class. That said - it is, no doubt, my favourite card from this expansion, and I really hope it'll find home in a competitive archetype.
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John Pageturner's Review: The Boomsday Project
PLEASE READ THE RATING SYSTEM FIRST. THIS IS ONLY MY HONEST OPINION AND I'M WELL AWARE I COULD BE WRONG.
I want to give a very special thanks to the Hearthpwn Devs as well as the community. It's your resources and input that make this fun for me. Writing is my favorite thing to do when I'm on the train and not working. Thank you all!
Rating System: Ratings will be based off of how often or how impactful the card will be in the next standard META. This means the next four months or so. It will be based off of that merit and that merit only. The first couple of weeks where everybody is testing everything doesn't count. Credit goes to Trump, the Mayor of Value Town, for the rating system.
One Star – Unplayed.
Two Stars – In a bottom-tier deck OR saw some competitive play at some point past the first week OR a rare choice for a tech card OR a staple in a meme deck OR replaces a card in a deck but it still becomes worse due to the rotation OR is seen in a tournament and used to win.
Three Stars – In a Tier 3 deck OR occasional tech card OR replaces a card in a deck, but doesn’t change it much.
Four Stars – In a Tier 2 deck OR defines Tier 3 deck OR Multiple worse decks.
Five Stars – In a Tier 1 deck OR defines Tier 2 deck OR Multiple decks OR saves a deck from getting worse.
Priest Cards:
Zerek, Master Cloner – One Star – This seems like an effect an Epic minion would have. Priest has many targetable cards and only a few of them make sense to cast on this guy. Unidentified Elixir, Power Word: Shield, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Extra Arms and MAYBE Holy Water, but… running all of these cards in your deck with his effect is just not worth it. Sure you can also trigger this guys effect with healing cards like Binding Light, but that’s just not worth your time. Priest is going to need a lot more support if this card is going to see play, and even then it’s not probable. There’s a lot of talk with using Test Subject, tons of buffs, and a Radiant Elementals to make a giant OTK combo. If that works, this card would be the perfect fit. I don’t see that happening as it’s subject to Silence and being too slow to pull off. While you’re trying to pull this off, your opponent has already gotten the upper hand. This card doesn’t seem like it fits anywhere in the present and the future.
Zerek's Cloning Gallery – Two Stars – It’s an incredible idea with fun flavor, but I’d be lying if I said I saw more than just memes with this card. The main problem with it is that it’s tremendously draw-dependent. Even if you get it early, it can only be played on turn 8-9, depending on if you have The Coin. That means every game, you’ll have to deal with 8 or more turns hoping you draw this AND none of the minions you want to combo this with. That’s hard to do, even with Shadow Visions. This still gets two stars because of the fringe applications it has to offer. First of all, OTK decks are possible with Holy Smite, Mind Blast, Malygos, Radiant Elemental, and Prophet Velen. It’s just very arduous and unreliable because you have to hope you don’t draw any of those cards and that’s difficult. You can also finish off your Quest with the play of a single card, but you usually can finish it before turn 8-9 making it kinda futile. There are also so fun ideas by playing big Deathrattles like Mechanical Whelp, but that’s being impractical. I see fringe functions and memes with this card, but not much else unfortunately. It’s meme-like enough to warrant two stars. I’m sure Trolden will love this card.
Power Word: Replicate – One Star – Priest has a lot of these cards and this one is just a bit too much. Sure, it kind of works in Egg Priest, but that deck’s combos relies on cheaper cards. If you wanna run an OTK deck, it would be in your best interest to just use Vivid Nightmare. If you’re going to OTK your opponent, you don’t care about the attack and health of your minions. You only care about the effect. This is a fair target to use on Zerek, Master Cloner to trigger his effect (because Faceless Manipulator won’t), but I don’t foresee him being played. I’m afraid this card is just too much of the same.
Reckless Experimenter – Four Stars – This could very well be staple of a very, very powerful deck. Priest already has been given a lot of options in the Deatherattle department as well as the OTK department. Combine these two ideas and you could get a force to be reckoned with. Devilsaur Egg, Dragon Hatchling, Dead Ringer, Loot Hoarder, Twilight’s Call, Voodoo Doll, and Carnivorous Cube are all acceptable options with card. This card allows you to be largely in control of what happens, as opposed to waiting a few turns to pull off a combo. If the right combos are given, this will become an easy staple and I do believe that a solid tier-3 deck can be made with a multitude of Deathrattle combos. This will surely be a defining factor of the deck. Using Cubes, The Quest or maybe even Mecha’thun, the functionality, or at least the fun value, is very valid! Priest has plenty of tools that functions with Reckless Experimenter. I’m sure somebody will think of something amazing.
Extra Arms – One Star – Unidentified Elixir is just better. You can argue that Extra Arms isn’t as RNG and therefore easier to build a deck around, but I’d rather have a random effect than an extra 3-mana gain +2/+2. This is basically a 6-mana gain +4/+4 which isn’t great. So, what about the argument of running both of these cards? After all, some decks need as many spells as possible, right? I don’t really see this “Buff” Priest working out with such little tools at their disposal. There are some fun ideas floating around by adding many copies of Extra Arms and More Arms! in your hand by using Test Subject, playing Radiant Elemental, and then making a minion with huge stats for an OTK. Will it work? No. Am I still going to try it? Of course I am.
Test Subject – One Star – It’s obvious what this was printed for. They’re suggesting some kind of Buff Priest, as I stated a few reviews ago. But, wow, is this not what that deck wanted; or any deck for that matter! This is a 1-mana 0/2 that can’t even be played on turn 1. I’m not using Extra Arms so I can have a 4-mana 2/4 on the field. This is just not worth my buffs and spells, even if I get them back when he dies. There seem to be a lot of hope for this deck to come about. If it does, then this rating will be totally wrong. But, there’s already a more reliable OTK Priest out there. This isn’t reliable at all.
Omega Medic – One Star – The community is comparing this to Twilight Darkmender and I think that’s a valid statement. Both cards have fair stats and an effect that allows you to heal for 10 under a certain stipulation. Looking at the two side-by-side, I’d say they’re on the same power level. C’Thun Priest was popular during a time when the META was pretty aggressive. Getting C’Thun to 10 attack was not hard at all and yet, Twilight Darkmender still saw no play. While Omega Medic is powerful and even easier to trigger, I doubt it’s going to be enough to necessitate a deck slot. Healing for 10 isn’t as great as it sounds when you consider the fact there are quite a few aggro decks out there than can beat you before turn 10. I understand that healing effects are powerful in the long run; there’s a reason why Antique Healbot was costed so high. Omega Medic, however, is unreliable and not fitting for the future. I don’t want to hold this in my hand all game, just so I can play a 2/3 AFTER turn 10. It’s not very ideal. Aggro decks will already have the upper hand and will most likely not care about your 10 health on turn 10.
Dead Ringer – Three Stars – I play a lot of Quest Priest, even if it’s not competitive. It’s just a fun deck to play. Dead Ringer could make a fine addition to what could become a viable bottom-tier deck. Quest Priest needs a lot of help and this isn’t going to be enough so I think Quest Priest is off the table. I’m not seeing a Deathrattle minion where you absolutely need to run this as a tech card, except maybe Mecha’thun as a meme. That being said, Reckless Experimenter looks promising and I’m sure this will be a valuable asset to the deck. You want to have as many Deathrattle minions as you can with this deck and I believe it will manage to stick around on the lower end of the ladder.
Cloning Device – One Star – This is just a balanced Drakonid Operative. This is way too slow to see any play, especially since I would much rather use Shadow Visions instead. Drakonid Operative was overpowered because it was a 5/6, which is roughly worth 5 mana. It just so happened that it had a 2-mana effect like Cloning Device tacked onto it that was free of charge. The effect alone isn’t enough.
Topsy Turvy – Four Stars – This might be one of my bolder predictions, but this is actually a better Inner Fire. Although it’s a bottom-tier deck, Combo Priest sees play here and there and always runs Inner Fire, which is an essential part of the deck. For the low, low cost of FREE, you can still make your minions attack the same as their health, just like you would with Inner Fire. Who cares about how much Health your minion has when you’re trying to pull off some insane OTK combo with a 28/2 Radiant Elemental? That’s not the only reason why it’s good. It misses a mill from Skulking Giest as well as the fact that it can be tech to weaken enemy minions. Do they have too much attack? Swap! Is that Stonehill Defender in your way? Make it a 4/1! Not only that, but there is a pretty solid egg deck that’s currently seeing some play and newer decks are to be made with the ever innovative Reckless Experimenter. Maybe this will be a decent staple card in one of those decks? It just might be! This could also have some minor implications with Zerek, Master Cloner, but it’s just not worth your efforts. This has four stars for not only replacing a card in an existing deck, but also for having potential in starting something new. I’d stick to the Combo Priest idea. I don’t think this is an Inner Fire back-up; I think Inner Fire is a back-up for Topsy Turvy.
Mage Cards:
Luna's Pocket Galaxy – One Star – A deck like this didn’t work last expansion. I don’t really think this card, as amazing as it is, is going to make the difference. If you want to make an OTK Mage, use the Quest which isn’t that much different and here’s my reasoning. Both this and Open the Waygate are both suggested to be used as a set-up for an OTK with either Malygos or Archmage Antonidas. The reason why Open the Waygate wasn’t great is because there was a lot of relying on the random cards you got in your hand from all of the random spells. But at least with the Quest, you can always rely on getting it in your starting hand and start working on it with the vast amounts of options Mage had to add cards in your hand that didn’t start in your deck. With this card, it’s not always guaranteed that you’ll have this in your starting hand or even in the first couple of turns. In this case, you have to worry about draw RNG and the fact that Ice Block is no longer usable in Standard. It’s going to be very hard to survive without it considering you’ll need a couple of turns top set this up. Stargazer Luna and Aluneth might help you draw more, but neither of them are going to change the fact that you might draw Malygos or Archmage Antonidas BEFORE Luna’s Pocket Galaxy. Then what? That OTK combo was valid in Quest Mage (even though it wasn’t too competitive), because you had an extra turn that offered you more mana. This card doesn’t offer you any extra mana OR discount if the draw RNG isn’t in your favor. Even one of the better draw cards that Mage has can’t be run in this kind of deck. Are you really going to run Book of Specters in this deck to thin out your deck and HOPE that you don’t burn the spell? You must survive to turn 7 or more, then you have to play a 7 mana "do nothing" in a very aggressive META, and then draw those minion combo pieces afterward, while still not dying. This seems a bit farfetched to me and I’m just seeing it as a tad overhyped. I think a Burn Mage won’t work with this card for the same reasoning: draw RNG. It’s a neat idea, but the META isn’t ready for this card just yet.
Stargazer Luna – One Star – Another card that probably won’t show potential until more cards are released. I appreciate these simple cards that offer many different play styles. The obvious home for this card is a Tempo Mage. Some cards that this works well with are the basics like Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt, and Cinderstorm played with Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This can also be used with Simulacrum and Primordial Glyph. Both of them put a low cost card on the right side of your hand which you can then use to gain value by gaining the effect and drawing another card. I think of this as a Gadgetzan Auctioneer that’s cheaper, but restrictive. It’s restrictive in that it only works with one slot in your hand but cheaper because it’s half the cost. It’s also similar to Lyra, the Sunshard as both of them allow you to obtain a card by playing a card. In other words: this is an incredible draw engine, so why only one star? Tempo Mage is currently off the radar and this will need a LOT more support to see any play. You can’t play Tempo Mage and rely only on this card. You’ll also have to hope that it stays on the board long enough to generate value. My final criticism of this card is that Mage already has a lot more card draw engines that are less restrictive. Aluneth, Arcane Intellect, and maybe even Book of Specters are already good choices for Mage. I know a lot of people want to play this with Luna’s Pocket Galaxy to get as many combo pieces as they can, but I don’t see that deck happening as it’s too reliant on RNG.
Astromancer – One Star – This is one of those cards that’s great, but not without proper support. The effect is very powerful, but if you’re building a deck around this card alone, it’s just not enough. Even Faceless Summoner was only good for a short while and this isn’t going to be much different. That being said, a Control Mage is very possible with the right cards, they just don’t exist yet. Mountain Giant, Aluneth, and Book of Specters are all good choices for a deck recipe such as this but, it’s not going to be enough because you can’t just rely on a few card draw mechanics to summon plain old stats. Decks that run Aluneth tend to be faster and warrant a high usage of cards to be played quite fast. This will lead to a small hand and thus, vehemently limiting the value that this card can output. There is already an existing Control-Elemental Mage but it’s currently a tier-three deck and the 7-slot houses Flamestrike and Baron Geddon. Both are important and almost always guarantee a tempo swing. Astromancer doesn’t, because that deck isn’t built for it. If a Control Mage with this were to exist, it would have to be much different than the one that’s on that ladder currently and so far I can’t see it. It’s a phenomenal card, but the next four months will be a disappointment for Astromancer.
Unexpected Results – One Star – There are no existing decks that run an abundant amount of Spell Damage and I don’t see this as strong enough to build around. The possibility is there to be a one-of in a Tempo Mage, but eventually will fail and will see no play. It’s way too slow of a combo and the reward isn’t worth it.
Astral Rift – One Star – I’m just not seeing this Big Hand Mage archetype being pushed. It was sorta-kinda pushed last expansion with Archmage Arugal, Book of Specters, and Curio Collector. But, I really don’t see that happening with the few mediocre cards that were reveal this expansion. Cards like this, Stargazer Luna, Luna’s Pocket Galaxy, and Meteorologist, and even Book of Specters are either to risky or too RNG based to be made into a deck. With the exception of a rare OTK, there’s not much of a win condition to be had. That being said, there’s plenty of other Mage archetypes out there. Can this fit in? I’ll say no to that. Tempo Mage has no use for this very slow card that can give you bad cards; in which the chances of that happening are fairly high. Similar to that is Control Mage where you would rarely have the need for minions in the first place. It mostly consists of spells. It’s okay in Quest Mage, but that was never top-tier to begin with and this isn’t enough to take it higher.
Meteorologist – One Star – This seems inane to me. Two Cinderstorms seems like plenty to me. A 3/3 body on turn 6 is abysmal, more than ever if the effect is so profoundly dependent on the cards you have in your hand and RNG. I see a few comments saying this card was made with Stargazer Luna and Book of Specters in mind, but I don’t see a deck like that happening. Even if some kind of a Stargazer Luna Deck was to be made, it wouldn’t run this. Stargazer Luna encourages some kind of a Tempo-Burn Mage and this is the opposite of what you want if you’re going to continuously use cards. Just use Blizzard instead. It may not have a body, but at least it’s consistent every time. A card like this needs its own archetype and it’s not here yet.
Celestial Emissary – One Star – I’m not going to jump on the hype-train with this one. Two-card combos sound good if they can fall back on other cards and combos within the deck. If the sole purpose of this being in your deck is for Unexpected Results, you can expect to have a very slow combo in result (pun intended). It’s just not enough. So then, you might think that this is a good combo with Arcane Missiles, Fireball, or any kind of spell. +2 Spell Damage and a 2/1 Elemental is not worth waiting on a two-card combo. This ESPECIALLY goes for Arcane Missiles. When you play Celestial Emissary with Arcane Missiles, it’s a 3-mana deal 5 damage in a split fashion combo. Cinderstorm has the same effect. Here’s where you ask yourself: do I value Cinderstorm’s effect with a 2/1 or an extra deck slot to play something more useful. Sorry, 1-2 drops you can’t play immediately tend to be too slow. This is one of them.
Cosmic Anomaly – One Star – Another plain, vanilla, and simple card that can be extremely impactful. Simple doesn’t always mean bad and this is an example! Blizzard really printed out an excellent card; don’t think I don’t know that! I just don’t see a situation where a Mage deck can take advantage of this minion’s powerful text every single time without holding it in your hand for a long amount of time until you draw the card you want. I think using this with Unexpected Results isn’t worth the hassle and Cosmic Anomaly is not going to stay on the board long enough unless you use some expensively combo it with a spell. I’d much prefer a regular Fireball, than a 6-mana two card combo that deals 8 damage. I don’t think this and Celestial Emissary is quite fitting for what Mage has in store for the next four months.
Shooting Star – One Star – Mixing this with Cosmic Anomaly isn’t worth the Combo and Mage has much better removal than this. On its own, I don’t think it’s playable at all. I’m scared to say this after everybody doubted Cinderstorm (including me), but unless you’re pinging three 1-health minions, this is just going to be a waste of a deck slot. Just use Arcane Explosion or Arcane Missles instead. I just can’t see a Tempo Mage being a thing anymore without Ice Lance and Ice Block.
Research Project – One Star – Hey, look at that! Mage has its own personal Coldlight Oracle! Now we can go back to the times before Coldlight Oracle rotated out and when Mage had playable decks, right? The answer is still no. Just like our beloved Coldlight Oracle, there’s another crucial card in the Hall of Fame: Ice Block. Now the game can’t be stalled out for nearly has long as it used to be, but that’s old news. Quest Mage is nowhere to be seen and this won’t do it any good. What this card needs is an aggressive type deck so you can provide lethal before your opponent can make use of the cards they drew. So far, that doesn’t exist and I don’t see it in the future with the current cards provided.
Warlock Cards:
The Soularium – Four Stars – I think this is a wonderful edition Zoolock that will not only make it more fun, but much more competitive. Not only is it a viable option, but it has potential to mix up the formula of Zoolock a bit. The first thought that came to everyone’s mind is how Warlock is able to throw down a bunch of cheap minions down when they’re drawn. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about them being burnt. It’s a decent way to fill the board during the mid-late game. The way this can shake it up is by possibly adding discard cards like Clutchmother Zavas. If you don’t use her after drawing her with The Soularium, she’ll just end up being a 2-mana 4/4. Will it work? I don’t think so. This won’t see any play in anything other than Zoolock because you can’t risk drawing Cubes or your DK in Even Warlock or Cubelock. This still gets Four for viably fitting into a successful archetype as well as making it better. Now Warlock has cards like Mecharoo and Doubling Imp to make Zoolock great again. This is going to be a very good deck.
Dr. Morrigan – One Star – I’m not really sure why this card was printed. I personally, nor anybody else on Hearthpwn, has offered any niche reason why you can use this. Sure, you can use this to pull a Voidlord or something out of your deck, but so can Possessed Lacky and we all know how well that card works. This is even worse because it can pull out a Kobold Librarian or a Carnivorous Cube. That’s terrible value. Not only that, but it’s not even a Recruit effect. It shuffles itself back into your deck. I would not want to re-draw an 8-mana 5/5.
Ectomancy – One Star – Just use Faceless Manipulator. If you have so many Demons on board that you’re going to get a whole lot of value out of playing this card, chances are you’re already winning and don’t really need to use it. This is overkill. I do see a cute idea where you pull Doomguard’s with Skull of the Man’ari and then duplicate them after playing Bloodbloom. It’s a neat idea, but not reliable at all. Cubelock may not be the best anymore after the nerfs to Possessed Lacky and Dark Pact, but they’re still out there and it’s perfectly fine with using Faceless Manipulator. This is the perfect example of a win-more card that isn’t needed.
Omega Agent – One Star – Obviously, this doesn’t fit into Cubelock or Even Warlock. That only leaves Zoolock. Current Zoolock 5-drops include Fungalmancer, Despicable Dreadlord, and Doomguard. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have these three in my deck than this. I also don’t see an instance where this is strong enough to warrant a deck around it. This is a late-game Doppelgangster, albeit with less effort. Still, that never worked out. At turn 10, you’re opponent will likely have a way to deal with just pure stats. Plain ol’ stats aren’t a win condition. I do like the idea of the progressive moving to the left side of your hand more so you can buff it with Soul Infusion, but even then it’s just not that good. This Handbuff Warlock doesn’t have nearly enough reliable tools to make this efficient.
Nethersoul Buster – One Star – People seem pretty confident with using this with cheap self damage cards like Blood Imp, Kobold Librarian, Crystalizer, and maybe evern Spirit Bomb. The problem is, I can only see this working in aggressive deck like Zoo. Zoolock has to curve well and all of these cards activators are one mana. It’s not worth holding these cards so you can get a few more attack points on your Nethersoul Buster. It’s best you play on curve. In addition to that, I’d rather use the cards that are already in Zoolock, as well as the new Doubling Imp, which shows great potential.
Void Analyst – Two Stars – Usually cards that aren’t good enough to replace other cards get one star, however, this time is a little different. It looks like this expansion isn’t offering something new for Warlock, but rather it’s building on what they already have (with the exception of hand buffing). This isn’t a fit for Even or Cubelock, but I certainly can see this in a Zoolock deck. Flame Imp, Void Walker, Void Ripper, Doomguard, and Despicable Dreadlord are all Demons that can be buffed. However, this card is not nearly as good as having Prince Keleseth in your deck. So, here’s my theory as to why she still gets two stars. She will see some amount of play throughout the META as a poor man’s Keleseth. Zoolock is usually played by FTP players because the deck can be created with basics, commons, and rares. If you don’t have Keleseth, this is a fair option.
Soul Infusion – One Star – With the exception of Void Analyst and maybe Prince Keleseth, this is the only other hand buff card for Warlock. There’s no way a deck like this is going to work with such few tools and it was never good in the first place when MSoG was released. If that expansion was in Standard, then maybe it could happen. Alas, it is not.
Demonic Project – One Star – I’m gonna have to make a gutsy call and say this won’t see play and it’s dramatically overhyped. Even Warlock has plenty of good minions that you wouldn’t want to transform into a random Demon. This doesn’t fit into any other existing Warlock deck and I don’t really see why a Control deck would use this. I do see some applications where you can use this at the right moment like after your opponent finishes a quest or when you think your opponent is holding Shudderwock. But the same thing goes for Rebuke which saw no play. There’s also quite a bit of sub-par Demons you wouldn’t want in your hand. Lakkari Felhound, Void Ripper, Felsoul Inquisitor, Sneaky Devil, Felguard, Witchwood Imp, Blood Imp, and others. If you ask me, you should stick to a deck when you can guarantee combos and synergy instead of using cards like this and hoping something good happens from it.
Spirit Bomb – Five Stars – Dark Bomb is back with a vengeance. This card works much better in this META than it would have back then. It’s a perfect fit in Even Warlock which could always use more removal, it can upgrade your Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, augments aggression in Zoolock (although it’s not better than Keleseth), offers control to proc your Hooked Reaver’s effect, and allows more value out of your healing effects. You could also try and see if you can make this work with self-damage cards like the new Nethersoul Buster. What a flexible card for such a simple effect. Usually, if a card fits into pre-existing decks, it gets three stars. I believe this card is so good, it will actually make these decks just a little bit better as well as seeing play in multiple decks.
Doubling Imp – Three Stars – I think this card is good enough to be an alternative choice in Zoolock. Current 3-drops in that deck are Fungal Enchanter, Happy Ghoul, Tar Creeper, and sometimes a copy of Void Ripper. While those cards are good, I can see decks try this, especially in Zoolock decks that run Prince Keleseth. This would summon 6/6 worth of stats for just 3-mana if you haven’t draw Doubling Imp yet. Even as is, the card summons two 2/2 tokens which is perfect for this kind of deck. It’s simple and not crazy impactful, but it’s viable. No, I don’t think this Handbuff Warlock is going to work at all. There are just not enough dependable buffs to make it work.
Warrior Cards:
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius – Five Stars – This is the centerpiece to a Control deck that will pull Warrior out of the dust and onto some part of the ladder. Warrior players should be extremely excited for this Hero card as it will bring them back to the days where they were still winning when Patches the Pirate wasn’t nerfed. What I like about this card is that there’s no particular win-condition. Instead, it offers you a wide arsenal of tools to help you sustain and board clear until you can find an opportunity to strike. Micro-Squad, Zap Cannon, and KABOOM!, are all methods of clearing while Blast Shield and Delivery Drone are excellent ways to sustain; not to mention the 7 additional armor you get when you play this! All this deck would need are solid Magnetic combos like Zilliax and good card draw. This is where the classic Acolyte of Pain comes in, which works well with one of Dr. Booms Hero Powers. Omega Assembly is another good way to keep your hand full. Warrior also has quite a few good Mech to play with. Security Rover, Dyn-o-matic, Mecharoo, and Eternium Rover are all fair choices to make sure this deck is full of synergy and Control. I think this will be exactly what Warrior needs to pull this all together into one deck. I think this will be a staple for a solid tier-2 deck. The reason why I’m not seeing a tier-1 deck is because I think this deck only counters Shudderwock Shaman. The other decks seem to be too much. The reason why I think this is not my own thought process, but by the creative community of Hearthpwn and other Hearthstone pros. The credit goes to them. Via the new change to Azalina Soulthief, Warrior should consider running this card so long as Shudderwock Shaman because now the reduced cost version of Shudderwock will be in your hand. If you played a deck that has Drywhisker Armorers and maybe a Lifedrinker, you’ get tons of health, damage, and armor with the play of just two cards. That’s and excellent counter and will give you enough sustain to find an out.
The Boomship – One Star – I really do believe that a decent Control Warrior can be a thing with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius being around, but I think adding this is overkill. Once you play Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, all of your minions are going to have Rush anyways. Yeah, I understand that this is going to summon three minions in one shot for just 9-mana, but I think Control Warrior would prefer manipulating the board to their liking with Mechs that they drew from Omega Assembly and taking advantage of their Battlecries instead of other minions for pure stats. It’s not a smart idea to put in big minions like Ysera and The Lich King, just so you can hold them in your hand for a few turns, wait for The Boomship, and then play them. I like the idea of shuffling Charged Devilsaurs in your deck with Deadman’s Hand and then bursting your opponent with this spell, but I highly doubt that will be effective, especially with decks like Hadronox Druid, Cubelock, and Shudderwock Shaman being overwhelming on ladder. If your entire game plan is trying to get stats on the board and HOPE your opponent doesn’t have any Taunts on the field, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Supercollider – One Star – Ah, yes. It’s betrayal on a stick. Betrayal is 3 mana less, deals damage to more than one minion, and saves you from having to take damage by attacking. Why would you pay three mana more, risk damaging your Hero, and only hit one other minion. It doesn’t make much sense to me. Even if this fits into Odd, Fatigue, or Recruit Warrior, they’re still bottom-tier decks and this card is far from what Warrior needs to climb the ladder. I think this has potential to be one of the worst cards in the set.
Beryllium Nullifier – One Star – One thing for sure is you wouldn’t want to play this as a minion on turn 7 or more. It’s beyond bulky and will not provide enough board presence in the late game. The fact that it’s Elusive doesn’t mean that much to me either. That only leaves it to be a buff card for Mechs and I don’t really see this being too worth the price for just a massive “heal” with a few attack points. Again, the Elusive doesn’t mean much, and therefore will just be too unwieldy to see play. I do however see a place for Security Rover in the new and upcoming Warrior, in which case this would curve perfectly into it and be a force to be dealt with immediately before it gets out of hand. However, that combo is reliant on only two cards and this card Magnetic effect is super game-changing anywhere else.
Omega Assembly – Four Stars – Dr. Boom, Mad Genius warrants the idea of keeping a nice full hand so you can flood the board with Mechs and allow them to all have Rush. It may only cost 1 mana, but it’s still one of the best late game cards Garrosh has in his arsenal. The Mech options are looking pretty fair in the new Standard META, but that doesn’t really matter in this case. If you’re running a Mech-Warrior deck with Warrior’s new Hero card, gaining three random Mechs, even if they’re not great, is still pretty worth it because in addition to their value, they’ll also have rush. This is a decent way to keep your opponents board clear and work your way up to a win condition. Keep in mind that this can also be played on turn one. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s possible to try and get the card you need early in the game. This is a solid choice in a deck that will seem to be tier-2 material.
Dyn-o-matic – Three Stars – This is the card that gives Mech Warrior that extra “umph” it needed to be viable. It’s a more accurate Cinderstorm tacked onto a decently stated minion that also has Mech synergy. This provides excellent Mid-Game removal and a decent body as well. The fact that it doesn’t target Mechs is great. Not only are there going to be plenty of non-Mech decks out there, but even Mech decks don’t have all minions have that tribal tag. This allows the damage to become more focused when dealing with a crowded board. It can also damage your Acolytes of Pain for more card draw as well. When played right, it can be quite good. I don’t think every Mech/Control Warrior will run this, but we’ll certainly have a few deck recipes that will run it.
Security Rover – Four Stars – This is one of those clunky cards that I’m afraid to miss rate and then ends up actually seeing play like Dragonhatcher did. I am pretty confident in seeing a Mech Warrior come into play, so I have to imagine that this will be seen as a one-of every now and again. It might be too clunky to have two of them in your deck, but one might offer a few situational combos. We can assess and predict all we want, but clunky doesn't mean bad. Again, remember when everybody (including myself) said Dragonhatcher was unplayable? We'll just have to see! I do take pleasure in the idea of counting this as a 6-mana 4/9, 2/3 of which have Taunt. That’s not too bad considering it can be more. Warrior does have a lot ways to self-damage minions, especially with the new Hero card they got. This card is also phenomenal if you Magnetize something to it, like Wargear. I’m gonna have some faith in this little guy.
Eternium Rover – Four Stars – It has the famous 1/3 statline, a solid effect, it’s a Mech, Magnetize compatible, and it’s an odd-cost card which is always favorable for Warrior. Mech Warrior seems to be coming together to be fairly functional. The high health allows you to keep a bit of early game aggression on the board and it offers extra value depending on how long you can keep it on the field. Since you can Magnetize minions to this, more and more armor can be gained, which is a nice touch. This fits in very well with Bronze Gatekeeper. Not only is it a decent curve, but it stops aggro dead in its tracks, offers a large Taunt, and get’s you more value off of Eternium rover. I think this is attuned well to Warriors fancy new Hero card. Conversely, this will not work out in Odd Warrior. Odd Warrior currently runs Town Crier, Whirlwind, and Shield Slam. Those cards are more valuable to have in Odd Warrior and a newer Mech/Odd Warrior is dreaming a bit too big. Nonetheless, it’s not a bad card at all.
Rocket Boots – One Star – A cute alternative draw card for Warrior, but it’s too specific to see play. There really isn’t any minion within Warrior’s roster that absolutely needs Rush. As for card draw, Acolyte of Pain has always been faithful for Warrior.
Weapons Project – Five Stars - Excellent card. Oozes are no longer needed as this gives you a weapon AND destroys whatever your opponent was holding with an additional 6 armor. I would much prefer a card that gives you a 2/3 weapon as opposed to a 3/3 body so long as it’s one mana less. Twig of the World Tree and Skull of the Man’ari both own control play styles that greatly count on their weapon and Weapons Project can be saved until the moment is right to destroy it. The weapon and armor you give to your opponent won’t matter since they’ll either take enough damage from your minions to lose the armor or you’ll just use Harrison Jones to take destroy it, draw 2-3 cards, and have a 5/4 body on the field. That’s like a mini Ultimate Infestation. Unlike the other cards, this gets five stars because I can see it in not only Mech Warrior, but Recruit Warrior might throw it into it’s deck as well.
Rogue Cards:
Myra's Unstable Element – Five Stars – This card will be used in new versions of Odd, Miracle, and maybe even Quest Rogue. For all three decks, you’ll use this card to draw about ten cards and hope that you can finish your opponent off with a massive swing of value. Drawing 8-10 cards for 5-mana is overwhelmingly powerful. Use this as a final move to end your opponent. I don’t think this will be a reason to push Rogue to the top, but it will surly keep Rogue at tier-2. It still gets five stars because I think this would fit well in Odd and Miracle perfectly. Obviously, there will be memes to be had with this card as well. What makes this dangerous card so safe is the new Rogue epic Academic Espionage which provides a failsafe for you if your massive draw doesn’t offer lethal. This is very powerful and shouldn’t be underestimated.
Myra Rotspring – Three Stars – I see this as a tech card; a very good one at that. It has some serious potential. There's nothing better than having a flexible card and having the option to choose what's best for you at the moment. Deathrattles are all over the spectrum from something simple like drawing a card (Loot Hoarder) to something valuable like healing for 8 (Deranged Doctor). The appeal of this card comes from three different aspects. First of all, you have the option of getting Deathrattles that would usually cost 6-8 mana for only 5-mana. That’s some serious value. Second of all, it’s a Discover card which gives you the ability to choose something for the late game and offer you a form of card draw from your deck in addition to a 4/2 body AND a Deathrattle of your choice. Finally, this card offers flexibility. Like I said above, there are plenty of Deathrattles in the game. This card gives you a selection of three for you to decide which works best for you now; one on the field and one in your hand. The reason why I’m rating this as a three star tech card instead of a four or five star card is because I don’t see it as a staple, nor do I see it to be so essential that it’s put in every single Rogue deck. It’s just tech.
Necrium Vial – Three Stars – I foresee a new style of OTK Rogue being a thing with Necrium Blade, Carnivorous Cube, and Leeroy Jenkins. Decks like this have existed in the past. However, I see this as a non-centerpiece, one-of card in that deck. This will not make Deathrattle Rogue a thing because it’s too clunky and there still aren’t enough tools to make it possible but, using this on a Carnivorous Cube or a Kobold Illusionist with Malygos is a possible tier-3 deck. The more ways to activate your win condition, the better.
Academic Espionage – Five Stars – As much as I love making these prediction posts every expansion, I’m pretty bad at it. I’m the genius that said Spiteful Summoner, Voodoo Doll, and Aluneth would see no play. Seriously, take a look at my other reviews. However, I do make some solid predictions every now and then and one of them was about Tess Greymane. While it was widely praised during its reveal, I shook my head in disapproval. I’m doing that again. This does NOT make Tess Greymane competitive. Just because you give her 10 more cards, doesn’t mean she’ll be ready for action. It will certaintly make her better, but not better than any of the Rogue decks that currently exists and the ones that are about to exist when TBP releases. This still gets five stars because this fits into just about any other Rogue archetype that draws a lot… that’s quite a lot. This is just a nice way to ensure that you have a powerful late game and end up winning the fatigue game. One of three obvious ways to use this card is to combo the 1-mana cards with Rogue combo classics like Edwin VanCleef, Vilespine Slayer, and Gadgetzan Auctioneer. The second way to use this is to just play this after using Myra’s Unstable Element. This doesn’t HAVE to be played on turn four. If Myra’s Unstable Element doesn’t end up giving you the win condition you were looking for, play this to ensure that you aren’t at a race against the clock. This gives you a fair second chance. Third and finally, you can use Witchwood Piper to get a very good card in the mid-game. Imagine drawing a 1-mana UI? Usually, random effects like this are bad because you never know what you’re going to get. In this case, most bad cards you would usually get are now incredibly valuable. Nobody would play Ultrasaur, Bull Dozer, or Furious Ettin, but with this card, they’re 1-mana cards with statlines of 7/14, 9/7, and 5/9 respectively (some with keywords). That’s a lot of value. I truly believe this doesn’t offer a new Rogue archetype like others are a suggesting, but this card is so pandering to the Rogue play style, it’s almost impossible for it to not see play.
Necrium Blade – Four Stars – Even if Deathrattle Rogue became a thing, I still don’t think this would be included. For a Deathrattle Rogue to have enough synergy and a win condition, there needs to be consistency. Having this effect trigger on a random minion is not dependable. This weapons DOES have the ability to define a tier-3 deck and that’s OTK style decks. I see a lot of ideas floating around with Leeroy Jenkins + Carnivorous Cube and Malygos + Kobold Illusionist. While they may not be the most competitive, I believe they can work as they already have in the past. Unlike every other class, I believe that Rogue is capable of relying on just a few cards to win because they have tools like Cavern Shinyfinder and Elven Minstrel. Use those cards to draw what you want, deal 9 damage early, summon Leeroy Jenkins, attack, eat him with Carnivorous Cube, and then attacking face with Nercruim Blade will end your turn with a total of 21 damage to the face. It’s a little unrealistic due to the amount of powerful Taunt minions we see on the ladder, but that won’t ALWAYS be the case due to Rogue’s cheap removal cards like Sap. Rogue can also use Shadow Step to reuse Leeroy’s Charge. As for Malygos, it’s a bit tricky to try and get Kobold Illunsionist to proc, but it’s unquestionably possible because, again, Rogue has cheap damage spells that can target face and deal tons of damage. This is a well designed card and I’m looking forward to seeing it define a tier-3 deck.
Blightnozzle Crawler – One Star – This is really bad, especially since it exists in a class where removal is cheap, instant, and cost-efficient. This is none of those things. Rogue has so many different tools to do this same exact thing, but better.
Pogo-Hopper – Four Stars – A clear staple of what I think can be a functional deck. This reminds of the Mokey-Mokey’s in Yu-Gi-Oh. I love everything about this card. What is there to say that hasn’t already been said? This fits very well in a deck with Rogue classics such as Edwin VanCleef and Shadowstep. The obvious combo is to use Lab Recruiter on one of these cute “cuddly” bunnies and then use your second Lab Recruiter on ANOTHER Lab Recruiter. This offers you infinite Pogo-Hoppers that will snowball more and more as the game goes on. Usually I say stats aren’t enough to win games. But this COULD be very overwhelming with how fast Rogue can draw because this card exists in a META where Sprint, Eleven Minstrel, and Myra’s Unstable Element live in Standard. I’m scared to rate this a five star card so I’m gonna say four stars because I think this will only be a staple in a lower-tier deck, but I think people are going to be diligent enough to make this excellent card design work. We do have to keep in mind that this is NOT like Jade Idol. The community claims you can Lab Recruit a Pogo-Hopper and the Lab Recruit your second Lab Recruiter. That way you can keep shuffling in a scaling minion in you deck infinitely. I see a few people making this claim, but it isn’t true. Jade Idol was infinite in its own standalone state. This card requires a bit more for it to be infinite and the Jade mechanic also had other cards that coincided with it like Jade Blossom, Jade Behemoth, Jade Spirit, and Aya Blackpaw. There are no other “Pogo-Hopper” cards. Just thought I’d point that out! Good work Blizzard! Rogue is my least favorite class and you’re making me want to build a Rogue deck.
Lab Recruiter – Five Stars – I don’t think this is overhyped at all. Remember how impactful Gang Up was? Well, this is a Gang Up with a 3/2 body that can be drawn by Elven Minstrel and targeted with Shadowstep. This is much better and it will surely show up in games when TBP drops. You COULD build a deck that involves this card and Myra’s Unstable Element, but this can also fit into just about any Rogue deck due to the arsenal of good cards they have. The amount of valuable cards Rogue has is uncanny and it gets even crazier when you can shuffle three more into your deck. Fal’Dorei Strider, Leroy Jenkins, and Vilespine Slayer are just begging to be copied. Even if this doesn’t make it into a top-tier deck, I’m positive it will be seen in multiple lower-tier decks. This card is absolutely crazy.
Violet Haze – One Star – It pushes Deathrattle Rogue just another step further, but it’s not there yet. There just aren’t enough good cards to make it happen. What makes this card unplayable outside the realm of a bottom-tier Deathrattle Rogue is the fact that it’s basically Burgle, but worse. I’d rather play Burgle and get the competitive cards your opponent is most likely running, but Burgle only saw fringe play. If you’re looking for a similar effect in Standard, use Hallucination. It may not get you a Deathrattle card every time, but it will give you the option to choose one as well as being a cheap card to proc Combo cards off of.
Crazed Chemist – One Star – It’s a good card for its value, but boy does Rogue have a lot of better options. This would only really see play in a Tempo deck, and it’s just not going to take the spot of Cobalt Scalebane, Vilespine Slayer, and Fungalmancer. Cobalt Scalebane gives you more value over time with no Combo, Fungalmancer gives the same +4 buff without a Combo, and Vilespine Slayer is self explanatory. It just doesn’t beat these cards out.
Hunter Cards:
Boommaster Flark – One Star – This card kind of confuses me in a Standard sense. Sure, it’s awesome in Wild! You can do some crazy things with Feign Death and just go absolutely nuts with it. But in Standard?... What are going to do? The goal of this card is to offer you an opportunity to deal 8 damage straight to the face. So, maybe you’ll want to put a Void Ripper in your deck to immediately kill all of the Goblin Bombs. That’s 8 damage to the Hero all for the low price of… 10 mana? In a two card combo? That doesn’t sound very good to me. Why do that when there’s already one card that can do the same for one mana cheaper: King Krush. Sure, you can argue, we’re in a heavy Taunt META, but at least King Krush can destroy a minion, offers a body on the field and has Beast synergy. Now, I understand that the Goblin Bombs are Mechs and have possible Mech Synergy, but that’s way too slow to trigger such a mediocre Deathrattle. Likewise, we’re in a META where Taunts are all over the place so the King Krush example might not be the best, but one thing will never change for me. Dealing just 8 damage isn’t a win condition nor worth this kind of hassle. I’m sorry, but the dream of Bomb Hunter won’t work.
Flark's Boom-Zooka – One Star – It’s a shame that my favorite card art isn’t going to see much play at all. This is like Lady in White. You build your deck around it and hope you don’t draw the associating cards BEFORE Flark’s Boom-Zooka. Even then, this is a flashy 8-mana removal spell that gets rid of three minions you could possibly want in the future of the game. I would rather play those minions in a strategic, non-RNG manner; not strap them to a rocket and send them to their timely death. There is the option of having three particular Deathrattle minions to pull but not only are there no worthy combos when you consider the RNG.
Goblin Prank – One Star – I’d love to make an “it’s just a prank, bro” joke, but it’s already been said before. I’ll spare you all. Still, this card looks pretty great at first glance until you realize the reason why it won’t work. The whole appeal of Deathrattle Hunter is to keep your eggs and other Deathrattles alive long enough to proc them with Play Dead, Terroscale Stalker, and maybe even Necromechanic. This card may be an egg activator, but Hunter has much better options. If you want to deal an extra 3 damage (the +3 attack on Goblin Prank), maybe you’ll wanna use Flaking Strike instead. At least then you’ll still have a minion on board. It’s a funny card, but not needed or cost-worthy. In other existing Hunter decks, I don’t really this fitting in like Recruit Hunter. I also think Bomb Hunter is way too hopeful.
Necromechanic – Three Stars – Baron Rivendare saw absolutely no play, but that doesn’t always mean a card similar to it can’t see play. The reason this isn’t comparable to Baron Rivendare is because he rotated out a long time ago and we’re in a completely different META with new tools for this to work with. Maybe just one copy of it will be enough to get a sincere amount of value of it. At 6 health, this has quite a high chance of staying on the board. Although the curve may be a little awkward, Play Dead and Terrorscale Stalker will offer some decent plays as you play 2 Devilsaurs instead of just one. You can use Defender of Argus to buff your egg, kill it, and get two more 5/5’s as well. I think the best idea to use this is by eating your King Krush with Carnivorous Cube and then Playing Dead and summoning a stat total of 32/32. That’s a bit of a meme dream, but still totally possible. I think this will make itself right at home in an Egg/Deathrattle Hunter. The Bomb Hunter that’s being floated around will also use this card, but I think that whole deck is going to be to be nothing more than a meme as well
Spider Bomb – Three Stars – The first Magnetic card to ever be revealed. I think this new keyword seems pretty promising, but I don’t think it matters in this case. I think this is mainly good because it’s hard removal in a class that needs more of it, as well as the fact that Deathrattle Hunter is currently fairly viable. You can simply have two Spider Bombs in your deck and have them magnetize together. That could very well be enough! You can combine both of them and then use your Play Dead to destroy two random minions amongst having a 4/4 on the board. That’s some serious value; a Mech deck isn’t even needed! Side note: I think it’s inaccurate to compare this to Deadly Shot, even when both of the effects are exactly the same. It’s extremely important to trigger an effect exactly when you want it. You can’t do that with a Deathrattle unless you use Play Dead with it on the same turn, but that’s a two card combo for 1 more mana. For that reason, it’s not the same as Deadly Shot. This has nothing to do with my rating of the card, just thought I’d share my analysis! That being said, it’s still better in a non-Spell Hunter deck because Hunter can utilize Deathrattles well and this card just so happens to have a pretty strong effect. I think this will be a fine fit in an already existing deck. Mech Hunter currently isn’t there.
Cybertech Chip – One Star – I don’t think it’s fair to compare this to Infest. Not only does a 1-mana distinction mean a world of a difference, but Infest was a 3-cost card. Hunter is a class where the 3-drop slot is heavily populated. Kill Command, Animal Companion, Terrorscale Stalker, and Eaglehorn Bow are pretty essential to have in most Hunter decks. Infest couldn’t fit anywhere. The 2-drop slot, however, isn’t too populated and can use a card like this to take its spot. Hunter, to a great extent, needs card draw and Cybertech Chip provides a form of card draw that isn’t in your deck. This is great. Sadly, this will still see no play. Hunter needs a reliable way to draw and needing a board to draw cards is the opposite of reliable, especially when the cards are random and require you to “pop” each Deathrattle. Sure it’s easy with cards like Lesser Emerald Spellstone and Unleash the Hounds, but that’s an odd curve to rely on. Aggro decks have always been where Hunters have been tried and true. This isn’t aggressive and I don’t foresee a value/control Mech deck for Hunter in the near future. You can argue that Hunter has been playing much slower than usual. Rexxar started out with the infamous Face Hunter that wreaked havoc in the beginning of Hearthstone, but times have changed. Now we see Egg and Recruit Hunter. There are some flaws in this logic, though. Recruit Hunter can’t really fit this anywhere and Egg Hunter runs Prince Keleseth which is kind of irreplaceable. Maybe more Mechs will prove this theory wrong? Not right now. I’m sure it can happen, but not in the next four months.
Fireworks Tech – One Star - Don’t get me wrong. This is one of the most OP cards in the set. But, let’s evaluate this by comparing it to a similar card. If we take away the Deathrattle trigger effect, we’re left with a worse Fallen Sun Cleric. That card is awful and never saw play. Now, let’s throw the effect back onto Fireworks Tech. That’s pretty damn good! The problem is, are there going to be enough Deathrattle Mechs to warrant adding this into your deck? There ARE a lot of great Mechs, to be quite frank. Playing Goblin Bomb and following up with this will result in two immediate face damage points, two future face damage points, and 2/4 worth of stats. There’s also Spider Bomb, Harvest Golem, Mecharoo, and anything effected by Cybertech Chip. It’s powerful, efficient, and doable, but not enough to build a deck around. A Mech Hunter is going to need a lot more to work around than just popping off a few good Deathrattles. If this wasn’t specified towards Mechs, this would be a natural fit in Egg Hunter. What makes Egg Hunter so great is it’s overwhelming ability to flood the board. My faith in a Mech Hunter and Bomb Hunter are quite low.
Secret Plan – One Star – I Know a Guy, Finders Keepers, Dark Possession, and Blazing Invocation are all 1-mana spells that let you Discover something. These never saw play. Even Hallucaution wasn’t good for the effect. It was only used to get extra value off of cheap Combo cards. With the exception of Raven Idol, these cards don’t typically do well and I’m going to place Secret Plan under the same category. I see a few comments in Hearthpwn.com saying to replace Tracking with this. I think that’s a very bad idea. I would much rather use Tracking to thin out my deck in order to get to the good stuff like Rhok’Delar, Deathstalker Rexxar, and Lesser Emerald Spellstone. This doesn’t do that. What makes this card pretty good is the fact that Hunter Secrets are the most versatile in the game. For example, you might want to select Rat Trap of you’re facing decks like Token Druid or Shudderwock Shaman. For Odd Paladin, you might want to pick up Explosive Trap. The palpable issue that you won’t always get what you need. I also think we’re a couple of expansions away from witnessing the dream of a viable Secret Hunter as this is just not enough to make it happen.
Bomb Toss – Two Stars – My reasoning for Bomb Hunter not being so great is the fact that it takes a lot of effort for just some damage to the face. There’s only so many times you can use Play Dead, Terrorscale Stalker, and other activators. Defender of Argus and Mossy Horror are too slow unless it’s worth your while. Devilsaur Egg, Savannah Highmane, and Carnivorous Cubes with King Krush in them are worth your time. Not 0/2 minions that deal 2 damage to the face. I will still give this card two stars because Deathrattle/Egg Hunter typically runs a copy of Grievous Bite. This card definitely has a chance to be an alternative choice since the Golbin Bomb has the ability to be activated by collateral damage throughout the game. It’s not much, but a little extra damage to the face might be worth some experimentation.
Venomizer – One Star – It’s controversial card rating time! Like I have said before, I don’t think Hunter got a lot of great cards this expansion. Could I be wrong? Of course I can. Everybody said that Rhok’Delar and all the other Hunter Spells from the same expansion would not see any play, but that became a deck archetype. Here I go again. I’m still going to make the possible mistake of saying that this won’t be an archetype either. There’s a few good combos with Mechs like Fireworks Tech with Mecharoo which is good, but not enough to make a deck. You can also use this with Missile Launcher which is pretty amazing removal. I just really don’t think that the Magnetize is worth it outside of Missile Launcher. If you’re going to use a Poison effect, you usually want to have a small minion to die immediately and pick off a large minion. If you’re buffing your largest minion, chances are it has enough attack to destroy that minion already. Don’t think that I’m writing this card off as bad because it’s vanilla. I’m just not seeing the archetype or the meme to be good enough to see competitive play.
Druid Cards:
Flobbidinous Floop – Five Stars – There’s really not much to say here. With the incredible ramping power of Druid, you’ll be able to pull off some massive combos that can win you the game and games to come. The value is ridiculous. This card gets five stars for the lone fact that you can squeeze this in Taunt Druid and maybe Malygos Druid and it would be perfectly okay. These are already tier-1 decks. I’m sure when the expansion drops, more and more ideas for this card will be apparent. Druid is tier-1 right now and I see no reason for their reign of terror to end. Unlike Ixlid, the Fungal Lord, it’s much easier to set up an immediate combo with this. This can be a fourth Hadronox or a third Malygos which already offers value on its own. Is this overkill? I honestly don’t think so. With new cards like Dreampetal Florist, more and more decks will want to run this card because the ability to summon large minions has never been easier.
Floop's Glorious Gloop – One Star – It’s not likely you will kill a lot of minions in one turn in a Control Druid, so in theory you would use this in a Token Deck which is currently top-tier. However, I still didn’t give this card three stars for fitting into a deck without changing it much. It’s still one star because it’s a win-more card. I would prefer to be running Power of the Wild or Savage Roar when I have a lot of tokens out instead of running them all dead for more mana. Even if you were in a very particular condition where you would want to trade, you need to kill three minions for it to basically be a pre-nerf Innervate. That’s not nearly worth the work and I think this card is WAY too over hyped. Druid got a ton of good cards this expansion, but this isn’t one of them.
Dreampetal Florist – Five Stars – One word: why? This is Emperor Thaurissan that targets minion cards only. We all know how amazing that card was. Druids do not need any extra help for their already prevailing combos and yet, they got this card. While it’s obvious that a 4/4 isn’t worth 7 mana, the effect plainly makes it cost-efficient with a single mana reduction on a minion and even more so with a second and maybe even a third! This is very possible with the powerful Taunts that Druid runs. Malygos Druid is the most realistic. Instead of Moonfires, you can now afford to run something like Swipe. I don’t think too many Big Druids will run this because they don’t need much more assistance. I wouldn’t doubt if this card alone created a brand new different kind of combo deck, either! Perhaps you’ll want this to hit your Master Oakheart or maybe use her to create a 3-mana 10/10 Mecha’thun. I can see it happening. This fits perfectly into an already top-tier deck and can even become a staple for a whole new deck. A 7 mana discount is nothing to be underestimated, especially when seven can become fourteen and fourteen can become twenty-one.
Juicy Psychmelon – One Star – WHAT?! No this isn’t a typo and please let me explain before this thread gets reported. I understand how absolutely nuts this could be in Wild. In fact, it could very well get nerfed for that exact reason. This is a pure value card and should be recognized as such. I know that. The ability to draw Azalina Soulthief, King Togwaggle, Aviana, and Kun, the Forgotten King only makes that Wild deck more broken than it already is. Drawing 4 for 4 like a special deal at Wendy’s is disgusting and is a huge guarantee that you’ll get the curve you want. So, why on God’s green Earth did I rate this totally busted card only ONE STAR? The first reason is its usability as the game goes on. Let’s say you are able to draw four minions from your deck. What happens with the second copy? You can only run so many large minions in a deck and have it be viable and it’s extremely unlikely you’ll get any value out of the second Juicy Psychmelon. With a value card like this, you want consistency. Running one copy will not give you consistency. My second reason is how necessary this card really is. Druid already runs Nourish, which also allows you to gain mana crystals. The run the ever versatile Branching Paths which offers you a variety of options, but can give you card draw as well. There’s also Wrath and Wild Growth which gives you card draw under very specific circumstances. Stuffing any more card draw into a Druid deck is just overkill and 100% not needed. I’d rather run Nourish and Branching Paths. In addition to this reason of necessity, Togwaggle Druid, is the only deck that could realistically draw four cards in a viable deck. Taunt Druid, Malygos Druid, and Token Druid only run 8 and 9 drop minions. Drawing 2 for 4 is not cost-efficient and because there are so many 8 and 9 drops in those decks, you have a fairly high chance of drawing these anyways at the beginning of your turns. You could argue that Dreampetal Florist will spawn a new kind of deck that would warrant the drawing of these four costs, but I fear the deck might be too clunky. It will also flood your hand with minions and therefore Dreampetal Florist might not hit the Malygos you want it to hit. My final reason is that I don’t see a deck, other than a non-Standard deck, that warrants the need to draw 4 combo pieces from those specific mana values ASAP. It’s hard to see that far into the future, especially with thousands of minds trying to create decks, but it seems unlikely to create a new deck that works this particularly. If my review included Wild, this would be a five star card for Togwaggle Druid. I do believe it would be smart to save your copies of this card when it gets nerfed. I just truly believe that Standard Druid has no use for this. Thank you for reading all the way through; now you can get your torches and pitchforks.
Tending Tauren – One Star – This card has two purposes. The first one is to offer split stats (2 2/2’s and a 3/4 for 6-mana) with Treant Synergy. The second one is to tutor as a buff, ideally for Token decks. I don’t think that this expansion offered enough viable Treant synergy for the deck to be viable and Token Druid already has a better buff in Savage Roar and Power of the Wild. Sure, they don’t have bodies, but Token Druid is more concerned with buffing the board quick and cheap.
Mulchmuncher – One Stars – At the moment, this Treant deck looks like it can’t come together. This is a great, big minion with a Giant effect that allows you remove minions, save mana, and keep a heavy presence on the board, but not good at all if you can’t reduce the cost of it. This is a frightening one-star rating because it’s a Corridor Creeper that doesn’t have to be in your hand. But, I think the Treant tools Druid has are too slow to warrant this card, even if it can be a 5-mana 8/8.
Dendrologist – One Star - Could this be in a Treant deck? If Treant decks show promise, then yes. Currently they don’t. Discovering a spell is good which is why Raven Idol was always run in just about every Druid deck. It was a trademark card for Druids. However, that card was good because you were able to play it on turn one and hold it in your hand until the moment was right. With Dendrologist, you’ll have to play this on turn three or four. That might be too slow, even if you end up getting a spell out of the deal. This Treant style deck doesn’t look promising. There are quite a bit of synergistic plays and combos, but nothing close to a win condition.
Biology Project – Five Stars – An easy contender for a Ramp Style deck. I’m actually a little nervous to rate this five stars at the moment because I fear having too much mana ramp cards in your deck will be blatant overkill. You can’t run Greedy Sprite and Innervate and Wild Growth AND this. However, Big Druid has always proven to be dominant and I don’t see why it would stop now. You can look at this card and be concerned that your opponent will get the same benefit and therefore will have no effect; or it could have a negative effect on you. This is true, but if you build a deck where you can “out Big” your opponent faster and better, which Druid is perfectly capable of, this card will be Malfurion’s best friend. Not only that, but it’s not useless at 10-mana because it will work just like Innervate does. It fits into tier-1 and will certainly be used in many Druid decks to come that involve Big and Ramp play-styles.
Landscaping – One Star – A Treant deck could work, but it’s currently not there yet. That being said, this card HAS to be in a Treant deck. I see a lot of comments saying that this could act as a card on its own in your everyday-average Token Druid deck but this card is just not good enough as a standalone. This wouldn’t go in Malygos Druid because of Prince Taldaram, it wouldn’t go in Taunt Druid because Witching Hour takes the 3-drop slot (anymore would be clunky), and any ramp type deck would just use Greedy Sprite or Druid of the Scythe. Finally, I think it’s just not good enough for anything aggressive. Its only implication is to be in a deck specifically that uses Treant cards for synergy and consistency and that deck won’t work within the next four months, even if it does trigger Mulchmuncher.
Gloop Sprayer – One Star – As crazy as this card can be, I really only see it as a win-more card. It’s gross overkill. If you already have two minions that are worth of duplicating, chances are you’re going to want to use that 8 mana to finish the job instead of creating MORE of a win condition. There are a lot of fun things you can do like summoning big minions like Malygos or The Lich King, break your Twig of the World Tree, play Gloop Sprayer, and then have an insane board, but that’s way too much in my opinion. Big Druid is already dominant and has no need for a card like this and I don’t think any other versions of Big Druid with this in it will be any good.
Shaman Cards:
Electra Stormsurge – Four Stars – This was tough for me to rate. Ultimately, four stars seemed fitting. Before I get to my reason why I rated this four stars, let me explain why this was so difficult. Due to Shudderwock Shaman existing, I can definitely see people wanting to throw this in for extra fun, but it will, in due course, be futile. Sure, Shudderwock Shaman has some great spells to double up on, essentially giving you a total of three Healing Rains or Volcanoes (two copies in the deck, plus the extra play from Electra.) Is this really worth the craft, though? If you play Lighting Storm with this card, it’s a two card combo that will Overload you for four. You can do the same thing with two copies of Lighting Storm. What’s the benefit? You get a 3/3 Elemental and an extra “copy” of a spell. I won’t deny it; that’s great value. Is it enough to warrant spending 1600 dust to do this and taking up a deck slot? It’s good, but is it necessary? I don’t think so. What else would you use this with? Double Volcano seems like overkill, especially since you’re paying an extra 3-mana which will Overload you for not much extra value. Double Healing Rain is actually really good, but how often will you need to do that, especially when you can sustain just fine with only two copies of Healing Rain. I don’t think that’s essential. The only spell I can see this being of use is Bloodlust which is where the five stars comes in. A burst like that could be lethal in a single two-card combo. Shaman has been given incredible mid-range and token cards and I believe that even with Taunts running the META, Shaman will have a shot at being a viable tier-3, maybe tier-2 deck with this being one of the centerpieces. My theory is that you can use cards like Thunderhead, Voltic Burst, and Primal Talismans to make sure you have a full board. Then, use tech cards like Storm Chaser to draw your Bloodlust. On turn 8, you can double Bloodlust assuming you have a full board which is very possible. That’s a pretty reliable win condition.
The Storm Bringer – Two Stars – Usually, this card would be a one star card, hands down. The effect is a bit too random. However, I still think this will see sparse play. I’m pretty confident in a Token Shaman where you flood the board and use Electra Stormsurge to Bloodlust your minions for a final burst. Token decks rely on cheap and/or quick ways to buff up your minions so you can either have an overwhelming board or a quick lethal. While this card itself might not be a win condition, it’s certainly an alternative in case your combo cards are unluckily at the bottom of your deck. If you have a solid board of 3 or 4 minions, chances are you’re going to get value out of it. Even if it’s something like Captain Greenskin or Tinkmaster Overspark, it’s still better than a Totem or a 1/1 Spark with Rush. This has potential to be an on and off option depending on whether or not people have the card. I thought that Token Shaman was possible before this card was revealed so I don’t think it’s necessary. Even then, Token Shaman will probably only be about a tier-2 maybe tier-3 deck, especially since Shudderwock Shaman is taking control.
Thunderhead – Three Stars – A possible factor to a Mid-Range Shaman. I like the idea of using this with Voltaic Burst and other Overload cards to flood the board with useful tokens. This is the main way to set up your turn-8 lethal by using Voltaic Burst and Primal Talismans to flood your board. Using Electra Stormsurge and Bloodlust after that could be a very reliable lethal in a tier-3/2 deck.
Omega Mind – One Star – This isn’t much different from Hallazeal the Ascended which didn’t see any play. Instead of waiting for turn 10 to use this and a spell, just use Healing Rain. Sure, this has a 2/3 body, but aggressive decks are pretty popular right now. Omega Mind won’t do you any good before turn 10.
Eureka! – One Star – I think this is just too expensive. Playing this card, having Electra on the field, and hoping that the only minion in your hand is something like Malygos is just not sensible. I don’t think an OTK deck with Zap! and Lightning Bolt is going to competitive. If you play Electra Stormsurge, then this card, then Lighting Bolt, you can deal 13 damage… on turn 10. This is a three card combo for 10-mana. Even if it was a consistent combo, this deck would still need a lot more to work around this. When we look at existing decks, Shaman has Shudderwock and Even decks. Shudderwock nor Even Shaman has a need for this spell and it’s hard to predict Shaman creating anything newer on ladder within the next four months.
Voltaic Burst – Four Star – This card was one star until I believed in Token Shaman. This is a fast and easy way to fill up your board, but it doesn’t only work with Thunderhead. It can also be a fair removal with Flametounge Totem or you can have placeholders on the field by casting Primal Talismans. It can be a part of a decent tier-2 deck.
Storm Chaser – Four Stars – This was the card that made me say “okay, this is possible.” I would love to see a decent Mid-Range/Token Shaman come about since there are finally decent tools to use in the deck. This card is one of the two centerpieces to make this deck possible. It’s nice and Mid-range because you can draw a Volcano at turn 5 and then clear your opponents board at 6. However, the real reason why you would use this is to grab your Bloodlust and use Electra Stormsurge. That tutor alone is enough to make this valuable.
Menacing Nimbus – One Star – There are quite a few Elementals you wouldn’t want to pull from this card. Snowfury Giant, Ozruk, Cauldron Elemental. Frozen Crusher, Stormwatcher, Grave Shambler, Magma Rager, Unbound Elemental, and Dust Devil are just a few examples of terrible cards you could get from this Menacing Nimbus. There are even some good cards you wouldn’t want to get if you aren’t running an Elemental deck like Servant of Kalimos or Fire Plume Harbinger. We’ll have to see as we move on, but unfortunately, I don’t think this will see play unless a full-fledged Elemental deck takes off. Even Shaman does have a few Elementals, but I wouldn’t want to replace Murkspark Eel, Vicious Scalehide, Direwolf Alpha, or Primalfin Totem.
Beakered Lightning – One Star – Not only are Token and Aggro decks a common theme within the current META, but I think they’re still going to be popular in the future. Shaman could use some cheap AoE, to get rid of all those pesky Silver Hand Recruits. The issue is, the 2-mana deficit you’ll have the next turn is rough. In addition to that, this won’t work in this deck for the late game because you’ll remove some of the tokens on your side of the field (considering you’re playing Token Shaman. In the early stages of the game, this is useless. Even Shaman doesn’t have a need for this either, so it doesn’t seem like it’s Beakered Lighting’s time.
Elementary Reaction – Four Stars – Unlike Menacing Nimbus, I think this will certainly knock something out of Even Shaman. Card Draw that’s half from your deck and half not in your deck is pretty good. Not only that but Even Shaman has plenty of Elementals to trigger the effect AND Elementals have pretty good effects you’ll want to activate twice. This can also work in the upcoming Token Shaman to try and double on powerful effects to survive or to fish out your Electra Stormsurge for your win condition. It’s an excellent draw card and the stipulation to get the copy of the card is a small price to pay for being one mana less than a Mimic Pod. Still, Shudderwock Shaman doesn’t run enough Elementals to warrant play. Four stars for being played in two, maybe even more, quality decks.
Paladin Cards:
Kangor's Endless Army – One Star - I think we should take into account how powerful "specific" resurrections are. When built around properly, cards like Witching Hour can prove to be a win condition in itself. Druids were always confident in resurrecting a Hadronox because Witching Hour allowed the deck to be built in a way where powerful minions AND Hadronox could live, but Hadronox would ultimately come back to haunt you. Same thing goes with Lesser Diamond Spellstone. Although this isn't specific, Big Priest utilized this well by building a deck where the player could guarantee big minions like The Lich King and Ysera would spawn. As for this, the applications aren't there yet. However, if they become evident, this could prove to be very powerful. This is especially the case because you’re using minions with powerful buffs that don’t lose said buffs when resurrected. The problem is with this card is that it currently takes too long to set up, combo/aggro decks run the META, and it’s not good enough of an effect to rely on a one-of legendary that costs 7-mana. I love this card, but it won’t see play.
Crystalsmith Kangor – One Star – Small and simple legendary cards like this are my favorite. This is a very good card, but is too “control” for the upcoming META. Paladins are very aggressive right now. There are some cool ideas with a Divine Shield Paladin, but that’s very out of reach. Drawing this with Crystology and having a deck with Lynessa Sunsorrow and Bolvar, Fire Blood is just not a realistic idea. This COULD be an exceptional addition to a deck that runs Corpsetaker and I really want to try that. I just don’t think it’s enough to be competitive.
Prismatic Lens – One Star – As much as a I love this design, I have to shake my head in dismissal on this one. We have to compare this to a card like Arcane Intellect. They both draw two cards. So, we have to ask ourselves if the tutor and swap effect are worth it. I’m going to say no. A 1-mana Tirion Fordring may be good, but an 8-mana Eye for an Eye is unfathomably terrible. Not only do you have to pay for this kind of price reduction, but you can’t always rely on getting the draws and swaps you want. It’s very random. In addition to that, all Paladin decks that are currently competitive are aggressive. This isn’t a good fit. This is much more suited for a Control or Mid-Range Paladin and I don’t see this coming to fruition this time around.
Glowstone Technician – One Star – Hand-buffing hasn’t worked in the past and it’s not going to work with MSoG rotated out. I’m well aware that this card doesn’t HAVE to be in a deck that follows that archetype. This could very well be a control type card, but it won’t be. Paladin is all aggro all the time right now and a Control Paladin seems out of reach this expansion. Not to mention, 6-mana is incredibly clunky for such a slow effect and poor statline, especially when you consider you still have to pay the extra mana to summon the minions you just buffed.
Annoy-o-Module – One Star – Let’s evaluate this by taking the Magnetic away. Would a Paladin want a 4-mana 2/4 in their deck with Divine Shield and Taunt? Possibly. It can trigger Corpsetaker making it pretty consistant. Now, let’s throw magnetic back into the mix. As a minion, it’s pretty decent. With Mech synergy, it’s a cheaper Spikeridged Steed or a Velen’s Chosen. It’s an amazing buff if put into a Mech deck. The problem is Mech Paladin doesn’t seem to be on the table which makes this card only balanced for non-Mech decks. Balanced won’t cut it.
Shrink Ray – One Star – I don’t see why any Control deck would use this over Equality. In terms of Odd Paladin, the only one that exists is excessively aggressive. Level Up! and Fungalmancer are currently in the 5-drop slot and Odd Paladin doesn’t care about removal at all. In any other deck, I see no point in choosing this over equality, especially since most people use it to clear the board anyways.
Crystology – One Star – As excellent as drawing specific cards is, this will not see play unless some kind of Control Paladin takes charge. The three most popular Paladin decks are all Aggro and have absolutely no use for a card like this. However, this spell has the ability to draw quite a number of useful control cards like Stonehill Defender and Tar Creeper. If we see a world where a Control/Mech deck arises, this has a fair application. So far, not really.
Autodefense Matrix – One Star – Currently shows potential as a standalone card, but I can’t really see a place for it at the moment. The Paladin decks that are currently META are aggressive. This is the opposite of aggro and will not fit in any of these decks. Likewise, Control Paladin has no need for a card like this. Midrange typically runs about one or two secrets, but if it becomes popular, it will be very easy to play around and, in return, won’t offer you much value. Finally, a Blood Knight type deck would be awful with this card. If all of your cards have Divine Shield, you won’t get ANY value out of this, not to mention the Divine Shield will be popped; therefore, it will offer no synergy. Finally, this could be in a Secret deck with Prince Liam and Bellringer Sentry but that hasn’t worked in the past. This isn’t the card to make it work now.
Glow-Tron – Three Stars – This is one of those simple, yet effective class cards that make META decks. It’s great as a turn 1 drop just for the stats alone. Look how amazing Dire Mole can be. This is even BETTER than Dire Mole in Odd Paladin. This can not only Magnetize to itself, but to Mechroo which I believe will replace Argent Squire so there’s more synergy. Do I think this will make Odd Paladin rise the ranks? No, I don’t. But, it’s certainly a perfect fit to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.
Mechano-Egg – One Star – This card has absolutely terrible tempo. Playing this on turn 5 is way too slow considering it’s going to take a lot of effort to crack this thing open, that is if it isn’t transformed or silenced. This is also a completely dead card in your hand if you’re losing. The only upside I can see is the fact that there are quite a bit of cards that curve well into it such as Spikedridged Steed, Sunkeeper Tarim, and Mossy Horror. I really want to like this card because I love egg cards, but this is too big to deal with and both the reward and the deck slot are not worth it. I like the ideas of using Meat Wagon to pull it out or Magnetizing it, but that’s way too slow to summon an 8/8.
Neutral Legendary:
Mecha'thun – Two Stars – As awesome as this card is, I couldn’t think of a competitive way to pop this cards effect off. There are many ways to do it, meme-wise. Hemet Jungle Hunter and Myra’s Unstable Element are great ways to mill your deck, Galvanizer and Prismatic Lens are fun ways to reduce its cost, and you can even try to use Cataclysm to destroy your board AND discard your hand. There’s plenty of ways to make it happen, but it all seems way too difficult to be a deck on the ladder. But, I know there are many creative theory crafters out there that will find a way to make this work consistently… but not competitively. Sorry, but I really only see this as meme material, but boy oh boy is it the ultimate meme.
Subject 9 – One Star – There are only 4 classes that can play this card so it’s easier to evaluate this card by each class. Rogue is the easiest to evaluate because they only have three not-so-great secrets and plenty of other ways to draw them if they wanted to run them. Mage was already given Glacial Mysteries which not only “drew” those secrets for you, but also played them for you. That’s 15-manas worth of spells for 8 mana. Glacial Mysteries was never good and neither will a card that draws them, just so you can spend more than one turn placing them down. You could argue that this is a good card for a Burn Mage where you want to keep your hand full, but I don’t see that as being a competitive deck. Hunter has Professor Putricide and Lesser Emerald Spellstone, but even with this card and 5 secrets, it’s not enough to build a deck. In Wild with Cloaked Huntress you have shot, but not Standard. There’s just not enough follow up and the Hunter secrets don’t work to synergistically in conjunction. Finally, there’s Paladin. Secret Paladin was one of the most dominant decks in the game at one point, but that was because you had Dr. 6 which allowed you to have 5 secrets on the board in one shot while still having a full hand. Subject 9 requires you to have 10-mana and then to empty the cards you just drew. Not only that, but that deck features secrets that worked in conjunction with each other. Those secrets are no longer around in Standard and therefore will not have the same competitive synergy it used to. It’s a fun card, with great artwork, and a viable effect, but it’s not Subject 9’s time.
Zilliax – Four Stars – Mech Warrior has a bright future and it’s partially because of Zilliax, which is basically a better Wickerflame Burnbristle. Unlike some of the other Magnetic cards, I believe that this card functions well as a buff AND a minion. However, the synergy doesn’t just stop at Mechs. This is a very good way to activate your Corpsetaker without taking up multiple slots in your deck. This is also a fair draw from Countess Ashmore and Town Crier, despite never seeing play. It’s flexible, it’s quick, and it’s powerful. I’m sure it will find a home somewhere. Despite all of the things I named, I think that the only realistic idea is to just be a really powerful Mech in Mech Warrior. This IS a good card for Corpsetaker, but not reliable. I’d rather have him in a deck where I can Magnetize him to something like Security Rover. I look forward to him being part of a tier-2 deck. Other Mech decks seem a bit too weak, even with Zilliax so my hope is a little shot for others.
Whizbang the Wonderful – Five Stars – What an absolutely fantastic card. Or, I should say “wonderful” instead. This is one of the best ideas Blizzard has had yet. I don’t think people are understanding the amount of value you get by crafting just one card. Not only do you get 18 decks (540 cards) for the price of just 1600 dust, but this card will last for years to come and generate even more value over time. If you craft this card, all players, especially FTP players, will have little need to by bundles for future expansions. It’s time for some math. Let’s take look at the price of all 18 decks that are currently available pre-Boomsday. I added up the total amount of dust of each pair of decks for each class. Both Warrior decks add up to a total of 18,600 dust, Priests cost 17,300, Mages cost 15,560, Warlocks cost 15,900, Druids cost 11,880, Hunters cost 12,800, Paladins cost 18,500, Rogues cost 10,000, and Shamans cost 13,080. I think it’s safe to say that that is a lot of dust that you would otherwise spend YEARS to collect unless you constantly pay real money for card packs. Nobody likes doing that. If Whizbang the Wonderful was in Standard right now, you would be able to save approximately 133,620 dust (not counting a few duplicates). When The Boomsday Project drops, these pre-made decks will be changed a little bit, but you have to assume that they’re going to be relatively the same and they’ve been getting much more competitive. Not only that, this card will last one full rotation before moving to Wild. That’s about 6-7 expansions of new cards that you won’t have to craft because of this card. Now you can multiply the number we just had per expansion by 6-7 (a little under a million dust). That’s a lot of legendary cards you won’t need to craft considering almost every single pre-made deck contains at least one. It will be a lot less necessary to purchase bundles every time an expansion drops. Not only does this card save you dust, but real world money as well. Whether you’re FTP or PTW, I think it would be ridiculous if somebody didn’t craft this card. Finally, this makes gold quests so much easier. For people who only play one class, you’ll now have two functional decks for every Hero. It’s so worth it in the long run and it helps you explore classes that you rarely try without the hassle of collecting dust and paying money. This was well done Blizzard. It’s five stars specifically because I feel like multiple people will be using this, whether it is competitive or not.
Harbinger Celestia – One Star – This card is AWESOME against a Spell Hunter… That’s it. Otherwise, chances are you’re going to have a 4-mana 1/2 with a minor Battlecry, or something to that effect. There’s not really much else to say. It’s a 4-mana Mirror Entity that’s just not worth the deck slot.
Neutral Epics:
Loose Specimen – One Star – I tried really hard to theorycraft something to make this work. I thought it would be a decent egg activator. It deals plenty of damage and it’s an overstated minion, right? Yeah, well if you want to summon 5-mana 6/6 worth of stats in one card, why aren’t you playing Fungalmancer? That card gives the same stats, allows the eggs to deal damage before they crack, and it isn’t random damage dealt. Current popular egg decks are Priest and Hunter. Hunter relies on Terrorscale Stalker, Play Dead, Carnivorous Cube and a few tech options like Mossy Horror. Priest has Mirage Caller and Duskbreaker. Loose Specimen doesn’t offer that same play-style. This is just not needed, especially when there are many other cards out there that are just better. That being said, I give props to anybody that tries to make this work with Blackhowl Gunspire.
Crystallizer – Five Stars – I have high hopes for Zoolock and I think this is a natural fit. Healing can be very ineffective in the early game for obvious reasons. With this card, not only are you playing a 1/3 for one mana, but it opens up an opportunity for the healing effects on Voodoo Doctor, Lifedrinker, and Fungal Enchanter, to have more value. In addition to that you get an extra 10 armor (assuming you run two). I believe that Zoolock, being a possible tier-1 deck in the future, will put this to great use. This ALSO gets five stars because I’m sure it will see experimentation in Priest and Warrior as well. It synergizes with Priest’s Hero Power, which is a nice curve to have on turn two considering Priests usually use their second turn to Hero Power their opponent at 30 health. Warrior has a great ability to take advantage of Armor as well as use this in Odd Warrior. Will it work in these two cases? It’s possible, but certainly not as well as it will in Zoolock.
Augmented Elekk – Four Stars – Adding competitive stats with an excellent curve is exactly the kind of attributes a card need to see play. This card is pretty great. Queen Carnassa, Dire Frenzy, Direhorn Hatchling, Raptor Hatchling, Astral Tiger, Baleful Banker, Dead Man's Hand, Deck of Wonders, Fal'dorei Strider, Psychic Scream, Archbishop Benedictus, Elise the Trailblazer, Kingsbane, Lab Recruiter, and The Darkness are all of the standard shuffle effects. Out of these cards, I feel like the most logical choices would be curving Fal’dorei Strider after playing Augmented Elekk. Fal’dorei Strider already offers you 16/16 worth of stats across the span of a round for 4 mana. If you throw Augmnted Elekk in the mix, that becomes 31/32 worth of stats for just 7 mana. That’s a very realistic curve. Now, it’s very common of me to say that one combo does not make a card good and that’s true. Here’s the thing: I would also expect this card to be run with Academic Espionage, Lab Recruiter, and maybe even Pogo-Hopper. One other thing I could see happening is with Warrior in it’s Odd deck. It may only be one combo with Direhorn Hatchling, but this particular deck needs all the help it can get to climb out of the bottom-tier. Warrior currently runs Gluttonous Ooze in that deck. With Warlocks and Druids dominating the META, I think it would make sense to try this out as a tech card. The stats are good enough to try it out alone. One final realistic scenario would be the experimentation with Queen Carnassa and the Hunter Quest. Hunter could have a lot of fun trying this out, especially since the aggressive stats and Beast tag coincide so well with Rexxar’s style. Do I think it will work? Probbaly not, but I know there will be a few souls on the bottom rank (such as myself) trying to make it work. I think trying to use this with Dead Man’s Hand, Deck of Wonders, and Baleful Banker are realistic, but not worth the deck slot. Four Stars for being tried out a lot of different ways, but not landing in the top-tier.
Holomancer – One Star – While the effect may be decent, the stats are just too poor to ever see play. At 5-mana, your opponent will certainly have an answer for it and you’ll have just wasted all that mana for a 3/3. I think the idea of giving this Stealth is cute, but far from the realm of realism. Overall, Dollmaster Dorian is much better and that saw little to no play. At least with Dorian, you can cheat out 1/1 minions on your own. In this case, your opponent has complete control, and it’s very easy to get rid of. Congratulations, Holomancer! You just earned the Magma Rager reward.
Seaforium Bomber – One Star – Not a bad card, but it’s a bit too niche to build a deck around. Why bother using this in Rogue with Shadowstep, Augmented Elekk and the Brewmasters, when OTK and Mrya’s Unstable Element Rogue look so much more reliable. Unfortunately, that’s the only class that can realistically pull this off. It’s too expensive and risky trying to run all of the Brewmaster cards, hoping you draw them, bouncing the Seaforium Bomber, and hoping Augmented Elekk stays on the field for long enough for you use multiple times. That’s not even good enough to be a meme.
Omega Defender – One Star – The first Omega card to be revealed. Obvious applications are quite clear at first glance. Druid could very well have enough ramp to make this card worth it. After all, having 10 mana crystals is a pretty easy task for a 12/6 Taunt card. That’s quite the reward. Will, this be what Druid wants in their late game? At the moment, I don’t think so. It’s a great card, but might not be what Malfurion mains want right now when Hadronox, Malygos, and The Lich King are wreaking havoc. As for the other eight classes, I can’t see them warranting flat stats when their opponent also has 10 mana crystals to work with. Druid is the only one who can realistically ramp fast enough.
Star Aligner – One Star – An interesting concept to be sure, but not pragmatic enough to be competitive. A massive board-clear like this is great. However, it’s too difficult to pull off. If you’re going to work on a requirement like the stipulations on this card, they better be your win condition. Deal 7 damage to all enemies is awesome, but not a win condition. I saw some crazy ideas like using Mechanical Whelps and waiting to pop them so you can play this but, boy, is that about the slowest process I’ve ever heard for just a AoE removal.
E.M.P. Operative – One Star – Just because this expansion is Mech themed, doesn’t mean that EVERY deck being built is going to have Mechs. There are plenty of decks that have been suggested that don’t have anything to do with Mechs like a new Zoolock, Mid-Range Shaman, and at least three types of non-Mech Druid decks. Not only that, but the 5-mana slot is a pretty crucial slot in a lot of decks where a lot of useful and popular cards are played. If this is the only card you have on turn 5 while facing a non-mech deck, you’ll be having a very bad time. I don’t think Mech Warrior is gonna be such a force where you have to run this card. That’s the only massively Mech centered deck I see happening.
Weaponized Piñata – Two Stars – A neutral Shifting Shade is the first thing that comes to mind, but not what it should be compared to. The stark difference is the Mech tag. This is quite the target for a Magnetic minion. This could see play as a “sometimes” card for Warrior or a decent card in low-tier Deathrattle themed decks like Quest Priest. Not much else as the random Legendaries aren’t reliable.
Neutral Rares:
Giggling Inventor – Five Stars – With the ability to be spread across multiple decks, I think this card deserves a five star rating, and quite possibly a spot in the top 10 best cards in the set purely for the numerous amount of applications this minion can cater to. First, let’s evaluate the card by itself. For 5 mana, you’re getting 4/5 worth of stats, 2/4 of them having Taunt and Divine Shield. That’s pretty good. What makes it sound better is when you cost the Divine Shield as an extra tick of health. Then it’s a 4/7. We’ve been shown in the past that cards that double up like Saronite Chain Gang or Sludge Belcher tend to be pretty powerful because it’s a lot to deal with, takes more than one attack to destroy completely, and severely stops aggro. The cherry on top is the fact that there’s three minions to play with, two of them being mechs. These keywords can be very powerful if magnetized. Likewise, Divine Shield and Taunt minions are excellent targets for buffs like Fungalmancer. Cobalt Scalebane is another good follow-up because he will generate value overtime behind these two minions which are difficult to kill. Finally, this could be an excellent substitution for an Odd deck or most decks that run Rotten Applebaum. This is much better in most cases. Token Druid, Token Shaman and Quest Rogue can also justify adding this to flood the board and protect themselves as they try to set up their win conditions. Paladins can even follow-up with Sunkeeper Tarim, which offers quite a bit of value since you can run your Divine Shield Minions into your opponents minions, destroy them, and still have 3/3’s on the board. Warriors can cxonsider this for not only Mech/Control Warrior but perhaps Odd Taunt Warrior as well. Overall, this is an incredible snowball killer and is way too versatile to not see any play.
Replicating Menace – One Star – I believe that, at face value, this is just a 4-mana 6/4. Those aren’t phenomenal stats and it’s not much better as buff. It’s certainly not terrible, but nothing I would want to waste a deck slot for. This actually works against Mech revival effects like with Kangor’s Endless Army. Summoning Three Microbots is really bad if they die before casting this spell, because you might end up summoning a Microbot or two; that’s just awful. Unfortunately, I’m not really seeing any synergistic combinations with this guy except for Deathrattle implications and being a buff. I don’t think it is good enough in either of those scenarios.
Arcane Dynamo – One Star – The random effect doesn’t make up for the poor stats. Sure, it’s a Discover card, but you might not always be looking for the card you want. If you’re looking for a spell that costs 5 or more, just run that spell instead of an expensive minion with bad stats that may or may not get you that spell. The only niche that this fits into are Quest Druid and Big Mage and this is just not high-quality to be in decks that aren’t too competitive to begin with. You can also argue that this could get you a third and fourth copy of a good spell like Brawl or UI, but the RNG is not going to work in your favor every time.
Mechanical Whelp – Three Stars – An interesting design that looks clunky at first glance. However, I’m not willing to give it one star. First things first, even if this sees play in Quest Priest, this is not what’s going to make it viable. It’s just not enough and still way to slow, despite the fact you can pull it out with Dead Ringer and the new legendary spell. Likewise, Reckless Experimenter might be too hopeful. A 3-mana 7/7 sounds good until you realize that you’ll most likely have to play this WITH Reckless Experimenter, which costs 8 mana all together. It’s not very likely Reckless Experimenter will stay on the board for too long. Master Oakheart is also dreaming too big. If you draw Mechanical Whelp before Master Oakheart, you have an excessively clunky minion in your hand. Finally, this is NOT going to be used to trigger Star Aligner; it just won’t (although I’m certainly am going to try it). What gives this card sparse applications is the new Warrior deck that I am hoping for. I’m rating that deck at around tier-2 and I think this will be one of the cards that cycle in and out of it constantly. The synergy is pretty obvious. Not only does it have Magnetic aptitude but it also is a great card to have Rush with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. For 6-mana, you’re getting an immediate 2-damage ping AND a 7/7 Mech. In the late game, that’s a reasonable thing to pull off. One thing I’d like to throw in are all of the Hunter Deathrattle triggering effects. Egg Hunter is fairly viable and using Play Dead on this would be insane, but the problem is it just doesn’t fit in the deck. The 6-slot of Hunter contains the Death Knight and Savannah Highmane. Egg Hunter relies on Beast synergy with Katherina Winterwisp and it wouldn’t be wise to throw in a Mech unless the deck was tweaked. I think this card warrents that experimentation. Playing Dead on this card twice is insane value. I see a future in two non tier-1 decks.
Galvanizer – Five Stars – This can be compared to Fireplume Harbinger. This has better stats but it’s effect is for Mechs and the effect is very universal amongst all Mech decks. This is an instance of good card design. This can be used by aggressive Mech decks to flood the board within the first few turns of the game. It can be used by Mid-Range Mech decks to improve their curve in turns 4-6. It even helps curve and syergize with Magnetic cards. Obviously the card has uses, and it’s effect is long lasting unlike Mechwarper whos effect was useless when it left the board. This card mana reduction will stay which is great for cards like Zilliax and maybe even Mecha’thun? The reason why I rated this five stars is because I truly believe this will be a staple rather than just an asset in Mech Warrior. It can provide a lot of value when in the right deck.
Missile Launcher – One Star – Interesting card with some fun ideas to utilize, but at the end of the day, it comes down too late into the game to be useful. There are a couple of ways to use Missile Launcher, all of which are too sluggish. Control Warrior has better ways of damaging everything and has no need for something so heavy. Using this cards Magnetic ability with a card like Toxic Arrow or Venomizer to destroy everything on the board is so undependable and bungling. Hilarious, but not it’s not worth your time. Taken as a whole, it’s just not good enough as a standalone minion, a Magnetic buff, or an erratic combo piece.
Unpowered Mauler – One Star – Hearthstone has a variety of powerful 2-drops. Just play the ones that can attack WITHOUT a stipulation. Even in decks where this could fit in, I still don’t think a 2/4 for 2-mana is worth it. Playing a spell when you don’t want to, even in a Burn Deck, is just not worth allowing this guy to attack.
Spark Engine – One Star – This is basically just a 3-mana 3/2. The minion with Rush won’t mean anything, even if you have the ability to use it when you need it. I feel like if you’re going to but a Mech in your deck, you’re going to want some decent synergy. Giving you a weak Elemental IN YOUR HAND is just not good. This card just makes no sense to me; it’s Firefly for 2 mana.
Spark Drill – One Star – This is just a cheaper and less powerful Fireball that can’t go face or bypass Taunt. Sure, this offers you a couple of 1/1’s with Rush, but those are Elementals and they don’t really help with Mech synergy. They’re just worse Moonfires. This is also a Mech, but there are so many other Mechs I’d rather synergize and Magnetize to; anything that isn’t a 5/1. This is ESPECIALLY because the design of this minion is to die almost immediately. It’s a 1-halth minion with Rush and a Deathrattle. If you don’t attack when this is summoned, you’re losing the value of its Rush ability AND the immediacy of its Deathrattle. This isn’t the kind of effect you want to wait for.
Neutral Commons:
Toxicologist – One Star – Kingsbane Rogue is certainly dead and this isn’t going to be the card that pulls it from the dirt. I also don’t think Rogue is looking for weapon buffs right now. So, where else can this fit? This would be nice to curve into Candleshot, but I don’t think that the benefit is good enough to replace some of the Hunter Deck 2-drops like Loot Hoarder in Egg Hunter and Prince Keleseth in Recruit Hunter. Not to mention, Candleshot is the only weapon in those decks and Candleshot is not a card you wanna wait on playing until you draw Toxicologist. Warrior is going to have better things to do in the future than to buff their weapon from Weapons Project. Shaman isn’t using any weapons at the moment and they’re not very good to begin with. This could be potentially aggressive with Doomhammer, but fitting that into a deck in the current META is a stretch. I don’t think Shaman will be using weapons in the near future. Paladins are using a lot of weapons, but it’s mostly Odd Paladin using Vinecleaver and Unidentified Maul which cater to the Odd Paladin Archetype. Obviously, it wouldn’t work anyways because this is a even costed card. Even Paladin is not going to use this because the only weapon they run is Silver Sword and it would be ridiculous to substitute Dire Wolf Alpha, Drygulth Jailor, or Knife Juggler for this. So, that only leaves the Legendary Weapons from Kobolds and Catacombs. Let’s review them all the other eight since I already said Kingsbane won’t see play. Twig of the World Tree, Woeclever, Rhok’delar, The Runespear, and Val’anyr gain SUCH a miniscule advantage from getting a +1 buff in attack so the deck slot isn’t worth it. That leaves the weapons that have 0 attack: Dragon Soul, Skull of the Man’ari, and Aluneth. Dragon Soul does nothing but generate value over time so, I’m not sure why anybody would want a 1/3 weapon over having Dragon Soul to give you value (even if it’s bad). Skull of the Man’ari COULD be harmful if it’s out too long, but the only deck that runs it is Cubelock and you WANT Voidlord and Doomguard out on the field immediately. If you’re running Demons with good Battlecries, chances are you aren’t running Skull of the Man’ari. The only viable exception I see is Aluneth. This weapon has severe consequences if you can’t make anything happen quickly after playing it. You can become fatigued really easily. This seems like a nice way to get rid of the weapon after drawing 9 cards. But, let’s be real. 2-drops in Mage’s that run Aluneth are Sourcer’s Apprentice, Primordial Glyph, Frostbolt, and Arcanologist. Nobody should ever replace those cards in an Aggro Mage. There are some Aggro Mage decks that run a copy of Amani Beserker, but I’d still rather run that than Toxicologist. Aluneth has worked fine in the past and it doesn’t really need this kind of tech.
Microtech Controller – One Star – This kind of minion has been printed a half a dozen different ways. They never work. This isn’t even good in a Mech deck because you want your Mechs to either have good stats or a useful ability to Magnetize to. A vanilla 1/1 is not going to do that for you. I don’t even think you’ll see this in a token deck because Grim Necromancer is so much better for just 1 extra mana.
Upgradeable Framebot – Three Stars – It’s hard to look at both this card and Am’gam Rager and take it seriously, but a 1-mana discount and a Mech tag makes all the difference. This could very well be a powerful and long-lasting starting minion. Likewise, this could be an exceedingly powerful combo with a Magnetic card. Using this with Bronze Gatekeeper will offer a solid 3/10 Taunt to deal with. If that isn’t the bane of Odd Paladin and Zoolock on turn 3, I don’t know what is. That may be only one combo, but I think this guy is well stated enough to be in Mech Warrior by itself. I have a lot of faith in Upgradable Framebot.
Wargear – One Star – As of right now, this can either be a 5-mana 5/5 body or a 5-mana “spell” that gives a friendly Mech +5/+5. Obviously, the only place where this can fit in would be with a Mech deck and this might be a bit too clunky as a 5-mana beatstick. Mech Warrior might give it a shot. Where this card could also be seen as an experimental option in Odd Paladin since Mecharoo and Glow-Tron will certainly be a part of it.
Faithful Lumi – One Star – There are plenty of other choices for Mech buffs in this expansion. I would much rather run a Magnetic card with an effect and a bigger body than a small buff that can’t even be played on turn one without The Coin. Compare this to Rockpool Hunter. Both of them have fair stats but ultimately are to slow because you have to guarantee you’ll have a minion to use its effect on. Those cards aren’t competitive on their own, but Magnetic cards have the chance of fending for themselves.
Spring Rocket – One Star – This is Disciple of C’Thun, but without the good effect. Classic one star pack-filler.
Goblin Bomb – One Star –The only thing I can really say is that I can think of at least five other cards I would rather have in a Mech deck than this. It’s a cool concept with fun flavor, but this isn’t even good enough to pass for an “egg”. Bomb Hunter is not going to work because it takes a lot of effort to buff and crack these eggs for such a minor benefit.
Skaterbot – One Star – Charge for Warrior gives a card Rush (oddly enough). That saw no play at all. This card doubles as a 1/1 Rush, or a 1/1 buff that gives a Mech Rush. That hardly makes it any better. That being said, I like the idea of using Glinda Growskin to infinitely scale another Mech in Wild, but that’s just Wild.
Cloakscale Chemist – Two Stars – I wouldn’t call it a pack-filler at all, but I still don’t think it’s powerful enough to make a statement. This could be an alternative to something in Even Paladin, but why would you replace Dire Wolf Alpha, Drygultch Jailor, Vicious Scalehide, or Amani Berserker? This could also be an excellent addition to some kind of card that deals with a lot of buffs like what the new Priest cards are trying to push. I just don’t see either of these things happening other than some sparse experimentation and rare alterative usage. It’s a shame, because I see potential in this guy. He just might not be enough.
Electrowright – One Star – 3-mana 3/3 that can sometimes be a 4/4. The only applications I see with this minion are either Big Mage or the new Bloodlust Shaman that looks promising in the future. Big Mage isn’t in the realm of an insane amount of competitiveness right now, and even if it was, this isn’t what it needs to send it higher. As for Bloodlust Shaman, it might be consistent for two reasons. One, you have that new card called Storm Chaser which tutors a spell draw that costs 5 or more. Two, chances are you’re going to have that card in your hand for the whole game and thus, triggering Electowright’s effect. The problem is, it’s an awkward curve. A 3-mana 4/4 isn’t exactly what you want to be playing on turn 6 or higher. I’d much rather be using mid-game to create a board full of tokens. In addition to that, you can’t always rely on the draw and there aren’t going to be nearly enough “big” spells that are going to guarantee this effect to proc everytime.
Brainstormer – One Star - Twilight Drake scales with every single card in your hand. Not just spells, but every card in your hand. This is just worse. Getting it to a 3/5 or maybe a 3/6 is fairly realistic, but you need to have a lot of spells, hope you don’t draw minions (which is bad) and keep them in hand. If you’re keeping spells in your hand, you better have a good reason for it. This is not a good reason. Doing that is terrible against aggro and we are in a decently aggro META at the moment. If you want to be rewarded for keeping a full hand, just play Mountain Giant instead of this card that will give your opponent information about what’s in your hand for a minor benefit.
Piloted Reaper – One Star – Why are people hyped about this card? It’s terrible. Piloted Shredder was broken because it offered a two-drop outside of your deck. It just pulled one out of thin air. Let’s be honest. Are you going to run cards like Loot Hoarder or Millhouse Manastorm just so you can hold them in your hand, play this guy on turn four, kill it, and then HOPE it gets the minion you want? Not only is it random, but you need to hope that there’s a card in your hand to begin with AND the fact that it put you at a card disadvantage; especially if it grabs a minion with Battlecry. It just not worth working around a Piloted Reaper when the benefit is so minuscule.
Bull Dozer – One Star – It’s too expensive, but I’m not ready to call it a pack-filler. I see applications where you can revive it with Kangor’s Endless Army or using it on turn 7 because you used Galvanizer twice. Unfortunately, this clever pun is too vanilla. I think we’re going to be see this card from Discover effects and random summon effects like from Spiteful Summoner. That doesn’t affect my star rating, but I believe we’ll be unconsciously be appreciating this card on the battlefield without ever actually adding him to a deck.
Mecharoo – Five Stars – It’s been said a million times, but, yeah, this is a neutral Possessed Villager which was very good. Obviously Zoolock is going to pick this up so they have their beloved 1-drop again. Not only that, but it’s going to be a fair replacement for Argent Squire in Odd Paladin since two copies of Glow-Tron will replace Dire Mole. Not only that because I feel like Mech Warrior and other smaller Token decks. It has potential to be in quite a few decks in high places.
Steel Rager – One Star – As good as this could be in Arena, Standard decks have so many better ways to utilize the 4-drop slot in their decks. A “4-mana deal 5 damage to a minion as long as there’s no Taunt in the way” is not great.
Bronze Gatekeeper – Three Stars – My hope for Mech decks really rely on Warrior being able to fashion something out. This curves well into low lost Mechs like Upgradable Framebot. Getting such a high health Taunt at turn three will be the bane of all aggressive decks out there. The problem is, that’s the only card it can realistically Magnetize to every time in the early game, unless you do something sub-par like Magnetizing it to Mecharoo. One combo is never enough. However, since I have such faith in Eternium Rover, I will also have to hope that this card will be able to make some decent walls for your opponents to destroy. Not to mention, it could be a late game tech card with cards like Security Rover. That’s quite the hurdle to cross. It’s a fairly aggressive META so this has its applications.
Damaged Stegotron – One Star – I don’t have too much faith in Mech Paladin and I’d rather run Security Rover in Mech Warrior. I tried to think of many ways to fit this into a deck, but everything was either too slow or not worth the effort. First, I thought of Lady in White. Then, I remembered how bad she is and the fact that we could have been doing the same thing with Witchwood Grizzly which didn’t see too much play. Secondly, I thought this would be a good Carnivorous Cube target and technically it is. A Deathrattle that summons 10/24 in stats with Taunt is crazy. However, the curve is way too slow and awkward for that to happen. First you have to play a 6-mana 5/6 Taunt which is terrible. If you don’t have Carnivorous Cube in your hand, this card is just going to sit in your hand and give you no value. If you DO have Carnivorous Cube, that means you have to hold it in your hand all the way to turn seven, just so you can pull this off. So, maybe we want to go the obvious route and try to put this in a Mech deck. I have confidence in Security Rover shocking everybody with how good he can be, so I don’t think Mech Warrior is going to want more 6-drops. As for Paladin, you have to play this big vanilla minion with poor stats before you do something crazy with it, like play Kangor’s Endless Army when it dies or Magnetize it to Zilliax. That’s very slow.
Kaboom Bot – One Star – This is just a bigger and bulkier Volatile Elemental. Sure, Mechs different have synergy than Elementals do, but I don’t think the Mech tag doesn’t change much. There are better 3-drops out there.
Rusty Recycler – One Star – I would not write this card off as a pack-filler. It has quite a few uses. Odd/Taunt Warrior, a Mech Deck, or anything that involves Corpsetaker. The problem is, this isn’t going to be the saving grace of any of these decks and Mech Decks are most likely not going to value this taking up a slot just for the Lifesteal. Similarly, it seems like most people will just run Rotten Applebaum instead because of the better attack value. It won’t see play within the next four months, but just you wait! This will be around in the future.
Coppertail Imposter – Three Star – This was difficult for me to evaluate. This could very well be the ultimate “set-up” card so you can guarantee Magnetizing Zilliax or Wargear to this. That could be good, but I don’t think every deck will use it as it’s nothing more than just a big beatstick.
Explodinator – One Star – This is a 4-mana 3/2 that offers you a task to blow these bombs up for a mediocre reward. That requires effort that just isn’t worth your time, especially for such a poorly stated minion. Bomb Hunter is not going to work and this wouldn’t be good enough in any Mech deck. It’s such a slow and painful process to try and get these Goblin Bombs to blow up, especially when most of the bomb cards have such poor stats like Whirliglider, Boommaster Flark, this card, and the actual Goblin Bomb itself.
Whirliglider – One Star – It’s not a pack-filler because it inspires Bomb Hunter, but my faith in that deck is just so gosh darn low. You could argue that a constant barrage of these bombs would be effective and you’d be right. I just think that’s way too sluggish and cumbersome to pull off.
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Wow, don't have the time to read all this but people and posts like you are what make this community so great. Thanks for all the hard work that went into making this!
That means a lot to me, thank you very much!
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*Plays "L'Estro Armonico Op. 3, No. 6" record on turntable*
Dear Mr. Pageturner,
A toast, to another sterling docket report. With the leading development in stone of heart, invites another magnificent analysis by Mr. Pageturner. I do concur besides your opinion of Juicy Psychmelon. As that ticket resides in rummage. *sips Cabernet Sauvignon* Invariably contented of your audit. Scads ton exceptional towards Count Shmoes survey. *Clinks glass*
a troubadour for the ages
-Christopher Carrature
*adjusts monocle*
Quite.
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I agree with a lot of this, it’s all speculation right now of course but it’s fun to compare my opinions on cards with reviews like this.
Thanks for the good read
Amazing post!
I disagree about Stargazer Luna, I bet this card will be good for tempo mage, having more tools for drawing has never been bad. I think Stargazer Luna will be the card that carries tempo mage once Aluneth rotates out.
This was quite the read! I'm glad you took time out to create this!
So, happy to hear you like it! Thanks for taking a look!
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That's what's so great about the community. Different opinions! Thanks for the read!
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Thanks for the read!
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So glad you liked it! He's easily my favorite card of the set!
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Oh you pityless, shameful, awful, evil Jade Idol of a person (yes, this is an insult).
To come here on a Sunday night, at about the time I'm prepping for bed, on a week-end where I brought the kid not once, not twice but THRICE to the park, having no notable news to skim in the worlds of hockey, politics or even here on PWN to free my mind of the terrible vision of the kid failing over and over again at climbing the slide from the wrong side....
How I despise you! And I WON'T take the time to read this nonsense... today, sadly. By the way, now, because of you, I know that the megalodon was most probably a distant cousin of the great white shark, but had theeth that shared a closer resemblance to those of the sand tiger shark.
You better hope that me knowing this will help me on the ladder.
keep up the good work
Thank you!
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This comment means everything to me, thank you.
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I checked out OP’s TWW review. Lady in White got FIVE stars!
Threads like this are good for chuckles.
Hi,
Nice to read and what an effort went into it, congratulations!
Unfortunately you tried to rate cards AND predict the meta, which leads to some huge underrated cards such as Glow-Tron and Crystology.
We‘ll see what meta brings, but especially for Crystology, tutor 2 for 2, it will find a home.
Pageturner, you’re a legend. I remember reading your Witchwood review and being simultaneously entertained and intellectually inebriated. Thanks for this (again) and I hope I do something that you find awesome someday. :D
Good read, and while I disagree with some of your assessments - A for an effort.
I do have a gripe with that bit though:
First - Witchwood Piper will not draw a 1-mana UI, as it only draws minions. Second - none of the cards you mention afterwards are applicable, since they are neutrals and Espionage gives you cards from your opponent's class. That said - it is, no doubt, my favourite card from this expansion, and I really hope it'll find home in a competitive archetype.