Never done one of these before but I want to give it a shot. Let me know what you think!
Rating System
1 - Bad, meme card (Angry Chicken)
2 - Not good currently, requires too much support to be good, but could be good later (Purify)
3 - Good card, and good cards sometimes see play/sometimes don't see play. Maybe a tech card, or fill in the gaps of existing decks.
4 - Great card, can easily be put 2x into existing top decks, will definitely see play.
5 - Meta defining or build-around card.
Note: 5 doesn't necessarily mean I think it WILL define the meta, just that it's a strong build-around card that has meta defining potential.
Druid
Pounce – 2; similar cards did not see play in the past, and although this is a good card for cycle purposes, Druid does not lack for card draw.
Savage Striker – 2; this just needs too much setup to count as a reasonable removal, and Druid is not lacking in single target removal
Ironhide Direhorn – 1; War Golem with a hard-to-achieve upside. Cairne is an arguably better ‘minion that summons another minion’ for cheaper. Only upside is the Beast tag.
Wardruid Loti – 1; the flexibility is sweet. Unfortunately, none of the forms are any good.
Gonk, the Raptor – 2; the dream scenario on turn 9 of gain 3 attack, drop Gonk, clear the board, then attack face for 3……eh. I can think of better ways to spend my mana.
Springpaw – 3; I don’t think this fits into Deathrattle Hunter, since Fire Fly is better and the beast tag doesn’t matter, but this is a good card and gives you two activators for Headhunter’s Hatchet
headhunter’s hatchet – 3; good card, but Keleseth might box this out for a while.
Baited Arrow – 1; it’s really difficult to realize value with this card; 3 damage on 5 won’t overkill very many things.
Revenge of the Wild – 2; it will be hyped, over hyped, tested, then not played at all because it’s too inconsistent and hard to get good value.
Spirit of the Lynx – 1; even though it looks tempting, there are far better value plays on 3
Bloodscalp Strategist – 3; average stats with a conditional upside that’s very easy to meet.
master’s call – 2 or 3? I’m on the fence. Some midrange “beast only” Hunter could be a thing and obviously 3-mana draw 3 minions is incredible value. I’ll need to test this out.
Elemental Evocation – 3; Prep for Elementals, we’ll be seeing some turn 5 or turn 3 Blazecallers.
Daring Fire-Eater – 4; Because of Jan’alai and the possibility of Odd Mage, I definitely can see this making the cut, even without the Loa
Arcanosaur – 3; Obviously it’s no Duskbreaker, but then again, it’s Excavated Evil on a stick, with an easily met condition. Problem is, in my experience Elemental Mage tends to be tempo focused, and this is not a tempo card. Maybe you swap one copy of Blizzard for this.
Pyromaniac – 3; 3-mana 3/4 with soft taunt, possibly makes Odd Mage stronger….problem is, for 3-drops Odd Mage already has to decide between Tar Creeper, Black Cat, and Nightmare Amalgam….and possibly even Stonehill Defender.
Scorch – 3; the Elemental requirement is honestly not hard to meet. Having played a bunch of Odd Elemental Mage, your even-mana turns usually have 1-mana left over and “deal 4 damage” is far better than a 1/2 Firefly.
Blast Wave – 4; I may be overvaluing this card, and realistically, you’ll probably only get a couple spells in most cases. However, as an Odd-cost card, and Blizzard being Even-cost, this could certainly find a spot in Odd Elemental Mage
jan’alai, the dragonhawk – 4 or 5; The condition is easy to meet. The value is off the charts. 4 because it’s just a damned good card. 5 because if you ever needed a reason to run Odd Mage, here it is.
Bloodclaw – 4; Paladin has enough healing that the downside doesn’t really matter. The stats here will do wonders to control the early board.
Flash of Light – 3; sort of like Plated Beetle and Loot Hoarder in one card, but without the body.
Time Out! – ???? this card either does nothing or is the reason some combo deck will be viable. One thing this has over Ice Block is that Ice Block’s effect can be triggered or interrupted by the opponent. Time Out’s effect can only be countered via Counterspell.
Spirit of the Tiger – 3; Average card with an upside if you have a followup. Similar cards are T4 Coppertail Imposter into T5 Wargear.
Zandalari Templar – 2; Whereas Hooked Reaver’s condition is easily met just by doing things you want to do anyways (Lifetap and Hellfire), Templar’s condition is a lot harder to meet.
Farraki Battleaxe – 1; 5-mana 3/3 weapon that sometimes has a good result. Won’t see play.
Immortal Prelate – ???? I’m unsure how to rate this card. It’s either total garbage or archetype defining. I will have to test this.
a new challenger… – 2; better things to do on 7, but this will be fun to try anyways
shrivallah, the tiger – 3; might enable combos, but I think more than likely you’ll just throw it into a midrange/control paladin as another lategame bomb.
Regenerate – 3; straight up solid card and makes existing cards better
Seance – 2; but perhaps I will put this in Quest Priest and have access to a ton of Amaras.
Sand Drudge – 3; Average stats with a decent upside. Could possibly help push a more token centered Priest deck with Dragon Soul.
Spirit of the Dead – ????? I always wanted a card like Academic Espionage in Priest. I’ll have to test this card out further.
Mass Hysteria – 4; 5-cost AOE for Priest. This will see play.
Grave Horror – 2; Needs to cost 6 or lower to be valuable. I think it might be difficult to cast 6 spells by turn 6.
Auchenai Phantasm – 4; fantastic card, one of the best in the set IMO. This + Regenerate is like having SI:7 in Priest. If a more tempo focused Priest deck emerges, this will be the key card that makes it happen.
Serrated Tooth – 1; the effect just isn’t worth the spot in your deck.
Stolen Steel – 3; Underrated card. There are (as of Rastakhan) 35 non Rogue weapons; I counted roughly 1/3 of those are undesirable. On average, you should be getting a decent pick from this card.
Walk the Plank – 3; Playable because Even Rogue may be playable and this takes the place of Vilespine
Bloodsail Howler – 1; 2-mana 1/1, no. 2-mana 2/2, no. 2-mana 3/3, kind of no. 2-mana 4/4, yeah I’ll play that. I don’t think you get can consistently get value here.
Raiding Party – 4; cheap and specific tutor cards will always be valuable.
Spirit of the Shark – 3; Would be a solid 4 if it were 3 mana, at 4 it may be too slow but there are still a lot of high value/tempo plays to be made here.
Cannon Barrage – ????? It’s high value for sure, but I don’t know how easy it will be to keep a board of Pirates going into turn 6.
Gurubashi Hypemon – 2; too slow for the effect, although there are a lot of decent possibilities. The effect is great, but just not something you want on turn 7.
Gral, the Shark – 1; Pile of stats and there are better ways to tutor minions.
Captain Hooktusk – 2; I get that they’re wanting to push Pirate Rogue but I don’t think this is what it needs.
Wartbringer – 1; difficult and resource expensive to make this low impact card work.
Totemic Smash – 3; cheap damaging spell that can go face and doesn’t need the overkill to trigger to make it decent.
Rain of Toads – 2; I don’t know what kind of deck this wants to go into. Key turns are the ones before and after you play this. If you want to play this on 6, that means you can’t play Volcano or Earth Elemental on 5. If you play this on 6, that means you have a max of 4 mana on 7, which means you can’t play Bloodlust.
Likkim – 4; very easy to activate the +2 attack. Not much else to say.
Bog Slosher – 4; I can already see this finding a home in Shudderwock decks.
Grim Rally – 4; No you don’t really want to destroy a friendly minion in Zoo decks but permanently buffing your board for 1 mana is nuts (anyone remember Mark of the Lotus?)
Shriek – 3; very efficient AOE with easily controlled discard
High Priestess Jeklik – 3; 4-mana 3/4 sucks but the Taunt + Lifesteal and protection from discard make this a definite pick…..if Discard Warlock is a thing.
hir’eek, the bat – 1; It’s like Dragoncaller Alanna………but garbage.
Devastate – 1; Hard to imagine where this would be useful. Just play Shield Slam.
Dragon Roar – 2; I think Dragon Warrior has potential and with the new Warrior Dragon, I think there are just enough good Dragons in Standard that this card isn’t needed.
overlord’s whip – 1; I just don’t see where it would be played.
Spirit of the Rhino – 2; The cheap cost and Stealth makes this possibly playable.
Emberscale Drake – 4; One of the reasons I’m excited for Dragon Warrior. Often when fighting for early tempo, you end up sacrificing your life total, and this card helps you manage that.
Smolderthorn Lancer – 3; Will have to play with this card to see how actually good it is. The two conditions (holding a dragon and enemy minion who is damaged) give me pause.
sul’thraze – 1; “But…it’s 16 points of damage for 6 mana!”
War Master Voone – 3; High value card for sure. One of those cards that is good but the deck you want to play it in might not have space and might not even need it. AFAIK there is no Maly Warrior that lets you cheat two Malygos’ out and cast a bunch of burn spells.
Akali, the Rhino – 1; “Overkill: Hopefully you still have some Rush minions left in your deck.”
Saronite Taskmaster – 3; Perhaps this is even a 4. As an aside, I will most definitely be making a deck to try and fill my opponent’s board with useless 0/3s.
Spellzerker – 3; Probably just an Arena card because it has okay stats.
Half-Time Scavenger – 2; Average stats, okay upside, arguably doesn’t pass the Chillwind Yeti test.
Sightless Ranger – 2; But I think this would be reasonable in Arena.
Former Champ – 1; Another soft nerf to effects that generate a minion at specific mana costs. Might see Arena play.
Dragonmaw Scorcher – 3; Whirlwind + 4-mana 3/6 Dragon. Might see play, might not make the cut.
Rabble Bouncer – 1; This is not the anti-aggro tech card you want to run.
Amani War Bear – 3; Good card that probably isn’t good enough for constructed. Probably good enough to be included in budget lists.
mosh’ogg enforcer – 1; The only thing this card enforces is the strength of Cabal Shadow Priest.
Belligerent Gnome – 3; I think this is another card that is on the fence of ‘good enough to see play’ and ‘actually, you know what, nevermind.’ Stat wise it’s Stonehill Defender for 1 less mana. When it has the upside, it’s Vulgar Homunculous without the downside.
Shieldbreaker – 2; Because Spellbreaker. 2 because this is probably better than Spellbreaker in Zoo.
Arena Patron – 1; But I do appreciate a good throwback.
Gurubashi Offering – 2; I like this card but I don’t want to put it in my decks. I want to drop it alongside a Doomsayer, but again, I don’t want to actually take up a card slot with it.
Drakkari Trickster – 3; Hell yeah, my kind of card. 3-mana 3/4s usually get consideration, at worst.
Masked Contender – 2; Maybe in Mage? Probably not in Hunter. Reasonable for the “why the fuck did I only draft 2 secrets???” Arena decks though.
Linecracker – 2; However I think this is really good in Arena.
Crowd Roaster – 3; I can see this being a 1x of in Dragon decks.
Griftah – 2; Very skill testing. I doubt it will see play but I think this is a neat card and it has okay stats.
Mojomaster Zihi – 5; I can see this going into every control deck until it rotates. I can even see it going into a variation of Shudderwock.
Da Undatakah – 3; Late game powerhouse! I think right now it’s being overrated and everyone thinks it will make infinite Prelate Paladin insane.
Overall I'm happy with this set and excited to try it out. I'm glad Druid didn't get more busted stuff, happy to see Priest got some actually useful things, and I'm glad almost all of the neutrals are either Arena quality or meh/bad.
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
Last night I was playing Druid, built up my face damage to 9, used Savagery on the opponent’s Lich King, and then hit face for 9. Why is everyone only thinking of Gonk with a 3 attack from Malfurion? I have burst as high as 11 before with my face!
I'm gonna disagree with Revenge of the Wild as a 2 (I'd say 3.5) only because I could see it used with Unleash the Hounds/Scavenging Hyena (and rush minions) as a combo and I'm sure there are more combo's I'm not seeing. I'm not calling it a 5 by any means, I just think there will be found some nice combos with it that'll make resummoning beasts that died very strong. I originally was only thinking about it being used if King Krush was still on the board but you'd basically need to trade it into something , resummon one using revenge- possibly trade that as well (and how often are you down that big on the board and can trade 2 of them?) in order to revenge for 2 mana getting 2 king krush's for 2 mana. That being said, I think hunter will head toward the yogg like decks that zul'jin will bring with it.
Since I said one disagree, I'll definitely agree with your baited arrow take. Isn't Flanking Strike only 4 mana for 3 damage and a guaranteed 3/3? so you're paying 1 mana for a conditional 5/5 (gain or 2/2)= meh. Also Farraki Battleaxe- what's up with 5 mana for 3 damage items. That's not so great on turn 5... although I wonder if that will count as a buff for quest paladin reasons. [edit]
As for mage- splitting image is basically 3 mana, make your minion sticky. Worth it for high cost minions, not for low cast (as much).
Also for The Beast Within, I'm not sure if these "force attack" cards will count as their turn attacking or not... part of me thinks if you could attack a minion/face and then play it, it'd allow for 2 attacks in a turn so I wouldn't be surprised if it's a tricky way to say get say a Scavenging Hyena to clean some taunt out of the way and then damage to face.
As for Immortal Prelate, I think this will be the 2nd most card to build around paladin with shirvallah being #1.
Good review, I don't have time to dig more but lot of similar thoughts to what I was thinking. Surprisingly looking forward to this one, whereas 1/2 of the card reveals in, I wasn't even going to pre-order.
Good review overall, but I think you're wrong about Akali, the Rhino. Rush Warrior is already a decent deck, and Akali gives you another finisher AND draw. Might not be tier one, but also not trash tier.
Good review overall, but I think you're wrong about Akali, the Rhino. Rush Warrior is already a decent deck, and Akali gives you another finisher AND draw. Might not be tier one, but also not trash tier.
What makes me hesitate about this card is Rush decks usually run Town Crier, and by turn 8 it seems to me that you've likely drawn most/all of your Rush minions.
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
Our opinions don't differ greatly on too many cards. I'll note a few I disagree with you on.
Hex Lord Malacrass - At worst, you're drawing 2 cards. This akin to (but obviously not identical) prenerf Ancient of Lore. I think a 1 is too low given the other cards you gave a 1. Control Mage has a lot of room for greedy top end stuff: see Sindragosa and Astromancer.
Spirit of the Tiger - regarding your T4 Coppertail comparison: You can immediately realize the value from Tiger by pairing it with a spell that turn. That's the reason I am so high on the card.
Serrated Tooth - An effect that gives tempo in the tempo class? It may not be as good as I rated it, but it's surely better than a 1.
I just find "interesting" (let's put it this way) this interest of yours. I mean, judging by your activity in the salt thread you doesn't exactly seems like the guy who can evaluate things objectively ("have i lost because I missplayed, perhaps because I overextended, or maybe because I've waisted a removal for something not worth killing? No, I'm unlucky and my opponents are lucky son of bi*****"
It's funny, you see? 😁
One cannot expect the salt thread to be full of logical and rational discussion. It's true I go overboard there and need to learn to control myself, which is something I'm working on.
That said, I would appreciate if we could keep comments in this thread to card reviewing. Thanks!
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
i dont agree with how u rated warrior cards. aside from that seems good but of course some crazy combos or synergies we arent seeing will rise and cards we consider a 2 or 3 star will actually be better
I think you are quite wrong about the Shaman cards, they push Shaman quite a lot... For example Haunting Visions is 0 mana discover a spell (if you play it on your current turn) and if you don't want to play the Spell you discovered you can play another spell for 3 less. Shudderwock Shaman will be very powerful.
Springpaw – 3; I don’t think this fits into Deathrattle Hunter, since Fire Fly is better and the beast tag doesn’t matter, but this is a good card and gives you two activators for Headhunter’s Hatchet
It definitely doesn't fit into Deathrattle Hunter, you don't want to risk pulling it with Kathrena Winterwisp
I agree on most cards but akali the rhino. You can build a rush warrior deck and that card will work fine, saying that akali is bad is like saying kathrena is bad because you need beasts for it to work.
One thing I've noticed in this expansion is they're trying to release more powerful 2 cost cards. Probably something they should have done immediately after Keleseth, or along with him haha, but I'm excited for that.
I do really think that Immortal Prelate Paladin (or, Immortal Paladin) will definitely be a new archetype. Tough to say if it will be inconsistent like Pogo rogue, or if it will take off like... I donno, something more consistent lol. The only thing I'm worried about is, midrange/buff paladin hasn't been a thing for forever now. Maybe he's still too inconsistent.
I agree with your mage assessment for sure though. I'll probably be playing lots of elemental, big spell, or odd mage during the first week or two. Which probably means the deck will end up being garbage because I suck at judging cards lol. I'm just excited to see Ragnaros back in the fray.
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Twitch name: Anatak15 NA Legend Season 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 74
I agree on most cards but akali the rhino. You can build a rush warrior deck and that card will work fine, saying that akali is bad is like saying kathrena is bad because you need beasts for it to work.
Good review all around anyway.
Definitely a fair point. I may be underestimating the card.
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
I agree with your mage assessment for sure though. I'll probably be playing lots of elemental, big spell, or odd mage during the first week or two. Which probably means the deck will end up being garbage because I suck at judging cards lol. I'm just excited to see Ragnaros back in the fray.
I've played a lot of Elemental Odd Mage lately and I think it's on the verge of being a decent deck. Rastakhan might be what pushes into the meta, but until decks like Taunt Druid, Maly Druid, and Deathrattle Hunter rotate out, Odd Mage is going to be hurt purely by not having access to Polymorph or Skulking Geist. I've even been running Tinkmaster Overspark just as a faux Polymorph.
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Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
Chill out Burberry, give the man (statistically presumed) a chance.
I'm actually posting here because I don't know how to add a thread to my subs without posting in it. Will return later for reviewing reviews.
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Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Thanks for the work you've put into this - I agree with a lot of what you're saying here.
Just out of interest, do you think the Jala'nai odd mage deck will work without the death knight? I see the frost lich as a busted auto-include in pretty much every non-aggro mage deck, but I have high hopes for this deck after the spring rotation.
Never done one of these before but I want to give it a shot. Let me know what you think!
Rating System
Note: 5 doesn't necessarily mean I think it WILL define the meta, just that it's a strong build-around card that has meta defining potential.
Druid
Pounce – 2; similar cards did not see play in the past, and although this is a good card for cycle purposes, Druid does not lack for card draw.
Savage Striker – 2; this just needs too much setup to count as a reasonable removal, and Druid is not lacking in single target removal
Ironhide Direhorn – 1; War Golem with a hard-to-achieve upside. Cairne is an arguably better ‘minion that summons another minion’ for cheaper. Only upside is the Beast tag.
Spirit of the Raptor – 1; Just…why? Druid already has card draw
Mark of the Loa – 3; It’s….good. Maybe see play in Token Druid?
Predatory Instincts – 4; 4-mana “draw Hadronox” is why.
Treespeaker – 2 or 3? Not sure. I think the current iteration of Token Druid boxes this out from being a good card.
Stampeding Roar – 1; too expensive, too little value.
Wardruid Loti – 1; the flexibility is sweet. Unfortunately, none of the forms are any good.
Gonk, the Raptor – 2; the dream scenario on turn 9 of gain 3 attack, drop Gonk, clear the board, then attack face for 3……eh. I can think of better ways to spend my mana.
tl;dr
Pounce – 2
Savage Striker – 2
Ironhide Direhorn – 1
Spirit of the Raptor – 1
Mark of the Loa – 3
Predatory Instincts – 4
Treespeaker – 2 or 3
Stampeding Roar – 1
Wardruid Loti – 1
Gonk, the Raptor – 2
Hunter
Springpaw – 3; I don’t think this fits into Deathrattle Hunter, since Fire Fly is better and the beast tag doesn’t matter, but this is a good card and gives you two activators for Headhunter’s Hatchet
headhunter’s hatchet – 3; good card, but Keleseth might box this out for a while.
Baited Arrow – 1; it’s really difficult to realize value with this card; 3 damage on 5 won’t overkill very many things.
Revenge of the Wild – 2; it will be hyped, over hyped, tested, then not played at all because it’s too inconsistent and hard to get good value.
Spirit of the Lynx – 1; even though it looks tempting, there are far better value plays on 3
Bloodscalp Strategist – 3; average stats with a conditional upside that’s very easy to meet.
The Beast Within – 1; weird card.
master’s call – 2 or 3? I’m on the fence. Some midrange “beast only” Hunter could be a thing and obviously 3-mana draw 3 minions is incredible value. I’ll need to test this out.
Halazzi, the Lynx – 1; I don’t know why you’d play this.
zul’jin – 5; The value is pretty easy to see and this would be a pretty good finisher for Spell Hunter.
tl;dr
Springpaw – 3
headhunter’s hatchet – 3
Baited Arrow – 1
Revenge of the Wild – 2
Spirit of the Lynx – 1
Bloodscalp Strategist – 3
The Beast Within – 1
master’s call – 2 or 3
Halazzi, the Lynx – 1
zul’jin – 5
Mage
Elemental Evocation – 3; Prep for Elementals, we’ll be seeing some turn 5 or turn 3 Blazecallers.
Daring Fire-Eater – 4; Because of Jan’alai and the possibility of Odd Mage, I definitely can see this making the cut, even without the Loa
Arcanosaur – 3; Obviously it’s no Duskbreaker, but then again, it’s Excavated Evil on a stick, with an easily met condition. Problem is, in my experience Elemental Mage tends to be tempo focused, and this is not a tempo card. Maybe you swap one copy of Blizzard for this.
Spirit of the Dragonhawk – 2; Has potential, but I don’t think the value is quite there yet.
Pyromaniac – 3; 3-mana 3/4 with soft taunt, possibly makes Odd Mage stronger….problem is, for 3-drops Odd Mage already has to decide between Tar Creeper, Black Cat, and Nightmare Amalgam….and possibly even Stonehill Defender.
Scorch – 3; the Elemental requirement is honestly not hard to meet. Having played a bunch of Odd Elemental Mage, your even-mana turns usually have 1-mana left over and “deal 4 damage” is far better than a 1/2 Firefly.
Splitting Image – 2; hard to realize the value
Blast Wave – 4; I may be overvaluing this card, and realistically, you’ll probably only get a couple spells in most cases. However, as an Odd-cost card, and Blizzard being Even-cost, this could certainly find a spot in Odd Elemental Mage
jan’alai, the dragonhawk – 4 or 5; The condition is easy to meet. The value is off the charts. 4 because it’s just a damned good card. 5 because if you ever needed a reason to run Odd Mage, here it is.
Hex Lord Malacrass – 1; inconsistent at best.
tl;dr
Elemental Evocation – 3
Daring Fire-Eater – 4
Arcanosaur – 3
Spirit of the Dragonhawk – 2
Pyromaniac – 3
Scorch – 3
Splitting Image – 2
Blast Wave – 4
jan’alai, the dragonhawk – 4 or 5
Hex Lord Malacrass – 1
Paladin
Bloodclaw – 4; Paladin has enough healing that the downside doesn’t really matter. The stats here will do wonders to control the early board.
Flash of Light – 3; sort of like Plated Beetle and Loot Hoarder in one card, but without the body.
Time Out! – ???? this card either does nothing or is the reason some combo deck will be viable. One thing this has over Ice Block is that Ice Block’s effect can be triggered or interrupted by the opponent. Time Out’s effect can only be countered via Counterspell.
Spirit of the Tiger – 3; Average card with an upside if you have a followup. Similar cards are T4 Coppertail Imposter into T5 Wargear.
Zandalari Templar – 2; Whereas Hooked Reaver’s condition is easily met just by doing things you want to do anyways (Lifetap and Hellfire), Templar’s condition is a lot harder to meet.
Farraki Battleaxe – 1; 5-mana 3/3 weapon that sometimes has a good result. Won’t see play.
Immortal Prelate – ???? I’m unsure how to rate this card. It’s either total garbage or archetype defining. I will have to test this.
a new challenger… – 2; better things to do on 7, but this will be fun to try anyways
high priestess thekal – 4; 3-mana 3/4 with a massive upside. Cool!
shrivallah, the tiger – 3; might enable combos, but I think more than likely you’ll just throw it into a midrange/control paladin as another lategame bomb.
tl;dr
Bloodclaw – 4
Flash of Light – 3
Time Out! – ????
Spirit of the Tiger – 3
Zandalari Templar – 2
Farraki Battleaxe – 1
Immortal Prelate – ????
a new challenger… – 2
high priestess thekal – 4
shrivallah, the tiger – 3
Priest
Regenerate – 3; straight up solid card and makes existing cards better
Seance – 2; but perhaps I will put this in Quest Priest and have access to a ton of Amaras.
Sand Drudge – 3; Average stats with a decent upside. Could possibly help push a more token centered Priest deck with Dragon Soul.
Spirit of the Dead – ????? I always wanted a card like Academic Espionage in Priest. I’ll have to test this card out further.
Mass Hysteria – 4; 5-cost AOE for Priest. This will see play.
Grave Horror – 2; Needs to cost 6 or lower to be valuable. I think it might be difficult to cast 6 spells by turn 6.
Auchenai Phantasm – 4; fantastic card, one of the best in the set IMO. This + Regenerate is like having SI:7 in Priest. If a more tempo focused Priest deck emerges, this will be the key card that makes it happen.
Surrender to Madness - 1; highlight reel card.
Bwonsamdi, the Dead – 2; IMO this requires too much setup.
Princess Talanji – 1; I really want this to work though and will probably build a deck around it trying to make it happen.
tl;dr
Regenerate – 3
Seance – 2
Sand Drudge – 3
Spirit of the Dead – ?????
Mass Hysteria – 4
Grave Horror – 2
Auchenai Phantasm – 4
Surrender to Madness - 1
Bwonsamdi, the Dead – 2
Princess Talanji – 1
Rogue
Serrated Tooth – 1; the effect just isn’t worth the spot in your deck.
Stolen Steel – 3; Underrated card. There are (as of Rastakhan) 35 non Rogue weapons; I counted roughly 1/3 of those are undesirable. On average, you should be getting a decent pick from this card.
Walk the Plank – 3; Playable because Even Rogue may be playable and this takes the place of Vilespine
Bloodsail Howler – 1; 2-mana 1/1, no. 2-mana 2/2, no. 2-mana 3/3, kind of no. 2-mana 4/4, yeah I’ll play that. I don’t think you get can consistently get value here.
Raiding Party – 4; cheap and specific tutor cards will always be valuable.
Spirit of the Shark – 3; Would be a solid 4 if it were 3 mana, at 4 it may be too slow but there are still a lot of high value/tempo plays to be made here.
Cannon Barrage – ????? It’s high value for sure, but I don’t know how easy it will be to keep a board of Pirates going into turn 6.
Gurubashi Hypemon – 2; too slow for the effect, although there are a lot of decent possibilities. The effect is great, but just not something you want on turn 7.
Gral, the Shark – 1; Pile of stats and there are better ways to tutor minions.
Captain Hooktusk – 2; I get that they’re wanting to push Pirate Rogue but I don’t think this is what it needs.
tl;dr
Serrated Tooth – 1
Stolen Steel – 3
Walk the Plank – 3
Bloodsail Howler – 1
Raiding Party – 4
Spirit of the Shark – 3
Cannon Barrage – ?????
Gurubashi Hypemon – 2
Gral, the Shark – 1
Captain Hooktusk – 2
Shaman
Wartbringer – 1; difficult and resource expensive to make this low impact card work.
Totemic Smash – 3; cheap damaging spell that can go face and doesn’t need the overkill to trigger to make it decent.
Rain of Toads – 2; I don’t know what kind of deck this wants to go into. Key turns are the ones before and after you play this. If you want to play this on 6, that means you can’t play Volcano or Earth Elemental on 5. If you play this on 6, that means you have a max of 4 mana on 7, which means you can’t play Bloodlust.
Likkim – 4; very easy to activate the +2 attack. Not much else to say.
Bog Slosher – 4; I can already see this finding a home in Shudderwock decks.
Spirit of the Frog – 3; reasonable draw engine that you can control
Big Bad Voodoo – 1; Ancestral Spirit doesn’t see play and I suspect this won’t either.
Haunting Visions – 2; I think this is the kind of card you’re happy to get from Hagatha but that’s about it.
Zentimo – 4; Obviously a combo piece and not a card you just play on 3, but I think it will find a spot in many decks for the sheer versatility.
krag’wa, the frog – 2; Maybe for generating additional Healing Rains or Hexes or…..I don’t know.
tl;dr
Wartbringer – 1
Totemic Smash – 3
Rain of Toads – 2
Likkim – 4
Bog Slosher – 4
Spirit of the Frog – 3
Big Bad Voodoo – 1
Haunting Visions – 2
Zentimo – 4
krag’wa, the frog – 2
Warlock
Reckless Diretroll – 3; just a good card with controllable discard synergy. If Discard Warlock is a thing, I suspect this will be in it.
Blood Troll Sapper – 3; potentially a secondary Heal Zoo win condition.
Demonbolt – 1; Why?
Grim Rally – 4; No you don’t really want to destroy a friendly minion in Zoo decks but permanently buffing your board for 1 mana is nuts (anyone remember Mark of the Lotus?)
Shriek – 3; very efficient AOE with easily controlled discard
Spirit of the Bat – 1; way too slow.
Soulwarden – 3; If Discard Warlock is a thing, this will be a thing.
Void Contract – 1; But hell yes I’ll try.
High Priestess Jeklik – 3; 4-mana 3/4 sucks but the Taunt + Lifesteal and protection from discard make this a definite pick…..if Discard Warlock is a thing.
hir’eek, the bat – 1; It’s like Dragoncaller Alanna………but garbage.
tl;dr
Reckless Diretroll – 3
Blood Troll Sapper – 3
Demonbolt – 1
Grim Rally – 4
Shriek – 3
Spirit of the Bat – 1
Soulwarden – 3
Void Contract – 1
High Priestess Jeklik – 3
hir’eek, the bat – 1
Warrior
Devastate – 1; Hard to imagine where this would be useful. Just play Shield Slam.
Dragon Roar – 2; I think Dragon Warrior has potential and with the new Warrior Dragon, I think there are just enough good Dragons in Standard that this card isn’t needed.
overlord’s whip – 1; I just don’t see where it would be played.
Spirit of the Rhino – 2; The cheap cost and Stealth makes this possibly playable.
Emberscale Drake – 4; One of the reasons I’m excited for Dragon Warrior. Often when fighting for early tempo, you end up sacrificing your life total, and this card helps you manage that.
Heavy Metal! – 1; Why not just run a better card?
Smolderthorn Lancer – 3; Will have to play with this card to see how actually good it is. The two conditions (holding a dragon and enemy minion who is damaged) give me pause.
sul’thraze – 1; “But…it’s 16 points of damage for 6 mana!”
War Master Voone – 3; High value card for sure. One of those cards that is good but the deck you want to play it in might not have space and might not even need it. AFAIK there is no Maly Warrior that lets you cheat two Malygos’ out and cast a bunch of burn spells.
Akali, the Rhino – 1; “Overkill: Hopefully you still have some Rush minions left in your deck.”
tl;dr
Devastate – 1
Dragon Roar – 2
overlord’s whip – 1
Spirit of the Rhino – 2
Emberscale Drake – 4
Heavy Metal! – 1
Smolderthorn Lancer – 3
sul’thraze – 1
War Master Voone – 3
Akali, the Rhino – 1
Neutrals
Helpless Hatchling – 1; Cute but no.
Gurubashi Chicken – 1; Only upside is for Zombeast synergy.
Saronite Taskmaster – 3; Perhaps this is even a 4. As an aside, I will most definitely be making a deck to try and fill my opponent’s board with useless 0/3s.
Spellzerker – 3; Probably just an Arena card because it has okay stats.
Scarab Egg – 1
Sharkfin Fan – 5! The defining card of Even Pirate Rogue! Nah jk. This is probably between a 2 and 3.
Cheaty Anklebiter – 2. Good if you can buff it with Keleseth. Oh wait…
Dozing Marksman – 2. 2-mana 4/3 at best.
Ornery Tortoise – 1; That self-dealing demon didn’t see play either.
Banana Buffoon – 4; Underrated for sure, I think this will be a key card for decks that want to cycle a lot of cheap spells.
regeneratin’ thug – 3; Giving it the 3 just for the Arena value, but maybe sees play in Heal Zoo? IDK I think Chain Gang is probably better.
Rumbletusk Shaker – 1; Piloted Shredder’s lame younger brother with no tribe synergy.
Arena Treasure Chest – 1; 4-mana do nothing.
Ticket Scalper – 2; Average stats, decent upside, but not a card I want to run. Might be a reluctant pick in Arena.
Arena Fanatic – 1; Too slow!
Half-Time Scavenger – 2; Average stats, okay upside, arguably doesn’t pass the Chillwind Yeti test.
Sightless Ranger – 2; But I think this would be reasonable in Arena.
Former Champ – 1; Another soft nerf to effects that generate a minion at specific mana costs. Might see Arena play.
Dragonmaw Scorcher – 3; Whirlwind + 4-mana 3/6 Dragon. Might see play, might not make the cut.
Rabble Bouncer – 1; This is not the anti-aggro tech card you want to run.
Amani War Bear – 3; Good card that probably isn’t good enough for constructed. Probably good enough to be included in budget lists.
mosh’ogg enforcer – 1; The only thing this card enforces is the strength of Cabal Shadow Priest.
Belligerent Gnome – 3; I think this is another card that is on the fence of ‘good enough to see play’ and ‘actually, you know what, nevermind.’ Stat wise it’s Stonehill Defender for 1 less mana. When it has the upside, it’s Vulgar Homunculous without the downside.
Shieldbreaker – 2; Because Spellbreaker. 2 because this is probably better than Spellbreaker in Zoo.
Serpent Ward – 1
Booty Bay Bookie – 1; This might give mill decks fuel however.
Waterboy – 1
Soup Vendor – 1; Fantastic in Odd Priest. Er, wait.
Firetree Witchdoctor – 3; These Dragon decks kind of build themselves.
Murloc Tastyfin – 1; Cute name and card art though.
Arena Patron – 1; But I do appreciate a good throwback.
Gurubashi Offering – 2; I like this card but I don’t want to put it in my decks. I want to drop it alongside a Doomsayer, but again, I don’t want to actually take up a card slot with it.
Drakkari Trickster – 3; Hell yeah, my kind of card. 3-mana 3/4s usually get consideration, at worst.
Masked Contender – 2; Maybe in Mage? Probably not in Hunter. Reasonable for the “why the fuck did I only draft 2 secrets???” Arena decks though.
Linecracker – 2; However I think this is really good in Arena.
Crowd Roaster – 3; I can see this being a 1x of in Dragon decks.
Griftah – 2; Very skill testing. I doubt it will see play but I think this is a neat card and it has okay stats.
Mojomaster Zihi – 5; I can see this going into every control deck until it rotates. I can even see it going into a variation of Shudderwock.
Da Undatakah – 3; Late game powerhouse! I think right now it’s being overrated and everyone thinks it will make infinite Prelate Paladin insane.
Oondasta – 4; Deathrattle Hunter.
Hakkar, the Soulflayer - 2
Overall I'm happy with this set and excited to try it out. I'm glad Druid didn't get more busted stuff, happy to see Priest got some actually useful things, and I'm glad almost all of the neutrals are either Arena quality or meh/bad.
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Nice review indeed.
Last night I was playing Druid, built up my face damage to 9, used Savagery on the opponent’s Lich King, and then hit face for 9. Why is everyone only thinking of Gonk with a 3 attack from Malfurion? I have burst as high as 11 before with my face!
Nice review mate, i cannot wait to see which of the cards you ranked highly will make you salty :D
Probably when I get hit in the face for 8 from Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk, which is actually the card I'm most excited about.
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I'm gonna disagree with Revenge of the Wild as a 2 (I'd say 3.5) only because I could see it used with Unleash the Hounds/Scavenging Hyena (and rush minions) as a combo and I'm sure there are more combo's I'm not seeing. I'm not calling it a 5 by any means, I just think there will be found some nice combos with it that'll make resummoning beasts that died very strong. I originally was only thinking about it being used if King Krush was still on the board but you'd basically need to trade it into something , resummon one using revenge- possibly trade that as well (and how often are you down that big on the board and can trade 2 of them?) in order to revenge for 2 mana getting 2 king krush's for 2 mana. That being said, I think hunter will head toward the yogg like decks that zul'jin will bring with it.
Since I said one disagree, I'll definitely agree with your baited arrow take. Isn't Flanking Strike only 4 mana for 3 damage and a guaranteed 3/3? so you're paying 1 mana for a conditional 5/5 (gain or 2/2)= meh. Also Farraki Battleaxe- what's up with 5 mana for 3 damage items. That's not so great on turn 5... although I wonder if that will count as a buff for quest paladin reasons. [edit]
As for mage- splitting image is basically 3 mana, make your minion sticky. Worth it for high cost minions, not for low cast (as much).
Also for The Beast Within, I'm not sure if these "force attack" cards will count as their turn attacking or not... part of me thinks if you could attack a minion/face and then play it, it'd allow for 2 attacks in a turn so I wouldn't be surprised if it's a tricky way to say get say a Scavenging Hyena to clean some taunt out of the way and then damage to face.
As for Immortal Prelate, I think this will be the 2nd most card to build around paladin with shirvallah being #1.
Good review, I don't have time to dig more but lot of similar thoughts to what I was thinking. Surprisingly looking forward to this one, whereas 1/2 of the card reveals in, I wasn't even going to pre-order.
Is there any specific card or cards you disagree with that you'd like to discuss?
Or was this simply a cheap shot at my ability to review cards and a refusal to use my current username?
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Good review overall, but I think you're wrong about Akali, the Rhino. Rush Warrior is already a decent deck, and Akali gives you another finisher AND draw. Might not be tier one, but also not trash tier.
Unpopular opinion: Rogue is OP
What makes me hesitate about this card is Rush decks usually run Town Crier, and by turn 8 it seems to me that you've likely drawn most/all of your Rush minions.
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Our opinions don't differ greatly on too many cards. I'll note a few I disagree with you on.
Hex Lord Malacrass - At worst, you're drawing 2 cards. This akin to (but obviously not identical) prenerf Ancient of Lore. I think a 1 is too low given the other cards you gave a 1. Control Mage has a lot of room for greedy top end stuff: see Sindragosa and Astromancer.
Spirit of the Tiger - regarding your T4 Coppertail comparison: You can immediately realize the value from Tiger by pairing it with a spell that turn. That's the reason I am so high on the card.
Serrated Tooth - An effect that gives tempo in the tempo class? It may not be as good as I rated it, but it's surely better than a 1.
One cannot expect the salt thread to be full of logical and rational discussion. It's true I go overboard there and need to learn to control myself, which is something I'm working on.
That said, I would appreciate if we could keep comments in this thread to card reviewing. Thanks!
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i dont agree with how u rated warrior cards. aside from that seems good but of course some crazy combos or synergies we arent seeing will rise and cards we consider a 2 or 3 star will actually be better
cheers
I think you are quite wrong about the Shaman cards, they push Shaman quite a lot... For example Haunting Visions is 0 mana discover a spell (if you play it on your current turn) and if you don't want to play the Spell you discovered you can play another spell for 3 less. Shudderwock Shaman will be very powerful.
It definitely doesn't fit into Deathrattle Hunter, you don't want to risk pulling it with Kathrena Winterwisp
I agree on most cards but akali the rhino. You can build a rush warrior deck and that card will work fine, saying that akali is bad is like saying kathrena is bad because you need beasts for it to work.
Good review all around anyway.
One thing I've noticed in this expansion is they're trying to release more powerful 2 cost cards. Probably something they should have done immediately after Keleseth, or along with him haha, but I'm excited for that.
I do really think that Immortal Prelate Paladin (or, Immortal Paladin) will definitely be a new archetype. Tough to say if it will be inconsistent like Pogo rogue, or if it will take off like... I donno, something more consistent lol. The only thing I'm worried about is, midrange/buff paladin hasn't been a thing for forever now. Maybe he's still too inconsistent.
I agree with your mage assessment for sure though. I'll probably be playing lots of elemental, big spell, or odd mage during the first week or two. Which probably means the deck will end up being garbage because I suck at judging cards lol. I'm just excited to see Ragnaros back in the fray.
Twitch name: Anatak15
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Definitely a fair point. I may be underestimating the card.
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I've played a lot of Elemental Odd Mage lately and I think it's on the verge of being a decent deck. Rastakhan might be what pushes into the meta, but until decks like Taunt Druid, Maly Druid, and Deathrattle Hunter rotate out, Odd Mage is going to be hurt purely by not having access to Polymorph or Skulking Geist. I've even been running Tinkmaster Overspark just as a faux Polymorph.
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Chill out Burberry, give the man (statistically presumed) a chance.
I'm actually posting here because I don't know how to add a thread to my subs without posting in it. Will return later for reviewing reviews.
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Good news, friend: Frost Lich Jaina is Odd-cost. :)
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