Hearthpwn

Quote from T4te jump

It's not really 2 drop. Take it this way - it has body of the 3-drop. Turn 2 you drop this and opp responds with 2-drop. But turn 3 you can play only 2-drop, which is going to be conquested with 3-drop. Ultimately after both turns 3 have passed, both players have the same  board (assuming no trading) - a 2-drop and a 3-drop.

It is a 2 drop, you can literally drop it on turn 2 and it is a very good tempo play. In the example you give why do you assume no trading? Trading to gain board control would be the whole point of playing it turn 2.

This is the way your example would actually play out:
You play Totem Golem > Opponent plays 2 drop > You kill 2 drop with Totem Golem which survives and also play 2 drop > Opponent plays 3 drop > You kill 3 drop with Totem Golem  and you play a 4 drop > Opponent plays 4 drop etc... In this example you are a 2 drop ahead on the board and just got 2 for 1 value from a card.

...Possibly one of the best two-drops in the game?? 

Imagine if you had two of these cards in your mulligan and drop them one by one, GODLY lol.

This card is gona fuck Arena so much lol. It looks so scary, but im looking forward to see it in action (mby it will be just Stormforged Axe that will save u from face dmg from trades).

This is an obvious boost to shaman. Perhaps we see them again in the future, maybe in an "all-Totem" shaman.

You cannot ignore the overload when evaluating this card. Getting overloaded for your turn 3 is extremely crippling. It's not a 2 drop that will just stay on board forever like Creeper, and it's not something that will just win you the game if unanswered like Zap o Matic. Temper those expectations.

Also I see some hype about coining it out on turn 1, and that is probably the worst thing you can do with this card. That basically forces you to play a Rockbiter or Zombie Chow (and you would just play this on 1 anyways) on turn 2 or you pass the entire turn

Finally they value overload as it should be. A 2 Mana card with (1) overload should have the same value as a 3 mana card without overload. We will see if this card is playable or if the early overload is too much but I think this is quite a good card.

Quote from Daily17 jump

You cannot ignore the overload when evaluating this card. Getting overloaded for your turn 3 is extremely crippling. It's not a 2 drop that will just stay on board forever like Creeper, and it's not something that will just win you the game if unanswered like Zap o Matic. Temper those expectations.

I'd gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.  ie: getting a synergistic 3 drop on turn 2 for one extra mana next turn is better than a synergistic 3 drop on turn 3 without the overload drawback and unbound plays can certainly happen through minion play now instead of almost entirely spell play. 

Shaman might actually become one of the biggest classes in Arena now. They already got Fireguard Destroyer (which boosted their viability in Arena quite a lot) in the previous adventure, and now this one! And I mean that as a positive thing! :D

Quote from notsoclutch jump

Quote from Daily17 jump

You cannot ignore the overload when evaluating this card. Getting overloaded for your turn 3 is extremely crippling. It's not a 2 drop that will just stay on board forever like Creeper, and it's not something that will just win you the game if unanswered like Zap o Matic. Temper those expectations.

I'd gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.  ie: getting a synergistic 3 drop on turn 2 for one extra mana next turn is better than a synergistic 3 drop on turn 3 without the overload drawback and unbound plays can certainly happen through minion play now instead of almost entirely spell play. 

The ultimate dilemma with overload is whether or not the tempo gained from the early play is enough to justify the mana lock on the following turn. And I'm proposing that I'm not sure this card will accomplish that well enough. And it's not like this card is going to get out of control if left unchecked for a turn.

As someone who primarily plays arena I can see this card being pretty insane on that front.

As far as constructed goes it is hard to judge each card on their own, since we've seen only a fraction of new cards. So it is hard to say for any of the card that they would be played in constructed. This one seems good enough but we will see.

Quote from Daily17 jump

The ultimate dilemma with overload is whether or not the tempo gained from the early play is enough to justify the mana lock on the following turn. And I'm proposing that I'm not sure this card will accomplish that well enough. And it's not like this card is going to get out of control if left unchecked for a turn.

It's a mana lock of one that essentially gives you a great 3 drop for 3 but with extra tempo.  This helps you trade with two drops better and helps avoid problematic removal like swipe.  You also get totem synergy which COULD end up spiraling out of control if you run things like totemic might, totem carver, or the valiant AND you can run it in a mid range overload deck with things like lava burst or unbound.  Plenty of synergies AND great tempo means this card is huge for Shaman. 

Quote from T4te jump

It's not really 2 drop. Take it this way - it has body of the 3-drop. Turn 2 you drop this and opp responds with 2-drop. But turn 3 you can play only 2-drop, which is going to be conquested with 3-drop. Ultimately after both turns 3 have passed, both players have the same  board (assuming no trading) - a 2-drop and a 3-drop.

yap, but as you played your "3 drop" before it is you who dictates the trading and this is what makes the card pretty strong ;) 

Blizzard is trying to fix a horrible class by breaking it...

Seems legit

BTW, my serious thoughts on this card is that it's good, but not enough to save shaman. Bliz has given us a 4 mana 7/6 and a 2 mana 3/2 with windfury and the class still sucks, how will this make a difference?

Quote from T4te jump

It's not really 2 drop. Take it this way - it has body of the 3-drop. Turn 2 you drop this and opp responds with 2-drop. But turn 3 you can play only 2-drop, which is going to be conquested with 3-drop. Ultimately after both turns 3 have passed, both players have the same  board (assuming no trading) - a 2-drop and a 3-drop.

Yes yes assuming no trading. However, you will trade your 3/4 into the 3/2 or 2/3 and you will still have him to contest the 3 drop.

You forget they are adding totem synergy. We have Totemic Might, but we'll also ahve Tuskarr Totemist, Totemcarver (4 mana4/4 with battlecry +1/1 for totems), and Thunderbluff Valiant (if not even more totem synergy), so this guy will push shaman further. Also, when you get this from Tuskarr, it's a great push for the early game.

Quote from MvonTzeskagrad jump

Totemcarver (4 mana4/4 with battlecry +1/1 for totems)

He does not give +1/+1 to totems, at least this is what i understood that u ment from how u wrote it ;-)

This card is the sole reason a Totem based board control Shaman will work.

Inspire and the other Totem cards only add too this as well.

Quote from DarkArchon21 jump

Shaman only looks strong because we've only seen Shaman cards pretty much so far...Once we see the full set of class cards for all i think Shaman will end up being in the same spot...A weak arena pick.

Hmm, you must be doing it wrong then.  My last 3 Shaman runs were 8, 9, 10 wins.

This expansion will (hopefully) bring back Shaman to a more competitive level.  Looks good from what we've seen so far.

Quote from S1eth jump

It's an OK card. It's not as good as Shielded Minibot or Mad Scientist

3 mana 3/4 is not good enough.
A good 3 mana card is a 4/4 that gives you a spare part, a 20/3 that OTKs your opponent, a 2/4 that keeps summoning 1/1s.

Mechanical Spider costs 2 mana with Mech Warper. That's Totem Golem without the overload.
The best part about Totem Golem is that it can be summoned by Tuskarr Totemic.

But it's not a 3 mana card.  It's a 2 mana card with 1 overload which is significantly better than a vanilla 3/4 3 drop because of the tempo and the overload.  On turn 2 this trades with everything else played on turn 2 and is tough to remove for most classes.  Turn 3 isn't really highly contested in Shaman with only one great play (that could potentially be pulled off 50% of the time anyway), so being overloaded for 1 generally isn't terrible for you and your turn 4 play isn't impeeded, so you get a nice Fireguard Destroyer or Shredder.  Lava shock also allows for some great swing plays involving Lava Shock and Unbound Elemental making overload decks a bit easier to pull off in my estimation. 

Quote from S1eth jump

You cannot ignore the overload. For all intents and purposes, this is a 3 mana card.

It dies to 2-mana removal cards like Flamecannon and Shadow Word: Pain.

It trades with Shielded Minibot, Defias Ringleader, even Mad Bomber.It dies to Minibot + Abusive Sergeant / Blessing of Might without killing anything.

This is the same logic that was used to claim Grim Patron would be useless even in a Warrior deck.