Ace Hunter Kreen for me - free trades for days. Other than that the 1/1 which gives everything Rush - Rush is a very strong mechanic, I feel like (can be mistaken) it goes into every minion - dominant deck.
Kreen is good. maybe too good. However, the broom is more niche than that. on its own, its terrible. That means that you are playing it alongside another card(s) for it to be useful. You are spending a card draw and a slot in your deck to be able to give 1-3 minions rush. This card could have been an Aoe spell. It could have been a big single target removal. Or it could have just been a more threatening minion. This broom will never see play in aggro because aggro simply cant afford to waste a draw on being able to trade faster. Midrange values draw and curve too much to want to include this effect in their deck and would rather just pressure the opponent. So that leaves this card to control. Control might be able to run this... sometimes. Broom is quite powerful with deathrattle cards. It turns your minions into a sort of removal tool as well, however, it's usually better to just run a removal card in that slot. So where does this see play? Deathrattle decks that have high value deathrattles and low stats that want to die. Think Mechanical Whelp style cards.
I think cards like Spirit Jailer and Marrowslicer are okay in their own right. However, when you throw Soulshard Lapidary into the mix, they end up in a league of their own. Soulshard Lapidary is the most threatening card in my opinion that offers a lot of value with a package that already comes bundled with this expansion. Demon Hunters will have a fun time incorporating this mechanic into already existing decks. I don't think Warlock will have as much fun.
Demon Hunters already have Ace Hunter Kreen which is just bonkers.
There are 2 cards, and Im not saying these are my favourites, because we have seen a lot of cool designs, but from a power-level perspective these 2 are way above anything else in my opinion: Lightning Bloom and Secret Passage.
Lightning bloom is scary in combo decks, but its much worse than pre-nerf innervate if you are not playing a combo deck. In non-combo decks, it's "0 mana waste a slot in your deck to gain a slight tempo advantage now, but lose it again next turn."
Secret Passage is theoretically great, but it's more limited than people think. It is bad to draw cards or generate cards off of secret passage. Basically half of rogue cards being used right now draw cards or generate cards. Secret Passage's existence might force rogue players to change their decks quite a bit or have a different play-style entirely. However, there are some other decent rogue cards revealed which do not generate cards this expansion at least, so this expansion might be pushing rogue in an entirely different direction than the current decks that exist, which I am actually happy to see as a rogue player. However, if Rogues were only given Secret passage today and nothing else, it would make far fewer decklists than you'd think.
There are 2 cards, and Im not saying these are my favourites, because we have seen a lot of cool designs, but from a power-level perspective these 2 are way above anything else in my opinion: Lightning Bloom and Secret Passage.
Lightning bloom is scary in combo decks, but its much worse than pre-nerf innervate if you are not playing a combo deck. In non-combo decks, it's "0 mana waste a slot in your deck to gain a slight tempo advantage now, but lose it again next turn."
Secret Passage is theoretically great, but it's more limited than people think. It is bad to draw cards or generate cards off of secret passage. Basically half of rogue cards being used right now draw cards or generate cards. Secret Passage's existence might force rogue players to change their decks quite a bit or have a different play-style entirely. Thankfully, there are some other decent rogue cards revealed which do not generate cards. However, if Rogues were only given Secret passage today and nothing else, it would make far fewer decklists than you'd think.
If you use Lightning Bloom as a tempo tool in a shaman deck, its drawback could be irrelevant when you over-overload, like turn 1 Squallhunter. Its even more broken in wild. IMO old Innervate was the strongest card in HS before its nerf, so I have high hopes for its successor, especially since you can use it in shaman.
About Secret Passage, 1 mana draw 5 is so strong that I want to build a deck around it like tempo/aggro/face rogue, and its not the only support this archetype got in the new expansion. BTW its also good in current builds when you are fishing for a certain card.
There are 2 cards, and Im not saying these are my favourites, because we have seen a lot of cool designs, but from a power-level perspective these 2 are way above anything else in my opinion: Lightning Bloom and Secret Passage.
Lightning bloom is scary in combo decks, but its much worse than pre-nerf innervate if you are not playing a combo deck. In non-combo decks, it's "0 mana waste a slot in your deck to gain a slight tempo advantage now, but lose it again next turn."
Secret Passage is theoretically great, but it's more limited than people think. It is bad to draw cards or generate cards off of secret passage. Basically half of rogue cards being used right now draw cards or generate cards. Secret Passage's existence might force rogue players to change their decks quite a bit or have a different play-style entirely. Thankfully, there are some other decent rogue cards revealed which do not generate cards. However, if Rogues were only given Secret passage today and nothing else, it would make far fewer decklists than you'd think.
If you use Lightning Bloom as a tempo tool in a shaman deck, its drawback could be irrelevant when you over-overload, like turn 1 Squallhunter. Its even more broken in wild. IMO old Innervate was the strongest card in HS before its nerf, so I have high hopes for its successor, especially since you can use it in shaman.
About Secret Passage, 1 mana draw 5 is so strong that I want to build a deck around it like tempo/aggro/face rogue, and its not the only support this archetype got in the new expansion. BTW its also good in current builds when you are fishing for a certain card.
True, might be more useful in Shaman in that case.
It's definitely not 1 mana draw 5. If you could draw 5, it means cards in your hand would still be playable alongside the new cards. On average, its 1 mana draw 2 if you are not finishing the game that turn since you'll only get to play 2 things usually, and thats only if you play cards which don't generate or draw things. Fishing for "what" exactly? Let's look at the best rogue deck right now, secret galakrond rogue. Card's that generate or draw other cards: Pharaoh Cat x2, praise galakrond x2, dirty tricks, shadowjeweler hanar, evil miscreant x2, seal fate x2, devoted maniac x2, shield of galakrond x2, heistbaron togwaggle, kronx Dragonhoof (if you havent drawn galakrond, so i'll count it as ".5") and galakrond. That's 16.5 cards in your deck which are bad to play after secret passage, since you could end up sending those drawn or generated cards back into your deck and making your future draw worse. This deck would have to DRASTICALLY change in order to accommodate secret passage.
There are 2 cards, and Im not saying these are my favourites, because we have seen a lot of cool designs, but from a power-level perspective these 2 are way above anything else in my opinion: Lightning Bloom and Secret Passage.
Lightning bloom is scary in combo decks, but its much worse than pre-nerf innervate if you are not playing a combo deck. In non-combo decks, it's "0 mana waste a slot in your deck to gain a slight tempo advantage now, but lose it again next turn."
Secret Passage is theoretically great, but it's more limited than people think. It is bad to draw cards or generate cards off of secret passage. Basically half of rogue cards being used right now draw cards or generate cards. Secret Passage's existence might force rogue players to change their decks quite a bit or have a different play-style entirely. Thankfully, there are some other decent rogue cards revealed which do not generate cards. However, if Rogues were only given Secret passage today and nothing else, it would make far fewer decklists than you'd think.
If you use Lightning Bloom as a tempo tool in a shaman deck, its drawback could be irrelevant when you over-overload, like turn 1 Squallhunter. Its even more broken in wild. IMO old Innervate was the strongest card in HS before its nerf, so I have high hopes for its successor, especially since you can use it in shaman.
About Secret Passage, 1 mana draw 5 is so strong that I want to build a deck around it like tempo/aggro/face rogue, and its not the only support this archetype got in the new expansion. BTW its also good in current builds when you are fishing for a certain card.
True, might be more useful in Shaman in that case.
It's definitely not 1 mana draw 5. If you could draw 5, it means cards in your hand would still be playable alongside the new cards. On average, its 1 mana draw 2 if you are not finishing the game that turn since you'll only get to play 2 things usually, and thats only if you play cards which don't generate or draw things. Fishing for "what" exactly? Let's look at the best rogue deck right now, secret galakrond rogue. Card's that generate or draw other cards: Pharaoh Cat x2, praise galakrond x2, dirty tricks, shadowjeweler hanar, evil miscreant x2, seal fate x2, devoted maniac x2, shield of galakrond x2, heistbaron togwaggle, kronx Dragonhoof (if you havent drawn galakrond, so i'll count it as ".5") and galakrond. That's 16.5 cards in your deck which are bad to play after secret passage, since you could end up sending those drawn or generated cards back into your deck and making your future draw worse. This deck would have to DRASTICALLY change in order to accommodate secret passage.
Maybe its not optimal to run it in Gala-rogue, but it still has some potential there. For example fishing for Kronx or an early game Eviscerate. But even if it doesnt make the cut in that deck, I still think its one of the most broken cards from SA. Let me explain why.
Every card has a mana cost and every card has a "card" cost. Thats why 1-drops are doing so much compared to mana cost, because they still cost a card. Blazing Battlemage is very good on turn 1, but at turn 6 its something you dont want to topdeck, because you want to spend the "card" cost for something more effective. Lets look at Sinister Strike. 1 mana for dealing 3 to opponents face is a pretty good deal mana-wise, but it doesnt worth a card (except for Maly decks but thats another story). Thats why it never made the cut in aggro rogue decks.
Old Innervate made you think differently about mana costs, since you had access to more mana. Likewise such a strong card draw like Secret Passage makes you reevaluate card costs, since its so cheap to get one. The optimal scenario with Secret passage is that you draw 5 and play all of them. Maybe you wont have the mana for all of them but playing just 3 is making it a "1 mana draw 3" which is ridiculous. So in the right low curve deck that doesnt care about value or card generation, just pure mana effectiveness and face damage, this could be a very dangerous tool.
Ace Hunter Kreen for me - free trades for days. Other than that the 1/1 which gives everything Rush - Rush is a very strong mechanic, I feel like (can be mistaken) it goes into every minion - dominant deck.
Kreen is good. maybe too good. However, the broom is more niche than that. on its own, its terrible. That means that you are playing it alongside another card(s) for it to be useful. You are spending a card draw and a slot in your deck to be able to give 1-3 minions rush. This card could have been an Aoe spell. It could have been a big single target removal. Or it could have just been a more threatening minion. This broom will never see play in aggro because aggro simply cant afford to waste a draw on being able to trade faster. Midrange values draw and curve too much to want to include this effect in their deck and would rather just pressure the opponent. So that leaves this card to control. Control might be able to run this... sometimes. Broom is quite powerful with deathrattle cards. It turns your minions into a sort of removal tool as well, however, it's usually better to just run a removal card in that slot. So where does this see play? Deathrattle decks that have high value deathrattles and low stats that want to die. Think Mechanical Whelp style cards.
Maybe. I am just looking at the power ceiling of the mechanic itself. Everything runs Rush nowadays, because it's just so strong in instantly addressing the board. Every Rush minion is like a removal spell with a potential to leave a body behind.
Now one crucial thing to consider is that Rush minions usually have lower stats for their mana cost, just because Rush alone is so valuable. This can turn anything into a Rush minion, including the ones with bigger HP, Divine Shields, Deathrattle or just minions with cost adequate to their stats.
I am looking at Magic Carpet, which was single-handedly the best card in Zoo since it was released, just because it gave Rush to a selection of minions.
I mean, if everything runs Rush of their own, why not just run something that turns everything in your deck into Rush if played alongside.
Ace Hunter Kreen for me - free trades for days. Other than that the 1/1 which gives everything Rush - Rush is a very strong mechanic, I feel like (can be mistaken) it goes into every minion - dominant deck.
Kreen is good. maybe too good. However, the broom is more niche than that. on its own, its terrible. That means that you are playing it alongside another card(s) for it to be useful. You are spending a card draw and a slot in your deck to be able to give 1-3 minions rush. This card could have been an Aoe spell. It could have been a big single target removal. Or it could have just been a more threatening minion. This broom will never see play in aggro because aggro simply cant afford to waste a draw on being able to trade faster. Midrange values draw and curve too much to want to include this effect in their deck and would rather just pressure the opponent. So that leaves this card to control. Control might be able to run this... sometimes. Broom is quite powerful with deathrattle cards. It turns your minions into a sort of removal tool as well, however, it's usually better to just run a removal card in that slot. So where does this see play? Deathrattle decks that have high value deathrattles and low stats that want to die. Think Mechanical Whelp style cards.
Maybe. I am just looking at the power ceiling of the mechanic itself. Everything runs Rush nowadays, because it's just so strong in instantly addressing the board. Every Rush minion is like a removal spell with a potential to leave a body behind.
Now one crucial thing to consider is that Rush minions usually have lower stats for their mana cost, just because Rush alone is so valuable. This can turn anything into a Rush minion, including the ones with bigger HP, Divine Shields, Deathrattle or just minions with cost adequate to their stats.
I am looking at Magic Carpet, which was single-handedly the best card in Zoo since it was released, just because it gave Rush to a selection of minions.
I mean, if everything runs Rush of their own, why not just run something that turns everything in your deck into Rush if played alongside.
Magic carpet is way better than the broom. Magic carpet is actually a good minion on its own and will likely stick around for a turn. You can also play a bunch of 1/1s and give them the effect "deal 2 damage" because of the attack boost, which was awesome. If you play the broom alongside 3 1/1s, it's absolute trash, whereas it's awesome with the carpet. if you play this alongside a divine shield, it's alright, but you are basically playing a 2 card siamat. I mean, siamat is good, but would it be good enough if the text was "also don't draw a card on your next turn"? Because the broom causes you to lose that turn for a rush effect. If you can play this alongside 2-3 giants, cool. But if you draw it in the early game, it's a dead draw, which giant-based decks can't really afford. You need at least 2 big minions to gain rush for it to not be a bad version of siamat, and that's not exactly easy to do with only 9 mana. And if you are playing broom on turn 10 as a swing card, I can think of plenty better ways to swing in the current state of Hearthstone. Yes rush is great by itself, but if a rush minion came attached with "lose a draw" it would be terrible.
Excited for Instructor Fireheart - it's great combo'd with the forgotten Dwarven Archaeologist for a miracle spell shaman value generator or burn finisher. The package drops nicely into any spell shaman list;
Kreen is good. maybe too good. However, the broom is more niche than that. on its own, its terrible. That means that you are playing it alongside another card(s) for it to be useful. You are spending a card draw and a slot in your deck to be able to give 1-3 minions rush. This card could have been an Aoe spell. It could have been a big single target removal. Or it could have just been a more threatening minion. This broom will never see play in aggro because aggro simply cant afford to waste a draw on being able to trade faster. Midrange values draw and curve too much to want to include this effect in their deck and would rather just pressure the opponent. So that leaves this card to control. Control might be able to run this... sometimes. Broom is quite powerful with deathrattle cards. It turns your minions into a sort of removal tool as well, however, it's usually better to just run a removal card in that slot. So where does this see play? Deathrattle decks that have high value deathrattles and low stats that want to die. Think Mechanical Whelp style cards.
I think cards like Spirit Jailer and Marrowslicer are okay in their own right. However, when you throw Soulshard Lapidary into the mix, they end up in a league of their own. Soulshard Lapidary is the most threatening card in my opinion that offers a lot of value with a package that already comes bundled with this expansion. Demon Hunters will have a fun time incorporating this mechanic into already existing decks. I don't think Warlock will have as much fun.
Demon Hunters already have Ace Hunter Kreen which is just bonkers.
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Lightning bloom is scary in combo decks, but its much worse than pre-nerf innervate if you are not playing a combo deck. In non-combo decks, it's "0 mana waste a slot in your deck to gain a slight tempo advantage now, but lose it again next turn."
Secret Passage is theoretically great, but it's more limited than people think. It is bad to draw cards or generate cards off of secret passage. Basically half of rogue cards being used right now draw cards or generate cards. Secret Passage's existence might force rogue players to change their decks quite a bit or have a different play-style entirely. However, there are some other decent rogue cards revealed which do not generate cards this expansion at least, so this expansion might be pushing rogue in an entirely different direction than the current decks that exist, which I am actually happy to see as a rogue player. However, if Rogues were only given Secret passage today and nothing else, it would make far fewer decklists than you'd think.
If you use Lightning Bloom as a tempo tool in a shaman deck, its drawback could be irrelevant when you over-overload, like turn 1 Squallhunter. Its even more broken in wild. IMO old Innervate was the strongest card in HS before its nerf, so I have high hopes for its successor, especially since you can use it in shaman.
About Secret Passage, 1 mana draw 5 is so strong that I want to build a deck around it like tempo/aggro/face rogue, and its not the only support this archetype got in the new expansion. BTW its also good in current builds when you are fishing for a certain card.
True, might be more useful in Shaman in that case.
It's definitely not 1 mana draw 5. If you could draw 5, it means cards in your hand would still be playable alongside the new cards. On average, its 1 mana draw 2 if you are not finishing the game that turn since you'll only get to play 2 things usually, and thats only if you play cards which don't generate or draw things. Fishing for "what" exactly? Let's look at the best rogue deck right now, secret galakrond rogue. Card's that generate or draw other cards: Pharaoh Cat x2, praise galakrond x2, dirty tricks, shadowjeweler hanar, evil miscreant x2, seal fate x2, devoted maniac x2, shield of galakrond x2, heistbaron togwaggle, kronx Dragonhoof (if you havent drawn galakrond, so i'll count it as ".5") and galakrond. That's 16.5 cards in your deck which are bad to play after secret passage, since you could end up sending those drawn or generated cards back into your deck and making your future draw worse. This deck would have to DRASTICALLY change in order to accommodate secret passage.
Maybe its not optimal to run it in Gala-rogue, but it still has some potential there. For example fishing for Kronx or an early game Eviscerate. But even if it doesnt make the cut in that deck, I still think its one of the most broken cards from SA. Let me explain why.
Every card has a mana cost and every card has a "card" cost. Thats why 1-drops are doing so much compared to mana cost, because they still cost a card. Blazing Battlemage is very good on turn 1, but at turn 6 its something you dont want to topdeck, because you want to spend the "card" cost for something more effective. Lets look at Sinister Strike. 1 mana for dealing 3 to opponents face is a pretty good deal mana-wise, but it doesnt worth a card (except for Maly decks but thats another story). Thats why it never made the cut in aggro rogue decks.
Old Innervate made you think differently about mana costs, since you had access to more mana. Likewise such a strong card draw like Secret Passage makes you reevaluate card costs, since its so cheap to get one. The optimal scenario with Secret passage is that you draw 5 and play all of them. Maybe you wont have the mana for all of them but playing just 3 is making it a "1 mana draw 3" which is ridiculous. So in the right low curve deck that doesnt care about value or card generation, just pure mana effectiveness and face damage, this could be a very dangerous tool.
Maybe. I am just looking at the power ceiling of the mechanic itself. Everything runs Rush nowadays, because it's just so strong in instantly addressing the board. Every Rush minion is like a removal spell with a potential to leave a body behind.
Now one crucial thing to consider is that Rush minions usually have lower stats for their mana cost, just because Rush alone is so valuable. This can turn anything into a Rush minion, including the ones with bigger HP, Divine Shields, Deathrattle or just minions with cost adequate to their stats.
I am looking at Magic Carpet, which was single-handedly the best card in Zoo since it was released, just because it gave Rush to a selection of minions.
I mean, if everything runs Rush of their own, why not just run something that turns everything in your deck into Rush if played alongside.
Troublemaker.
Accept no substitutes.
Magic carpet is way better than the broom. Magic carpet is actually a good minion on its own and will likely stick around for a turn. You can also play a bunch of 1/1s and give them the effect "deal 2 damage" because of the attack boost, which was awesome. If you play the broom alongside 3 1/1s, it's absolute trash, whereas it's awesome with the carpet. if you play this alongside a divine shield, it's alright, but you are basically playing a 2 card siamat. I mean, siamat is good, but would it be good enough if the text was "also don't draw a card on your next turn"? Because the broom causes you to lose that turn for a rush effect. If you can play this alongside 2-3 giants, cool. But if you draw it in the early game, it's a dead draw, which giant-based decks can't really afford. You need at least 2 big minions to gain rush for it to not be a bad version of siamat, and that's not exactly easy to do with only 9 mana. And if you are playing broom on turn 10 as a swing card, I can think of plenty better ways to swing in the current state of Hearthstone. Yes rush is great by itself, but if a rush minion came attached with "lose a draw" it would be terrible.
Excited for Instructor Fireheart - it's great combo'd with the forgotten Dwarven Archaeologist for a miracle spell shaman value generator or burn finisher. The package drops nicely into any spell shaman list;
Scholomance Academy Theorycrafts
Rushing Broom + Mayor Noggenfogger + Mana Giant + Arcane Giant
Memes aside:
Ace Hunter Kreen
Secret Passage
Both look really strong.