Having an elemental played on-curve on turn 6 is rather easy, especially for shaman (Fire Elemental) and mage, with either Water Elemental and some kind of ping/removal or 2nd stage Pyros (6 mana 6/6). Even if you don't need to play this on turn 7, you can instead play Servant of Kalimos for some extra value and keep the elemental trigger rolling into turns 8+. There are even easy ways of generating the cheap 1 mana 1/2 elementals to squeeze in on-curve to help later elemental triggers come out on curve.
This card makes conserving the elemental trigger across turns very easy. For example, if you played an elemental on turn 6, and found there wasn't a good reason to play something like Blazecaller on turn 7, this card can let you keep that trigger rolling into next turn and gain value for it. Firefly also keeps the elemental trigger rolling quite well, but its value is so low in comparison.
As for what one can discover, shaman has several high value options and one dud in Dust Devil. Mage, priest, and even paladin (so far it's only Ragnaros, Lightlord!) can typically expect a solid class card from this. Neutral cards have duds in Magma Rager and Arcane Anomaly, so it's almost guaranteed there's at least one elemental of good value. I suppose that means it's only natural the saltiest players in the world will consistently hit the trifecta of Dust Devil, Arcane Anomaly, and Magma Rager as their discover choices.
We're losing Imp Gang Boss from BRM and Dark Peddler from LoE, so zoo decks will have to come up with different ways to generate tokens/have weak bodies for this to eat. Without tokens a lot of the early game minions are probably too valuable to give up on turn 4. Certainly a strong card when it eats, but there's now a lot more reliance on less reliable token generators for this to work on curve.
Voted meta-defining because it's a cool card. It's probably not very good though since its outcomes are unreliable and the outcomes you would want can be found consistently in other cards (Bog Creeper for taunt, Ravenholdt Assassin for stealth, lol). Adapt on small minions is great, but on big minions it's a heavy investment for a number of possible misfires.
By the time you would want to play Acidic Swamp Ooze, you can definitely afford an extra mana for that armor. Even 1 armor from Atiesh is acceptable! The new go-to weapon tech card unless you want the card draw from Harrison Jones.
Counterspell is often checked with cheap spells or spells that require other cards to work effectively (Circle of Healing). The chance at getting your opponent's 10-mana Kazakus potion or Flamestrike isn't great since the decks playing big spells typically also have small/combo spells. There will definitely be times when your opponent's only spell is something good, but that happens about as often as your opponent playing a big minion into Potion of Polymorph. At least it's pretty alright value if you get extra copies from other cards (Arcanologist or Cabalist's Tome), as it's pretty likely to trigger and even a 0-mana spell has potential in mage decks.
With Starving Buzzard you can easily blast through your deck off of 1-mana beasts. Alleycat, Timber Wolf, and Fiery Bat are obvious choices, and you could even run Stonetusk Boar, Hungry Crab, and not-entirely-joking Weasel Tunneler where drawing it yourself cycles for a card and is an overwhelming bad draw for your opponent. (The other 2 options are Angry Chicken and Young Dragonhawk which require buffs you wouldn't have in this kind of deck.) But why stop there? There's a number of solid non-beast 1-drops including Abusive Sergeant and Zealous Initiate that work well with lots of small minions. I think this quest will be the start of a new kind of fast paced zoo deck.
The lack of consistent on-curve plays from opponents meant that an early advantage either snowballed into a turn 6-7 win or that Mortal Strike could provide the needed burst to finish the game from behind. In fact, just about every game revolved around dealing 6+ damage with Mortal Strike while severely behind on the board. I anticipated that I'd draft a deck built around this when my first 2 rares were Mortal Strike and the rest of my cards were small removal or incremental value cards like Blood To Ichor and Slam. I was extremely lucky to see Sir Finley Mrglton appear on the 29th pick, filling a better role than Genzo the Shark for either an early minion or in topdeck situations. The other legendary option was more control oriented and I don't even remember what it was.
I got pretty lucky and didn't actually encounter too many tri-class rares across 60ish packs. The commons don't bother me given that I nearly have all of them anyway. Now I pretty much get another 18 free packs! Nice!
Pretty okay value for that effect. That said, if you wanted a MASSIVE face burst, Mana Addict has your fix. She's much cheaper and you really only need that effect for one turn anyway. This card helps build redundancy for those kinds of OTK decks, but it's really clunky anywhere else.
We typically get tech cards alongside a new archetype being pushed so that Blizzard doesn't have to make panic nerfs in case the new archetype is too strong. So yes, the card is extremely underwhelming but is kind of important. Could you imagine how different TGT would've been if Eater of Secrets was released alongside Mysterious Challenger or Naxx if Lil' Exorcist was released alongside Undertaker? Both of those cards were meant to be checks to cards from the previous sets, and have entirely missed their time of relevance. No one thought either Mysterious Challenger or Undertaker were going to be as relevant as they were, so I think Blizzard is trying to introduce tech cards for new archetypes to prevent a potential salt outcry.
A self-buffing Grimy Goon in a lot of ways. Most hand buff effects are from battlecry minions, most value drops are battlecry minions, and most tech cards are battlecry minions. You might even consider that it's like have Brann Bronzebeard in play when you drop something like Grimestreet Smuggler. It could end up being something you dump out at 8/8 or greater stats alongside a flood of buffed minions, but at that point you might as well just take another battlecry minion over this instead. Growing in hand has been around since Bolvar Fordragon, but I think there's finally some potential for that kind of card in a Grimy Goons deck.
1
Having an elemental played on-curve on turn 6 is rather easy, especially for shaman (Fire Elemental) and mage, with either Water Elemental and some kind of ping/removal or 2nd stage Pyros (6 mana 6/6). Even if you don't need to play this on turn 7, you can instead play Servant of Kalimos for some extra value and keep the elemental trigger rolling into turns 8+. There are even easy ways of generating the cheap 1 mana 1/2 elementals to squeeze in on-curve to help later elemental triggers come out on curve.
1
This card makes conserving the elemental trigger across turns very easy. For example, if you played an elemental on turn 6, and found there wasn't a good reason to play something like Blazecaller on turn 7, this card can let you keep that trigger rolling into next turn and gain value for it. Firefly also keeps the elemental trigger rolling quite well, but its value is so low in comparison.
As for what one can discover, shaman has several high value options and one dud in Dust Devil. Mage, priest, and even paladin (so far it's only Ragnaros, Lightlord!) can typically expect a solid class card from this. Neutral cards have duds in Magma Rager and Arcane Anomaly, so it's almost guaranteed there's at least one elemental of good value. I suppose that means it's only natural the saltiest players in the world will consistently hit the trifecta of Dust Devil, Arcane Anomaly, and Magma Rager as their discover choices.
6
We're losing Imp Gang Boss from BRM and Dark Peddler from LoE, so zoo decks will have to come up with different ways to generate tokens/have weak bodies for this to eat. Without tokens a lot of the early game minions are probably too valuable to give up on turn 4. Certainly a strong card when it eats, but there's now a lot more reliance on less reliable token generators for this to work on curve.
0
Voted meta-defining because it's a cool card. It's probably not very good though since its outcomes are unreliable and the outcomes you would want can be found consistently in other cards (Bog Creeper for taunt, Ravenholdt Assassin for stealth, lol). Adapt on small minions is great, but on big minions it's a heavy investment for a number of possible misfires.
0
By the time you would want to play Acidic Swamp Ooze, you can definitely afford an extra mana for that armor. Even 1 armor from Atiesh is acceptable! The new go-to weapon tech card unless you want the card draw from Harrison Jones.
0
Counterspell is often checked with cheap spells or spells that require other cards to work effectively (Circle of Healing). The chance at getting your opponent's 10-mana Kazakus potion or Flamestrike isn't great since the decks playing big spells typically also have small/combo spells. There will definitely be times when your opponent's only spell is something good, but that happens about as often as your opponent playing a big minion into Potion of Polymorph. At least it's pretty alright value if you get extra copies from other cards (Arcanologist or Cabalist's Tome), as it's pretty likely to trigger and even a 0-mana spell has potential in mage decks.
2
With Starving Buzzard you can easily blast through your deck off of 1-mana beasts. Alleycat, Timber Wolf, and Fiery Bat are obvious choices, and you could even run Stonetusk Boar, Hungry Crab, and not-entirely-joking Weasel Tunneler where drawing it yourself cycles for a card and is an overwhelming bad draw for your opponent. (The other 2 options are Angry Chicken and Young Dragonhawk which require buffs you wouldn't have in this kind of deck.) But why stop there? There's a number of solid non-beast 1-drops including Abusive Sergeant and Zealous Initiate that work well with lots of small minions. I think this quest will be the start of a new kind of fast paced zoo deck.
1
Sir Finley Mrglton carried! Triple Mortal Strike for hidden lethals! Fool's Bane assisted for dropping health below 12 easily.
The lack of consistent on-curve plays from opponents meant that an early advantage either snowballed into a turn 6-7 win or that Mortal Strike could provide the needed burst to finish the game from behind. In fact, just about every game revolved around dealing 6+ damage with Mortal Strike while severely behind on the board. I anticipated that I'd draft a deck built around this when my first 2 rares were Mortal Strike and the rest of my cards were small removal or incremental value cards like Blood To Ichor and Slam. I was extremely lucky to see Sir Finley Mrglton appear on the 29th pick, filling a better role than Genzo the Shark for either an early minion or in topdeck situations. The other legendary option was more control oriented and I don't even remember what it was.
0
I got pretty lucky and didn't actually encounter too many tri-class rares across 60ish packs. The commons don't bother me given that I nearly have all of them anyway. Now I pretty much get another 18 free packs! Nice!
4
Pretty much used to heal only yourself since the only minions where Flash Heal might be insufficient are Ysera, Malygos, and either Deathwing. If you could guarantee a win on Healing Wave for an extra mana that's not bad either. Will we see Disguised Toast OTK with Embrace the Shadows, 2 of these, 2 Flash Heals (or 1 and a Lesser Heal), and Mayor Noggenfogger?
2
The dream curve with Eerie Statue into Kabal Songstealer! Silence deck has some better redundancy!
0
Really cool synergy with Demonfire, and less so with Demonwrath and Bloodfury Potion. Too bad there aren't more spells like that in the game.
0
Pretty okay value for that effect. That said, if you wanted a MASSIVE face burst, Mana Addict has your fix. She's much cheaper and you really only need that effect for one turn anyway. This card helps build redundancy for those kinds of OTK decks, but it's really clunky anywhere else.
0
We typically get tech cards alongside a new archetype being pushed so that Blizzard doesn't have to make panic nerfs in case the new archetype is too strong. So yes, the card is extremely underwhelming but is kind of important. Could you imagine how different TGT would've been if Eater of Secrets was released alongside Mysterious Challenger or Naxx if Lil' Exorcist was released alongside Undertaker? Both of those cards were meant to be checks to cards from the previous sets, and have entirely missed their time of relevance. No one thought either Mysterious Challenger or Undertaker were going to be as relevant as they were, so I think Blizzard is trying to introduce tech cards for new archetypes to prevent a potential salt outcry.
0
A self-buffing Grimy Goon in a lot of ways. Most hand buff effects are from battlecry minions, most value drops are battlecry minions, and most tech cards are battlecry minions. You might even consider that it's like have Brann Bronzebeard in play when you drop something like Grimestreet Smuggler. It could end up being something you dump out at 8/8 or greater stats alongside a flood of buffed minions, but at that point you might as well just take another battlecry minion over this instead. Growing in hand has been around since Bolvar Fordragon, but I think there's finally some potential for that kind of card in a Grimy Goons deck.