Hearthpwn

Time's up, let's do this. Deathwing observation time.

Backstory: When I started playing Hearthstone, I really liked that card. It was top 2 craft legendary for me(No, i didnt craft it, because i had very low dust amount. Thankfully...) This card seemed like badass Dragon Boss, and it does so even now.

About his stats: 12/12 for 10 mana used to be marvelous back in pre-WOG days. Only Deathwing itself could previllege on being so strong. Now it's not the case, ehh. Deathwing's Battlecry is devastating for both players, ou lose cards, enemy loses board. It use to be ultimate comeback card that won even few tournaments. Like, you opponent goes "ALL IN", you drop that Badass, he loses board, has very low cards, and often not much health. If he cant find answer for Deathwing or a way to kill you in 1-2 turns, this is "HABELLA"(Mr. Tomatoes reference) for him. His stats allow him to kill every minion and stay alive, except very few ones.

As for me, this card is insane. I still like, thus i know it has a lot of drawbacks, which will be discussed later here. This is your chance not to lose, if you're losing already, your last chance for a comeback from the abyss. It is like Astral Communion with no draw Twisting Nether + 12/12 on board. Whenever Deathwing is played, your opponent instantl ygoes into losing position, as he has no board and a giant threat on your side.

 Another advantage is him being a dragon, so dragon synergy activation is applied, it won't be a completely useless card till turn 10 at least, if you play Drake Decks(which soon ill rotate out, sadly). He also was used in some control warriors, especially by Fibonacci. Deathwing, Dragonlord synergies well with usual Deathwing, as he pulls him on board after his death.(Note: If Deathwing, Dragonlord is in play, then classic Deathwing is played, you will discard your hand before the deathrattle, so ou won't drop your dragns on board. There were questions about it) He's like late game answer to losing control. lately was funfully used in discard warlock by Firebat. A lot of Astral Communion druids run him as a removal + instant fat drop after being overcloacked to 10 mana. he sometimes is played in Tavrn Brawls. In other control decks he may be used as "Into-fatigue-maneur", whn you dont have myuch cards left, or they are useless early game stuff.

He can be used as lategame Anti-C'Thun movement, to kill The God itself and his board he had. 

Now, his disadvantages. He is usually off-meta. This card is really slow. Aggro or midrange decks re most likely to eat you before turn 10, or at the exact 12 turn, as always happens to me, at least. Even when you reach trun 10, you dont want to play him immediatley due to hand evaporation, unless you are horribly losing already. There will be a lot of times when you have very useful and cool cards in your hand that you dont anna discard them without sorrow. But countering that statement, i may say that this is better to have an option to lose your hand but not game, rather that missing that opportunity. If you have, let's say, 6 cool useful splls/legendaries, but you are gonna lose in 1-2 truns, they won't help you at all, if it's not helaing or protection. But Deathwing can at least try.

Another drawback is deathrattle carnival we see now. There are a lot of deathrattle minions that may not give your deathwing so many value, like Cairne Bloddhoof, Sylvanas Windrunner(Which counters the Drake badly, as she steals him if you play this card while she is on board) and so on, so enemy board won't be completely destroyed. Also mages carry Mirror Entity, so you may accidently give him yur precious Dragon. Other contrlol decks carry a lot of removals, like Hex, Polymorph, Execute, Shield Slam, Entomb, Shadow Word:Death, Siphon Soul,Big Game Hunter, etc. So your "last chance" may be countered. At least, you would have tried...

Sometimes you may drop him with powerful board of your if you cant trade all the dangerous opponent's minions to prevent lethal, so here you lose cards in hand and on board, what in total burns a lot of your deck, but buys you some time to interrupt your opponent in finishing you off.

Deathwing can be temporally counted by taunts or freeze effects, Sap. Your opponent will have little more time to get out of this sticky position, if wasn't countered right away. You may use this time to start building board with your draws.

Nowayads Deathwing is very rare, so people dont play around it. If yo uhave it, it may be a very huge "clown in a box" for our enemy. He can only theoretically expect it, or can joke about it(Ow, Deathing would screw me over here. Damn, I called it!).

Taking everything into account, i may say that this card is funky and evastating in some cases. It has won a lot of games for people, and lost for other who faced him. I would personally never dust it, but this is my preference. Other craft-guiders would say that you have to dust it as it is unplayable. Maybe they are right in some way, but i still love this card. About crafting it... Well, it may be the case if you want that card for your deck or Brawl, but it won't be used in popular top-meta decks for a long time, i suppose. Other Legendaries may be more demandful to craft, rather than this Big Boy. And he is in Expert set, never cycling out, but never being widely used, sadly.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

P.S. Sorry for the awful quality. I'm terrible image maker...

Hello there. There were a lot of review requests for Bloodmage Thalnos and numerous questions like "should i give 1600 dust for 1/1 minion?" We'll try to find out.

Backstory: I disliked that card, like every other new player. Why would i want a legendary that is just Loot Hoarder + Kobold Geomancer? I i need Spell Damage, i will use one, if draw - another. His stats are poor for 2 mana creature, as there are like 2/3 or 3/2 or whatever stats they have. That was the disattractive factor. Then i got it from a pack and wanted to dust, because couldnt find a place in my decks. Then i realised his purpose and found some usage.

That time i didnt realise the particular power of spell damage and draw. Each of this is important(draw is more, though), but in particular classes Spell damage is a big deal. This card is very powerful in most damage spell containing decks. It has very common use in Mage and Rogue mostly, but druid and shaman can efficiently use it as well. Any class that has damaging spells can, but Rogue and Mage benefit from Bloodmage Thalnos the most. Basically, he is not played for tempo or stickness, he helps you to deal with enemy stuff with spells or to push for lethal. You dont care if he dies next turn, you will still beefit from card replenishment to support your card amount to buld midgame card advantage. You dont drop him for good trading value, you use him for control or burst. Let's see the each class usage of it. Not all, of course.

In rogue it is very good, becuase it is a combo starter, so Eviscerate and other combo cards become activated. With +1 spell damage you deal 3 damage with Backstab, 5 with Eviscerate(kills a lot of dangerous minions like Emperor Thaurissan, Fandral Staghelm, Thing From bellow,etc), 6 with Shadow Strike(Enough to take down popular taunts like Twin Emperor Vek'lor, Druid of the Fang; Ancient Shieldbearer and others), also you can perform 5 mana 2 damage across the board +2 card draw for 5 mana, if you play Bloodmage Thalnos + Fan of Knives. These are the most common uses in rogue. It has other combos, but try to figure it out by just looking on rogue spells.

In mage it is very dangerous card, because mage has high-efficient low-mana cost combos like Frost bolt + Ice Lance. It would deal not 7, but 9 damage. Combine it with other burst spell, and you get very high damage output, which is possible just with 2 additional mana spent. The more spells you cast, the higher value of spell damage you get. So the most threatning use of Bloodmage Thalnos in mage is playing it in Freeze archtype. It is win condition enchancer there. You burst your opponent down faster with him, obviously. In Tempo mage he is replaced wth Cult Sorcerer, but Tempo means somewhat aggressive archtype, not high-controlling or combo. Bloodmage Thalnos is combo card and control-oriented. If sevaral damage spells and Bloodmage were discounted with Emperor Thaurissan, mage can deal insane burst. let's try to count. Thalnos (1M) + 2xFrost Bolt(2M 8 dmg)  + 2xIce Lance(0 m 10 dmg) + Fireball(3m 7 dmg) + 2x Roaring Torch(4m 14 dmg). So,  get 39 damage for 10 mana. Amazing, huh? This is enough to take most classes down. Sure, you can use only few of these cards if nessessary.

Shaman has [cardLightning Storm[/card], Elemental Destruction, Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst and a lot of others, so if you spend 2 mana on Bloodmage Thalnos, you guarantee spell damamge like from [card][Air Wrath Totem/card] and also get 1 card back after it dies.

Druid's Swipe with spell damage s devastating. Enough to wipe zoo or aggro decks for 6 mana.

Now, about comparing of cards a lot of people compare him with Azure Drake, Kobold Geomancer, Loot Hoarder, as i said. Yes, they are simillar, but low manacost allowws to do more possible synergies with Bloodmage Thalnos compared with Azure Drake, and combining 2 cards in one saves your card space in deck and gives both effects.

So, to conclude. I want to say that Bloodmage Thalnos is a versalite card in spell-oriented decks, so people who play mage, rogue, druid druid or shaman may consider crafting him. It is Expert set card, so he won't cycle out. This card seems weak in the first sight, but he is used for other purposes than other legendaries. Sure you can use above written cards to substitute him, but you will have to sacrifice card draw / spell damage / mana pool, depending what you choose to swap him for.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

That is the reason these reviews are made for. 

Hey. I feel like I should tell you about Leeroy Jenkins, because I was asked few times about him. I even got a eustion like "Why is it even a legedary?" Well, I will try to explain.

Firt of all, his manaconst and stats. Most of Charge minions follow the rule "attack = mana cost", proved by Wolfrider, Huffer, old Arcane Golem, etc. Leeroy Jenkins has 6 attack for 5 mana, and it makes a bif gifference due to his manacost and atttack. He is used in aggro and midrange decks, which compare high efficiency with low mana cost, so their curve and damage dealt should be great. That's why 6 attack for 5 mana is great, but 5 attack for 6 is terrible(Hello, Reckless Rocketeer). This is why other chargers also not in particular use. You may have lost numerous time to opponent's Leeroy Jenkins topdeck whn you are at <6 Hp, huh? Even tournaments are win with that. Skillstone always punishes those who doesnt like RNG.

Another thing are combos with Leeroy Jenkins. The kings of the comboes are Warlock and Rogue. Nowadays combo-renolocks run cards such as Leeroy Jenkins, Power Overwhelming, Faceless Manipulator. They find 1-2 Powers, use Emperor Thaurissan on thse cards and inflict like (6+4(+4))*2 damage, what is equals 20-28 damage from empty board with only 1-2 cards discounted. That is their main or additional win condition. Reckless Rocketeer or Wolfrider wouldn't make that combo neaither possible nor efficient.

Rogue is the ultimate rival of Leeroy Kenkins. Especially miracle rogue. One of their win conditions, along with usual burst and Edwin VanCleef. They just go for Leeroy, Cold Blood, Cold Blood, Conceal as their most common combo. But with a little help of Xaril, Poisoned Mind and his Briarthorn Toxin or Fadeleaf Toxin may enchance such combo. So here you have 7 mana combo for 28+ damage in 2 turns, If Leeroy survives. On the same turn they may find another burst for remained 3 mana. Considering stuff like Preparation and overall low manacost of rogue stuff, it is kinda a thing. They might use additional Eviscerate and Deadly Posion for pushing more damage, or Sap to remove our taunt.

 What is more, Leeroy can be bounced back to hand for one more play. Shadowstep, Bloodthistle Toxin, Youngful Brewmaster and so on. keep in mind the classic combo of Leeroy Jenkins + Faceless Manipulator, as a 10 mana 12 damage. With other buffs/spells it may go higher with help of Emperor Thaurissan, as i said before. There are even series of One Turn Kill challenge with all classes. So you may find a deck that is able to do so. Just as an option to your other decks. So you may find an interesting finishing move for him in your decks.

SOmetimes Leeroy Jenkins is just used as emergency 5 mana Fireball to get rid of poweerful enemy minion. A little watse, but is more important to lose a part of win condition rather than lose a game. Keep in mind his spawned Whelps, as they will kill Leeroy Jenkins next turn. If your opponent has Knife Juggler or Darkshire Councilman, this drawback may backfire you. But on the other hand, some hunters use Leeroy Jenkins + Unleash the Hounds combo, so its 8 mana 8+ damage. Just for note.

So, to sum up, I would say that Leeroy Jenkins is not a useless card, so if you play hunter/warlock/rogue or midrange/aggro/combo archtypes,  you may consider crafting him. He persists in Expert set and now being widely used. He was kinda reincarnated after Miracle rogue return, and has been used in Renolocks since the appearance of this archtype.

P.S. If i missed some useful information, feel free to write down here, I will include it into review if it's important. You'll be a great contributor.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

Hey there! Today I'm in mood for another legendary review. Time to put our faces in delight, because Tirion Fordring has come.

Usual backstory: Since i liked to play priest, i has been stealing that card so many times. Mindgames, Mind Vision, Mind Control, Mind Control Tech, Entomb, Sylvanas Windrunner + Shadow Word: Death... Eeeew, there were tons of such moments. This cards is great to have as Palading untill it is being played against you by a janky priest.

Let's start with his stats. It's a 6/6 with Taunt and Divine shield with the extreme deathrattle. Ashbringer itself is about 6.5 mana, if we use the most common formula WEPCOST = ((ATK * DUR) / 2)-1. So 6/6 is roughly 6 mana, taunt is 0.5, divine shield is 1.5 and the weapon is 6.5, so in sum we get totally 14.5 mana value for 8 mana. That's why people say he's OP. It is, in some degree. The fact that Tirion is the best class(and even overall) legendary makes people who play Paladin craft him even before some other neutrals.

Tirion Fordring is ultimate control-defensive card. 6/6 with taunt and Divine shield is a problem for any kind of decks, aggro, midrange or control. You should actually deal 7+ damage, considering that shield is not always being easly removed with ping or cheap creatures. In such situation Tirion can kill a powerful creature for free, and then something else. Only rogues, mages, shamans, priests have kind of easy ways of dealing with him. Yes, im talking about Sap (temporal measure), Polymorph, Hex, Entomb and so on. other classes may have troubles getting rid of this boy.

Even after he is dead, you get a knife for 5 damage ready for next 3 turns, if nothing hostile eats your weapon. It's enough to kill a lot of minions, such as Emperor Thaurissan, Darkshire Councilman, Savannah Highmane and other <5 HP popular creatures. Nowadays people carry some weapon removals, such as Harrison Jones and Acidic Swamp Ooze, so they may just vaporise your shiny fork and even get additional value out of their cards. If you kill your Tirion Fordring by yourself, at least hit 1 time enemy minion or face to make sure your opponent gets less value out of weapon removal.

Tirion Fordring got insane "buff" after WOG, because he has a deathrattle, what means he can be resurrected by N'Zoth, the Corruptor. So your opponent will have to deal with this nightmare twice, unless it got stolen or polymorphed into a cute sheep/frog. Insane addition to Tentacled God's value. 

Fordring is afraid of silence, because then his' just a 6/6 for 8 mana(Worse than silenced The Boogeymonster, heh) and silence gets magnificent value. But silence was nerfed pre-WOG, so now it is very unpopular. Only some Renolocks may consider putting silence in their deck, but its a rare case. As rare as non-zoo-renounce warlocks. Note: If Tirion Fordring gets silenced and killed, then N'Zoth, the Corruptor is played, he will be resurrected, as he originally had deathrattle. (Just if you ever wondered how it works).

Tirion Fordring can be countered with already announced measures, also with just playing Sylvanas Windrunner against him, because if all gets cool, he will just lose Divine Shield and be stolen. even if paladin's board gets flooded, there will be a chance of stealing him. If you are #NeverLuckyBabyRage, your Tirion Fordring will be stolen with 80% chance. Heh, Just kidding. Another intersting counters are The Black Knight with Acidic Swamp Ooze. 8 mana 2-card-combo that completely negates Fordring, but, to be honest, noone would consider run such combos just for 1 card(except me, cause im wicked). Or just Harrison Jones to draw cards, as was mentioned above.

So, taking everything into account, I may say that Tirion Fordring is one of the best legendaries in the game, so if you like or at least plan playing Paladin, consider crafting him. Honestly, Ragnaros the Firelord can be used instead if you miss other good legendaries, because these 2 are the same 8 mana cards that have powerful effects. One is more neutral offensive, the second is class defensive. It doesnt exaclty substitute him, but it just changes the deck into less protective, because Tirion is hard to replace, considering his value. And yeah, crafting him is a good investment in future, because he's in Expert set, which will never cycle out of Standart.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

For those who wanted a review of this card:

Well met. This is time for next review, and today we are getting closer look on Harrison Jones. There will be no backstories, because I dont personally have that card, but I've still got stuff to say about him. So, in this observation I will often compareHarrison Jones with Acidic Swamp Ooze, because these two cards have the same purpose, but different ways to deal so. 

Let's talk about his positive sides first. It's a 5/4 for 5 mana with weapon removing + drawing abiity. Basically, for 2 pionts of stats you vaporise your opponent's scissors and draw 1-8 cards. Usualy it's 1-2, as most weapons(Truesilver Champion, Fiery War Axe, Rallying Blade, etc) have 2-3 durabiity, and when opponent plays it he instantly attacks. Sometimes it's not the case, though, so you get an extra card. In mid game it is useful, because you get rid of weapon, drop a medium treat and draw cards. So most of the time he will be handy, but not always. In current meta we have a ot of weaponry in matches, because of warriors, paladins, rogues, SHAMANS, damn them. So you are most likely to find a targt for Harrison Jones' battlecry during these matchups. In late game, when you are out of cards in hand, and go toe-to-toe with your enemy,  removing a weapon with card draw puts you in good favour, unless you're loosing the game horribly.

Now, it's time to cover his dark sides. And compare him with Accidic Swamp Ooze, So, they have the same purpose, but different mana cost, so this is a really big deal. In early game, if your opponent play, lets say, Truesilver Champion on turn 3-4, your Harrison Jones is 5 mana, so it means you won't wait untill weapon is still in play. At this point, Acidic Swamp Ooze allows you to get rid of weapon, and then use remained mana for, lets say, 1-3 mana minion/spell or hero power. So summary tempo may be higher with 2 cards played. 

Anoher issue is playing against shamans. If he gets his Doomhammer at 5-7 mana, you will draw 6 cars out of HJ's battlcery. If you are midrange or contro deck, by turn 5-7 you will have around 5 cards. If your start was horrible, you will have around 7 cards, so draing 6 more means you wil mill yourself 4 cards. But yeah, you remove your opponent's OP weapon. But he will have board to deal with Harrison Jones. and hey you are most likely to lose, unless you have very powerful 6-7 mana mass-removal/combo to remove his board. In that cas you have a chance of winning.

So, that was early-mid game. Now lets talk about late game. His manacost makes it impossible to play him and something big. Like, if you had Ooze, you would kill a weapon, then drop Ragnaros the Firelord / Sylvanas Windrunner / Black Knight / Ancient of War or any other 6-8 mana minons/spells. Harrison Jones would restrict you to 5 mana pool, and you most likely to hero power or something like 1-5 mana stuff. Also, in late game, drawing a lot of card puts you closer to fatigue, so you should mention that if you removing Doomhammer or [cardBlood Fury][/card], if you meet heavy warlocks/shamans. 

Athough, you can wait utill weapons drops its durabiity to your lacking-card amount, but it means your board/face will suffer X amount of damage thet could have been prevented with 2 mana basic card.

Time to make a conclusion. This card is good in current weapon meta, but not must-to-have, since Acidic Swamp Ooze is a basic card, accessable to anybody. If you have a midrange-control deck, you have choice to use one of those cards, consdering what you prefer more - better tempo or better card draw. Removing Doomhammer, Gorehowl or other strong weapons is good, but you shoud choose, wether to put a 2 mana tech, or 5 mana with sometimes negative value card draw. If you get Harrison Jones from a pack, you have the real choice of dusting it. If you really need 400/1600 dust for something useful - dust him. If not - you can remain him in your collection. I woud not recommend you to craft him ,as Accidic Swamp Ooze is a good replacement. You better choose from other staple neutral/class legendaries.  Nowadays Indiana Ford  is not widely played, he persists in 4-6% of all decks.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

I think, there is a mistake in the card text the correct one should be:

Battlecry: Mak your opponent hate this game and force him to concede.

Hello there! I've finally got time and desire for another Legendary review, so now it's time for Sylvanas Windrunner observation.

Usual Backstory: When I started playing HS, and when i had enough dust to craft a legendary(honestly, it was pretty soon, as I got Golden Skycap'n Kragg), i was looking for what should i make. Whoever I asked told me that i should craft Dr. Boom with no doubt, but i felt that something was unclear. So i decided to craft Sylvanas Windrunner instead, because her effect was really unique and tide-turning. She seemed such a pain in butt for me.  So this was my first crafted legendary. After WOG was announced and Dr. Boom left his Throne-Of-Being-The-Coolest-Top-Tier-Legendary, she took his place. Currently it's a top-1 legendary, and i guess, Sylvy is gonna hold this point for very long, if not eternal, time.

Her effect and role make Sylvanas Windrunner a very unpleasant minion to face. Because  you either bump every minion into her in correct order to prevent stealing, or you should spend silence/enroot-typed effect(like Polymorph or Entomb). Otherwise she may steal something really big and it will be your headache. As somebody here's said, she's not a game winner, she's a game changer.

Let's take a look on her advantages:

First of all, It's a 5/5 for 6 mana. Pretty solid body, and her "lack of stats" usually comes really handy. If your opponent has very huge creature on his board and you drop Sylvanas Windrunner, the minion is gonna survive and be stolen. You may somehow reduce the damage done to the minion to prevent deep scratches.

Second, she has a lot of roles in matches. One of them is dropping her when your opponent has several minions. Even if he runs all his creatures into her, that's fine. Because, you basically cleared his current board for 6 mana. If she steals anything, that's good. Even a small minion becomes a thorn in your opponent's finger, not in yours.

If your opponent has several huge minions, Sylvanas Windrunner has a great chance of stealing something worthy.

Another role is being a combo-tech in control decks. You can use her in combo with stuff like Naturalize, Power Overwhelming, Fireball, Mulch, Shadowflame and so on to execute 7-10 mana random Mind Control. If your opponent played 1 giant or powerful minion, you gonna take him. Or clear what you can and just pray for RNGeezus. I personally had numerous times when i stole Ysera, Archmage Antonidas, Tirion Fordring and a bunch of other cool minions just with such comboes. What is more, you can taunt her with stuff like Defender of Argus and it's gonna save you from monstrosities like Deathwing, The Ancient One(if you meet one, heh), boarded C'Thun and so on.

If you drop Sylvanas Windrunner on the empty enemy board, you just lock your opponent down from playing powerful stuff, untill he finds a removal for her. I was in such situations, and belive me, its terrible. If you dont play your stuff - it's bad. if you do - it's even worse. Not always you have a removal for her, so you have to sacrifice something to get rid of that nightmare.

I have to add that she is a great Anti-C'Thun tech. If you expect your opponent to play THe Old god, drop her in advance. If C'Thun kills her with battlcery, you are fine. Unless he kills you as well. Or if you survive him ,you can  above written combos to take him under your wing. 

Keep in mind that she screws Yogg Saron, hope's end's entrance, because after he kills her somehow and gets stolen, you get all the upcoming effects, like, if Yogg plays Sprint after he comes into your board, you draw  cards. SOmetimes it can even kill you with overdraw, but this is regular Saron's stuff.Just keep it in mind.

What is more, you must know that if a minion kills her with his battlecry, she will steal it. Order "Battlecry-comes-before-minion-enters-play" doesn't work in that case. Be very careful with stuff like Deathwing, Rend Blackhand and already announced old gods.

Sylvanas Windrunner counters Ragnaros the Firelord badly. Because if you see them on the opposite sides of board, you can be 85% sure that Rag will move on the opposite side. He loves Sylvy. His effect will most likely to hit her no matter what, and she will steal him no matter what. This is just one-sided RNG scenario. If he doest kill her with ability, she will just kiss him and steal.

Mainly Sylvanas Windrunner is used in  a lot of decks, but nowadays mostly benefits from N'Zoth, the Corruptor or other deathrattle-oriented decks. So you have to deal with her twice. Very unpleasant, because if you start building board, and enemy resurrects her, you should either clear your own board and her, or add another minion to your opponent's already mighty board.

Another important thing is Sylvanas Windrunner versus enemy enemy's Windrunner. Keep in mind, that the second sylvanas played counters the first one. IF you have a minion of the board, then you play your Sylvanas first, and then your opponent does so, and you run your Banshee Queen into hostile's, your deathrattle triggers first, steals nothing, and then enemy's deathrattle steals your creature. Even if your enemy has that  creature (i mean, before contacting 2 sylvanas) instead of you, it will work a bit different, but with the same outcome. Becuse if Sylvas hit each other, your one steals the creature, and then his Sylvanas steals the stolen minion back. Im reminding, SECOND Sylavans Windrunner counters the first one. Dont forget. Even tournament players sometimes do such mistake.

To tie things together, i would like to say that I give Sylvanas Windrunner the first place of Neutral Legendaries. She is very flexible and useful, and fits like 90% of decks, except zoo and aggro. And still can be used there for screwing your opponent up. If you want to craft a legendary, and you choose from several, take a look wether you have Her or not. If you dont - craft her with no doubt. Sylvanas Windrunner is from Expert Set, so she will never cycle out of Standart and will always be like in Top 1-5  list. Never dust her for any reason.

P.S. This is very unique card, so if i miss some stuf in my review, dont be scared of writting about that bellow, i will include this into my "essay". It's hard to keep in mind all the aspects of that card.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

Top 2 Brawl. When 1 Ragnaros in deck is not enough: 

P.S. That was an interesting matchup. Innervate+Ragnaros the Firelord druid against Ice Block+Molten Giant mage. If Rag missed at least 2 times that battle, i would lost.

Greetings. As I promised, The Black Knight review would come after some time of the new meta. I think now i can review it as it is.

A little backstory. I was paying attention to that card's popularity before and after the WOG. That legendary used to be around 1.45-1.85% of deck presence in a while, but after the announcement of new expansion's taunts its popularity raised to 3.42% in one week and to 5.52% in another. I think it's a great number, if you are somehow familiar with statistics. 

Now, time for my usual-styled review. I crafted this card right after expansion arrival, and that was kinda a good decision. If you already have all neutral top-tier legendaries and dont need class ones, The Black Knight may be your crafting choice. It really helps you to sustain most of druid decks, as they run several huge taunts(C'Thun druid runs 5-7, just for note), so most of the time you will have a target for its battlecry. Against shaman it may help you with dealing with random-Evolved taunts, Thing from Below and some others. Some warlocks also run Defender of Argus, Sunfury Protector, so her you have usae of Black Knight. Against Paladin you will be happy to get rid of Tirion Fordring, but then The Black Knight will just die from Ashbringer. Still acceptable, ciuse it's 1 less durability of the weapon. Against Hunters it will be useful to destroy  Misha or a Houndmastered beast.

 Against C'Thun decks, that are very popular at the moment, it may be handy if they play Twilight Geomancer, as a future answer to taunted Old God, or to get rid of Crazed Worshipper, Twin Emperor Vek'lor. So, as you can see, this card will find a good place in control or defensive midrange decks.

About tempo of this card: If it has its battlecry applied, your tempo is great, because you play Chillwind Yeti for 4 mana and destroy enemy taunt(which costs at least 4 mana) for 2 mana. But if you drop it just for a minion on a board(which i wouldnt recommend in any case, unless you are sure that you won't face a taunt in your match), it is just a 2 mana waste. Not a big loss, but unpleasant.

Now, the disadvantages that i discovered. This card is useful, but still very situational. THere are a lot of times when you have perfect target for it, but you just cant draw it. And then you draw it when there is nothing to kill. Very awkward situations, but they have place.

Against aggro it's a dead card. Maybe against some kind of Evolve-aggro shaman or hunter with Houndmasters it would somehow work, but it's too slow in such matchups. Against freeze-mage or miracle rougue it won't help you either. 

So, to sum up, i would say that this legendary is useful, no doubt, but he is very meta-oriented and situational. If its all about high aggression and tempo, you better not to run him(As used to be before WOG), so it's not an universal tech. It can be somewhat substituted with Sylvanas Windrunner, becuase she can steal a pesky taunt, not just destroy it. (Personally, i prefer running both in my control decks, to have more answers to enemy threats).As i said, if you worried about crafting it, check first if you have all nessessary top-tier legendaries, or if you really face a lot of unpleasant taunts. If your answer is positive, go ahead and craft him, because he is a part of the Expert set and always will be Standart-acceptable. WOG has revived this legendary to what it was back in these days.

UPDATE: Hail the aggro-zoo meta. This legendary now is in even worse place than it used to be before WOG. People wanna go face, no need in taunts.

P.S. If i missed something, go ahead and post here. it will be a good contribution to the review. 

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)

Let's make an obvious thought that the screenshot was captured earlier and published lately.

Well met! Since I've got Lord Jaraxxus from a pack, i can finally play him and discover the material for my review. Now it's time for it.

The Eredar Lord was my desireble card just right after i had known it existed. First of all, let's talk about his powerful sides:

This card gives insane lategame advantage if you are ahead on board or just gives you some favour when you are not so behind. After you play him, you have instantly applied Alexstrasza's battlecry on your face, also you have double Assassin's Blade. If opponent has weak board or few small creatures, you can start killing them right away. If you applied Emperor Thaurissan to that card, you can play it and instantly use Inferno! heropower to summon a 6/6 Infernal. Every additional turn you are in Jaraxxus form, you drop a 6/6 for 2 mana and deal 3 damage. The longer it lasts, the less chances to win your opponent has. Whatever he play gets killed by Infernals or your own removals, if you so far have any. Noone can sustain that forever. It's a comeback card, when your opponent is on the end of his stream and just chokes you down with remained stuff. You heal and start rising huge tempo.
This card is one of the most efficient ways of dealing with Priests and some Warriors, if they have their Grommash Hellscream gone.

Don't forget, that this card makes Warlock not so vulnerable to fatigue shenanigans, because you dont draw any cards from you heropower and drop mighty demons each turn. Your opponent is unlikely to have many removals left to stop your snowballing pressure, so even a 50 hp warrior may be taken down very quickly, if you have health pool to sustain fatigue damage.

Another thing about that card is that if it comes into play without its Battlecry through other means like Voidcaller, it's a solid 3/15 body, which is perfect for taunting, but be awared of The Black Knight being frequently used now.

Now, the bad aspects of it:

it has 15 health. Against some matchups it may be just very dangerous to set your health to that degree, because some burst or combos may finish you off right away. But i dont think you would play Lord Jaraxxus against, for exaple, a mage, ho didnt spend hist removals yet and has a lot of cards.

The counter-drawback of having 15 health is that if you include Lord Jaraxxus in your deck, you should carefully think about your defence. Draft healing cards, taunts and taunt-givers like Defender of Argus/Sunfury Protector to stop enemy board from directly touching you. I personally love to run Tournament Medic in my Lord Jaraxxus-including decks, and play it after transforming. It allows you to drop Infernals and negate damaging hero powers or even heal if opponent has none.

 It's a demon, which has synergy with warlock-specific cards, but also it's a drawback, due to being instakilled with Sacrificial Pact being drown by hostile Warlock or random stuff like Nefarian. 

His weapon, Blood Fury, is very powerful by itself. If we count it's manacost using the most common formula, which is WEPCOST=((ATK*DUR) / 2) - 1, we get 11 mana weapon. Insane, huh? Doubled Assassin's Blade. Nowadays people carry weapon removals, such as Harrison Jones and Acidic Swamp Ooze, so they may get insane value of drawing / duraility removing. Very unpleasant, but occures rarely, as they dont kinda expect Lord Jaraxxus nowadays, because of god damn zoolocks.

Another drawback that i noticed after WOG launch is being very vulnarable to C'Thun's battlecry. Because if you oppontnt has around 21/21 God, it will kill your Infernal and you. But if your opponent has no C'Thun in few turns after you transformed, you may not be so scared about him, unless its a 40/40 monster or something, because your 6/6s should consume most of the damage, if RNG is fair enough. Also it's vulnerable against N'Zoth, the Corruptor decks, because it resurrects powerful creatures, instantly having powerful board, and you are on 15 health, so it may be the end for you. You should run like Twisting Nether or DOOM! to counter that.

So, to tie things together, i would say that this card is a must-have for non-aggro warlocks, but sometimes it may even be used in zoo-oriented deck as the stream reinforcement. However, if new decks that are burst or heavily C'Thun-built become very popular, that card may be a dangerous step in a match, unless your opponent has no cards. 

Note: Lord Jaraxxus may be budgetly substituted with Alexstrasza, because it either heals you or pressures your opponent being on 15 health with a 8/8 on enemy side. But The Eredar Lord is obviously better. If you really love playing warlock and have no Lord Jaraxxus, think twice, because, as i said, in current meta it may become vulnerable. If you got him from a pack - never dust it, unless you hate playing warlock or REALLY need these 400/1600 dust for a legendary.

P.S. if you ever consider crafting a gold legendary, or just open golden Eredar lord, consider about remaining the golden version, because it's just so insane. Golden Portrait, Weapon, hero power, infernals. Gold overdose. I wish i had one. I feel like one day i wll craft it golden no matter what.

If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):

The Expert Set:

Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight 

Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus |  Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream 

 The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:

Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth

Other Sets:

| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |

My forum thread(Link)