Hearthpwn

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)

Greetings. Im in mood for another informative legendary review, and now it's time to observe Ysera. I've crafted her lately and now can fully describe it from user's hands. 

First of all, her stats are amazing. 4/12 body would take a lot of damage spells or medium minions' hits to get rid of . It dodges both Shadow Word: Death and Shadow Word: Pain. Unfortunately, nowadays most decks run a lot of removals such as Entomb, Polymorph, Hex, Equality, so leaving Ysera live longer than 1-2 turns is your little victory in that. If she manages to do so - you've got huge tempo advantage. The longer she stays, the more dangerous situation becomes for you opponent. You can get situational cards that can turn the game into your favour if nessessary ones come in time.

Now, let's revise her Dream Cards. I've done it already, so i´m just quoting:

Just for note for the new players. Dream cards:

Dream: Get enemy minions(taunt, dangerous, unpleasant) out of play or use your battlecry minions again.

Nightmare: buff that helps with trading or lethal damage

Laughing Sister: minion that trades with enemy stuff, just another creature to play.

Ysera Awakens: Mass removal, sometimes lethal option

Emerald Drake: High mana-valuable threat

So her cards are really mana-worthy and powerful, compared to analogues. You basically draw 2 cards, 1 of which is superior and doesnt fatigue you out. That's one of reasons why she is really good in late game shenanigans. When you are running out of minions to play, she saves you(not always, tho. Enjoy 3x Dreams. One is good, but not at three).

Another good thing is that she is a Dragon, so if you use her in Dragon Decks, she won't be a completely dead card in hand because of Synergy activation. Another aspect that i notcied lately is that she has a chance to give you a dragon back for further synergy activations, if there remained any. Her Dream can allow you to use, for example, Blackwing Corruptor several times.

So, the right time to play Ysera is when your opponent is running out of stream, in situations like that:

Your opponent is on 1 card which is most likely not to be a removal, bacause he's already spent it earlier.

Your opponent has a lot of cards, but your previous high-threat wasnt answered.

(That was a test run for my heavy decks). 

People say that she is too slow, and i agree. She is a redundancy card, not a "win me the game right now". She's an option to keep fighting when anything else is gone. Treat her like that. Also, Ysera sometimes gets handy in Taver Brawls, what is another advanatage.

As meta slows down in WOG expansion, she may actually be not so slow, because you get answers from her to unpleasant enemy minions, and keep in mind her insane Deathwing, Dragonlord synergy. Ysera is one of those dragons which has no battlecry and you would be happy if she comes into play earlier (Dragon Consort, Innervate) or by other means rather than playing her manually. Hello, Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound and Varian Wrynn!

But, to be honest, for long time I've been substitutting Ysera with other cards like Alexstrasza, Arch-Thief Rafaam, even Nefarian. These cards are different, but they give you lategame advantage as well. By the way, Rafaam is a great replacement for this card, and can trade perfectly into Ysera being self-buffed. If you have him, you may consider crafting other legendaries instead.

To sum up, I would give Ysera 4th place of "must-to-have" neutral legendaries out of Expert set. She may be a staple in lots of control and dragon decks, so if you consider playing them, think about getting the Emerald Queen.

UPDATE: Try to live to the moment you played and it she attacked. Will never see it once. Aggro and zoo decks ill just laught at your dragon. Unless you taunt her.

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)

Hello there. I think it's time for me to write another review of a legendary. 

To begin with, when i started to play HS i was a true fan of Ragnaros the Firelord, but some time later i reduced my evaluation of this card due to its "misses". Then I got it from a pack(some of you may know this story if you read my Alexstrasza comments). I tried him in a few decks. It turned out to be a lot different from what I expected. So, let's break him down.

It's a 8/8 for 8 legendary, that throws Flame Lance into something hostile to you. One huge advantage of him over any other minion is that he doesnt consume his health while shooting. He can easly kill 95% of minions in the game just for free (well, not exactly, he consumes your luck. After few crucious shots he will miss everytime you need him to kill a thing), you only played 8/8 for 8 and got a free kill OR took down 25% of enemy's health (dont mention armour). This is insane advantage. He's just a sentry that purges with fire something out of board. Even if it gets removed right away, he's already released his shot and sometimes this 1 shot is enough to start winning back by rising tempo. Also, remember all these "YOLORAG" situation when you have like 7 hp and out of 5 targets he chooses your face. Also, Ragnaros the Firelord hard counters Lord Jaraxxus, because it either kills his Infernal or consumes 50% of Lord's health. Both are acceptable options, in my sight.

Now let's talk about his "misses". Yes, playing Ragnaros against aggro is useless, unless you taunt him with something, but in control or midrange matchaps he can help you a lot, even turn the tides into your favour. If you have a board, you just clear what you can and leave medium-high threat on the board to let Ragnaros the Firelord decide wether it's affrodable for it to live or not. Even killing a 2/3 or 4/4 gives you an advantage, because you dont need to spend a weapon hit/spell/other minions' health to get rid of it. Also, when it misses and becomes a Faceros, it gives you a lot of opportunities to push for lethal, because in late game every point of health matters, and he burns the 1/4 of enemy hero. Yes, there are moments when he kills a 1/1 out of 8/8 and 7/7, but if he always killed the right target, that would be the most imbalanced legendary out of them all. By the way, if you are a lucky-ducky, Rag will always hit what you want.

When Ragnaros the Firelord loses the high-threat or desirable target, even that is acceptable. because your enemy would really like to get rid of your sentry. He would run his minions into it in most cases, because ignoring it would be not a wise decision. He may just spam his board in hope that Rag will lose his damage into something, but in a control deck you should have measure to deal with minions right away. It's drawback of being "BGH-able" is also kind of a good thing, because if you run several huge minions, getting Rag killed means that your enemy would have 1 less removal for your remained stuff.

What is more, that legendary has one more unique advantage. It doesnt trigger attack-required spells like Bear Trap, Blessing of Wisdom(I wonder who would cast it on Rag), Ice Barrier and so on. Also Ragnaros the Firelord is kinda not that afarid of Humility-styled effects, unless your opponent is trading with it.

In the WOTOG Expansion that guy should be more demandable. Because overall meta will slow down in some degree, and the new packs have brought us some heavy minions like C'Thun's servants or other medium-high creatures. So Ragnaros the Firelord will be happy to purge new targets.

Keep in mind that Ragnaros is one of those legendaries which arent afraid of silence. Sometimes you would even silence it by yourself to make sure it hits the right target. I would advice you to put a silence source in your deck if you gonna use Rag. Not complementary, though. 

Little Note: Stealthing Ragnaros the Firelord is pointless, because whe he shoots, he deals damage and it breaks stealth. 

So, to sum up, I would like to say that this legendary definitely worths to be in your collection. I would give it a 3rd place out of all neutral Classic Legendary(oh, yeah, Ragnaros will always be Standart-friendly). 

P.S. PLEASE, dont make this review be flooded out with "SOO TOON" commentraries. Respect the other's job done.

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)

Greetings. It's time for another review, and today we observe the glorous Dragon Queen, Alexstrasza. To begin with, i would like to say that for me it's a top 1-2 legendary from Expert Set. Her battlecry is one of the most unique in the entire game. I prioritised Alextrasza over Ysera, because this card can just turn the entire game into your favour with coming into play. I use her in most of my control and midrange decks. 

First of all, her battlecry used in tandem with some board presnse just leaves the game in winning position. Your opponent had 20+ hp, and then comes the Dragon Quieen, sets his health to 15 and you go full face with all your board. Such scenario usually ends up with 3-10 hp of enemy from 20+ in 1 turn. And there also appears a 8/8 body. This situation is really hard to deal if you have no mass destruction like Twisting Nether, Equality+Consecration, DOOM! and so on .

Another benefir from her is ability to set you own health to 50%. If you fight against midrange or aggro deck, and you are like around 5 health, and your opponent is running out of stream, here comes Alexstrasza

 and gives you more time to establish the situation. SOmetimes it doesnt help, but sometimes it just wins you the game.

What is more, She is a dragon. so putting her in dragon decks is a great idea, i may state, Dragon decks usually the high tempo ones, so you will have board in most cases. She does also wee with Drakonid Crusher, because it's hard for your enemy to have 2 removals for 8/8 and 9/9.  I use her in my Dragon Paladin deck with Brann Bronzebeard and Dragon Consort, so sometimes she comes into play on turn 7 or even 5(5% chance for Brann to live 1-2 turns to play Consort), and in Prophet Velen Dragonpriest deck. If you want, you can check out both of these decks in my profile, they are rather powerful.

Another thing to mention is that Alexstrasza counters Reno Jackson decks. They fully heal and drop 4/6. You bring them back to 15 life and drop 8/8, which trades perfectly into Reno Jackson. This occures pretty often if you face Reno decks.

Alexstrasza is a win codnition card. Being widely used in Freeze-Mage, some other mage decks, in some OTK(Like my Warrior OTk with Alexstrasza+Charge+weapon hit). Also she often has a role in Tavern Brawls

I would like to say that this card is better than Ysera in most cases, but there are situations that you would better have Ysera over her, like your opponent is around 8-10 hp, and you are at 26, so her battlecry gets your position worse in both targeting options. But it hapens like 10-20% of time.

To get things together, I proudly say that if you dont have Alexstrasza and want to craft a Legendary, but have no idea which one, choosing this card will be a wise solution. Even if you dont have top-tier decks, she can be used in any non-aggro ones to help you to win. 

Note: This card can somehow substitute Lord Jaraxxus i nwarlock deck. It's a poor replacement, but optimal if you dont have The Eredar Lord.

UPDATE: Irrelevant now. 15 hp on your face is still too low, 15 on enemy wont do a thing, as it gets healed and Alex gets removed from board. By the time you can play her, both of you are at 15 hp. +-3.

P.S. Sorry, but i have to say that. I've a weird story about that card that is written in this cardpage:

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)

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)

Hi there. I've decided not to be lazy and write another review. Today we've got Al'Akir the Windlord. This legendary is interesting, as it combines different mechanics, but overall weak as its own, because that mix of cool stuff bear this abomination, that wanted to have all, and turned out to be nothing. Well, not particulary nothing, there re people who use this card and it was spotted in some decks, but in general, not a great one. Let's se why.

First of all, his stats. 3/5 is a weak 4 mana stats. Taunt = 0.5 of mana, divine shield - 1-1.5, charge - 1, windfury - arguably, as we dont have much of those. Lets count as 1.5. SO his nominal value is 4+0.5+1.5+1+1.5 = 8.5. Yeah, pretty similiar to his real cost, but damn, his weak primary stats just make this card worse. 3 attack allows it to be killed with Shadow Word: Pain, Book Wyrm, used with Shadow Madness, and 5(6) health is enough to be killed with ping + Fireball, Shadow Strike, Lava Burst and so on.

Why ould you use Al'Akir the Windlord in your deck? If not mention combos, the first thing that comes in mind is like a 8 mana 2-3 little minion removal. Like, Charge into the highest attack to gain Divine shield value, then into another thing that you can kill with 3 attack, and then remain as a 3/x taunt to try to consume something else. Not spectaular, huh? We can draw our attention to face damage. Yeah, 8 mana 6 damage to face is not impressive either. Yeah, you can combo it with Rockbiter Weapons to deal 12-18 damage(not anymore, nerf restrictd it to 1 RB only, so only 12. Nerfed the a bit underpowered card, heh.) or Flametongue Totem for the same purpose. But wait, dont you think that even Leeroy Jenkins + Windfury + those buffs are more efficient? Yeah, you need one more card for the combo, but it will be 8-9(9-11 now) mana 18-24 damage from no board with no mana discounts.

What is more, you can use Doomhammer, which is by itself 5+2 mana 16 damage to board or face, and can be combined with RBs as well(even after the nerf), to deal 10-16 damage, and not being afraid of removal. Agree that weapon removals are a lot less common than minion ones. And you have 2 of those weapons.

So, how would I imrpove this legendary? There is a bunch of ideas.

1. Give it Overload. It would synergise with current cards of Tunnel Trogg, Unbound Elemental, Lava Shock. Like, 5 mana with 3 overload would be pretty powerful and cool. May be Op, as it allows to use 2x Flametongue  totems + 1(0 after nerf) Rockbiter Weapon to deal 20-22 damage. With 5 cards. Still lame, as for me.
2. Take off his taunt and make it 4/5. 8 mana 8 damage is cool, and buffs make it a lot cooler,
3. Swap his stats. 5/3 ith charge and divine shiled is basically 10 damage to face, to a big minion or a remval of 2 medium creatures. Very cool, in my opinion.
4. Take off Taunt OR windfury and give it spell immunity as for Faerie Dragon. THis would not make this card so fragile.

So, to tie things together, i would not recommend you to craft it. Especially after the nerf. IF you want to try combos with charge and windfury, you better use Leeroy Jenkins. And he also can be used in other decks for different classes. IF you got him from a pack or bundle - it's up to you wether to keep him. I would, because i want to complete the expert set, so he would be just a dead, but new card here. For same reasons i have King Krush, Gruul and Prophet Velen. IF you plan to collect as many cards as youcan, remain him. If you need dust - well, i dont think that legendary will be in great demand, but noone knows which ticks new expansions bring to us. At least wait till november/december, when the new Expansion comes out. Then you can dust him, if dust is needed.

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)

Hello, fellows. I was wondering about next Legendary card to review, and then i remembered that i got King Krush out of my first ever donated Starter Pack. So i thought, why not to describe this one. Presonally, i dont like this legendary(most players dont either), and consider it as the worst class one from the Expert set.

Why? Let's look at other class legendaries. In most of them we either see a powerful class spirit, or we have some synergies with other class' cards. Cenarius utilizes the flexibility of Choose One effect; Archmage Antonidas turns spells(which is like 70% of Mage class) into powerful one(if we consider cheap spells to be converted); Edwin VanCleef uses the power of cheap rogue cards with Preparations, The Coins to grow monstrously; Prophet Velen can be used to turn some near-useless cards into overpowered ones, in terms of value; Al'Akir the Windlord can be used with Rockbiter Weapons, Flametongue Totems, Ancestral Spirits even, to make spectacular board moves or damage pushings; Tirion Fordring? Ehm, eheh, he gives you a weapon, has divine shield. And they call it very paladin-related. Whatever. Lord Jaraxxus spawns demons that can be used with other warlock spells like Shadowflame, Power Overwhelming, some demon synergies. And the entire thing is demonic, so usual warlock stuff; Grommash Hellscream has enrage, and warrior class is about charging and damaging his minions to get more value out of them, to deal more damage while things are wounded, still comboes with a lot of warror class cards, that enrages and buffs the attack of Grommy;

And what does King Krush? It's just a big ass dinosaur that charges. The effect is not even legendary-worthy. It could be just an epic. Big Bad Huffer. How can you combo him with other hunter cards? The only thing, that I came up with is using it with Bestial Wrath to deal 10 damage with charge + immunity. And noone else in the entire game plays this “astounding!” combo, just because it's a very poor tempo play, unlike Call of the Wild. And remember that it's a Hunter. He use to demolish his prey before they can even play something huge. He doesn't need this card. So, Krushy is just a weird Ragnaros the Firelord + Grommash Hellscream abomination. An adopted child of two male fathers. He is worse than Rag in terms of value, and worse than Grom in Chrage power. So if it was an epic, I would call it “Rag for broke people”, who cant afford to craf the original Firelord. Krush is worse, but more precise. So if you compare situations when you have to guaranteedly kill one specific minion on board, King Krush is more reliable. But he may die after the takes the prey down. And Rag doesnt.

King Krush doesnt change the situation that much, as other legendaries. Yep, you can kill an enemy minion. But then it would be a 9 mana point removal. Why not to use Hunter's Mark. for this? It's more specialised, but cheaper, and has other synergies.  Yes, you can wait for lethal strike, but resent Call of the Wild does a lot better in terms of tempo and board presense. And still can be used for same purposes. And it was cheaper, so Krush is absolete nowadays. Too weak tempo play, too costly. Resently nerfed COW of being on 9 mana cant even sustain a comparison with Krush. It is still better in most cases. King is vulnarable to point removals or bust spell, Call is afraid of powerful mass removals(basically, Flamestrike, Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing and Equality + Consecration)

So, I came up with some ideas how would Krush's effect be worthy enough to be considered a hunter legendary:

1. Battlecry: Summon X amount of your beasts, that died this game. Like N'Zoth, the Corruptor, but with beasts. Too OP.

2. Battlecry: Give all your beasts in hand/deck/both +X/+X. It's a King, all in all. And a Legendary.

3. Change stats. 8 mana 8/8 charge. Just an accurate Rag. That would be the worst change, but it would be at least something better than the current position of the card. 9 mana 9/9 with charge is at least something, as he would be able to take down Giants, other popular 8/8s, and still be alive(at least would force to spend 1 damage on itself.). 9 mana 12/6 with charge would be also a Huffer on steroids, weak but painful. 6 mana 8/2 ith charge would be more playable, I guess, Like a costly removal to big creatures. Or Leeroy Jenkins impostor. 

4. Give him Giant Sand Worm's ability with charge. That would be a spectacular legendary, that charges, clears board either entirely, or kills all it has and also hit face. That kind of King Krush would be a really cool and playable. And legedary-worthy.

   Whatever, any changes would make this legendary Very hunter-styled and demandful, but not the current state.

   So, to sum up, want to say that this Pseudeo-Legendary only has cool introduction Animation. Like, you can hear it, you can feel its coming. It is not Craft-Worthy. You may like this crd, but dont craft it, believe me. Just worthless spending of your precious dust. If you got him from packs/bungles, well, it's up to you. I personally remained him in my collection, just because I dont need dust at the moment. If I do, this one will be the first candidate to be disenchanted.

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)

Ehehey. Found a gap in my shedule to make a review. Today we'll try to breakdown Cenarius, the Demigod of Nature(or whoever he is in WOW Lore). That legendary used to be pretty common in very old HS days, but then it got to unplayable degree, so people has stopped used it since then. It was rarely seen in some zoo-typed Druid decks, token druids. But not so often. After WOG we've seen Fandral Staghelm, so this card was used a lot more in token decks. Now it's gone for the sake of Yogg-Saron, Hope's End.

Let's take a closer look on card itself. Hist stats are pretty poor. 5/8 is 6.5 worth of mana, so his effect costs 2.5 mana. And what that effect gives us? The first variation casts a worse Feral Spirit (worse in terms of stats, not mana). So it is a weird Sludge Belcher variation, that blocks 2 attacks(or baits spells to remove woodies), and leaves a big minion on board. Is that good? Particularly, not. It's not enough to stop your opponent from hitting you. Yes, it blocks 4 damage, but aggro-deck usually have burst to get rid of Treants and not even consume a valuabe creature to pass it, as it will be killed with little stuff. Control deck may be kind of stopped, as it has bigger minions. it can be used to stop something really big to have more time to find an answer to it, or try to kill it with woods and Cenny by himself.

His another effect is more interesting, as it basically casts Wisps of the Old Gods in Big Wisps option, or Everyfin is Awesome. I remind you that this effect costs 7 mana, but with Cenarius it costs 2.5 mana. Pretty powerful, huh? So the best use of it is playing it in token decks that has cards like said Wisps of the Old Gods in Many Wisps form, Onyxia, Violet Teacher and other token-druid-stuff. So we spam minions as many as we can, then  we drop Cenny and buff it up. In such decks Cenaruis is pretty powerful, but slow. Instead of him we see Power of the Wild, as it triggers Violet Teacher one more time before buffing, and also costs less. But why not to use both of these cards? Heh.

As i said, after WOG a new druid nightmare appeared, Fandral Staghelm. That card buffed token druids(whatever,, all druids with at least 2 Choose One cards), so Cenarius was used in combo with it. With Fandral on board, Cenny summons 2x 4/4 Treants with taunt, and then buffs the entire board by +2/+2. Beastly. But it requires Fanny to survive one turn, or keep 2x Innervates to play such combo. It is used in some ramp-Astral Communion

At decks the moment Cennarius is not in particular use, because of "fair, cool and skillful" Yogg-Saron, Hope's End. That maggot can dra you cards, clear everything, cast few secrets, or even buff your board by +2/+2 with already said spells. Who needs consistency when we have clown fiesta card that will turn even already lost game into won one? Alright, the rant is over.

So, time for a conclusion. If you got this card from packs - ask yourself wether you want to play Token-zoo druids. Or wether you have Onyxia or Fandral Staghelm in your collection to try to combo them with each other. If not, i wouldnt mind if you dust it, if you need to craft an epic or save more for a legendary you want. But if you plan to collect as many cards as you can, you better remain him. Noone knows which cards come in future, so even Cairne Bloodhoof now has place in decks. Maybe Cenny will as well. IF you want to craft it, then it may be one of a few Expert set legendaries that you're missing. Or you really wanna try Token druid with this card. Anyway, not advised to craft in any other scenarios(credits to the original creator of this pun, sorry, dont remember your nick.)

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. Time for another review. Today we have Edwin VanCleef in our sight.

No stories.

Well, this is one unique card that you cannot really talk about his stats. It can be either 2/2 or X/X, considering how lucky you are to gather different low-cost or reducing-cost cards. The easiest Edwin is 4/4 on turn 2 with coin, but it's a little waste. You dont want to drop him as soon as possible, but you ant to feed it as much as possible. If you get coin, preparation, any 1-3 mana spells, you can perform crazy stuff like 8/8 on turn 2(The Coin-Preparation-[SPELL]-Edwin VanCleef) or even 12/12 if you get additonal Preparation and a spell. The more stuff you can get, the more menacing Vancleef becomes. In decks like miracle rogue it there are a lot of cards like Tomb Pillager, Xaril, Poisoned Mind, that can give you more cards to fuel Edwin VanCleef. The only thing that you have to consider is that you dont want to overextend, like burning your entire hand for 16/16 Edwin, and then it gets Executed, Hexed, Entombed and so on. But on turn 2 you are most likely to dodge several hard removals. The only classes that have problems with giant minions are druids(unless they kept Mulch, )warlocks(zoo especially), mages(nowadays they dont run Polymorph that often, so against those dropping hge Edwin VanCleef is usually game winning. Shamans, by the way, carry Hex, but they ussually muligan it off, just ot get those 1-2-3 drops to SMOrc you right after game starts. They dont see it coming. Oh, i forgot. Flamewreathed Faceless on turn 3-4. Well, let's not mention that "fair-and-not-even-legendary" card. anyway, at least you can trade with it, if VanCleef is huge enough. You can run cards like Conceal or Xaril, Poisoned Mind's Fadeleaf Toxin to make your monster at least survive eney turn. It's important to consider that it's better to have less spectacular Edwin with stealth rather that play if after such cards and get 4 or 8 stats more.

VanCleef is additional win condition for rogues. Usually rogues draw a lot of card to prepare Edwin VanCleef introduction. and then use other burst to take opponents down faster or prepare Leeroy Jenkins letahal. So this card is very good, but not in meta when all decks have easy removals for huge stuff. If they find an answer for your Cleef turn, you have no cards, you have nothing. Usually a concede situation. in control meta youshould rely more on Burst or on stealth for Edwin to win. So, basiaclly, his drawbacks are being removable(as any other card, hah) and that he eats your entire hand to become amazing.

About crafting:  It's aggressive meta nowadas, so considering that the only aggro decks that run hard removals now are warriors and some shamans(VERY rarely hunter), Edwin VanCleef is in pretty good position. Sadly rogues have no (good) healing, so it's not that popular, as they get stomped by aggro and midrange decks. But true Rogue players can always find place for Edwin in their decks. o if ou like and want to play rogue - Edwin VanCleef is definitely a good legendary to craft. Top tier for rogue. Also, just as reminder, Expert set cards won't cycle out.

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)

Phewh. Finally I have free time that i can spend on reviewing. Archmage Antonidas review is starting.

Well, today i have backstories. When LOE came out, i wanted to access Entomb jsut becaus of Mech-mage and Tempo-mage meta. They carried Archmage Antonidas that time. I was so happy when i got it. There were numerous times when I entombed enemy Archmage and then finished them off ith him. He basically became my win condition in mage matchups. Yes, opponent's card as your win condition. Hillarious. Also, there were often times when mage could get 1-2 Fireballs from his Antonidas, but i could get like 3-6. Archmage Antonidas, 2x Power Word: Shield, Flash Heal. His Fireballs had been spent by the time stolen Archmage appeared. Ehh, love that card. Note: Casting  Mind Control on Archmage Antonidas won't give you a Fireball.

I dont thing reviewing stats of this minion is nessessary. He could easly be like 3/3 for 7 and still be playable due it's effect. Yes, 5/7 can trade with few minions, but who cares when you can get Fireballs for like every card in our hand? He is usually played in tempo mage  or decks with bunch of cheap spells like Mirror images, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast and so on, so when you drop Archmage Antonidas you get 1-3 Fireballs for every spell you cast. That is overwhelming, because your weak spells turn out into powerful removal. If Archmage survives, you can get numerous removals, so game will be over for your enemy. When a mage has 7 firaballs, nothing can stop him. The more value you squeeze out of Antonidas, the closer you to win the match.

Emperor Thaurissan is great with Archmage Antonidas. You either discount him + spells to turn into flaming inferno, or you discount Fireballs to play 3 per turn. 24 damage for 9 mana should be enough to take down your opponent pretty soon. if you discount few spells twice - you can get like 5 magma spells in one turn. Combine this with spell damage an you get insane burst. COnsidering that mage usually damages face in early game as well, it may be enough to finish the match with victory.

Not forget to mention "the Exodia deck". This kind of deck involves Archmage Antonidas, Emperor Thaurissan, Sorcerer's Apprentice and duping spells like Duplicate, Echo of Medivh. So the point of this deck is get Archmage Antonidas + 4x Sorcerer's Apprentice on the board, so you can cast Fireballs. THis is infinite power source, so if you manage to do this, you basically become The Death Star. You can destroy every single minion on board, you can destro your own face, enemy face. Just whatever you want. These decks are now in wild mostly, or in some Tavern brawls. In standart it's kinda impossible to realise.

Another synergy that is rarely seen and rotating out soon is Archmage Antonidas + Rhonin. You drop the second one just to let him die and get cheap spells to convert into powerful ones. 

In some situations you can drop Archmage Antonidas and play secrets like Ice Block, Counterspell, Spellbender. This will confuse your opponent, because if he goes face and you dropped ice block - he is going to let Tony live, which is deadly for him. if he kills him - you at least get 1 fireball and 7 mana creature. If he tries to deal with him with spell, it gets blocked with the secret. So even a bad situation may turn into your favour just because of confusion.

If you play against priest, try to bait his Entomb. Same with shamans with Hex and other classes with powerful removals. He is good in control matchup, but against aggro and zoo he is mostly slo and helpless. Unless you stabilised after early game. At this point you can win pretty quickly by throwing fireballz into face. Anyway, Archmage Antonidas is a very dangerous threat against any deck, and if you cant stop him right away, you may lose in fe turns. Never drop Antony with no spells in hand. Tempo drop doesnt worth sacrificing of such insane combo card.

In conclusion i would say that Archmage Antonidas is a staple card for mage that is worthy to be crafted. NEVER dust it if you get it from a pack, even if you think you aint gonna play mage. If you get golden version - do not dust either. just imagine: constant Golden Fireballs in your opponent face! Such beauty... Unless you really need dust for other live-bending legendary. If you plan to play mage, have top tier neutral legendaries, you may consider crafting Tony, because its very powerful and unique card and it is in expert set, as well as cheap spells to be combined with him. New sets may bring us new spells, Antonidas-compatible.

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)

If the face plays taunt, me still hit face

Knuckles is here. Blizz, wrong picture.

Harambe ALWAYS goes face

Gorehowl... 

Quote from KawaiiMunsta >>

• Wisp for the lolz

Hearthstone: Episode VI - Return of the Lightbomb

Make no mistake: Dragonfire Potion is clearly tailored toward Dragon decks, but it's a playable board clear regardless of whether or not you play Dragon Priest.

In fact, Dragonfire Potion is one of the most potent board clears Priest has received to date: it's a 5 damage board clear that wipes Aggro and checks many mid- to late-game boards, such as Grim Patron and N'zoth boards. And it's not as situational as it may seem: Dragons appear in large numbers only in specific deck archetypes. Some of the most dominant decks in the metagame, namely Aggro Shaman, Zoolock, and N'Zoth Paladin, typically run zero Dragons; Miracle Rogue runs just 2 copies of Azure Drake.

And even pitted against Dragon-heavy archetypes like Dragon Priest, Dragonfire Potion clears high-health Dragon-synergy cards such as Wyrmrest Agent, Blackwing Technician, and Blackwing Corruptor, which weaker clears such as Excavated Evil cannot do. All in all, Dragonfire Potion seems on par to fill the role Lightbomb played prior to Standard: a card both fast enough to stave off aggro and able to reset resilient boards in the late-game. 

Well, I guess we'll be playing token druid for the next 2 years then.

I love this deck, it works hilariously with a clutch ending every time I play it. The only times I've lost so far have been because of my own mistakes or in one incredibly unlucky RNG instance, against a Frost Mage who had all the right cards. (Got him to 1 though!). Should also probably mention that I've mostly been playing this deck in Casual, but haven't lost with it in Standard Ranked from 20 to 14 (Perhaps I'm just lucky though). 

I don't have Bloodmage Thalnos or the Twilight Guardianx2, instead I replaced them with Shifter Zerus and Netherspite Historianx2. I know Shifter Zerus is like the pinnacle of RNG, but he's saved me more than a few times. Might try replacing him with Barnes for an early Malygos, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Emperor Thaurissan, or even Azure Drake. 

Thanks for the deck idea :)!