Hearthpwn

Quote from Hooghout >>

No ladies and gentlemen netdecking in general or here netdecking in casual isn't the problem. At most it's a derivative of a much harder, deeper problem of design which is a lack of diversity and balance.

Indeed 20 different viable netdecks are better than 5. More different netdecks played in casual give you less a feel of a problem and a better feel of 'diversity' than 5. At face value the same few top tier netdecks is a real annoyance in casual.  A lack of diversity in win conditions is the real problem here. If 4 types op tier1 netdecks play 80% the same win condition you get to the core of the problem that causes the feel of annoyance concerning netdecking in general or subject matter in casual. 

The lack of diversity in win conditions relates to the observation that zoolock, aggro druid, aggro paladin, face hunter basically employ the same type of win condition: spamm. buff, don't care about the board, go face (SBF). A subvariant of that is burn/secret mage.Others among them the OTK styled (Exodia Mage, Highlander Priest, Inner fire Priest)  and the current Warlock-Type, interactive style. Not much of diversity is it? Worse to injury: As 80% of netdecks are that aggressive SBF, the feel of sameness and boredom is understandable. 

TL;DR Your complaint is in the end not a problem of netdecking, but a lack of diversity in win conditions, therefore balance. In the end it is all about card design politics....as always.

Quote from KingCarnage >>

Quote from retoxidi >>

Triple C'Thun with Simulacrums! Goal was to get C'thun around 14-18stats and play 3 of them in a row. It did win games once in awhile :)

 that requires no other minions in your hand...

Quote from Soltarg >>

Quote from retoxidi >>

Why do people cry about getting matched against top tier decks in casual while experimenting their own stuff? Like what are you douchebags experimenting then? Do you want to know how well your deck fares or not?

I hit legend last season with cube lock and haven't played a game with it this season because being mainstream sucks the life out of my soul. I've spent countless hours trying to make Hunter (other than aggro) to work, and I've been playing in casual and ranked as well. Say I've gotten to rank 13 and I'm tweaking my deck a bit and I test it out in Casual. I don't get any information out if I play against a meme deck, so I appreciate people playing the goods in Casual as well. Of course I hate those Priests with every cell in my body, but they do serve a purpose.

 

 I think that for the most part people do not like being matched against "broken" stuffs in casual.
Not that many of us are crying over a tier 1 in general.  But against glitch abusers and those who pick a tier 1 from the web and keep spamming emotes. Thats what triggers me alot more then losing a single match personally, epxpecially when i want to relax in casual.
I am sorry but i dont understand how and why you come here and offend players who are legimitate angry over broken stuffs like raza and jades in the specific case.
I mean, do you realize what kind of thread is this?
Have a nice day

I got to legend first time ever (started playing at Un Goro) the past season with Cubelock. I tried dufferent versions and I cut the Doomguards all together! Against Aggro I win +80% of the time knowing I will always hit Voidlord with Posessed Lackey. And after proccing the Lord I usually have one of the pieces to copy the original one -> win at that point.

I do struggle against Raza priest, but the Mountain Giants have turned the tide a couple of times.

As a gamer I want to maximize my chances, and I cannot frigging stand tossing the coin on which deamon I'm proccing with the Lackey so I went with the Void-factory theme and achieved my goal so I'm happy :) 

And pushing full boards TWICE during the game with Guldan and Nzoth is not particularly tiny amount of dmg on the long run. Ditch the Doomguards ;)

Let me put it this way. By default Hearthstone is not a very tactical game - it is a strategy game. Not long ago I didn't know the difference between those two myself, so let me elaborate. Tactical game needs you to constantly react to things and make the right CHOICE every time you are the player acting.  In a strategy game you have laid out your plans before the game and you then see how things evolve. In Hearthstone you start the game with so so so tiny hand that when you see your 1 drop in hand you play it. No choice there. Turn two you play your two drop, no choice there... So you see where I'm getting at? This is a deckbuilding game where your deck is your strategy and the best deck in the current meta gets you the most wins. That said I will now call you control-lovers the ones who are stupid! (At this point I will say I love controlly playstyle to death and think it's the only way to get excitement out of my games). Why I call you stupid? You know the meta, you know what gets you up the ranks and yet you hit your face against the wall repeatedly and question "why so hurt my face"?

Sure clever trades and decisions are needed from time to time in HS, and I actually feel that a good aggro player needs to play around clears a thousand times more than a control player. Say I have two 0 costed Corridor Creepers in my hand by turn 5 against priest. Do I play them now? Sure "an idiot" wouldn't hesitate and put them boys out guns blazing, but a single Dragonfire Potion there might seal the game for your opponent in that instant. Or try playing as aggro against warlock knowing he's running Defile! You can't just slam stuff onto the board randomly! In this respect I'd even say it's easier to make decisions as the control player. You're doing stuff reactively so you see what's going on and after that you pull the trigger.

I have had a good glass of wine so I'm not sure I tyoed this all as I ment to but hope you get the message! Now back to building my Kathrena Deck.... :P

I'm sort of a new player to Hearthstone, entering the game only at Un'Goro. I'd like to take a moment and discuss the game itself. Not the state of the game so much. For a better insight on my gaming habits, I come from Fantasy Flight Games LCGs (and to be precise mainly Conquest, which has already been cancelled).

At first I really loved the game and learning all that new stuff seemed like this game had some depth to it. But I've come to realize this is not a great competetive game. "Boohoo crybaby go away then". Yes, you're right in saying that but I want to have a discussion on WHY so many threads like this constantly pops up and "nerf this", "the game is broken" etc.

This game is absolutely gorgeus with a technical team ala Blizzard, and the playerbase is so vast I can always find a game in seconds. Game time is short, and everything seems solid and interesting on the surface. So we (competetive players) trick ourselves in wanting this game to be more. It has all the promise to be something huge! But it falls short. I've understood that the goal of the designers is having a close to 50% winrate with as many decks as possible. That is strike number one for me. I absolutely love a game where good players win +80% of the time. And when they lose, they can track a misplay during the game, not just a bad dice roll.

Hearthstone shows it's age in having a linear mana system and one card a turn drawing system, in addition having only one win condition (fatigue is clearly not supported enough, and imo it shouldn't because it's quite unfun). This leads to super draw dependant games where the one who gets a better start has such a huge upperhand that the outcome feels decided during the first two rounds. When aggro is also supported so much with the laddering system as is, it leads to a flooded aggro-ladder where luck of the draw is the main way to win. For  me that is not enjoyable.

I still play daily, cause I'm addicted (lol) and I strive to come up with an original deck to rule them all! And I do enjoy the game to a degree for sure, but I hate that it's not what it could be :'(

So why don't I move on to another game? That's the question! I have no idea what that game is. I installed Gwent on my Xbox and I find that one much deeper than Hearthstone, but it's not yet available to mobile devices so there's that. I find Hearthstone to be such a Juggernaut in the industry that it takes away from the competition and there is less room for smaller games to rise against this behemoth. And that yet again makes me sad that this already so well established game is not what I want it to be!

Why I find these salt threads interesting, is the fact that we can actually learn from these. We can identify the problems and start innovating new systems. I am a board game enthusiast and a published board game designer (one children's game, but still!) so I take every notion into account and brew ideas that a good and enjoyable game needs. I have actually started prototyping a new competetive card game system already and while I think I don't have a great chance in ever getting through to the wide audience, I've still tried and put my ideas forward! :)

Game on!

I'll try to type it out of memory, but basically all aoe dmg spells plus enough c'thun boosters to get him to 14-18 stats when entering the stage of three-in-a-row.

Single removal spells: 2x Frost Bolt, 2x Fire Ball

AoE: 2x Volcanic Potion, 2x Blizzard, 2x Meteor, 2x Flamestrike

Misc. spells: 2x Simulacrum, 2x Primordial Glyph, 2x Arcane Intellect, 1x Ice Block, 1x Ice Barrier

C'Thun boosters: 2x Beckoner of Evil, 2x Disciple of C'thun, 2x C'thun's Chosen

Misc. units: 2x Doomsayer, 1x Bloodmage Thalnos

AND 1x C'thun :P

I think I remembered them all.. ? My first draft and not too many games under my belt, but the deck really controls the opponent well! The thimg is I geel like I don't need a huge C'thun here because three of them in a row will usually do the thing anyways. And as I said earlier, this decknis definately not tier 1, but with tweaking I think there's a solid strategy in there for sure.

Haha, great to see other people discovering C'thun again! Although I made a C'thun Mage with a huge Simulacrum strategy! I run like 8 minions besides the C-man himself, so it's easy to find a window to double simulacrum him in a given turn. Then with an Ice Block up, it's just 3 C'thuns im a row for the keel :) 

(In all honesty it's not tier 1, but when it comes together it's just beautiful :)

Is anyone reading the rest of the post?

Fucking mana screw

Quote from Batmanna91 >>

Playing quest rogue. Complaining about thief priest. Kappa

On the next episode. Playing face huntard, "taunt is out of control, pls nerf "

At the moment it feels like some kind off Rock, Papers, Scissors game. There is no middle ground where two different decks are playing fairly. Either you lose hard or you win significantly... And you know it almost straight away so there is no suspense or thrill...

This deck has felt VERY strong to me. 19-6 only lost to Cubelock. If you click to the deck page I also wrote down some notes of things I noticed playing the deck that may be useful. 

update update. Just REKTED a Baku Doodz Pally! He thought he could put shit on my board! Against a Bloodrazor! Against a Wasp! Get outta here!!!

Having way to much fun! This deck smashes! It will be annoying a week from now if a lot of ppl it. But right now, Im the only one who knows! Thumbs up!

Also running one Clan Guy and One Arcanite Reaper, Reaper is good, if you find a replacement for clan guy, I support it

update. Killed a cubelcok on turn 5! am currently 12-3

Replaced something Clan guy with Arcanite Reaper which is good and Rabid Worgen which is....there has to be a better option I just haven't landed on it yet. 

Didn't expect Houndmaster Shaw to go too far, but he's been performing exceptionally well with Carnassa's Brood in my mid-range Hunter deck.

Quote from Haussenfuss >>

I've watched Trump's video - he suggested that the deck required a 200 IQ, and I admit that I lack those sorts of numbers. However, despite my limitations, I'm fairly certain that everyone is being quite liberal with their use of the term "OTK" - isn't the deck a 3TK?

1 Finish the "pre-requisites"

2 Spend a turn doing nothing on ten mana

3 "O"TK

Am I missing something? I suppose that step one will sometimes be completed organically, over the course of the entire game, but often enough you'll need to devote an entire turn to finishing the first stage of the "set-up".

How does the deck not die during stage 2 - if I understand correctly, the deck isn't doing anything to impact the board on ten mana. Isn't that sort of like giving your opponent a free turn, on ten mana? Won't the deck simply die far too often to everything that isn't a value-based control deck?

A few words before I begin. This is my 3^rd set review. You can find the others here and here. I am going to change the way I review a bit for 2 reasons.

First, I’m going to make my review system more like everyone else’s so it’s less confusing.

Second, because this is the first set of a new year, I’m going to evaluate the power level of cards in more of a vacuum. These cards will be with us for 2 years. That’s 5 more sets of cards that will synergize and improve upon these, and I think that is significant. That said, it is hard to ignore cards from KotFT and KnC that will outclass others for half of that time.

With that said, here is my rating system. All rating are for competitive, standard play.

(1) “Terrible. Will not be good enough” or “pack-filler.”
(2) “Bad for some reason or another, but niche playable” or “a tech card.”
(3) “A fine, playable card”
(4) “A good, strong card.”
(5) “Great card! Best in set!” Ideally, very few in this category.

Druid

Splintergraft: 1
- It seems too cumbersome to get value without Kun in the format. There’s some slight synergy with Giants, but that also seems far too clunky.

Duskfallen Aviana: 1
- Terrible. 5-mana your opponent removes this card for free and develops the board. This needs a ton of help to be remotely good.

Gloom Stag: 2
- A 4/8 taunt for 5 mana is great stats, but the deck building requirement just doesn’t make sense to me. Baku in Druid feels like a thing that will never work because DK Malfurion is better and has no restrictions tied to it.

Wispering Woods: 3
- I think this card is good. Token Druid was a legitimate deck. Oaken Summons into Violet Teacher is something that has seen mainstream competitive play in the last year. Losing Mark of the Lotus hurts, but the average value of this card is probably 5-tokens for 4 mana, which is enough. But I think hand druid has some issues.

Bewitched Guardian: 3
- Another hand druid minion. It’s a solid card – twilight drake with taunt for 1 mana more. It’s susceptible to silence, etc. But it’s certainly fine. Hand druid needs to figure out what it is. Is it a token deck? Is it a ramp deck? How will these pieces work together?

Forest Guide: 1
- Another terrible card for Druid. Your opponent gets to use the card first. The stats are miserable. You need to wait 2 turns for this card to get value in a “hand” deck.

Witching Hour: 2
- This card might be a 4, but right now I think it takes too much work. The fact that it’s random and not discover means that you could whiff on the card that your deck is built around (think Resurrect). Maybe if Hadronox is your only beast bomb, there’s something there – but that deck generally wants to play Grizzled Guardian and Astral Tiger as well.

Druid of the Scythe: 1
- Somehow this has less health than Druid of the Swarm. This reminds me a lot of Druid of the Saber, which was a fine card that saw occasional play. I think this is outclassed by Druid of the Swarm, Wrath and Crypt Lord. But it’s not the worst card.

Ferocious Howl: 3
- A lot of the time this is Shield Block. That’s a fine card.

Witchwood Apple: 1
- In a vacuum, this is a really bad card. The fact that Hand Druid needs to play it is part of the Hand druid problem. 

Hunter

Emeriss: 1
- This card is trash. It’s far too slow and requires far too much set up in a class that struggles to do both of those things. Moreover, the class can just kill you without too much difficulty before you even reach this point.

Houndmaster Shaw: 4
- Premium stats and a strong effect. We’ve been fooled by this before (Leyline Manipulator!) However, this basically has taunt as well, and the follow up with the spellstone is too good to ignore. I want to give it a 5, but we’ve been tricked before, so I’ll give it a 4.

Toxmonger: 2
- I think there are some interesting uses, but I’m not sure they’re better than the others that Hunter already has to remove. If this worked with Unleash, it could be a 3 or 4.

Rat Trap: 1
- There needs to be a very specific type of deck that is dominating in order for this card to be playable. I think most decks get by just fine playing 2 cards a turn. I don’t think this card ever gets there.

Wing Blast: 5
- This card will be a Hunter staple for its entire time in standard. It’s a tempo card, it’s a control card. It does everything you want but go face.

Duskhaven Hunter: 2
- It’s not a terrible card, but it’s not better than Jungle Panther. Maybe in a really dedicated face hunter this sees play.

Carrion Drake: 2
- I would like this card much more if it were a 3/6 for 4-mana. At 5-mana, not so much. We’ll have to see if Dragon synergy matters in Hunter. My suspicion is that it never really will.

Dire Frenzy: 4
- There is a lot to like about this card considering the Tol’vir Warden/Stonetusk Boar shenanigans. Don’t get me wrong. It’s clunky. But these reviews are forward thinking. I think in time Hunter has enough to support this kind of combo finisher. I think we’re close right now as it is.

Hunting Mastiff: 3
- I am less bullish on this card than I was when it was previewed. Echo cards are understated or overcosted, and this is no exception. It’s an okay removal card in a deck that has trouble removing wide boards. For that reason, it’s slightly better than most the echo cards I will review.

Vilebrood Skitterer: 1
- They made this card so bad. The dream of buffing this and putting 3 more into the deck will never materialize.

Mage

Toki, Time-Tinker: 1
- It’s not good, but it’s not unplayable. Maybe it’s the 30^th card in some manner of control mage. There’s direct competition with Elise the Trailblazer though, and Elise is better.

Archmage Arugal: 4
- when combined with the next card, it’s 4 mana draw a ton of cards. That combo is busted. This card doesn’t do much as a stand-alone…but the combo potential is too great to ignore.

Arcane Keysmith: 3
- Mage wants to play with fewer spells. This is a great way to do it. It’s about 4-mana worth of stuff, and that’s what it costs. It fits into a decktype that looks to be strong. Mage loses one of its best secrets, but Counterspell and Explosive Trap are still around, and I think the chances are high that you’ll discover one or both.

Book of Specters: 5
- This is a build-around, and it’s incredibly powerful. It only gets better the more neutral minions are released. In the worst cases of decks with some spells, it’s probably Graceful Charity, which is enough. You also accelerate into things like Jaina or Aluneth (obviously this last one gets tricky, but could be worth it).

Bonfire Elemental: 4
- Better Servant of Kalimos. Servant of Kalimos is a fine card, so this is a good card.

Cinderstorm: 1
- This damage isn’t scaling well from Arcane Missiles. But maybe Odd mage needs it. Maybe just play 2 Missiles.

Curio Collector: 1
- These combo snowball type minions don’t tend to work well unless they have premium stats.

Vex Crow: 1
- This is bad Violet Teacher.

Black Cat: 2
- A glue card for Baku mage, and a solid one at that.  Mage seems like a class that Baku likes. That said, it’s not more impressive than Thalnos, and Thalnos doesn’t have the restrictions.

Snap Freeze: 1
- Is useful Shatter good? Probably not good enough.

Paladin

The Glass Knight: 3
- It’s basically C’thun’s Chosen. And C’thun’s Chosen, while playable, was not really played outside of C’thun decks. It combos best with Truesilver, but it means you’re on the coin or playing off curve. I want to give this a worse rating because I don’t actually think it’ll see much play, but it’s a reasonable minion.

Prince Liam: 1
- There may end up being something here someday. But we’ve seen this effect with Prince Malchezar, and it’s not very good. Instead of morphing your deck into one with late game, why not just play some late game?

Cathedral Gargoyle: 3
- Similar to Glass Knight, this is a reasonable minion. It has the problem of having some anti-synergy with Call to Arms. But so does Hydrologist, and that has been fine for Murloc Paladin. That said, if there are ever decent dragons to play in paladin, this is a reasonable card. Righteous Protector is probably still the better card overall, and that will be around for quite a while. 

Hidden Wisdom: 1
- Like Rat Trap, I don’t think it is that common to play 3 cards in a turn. And paladin isn’t starved for card draw.

Silver Sword: 1
- Over costed. Under statted. Win more. It’s not even a win condition on its. It is incredibly outclassed by both Vinecleaver and Val’yanr.

Bellringer Sentry: 4
- I’m close to rating this a 5. I don’t think it quite gets there, but it’s close. With just Noble Sacrifice and Redemption, this card enough value to justify playing secrets in your deck. If the order is correct, it can pull 3 of them in one minion. That’s so much tempo and value.

Paragon of Light: 1
- There may be more to this card than meets the eye. But, putting pants on cards isn’t usually a good investment, even when there’s an apparent awesome benefit (Fjola, Eydis). A 4-mana (Divine Strength), 3/6 Lifesteal, Taunt is a good thing, but you could probably just play Tar Creeper or Benevolent Djinn instead.

Ghostly Charger: 1
- Are Divine Shield and Rush worth one mana each? My guess is no. I think the inability to trade with 4 and 5 drops immediately hurts this card.

Rebuke: 2
- This card is not very good. The Loatheb effect without a body or a cantrip is really disappointing. If this had a 1/1 attached to it, I think the analysis changes completely. The only real use of this card is against combo decks or the very heavily costed AOE’s.

Sound the Bells!: 2
- It’s another over-costed Echo card. There’s neat applications with Lynessa and the quest, but those seem more fun than viable.

 

Rogue

Tess Greymane: 5
- Here’s the payoff that thief Rogue always wanted. Pre-nerf Yogg that summons minions is insane. What is nice about this is that, unlike Yogg, it won’t be complete RNG that wins the day.

Face Collector: 2
- This card has value written all over it. It would probably be a 4 in most other classes. Is this something Rogue can do? Traditionally, no. With Tess? Yeah, I think it’s close to worth it.

WANTED!: 2
- Why? This card is so bad. The only thing saving it from a 1 is how good the coin is in Rogue and because Preparation exists.

Spectral Cutlass: 1
- This card will compete with Kingsbane/ Leeching Poison for almost all of its existence. I don’t think it is ever better than those. And increasing its durability is actually pretty costly. Multiple mana investments for 1-durability is not worth it. Even considering Tess, I don’t think you want to play this card.

Cursed Castaway: 3
- Since Elven Minstrel exists, I think this card is playable. Chaining one into the other seems like a reasonable thing a Tempo Rogue style of deck likes to do.

Mistwraith: 1
- It’s similar to Unbound Elemental. Slightly better. But the cost to do business is too high for the moderate payoff.

Pick Pocket: 1
- So expensive. So much worse than Hallucination. This exemplifies how overcosted Echo is on some cards. Compare this to A Light in the Darkness, and you’ll start to see how unplayable this is. I am coming to the conclusion that on (most) cards, Echo is not worth the full mana that you’re paying.

Cutthroat Buccaneer: 2
- The stats are good, but I feel like +1 attack is not enough for the Combo tag. Kingsbane needs more!

Blink Fox: 4
- I expect this to see play in basically every rogue deck. We’ve seen the effect before on this statline. We know that it’s generally good enough. And Rogue actually doesn’t have great turn 3 plays that don’t involve multiple cards. I think that’s part of the reason Shaku caught on.

Cheap Shot: 2
- This is slightly better than Pick Pocket because it can trade. It’s still over-costed, but it’s useless on an empty board, which is why the Mastiff card is rated slightly higher. That said, Rogue is a spell class, and Prep and Auctioneer are never things to be ignored.

Priest

Lady in White: 3
- The effect is very powerful, but the card comes late in the game. So it’s not a build around like Keleseth. Instead, it’s probably just a fine card in a deck that happens to play minions that already work with it. At that point, she’s probably not your win-condition, but I don’t think she’s win more either. Just solid and will steal some games. I’m really close to giving this a 4, but I think the inconsistency limits her

Chameleos: 2
- How valuable is information (basically ladder only)? How valuable is copying one of your opponent’s win conditions (sometimes)? This is a really neat card. I’m not sure it does enough. Besides the “being bad against aggro” issue, you have to assume your opponent hasn’t played his win condition on curve. But a lot of times, they will do just that.

Glitter Moth: 2
- The effect is fine. It gives Baku priest a win condition with Void Ripper or Inner Fire…but do you want to play Baku priest? I’m not sure you really do. Heal is not as good as Tank Up, and Anduin seems like the better control card overall.

Vivid Nightmare: 2
- This is clearly some manner of OTK combo enabler. It’s better than Mirage Caller because it is a spell. Therefore it has Shadow Vision and Shadow Essence compatibility. We’ve seen this card before, and it is a bit gimmicky.

Coffin Crasher: 3
- This is not Possessed Lackey. But it’s not bad. And it chains itself. As the number of good deathrattles increase, this card gets better. I don’t think this ever gets to a 4 because its effect is worse than recruit. But I expect we’ll see a fair amount of this card over time.

Holy Water: 2
- This seems like a tech card for control match-ups. Tech cards get a 2.

Squashling: 1
- I guess you can full Northshire in a different way now. Combos with those other heal-based guys too. But it still seems worse than Circle.

Quartz Elemental: 3
- This might be good. If your opponent is wasting minions or mana from preventing its attack, then it’s already doing its job. Granted, you’ll be doing the same by keeping it healthy.  5/8 is a lot of stats.

Nightscale Matriarch: 3
- Dragon Priest was running out of dragons. This isn’t a bad one, all things considered.

Divine Hymn: 1
- Do you want MORE circle of healing? My guess is probably not.

Shaman

Hagatha the Witch: 5
- The battle cry is lackluster, but the value is real. Battle cry shaman looks to be like a legitimate deck, and this fits right in.

Shudderwock: 5
- This will work like Tess and Pre-nerf Yogg. You’re playing this with Elementals which have a lot of burn, card draw, and heal effect. These are generally pretty great. It’s not as controlled as Tess, but it should still be pretty great. Perhaps better. Like Tess, you can generate multiple minions thanks to Chain Gang.

Bogshaper: 2
- It’s a good effect, but the mana cost and tempo loss are prohibitive. That said, it triggers itself if Hagatha is in play, and that’s worthwhile. I bet we see this card more off Kalimos than actually in a main deck unless the format is REEEEALLY slow.

Murkspark Eel: 3
- This is the only card so far that rewards you in a significant way for playing a Hero Power deck, so I will give it a slight bump over the others. I don’t know how good Genn Shaman will ever be, but this will be one of the better cards in that deck.

Totem Cruncher: 1
- This, on the other hand, is not good in a Genn deck. Or maybe any deck! I think this thing desperately needed Senjin-level neutral stats to be good. Totem Generation, even with Genn, isn't exactly something you want to be doing for 2-3 turns before playing this. And on top of that, I'm not sure you want to be eating those totems if that’s your gameplan turns 2-3. Flametongue or direwolf is probably serving your purposes better. It is encouraging you to do a thing which is generally not good to do. And the payoff is not good enough to encourage you to do it.

Earthen Might: 1
- It combos well with Fire Fly. Unfortunately, that’s about it. Glacial Shard seems a lackluster target. Demonfire didn’t gain much traction until there were multiple 1/3 Demons to work with.  You should probably just play Flametongue.

Ghost Light Angler: 2
- I have been tricked by you before, Murloc Shaman. But this makes Murloc Shaman a deck. Still, it’s probably not a good deck yet, but this is good in it. Ultimately, how good are a bunch of searchable 2-mana 2/2 minions? My guess is not that useful. But a good glue card.

Witch’s Apprentice : 3
- Interestingly, this 1-drop is much better later game than it is at the start. It’ll probably see play, but that says more about the state of Shaman’s early game than it does about this card. Besides Fire Fly, what else are you going to play? Air Elemental? Lolol

Zap!: 2
- Backstab for Shaman…but much worse. It seems like it is still really good for early game tempo. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this get more play than I presently expect.

Blazing Invocation: 3
- Generally, these 1-mana discover a minion spells haven’t been very good – but In Shaman, you have the choice to discover some pretty great legendries, so this may make the cut.

Warlock

Lord Godfrey: 5
- Tempo big defile. It’s just really simply and really good. It’s so clear that I don’t need to say a ton about it. It doubles down on a strength of Warlock, so it probably takes the place of a copy of Twisting Nether or the like.

Glinda Crowskin: 2
- The effect is really cool, and Warlock can play the slowest of slow games and maybe get some use, but she seems really slow. Is Glinda the card that can replace N’Zoth as your second board flood? I have doubts. Giants, Voodoo Doctor, and Gnomeferatu seem like prime candidates to combo with this card…but you’re Warlock, how many win conditions are you going to squeeze into your 30-card deck? To that end, there’s competition from Rin, which is less combo oriented.

Deathweb Spider: 1
- The biggest problem for this card, is its competition at the mana cost. I don’t think you’re playing this over Doomguard or Despicable Dreadlord. Its sub-par stats and conditional effect make it far less appealing than those two.

Blood Witch: 1
- On-curve stats with a downside. These cards aren’t good, even when they synergize with others. See: Pit Lord.

Fiendish Circle: 1
- I don’t think Zoo wants or needs this.

Witchwood Imp: 1
- I also don’t think Zoo wants or needs this, although Malchezar’s Imp is rotating.

Duskbat: 2
- Would you run Grim Necromancer in Zoo? Probably not. But it’s borderline. Even with the loss of Councilman, I think there are going to be better than conditional three drops.
Curse of Weakness: 1
- This is not a priest card, so I’m not sure what to do with it. It feels like a worse corrupting mist? And that’s not that good.

Ratcatcher: 2
- Voidcaller with rush might see play in Zoo.

Dark Possession: 1
- Combos with Lackey, but I don’t think that’s enough. Ironically, if it destroyed the minion outright, I think it would see play.

Warrior

Blackhowl Gunspire: 1
- The restrictions on this card are so oppressive that it can never do anything worth doing. It can’t trade, it doesn’t have taunt, it has a high mana cost with no tempo, it has terrible stats, it doesn’t have a particularly good effect, and it has to be combo’d with other cards to use its weak effect. This is the worst card in the set, and one of the worst of all time. 

Darius Crowley: 4
- This is just a good solid card. It has very nice support and a fine effect. It will occasionally run away with a game. It’s not fancy, but it will get the job done.

Deadly Arsenal: 3
- This is an outlier opinion to be sure. This card is confusing to look at. Big weapons are best in aggro, and this isn’t an aggro card. The best control weapons right now have small attack. There’s direct competition from Brawl. But DMH will be in Warrior for another year. Gorehowl will always be in Warrior. Remove everything and have more cards in your deck is a real gameplan, even with Gul’Dan in the format and the loss of Coldlight Oracle. This is probably the most out on a limb I’ll be in this whole review.

Town Crier: 5
- One of the easiest cards to review in this set. Targeted draw. 1 mana. Great stats. A clear great card.

Festeroot Hulk: 1
- I’m just not sure what the point of this card is. By the time its attack is worth anything, it’s dead.

Militia Commander: 4
- I have gone a while without talking about how good Rush is.  It is an instant tempo swap. If the minion it’s tied to has a good body, it’s a very strong card. This minion has a good body. What it will leave over is not impressive, but it makes good early trades with 5 power.

Rabid Worgen: 3
- I guess it helps you curve? It’s just fine, but it seems that there will be better cards to play.

Redband Wasp: 2
- This minion, however, does not have a good body. Absent a token heavy metagame, it has to combo with the Coin and Woodcutter’s Axe or Animated Berserker to be much of anything.  Also, you DON’T want to draw this off Town Crier.

Warpath: 4
- This is one of the few Echo cards that I think is really impressive because it’s scaling AOE in a class that uses AOE really well. Unlike Mastiff or Echo Shot, this scales better and does it in a class that controls better. It is still overcosted, but not by as much as the other two.

Woodcutter’s Axe: 5
- Historically, 2/2 weapons with positive effects are very good. Argent Lance was the only miss, but that’s more on Inspire being a bad mechanic. Moreover, this fits very well into the Rush package that I assume most competitive warrior decks will include

Neutrals

Baku the Mooneater: 5
- This is a very strong card that will continue to grow stronger as the set ages. It faces direct competition from Death Knights, which is problematic. But not all Death Knights are created equal, and neither are all upgraded hero powers. Some decks will prefer one to the other, and some decks can make use of both.

Azalina Soultheif: 1
- Neutral Divine favor is almost certainly not good enough, except for in the smallest of situations with the most aggressive of decks. It also has super limited use in control mirrors where you are basically at 0% and stealing (Gul’Dan) might change that. But I’m not super hopeful for either of these situations.  

Countess Ashmore: 5
- On release, this is one of the strongest cards in the game, and it will only get better. The fact that it can draw spells and weapons is amazing.

Genn Greymane: 3
- This review is similar to Baku’s, except that I think Genn’s effect is much weaker and even cards don’t curve as well as odd cards. Sure the hero power helps you “curve.” But generally, hero powering is not what you want to be doing with your mana.

Dollmaster Dorian: 1
- A fine effect but it seems all hype, and too slow/expensive. It’s a card to keep an eye on…but still.

Splitting Festeroot: 1
- It’s about Wobbling Runts level. It’s probably worse than Violet Wurm. Seems too weak even for multiple procs on the Priest quest.

Worgen Abomination: 1
- This does not replace sleep with the fishes. Direct competition from Geddon.

Mossy Horror: 2
- Tech cards get a 2.

Muck Hunter: 2
- See what I said earlier about Rush minions and their stats. This thing’s downside is really big though, but there are some reasonable ways to mitigate it in a few of classes. It is a neutral rush minion, which is good for Ashmore. However, I think it could have had a more useful niche but for a card we are going to review later on.

Witch’s Cauldron: 2
- About as playable as Cult Master, which is to say, not very playable. Props for weird Rogue usage.

Voodoo Doll: 4
- This might be slightly high for “neutral corruption.” But that said, a lot of decks like this card. Some decks (druid) have bad hard removal. Some decks (mage, warrior) synergize with this really well. Some decks lose a lot of options because they’re playing Baku. I think this is cheap enough and good enough to see a good amount of play.

Nightmare Amalgam: 3
- This seems like a reasonable option in any tribe deck. Sure all “hate cards” target it, but it’s a fine, fair statted glue card.

Gilnean Royal Guard: 1
- It’s just not impressive enough for that much mana, despite having an immediate impact on the board and survivability. Also, it has the worgen problem of maybe not being what you want it to be when you need it to be it.

Witchwood Grizzly: 3
- Some decks will play this. Some will play Rotten Applebaum. They both accomplish similar things on 5 with different synergies. We’ll have to see which synergies end up being more competitive. But this is a fine card indeed.

Scaleworm: 3
- It’s fine. It’s a worse Blackwing Corruptor. But Dragon decks will need something, plus Ashmore synergy.

Tanglefur Mystic: 1
- I don’t understand this card. Why do you want this?

Walnut Sprite: 1
- This might find its way into Spiteful decks or Odd decks purely because of the smaller minion pool. This is not a good card though.

Cauldron Elemental: 1
- Unnecessary.

Sandbinder: 2
- Shaman really lacks card draw (from deck), I could see this making the cut there. Also, Minion-less mage likes more minions.

Unpowered Steambot: 1
- Pack filler.

Hench-Clan Thug: 2
- Interesting in Rogue. Is it more interesting than the Dragon? Who cares, I’m probably playing Blink Fox.

Witchwood Piper: 2
- The statline is similar to Kabal Chemist, and that card wasn’t good. But, you have slightly more control over what you’re drawing here. It could also combo with itself in combo decks looking to draw 1 or 2 high value minions. I think there’s potential here, but it’s niche.

Phantom Militia: 2
- I only really see this finding a home in Quest Rogue or Quest Warrior. In most other decks, Stonehill is probably the better choice of this ilk. Stonehill can even find this! This is close to a 3 though. It’s a reasonable card.

Clockwork Automaton: 1
- The Quest Warrior dream is never worth it. Gul’Dan almost certainly does not need deal 6, heal 12.

Furious Ettin: 1
- pack filler

Felsoul Inquisitor: 1
- Pack filler

Lifedrinker: 1
- This is not the worst card I’ve ever seen, but it’s not good enough to see play.

Swamp Dragon Egg: 1
- pack filler. Not a good egg.

Lost Spirit: 1
- This card didn’t see play at 3 mana. Will it see play at 2 mana? Unlikely.

Chief Inspector: 2
- Tech card

Marsh Drake: 1
- Interesting in Rogue, that’s about it. Oh wait. Blink fox.

Darkmire Moonkin: 1
- Pack filler

Rotten Applebaum: 3
- I think this is a perfectly reasonable card. Heal 9, with taunt and deathrattle synergy seems fine.

Swift Messenger: 3
- This is the card that I think edges out Muck Hunter as the “I want a Rush minion for Ashmore” tech. After turn 7 (ashmore), I think Messenger’s 6-damage (because it will change to 6 on turn 8) is better than Hunter’s 5. They both have downsides, but Messenger’s worgen issues seem less cumbersome overall. Plus, a 2/6 rush is good against aggro on the turn it’s drawn.

Raven Caller: 2
- This is probably not that good. But it’s also not completely awful. Draw 2 for 3 is the norm. The minions you’re drawing are usually not going to be very good, but some decks can use the value (Hunter, Shaman) because their card draw is terrible. It faces competition from premier 3-drops like Tar Creeper and Stonehill.

Mad Hatter: 1
- Fun, but not good.

Swamp Leech: 1
- How hungry for 1-drops is Hunter now? I think Diremole is probably adequate.

Blackwald Pixie: 2
- I can see it occasionally making the cut in Baku decks as a finisher of sorts. And its stats are fine enough to play on curve against aggro. In fact, I bet it sees more play earlier than it does later on.

Pumpkin Peasant: 1
- Packfiller. But because Ashmore is a thing…

Spellshifter: 1
- Bloodmage outclasses. 

Baleful Banker: 2
- Seems tech-y enough to get a 2. Seems like a good Control mirror tool.

Wyrmguard: 1
- Neutral Tar Lord. Eh. It’s not even a Dragon. That’s pretty weak.

Vicious Scalehide: 1
- Packfiller, but Ashmore is a thing. Hunter is also a thing.

Closing thoughts:

I would put this expansion on a power level somewhere between Un’Goro and Knights of the Frozen Throne. Interestingly, a lot of the cards from this set serve to make many of the Un’Goro cards better. All in all, it’s a good set.

Big Winners: Mage, Warrior, Shaman
Big Losers: Druid, Warlock

TOP 5 Cards:
1. Countess Ashmore
2. Town Crier
3. Book of Specters
4. Baku the Mooneater
5. Wing Blast
Honorable Mention: Lord Godfrey