Hearthpwn

This is very powerful as an effect - Feugen, Stallag, Sludge Belcher, and even Rotten Applebaum, Fishy Flyer, Renowned Performer, or Piloted Shredder are solid hits in terms of huge value for the cost.

The problem is that the vast majority of what I just mentioned is wild-only; in Standard we just have Flyer and Performer. As a seven drop there's a real risk of "drawing patches" before you cast this, and Performer is really really lousy when it isn't being cheated out here. It's a lot of setup and deck pollution for an effect that seems to only be "about as good" as Soulciologist Malicia when it works perfectly and you hit three rushing death rattlers. And I'm not sure Wild can accommodate such a slow and inconsistent play.

That's before we talk about the issues of Demon Hunter really wanting to go face and not play a slow value game, or the issues of a Deathrattle deck wanting to probably run cheaper deathrattles which then ruin your Blackthorn pool. Overall this seems extremely crummy now, and I'd have doubts even if we see a ton of powerful 5 drop deathrattles this year.

Card seems pretty reasonable. A 5/5 Taunt for 5 is "Fair", and an 8/8 Taunt for 5 is amazing even on Turn 7+ alongside a hero power. Given that it can be comboed with Desperate Prayer or  lifesteal goons (currently there's no good ones in the upcoming standard but we're early in the reveal season) for tempo, I think this will be a staple.

This card seems incredible. I've been skeptical of Corrupt, but this is an awesome Corrupt card because...

- Played Uncorrupted (say, because you topdecked it or need it on curve) it is fine. It's a bit like Fel Reaver as a very powerful and above-rate threat that threatens to force a loss to any long  game by wrecking your deck. This dude is a lot "safer" than Fel Reaver, but at 1 more mana and class-specific. By itself it may not see a ton of play but would see some as a big threat with a useful tag.

- But Corrupt totally changes it. If you can wait, this is a devastating threat to slam down on turn 8 while also eating your opponent's deck, guaranteeing you a long-game win. Gnomeferatu was way too yolo to be reliable seeing only one card, and had too mediocre a body. This is an awesome body and 5 cards is a lot of cards, enough to be more consistently disruptive and dangerous.

This feels like it's not enough for Shaman, the current worst class in HS. On its face it seems good - Totem Shaman is the only good shaman deck, and this card is definitely spicy if you can Totemic Reflection or Splitting Axe it. However, the more I think about it the more I feel like it's a miss:

- Totem Shaman is a very aggressive deck, and wants immediate value to slow grinding (it already has Mana Tide and EVIL Totems for slow grinds).  This being an "end of turn" effect and not a "Battlecry" effect really stings.

- This doesn't hit totems created by something. By that I mean while it will buff totems you've already made, it won't buff future hero power totems or the totem tokens made by Totem Goliath or Runic Carvings.

- More specifically - at first I compared this to Prince Keleseth but the difference is that Prince hit everything, and this hits ~8 cards in the Totem deck + any tokens you've already made. That simply doesn't feel good enough to justify yet another 0/3.

I'm not even sure Totem decks run this - Current decks aren't even running Flametongue Totem all the time, so that doesn't bode well. But if they do, it doesn't seem like enough to help the deck out of the dregs anyways. 

This is very premature, but I will say that so far Corrupt seems pretty awkward. The mechanic seems to want to fill a niche of giving powerful high-tempo cards to midrangey decks, with the flexibility of the cards still being playable earlier on curve. The problem is, most cards with Corrupt we've seen so far are not just "a little below rate" on curve; they're unplayable awful without the Corrupt. That makes these cards risky to keep in an opening hand and horrendous top-decks. At the same time, very few of them seem to have Corrupt effects that are so powerful as to be worth the risk.

For instance:

- Casting a 2/2 Horrendous Growth on curve is often worse than just hero powering...but how good is it going to be if you slam it down as, say, a 7/7 on turn seven alongside a 4 or 5 drop? Good enough to be worth holding in your hand since mulligan? I'm not so sure. Handlock does nonsense like that, but a 4 mana 8/8 giant is a lot more of a power play than a 2 mana 7/7 a few turns later.

- Dunk Tank is a bit better in that the Corrupt actually does feel worth it (turning it into a sort of super-swipe), but four mana deal four is wildly terrible so I'm not sure it's worth either.

- We really need more corrupt cards like Day at the Faire - three recruits for three is a worse Muster for Battle but Muster was stupid-strong and this is still reasonable on curve, and getting a discount on Stand Against Darkness instead if you can manage a corrupt is really, really strong.

Yeah I think you are right. The articles about Spellburst describe it as a "After a spell is cast" trigger, which means that the spell has to have already "resolved" so to speak to trigger it. It's the same reason that Wild Pyromancer kills everyone with Equality instead of dealing them a useless 1 damage before they're all set to 1 anyways.

False. Spellburst appears to trigger on the first spell you cast once that minion is on the board, but it doesn't have to be a spell you cast on the same turn. that you played this minion If that was the case, Goody Two-Shields would do nothing; the design on it is clearly to play it, wait a turn, swing it into something, and then cast a spell to renew the shield.

What is confusing is that it is the FIRST spell, not ALL spells - which is why the guy who talked about using Innervate or Lightning Bloom to ramp into Tree of Life and give this +9/+9 got downvoted to oblivion (the ramp card will give this +0/+0 and consume the Spellburst).

But on this minion it might as well only work the turn you play the card, because if you try to play Curvestone with it you will be wasting the Rush.

Given that Pala is the worst class in Standard, I'm a bit surprised at how poor the options are for existing archetypes from this set.

Lord Barov is a big addition for sure, as a Equality on a body that comes with its own "Wild Pyro" trigger on Death Rattle. I do think he'll see a ton of play and more play in Paladin - but as a legendary, he's not a consistent build-around to anchor a deck.

Devout Pupil is also probably very good in practice. The base rate here is a Sunwalker; 'walker hasn't been playable since launch but it isn't an awful card by any means. The current Pure Paladin build runs Librams + Hand of A'dal though, and that's a huge deal in cranking out this bad boy on turn 5 or 4 instead.

First Day of School also deserves a mention as the first 0-cost Spell in the history of Paladin, which is a bigger deal than ever in a set with Spellburst as a principle mechanic. It's not even that bad a card, it just doesn't especially fit in current Paladin decks.

Those are the only slamdunk cards I see though. I think the next most exciting card is actually Gift of Luminance which reminds me a lot of Seal of Champions in terms of power and which seems pretty scary in Murlocadin alongside stuff like Murloc Warleader, Murmy, and Murgur Murgurgle and is also good alongside Shotbot and other Reborn cards.

But the rest seems bad. I suspect that with testing we'll find that Argent Braggart is not good; while it scales to the biggest threat on the board in a way similar to Faceless Manipulator the big thing is that it's "just stats". It's also weak to silence, and doesn't copy gametext (which was often the actual selling point of Manipulator imo). Ceremonial Maul is okay and obviously dreamy if you get to summon a 9/9 to compliment your 8/8 with Libram of Hope but it seems awkward with other cards in Pure Paladin and seems like overall less value than Underlight Angling Rod. Everything else is truly pack-filling junk including their other two Legendaries :(.

In no special order:

- Lab Partner: I'd be excited by this one drop in a vacuum since it's really strong, but in a format with Spellbook Binder, Cram Session, and Ras Frostwhisper? Terrifying.

- Nature Studies: Seems a bit of a sleeper, but I think this is a much more consistent way to ramp into Overgrowth and Fungal Fortune compared to Lightning Bloom for all the druid decks in Standard.

- Secret Passage: Strongest draw in the history of the game. This card is almost assuredly going to get hit with a nerf.

- Mindrender Illucia: This game has rightly avoided hand disruption for a long time, only to give us three cards that do it in one set. Mindrender is by far the most consistent and concerning (both the DH cards require Outcast to trigger). King Togwaggle got a lot of experimentation as a 8 mana 5/5 that only swapped decks and frequently just made opponents auto-ransom. Mindrender swaps Hands as well as Decks, for only two mana. This card scares me.

- Trueaim Crescent: Hunter and Demon Hunter are already among the best classes in Standard, and both are far more primed to abuse a Light's Justice than Paladin. They'd have probably been excited about a Light's Justice in a vacuum - but a Justice that also gives all your minions pseudo-Rush/pseudo-Wind Fury is just bonkers.

- Playmaker: Another Dark Horse; warrior is the best class around. The idea of curving this into double Restless Mummys or Kargath Bladefists should be giving us all nightmares folks.

Yeah, I was shocked to see it - and at common?!???

Blizz: Azure Drake is too good, it's too much to have a 4/4 Spell Damage that draws a card and has a relevant tribe for 5, we're HoFing it for diversity.

Also Blizz: Here's Steward of Scrolls!

Seems flavorful and fun but awkward and probably not super playable. It's not actually 3 mana, because if you run it out on 3 the Rush is sorta wasted on a 1/4 body; you really want to cast it later with a spell as an immediate follow-up. Sure there's High Roll potential to throw it out there turn 3 and then slam a 4-mana spell like Soul of the Forest the following turn to rock opponents for 10, but that feels like the wrong use for this card.

It's sorta sick on say 5 mana with Ironbark as a 4/8 Windfury Rush (that's most of a Walking Fountain!), but Spell Druid wants to keep its minion count low and I don't think this is good enough there. It's also awkward that in the lategame, it nonbos ("not a combo") with Bog Beam and Ironbark Meanwhile in Shaman, it just doesn't fit into current Totem or Evolve decks. Maybe a new archetype emerges, but this doesn't seem strong enough to prop that archetype up alone as a legendary. Probably dust.

I suspect people come to Hearthpwn for posts like the above "C O N T R O L D E M O N H U N T E R" or "card is trash lul", and dislike walls of text that require reading. Thanks for asking though!

First, -50 DKP because that punny name is terrible. But, card seems good. Similar to Blastmaster Boom this is the "payoff" for a new synergy. This is even more below rate by base - obviously a 5/5 for 7 is unplayable compared to a 7/7 for 7 which is also unplayable but closer to it. The real trick is, how good are the support cards for this? Much like good ol' Dr. 7 himself, I'd say you need to be able to get two 3/3s Reliably to make this "worth" the cost and probably want more like 3 or 4 Released Souls to compensate for the occasional game where this is a 5/5 vanilla. Fortunately, every single Soul Shard card produces two shards - which is a huge deal compared to Bomb cards that produce only one a piece. That means playing even a single Soul card is going to generate enough shards to get good value, and everything else you can cast is just gravy.

In Warlock This feels like it will find its real home, and the reason why is looking at all the supporting cards: currently in Standard, Warlock has no reliable early game boardwipe (they have to wait for Hellfire or play a heavy handed, minion-light deck with Dark Skies) and has no reliable 2 mana removal (they have Nether Breath but that card requires a dragon package). They also like a powerful stabilizing 5-drop outside of dedicated dragon decks again (with Crazed Netherwing). So right off the bat - Soul Shear, School Spirit, and Void Drinker form a great backbone that is reminiscent of classic powerhouse cards like Demonwrath, Darkbomb, Despicable Dreadlord, and Hooked Reaver. Since I think decks are going to naturally be interested in School Spirits and Soul Sheer, it isn't far off to add this as a payoff, and it is definitely worth testing if Spirit Jailer adds enough to the party and helps justify also having Void Drinker and maybe Shadowlight Scholar.

Demon Hunter: I'm less certain this is good - even current "Control" DHs top their curve at 6. There's less need for a card like Soul Shear since the deck already has access to cards like Twin Slice and Chaos Strike to pick off early minions and gain advantage; there's less need for a 1-drop like Jailer in a class with Battlefiend. Marrowslicer is a bit more interesting but DH doesn't hurt for weapons. I'd be surprised if this is good right away.

It's sorta like a reverse-bomb - you shuffle them into deck, they cast when draw to heal you for 2 and replace themselves.

By themselves they seem bad - "Heal 4 randomly later in the game" is sorta blah although this card might still be good enough for a QuestLock deck as a boardclear. But there's tons of other support for Soul Fragments in the set which look spicy all together!

Ran-duin Wrynn has shown us time and time again that "drawing from opponent's deck" is (almost) always worse than drawing from your own, or even generating random cards from your own class. This does give you information as well, which can be powerful but wasn't powerful enough to make stuff like Chameleos a meta-breaker...so I am dubious.

Compared to other late-game value engines both new and old (The Lich King, Chromaggus, Ysera..even Shu'ma and Wrapped Golem, nevermind class cards like Skeletal Dragon, Ancient of Lore, Arch-Villain Rafaam, or Valdris Felgorge or the Galakronds) this seems pretty bad. Of the cards I just listed that see any amount of play, they crucially still have some sort of immediate impact in the form of Taunt, or they draw so many cards that they actually can snowball into an answer if played beyond turn 7. For the most part, for a card that costs more than six to see legitimate play it needs to have immediate impact - see Grommash Hellscream's Charge, Dinotamer Bran's Charge-d pet,   Siamat's Rush + either Windfury or Divine Shield, or the Battle Crys on Alexstraza, Dragonqueen Alexstraza, Murozond the Infinite or the various Galakronds...Supreme Archaeology Warlock is a Tier 2 deck, and isn't even running Rafaam or Felgorge anymore.

This probably needed to be a 6 mana 6/7 or, even better, have Taunt or something to have a real shot at it.