Hearthpwn

https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/235829-i-review-every-card-in-savior-of-uldum-and-my-top

I wrote a card review of the entire set, only for it to be marked as spam :(

I am SO excited for this set.

TL;DR

Ten best cards of the set:

#1 Tomb Warden

#2 Oasis Surger

#3 Dark Pharoah Tekkan

#4 Weaponized Wasp

#5 Rift Cleaver

#6 Untapped Potential

#7 Bazaar Burglary

#8 Embalming Ritual

#9 Evil Recruiter

#10 Corrupt the Waters

Druid:

Quest – Untapped Potential. 5 Stars. Untapped Potential looks slow to get going, but also easy and reliable to finish before turn 10. New choose one cards allow this deck to put massive boards into play out of nowhere, which will synergize nicely with Druid’s wide board effects. It’s so good, it will likely bring synergistic cards into the fold from old expansions and the classic set that haven’t seen play in a while, if at all. I hope that the awkward curve restriction that the quest places it in the early game keeps this from the very top of the meta, since we’ve all had enough druidstone for a few more years.

Minion – Garden Gnome – 1 star. Even though it works with the quest druid’s wide buffs and quest druid has some big spells, it’s still not strong enough, which means I don’t think it ever will be.

Minion – Crystal Merchant – 4 stars. Just put it in your quest druid and throw it down on turn 3. It’s a way better mana tide totem. Also, it’s dripping with great flavor.

Minion – Oasis Surger – 5 stars.  This is why you play quest druid. This just wins games.

Spell – Worthy Expedition – 5 stars. It’s a better raven idol that’s tailored to this extremely powerful deck.

Minion – Elise the Enlightened. 2 Stars. It’s hard to see this synergizing well with the new quest druid archetype, despite its powerful effect and decent statline. Watch out for this to rebound if a control or combo druid archetype works in future metas.

Minion – Anubisath Defender. 4 stars. Druid loved playing Arcane Tyrant, and this is basically a reprint. And with nourish and Starfall suddenly relevant, expect this card to be in most quest druids. One reason this isn’t quite the 5 star level of Arcane Tyrant despite better stats is that Druid isn’t constantly holding UI.

Spell - Hidden Oasis – 5 stars. I for one welcome our new quest druid overlords. The one meaningful way you can shut down this powerful archetype is to go face early while Druid is playing inefficiently. This shuts down your progress.

Spell - Overflow – 1 star. You’re just not going to have room for this since it’s a big spell without a choose one effect. A control druid or combo druid isn’t going to be relevant this cycle since Quest druid will push them out.

Spell – Beeees!!! – 3 stars. It’s just really good flexible removal. Doesn’t fit in with quest druid well, but I think it’s so strong it still makes the cut occasionally.  

Hunter

Quest – Unseal the Vault – 2 stars. It’s pretty much just a meme, and other hunter decks are so much better. It will be very fringe.

Spell - Swarm of Locusts – 1 star. The quest isn’t good even with this, and this has no other application.

Minion - Hyena Alpha – 1 star. It’s incredibly strong. It could be 5 stars if hunter had real secret synergy. But no hunter decks run any secrets, and I don’t see that changing for just this one card.

Minion - Ramkahen Wildtamer – 1 star. You can’t play master’s call with this.

Minion – Dinotamer Brann – 1 star. No one’s playing reno hunter. Even if you do, this is just ok.

Minion – Wild Bloodstinger – 1 star. The effect is powerful, but it’s just not a card that fits with the class, so there’s no reason to play it.

Minion – Scarlet Webweaver – 4 stars. It might not stick around in the meta for long, but this guy and tundra rhino is an incredible combo, and it’s just fine with other beasts too. Especially if Helazzi the Lynx makes a comeback in quest hunter.

Spell - Hunter’s Pack – 1 star. It’s a nice idea, but there are so many bad options you can get from this. It’s not reliable at all, and master’s call isn’t going away.

Secret – Pressure plate – 1 star. Too many conditions, too easy to play around. There isn’t really even any secret hunter support right now anyway.

Weapon – Desert Spear – 2 stars. It’s just barely good enough in quest hunter, which I’m not sure is even going to be a thing.

Mage

Quest – Raid the sky temple – 3 stars. It’s a really low barrier for most mage decks, and the reward is a significant upgrade to your hero power. But I can’t see it as a tier one archetype because it doesn’t synergize with any strong mage concept except the antonidas OTK, which isn’t strong enough right now.

Minion – Reno the Relicologist – 1 star. That’s a great effect on a well stated minion, but there is no great incentive outside of this to play reno deck. So it’s not going to be viable.

Minion - Naga Sand Witch – 3 stars. Nothing more than a meme here. And that meme is playing two Yogg Saron’s Puzzle Box’s in one turn. Or two pyroblasts I guess. Okay, I’ll bump it from 2 to 3.

Minion - Dune Sculptor – 3 stars. Anything with the text “after you cast a random spell” has a home in mage right now. I’m not sure if it’s worth it, even despite the obvious synergy with Mana Cyclone.

Spell – Ancient Mysteries – 4 stars. Not only do you draw a card and play it on turn 2, it keeps up your secrets for the crazy secret mage synergies out there right now.

Spell – Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron – 3 Stars. This will impact so many games of discovery and generation, and I think some decks are going to hard run it. Any mage that can get to the late game has a reason to run this baby, and there are some fun synergies with big spell minions like sunreaver warmage and Tortollan Pilgrim.

Minion – Tortollan Pilgrim – 4 stars. He’s the reason for a big spell mage archetype to exist, and I think it’s going to be a tier 3 deck. It isn’t hard to build that kind of deck, and the rewards get pretty nuts.

Minion – Arcane Flakmage – 4 stars. Secret mage has been a thing so many times in hearthstone, and it’s got more support cards right now than it ever has. I’m not sure they’re as cohesive as the arconolosit list from last year, but the midrange secret mage should be ok, and this card is the payoff for playing it.

Minion – Cloud Prince – 4 stars. I’m sorry, THIS is the payoff for playing it. But remember, if its not a tier 1 deck, this guy still isn’t going to be 5 stars.

Spell – Flame Ward – 1 star. I’m sorry, but I hate this design. It’s the clunkiest card in the game. I’d rather play vaporize. At least I know what’s going to happen with vaporize.

Paladin

Quest – Making Mummies – 3 stars. I’m really not sure about how to rank this. But my hunch is that it disappoints, along with pretty much the whole paladin class. Aggressive quests have never been viable except rogue, which isn’t anything like this.

Minion – Sir Finley of the Sands – 1 star. There’s so much inconsistency here. You have to draw finley, a one of, in a bad deck in a bad class. And then you don’t get to predict which hero power you’ll get. I realize that you have some control over getting an aggressive hero power or a value one, but it’s not worth changing your gameplan on the fly because you don’t get the power you’re looking for.

Spell – Tip the Scales – 4 stars. I think murloc paladin will be just okay, but this is the best card in it. Instant boards and potential burst damage from this card are a fantastic reward to committing to a true murloc deck.

Minion – Micro Mummy – 3 stars. That’s a pretty annoying minion to remove, but I’m not buying paladin reborn zoo. Warlock will just do it better.

Minion – Brazen Zealot – 3 stars. Good one drops get played.

Minion – Sahlet’s Pride – 1 star. Play an awful minion to get a bunch of tiny minions in the mid game? Why not just play lackeys?

Spell – Pharoah’s Blessing – 1 star. Is taunt and divine shield on kings worth six mana? Absolutely not.

Minion – Sandwasp Queen – 1 star. One Sahlet’s Pride was one too many! One health minions aren’t good. In order to make them good, you need a massive payoff for playing them. And if this is somehow good, people will be playing 1 damage aoe to deal with the reborns anyway, so it basically has antisynergy with reborn.

Minion – Ancestral Guardian – 1 star. This is too easy to clear and doesn’t offer enough healing for a card with so little versatility to things other than heal you.

Spell – Subdue – 1 star. Equality shouldn’t have died for this garbage. It’s strictly better than hunter’s mark (except on enemy zero attack minions, I guess). It’ll see no play.

Priest

Quest - Activate the Obelisk – 1 star. That buff isn’t signicant by the time you manage to finish this very difficult quest. And more importantly, you’re not going to finish the quest. You’re going to die, or even if you finish it just before you die, you won’t have time to use the buffs.

Spell – Penance. 1 star. Not impactful enough to stand out from priest’s better single target removal. And it’s not going to matter for the quest because no one’s going to play the quest.

Spell - Holy Ripple - 3 stars. The potential with existing heal synergies is so good that it doesn’t matter if the quest sinks. This will always have a niche roll in priest decks to deal with agro.

Minion – Sandhoof Waterbearer – 4 stars. Just put it in every priest deck.

Minion - High Priest Amet – 4 stars. It’s so sticky! And your opponent absolutely has to burn their hard removal on it, which they can’t afford to do in the inner fire deck you’re playing it in. Really nice way to shut down agro decks. The big weakness is that damaging it will weaken the effect, but I think healing will be sufficient in neutralizing that. Most of the time, you’re happy as priest if minions are trading into your 4 drop.

Spell – Plague of Death – 5 stars. Deathrattles look to be all the rage this expansion, and mechs and mummies will probably give added value to this as the ultimate control tool. Every slow priest is running two of ‘em.

Minion – Psychopomp – 4 stars. The effect is incredible, but last expansion, the big priest synergy just wasn’t there. I think this card puts it over the top, but I’m ready to be wrong on this one.

Minion - Grandmummy – 3 stars. Mind Blast died for this. Between this and extra arms, zoo priest would have been tier one if it had a finisher, but it doesn’t. I think grandmummy, cleric and arms is a solid deck with sand drudge, and I’ll be playing a lot of it. But it’s nothing to worry about as far as a top tier deck.

Minion – Wretched Reclaimer – 2 stars. I think it isn’t going to be in reborn decks, but in big priest decks. And it’s got a niche roll there.

Spell – Embalming Ritual – 5 stars. And here’s the payoff for playing big priest. Turn 10, you psychopomp, psychopomp, emblaming ritual, embalming ritual on your big bad archmagi or your archmage vargoth or whatever.

Rogue

Quest – Bazaar Burglary – 5 stars. Just throw it into your temp rogue and thief rogues and don’t even think twice. Forget Tess Greymane and Espionage and all the bad thief cards, just play rise of shadows rogue with a sick weapon.

Minion – Anka, Buried – 2 stars. It seems crazy to underrate this card, but I just don’t see it. You have to play a 5 drop that doesn’t change the board and weakens the stats in your hands, just so that you can play deathrattles faster, and they become much easier to remove. I’m not really seeing the value payoff of this. It’s a lot like Talanji. You’ll just waste your hand! One caveat to this review – if this makes the echoed Snip-Snaps all cost 1, then I would put it at 4 stars and you’d play a deathrattle mech rogue. But I don’t think it works that way. Also, this card’s name and art design is horrible.

Spell – Clever Disguise – 4 stars. Put it in your thief/tempo rogues. Get the quest done right away and kill ‘em.

Minion – Whirlkick Master - 1 star. As many people online have wisely pointed out, most combo cards are trash.

Spell – Shadow of Death – 1 star. It’s really cool looking. But it’s never going to work.

Spell - Plague of Madness – 1 star. The effect is too small to really take advantage of a mutual card like this.

Minion - Bazaar Madness – 4 stars. You’re putting pilfer on a 4 mana 3/5 body with rush? Sign me up. Just throw it in your tempo rogue with the quest. Easy.

Minion - Sahket Sapper – 1 star. Sapping lackey’s is really bad. And that’s all you’re ever going to do.

Weapon – Hooked Scimitar – 1 star. It’s a nice idea, but I prefer never ending Fiery War Axes with immune.

Minion – Pharaoh Cat – 1 star. If feel like no one realizes this is a play on the term “feral cat.” Anyway, I’m playing the quest on turn 1, not this.

Shaman

Quest – Corrupt the Waters – 5 stars. It’s easy to complete, the reward is pretty huge, and it’s got tons of strong support. The only way this one isn’t a top tier deck is if it gets pushed out by how great the other shaman archetypes are going to be.

Spell – Plague of Murlocs – 4 stars. Hex crowds it out a bit, so it’s not 5 stars. But it’s more flexible than hex and it’s fantastic in murloc shaman.

Weapon – Splitting Axe – 1 star. I love snowballing cards, especially snowballing weapons. But totem shaman? Come on blizzard.

Spell - Earthquake – 1 star. Hagatha’s Scheme laughs at how bad this is. I don’t care if reborn and deathrattles rules the world, this is garbage.

Minion - Sandstorm Elemental – 5 stars. Elemental Shaman isn’t that far off from being a thing right now, and this card is off the charts. It’s in every shaman deck except big shaman, and it might make its own archetype.

Minion - Mogu Fleshshaper – 1 star. I don’t like to underrate giants, and this is basically a really bad giant. But the stats are just garbage. Rogue can do this for 2 mana and doesn’t even include that card most of the time. Also, what a terrible name.

Minion - Vessina – 4 stars. Most shaman decks are overloaded a lot, so the strong buff effect is easy enough to get off. The minion has great stats considering that.

Spell – Totemic Surge – 1 star. No one’s playing totem shaman.

Minion – Weaponized Wasp – 5 stars. Is the resident sleeper of Saviors of Uldum? It’s a fantastic on curve battlecry, with the quest, that can be used for crazy burst. Nerf candidate right here.

Minion – Evil Totem – 3 stars. I would give this one star, but Weaponized Wasp exists.

Warlock

Quest – Supreme Archaeology – 1 star. It’s just too antisynergetic with the hero power you get, and it’s too hard to pull off. Count me out except for memes, and play zoo.

Minion – Dark Pharaoh Tekahn – 5 stars. Blizzard looked at lackeys and zoo and thought, hmm…. These two things need more rewards for being together. What were they thinking! At least we’ll get a full 1600 dust reward when this gets nerfed.

Minion – Riftcleaver – 5 stars. Put in zoo, make a deck around it, get your healing, it’s just the best tempo card out there. Kill a guy, get a 7/5, win the game.

Minion – Diseased Vulture – 3 stars. It’s a crazy effect to keep on your radar for future expansions. Right now, it doesn’t seem like the heal zoo package is going to be better than the full on lackey zoo. I had this card rated one star at first, but the very powerful Neferset Thrasher in addition to Flame Imp, crystalizer and Rift Cleaver make me think this could work.

Minion - Neferset Thrasher – 4 stars. The drawback is easily offset by the powerful stat line. You can play it, force a bad trade, and never even take the damage. And it activates Diseased Vulture if you do attack. Not only do I think the heal zoo package will be a tier 3 version, this card is so good it just goes into the lackey zoo.

Spell - Sinister Deal – 3 stars. It’s weak on its own, but it’s a support tool you need for the all powerful lackey zoo. So it’ll see play.

Spell – Impbalming – 1 star. I think this card is strong on paper, but it’s not a control warlock expansion. It’s another zoo expansion, and this card is awful in zoo.

Minion – Expired Merchant – 1 star. There aren’t enough strong disco mechanics to support it, and it doesn’t fit in zoo.

Spell – plague of flames – 1 star. That’s just too clunky regardless of support or the meta. It’s got more support than it ever will right now thanks to token warlock stuff from Rise of Shadows, and it’s still garbage.

Minion – Evil Recruiter. 5 stars. Thank god you can’t reliably do this on turn 3. It’s still broken, it’s still the payoff for lackey zoo, besides the new legendary. Ironically, it’s got antisynergy with the legendary. I love the flavor of sacrificing your lackey’s that warlock has going on. It makes so much sense.

Warrior

Quest – Hack the system – 1 star. Nice try Blizz, I’m playing Dr. Boom.

Minion – Armored Goon – 1 star. This is for the quest exclusively. No one’s playing this quest.

Minion – Armagedillo – 3 stars. Beasts don’t have rush with Dr. Boom. Neither do taunts, except Zilliax, which is the only reason this is interesting, even with the taunt synergies. I think there’s a flavor of Dr. Boom warrior with extra taunts like Bronze Gatekeeper, Tomb Warden, and Zilliax. I’m not sure it’s the optimal control warrior, but it’s there. This might work in my Mech’a’thun warrior too.

Minion – Bloodsworn Mercenary – 1 star. That’ll be a nice combo piece in some later set, but it’s not a control warrior card, so it’s not seeing play right now.

Weapon – Livewire Lance – 1 star. Warrior already has too many good weapons to choose from for this to see play.

Spell – Into the Fray – 3 stars. Clunky, but really powerful with Armagedillo. It’s in the weird taunt control warrior.

Spell – Plague of Wrath – 1 star. It’s just never better than brawl when it comes down to it, and you don’t need both. Also, what an awful name.

Minion – Tomb Warden – 5 stars. Can I give it six stars? It’s crazy in Dr. Boom warrior as is. And it makes the taunt version of that list incredible.

Minion – Restless Mummy – 1 star. Tempo warrior? Hahahhahahahahahhahaha

Minion – Frightened Flunky – 5 stars. Battlecry: discover Armagedillo, frightened flunky and Tomb Warden.

Neutral (all cards are minions)

Colossus of the Moon – 3 stars. It’s so big and tough to deal with that it will slide into some big decks. It’s not quite as much of a meme as it looks like.

Siamat – 5 stars. It’s the new Zilliax.

King Pharois – 4 stars. It’s good in big mage and big druid at least. It’s probably great in priest too. I’m just not sure any of those are top tier decks.

Injured Tol’vir – 1 star. It’s aiming for the quest priest and some midrange reseurrect decks, and those aren’t going to exist or be good.

Beaming sidekick – 1 star. Just weak pack filler.

Temple Berserker – 2 stars. This actually could see some play in lackey zoo or agro priest.

Serpent Egg – 1 star. Deathrattles will try to exploit it. And egg has some chance, but I’m voting against this underpowered omelet.

Bug Collector – 1 star. Nice idea for quest hunter, but it won’t put it over the top and it isn’t strong enough unless you’re making exceptional use of the locust.

Candletaker – 1 star. Just pack filler since the paladin quest isn’t going to justify it.

Zephrys the Great – 2 stars. It’s a really fun effect, and I love that it’s in the game. But I don’t see it, or the LoE legendaries, as enough incentive to play highlander decks amid other strong archetypes from this set.

Golden Scarab – 1 star. Jeweled scarab wasn’t ever good. This is worse.

Octosari – 1 star. It seems like the meme combo legendary of the deck, but I just don’t see the payoff.

Desert Hare – 3 stars. It’s so efficient for generating tokens that some decks, probably druid or warlock, will make use of it somewhere.

Mischief Maker – 2 stars. It’s just combo hate that Blizzard prints for no reason every expansion.

Living Monument – 1 star. I don’t think this is what big priest and shaman are looking for. I could be very wrong here.

Pit Crocolisk – 3 stars. It’s too expensive for real synergy, but it’s kind of just automatic tempo by itself. Very reminiscent of Bonemare. Watch out for a potential sleeper here.

History Buff - 1 star. That’s about as practical as getting a history degree.

Vulpera Scoundrel – 2 stars. The flexibility won’t make up for the cost, even in secret mage.

Quicksand Elemental – 3 stars. Strong candidate for elemental shaman, agro priest, and zoo. I’m not sure it ends up in any of them, but I’m willing to hedge with this guy because he’s so efficiently costed.

Wasteland Scorpion – 1 star. Pack filler! Get your pack filler here!

Blatant Decoy – 1 star. I just can’t imagine this being relevant, even in a combo mirror meta.

Faceless Lurker – 1 star. Without handbuffs, it’s a fen creeper. So it’s a fen creeper that’s even weaker to silence.

 Phalanx Commander – 1 star. Taunt Boom warrior has better things to do than you, Mr. Commander. It would be a funny meme with the locust hunter spell.

Body Wrapper – 1 star. Too inconsistent for any kind of combo, no other utility.

Kobold Sandtrooper – 4 stars. It might sneak into mech hunter or other extremely aggressive face decks, especially ones that can leverage deathrattles. Might work in lackey zoo or agro shaman.

Dwarven Archaeologist – 1 star. That ain’t living.

Spitting camel – 2 stars. I’m just not sure what deck needs that effect. And if you’re hitting your own minions without synergy, you immediately negate the one extra health on the camel.

History

Desert Obelisk – 1 star. I’m not saying no one’s going to make a deck that abuses this combo. I’m just saying it’s not going to be reliable.

Mogu Cultist – 1 star. See Desert Obelisk.

Mortuary Mechanic – 1 star. 5 mana, lose the game. I’d literally rather play millhouse.

Questing Explorer – 5 stars. The quests mostly look good. And this goes in all of those decks.

Neferset Ritualist – 3 stars. It’s an occasional include in big priest. Even then, I’m kind of skeptical.

Infested Coblin – 1 star. That’s a far cry from Tar Creeper. It’s just not that hard to bash through this, and Blizzard released a bunch of other good neutral taunts that do this better.

Generous Mummy – 1 star. Nice design, but it’s trash!

Sunstruck henchman – 1 star. Oh blizzard, silence priest is never going to be a thing again.

Conjured Mirage – 4 stars. That’s just an unbelievable stall card. People are going to hate this so bad it might get nerfed or just ruin hearthstone for a while.

Khartut Defender – 4 stars. That’s a lot of health. It’s better than sludge belcher!

Wrapped Golem – 1 stars. I think we can wrap up the case for this card.

Jar Dealer – 1 star. It doesn’t give you lackeys.

Murmy – 3 stars. It’s basically mecharoo without the mech tag. But that’s not bad.

Fish flinger – 3 stars. It’s an occasional include in murloc shaman and paladin, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Anubisath Warbringer – 1 star. I’ve picked up on a trend of Blizzard’s. Every card with “Anubisath” in it’s name is complete trash.

Wasteland assassin – 1 star. AoE is a thing.

Vilefiend – 2 stars. You just know there are going to be some niche decks that want exactly this card just for the effect and the mana cost.

Bone Wraith – 4 stars. It’s a fantastic defensive tool, but it’s crowded out by all these other good neutrals just like it.

Quick update:

This deck is obviously bad against Mill Decks. I just ran into 3 in a row. But I beat one who banned Shrivallah by banning Branching Paths and killing him with Holy Wrath + Lich King before he could get me to fatigue. 

On pace for 30K Dust and 2K Gold. 

Played a version of this from rank 10 to rank 5 today. I feel like a degenerate, but I locked up that Golden Epic next month :).

I cut both tracking, both arcane shot, for two vicious fledgling, a second wolfrider, and tinkmaster overspark. 

OFantastic deck! I was stuck at rank 2 surrounded by even warlocks, wall priests, and OTK priests. This deck does well against all three, and I threw in a tinkmaster overspark to hard counter the priests (and hit some Giants too).

Even when Tinkmaster doesn't highroll, it often turns your glacial shard, firefly, or Keleseth into a 5/5. I cut one Tar Creeper for Tinkmaster. If you're playing against a more aggressive meta, I would cut a glacial shard or Lich King for it. Lich King is surprisingly weak against Priests. 

I also have one disagreement with the mulligan guide. I think this deck should be far more conservative on mulligans, since every card you mulligan increases your chances of getting UI early. I kept Greedy Spries, Spellbreakers, chain gangs and funglemancers almost regardless of matchup.

edit: One other thing. These are the available 10 cost minions in standard:

Ultrasaur (7/14), Tyrantus (12/12 spectral), Sea Giant (8/8), Mulchmuncer (8/8 rush), Mecha'thun (10/10, Hakkar (9/6 DR), Emeriss (8/8), Deathwing (12/12).

 The key things to note about that list: There are ZERO taunts at 10 mana. If you play this and you're dead on board, you will never get a tuant. You could get Mulchmuncher. You have a 12.5% chance to do so. That should inform your decision to try that as opposed to either playing UI or Archivist from hand, or playing taunts or other rush/charge minions when you're losing. Worth noting, Mulchmuncher DOES NOT work like charged devilsaur and cannot go face immediately when summoned. Mecha'thun and Hakkar have some fringe benefits that rarely come into play, but can give you some funny highlights. I did win because of Hakkar in one case, never Mecha'thun, since you would need to play both UI. But usually, getting Hakkar is a death sentence if you were planning on playing another Spiteful, since the corrupted bloods are 1 mana spells.