I see your point and I agree to a certain extent, though imho Arch-Villain Rafaam is nothing more than a pale imitation of Elise Starseeker.
I think it's really strong as is, but it would be nice if there was some element of discover to it maybe.
Like you pick between three artifacts and that decides the focus of the legendaries you get. Or they could have given him three artifacts again, and one of them is just the golden monkey... that probably would have been a bit more flavourful and improve the versatility of the card.
Obviously this card is for a slower more midrange focused zoo deck. Hold it for a while, play it and grim rally on the same turn (board of 6 2/2s for 4 mana isn't bad). Also A LOT of AoE effects are cycling out. Dragon's Breath, Duskbreaker, Volcano, etc. etc. so this card might have more traction than it appears to.
One of the issues with Hi'reek decks as an example is there's just not enough efficient ways to fill the board up. This is a lot better than Fiendish Circle in a lot of respects. So more akin to a token druid deck than current zoo lock. We'll see if they give it enough other tools to help that deck along.
I think it is weak on purpose, if you draw this and you have a bad hand, Just use Rafaam and make it a legendary.
This is true as well. Another issue with Hi'reek handbuff decks is if you draw Hi'reek late it's a super weak card. Rafaam lets you transform it into something useful.
i once get a mistake by discarding the buffed card. silly me...
so Prince Keleseth and other buff cards is a must i suppose?
I think this card only works with Spirit of the Bat in the deck. A version with Keleseth might work okay, alongside the other generic handbuff card (Spiteful Warlock?) because at 3/3 Hir'eek is pretty good.
I tried something similar. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but it's a nice new version of Zoolock, without the massive highroll on Keleseth or the perfect Heal-opening.
I put in Knife Juggler and Dire Wolf Alpha. The Wolf helps as another activator for the eggs, lets the Spirit attack and just goes nicely with all the small minions when you need to trade up. Juggler is just generally strong when you can summon multiple minions in one turn, like with the eggs, Doubling Imp and Saronite Chain Gang.
I'm not so sure about Vicious Fledgling and Sanguine Reveler. Fledgling doesn't look too appealing to me right now (maybe I'm wrong) and I tried out Reveler myself and wasn't impressed by his performance.
I like Reveler as an activator for Spirit of the Bat and Scarab Egg. Vicious Scalehide hasn't been working out so well so I think I'm gonna swap it for Doomguard who can just end the game.
All right, so Doomguard didn't work because he would just discard all my handbuffed stuff.
One issue I'm having with this deck is unless I get a big buffed board early with Grim Rally or something huge with Soul Infusion I really just lose to all the AoE against any control devck. The deck doesn't really play like an aggro deck, or maybe I'm just not playing it aggressively enough. I've been considering adding something like Fungalmancer for some mid game power and to put some of my guys out of range of AoE.
I'm not sure if this is a deck issue or an issue with my inexperience as a player.
He's a fine finisher. You only really need to buff him to be a 3/3 for him to be threatening. 4/4 for him to be a good win condition (except against control mage, warrior or priest). I think he's fine in a zoo deck but I don't really see it outside of that.
Yeah, I'm not as sold on Hir'reek (I think Doomguard might be a better finisher) but Spirit of the Bat is an incredibly cool card.
Have you had much luck with Scalehide? I find it's a little slow. But it does have nice synergy with grim rally as well. I also don't know if this sort of zoo deck wants healing because the longer the game goes, the more likely you are to lose.
Halazzi and Springpaw make Timber Wolf a deadly, deadly card. Along with the synergy it already has with Carnassa's Brood.
This deck is SO much fun to play. It's really aggressive and plays a lot of minions so it's hard for slower decks to handle, but with Rexxar and Carnassa it also has a nice long game plan.
The lynx cards and the new hunter weapon make it really good against aggro and zoo decks as well.
Wasn't too sure about Dire Frenzy, but it's just a nice card and it synergizes nicely with the lynx. Helpless Hatchling works reasonably well too. Can get Halazzi or Carnassa out cheaper or play Tundra Rhino for cheaper. Sometimes it hits a 1 drop and that's okay. Hatchling combos nicely with Tundra Rhino too, though.
Ideally all the AoE 4/5-cost zoo hate cards they've interspersed through out the set will be the death of aggro decks. (Seriously, the number of 3-damage mid-game AoEs added in this set is crazy). A lot of clears for turn 5 spell stones, level ups, or the 3-health boards that zoo locks summon or more decks that just wanna run Witchwood Grizzly.
Healadin is gonna be really good against combo decks, and honestly most of the new decks are big minion-based or have much bigger mid-game power swings.
I also think all the new rush stuff that's being introduced is going to have a big impact against aggro. It'll be hard to win the board.
I dunno what's the best, but the decks I really want to run are:
Feral Druid, Hand Druid, Zombie Priest (Bwonsomdi Deathrattle), Quest Hunter, Quest Warlock and Elemental Handmage.
When you can actually activate this (late game) 2 damage isn't particularly useful. It's great pre-turn 4 but you're unlikely to be able to activate it then.
Might be good in some weird spell shaman deck that runs a lot of cheap spells, but I dunno what that would look like. Would have been so much better as a priest or mage card.
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This card is really nothing like chameleos other than the "spying" aspect. It's a decent 3 drop that cycles itself.
Chameleos is way slower and way more inconsistent.
This is kind of just a solid early game staple in priest like glimmerroot was at one point.
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I think it's really strong as is, but it would be nice if there was some element of discover to it maybe.
Like you pick between three artifacts and that decides the focus of the legendaries you get. Or they could have given him three artifacts again, and one of them is just the golden monkey... that probably would have been a bit more flavourful and improve the versatility of the card.
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Cheap enrage activator, gives you a lot of high value cards. I think it'll see play in Rush Warrior.
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Obviously this card is for a slower more midrange focused zoo deck. Hold it for a while, play it and grim rally on the same turn (board of 6 2/2s for 4 mana isn't bad). Also A LOT of AoE effects are cycling out. Dragon's Breath, Duskbreaker, Volcano, etc. etc. so this card might have more traction than it appears to.
One of the issues with Hi'reek decks as an example is there's just not enough efficient ways to fill the board up. This is a lot better than Fiendish Circle in a lot of respects. So more akin to a token druid deck than current zoo lock. We'll see if they give it enough other tools to help that deck along.
This is true as well. Another issue with Hi'reek handbuff decks is if you draw Hi'reek late it's a super weak card. Rafaam lets you transform it into something useful.
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Sightless Ranger is a cool idea, I added Fungal at some point (need to update the original post).
Was not a huge fan of Argus or Dire Wolf really. Though that may be that I just don't know how to play the deck well enough.
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I think this card only works with Spirit of the Bat in the deck. A version with Keleseth might work okay, alongside the other generic handbuff card (Spiteful Warlock?) because at 3/3 Hir'eek is pretty good.
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The point is they're nerfing the value and power of those legendaries, but not providing meaningful compensation for those nerfs.
I'm not sure a full refund is in order and I don't know if it's a conspiracy, but something to compensate for that would be nice.
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I like Reveler as an activator for Spirit of the Bat and Scarab Egg. Vicious Scalehide hasn't been working out so well so I think I'm gonna swap it for Doomguard who can just end the game.
All right, so Doomguard didn't work because he would just discard all my handbuffed stuff.
One issue I'm having with this deck is unless I get a big buffed board early with Grim Rally or something huge with Soul Infusion I really just lose to all the AoE against any control devck. The deck doesn't really play like an aggro deck, or maybe I'm just not playing it aggressively enough. I've been considering adding something like Fungalmancer for some mid game power and to put some of my guys out of range of AoE.
I'm not sure if this is a deck issue or an issue with my inexperience as a player.
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He's a fine finisher. You only really need to buff him to be a 3/3 for him to be threatening. 4/4 for him to be a good win condition (except against control mage, warrior or priest). I think he's fine in a zoo deck but I don't really see it outside of that.
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Yeah, I'm not as sold on Hir'reek (I think Doomguard might be a better finisher) but Spirit of the Bat is an incredibly cool card.
Have you had much luck with Scalehide? I find it's a little slow. But it does have nice synergy with grim rally as well. I also don't know if this sort of zoo deck wants healing because the longer the game goes, the more likely you are to lose.
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So this deck is really fun. I got Hir'reek as my free Loa. So I kinda wanted to make him work.
And at the very least this deck is fun. If I draw Spirit of the Bat this deck can go off.
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Halazzi and Springpaw make Timber Wolf a deadly, deadly card. Along with the synergy it already has with Carnassa's Brood.
This deck is SO much fun to play. It's really aggressive and plays a lot of minions so it's hard for slower decks to handle, but with Rexxar and Carnassa it also has a nice long game plan.
The lynx cards and the new hunter weapon make it really good against aggro and zoo decks as well.
Wasn't too sure about Dire Frenzy, but it's just a nice card and it synergizes nicely with the lynx. Helpless Hatchling works reasonably well too. Can get Halazzi or Carnassa out cheaper or play Tundra Rhino for cheaper. Sometimes it hits a 1 drop and that's okay. Hatchling combos nicely with Tundra Rhino too, though.
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Ideally all the AoE 4/5-cost zoo hate cards they've interspersed through out the set will be the death of aggro decks. (Seriously, the number of 3-damage mid-game AoEs added in this set is crazy). A lot of clears for turn 5 spell stones, level ups, or the 3-health boards that zoo locks summon or more decks that just wanna run Witchwood Grizzly.
Healadin is gonna be really good against combo decks, and honestly most of the new decks are big minion-based or have much bigger mid-game power swings.
I also think all the new rush stuff that's being introduced is going to have a big impact against aggro. It'll be hard to win the board.
I dunno what's the best, but the decks I really want to run are:
Feral Druid, Hand Druid, Zombie Priest (Bwonsomdi Deathrattle), Quest Hunter, Quest Warlock and Elemental Handmage.
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But they have rush, they're never going to stick around on the board anyway.
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It's a good card but WEIRDLY designed.
When you can actually activate this (late game) 2 damage isn't particularly useful. It's great pre-turn 4 but you're unlikely to be able to activate it then.
Might be good in some weird spell shaman deck that runs a lot of cheap spells, but I dunno what that would look like. Would have been so much better as a priest or mage card.