When the armies of darkness come to bay at your door, To defeat them, old weapons will aid you no more. Fairly simple, just implying that this card is good against a wide board.
Cast down your axe, learn to embrace your pain, And answer the call of the blood in your veins. This and the "old weapons" line refer to Fiery War Axe, which used to be a great anti-Aggro tool, but is easily outclassed by Blood Razor now. Also references Blood and that the card damages friendly minions.
Annihilate them, hack and slash, raze them all! One, two, through and through, your foes they will fall. Some fun blade imagery, and also a hint towards Razor. The "One, Two" is the 1 damage to all minions followed by the 2 damage from attacking with the Blood Razor.
To stem the dark tide, do what you must do, But as you mete out death, know your blood must flow too. Another reference to the symmetrical effect of the card, and Blood.
With Boomsday, Shudderwock should be pretty far on the decline, since Control decks can use Azalina Soulthief to copy your opponent's Shudderwocks as 1 Mana cards infinitely, and Warrior should actually be able to out-armor the damage from Shudderwock. On top of that, aggro is still going to be a very serious force in the meta with Zoolock getting new tools, and Malygos Druid will be able to destroy Shudderwock because it's the faster, and thus better combo deck in the matchup. Even though we didn't get a direct counter card to Shudderwock, (besides Demonic Project ofc) the state of the meta and the mechanic change with Azalina Soulthief will probably push it down to a tier 2 or 3 deck, where it'll see a lot less play.
A very expensive late game removal that gives your opponent a super buffed
Cursed!
card. This has the added bonus of being insane against Giants that cost more than ten, as your opponent won't be able to play the card, and will simply be taking an extra 8 damage per turn unless they can discard or
transform
the card.
Although I know it's supposed to be a fun card for new players with no collections, I hope that Blizz considers that some of them might want to start playing Wild and this would be a great way to slowly get them introduced to more cards from Wild. This is also a great card for returning players without much in the way of a standard collection, but who still want to be able to play, and letting them have access to fun, nostalgic Wild cards would be a great idea too. Blizzard said that they wanted to push Wild more this year, so I hope that they stick true to that with Whizbang.
Weirdly enough, I actually like Living Mana in a Hand Druid deck with Witchwood Apple and all those cards, because it gives you a super legitimate reason for not playing cards from your hand without keeping you behind on board. I think I'm really starting to see all the deckbuilding mad science *robot clone* Peter was talking about in the Dev Insight video.
Luna draws a card AFTER the card is played, so it's not clear which effect will trigger first just from the text. You'd have to test with another effect that triggers after a card like Wild Pyromancer with an Echo spell to see for sure which effect triggers first.
6-health is indeed harder to deal with...............on turn 4. On turn 10 it's laughable. There's a reason you go with 5/10 Taunt and not 10/5 when you play Ancient of War. In the late game, high attack low health minions (THAT ALSO DON'T DO ANYTHING ON THE TURN YOU PLAY THEM) are meaningless in every scenario that isn't two players in topdeck mode. I daresay that Soggoth the Slitherer is a better late game taunt than this. What turn 10 combo are you planning on pulling off with this?
So let's talk about Shudderwock. What card(s) are you taking out to include this in? Why is this card better than some other Taunt that you could run (but currently are not)?
If you're running this card as a valuable 10 drop, you're doing it wrong. The point of the card is that it's a 4 drop Taunt, and it happens to get a huge upgrade if you don't draw it or end up playing it before you have 10 mana. It's not better than any other big card, even an Ultrasaur on turn 10 if you're topdecking, but it's miles better than any one of them on turn 4 since it's playable, and that's why you would run the card. It naturally helps you stall out the game in slow decks, and then rewards you for slowing down the game, giving you an extra bonus for running a combo deck or ramp druid or whatever you're playing that wants to get to 10 mana anyway. It's a Stegodon, but instead of having its possible impact on the board flatline by turn 10, this spikes back up to a 4 mana 12/6 on turn 10, which means you can play it alongside other cards like board clears and removal.
As for Shudderwock deck techs, it depends on the post-expansion meta. I'd say that there's ~25 must have cards in the deck at the moment and ~5 slots for tech options, so it would simply be a tech card you run if you want more insurance in case the combo fails, without having to run an otherwise useless Murmuring Elemental. If there's a highly midrange meta where both stopping early game aggression and having value in the late game are useful in most of your games, that is where Omega Defender, and probably all of the Omega Projects, will shine.
By this reasoning literally every 4-drop ever printed is better than a late game card. No deck is running Stegodon, they won't suddenly start running this. Like I mentioned before, Priest doesn't even run Tortollan Shellraiser which has the exact same stats and has a bonus effect. As for Shudderwock, I'm already seeing (and playing with) lists that don't run Murmuring, and they pretty consistently generate the combo. The scenario you're describing (where you need late game value, AND don't pull off the combo for some reason) is fringe, and this inclusion of Omega Defender to try and reduce a tiny loss percentage just weakens the deck instead.
Feel free to quote me on this, but Omega Defender will see no play whatsoever if there isn't some other amazing synergy in the set.
If you can't get to the late game to play your 10 drops then there's not much point in playing them, and this is essentially a 10 drop's worth of stats (18 total) on turn ten, and a 4 drop that protects you until you can get there. Tortollan Shellraiser suffers from the same problem as Stegodon where its ability to affect the board decreases pretty quickly after turn 4, which matters in Priest because it's such a late game oriented class, but Omega Defender gets around the problem other 4 mana 2/6 Taunts have by having 18 stats on turn ten instead of 8. This has potential because it not only functions as a defensive card, but can hold its own in the late game nearly as well as other purely late-game cards. If it gets removed, your opponent just wasted a card that they would want to use on a 7+ drop on your 4 drop "Stegodon," which is insane value.
As for Shudderwock, having the combo fail isn't very likely, but it definitely still happens. With one Saronite Chain Gang and one Grumble, Worldshaker played, you only have a 50% chance to finish off the combo, and in most games you can bump your chance of winning to a little over 80% without a ton of preplanning, (The best odds I've seen in an actual game was 5 SCG's and both Grumble and Zola played, which gives you a 1/21 chance of failing to get a copy of Shudderwock in your hand.) but there's still a good chance that if anything goes wrong, like if you burn a SCG or Zola the Gorgon, or if you run Hemet, Jungle Hunter and destroy Zola, or if you can only play one SGC before you're forced play Shudderwock, you might not get the combo off, and you'd then be stuck with only the Shudderwocks you have on the board, which might be as few as two. If both of those Shudderwocks are 16/6's instead of 6/6's, you have a much better chance of winning the game, and at the negligible cost of running one copy of an alright tech card. Playing Shudderwock is all about maximizing your chances to win the game with the combo, and if you can ensure that even if the combo doesn't work you have an alternate win condition without having to pray to RNGesus that Bewitch gives you a Bloodlust or a Windfury, that's a way to maximize your chances of winning even when you can't go infinite that doesn't require any high level gameplay to pull off.
6-health is indeed harder to deal with...............on turn 4. On turn 10 it's laughable. There's a reason you go with 5/10 Taunt and not 10/5 when you play Ancient of War. In the late game, high attack low health minions (THAT ALSO DON'T DO ANYTHING ON THE TURN YOU PLAY THEM) are meaningless in every scenario that isn't two players in topdeck mode. I daresay that Soggoth the Slitherer is a better late game taunt than this. What turn 10 combo are you planning on pulling off with this?
So let's talk about Shudderwock. What card(s) are you taking out to include this in? Why is this card better than some other Taunt that you could run (but currently are not)?
If you're running this card as a valuable 10 drop, you're doing it wrong. The point of the card is that it's a 4 drop Taunt, and it happens to get a huge upgrade if you don't draw it or end up playing it before you have 10 mana. It's not better than any other big card, even an Ultrasaur on turn 10 if you're topdecking, but it's miles better than any one of them on turn 4 since it's playable, and that's why you would run the card. It naturally helps you stall out the game in slow decks, and then rewards you for slowing down the game, giving you an extra bonus for running a combo deck or ramp druid or whatever you're playing that wants to get to 10 mana anyway. It's a Stegodon, but instead of having its possible impact on the board flatline by turn 10, this spikes back up to a 4 mana 12/6 on turn 10, which means you can play it alongside other cards like board clears and removal. If you happen to play two of these on turn 10 and even just Hero Power, does that in any way sound better than Soggoth the Slitherer? Or would you rather have a 5/9 than two 12/6's?
As for Shudderwock deck techs, it depends on the post-expansion meta. I'd say that there's ~25 must have cards in the deck at the moment and ~5 slots for tech options, so it would simply be a tech card you run if you want more insurance in case the combo fails, without having to run an otherwise useless Murmuring Elemental. If there's a highly midrange meta where both stopping early game aggression and having value in the late game are useful in most of your games, that is where Omega Defender, and probably all of the Omega Projects, will shine.
0
Lab Recruiter
Wild Spell on a stick
0
Water Elemental?
0
Yep, Blood Razor is the correct answer.
When the armies of darkness come to bay at your door,
To defeat them, old weapons will aid you no more.
Fairly simple, just implying that this card is good against a wide board.
Cast down your axe, learn to embrace your pain,
And answer the call of the blood in your veins.
This and the "old weapons" line refer to Fiery War Axe, which used to be a great anti-Aggro tool, but is easily outclassed by Blood Razor now. Also references Blood and that the card damages friendly minions.
Annihilate them, hack and slash, raze them all!
One, two, through and through, your foes they will fall.
Some fun blade imagery, and also a hint towards Razor. The "One, Two" is the 1 damage to all minions followed by the 2 damage from attacking with the Blood Razor.
To stem the dark tide, do what you must do,
But as you mete out death, know your blood must flow too.
Another reference to the symmetrical effect of the card, and Blood.
3
With Boomsday, Shudderwock should be pretty far on the decline, since Control decks can use Azalina Soulthief to copy your opponent's Shudderwocks as 1 Mana cards infinitely, and Warrior should actually be able to out-armor the damage from Shudderwock. On top of that, aggro is still going to be a very serious force in the meta with Zoolock getting new tools, and Malygos Druid will be able to destroy Shudderwock because it's the faster, and thus better combo deck in the matchup. Even though we didn't get a direct counter card to Shudderwock, (besides Demonic Project ofc) the state of the meta and the mechanic change with Azalina Soulthief will probably push it down to a tier 2 or 3 deck, where it'll see a lot less play.
0
Aviana
5/5 Legendary
0
None of these so far.
Hint: The end of line 5 and the beginning of line 6 have some very specific references to the card.
0
When the armies of darkness come to bay at your door,
To defeat them, old weapons will aid you no more.
Cast down your axe, learn to embrace your pain,
And answer the call of the blood in your veins.
Annihilate them, hack and slash, raze them all!
One, two, through and through, your foes they will fall.
To stem the dark tide, do what you must do,
But as you mete out death, know your blood must flow too.
Incorrect: Revenge, Obliterate, Cursed Blade, Scourgelord Garrosh, Whirlwind, Brawl, Sudden Genesis, Warpath, Commanding Shout, Inner Rage, Rampage
0
Mind Control Tech?
0
A very expensive late game removal that gives your opponent a super buffed Cursed! card. This has the added bonus of being insane against Giants that cost more than ten, as your opponent won't be able to play the card, and will simply be taking an extra 8 damage per turn unless they can discard or transform the card.
2
Although I know it's supposed to be a fun card for new players with no collections, I hope that Blizz considers that some of them might want to start playing Wild and this would be a great way to slowly get them introduced to more cards from Wild. This is also a great card for returning players without much in the way of a standard collection, but who still want to be able to play, and letting them have access to fun, nostalgic Wild cards would be a great idea too. Blizzard said that they wanted to push Wild more this year, so I hope that they stick true to that with Whizbang.
0
Weirdly enough, I actually like Living Mana in a Hand Druid deck with Witchwood Apple and all those cards, because it gives you a super legitimate reason for not playing cards from your hand without keeping you behind on board. I think I'm really starting to see all the deckbuilding mad science *robot clone* Peter was talking about in the Dev Insight video.
-7
Similar to how the Silver Hand Murloc tokens from Vilefin Inquisitor are still Silver Hand Recruits for synergy effects, Mana Treants will almost definitely count as Treants.
0
Luna draws a card AFTER the card is played, so it's not clear which effect will trigger first just from the text. You'd have to test with another effect that triggers after a card like Wild Pyromancer with an Echo spell to see for sure which effect triggers first.
0
If you can't get to the late game to play your 10 drops then there's not much point in playing them, and this is essentially a 10 drop's worth of stats (18 total) on turn ten, and a 4 drop that protects you until you can get there. Tortollan Shellraiser suffers from the same problem as Stegodon where its ability to affect the board decreases pretty quickly after turn 4, which matters in Priest because it's such a late game oriented class, but Omega Defender gets around the problem other 4 mana 2/6 Taunts have by having 18 stats on turn ten instead of 8. This has potential because it not only functions as a defensive card, but can hold its own in the late game nearly as well as other purely late-game cards. If it gets removed, your opponent just wasted a card that they would want to use on a 7+ drop on your 4 drop "Stegodon," which is insane value.
As for Shudderwock, having the combo fail isn't very likely, but it definitely still happens. With one Saronite Chain Gang and one Grumble, Worldshaker played, you only have a 50% chance to finish off the combo, and in most games you can bump your chance of winning to a little over 80% without a ton of preplanning, (The best odds I've seen in an actual game was 5 SCG's and both Grumble and Zola played, which gives you a 1/21 chance of failing to get a copy of Shudderwock in your hand.) but there's still a good chance that if anything goes wrong, like if you burn a SCG or Zola the Gorgon, or if you run Hemet, Jungle Hunter and destroy Zola, or if you can only play one SGC before you're forced play Shudderwock, you might not get the combo off, and you'd then be stuck with only the Shudderwocks you have on the board, which might be as few as two. If both of those Shudderwocks are 16/6's instead of 6/6's, you have a much better chance of winning the game, and at the negligible cost of running one copy of an alright tech card. Playing Shudderwock is all about maximizing your chances to win the game with the combo, and if you can ensure that even if the combo doesn't work you have an alternate win condition without having to pray to RNGesus that Bewitch gives you a Bloodlust or a Windfury, that's a way to maximize your chances of winning even when you can't go infinite that doesn't require any high level gameplay to pull off.
0
If you're running this card as a valuable 10 drop, you're doing it wrong. The point of the card is that it's a 4 drop Taunt, and it happens to get a huge upgrade if you don't draw it or end up playing it before you have 10 mana. It's not better than any other big card, even an Ultrasaur on turn 10 if you're topdecking, but it's miles better than any one of them on turn 4 since it's playable, and that's why you would run the card. It naturally helps you stall out the game in slow decks, and then rewards you for slowing down the game, giving you an extra bonus for running a combo deck or ramp druid or whatever you're playing that wants to get to 10 mana anyway. It's a Stegodon, but instead of having its possible impact on the board flatline by turn 10, this spikes back up to a 4 mana 12/6 on turn 10, which means you can play it alongside other cards like board clears and removal. If you happen to play two of these on turn 10 and even just Hero Power, does that in any way sound better than Soggoth the Slitherer? Or would you rather have a 5/9 than two 12/6's?
As for Shudderwock deck techs, it depends on the post-expansion meta. I'd say that there's ~25 must have cards in the deck at the moment and ~5 slots for tech options, so it would simply be a tech card you run if you want more insurance in case the combo fails, without having to run an otherwise useless Murmuring Elemental. If there's a highly midrange meta where both stopping early game aggression and having value in the late game are useful in most of your games, that is where Omega Defender, and probably all of the Omega Projects, will shine.