Hearthpwn

The shaman excavate reward is very limiting in a way that no others are.  You will really struggle to play more than one per game, because any minion based excavates or bounce effects will change when you play it.

I think it will be fun but probably not very good

The idea is to use just once, because the mana keeps the same, so if you use it again you will not increase the mana of the cards one more time.

Was already cooking when I saw the excavate reward. Fizzling Shudder before playing the Murloc will create an interesting game. Get random expensive minions that may have luxury battlecries such as Tickatus or Hunter's No Duplicate Brann to summon King Krush. When you play Shudder you transform other minions and return them to hand to cost 1, which could also be quite hilarious. 

But honestly, just running zeph to become Jaraxxus and getting the snake is better. Since the new Finley is almost a builtin flurgl tox, so running excavates is not that bad.

Try to play a pure paladin against an excavate rogue this patch, before whining against pala. Excavate rogue is so overpowered this patch that almost nobody does not play it above rank 2000 of legend.

You just described every deck in the game right now thankfully a nerf is on the way.

Aftershocks is lowkey insane. Dealing the damage in intervals like that is immeasurably better than at once. Runs treant Druid and pally over, and is insane with any “after this takes damage.” 

I don’t like needlerock totem at all. There’s a neutral (big deal when comparing to class cards) that is actually probably better, as 1 attack is likely to do more than 2 armor. It’s a totem for totem shaman though, so maybe there. 

Finley will need a nerf because Paladin. Insanely cancerous card

I don't think so we already have unconditional class cards in the game that hasnt been touched we have mass silence which triggers the same thing to upset Deathrattle decks. I do think it will be annoying to play against but if a deck rises up and becomes super meta I don't think this card will be what tips it over the top.

The best Paladin deck isn’t going to run excavates lol.

It’s just going to be the current iteration +2 windfury cards

Finley - Very strong, especially in the current board-centric meta.
Shroomscavate - Awful in Shaman, extremely scary in Paladin.
Kaleidosaur - Pretty weak.
Digging - Decent.
Aftershocks - 5/5 board clear against aggro. Even without the discount this would probably see play.
Needlerock - Awful.

The Azerite Murloc - Garbage.
The Azerite Dragon - Good.

Oh boy, just what the game needs: MORE board clears that silence deathrattles. Cool. Now we'll do even less minion trading. Thanks blizz! And the lore with sir finley makes total sense...

I can't wait to play even more reno games that take 20-30 minutes and are decided by RNG cards like The Prison of Yogg-Saron.

I'm really glad they've addressed the issues in paladin to try and give them a viable deck.  Now they have sticky minions and burst!  Leave a minion alive without a taunt for a cool 20 damage as a minimum with 2 x The Garden's Grace and the new windfury card.

It's going to be so much fun..../s

This game needs less burst imo, but here we are.

Paladin has always been getting the worst quest rewards possible, this is the first time Paladin got something nice to progress up to tbh. The excavate cards are a bit weird for Paladin, 3 mana Divine Shield and Wind fury has a condition of having a minion and the 4 mana 3/4 is weird in itself but like you said you play it for the excavate aspect. Idk I am still not fully sold but hand buff Paladin finally got something worthy to play.

Oh lord I got down voted to oblivion, when did Paladin get a good quest reward that was consistently playable?

Might be wrong but I remember Galvadon being quite frequently played also when talking quest types of cards Paladins are on the same foot as alot of other classes, alot of bad rewards during the span of Hearthstone nothing unique to Paladin tbh.

Well, I guess that if you even had a reason left to play Mana Tide Totem you don't have it anymore.

I like the Galvadon callback. All cards look kinda solid.

Tho, as probably the only person that actually cares about HS lore, I'm not a fan that they retcom Sir Finley. If this set trully was the starting days of the League, Finley should be at least a baby. And that would be pretty cute.

Yeah, pretty annoying. THEY DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO ADD HIM IN THIS EXPANSION HE WAS ALREADY IN STANDARD

WHY DOES FINLEY HAVE THE SCALES OF JUSTICE AT THIS POINT IN THE LORE THIS MAKES NO SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENSE

It is interesting that I think excavate Paladin looks really good. But also you probably cant (wouldn’t) play highlander or pure paladin with excavate. So that’s a drawback to keep it fair.