New Paladin Card Revealed: Howling Commander
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Reveal Video
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Battlecry: Draw Tirion Fordring from your deck.
But yeah, at least I want to try build some new kind of divine paladin, these new cards with divine synergy looks interesting.
Did Somebody say, deck thinning?!
This is good even in Arena when u have powerful DS minions like Sunwalker
For those moments when you just want to draw a guaranteed Tirion...
Siefer's Complete Card Breakdown
Howling Commander
Due to people having mixed reactions I decided to make a complete breakdown on what this card can do and how good of a card this one is. First off, people are comparing this card a lot to Arcanologist but this card is really more comparable to Kabal Courier in usefulness and tempo level. Arcanologist is comparable to this card but the card they draw from your deck have completely different uses. Arcanologist gains you a secret, which usually just helps you gain late control of the game with ice blocks in constructed and a high chance to draw a minor effecting secret in Arena, while Howling Commander grants you a minion which leads to separate high value in constructed and a small, usually insignificant, ability to draw a fair valued minion.
Courier is a card that sees some constructed play and is a pretty good card in Arena. Courier also is a card that is not usually played on tempo since its low stats unless it cannot be avoided, much like this card. Both cards are played in the same fashion, the only difference is courier might generate a swing in value or fit the mana curve while commander will generally be used to guarantee grab a strong minion from your deck. Both of these two cards are horrible vs aggro and should be held for later turns.
Something Important to note though about Howling Commander though is that it is actually a decent option for card draw for paladin! Most paladin cards that draw are either high mana or very specific to a arch-type, for instance Divine Favor being specific to aggro and low costs. Three mana is a nice spot for draw and gives more valid options to paladin for card draw.
Constructed Use
Divine Shield Paladin: This card should be just decent in upcoming divine shield decks since they seem to rely on numbers of divine shield cards and that weakens the pool of cards that this card aims to draw.
Murloc Paladin: Never should this card find itself in a murloc deck since murloc's rely on synergy with each other and decently low mana costs. Even though Tirion Fordring is included in an amount of murloc decks it is not worth including Howling Commander into one since it weakens the early synergy so much.
Hand-Buff Paladin:
This is probably the best use for this card period. Hand-Buff paladin loves divine shield minions, makes up for the low stats on this minion, and most importantly replaces a minion into your hand for more buffs. If hand-buff paladin returns from this expansion then Commander will see tons of play.Control: Decent Aggro: Terrible Galvadon: Most likely bad/ little use
Arena
Again comparing this card to Kabal Courier, which is a good card for arena, this card is fairly below average. In order for Howling Commander to be valuable at all in arena is for there to be a good divine shield minion in your deck. Most likely should only grab this card if you drafted a Tirion or potentially the new paladin legendary. Otherwise this card is a 3 mana 2/2 which completely destroys paladins main strategy: Tempo.
WildThe only wild deck I can honestly think this card would be good in would be a Reno Paladin deck since it would be easily able to pull you a tirion, is good card draw, and with the Reno heal after using Weapon from Tirion. Otherwise this card gets destroyed by the other madness that is Wild.
Also keep in mind that this card being 2-mana would mean this and Tirion in the same turn would be possible.
I think I'm okay with that not being meta (in standard).
2/2 : Draw Tirion everytime :D
Blood Knight Intensifies
Not bad, but.... why 2/2? Those are the kind of stats I'd expect if the battlecry was just "Draw a card".
This is way better than just Draw a card, this is "Draw a specific card from your deck".
If Tirion is your only Divine Shield minion, that's a guaranteed Tirion on Turn 8 if you play this guy on 7.
I totally agree, the power of this card is kind of low as far as card draw effects go. You also really dont want to curve a 2/2 for 3 so its not something you really want to keep in your opener but there also aren't many divine shield minions right now worth playing so.... I think you are right that the stats aren't good which unfortunately means its not really a good opener which probably means its not a good card.
Who wants to draw a Tirion when you already got 2 in your hand from other 3 drops...
Pretty strong effect but the body is weak. The usefulness will depend on the strength of the divine shield paladin
This card is batshit insane for constructed and actually not that great for Arena unless you actually have a divine shield minion in your deck.
Mage - 2 mana 2/3 - draw exact card from your deck.
Paladin - 3 mana 2/2 - draw exact card from your deck.
Blizz?
the mage card can't pull legendary minions. this card can pull ANY divine shield minion you have, including Tyrion.
If iceblock didn't exist the 2/3 still wouldn't be played. Secrets are just too weak. I think we're approaching the time for iceblock to go to hall of fame.
This card serves a similar function with all of the taunt/divine shield minions you can pull to stay alive for another turn.
Agree, Iceblock should go to hall of fame. Not because it is too strong, it is because this card is being played since beta. Look at druid combo - it was nerfed. Warrior molten giants combo? Nerfed. Handlock? Nerfed. Miracle Rogue? Nerfed. Hunter draw engine? Nerfed. Only Freeze Mage main card wasn't nerfed so much that it wouldn't be playable.