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Comments
This card just feels like tempo suicide and unless the opponent draws a decent sized minion, like 5+ mana, the effect doesn't seem great. Its been a long time since a 6/8 body has been considered good on a 7 drop and when you compare it to other 7 drops that have been seeing play recently, like Exotic Mountseller and Galakronds, all of them have a large impact the turn they are played or set up a massive swing turn in the case of the Rogue Galakrond.
Unless this is a very control heavy meta where being as greedy as possible is important, I think I'd rather just run a different card to improve other matchups, especially when there's still alternatives that do this better for the most part, like Archivist Elysiana and the Priest Galakrond. If we see more cards that combo with it, this card could be pretty fun, not to mention it hard counters Plot Twist and that seems like it'd be a hilarious thing to happen, but it just seems too slow right now.
I think there's gotta be a combo in a control deck for Glide plus Keymaster Alabaster. Just need either a coin or a lucky skull to do both in a turn. You'll draw 8 cards immediately. Another once you end turn. Plus you know what's in your opponents hand, and you have cheaper versions of their cards. Seems strong enough to at least try it out.
Stats-wise it's fine, but no one runs War Golem for a reason. As for effect, we need to first establish this card never sees play in aggro or fast midrange, because you never run 7 mana cards in those decks. So as control, It seems strong but take a second to think about how it plays against various archetypes.
Against Control you can get board clears, healing and value. Only one of those is good, and its value. Like if you get a galakrond you're nutting. But as a control deck versus another control deck, you don't need board clears or healing. Most of the time, this card is bad. If you wanted a threat there are better choices. If you wanted value, there are better choices.
Against Aggro, you get burn and small minions. Neither of those are good against aggro. To win this matchup you need taunt, healing and board clears. Alabaster is none of these, and it never finds you one either. It's a War Golem which lets you pay 1 mana for 2-3 mana cards, none of which matter because you'll be dead by the time those cards can attack on Turn 9. Also, a lot of aggro right now is highly synergistic. Totem Shaman runs totems, enough said. Demon Hunter runs attack synergy and weapons.
Against Combo this is even more useless. Either you find worthless combo pieces, or once again, board clears and draw. If you wanted draw or board clears, you should've put them in your own deck.
This card runs into the same issue that thief Priest cards had - it's that enemy cards are generally not good against the enemy deck. They fixed the problem with Thoughtsteal by making it cheap. This is not cheap.
I think the only place this is good is against midrange, and only if you get lucky and hit a 4+ mana card, which is not guaranteed. If I had to name a deck this goes in I think Embiggen Druid could use this well, but even then stuff like Winged Guardian and the Hydra thing are better because they have relevant keywords.
That was all pointless to say. The card is good. Will it be good in most decks? No. Will it be good in a deck? Yes. It is a great card in any deck that can make it work the dream is to have it up for at least 2 turns then it potentially has nerfed dragonqueen alexstraza levels of value
The original Dr. Boom was run as the top-end in fast decks. So if a 7-mana card helps close out the game, they can run it. But Keymaster is a value generator and that's not what fast decks need at 7 mana.
What you want in control vs control depends on the exact matchup. If you are the player who would win in fatigue, it's up to the other player to put on pressure, in which case more removal can be useful.
In control vs aggro, I agree that you want the likes of Evasive Drakonid and Winged Guardian as your 7-drops: you will out-value them anyway, as long as you can stay alive.
Drakonid Operative was a very good card in its day, so getting cards from your opponent's deck isn't bad in itself. Paying too much mana to get cards from your opponent's deck is bad, but in the case of Operative the big body made the cost worth it, while with Keymaster the tempo gain from getting discounted cards might help. I can see this being useful in Wild, where it can be combined with Naturalize or Coldlight Oracle or Research Project, but I don't remember any card in Standard that does something similar. Of course you'll get one card just from passing the turn, but one might not be enough.
I agree with your assessment on control vs control, I was probably simplifying it too much.
However, I think the comparison to Drakonid Operative is a bit sketch cause Operative allowed for discover. Most of the issue I have with Alabaster is that you don't know what you'll get. Drakonid Operative is far better in this regard, and the 5 mana means Operative comes out earlier and is easier to pair with the card you discover.
The point of the comparison was that copying cards from the enemy deck is pretty useful, provided that you don't pay too much for that ability.
If you can copy three cards, you get the best pick from discover plus two others. And since they are discounted to 1, any bad cards won't be clogging your hand. But that is assuming you can copy three cards, which may not be possible in Standard right now.
You are right that it is much harder to use the cards you copied in the same turn with Keymaster. I used Operative mostly to fish for value; copying Death Knights was fun. But having the option to copy something to use immediately can be useful at times.
I like this card a lot, not least for the character behind it.
It's just too slow for the Wild Tempo decks I tend to play... :-/
now this will be fun for sure
If it had taunt if would be one of the best cards in the set
someone will come up with an otk for this, i'm sure
I made a priest galakrond deck with this with new 3 mana copy card.
This is a highly meta dependent card. In a Control vs Control game it needs immediate removal as could easily create a big snowball. Against Aggro/Tempo it's way too slow. Combo decks won't mind you wasting a turn playing this while they draw their win condition. This card only has value in very slow metas. It certainly looks fun to play with but i don't think it will be good unless the meta slows down a lot which i don't really believe is going to happen.
So what you're saying is....I get to play a 7 mana do nothing. C-cool. I guess.
This is a moist piece of trash. Only good if you're on even footing/ahead against a control deck that somehow doesn't have a way to remove this the very next turn. They're a control deck. They do. You get one random card from their deck, potentially at a discount, to make up for the fact you played this. At which point I have to wonder...wouldn't you be better off with essentially any discover card, so that you have actual control over what you get? And you wouldn't have to pay 7 for the privilege of getting a discount. You're paying extra...to get a discount. And you don't even get to take advantage of whatever you get until a turn later. IF it's even a thing you wanted in the first place. And that's in the ideal matchup. Against aggro or combo this might as well be a War Golem.
I agree!
It doesn't bother you that you seem to be the only person in the comments to rate it so poorly? I guess... way to have the courage of your convictions.
Dr. 7?
I'd not be generally too happy about this card, but its mana cost and being a good card in midragey style of deck (that need something like this) i think it is ok
Coldlight Oracle died for this.
Amazing combo with Tentacled Menace
Wtf, you just run this in literally any deck and get not only decent stats but 1 cost cards? What was Blizzard smoking like holy shit