Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Scholomance Academy Neutral Cards (Part 1)

This first Neutral review will look at the first half of the Common cards. We're almost to the expansion launch!

Honestly, this is probably the one review I can honestly say we're definitely very accurate on. I mean, how hard can it be to predict how the neutral Commons will do? I think the best prediction we've ever made was getting Frozen Shadoweaver right. So, y'know, no need to check any other cards.

I have an inkling there's an impling scraping at my dormroom door.

Quote From Echo

Even though this is essentially a Wisp, I really like this card. Throughout the history of the game, Wisp and other 0 mana 1/1s have seen play, such as Snowflipper Penguin being a strong card in Aggro druid, Wisp seeing play in some forms of Quest Rogue, and Murloc Tinyfin starring in arguably one of the best tournament matches I have ever seen. Some other fun stuff you can do with this card is with stuff like Felosophy, where it becomes a 1 mana 4/4 among two bodies which is a pretty strong turn 1, Disciplinarian Gandling is pretty sweet as it lets you get value out of him immediately, and is just great for emptying your hand quickly to take the most advantage of cards like Voracious Reader or Glide.

Steer clear of any enraged evergreens and you should be fine.

Quote From Avalon

Very interesting Zoo card. Some people pointed out the similarity with Serrated Tooth, but with Broomstick you don't need to wait turns (or use more mana in case you want to get the effect by hero powering down your weapon) to get your Rush aura effect, and the minion itself is included in its battlecry. We can say that it covers a role very similar to the one occupied by Magic Carpet. If Overkill cards were still in Standard, this card would have been so much better. Nonetheless, we still have some "whenever/after you attack" effects, so the synergy is definitely there.

An apple a day keeps the demons at bay.

Quote From ShadowsOfSense

This is a very good card. Play any spell and you suddenly have a Flame Imp for no health investment. I can see token swarm decks like Druid, which have a lot of low-cost spells, really enjoying this card. I'm not completely sold on it in other decks that might seem like obvious fits - Zoolock, for example, doesn't have a huge concentration of spells traditionally - but perhaps the card is so strong that just the potential of going second and activating it with the Coin reliably is enough for them.

Also, he's kinda cute, so bonus points there.

"Quill you look at that? A perfect blot!"

Quote From Demonxz95

RIP Elven Archer. This card is pretty weird, but in a cool way. Essentially the idea is that you deal 1 damage with its Battlecry, then cast a spell to return it to your hand and repeat the process over and over again. He's gotta go back to the office to grab some more pens. I think it's hilarious that he's basically throwing pens at people.

Unfortunately for Pen Flinger though, this card will most likely be nothing more than a gimmick. Certainly a funny way, and will automatically see play simply for that reason alone. This card does have its niche as a ping for classes that lack one, and a repeatable one at that, but it's not likely to be more than that in my opinion. As a Battlecry card that can repeatedly bounce itself, it can be useful for Corrupt the Waters or The Caverns Below, although you want more targets than just two copies of this. It can also theoretically be used a repeatable Combo activator for Rogues (and works pretty hilariously with Headcrack, not that you'd want to try that anyway).

Don't get me wrong, it's a cool card. But it's pretty much only for the players who want to make funny decks work, and hey, I think those have a place in the game.

"Keep up, keep up! We want to get to the cafeteria before they run out of unidentified meat products!"

Quote From Noxious

Very powerful card and direct power creep to Waterboy. Besides being able to get played on turn 1 (Warlocks who tend to Hero Power their first 2-3 turns rejoice), it also does not have a time limit. If you just want to keep your free Hero Power for another turn, feel free to do so; the buff won't expire until you actually use it.

Demon Hunters will naturally gain a bit less from this card than the other classes, as their Hero Power is cheap enough to not be that much of a hindrance, and there's far better minions for them to play early. Aggro Paladins, Aggro Hunters and Totem Shamans will also benefit quite nicely from this card (assuming it's in hand on turn 1), as will Rogues and Druids, for a little extra advantage early on. Rogues also have the bonus advantage of just holding on to the Tour Guide until they need to play it for a Combo effect.

As a little note, this card could have devastating effects in the hand of quite a few bosses from Adventures. Beware.

Panthara can have little a mana, as a treat.

Quote From FearGralex

River Crocolisk in shambles- it doesn't even get to play the Beast card for not being strictly worse anymore! :(

The Panthara itself is a decently flexible inclusion that might make the cut in some versions of Highlander decks, perhaps Mage because they might care about the card draw or Hunter because they might care about the Beast tag. It also seems like a potentially great inclusion in Demon Hunter decks, as their Hero Power is only 1 mana and is a lot easier to squeeze into a turn. I do think this card has potential to show up in a decent amount of decks because it's almost never a bad draw, particularly if the meta is slow. If the meta is faster-paced, though, running this might be a bit too much of a liability except in specific decks.

"This old thing? Looks 'armless to me!"

Quote From Noxious

A decent card for the early game. Its low health does unfortunately make it highly susceptible to early-game removal such as Arcane Missiles or anything else that is random enough to bypass Stealth, and its Ghost minion (Spectral Delinquent suffers of the same issue, on top of needing to be played again. I wouldn't pay too much attention to this minion unless I was running a deck either tuned around Deathrattles (which this card isn't too amazing for anyway) or Stealth minions, but it can be a nuisance for a player with a bad starting hand.

The problem with running this in a Stealth deck is that we've already got Spymistress, which honestly gives more value per Mana Crystal and is also great for triggering Combos with its almost insignificant Mana cost. Some cards from each new set are simply forgotten or ignored for eternity, and I think this might be one of them.

The wand chooses the player, and it really wants you to have Eye for an Eye.

Quote From Demonxz95

Very solid card right here. Cobalt Spellkin sees quite a bit of play as a way to generate some small spells.

This does the same as Cobalt Spellkin. It only generates one spell instead of two, but it comes down for cheaper allowing it to be played early on turn 2, or it can be played in a later turn as a cheaper way compared to Spellkin to get a cheap utility spell in a pinch. It also has a better stats:cost ratio than Spellkin. With Spellburst coming out, it can even be useful with some (not all, but some) Spellburst effects to get a cheap activator. The pool of 1-Cost spells is predictable a lot of the time as well.

Pretty exciting Neutral Common all around, and I reckon it'll see quite a bit of play.

Now I might be misreading things here, but I think I know why you're so hot all the time.

Quote From linkblade91

Very similar to Twilight Guardian, with +1 Attack in exchange for the Spellburst over a more simple Battlecry. 4/3/6 is already a decent statline for Crimson Hothead, but 4/4/6 Taunt could be great. It's just a matter of proccing the Spellburst with some regularity, and without devoting too many resources for an otherwise simple minion. Libram Paladin can use their "free" Libram of Wisdoms for a quick trigger and a bump in stats, so that might be the best home for this minion. Highlander Hunter can use this both as a Dragon for Stormhammer or for general "If you're holding a Dragon" shenanigans, with the Spellburst coming off something like Corrosive Breath. And there's always a Dragon Priest deck out there somewhere that could use a shiny decent new Taunt minion. Will it see play? I don't know, but it's got a chance.

He's actually Di-TikTok Rager now.

Quote From Noxious

Where do I file my complaint regarding the atypical Mana cost of this rager? Jokes aside (since Steel Rager already exists) this is yet another incarnation of the famous Ragers. Since the initial Magma Rager, we've had a +1 health variant, a stealth variant, a reverse stats variant, a rush variant and a "health copier" variant. Now, it's Divine Shield's turn. Is this card good? As you may be aware, the Rager minions are on their own separate power scale, so it is only natural for me to review it by comparing it with the other Ragers. Let's go in-depth:

Divine Rager costs 4 mana, which is an instant -1 point. This also applies for Steel Rager. Magma Rager is the baseline 0 points - it is the mold with which all subsequent Ragers have been constructed. Divine Rager gets +2 points for a useful effect, able to mitigate infinite damage the first time it's hit.

Final Divine Rager points: +1. Steel Rager also finishes at +1 for the same reasons. Ice Rager receives 0.5pts because, let's be real, 2 health isn't particularly great either. Shadow Rager receives two points, throwing itself straight into first place, courtesy of Stealth. Am'gam Rager receives 2 points for a great health pool for a 3-mana minion, but loses 2 points for having pathetic Attack. Faceless Rager gets 2 points for having an effect and another point for the effect actually contributing to its survival more than any other Rager's.

Now that all the points are in, Divine Rager seems to be pretty mediocre in the Rager Race. But who took the crown? Which Rager is the ultimate Rager?

Wax Rager.