I hear the call of the Miracle.

Sweet!!!

Careful, it could give you Kidnapper and Defias Ringleader.

Probably finds a home in some kind of midrange Spirit of the Shark rogue, but not much else. I think other rogues would either prefer to gain their card advantage through Gadgetzan Auctioneer/Sprint, or simply don't have room for low tempo cards like this.

First off, I want to apologize to the admins for posting a hearthpwn link, but the OOC "collectible cards" page and its filter options aren't really user-friendly yet:

https://www.hearthpwn.com/cards?filter-show-standard=y&filter-premium=1&filter-combo=1&display=3

So in the link above you can see all combo cards available to rogue in standard (+ the newly revealed Hooked Scimitar). As much as I'm impressed by the card generation, I don't really think this card would fit in a miracle list. If your deck doesn't run pirates, Raiding Party is either a dead spell or an expensive tutor for one of your weapons. Kidnapper is slow (especially against aggro); Headcrack is only useful if the opponent is dangerously low on health. And Defias Ringleader and Cutthroat Buccaneer are kinda meh. The wild combo cards are mostly bad (with a few exceptions like Elven Minstrel, Vilespine Slayer, but the chances of getting those from all other possible options are few), so I don't want to talk about them. The rest of the generated outcomes are mostly good (when looking at Edwin VanCleef, EVIL Miscreant and Eviscerate), but only few of them are spells, so, again, I don't think that Whirlkick Master would fit in a miracle deck. She's more likely to clog your hand with mediocre or situational stuff.

I'm eager to know where people would run this minion. Thief can generate you a lot of defensive spells and you can heal yourself with Spectral Cutlass (weak too ooze, but at least this has some direct synergies with other cards), so a value deck wouldn't be better than the Burgle archtype. As far as tempo decks go - the popular standard rogue lists are Hooktusk and Tempo, both of which should be satisfied with the Lackey generation, because it's faster and the outcome from it is cheap. So where else you play this in?

1-mana too expensive

I am about this card.  :)

There will be 13 combo cards in Standard, very few of them are totally unplayable.  I suspect this will see play, a lot. .

Quote From Demonxz95

Remember Lyra the Sunshard?

This is that except cheaper and you can run two of them.

Exactly.  There will be a thread calling for this to be nerfed after some lucky Rogue drops this on 10-mana and goes Cold Blood, Cold Blood, Evisc, Defias, Coin, Edwin, having only started with two of those cards in hand.

This card is too cute, IMO.
1) Is rogue really searching for more value?
2) Are you really going to play a 2-mana for more value?

Quote From RandomGuy

2) Are you really going to play a 2-mana for more value?

1. EVIL Cable Rat
2. Rogue can run out of steam in the late-mid and early-late game.
3. Add more Edwins to your hand or buff the existing Edwin in your hand when you have Whirlkick Master and another combo card in your hand?  Yes please!
4. The stats are less of a detriment to this being playable than "T2 Rogue = dagger up" is. 

Quote From kaladin

Quote From RandomGuy

2) Are you really going to play a 2-mana for more value?

1. EVIL Cable Rat
2. Rogue can run out of steam in the late-mid and early-late game.
3. Add more Edwins to your hand or buff the existing Edwin in your hand when you have Whirlkick Master and another combo card in your hand?  Yes please!
4. The stats are less of a detriment to this being playable than "T2 Rogue = dagger up" is. 

1. Cable Rat actively advances your game plan
2. Yeah it can. A conditional, weak value card probably isn't fixing that.
3. If this thing only rolled Edwin, I'd agree.
4. T2 dagger up is a tempo play, front loading 2 pings. This is just a 1/2 for nothing on 2.

We will certainly see then!

Agree to disagree for the time being. 

This is a way to get more edwins seems weak on paper cause rogues have tonnes of value already in all the burgle stuff but combo is so much better than random burgle cards.. also this is a kind of a constant generator if for some reason not dealt with.

Could be good. Could be great. We haven't seen the rest of the cards yet. 

 Can i just say something? That artwork is.... 🤢 Vomit inducingly bad 

Quote From kaladin

We will certainly see then!

Agree to disagree for the time being. 

Fair enough! FWIW, if this card was 1-mana, I think it'd be very good instead of basically unplayable. To me, 2 mana feels too expensive for a combo activator that can sometimes double dip. Especially considering we only have 30 cards to play.

Just compare it with Underbelly Angler and you see how underpowered it is.

Quote From Malkav

Just compare it with Underbelly Angler and you see how underpowered it is.

Or how overpowered Angler is.  IMO at 2-mana 1/2, this feels a bit more fair.  

Watch Rogue get a card that makes their combo cards cost 1. :)

Preparation died for this. Kappa.

Conceptually I really like that they're printing these sorts of random generation effects on minions rather than situational & low-tempo spells like Lock and Load and Stampede, but I doubt this card in particular will see much play because the average cost of combo cards makes miracle turns pretty unlikely. If Cold Blood still cost 1 and there were a couple more really cheap combo cards Whirlkick Master would be significantly scarier.

It's lovely that we've finally gotten an effect like this for Combo cards. For such a flavorful, unique mechanic, it's odd that we've never had a Combo-focused archetype. And while I don't think that this card will cause that to happen in a competitive way, it does create the option of creating a deck all around Combo cards. That sounds fun! 

Regards to competitive viability, similar effects have seen play many times over. Lyra the Sunshard is the obvious comparison, but Underbelly Angler, Lock and Load, and Lifeweaver are very similar, while Mana Cyclone, Gazlowe, and Exotic Mountseller are somewhat similar. Point being that, at the least, this type of card proves to be a possible build-around. All of these cards have seen extensive theorycrafting. The gatekeepers to viable deck-crafting seem to be cost, card pool, and activation ease. Exotic Mountseller and Gazlowe are far harder to use due to their high cost. Lyra also has a higher cost, but Priest has plenty of small spells and cards like Radiant Elemental to discount them. Thus, Lyra turns small spells over efficiently, quickly turning the board around for cheap while also generating valuable spells for later. Mana Cyclone does much the same, trading small spells for more small spells and for larger spells, with the added benefit of increasing hand size for Mountain Giant (a playstyle not too accessible to Rogue, sadly). Not to mention that the Cyclone is a discountable Mage Elemental. Underbelly Angler's activation cards cannot be discounted, but it is 2 mana and murlocs are mostly 1 or 2 mana, making it much the same as the other two. Mana Cyclone, Underbelly Angler, and Lyra the Sunshard, the best of this group, are all easily activated and have a desirable pool of random cards to offer that can be played on the same turn. Unlike them, cards like Gazlowe have an undesirable pool to draw from - while 1-mana spare parts can be discounted and played over his 6-mana body, the minions he generates are quite random and usually not playable right away, leading to a lackluster turn. On the opposite side of the coin, Lifeweaver generates consistently alright cards, but its healing is tougher to come by than spare parts. It's also a specific mechanic without much support in Druid, unlike Angler's murlocs, which ask for and support a deck with mostly murlocs.

This said, we now have several ways to tell how good Whirlkick Master is. It has a low cost, which is good. Like Angler, it has a relatively synergistic activation requirement, given that Rogue has several currently played Combo cards (Eviscerate, SI:7 Agent, Edwin VanCleef, EVIL Miscreant and Raiding Party, depending).  This is unlike Lifeweaver, with its healing cards. However, the stumbling block comes with the available pool of Combo cards, which are analyzed below.

2, Eviscerate - Cheap removal. Great option.

2, Defias Ringleader - Cheap board-fill. Good option.

2, Cold Blood - Situational card that is not good outside of its situation, but generates damage for later. Okay option.

3, EVIL Miscreant - The value parade stomps onward. Promotes board-flood and Spirit of the Shark synergy. Great option. 

3, Perdition's Blade - One of two weapons. Quick multi-target removal that lasts into the next turn. Great option.

3, Edwin VanCleef - The man himself. He can be played right away for, likely, a 6-6 or 8-8, or saved for a larger turn later. Good option. 

3, SI:7 Agent - Proactive small lump of stats. Historically great. Great option.

3, Hooked Scimitar - The other weapon. Cheap, good removal, with value for later turns. Great option.

3, Cutthroat Buccaneer - If you have a weapon up, it's alright. If you don't, it's just a small body, which is alright. Okay option.

3, Headcrack - Pure face damage. You'd rather play other cards. Bad option usually, okay option in a face-oriented deck.

4, Raiding Party - If your deck wants to run Raiding Party, it runs it already. Admittedly, the Buccaneer is a pirate and Cursed Castaway exists, but the success of that type of deck and this card seems unlikely to me. Time will tell how this option stands, but it is definitely bad if you don't want it. 

5, Crazed Chemist - Expensive. Can only be played right away with 9 or 10 mana, and has situational board effect, even if it may be useful later on. Bad option.

6, Kidnapper - Similar to Crazed Chemist. Notably, however, it may be alright in a face-oriented deck. Still a bad option, though. 

At first, this seems to be an okay pool - these cards are pretty good. But to note is that the average cost of these cards is around 3. Before card quality is even discussed, given an activation cycle of the 2-mana Whirlkick Master into 2/3 cost Combo card, this means a player can only play the generated card right away with 7~ mana, besides Preparation into Eviscerate/Cold Blood lowering that cost by 2, which is inconsistent. All the best cards of this type have been able to generate 0 and 1 cost cards, while this can only do so quite rarely. 

Also, as we've seen from the evaluated cards, the best of them have generated cards that can be played immediately and proactively. While most of the cheap options here can be proactive, the above shows that they are not immediate. We see that, though Underbelly Angler seems a fitting comparison, Whirlkick Master is far worse. It has less likelihood to survive on turn 2 and even if it does, barring Preparation into Eviscerate, the cards generated on turn 3 cannot be played for another turn. The deck that utilizes this card is also unlikely to be like Priest, which could wait until later turns to use Lyra the Sunshard. The generated cards seem to promote either a board-flood deck or a SMORC deck, neither of which like to drag the game out. (Though I acknowledge that this deck speculation is the shakiest bit of my evaluation) One might say that you don't need to play the generated cards immediately - you could play Master and activate it for 4 or 5 mana, then use the generated card next turn. This seems like a weak turn for a weak result, to me. 

My conclusion is, then, that this card will not be competitive. Even Lock and Load, which I feel is the most similar card available, was supported by discounted secrets and other easy activation methods. But it is possible that Blizzard prints a great, cheap Combo card, or that my evaluation of how powerful the turns and decks I imagined are riddled with stinky holes. Regardless, it will be a fun buildaround card for years to come! That is exciting.