New expansion reveals for Murder at Castle Nathria continue, at a rather peculiar time of the day. And yes, it also means our countdown timer has been incorrect in this particular case, apologies! We'll try to make up for that little blunder by showing you everything there is of interest.
Team 5 had a good reason for doing things this way, however - with the final day of Masters Tour Vashj'ir underway, Hearthstone Esports has been given a special opportunity to share a handful of cards with us! As confirmed ahead of time by Community Manager Alkali Layke.
Once the initial Top 16 match had concluded, the 3 Paladin card reveals were showcased one by one. Here they are in all their glory!
New Cards Revealed
The infused version of Buffet Biggun (similar card text, updated art):
Infuse - Upgrades in hand after X friendly minions die.
Silver Hand?
Did you miss these occasional Hearthstone attempts at pushing the renowned "Dude synergy"? It's been a little while since Darkmoon Faire tried to deliver on the archetype (Lothraxion the Redeemed & Co.). United in Stormwind's Rise to the Occasion (resulting in Lightborn Cariel) is still in Standard; that's one Questline we haven't had a chance to get sick of as it's barely seen any serious play.
Masters Tour Vashj'ir - Card Reveals & Top 8
These three reveals happened back to back, as a short interlude leading into the Top 8 of this Masters Tour event. You can find all relevant timestamps and links to the broadcast below, if you'd like to listen to Raven's and Jia's commentary on all of the presented cards:
- Stewart the Steward - 1:06:37 (gameplay animations included)
- Sinful Sous Chef - 1:08:48
- Buffet Biggun - 1:10:04
Interested in a larger overview and new inventive Standard decks from the entirety of Masters Tour Vashj'ir? We've also got that covered!
More Murder at Castle Nathria Card Reveals
Reveal season is here and as usual, we have an expansion guide to help you follow along with all the fun! Use it to see all the card reveals, organized by class.
Comments
This card for me is not good like all similarly cards for paladin. I play most evolve shaman so i need get devolve or revolve and i am chill.
Poor Lothraxion the Redeemed rotated 4 months ago without seeing any play and then you do this to us... this is just... this is just...
It's okay, when Paladin is good the meta is in shambles
No Standard play! I used him in a Wild Odd Paladin a ton after he was printed!
I like Dude Paladin as a concept, but I don't think relying on a replicating buff from a minion that you can't even tutor is a viable strategy.
can be interesting in wild ...
Trash Legendary
Mage got Volatile minions,
Paladin got Dudes.
IDK, but I'm starting to think, Druids probably get Treant army, Shaman with Murlocs, and Warlock with Imps.
The whole expansion is gonna be fighting for board, and that's what I like in the first place.
PS, somebody gonna get Mech armies soon. Maybe.
Mage and Paladin currently have Mech strategies, but personally would love to see some good Warrior mechs, maybe some additional good neutral mechs. Especially if they encourage board based play. Then maybe I can play the old type of Mech Mage in Wild like I really wanted before Shark came along.
You could just not put the Shark in your deck, and hey presto! It's the "old type of Mech Mage".
Anyway, I doubt we'll see many mechs in Castle Nathria, if any. They have a negligible presence in the Shadowlands since they don't have souls to get sent there upon 'death', and the local denizens don't generally create them. I think some of Stewart's race made a few, so there could be a paladin mech, but I wouldn't hope for much more than that.
Ah yes, the latest iteration of dude synergy.
Perhaps team5 have finally cracked the code and found out that spending 2 mana to summon a 1/1 is about as threatening as a week old puppy. The two commons listed here are decent, but the legendary absolutely sucks. I have absolutely no idea why its a deathrattle, costs 3, and somehow we're supposed to be amazed by it.
I mean, just have a look at how murloc shaman/warlock work and you can instantly see why these dude synergy cards are doomed to failure. A murloc deck left unchecked can threaten to end games at about turn 4, whereas this thing is just getting started.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the rest of the unrevealed cards for paladin will make up for it and suddenly dude pally will be tier 1, but as it stands currently I can't see it. If you want to play dudes, you're better off just playing quest paladin, which currently is untiered.
True. They should buff paladin hero power to 1 mana or keep it at 2 and make it summon 2.
They designed HP to cost 2 because of their infinite uses.
If they buff HP to only cost 1, then it will become a problem to other class' HP. Especially the upgraded one such as Hero Cards.
Other than that, the fact that they won't make DH HP cost 2 is still triggering me until now.
Hero cards have their own hero power cost. They wouldn't be affected.
I agree though I thought about it, it could break other things.
They should buff the stats of the dude in some way though. 2/1, 1,2 or 2,2
You can't have gain 1 attack cost 2 mana, they would have to buff it to gain 2 attack.
Aren't you asking quite a lot from a 3-drop? Stewart is quite slow, but it can easily get you 9/9 or more stats over the course of the game, and does so while having near-premium stats on an early-game minion.
My issue with him is that he's a re-hash of a previous paladin legendary (Dragonrider Talritha), right down to the stats. At least Stewart should be a lot better since Silver Hand Recruits are guaranteed to be available whereas dragons in hand weren't, and because the Recruits care about the stats way more than the tribe with the largest minions ever would.
Im put off not just by the fact that the card can be silenced but also because the effect is really just too weak to build around. After this dies out, you get a 4/4 for 2 hp which should theoretically be good, but is it really? The dudes have neither taunt nor rush, and its only one minion.
I think what team5 is envisioning right here is a hp that spawns a 4/4 dude, so you can play this in a control deck and spam hp every turn. That's probably where this card functions the best in. But I really don't think the win rate would justify its inclusion. Hack the System has shown that even with multiple 4/3s every turn in a control deck, its still not good enough to reach tier 2, so what does that say about this card's chances?
Dragonrider Talritha is tons better because it tends to create a really massive dragon that cannot be ignored. A 4/4 dude per turn is dangerous, but nowhere near the same with what talritha tends to offer. Incidentally, talritha saw nearly 0 competitive play and I'll rate that card better than steward anyday.
Perhaps with more reveals it would become more evident what team5 wants to do for pally this expansion. But this legendary as it stands right now, to me, is trash.
You're talking about him like he should be winning the game more or less by himself, which is excessive for any 3 mana card, regardless of its rarity. The better question is whether dude pally will want a bunch of 3/3 buffs, and whether it is willing to spend 3 mana on a 3/3 that gives that? And of course it is: the effect is worth way more than 3 mana in the mid-to-long run, and only really needs to go off once for it to be a solid card (there are plenty of deathrattles that give stats to use as reference points for that).
The hero power is the most reliable source of dudes, but not the only one, and whenever dude pally is a thing it wants to summon dudes (shocker! :O). So every 3/3 buff truly is free, because the deck wants to summon the dudes for other reasons anyway. It's only when you put Stewart in a deck by himself purely as a pseudo-buff to the hero power that there is a legitimate cost each time.
The fact it can be silenced is minor, because most decks don't run silence, and if they tech it in, then they've weakened their own game plan to deal with yours, so it's still a plus.
Whether the surrounding deck holds up remains to be seen, but I don't see any metric by which Stewart himself is bad.
If it ends up being tier 1, or any of the armies, like Mage's Volatile, we probably gonna see bunch of deck adding silence. We do have those card in Neutral, so every deck can use them.
But it's still a big IF....
Personally, I don't see it. Hence I agree with dog.
That 1 drop gonna be nice for the Questline.