As the reveal season goes on, Team 5 unveils more and more of the designs they created in the last few months for the Murder in Castle Nathria expansion. Among them, one in particular raised quite the discussion: we're talking about the Hunter Legendary minion Huntsman Altimor.
While many players have found themselves hesitant on this unit's powerlevel, an even larger number of people were kind of upset by the "Gargon Companions" summoned by Altimor: as you can see from the images below, Barghast, Hecutis, and Margore are basically Animal Companion's Leokk, Misha, and Huffer with different names and art pieces.
This raised mainly two questions:
- Why wouldn't they design three slightly different Companions for Huntsman Altimor?
- Why didn't the same thing happen in Fractured in Alterac Valley with Beaststalker Tavish?
In fact, Tavish already has his own set of Companions from Tame Beast (Rank 1): a Crab, a Scorpid and a Thunder Lizard.
Flavor note: Tamed Crab's name is Rudolphus - Justice for Rudolphus!
Team 5 was very helpful, providing some insights regarding this Legendary's design. Starting from the first one, Associate Game Designer Gallon explained the disparity in treatment between Huntsman Altimor and Beaststalker Tavish.
Quote From Gallon Huntsman Altimor was still in development when Beaststalker Tavish was released, and one of the big takeaways from that was personal companions for Tavish would have been cool to see. (editor's note: it's never too late!)
Getting to redo that here with such a thematic group of Companions was really fun from the design side!
Moreover, some players pointed out that Huntsman Altimor is very similar to Whisper of the Old Gods' Call of the Wild.
Cora "Songbird" Georgiou replied to this observation, kind of doubling down on what she already stated regarding Convoke the Spirits being similar to Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron.
Quote From Songbird Although a lot of people are angry right now, I try to kindly ask why there are so many cards with similar effects from the past, most notably the Hunter Legendary, where all three effects are old spell cards. However, there are many such cards.
Some cards are similar to old effects because they're callbacks (Kael'thas Sinstrider for instance) and some are similar because we like having similar effects but we don't reprint cards. Infused Huntsman Altimor functionally is the same as Call of the Wild, but it's a different path to get there.
What do you think about this card? Do you think it will see any play? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
There is a decent chance we get more small rush minions released for Hunter. So it's possible we'll be able to achieve the Infuse(8) reliably. Also possible there's a neutral "Draw an Infuse minion" minion that can help us draw these cards to be even more reliable.
And don't forget about Dredge.
I'd be OK with reskinning the Animal Companions if it was a different class. However, re-using the effect in hunter, especially for such iconic minions, seems quite lazy. Either use the standard companions (not ideal, since they have no connection to Altimor), or come up with new statlines or abilities: rush and lifesteal are the two big ones that have been added to Hearthstone since its intial release. Lots of options for the third ability: silence, gives your other minions poisonous or divine shield, etc.
I feel like all they needed to do was just give the Gargon Companions +1/+1 or something and nobody would've had a major problem with it. Some people might've had little disgruntles, but I think most people would've seen it as a cool and flavorful callback/upgrade to Animal Companion as opposed to a lazy reskin of it.
make it +1/1 and give the charge or taunt minion Lifesteal. Then reduce either the infuse by 2 or mana cost by 1.
Weirdos downvoting but if Blizzard made these exact changes then anyone calling the changes bad is wrong....
World of Hypocrisy.
I personally don't see anything wrong with team5 revisiting old card effects. And its not like this is the first nor shall it be the last.
The artwork is to me a bigger problem because the gargon companions artwork is fairly poor, with no personality. Misha has taunt, huffer has charge, that makes sense thematically because the former is a bear and the latter's a wild boar. Hecutis and Margore might as well have been the same beast. They could've make one look large, imposing and the other sleek but rushing. Is this something to do with the lore that they look so boring?
Knock off the Infuse (8), upscale the stats on the Gargons, adjust as necessary and bam: you've got a unique card that (hopefully) no one will complain about.
Summoning two would put it closer to To My Side!, a card that actually has a condition (unlike Call of the Wild, which only has "pay the mana"). You would then be justified to print something similar because not every deck that wants to use To My Side! can manage the requirements. Increasing the stats of the Gargons also makes sense to me, personally, to differentiate from the standard (Animal Companion) and the time they went lower with it (Demon Companion). Altimor should be summoning 5-cost Companions!
It's pretty dumb how you have to infuse 8 just for a 1 mana cheaper epic card.
It’s 1 mana cheaper PLUS you get a 5/4 body on the board. Normally, by turn 7 it doesn’t help much to get another minion that does nothing this turn. However, when it’s summoned alongside the three companions, an extra 5/4 minion seems like it would have some value.
I’m not going to say this is definitely worth the cost until I’ve played it - Infuse(8) sounds like quite a lot, and I’d be inclined to give him a couple more points of stats. But I can see where Blizzard is coming from with this, and unlike me they have had the chance to playtest it.
the 5/4 body means nothing with all the power crept decks there are now. The charge minion is the main threat.
I agree that a 5/4 body in late game means very little, because it doesn't take too much effort to clear. However, it still means something. It will probably cost your opponent one more 2- or 3-mana spell, or force them to trade one more minion. Can they afford that at this point in the game? Certainly! But can they afford that on top of clearing the 4/4 Taunt and the 4/4 Soft Taunt and the 4/2? Not unless they have good AOE. My point is that even that minor addition matters when you're summoning a swarm of moderate-strength units.
I think they might reduce almost all infuse cards across the board. You have to draw the card first before you even get to infuse. 8 is way too much.
Hard agree on this.
Unless infusing is much easier than I think, this card will eventually be buffed to only require 6 friendly minions to die.
Though there is Rats of Extraordinary Size and Rodent Nest so maybe hunter just plays those cards in that deck.
I think it is fine that old effects can be achieved through different means. I think a great example of this being a positive for the game is Varden Wintergrasp. If it was only possible to freeze enemy boards cheaply with Frost Nova, then decks that primarily runs a specific type of spells could never take advantage of the effect, like old Ignite Mage or Big Mage. It is also very good for deck building to have alternatives as well. What I don't think is fine is that they release weaker alternatives of past cards.
I love reprints/reworks. Bringing cards back in a different meta could give it the chance to shine it never had. Or slight tweaks to effects/cost can make a big difference. I do have to argue that even weaker remakes have their place. Take Shadow Visions vs Thrive in the Shadows. Thrive is certainly weaker as it draws the card rather than copy. If you had the choice why would you ever run Thrive? Reno/highlander decks. Having that extra option while weaker can still be useful to the game and deck building. Also Visions may be too high of a power level to ever bring back in say a Core set. Thrive existing gives them a similar yet powered down option. Here while we are talking about Call of the Wild vs Huntsman Altimor, a spell vs a minion, giving similar effects to different kind of cards allows for unique deck building purposes. A no minion hunter deck for instance wouldn't be able to use Altimor, while if they ever make a no spell benefit he would become an option for the same effect.
Huntsman Altimor himself I think is stronger than he looks. I don't think Infuse will be as hard to trigger, especially in hunter. We have to see the rest of the set of course before final judgement. Still I think the effect is strong enough to be worth the weight. Also it's not a hard card to adjust if it does fall short with so many different numbers (stats, cost, infuse). So even if it turns out weak it can be saved. I still believe a 7 mana To My Side! + a 5/4 is worth running even if you can't reach the 8 infuse mark consistantly.
People said Wing Commander Ichman was too weak and too expensive too. Yet he sees decent play. I'd bet the same for Altimor. Looks weak on paper but plays out better than expected.