I actually need this card upon seeing it. It's amazing value and curves out well at 4, 7, then 10 mana (for the additional effect ofc). If you trigger every Manathirst requirement, this is 15/15 in stats across 3 bodies and 18 damage + 5 armor. That is nuts.

I'll be honest, this card is shit. I just cant see the merits of cards like these. Pyros, Build a Snowman, and the primes (with a few exceptions) all weren't good enough in their time and here's another one testing the old Einstein adage once again.

So to get into a few details. The main problem of this card is that it does nothing without triggering manathrist and the stats suck. Even the final reward of the card is lacklustre, even with 16 damage because its split, so every face damage that doesn't kill face is damage lost. The only way this ever sees play is via some crazy manathrist combo enabler that is yet to be revealed, or it goes into druid, because no other class can trigger the manathirst faster than druid, and also because druid is the only class that can naturally play out the final reward with Brann Bronzebeard.

But of course, the ultimate killer to the card's viability is perhaps to ask - why aren't you just playing Sire Denathrius instead?

Really hard to evaluate. On paper it sucks because you can't really use it on curve properly.

On the other hand, you don't necessarily need to activate the Manathirst on anything but the last card.

Then again, 16 damage is not that much in this day and age and there's no convenient way to combo with Brann.

However, there is that funny little interaction in Druid, where you can play all 3 Astalors with Brann which amounts to 36 damage and + 10 armor and a couple more Astalors in hand all for the low cost of 18-mana.

This honestly looks pretty bad and awkard on paper. Not only that but it adds the card in hand. While this is nice, it does leave it open for good 'ol Theotar, the Mad Duke and [Hearthstone Card (Mutanous the devourer) Not Found] to remove it from your hand.  And with manathirst you need to wait until certain mana totals in order to use this card effectively. And the final reward honestly seems only good in Druid because of Guff. On top of that Sire Denathrius is a way better finisher.

Still in practice it might be decent, but i honestly feel like there are too many challenges for it to be good.

Edit: After looking at theorycrafts, wow this card is busted. Apparantly playing both Sire Denathrius and Astalor Bloodsworn is very good. If Theotar, the Mad Duke steals one of them, at least you can still destroy them with the other.

I think Dapper's comparison to the Primes and Pyros is fair so far as power level goes, but Astalor Bloodsworn adds the next card to your hand right away - in classes like Shaman with poor draw (and Battlecry synergy) or decks that want to keep large hands, this is a mediocre-to-good card that just keeps on giving. I can see it being slotted in a few decks just to fill the gaps.

Dapper and Brandon ask, why not run Sire Denathrius instead? Why not both?

Might be better than those other multi-stage cards, since if you wait two turns past the mana cost for each stage they actually do something. And 8 mana deal 16 randomly split damage is a pretty good payoff. Especially if you can play it against an empty board so it all goes face.

I think it is slow, and possibly only relevant in a few very niched decklists, but at the same time, I can appreciate that the card its a neutral card, the card it generates goes straight to your hands, ready to played at manathirst-time. But I agree with the overall comparison to Pyros & Build a Snowman.

Hello new Sire Denathrius, so nice to see you.

One of the best cards in the new expansion, for sure. I expect it to be played in pretty much every deck.

After falling victim to this card doubled over from Brann's effect with Druid... something needs to be done about this.  Yeah, it's a set up, but so was Sire and he got wrecked with the nerf

Yeah, this guy is infuriating when played with Brann and duplicated and played for free through armor. Card itself is fine, Brann, Anubrekahn and Guff are the problem.

I would like to see the Manathirst decoupled from the Battlecry, so it would deal (8x2)+8 instead of (8+8)x2 with Brann. Nerfs exactly Druid and nothing else, so if/when Druid becomes statistically too powerful then it's an easy band-aid. Not sure if it's warranted right now, haven't seen the winrates.

Could also replace cry with rattle for getting next stages, but that's a whole different can of worms... And druid would STILL be able to get multiples of him through Hedge Maze and even tutor with the 7/6 tree... So nevermind.

Fun and interactive... He killed me from nearly 40 health btw

https://imgur.com/4e8ohKH

https://imgur.com/4e8ohKH

The version of Astalor, the Flamebringer above is not correct. The manathirst ability actually says "Deal 16 instead." So I think the manathirst ability of Astalor, the Flamebringer changes the battlecry from "Deal 8 damage..." to "Deal 16 damage..." and that modified battlecry is doubled by Brann Bronzebeard to 32 total damage.

Oh, I didn't know that's what happened. Thanks for telling me.