Today is the second day of card reveals for Hearthstone's Festival of Legends expansion. The new set is the kick-off for 2023 and it will be arriving early April, with card reveals going on until March 30. Below you will find today's countdowns and card reveals.
Don't forget to talk about the new cards in the comments and if you want to talk about them individually, we've got threads in our Card Discussion forum for every one. You can also take part in our expansion Tavern Crawl, which rewards you with limited-time cosmetics on-site, for voting and comments on cards.
Today's Card Reveal Countdowns
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March 18 Festival of Legends Card Reveals
Here are all the cards that Blizzard have revealed today, March 18, 2023, for Festival of Legends.
Comments
I find it tough to evaluate these cards with rotation. Many could be absolutely nuts depending on what core is
All of these cards have amazing flavour. And would make for good Custom Hearthcards, but for an actual expansion they are all completely USELESS. None of these see any play whatsoever except maybe Candleraiser (if the game becomes slow enough where 2 divine shields matter).
It feels like they designed all the legendaries and class cards then realized at the last moment like “oh shit, we still have to make neutral cards” and this is the result. Complete pack filler.
That's kinda harsh, considering that this is the first expansion past rotation. And this is hardly an exhaustive look at the neutrals anyway. Cards like Festival Security and Frequency Oscillator are solid cards on their own right despite being neutral while Pozzik, Audio Engineer looks very much like an auto include, at least for this expansion.
Its true that a large percentage of neutrals tend to get ignored in constructed, but that's the nature of card games in general. A small percentage of cards sees play, the majority of which are filler cards, for other modes like arena. Theres only 30 cards per deck, not every card can be a world beater.
Tradeable as an evergreen keyword seems neat
Concert Promo-Drake is pretty bad honestly. The card would seem mediocre even if the finale was a battlecry. Maybe some dragon deck would use it in standard mostly for the tradeable. In wild maybe Deathwing, Dragonlord/Necrium Apothecary Rogue uses it (I’m not sure if anyone still plays that deck though)
Photographer Fizzle looks like what you’d get if Elise the Trailblazer and [Hearthstone Card (Dead Man’s Hand) Not Found] had a baby. The snapshot is probably worth as much as prime usually. Seems like a neat value card.
Rolling Stone Is a decent card. I don’t think it’s quite good enough to see generic play, but elemental decks probably love this.
Paparazzi will of course not see play in wild. But in standard this has a really nice chance to shine in a post rotation meta with a reduced discover pool.
Freebird is a cool card. In standard most of the stuff that would synergize with this is rotating though and it’s obviously too slow to see legitimate play in wild. Does seem fun to mess with at least
Some interesting cards;
- Photographer Fizzle is a card that was good years ago when attrition control was viable but now its niche. Its best use is likely as tech card for when you decide to play jailer and your opponent is a control deck who can deal with that. Likely an ETC band card at best.
- Freebird is the kind of build around you'd wish was at least 1 mana cheaper, but likely that the charge keyword made it untenable. The ironic thing is that its more likely to be used in buff decks as a finisher than as a genuine build-around in a deck. DK, paladin, and hunter decks are prime suspects.
- Rolling Stone is probably an indication that shaman might go elemental this expansion. Or we can expect a class to do so, like mage.
- Rowdy Fan is almost like Abusive Sergeant in many ways, and will likely see play in plenty of aggro decks.
- Party Animal is an indication that there's going to be at least one class going menagerie. On its own its interesting, because what this does essentially is handbuffing at least 1-2 cards in your hand. Might be decent enough to be honest. First expansion past rotation often is slow enough that cards like this aren't always total crap. If it was available today I can see at least hunter playing it.
I enjoy someone sharing optimism here.
Mish-Mash Mosher is Batterhead 2.0 with control and stats sacrificed for an increased chance of having the attack needed to clear its targets. It's . . . worse. It's worse. Mosher may be able to snipe some minions behind Taunts, but that corner-case advantage still sees it behind the original. Its greatest advantage is the Undead tag which gives it synergies its predecessor didn't have available; that probably accounts for the 2 less Health.
Audio Medic is an extremely solid card that does the Zilliax job of solving aggro problems with decent minions (with the minor downside of failing a bit when you are forced to float mana, like when you're topdecking).
Crowd Surfer helping your opponent's minions is a huge eeeww-factor relegating it to regrettable devolve/evolve outcomes and the jankiest of obscure jank decks. It can't even justify the card slot it occupies with its stats. It absolutely could have stood to be improved, either statwise or with its ability being more significant for its original user.
Party Animal doesn't have a handbuff deck that can manage the tribal array that would justify it in constructed at the moment.
Annoying Fan and Rowdy Fan I can't see making the cut in constructed, but could be compelling in Arena. Rowdy Fan almost works with Audio Medic, until the latter's Finale keyword makes that awkward.
Candleraiser feels like Fungalmancer. If Dormant doesn't make a comeback, this is an Arena monster but it will never be able ot reliably have the board it needs to justify itself in constructed.
Cowbell Soloist would feel way better if its Health wasn't sub-par. It won't always be able to trade evenly, even less trade up, so, combined with a lack of relevant tribes, I don't think this sees constructed play.
Unpopular Has-Been costs too much. It should have had Taunt or Rush. Arena only.
Edit:
Paparazzi. Those are some solid stats on a Discover effect. In the dog-days of early rotation, I can see this played in some early slow decks. In Arena? Instant pick.
Concert Promo-Drake. Arena-only, even with Tradeable. This just barely missed being the most noxious Lady Prestor spawn in Standard.
Rolling Stone. If the design team is successful, this is an annoying part of an aggro elemental deck that we haven’t seen yet. Traditionally, this is Shaman, but if the devs don’t suck at spreading out archetypes, Mage will have one, too. It’s extremely all-or-nothing unless rotation gives us Fire Fly and/or similar generators that let us hold a 1-cost minion with little opportunity cost.
Photographer Fizzle. The future savior of jank combo streamer decks everywhere. Drop Baleful Banker into the rotation and ya got yourself infinite recursion if you’re patient enough to draw the whole thing back into your hand. You can do this already in Wild, obviously.
Edit: Didn't realize that Fizzle actually puts a spell in your deck with the snapshot -- like Elise the Trailblazer did with the Un'Goro pack. That makes recursion WAY easier. You don't need to recur the Fizzle, just the spell that's now in your deck. You can do that with Radiant Elemental and Shadow Visions and Grand Magister Rommath, among other methods. Though I don't know if Rommath will correctly remember the cards in the photograph.
Freebird.
Child: Mom, I want Elwynn Boar.
Mother: We have Elwynn Boar at home.
Elwynn Boar at home.
Four mana is a lot more than you’d like for recursion shenanigans, though. Unless Scarlet Webweaver or another permanent cost reducer shows up in the rotation, this won’t work at all. And Webweaver is still too expensive.
Obsessive Fan. There’s no aura minion that one could justify keeping alive known right now. Maybe Tony, King of Piracy, but that’s a rather silly use for a card that could actually be used to win. There are definitely times where this can win the game, especially for aggro: you get a super-high damage minion out and the opponent needs to kill it before you snowball, for example. But that eventuality doesn’t justify fitting this into a constructed deck.
What says “I want this to live, but I’m okay with it being destroyed if the opponent first pays the tax of destroying a 6-Health minion”?
I like this new reveal style. We're starting with the general neutral theme of the crowd and concert-goers (with amazing flavor by the way) and then we'll be amping up to featuring the cool stuff in each of the bands. So much better to have the reveals get more exciting than blow out with the best stuff first and dump everything else afterward. This is like we're milling in the crowd waiting for the concert to begin and I feel the same excitement!
This is weird. Normally they try to lead with the good stuff and leave the neutral dump for last. Now they're essentially leading with it as if these are cards we're meant to be excited about. Either they're powering the game down, which is fine by me, or the set has little to offer, or there's something utterly broken coming up.
I think it's so you have full context of what you can do when each class is revealed. Cover Artist, Photographer Fizzle, Party Animal; these cards could go well with what's offered by the Paladin or Death Knight or whatever, but we need to know about them for theorycrafting. If you save Neutral for last, every class' offerings will feel incomplete; instead, by doin' them first, you'll know everything about each class in their respective moment (save for the Core set, I guess).
Tradeable goin' evergreen? Neat.
Regarding Fizzle, I'm honestly surprised it took this long for a Neutral Dead Man's Hand.
Annoying Fan is a Glacial Shard for mechs more or less. If your opponent can kill it immediately it has no effect but if they fail to kill it for multiple turns it's a better freeze. Though Glacial Shard was everywhere back in the day, I think this only makes the cut in mech decks.
Candleraiser - I'm not sure if it's good enough to see play but I think it might in standard. It gives your minions a decent amount of stickiness and has a decent body. It's no Fungalmancer or Battleground Battlemaster but it looks like a decent tempo card.
Party Animal is a decent menagerie card. If warrior still had it's stuff from Darkmoon faire I think it'd slot in perfectly. If there's a couple more cards that push menagerie decks this expansion maybe this does see play.
Mish-Mash Mosher is an okay big undead minion, it functions as a newer Batterhead, maybe if warlock or someone gets more big undead support this card sees play but, I don't see it right now. I'm not even certain if it's better than Batterhead and Hulking Overfiend
Crowd Surfer is probably not good enough to see play. It kind of sucks to play it on turn 1 without coining out something else and it could relatively easily work against you. Is probably really annoying for some decks at least.
Rowdy Fan is a okay 3 drop. The body while not amazing does ensure it sticks usually and you usually are using it to hit for an extra 4 damage immediately.
Obsessive Fan is easily the worst card of the bunch. Maybe if this was a 1 mana 1/3. I could humor it, but as a 4 drop this probably never making the cut. Maybe if you wanted to protect a naga giant or similar card, but probably not.
Unpopular Has-Been is basically Cairne Bloodhoof but random, I don't think anybody wants that right now, currently just a good evolve target and is an undead. I think this is just signaling that Cairne Bloodhoof is leaving the core set this year.
Cover Artist is Prince Taldaram but trading the deck restriction for increased cost, unless Carnivorous Cube is in the core set or something similarily powerful to copy shows up probably doesn't see play
Cowbell Soloist is a slightly above average 3 drop with a requirement. Maybe there's a deck that want's it post rotation but given Lone Champion's success (or lack thereof) in core I don't have high hopes for this
Audio Medic is a neat 2 drop, I think it'd might make the cut if handbuff takes off in standard given Chillblade Champion's success in the archetype. It costs 2 less and loses charge for an identical statline, still might not make it though.
Air Guitarist is a neat card for decks that like weapons which I think they're pushing this expansion. There haven't been a lot of cards that buff only weapon durability before (Literally just nerfed Corsair Cache) but I think it's a worthwhile effect.
Cover Artist just powercrept Prince Taldaram right now. Yeah, for 4 mana but no deck building restrictions and also you can run 2 copies of it. Combo decks like it
Of all the cards, you chose Cover Artist?
Faceless Manipulator you get the full stats for only 1 more mana!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!
3 mana for an 18/23 body?!! And one with such a powerful Battlecry to reveal brand new cards? This card is beyond game-warping!