New Bilgewater Champion - Nautilus

if you can get into deep by turn 7 or 8 this card can be really devastating.. I mean you can then flood the board with 7/7s on the same turn!

that's really strong.. but how long will it take you to get to 15 or less cards in deck?

there's not only toss but also card draw, natural draw and other synergies like maokai..

With my weird [Hearthstone Card (Zephyr Sage) Not Found] shenanigans, you can get to less than 15 cards pretty fast and on a pretty consistent basis. Naut will give my Zpehyrs +3/+3 and also add some that were Tossed. Also with [Hearthstone Card (Smooth Soloist) Not Found], they can cost up to (0) mana.

I'm sorry for being so obsessed with that Sage, but I guess I really enjoy the idea of this late game win codition that cannot be countered once you pull it off.

Only units with "deep" keyword gets the +3/+3, unless I'm missing something, so those sages should be 4/4s.

I REALLY don't like this card--let me break down why.

Let's start with his L1 stats: 7 mana 0/12 Tough and  Fearsome.  That's just bad--0 attack units are no good!  Sure he has tough, but he can't even kill a spiderling or pop a barrier, and he's vulnerable to a lot of Frejlord shenanigans.  And the Fearsome is meaningless: why would you attack with this guy?  The exception would be if he's received a buff, but in the regions he wants to be played--SI + BW--that's really hard to do.

Then there's his L2 stats: 7 mana 13/13.  Sure, this is intimidating, but how realistic is it?  Well, we need to consume 21 cards from our deck including card draw (40 - opening 4 - 15 = 21).  Let's say we rush: with a Glimpse and 12 toss we get there on Round 7, which sounds pretty good right?  The problem is that tossing is SUCH a tempo loss I think this strategy is already dead twice over.   I think Toss decks are going to want to either play a stall game (think current Warmother's Calling) or respectable tempo game (think Draven + Ez or Elise + Karma), which means many of your early game plays aren't tossing and your L2 isn't coming online until late game, at which point he's not bad but also not great--you'd probably rather have a Ledros.

Finally, there's his level-up effect and passive L2 ability.  Honestly, I think this is the only reason you play him--maybe as a 1-of for Malokai mirror matches.  The passive is nice but probably meaningless in most matches: by then you're probably top-decking without a lot of impactful ways to spend mana.  I think the level-up effect is the true cherry; if you've tossed a bunch of strong followers (especially if they have deep), you'd really like to shuffle them back into your deck.  I just don't see it to be powerful enough to overcome the L1 stat limitations.

His level 1 is not that terrible it can block against aggro boards the strongest unit.

as default you are at 29 cards by turn 7 with only natural card draw, you need to toss/draw 14 cards, you want to use Salvage for sure at least once.. that's 10 cards to toss, now if you play units on curve you play the 2/1 (3), you play the 1/4 that heals and tosses (5), then you play the lifesteal guy(8) then you play maokai, and a turn after any unit (10).

ten all you need to do is to play salvage(14!) or another toss card with maokai on board and you got your deep deck-> 14 tosses by turn 5 if you play on curve.

don't think it's such a tempo loss to toss, 2/1 for 1 is an ok blocker, 1/4 blocks some aggro and also heals, the 3/2  got lifesteal, maokai let's you stall with the saplings and/or remove more stuff..

I think such deck could work.

Also while SI is good on this mechanic you don't HAVE TO be in SI..

The voice is great in the preview video

I've warmed a little to this card after seeing how great some of the sea monster tribe is, but I'm still not impressed by it from a competitive point of view.  I think he'll ultimately play out Vladimir or Shen: good enough to make some fun off-meta decks around, but you'll never see him in touraments.

Quote From Author

His level 1 is not that terrible it can block against aggro boards the strongest unit.

No man, it's bad.  Compare it to Braum: he's less than half the mana, regenerates, and he can challenge so he even helps on offense, yet he's one of the least-played champions because zero attack is just so bad.  I will grant that perhaps it isn't as difficult as I imagined to get deep in which case his L1 stats don't matter as much, but if you're paying seven mana for a toothless blocker you're going to be extremely sad--even moreso with as many On Attack effects that this expansion is going to bring.

Quote From OldManSanns

I've warmed a little to this card after seeing how great some of the sea monster tribe is, but I'm still not impressed by it from a competitive point of view.  I think he'll ultimately play out Vladimir or Shen: good enough to make some fun off-meta decks around, but you'll never see him in touraments.

 

Quote From Author

His level 1 is not that terrible it can block against aggro boards the strongest unit.

 

No man, it's bad.  Compare it to Braum: he's less than half the mana, regenerates, and he can challenge so he even helps on offense, yet he's one of the least-played champions because zero attack is just so bad.  I will grant that perhaps it isn't as difficult as I imagined to get deep in which case his L1 stats don't matter as much, but if you're paying seven mana for a toothless blocker you're going to be extremely sad--even moreso with as many On Attack effects that this expansion is going to bring.

I mean, I get what you're saying but...gotta be realistic for a sec...

Part of playing card games is having fun on your level.  Why does it matter if you never see Braum or Vlad in tournaments?  Just have fun with the card, enjoy making your own deck and coming up with something that works.  It doesn't have to work all the time.  A good thing to remember is that never validate how well your deck is doing in anything less than sets of 10.  If you try a wonky deck and you play 10 games and go 1-9, then it might be time to reconsider some cards or the theme of your deck.  

Is it too inconsistent?  Is it too combo oriented and hard to pull off?  Do you find yourself lacking card draw or late game closers?  These are all things to consider.

But if the deck is anywhere around 5:5, 3:7, 6:4, then I'd say just go with the flow and have fun.  I'm sure someone is gonna come up with a buff deck for Nautilius.  I'm hoping that I can start making a "Tough" based deck soon, as I think Tough is severely underrated, but against decks like Miss Fortune which look to spam small damage repeatedly, Tough is going to be a godsend.

Quote From OldManSanns

Compare it to Braum: he's less than half the mana, regenerates, and he can challenge so he even helps on offense, yet he's one of the least-played champions because zero attack is just so bad.

Braum never saw play because he can't block Fearsome and Elusive units. It has nothing to do with his 0 attack.