It always amazes me how quick people are to judge a card based solely on whether it would fit in a current deck. The meta always changes after a new expansion. Whether more or less similar to now, there will be some new decks. A card that draws three for 5 mana, regardless of stats attached and especially if they are specific cards, will never be bad. As previous commenters have said, there are some great dragons and mechs in Warrior that just needed a little more consistency to be good, and some which become insane with a buff. Decks have and will change just to make use of good card draw. It happened with Pirates when Patches was good, and it happens in Hunter every time there's a Secret tutor; there's no reason it wouldn't happen with one or both of these cards.
Important thing to note: If you discard Boneweb Egg, the 2/1 Spiders WILL get the +1/+1 buff (is the interaction with Shriek and Egg is anything to go by), so that will definitely be quite strong.
The Grim Rally comparison here is obvious. Depending on certain situations, discarding a card can be less bad than destroying one of your minions, although Grim Rally was good with small 1/1 minions or even stronger with eggs. If you have minions that you don't want to destroy though, then this will be better than Grim Rally. Whichever one is better than the other seems to be roughly 50/50, so I'm going to say this card is good.
The effect might seem boring for a Legendary, but this often tricks people into thinking they're bad. What is slightly weird about this card is that the statline is very defensive, yet the effect is aggressive, although I suppose that might help it survive. There's definitely a combo out there by somehow summoning a bunch of cheap Rush minions. Whether or not minions that gain Rush an an enchantment count will be a determining factor.
If minions that gain Rush as an enchantment count (which according to the wording "Rush minions" would not, but Team 5 is not always consistent with this), then you could do some pretty silly things with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius or Animated Broomstick.
The problem I see with this card is that it's reliant on having all 3 tribes in your hand to be good (in turn, reliant on you played Ringmaster Whatley first), and handbuffs are generally quite slow and see little play.
There is theoretically a place where this can shine, but even in new N'Zoth Warriors, I hardly imagine a slow +3/+3 handbuff on a few minions is what's going to make the deck.
This type of support is really strange since Mechs, Dragons, and Pirates have basically no synergistic overlap with each other outside of simply being 3 separate Warrior archetypes that have been supported on and off over the years. I guess that's just the price when you run menagerie-style decks.
But it's hard to imagine this card being bad since it's a 5 mana 3/5 that draws 3 cards, and The Curator was a decent card in these decks. If Menagerie Warrior takes off, this will no doubt be a very strong part of the deck.
It really depends on what Warrior gets, and if Warrior gets some mechs or pirates that work generically. I have no doubt that the baton is for tempo decks, but I don't see a tempo menagerie working. A tribal tempo deck relies on consistent tribal synergies, and mixing three tribes is the opposite of consistent.
How about some otk deck involving making copies of this with faceless manipulator, getting a lot of minions on board, and giving them all rush with animated broomstick? It won’t be competitive but if I get this card that would be a fun way to use it
You could use mad summoner to guarantee both sides having a board, then kill one of your imps with inner rage. Then play broomstick to get 7 guaranteed attacks, assuming you have 2 god of metal that would 28 damage, if you have 3 42. The 28 damage combo can be done with a Thaurissan tick, the 42 damage combo with Thaurissan and Drakkari enchantress
I like that idea myself, but most aggro warriors tend to want to finish up games by turn 6, and at present I can't see a warrior deck that doesn't also play plenty of pirates so you wont always get the pirate you want. He's also not really presenting much tempo, being mostly a draw card, and on turn 5 aggro warriors probably want to weapon up with Arcanite Reapers instead.
I think midrange is most likely where he'll end up.
This thing is deceptively powerful, if it ever gets corrupted. Even uncorrupted, its a 5 mana 5/5 with divine shield, which isn't exactly small or weak. The main problem is that paladin doesn't play a lot of expensive stuff right now, with the librams being so handily cheapen. So we're looking at maybe Tirion Fordring, Hammer of the Naaru or Lady Liadrin as the trigger, and that doesn't really feel that good, does it?
If somehow midrange pally can shake off librams for a moment, then there's still a chance for this yet. It kinda competes with Fleethoof Pearltusk if we're going the yshaarj or nzoth route though. Still, not too bad a card.
Its a wide buff card and that means it will likely see play because that's whats missing in zoo at the moment.
But the discard is a little rough. At least we will always know what is being discarded, but more often than not you'll end up losing something, even if its nothing more than a 1 drop.
Yes, that combo with boneweb egg is really strong. But realistically though, you'd have to play all your 1 drops, dodge the second whispers, and possibly even Soulfire before the egg even gets considered. So, its a combo that is strong when it happens, but will not likely happen. In my opinion, zoolock can live without it.
I played Runterra for a few months. I don't play it anymore because, although their reward structure is very generous, the game play was very boring. Due to the lack of RNG, everything felt repetitive, predictable, and monotonous.
I do not disagree that Hearthstone has a lot of RNG, and I do think we could do with a little less, but it is one of the things that makes the game fun. RNG is good int he right balance, and it doesn't diminish skill like some people think it does. When done right, RNG can work with skill to create a diverse, fun, and exciting game.
I think it is crucial for there to be a lot of RNG in games like Hearthstone. Otherwise, games becomes decided mostly by who you are pared up against. In a game with no RNG, the winner will very often be the person who has the favorable deck in the matchup. Unless I planned specifically to fight against combo decks, my slow control deck will always lose that matchup. It doesn't matter how good I play, my only hope of winning is if my opponent makes a mistake. Games like chess, or sports, work with no RNG since both sides start from an equal point. In games like Hearthstone, both players start with very different decks. So there has to be a certain level of RNG to make the matchup less of a deciding factor in who wins and loses.
Sorry for the rant. It just think people don't appreciate randomness enough.
This is exactly correct. This card is a 3/5 that draws 3 cards for a mere 5 mana. And it doesn't even just draw random cards - it draws specific ones. All you need to do in order to make this card very good is having two copies each of a specific dragon, pirate, and mech.
This is so much better than Curator could ever have hoped to be. Not even a contest.
Being able to give +3/+3 to minions in your hand is pretty good. Sure it doesn't hit every minion, but compared to some of the hand-buffs hunter gets, this is pretty powerful. I don't think it is too terribly powerful, but if you are already playing N'zoth or the new Legendary then this is just too good not to include.
at least this time around the hand buff cards costs a reasonable amount of mana instead of.. 4.. this has tutors as well as the target tribes for the synergy also already have some synergy..
there's the cannon that's a mech and warrior already runs pirates..
we will see if it actually works this time around maybe they learned from both failures of managerie and handbuffing and this time it makes sense..
Good Mechs for Warrior: Omega Devastator (yes, it is still in standard), Tomb Warden, Scrap Golem
Good Pirates: Risky Skipper, Sky Raider, Dread Corsair, Kobold Stickyfinger
Good Dragons: Scion of Ruin, Crimson Hothead, Deathwing Mad Aspect
While almost all of them benefit from buffs, the bolded ones also summon copies of themselves. Galakrond is nowadays an inclusion in control warrior, so we can see these two revealed cards having a big impact in the archetype. Also, there is a win condition now, with the Old Gods.
The viability of control warrior will depend solely if they manage to outvalue other Old Gods decks. Probably if they play a more aggressive, tempo oriented game, they can run with the game early. Tempo warrior comes back?
The Curator is one of my favorite legendaries, so I am glad to see his reincarnation in this card. 5 mana draw 3 isn't terrible, and when it comes with a body attached and you know ahead of time what cards you are drawing, it becomes pretty good. The main question is whether or not you will have a dragon, mech, and pirate that you actually want to draw.
There are plenty of good dragons in standard and wild, so I don't think it will be difficult to fulfill that requirement. There are also plenty of good pirates such as Captain Greenskin, Sky Raider, and Risky Skipper. The only tribe that may be awkward to include is mechs. I guess there is Skybarge which works with your pirate. Or Scrap Golem if you are playing control. Or if you want to play this guy in Bomb Warrior then there is Clockwork Goblin. Other than those though there aren't a whole lot of good mechs in standard.
It's a fun hail Mary card with interesting effects, but I really sympathize with the competitive players that will have to put up with this shi* in tournaments. It would only be fair to the players if this was banned competitively, but blizzard wants the tournaments to be an exciting viewing experience so it's not likely to happen.
2 mana 1/4 is already a pretty good statline. If you only get 2 damage off of it then I guess it's okay. 4 damage and it is above average. But if you can get 6 damage then it becomes an insane amount of burst damage for an aggro deck. And with cards like Restless mummy and Scion of Ruin, getting a good amount of damage out of this guy shouldn't be too difficult.
Maybe this is not for a N'Zoth deck, but for a tempo deck. 1/3 weapon seems bad for a tempo deck, but think of this.
If you equip it on turn 2, you swing it that turn. On turn 3 you swing it again and play a minion. That's +2/+2 on that minion. That may continue with +3/+3 and +4/+4, potentially on multiple minions. It may compensate that tempo loss from turn 2.
I know it's hard to have this scenario all the time. Handbuffing is usually bad as we've seen before, but multiple buffs for 2 mana, and sometimes board control with weapon may work just fine. I dunno, we'll see.
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
It always amazes me how quick people are to judge a card based solely on whether it would fit in a current deck. The meta always changes after a new expansion. Whether more or less similar to now, there will be some new decks. A card that draws three for 5 mana, regardless of stats attached and especially if they are specific cards, will never be bad. As previous commenters have said, there are some great dragons and mechs in Warrior that just needed a little more consistency to be good, and some which become insane with a buff. Decks have and will change just to make use of good card draw. It happened with Pirates when Patches was good, and it happens in Hunter every time there's a Secret tutor; there's no reason it wouldn't happen with one or both of these cards.
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
Very nice now give Shaman and Paladin card draw
New Warlock Spell - Wicked Whispers
Important thing to note: If you discard Boneweb Egg, the 2/1 Spiders WILL get the +1/+1 buff (is the interaction with Shriek and Egg is anything to go by), so that will definitely be quite strong.
The Grim Rally comparison here is obvious. Depending on certain situations, discarding a card can be less bad than destroying one of your minions, although Grim Rally was good with small 1/1 minions or even stronger with eggs. If you have minions that you don't want to destroy though, then this will be better than Grim Rally. Whichever one is better than the other seems to be roughly 50/50, so I'm going to say this card is good.
New Warrior Minion - E.T.C., God of Metal
Aw yeah, heavy metal!
The effect might seem boring for a Legendary, but this often tricks people into thinking they're bad. What is slightly weird about this card is that the statline is very defensive, yet the effect is aggressive, although I suppose that might help it survive. There's definitely a combo out there by somehow summoning a bunch of cheap Rush minions. Whether or not minions that gain Rush an an enchantment count will be a determining factor.
If minions that gain Rush as an enchantment count (which according to the wording "Rush minions" would not, but Team 5 is not always consistent with this), then you could do some pretty silly things with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius or Animated Broomstick.
New Warrior Minion - E.T.C., God of Metal
You can do a 28 damage combo with Inner Rage and a single Emperor Thaurissan tick on 4 cards: This, Faceless Manipulator, Mad Summoner, and Animated Broomstick.
New Warrior Weapon - Ringmaster's Baton
The problem I see with this card is that it's reliant on having all 3 tribes in your hand to be good (in turn, reliant on you played Ringmaster Whatley first), and handbuffs are generally quite slow and see little play.
There is theoretically a place where this can shine, but even in new N'Zoth Warriors, I hardly imagine a slow +3/+3 handbuff on a few minions is what's going to make the deck.
New Warrior Minion - Ringmaster Whatley
This type of support is really strange since Mechs, Dragons, and Pirates have basically no synergistic overlap with each other outside of simply being 3 separate Warrior archetypes that have been supported on and off over the years. I guess that's just the price when you run menagerie-style decks.
But it's hard to imagine this card being bad since it's a 5 mana 3/5 that draws 3 cards, and The Curator was a decent card in these decks. If Menagerie Warrior takes off, this will no doubt be a very strong part of the deck.
Carousel Gryphon is a New Paladin Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion
You are so close
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
It really depends on what Warrior gets, and if Warrior gets some mechs or pirates that work generically. I have no doubt that the baton is for tempo decks, but I don't see a tempo menagerie working. A tribal tempo deck relies on consistent tribal synergies, and mixing three tribes is the opposite of consistent.
E.T.C., God of Metal is a New Warrior Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion
How about some otk deck involving making copies of this with faceless manipulator, getting a lot of minions on board, and giving them all rush with animated broomstick? It won’t be competitive but if I get this card that would be a fun way to use it
You could use mad summoner to guarantee both sides having a board, then kill one of your imps with inner rage. Then play broomstick to get 7 guaranteed attacks, assuming you have 2 god of metal that would 28 damage, if you have 3 42. The 28 damage combo can be done with a Thaurissan tick, the 42 damage combo with Thaurissan and Drakkari enchantress
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
I like that idea myself, but most aggro warriors tend to want to finish up games by turn 6, and at present I can't see a warrior deck that doesn't also play plenty of pirates so you wont always get the pirate you want. He's also not really presenting much tempo, being mostly a draw card, and on turn 5 aggro warriors probably want to weapon up with Arcanite Reapers instead.
I think midrange is most likely where he'll end up.
Carousel Gryphon is a New Paladin Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion
This thing is deceptively powerful, if it ever gets corrupted. Even uncorrupted, its a 5 mana 5/5 with divine shield, which isn't exactly small or weak. The main problem is that paladin doesn't play a lot of expensive stuff right now, with the librams being so handily cheapen. So we're looking at maybe Tirion Fordring, Hammer of the Naaru or Lady Liadrin as the trigger, and that doesn't really feel that good, does it?
If somehow midrange pally can shake off librams for a moment, then there's still a chance for this yet. It kinda competes with Fleethoof Pearltusk if we're going the yshaarj or nzoth route though. Still, not too bad a card.
Wicked Whispers is a New Warlock Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion
Its a wide buff card and that means it will likely see play because that's whats missing in zoo at the moment.
But the discard is a little rough. At least we will always know what is being discarded, but more often than not you'll end up losing something, even if its nothing more than a 1 drop.
Yes, that combo with boneweb egg is really strong. But realistically though, you'd have to play all your 1 drops, dodge the second whispers, and possibly even Soulfire before the egg even gets considered. So, its a combo that is strong when it happens, but will not likely happen. In my opinion, zoolock can live without it.
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
I played Runterra for a few months. I don't play it anymore because, although their reward structure is very generous, the game play was very boring. Due to the lack of RNG, everything felt repetitive, predictable, and monotonous.
I do not disagree that Hearthstone has a lot of RNG, and I do think we could do with a little less, but it is one of the things that makes the game fun. RNG is good int he right balance, and it doesn't diminish skill like some people think it does. When done right, RNG can work with skill to create a diverse, fun, and exciting game.
I think it is crucial for there to be a lot of RNG in games like Hearthstone. Otherwise, games becomes decided mostly by who you are pared up against. In a game with no RNG, the winner will very often be the person who has the favorable deck in the matchup. Unless I planned specifically to fight against combo decks, my slow control deck will always lose that matchup. It doesn't matter how good I play, my only hope of winning is if my opponent makes a mistake. Games like chess, or sports, work with no RNG since both sides start from an equal point. In games like Hearthstone, both players start with very different decks. So there has to be a certain level of RNG to make the matchup less of a deciding factor in who wins and loses.
Sorry for the rant. It just think people don't appreciate randomness enough.
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
This is exactly correct. This card is a 3/5 that draws 3 cards for a mere 5 mana. And it doesn't even just draw random cards - it draws specific ones. All you need to do in order to make this card very good is having two copies each of a specific dragon, pirate, and mech.
This is so much better than Curator could ever have hoped to be. Not even a contest.
New Warrior Weapon - Ringmaster's Baton
Being able to give +3/+3 to minions in your hand is pretty good. Sure it doesn't hit every minion, but compared to some of the hand-buffs hunter gets, this is pretty powerful. I don't think it is too terribly powerful, but if you are already playing N'zoth or the new Legendary then this is just too good not to include.
New Warrior Weapon - Ringmaster's Baton
at least this time around the hand buff cards costs a reasonable amount of mana instead of.. 4.. this has tutors as well as the target tribes for the synergy also already have some synergy..
there's the cannon that's a mech and warrior already runs pirates..
we will see if it actually works this time around maybe they learned from both failures of managerie and handbuffing and this time it makes sense..
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
Good Mechs for Warrior: Omega Devastator (yes, it is still in standard), Tomb Warden, Scrap Golem
Good Pirates: Risky Skipper, Sky Raider, Dread Corsair, Kobold Stickyfinger
Good Dragons: Scion of Ruin, Crimson Hothead, Deathwing Mad Aspect
While almost all of them benefit from buffs, the bolded ones also summon copies of themselves. Galakrond is nowadays an inclusion in control warrior, so we can see these two revealed cards having a big impact in the archetype. Also, there is a win condition now, with the Old Gods.
The viability of control warrior will depend solely if they manage to outvalue other Old Gods decks. Probably if they play a more aggressive, tempo oriented game, they can run with the game early. Tempo warrior comes back?
New Warrior Minion - Ringmaster Whatley
The Curator is one of my favorite legendaries, so I am glad to see his reincarnation in this card. 5 mana draw 3 isn't terrible, and when it comes with a body attached and you know ahead of time what cards you are drawing, it becomes pretty good. The main question is whether or not you will have a dragon, mech, and pirate that you actually want to draw.
There are plenty of good dragons in standard and wild, so I don't think it will be difficult to fulfill that requirement. There are also plenty of good pirates such as Captain Greenskin, Sky Raider, and Risky Skipper. The only tribe that may be awkward to include is mechs. I guess there is Skybarge which works with your pirate. Or Scrap Golem if you are playing control. Or if you want to play this guy in Bomb Warrior then there is Clockwork Goblin. Other than those though there aren't a whole lot of good mechs in standard.
New Warrior Weapon - Ringmaster's Baton
At least it has one support card with the legendary revealed with it. I now expect to see a mech, a murloc, and a dragon for warrior.
New Warrior Minion - Ringmaster Whatley
What a dapper worgen at the Darkmoon Faire! At least he gets one card to support him in the weapon in the same reveal.
E.T.C., God of Metal is a New Warrior Card Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion
I wonder what sort of rush minions we will see this expansion to make this viable.
New Neutral Minion - Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate
It's a fun hail Mary card with interesting effects, but I really sympathize with the competitive players that will have to put up with this shi* in tournaments. It would only be fair to the players if this was banned competitively, but blizzard wants the tournaments to be an exciting viewing experience so it's not likely to happen.
New Warrior Minion - E.T.C., God of Metal
2 mana 1/4 is already a pretty good statline. If you only get 2 damage off of it then I guess it's okay. 4 damage and it is above average. But if you can get 6 damage then it becomes an insane amount of burst damage for an aggro deck. And with cards like Restless mummy and Scion of Ruin, getting a good amount of damage out of this guy shouldn't be too difficult.
Two New Warrior Cards Revealed for Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Expansion - Ringmaster Whatley & Ringmaster's Baton
Maybe this is not for a N'Zoth deck, but for a tempo deck. 1/3 weapon seems bad for a tempo deck, but think of this.
If you equip it on turn 2, you swing it that turn. On turn 3 you swing it again and play a minion. That's +2/+2 on that minion. That may continue with +3/+3 and +4/+4, potentially on multiple minions. It may compensate that tempo loss from turn 2.
I know it's hard to have this scenario all the time. Handbuffing is usually bad as we've seen before, but multiple buffs for 2 mana, and sometimes board control with weapon may work just fine. I dunno, we'll see.