All Comments

I could be wrong but this does not look very fun, good or interesting. The cards that upgrade your weapon are usually aggro cards. You dont wanna waste mana or cards on armor when you can be hitting face. 

He's not that oppressive though

I think it's a valid question. However, I commend Riot for disabling duplicate acquisition for Epics and Champions - the rarities where it matters most. I guess they could've gone all the way and implemented it the same way for commons and rares, but I really don't mind. I think acquiring commons and rares is done so easily that we don't need the extra help. Plus if you're absolutely not interested in certain commons or rares, getting a few shards from a duplicate beats opening copies of those cards you'll never use anyway, right?

I don't know about a buff, but they said near the time it was released that it will be changed to only use Standard cards. I.e. all the Year of the Raven cards will be replaced. The scale of the change will depend on the deck. For instance the mech-heavy(?) bomb warrior one might need a major overhaul.

Its probably more likely to backfire than not. The player playing this will be 2 mana short and any board developed can literally be destroyed by the opponent just as easily.

More likely its an inclusion into control decks, and nothing else. I'm more interested to see if this card can actually push rogue into acontrol archetype.

I have golden Illidan and played him in original quest Rogue just because i needed an excuse to play my golden Illidan. Sweet. New golden legendary! 

They already made him into a literal class on his own. I think that's more than enough to satiate even an ego as big as his. Besides, players have been upset for years over how bs Illidan was as a card. No need to take more chances with it.

Didn't they say card draw was just an occasional trait in Hunter?

I assume he/she meant something more like mage having multiple ways to play secrets for 0 mana, rather than concerns about the base cost being 0.

I would disagree and say that the wording suggests the minion will have either taunt; or rush. I

It really depends on how you play it. If you've a board full of minions, play a dormant minion that's immune to board clears.

Like most cards, its usefulness depends largely on what you're facing. You can also play strategically to make it worth.

Play Imprisoned Antaen turn 5, opponent develops board, turn 6 Chaos Nova, turn 7 opponent develops board and it gets destroyed by this, and you got 7 mana crystals to get tempo back along with a 10/6.

If they don't reprint Illidan into a new card, it's a wasted chance.

They also gave him a new entrance animation (one of the coolest in the whole game too)...

So, uh, good timing I guess. Here's my opinion on the changes.

General impressions

The first thing I noticed: Blizzard went into the same direction as Shadows and I for Priest's primary identity: A class that seeks to win through

The second thing I noticed, besides the fact that they didn't reverse-HoF anything is how redundant the new cards are. That is a lot of the cards have very similar effects and only varies in their numbers. Redundancy isn't a bad in and of itself as more redundancy = more consistency and more viability. However this is done at the expense of internal diversity. I don't see any "Razakus-like" combo synergies, any resurrect cards, or any Deathrattle cards. I can understand their design choices for the first two but it's also very limiting. It means they will have to print new cards for each of those themes every time they want to push them...I guess it makes sens from a €€€ perspective.

HoFed cards

4 out of the 6 cards that were HoFed by Blizzard were also HoFed by me. The 2 remaining ones are Holy Fire and Northshire Cleric. I can understand the reasoning for Holy Fire. I myself hesitated to cut it, but chose to keep it out of principle to make my Core sets more versatile.

What I can't understand is Northshire Cleric. Sure, Cleric in its current state is problematic for the reasons I explained. But it is also a card that is healing synergy and therefore fits Priest and, more importantly, a vital form of card draw. Since Blizzard got rid of the card draw part on Power Word: Shield as well, it means that the only form of card draw left to Priest in the Core sets will be Mass Dispel. Hardly viable!

My opinion is that each class needs some minimal form of basic mechanics to be viable. This is why I chose to nerf Cleric rather than HoF it. Shadows chose to HoF it but he replaced it with another form of card draw so there's continuity. By removing all forms of effective card draw from Core sets, Blizzard may just have re-created the same problem they just fixed for board clears: they will have to print card draws for Priest every expansion again.

Changed cards

• Thoughtsteal - I hesitated to buff TS to 2 mana since it is unplayable in its current state. I didn't do it. My line of reasoning was that the baseline cost to generate cards, especially cards good enough to be in a deck, has always been 3 and should be 2 only for expansion cards or when this card generation fits only one specific game plan. Then I saw Blizzard did what I was thinking of. You can say that they...stole my thoughts! *ba dum tss* Anyway, if Blizzard did this change, I suppse the have the data to justify that it wouldn't become OP.
• Temple Enforcer - This is a card I chose to rotate to replace it with Dark Cultist which performs the same function but is a Deathrattle card, and Deathrattle are part of Priest's class identity. I still think the card was fine as it were. With this change, it might finally see play in constructed.
• Shadow Word: Death - An unexpected change but why not? I guess it fits the "cost-effective but niche spells" side of Priest they were talking about.
• Shadow Madness - I never liked SM from a design standpoint because the Charge-giving part is only implicit. This is why I rotated it. I don't like this change.
• Power Word: Shield - I appreciate that they removed the card draw part because PW:S was objectively OP. In its new state however it is likely useless.
• Holy Smite - This idea actually crossed my mind for a split second before I discarded it because I thought it would be OP. Oh well...
• Holy Nova - The change is not *strictly* a powercreep of Consecration because it doesn't damage the enemy hero anymore. In practice however it is because the hero-damaging part was never a big deal. I could understand this choice if AOEs were a strong point of Priest but this is not the case...I still prefer my own change.

New cards

• Scarlet Subjugator - I like this! I should have added an effect like that in my sets since it appeared in the past.
• Psychic Conjurer - Powercreep on Psionic Probe. Also redundant, but I guess it is a good replacement for Mind Vision
• Kul Tiran Chaplain - A solid card. It fills the "good Priest 2-cost minion" slot that was a big issue back in 2016. My only complaint is the card's lack of originality compared to other cards in the sets.
• Power Infusion - Strict powercreep on Power Word: Tentacles. Here you can see why I privileged reverse-HoFing whenever possible rather than making new cards. My card Power Word: Fortitude fills the same role as this one. Their version is probably better because it comes later but again PW:T is a thing. Also, they forgot to add the (+2 Attack/+6 Health) italic text they normally add on all basic buff cards!
• Shadow Word: Ruin - Finally! A board clear in Priest's core sets! It completes the new Holy Nova very well because it takes care of all big minions. It could have been in my set, but I didn't have a strict board clear in mine because I thought my modifications would be enough for Priest to not rely on a board clear anymore.
• Natalie Seline - Excellent replacement for Velen. Playable and flavorful. I still prefer my Ishanah though lul.

I cannot help but feel like these Imprisoned minions are going to be way too slow to be good.