I think the main Issue here is the situations you want to play him you can't afford it.
If your opponent played a Puzzle Box the board is most likely clear...so why would you play a puzzle box of your own?
Same goes for Flamestrike.
The best situation I can imagine is your opponent playing a Dragoncaller + Flamstrike + some trashmob, which you can then Murozond into to basically pull an UNO-reverse.....but that's about it.
If your opponent plays a Tirion or an Octosari or whateveer big thing we'll be playing, you usually want to get rid of that card instead of just copying it.
Murozond is good in a value race because he can basically just copy your opponents most valueable minion and add an 8/8 on top...but that's only really relevant in a value based matchup...and if that value based matchups involves battlecries rather than raw stats you're screwed.
So, Murozond is finally in the game. It's been part of my class for nearly its entire conception, and it's cool to see him finally in the game after he was just confined to a short Arena event.
I don't know why people are calling Murozond a worse Tess. I think it's quite the opposite. He is a Tess that you have more control over. With Tess you need to: build your deck around her; play cards that add random cards from another class that's not Rogue to your hand or deck (these cards are highly inconsistent); draw those cards if they were in the deck; play them; draw Tess; play her; profit (or not).
You can just throw Murozond in any Priest deck, draw him, wait for the best moment and play him to get more consistent value. Just getting an extra big minion already makes him a worthwhile tempo play. If that minion has some other immediate effect (like Kalecgos), you can get some crazy value.
This legendary can be many things: an 8/8 that summons one or more minions (with abilities or not); an 8/8 with a board clear attached to it (like a Flamestrike); an 8/8 with a Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron attached to it. This card is incredibly flexible surprisingly. He is actually a great card. Way better than Tess, for sure. The downside is only finding the appropriate time to play him. Shouldn't be that hard.
I... um... Hm. I have no idea how to really value either of these cards.
Faceless Corruptor: Very much feels like a value-trade card. Take an on-board trade, then drop this, transform the crippled minion and double trade. The trouble is... Priest does not exactly lack for AoE, particularly not in this mana range. Sure, they're not as aggressive than this is, but they're a hell of a lot more aggressive. I can only see this being desirable if Priest spontaneously manifests a tempo-oriented deck with the expansion - certainly possible, but I don't see it happening.
Though I will laugh the first time I see someone Corrupt an Albatross and get lethal with it.
Murozond: As I noted in a reply to a pre-existing comment, in support of someone who already posted - comparisons to Tess Greymane are foolhardy. One requires you to build an entire deck around her, the other is a specific mirror of a turn (with some bits missing or randomised). I really have no way of judging the card right now as by its very nature its playability will heavily depend on what the meta looks like post-expansion. However, I can definitely see this being played as a value counter-drop if fat-arsed Dragon decks are rampant.
I am really not sure about this. It is not very reliable, it can be good when fighting against the right deck, but completely useless against others.
This card will see play for two reasons. For one, it is a dragon, which means you don't have to play it in order to gain benefit from it. The only other reason this would be played is if the meta is just right for it. If more than 50% of the meta is mid-range or control decks than this will be a more consistent card. When fighting against aggro this will probably be a 8 mana 8/8 summon a random small minion. against a control deck you can probably get more value out of this, but I think all in all this is just too inconsistent.
Usually 1-damage machine gun spells (Like Arcane Missiles or Avenging Wrath) will only add one additional missile per spell damage.
However, spells like Greater Arcane Missiles that deal more than one damage have the spell damage added to each missile (which gives the same overall damage result, but with a different spread)
This is a 1-damage missile spell, but the number of missiles is being determined by the amount of cards in hand, meaning that in theory, spell damage should boost the base damage of each missile by one, making it extremely efficient.
However, since this is Blizzard we're talking about there's no way of knowing how it actually ends up working.
I personally enjoy Wild on occasion, usually when Standard starts to make me irritable. There are certain decks there, such as Renolock, which can still answer all of the ridiculousness that gets quoted while playing relatively fair. There are others, like Mech'thun Warlock, which can beat the fotm BS decks on average, and that always makes me smile.
There are three factors, though, which probably push me to Wild more regularly than I otherwise would visit:
1. Some of the relative evergreen decks are ones I loved at the time (Renolock being a good one), and it's always nice to be able to revisit an old friend.
2. The average skill level of players in Wild is lower, as well as occasionally coming across someone who blatantly doesn't play Wild much. Which sounds ridiculous - what is life without challenge, after all - but when I've hit a bad patch in Standard it's nice to be able to unwind with a relaxation of requirements.
3. The actual skill requirements of Wild are actually higher than in Standard, players notwithstanding. I'm aware that this statement is going to get some knee-jerk reactions, but hear me out. I accept that the average Wild player is worse than the average Standard one - see point 2 above. However, there is actually a much larger pool of viable decks in Wild than there is in Standard, and has been for a long time. If you play between 5-legend in Standard, you'll see maybe 5 archetypes in 30 games, if you're lucky. You'll see twice that in Wild, if not more. Yes, you'll still see the 'big' decks very often - but there's plenty of stuff which isn't central to the meta that can still take wins with a good pilot.
This, in turn, means that to succeed in Wild requires a breadth of knowledge and understanding of a lot more decks than in Standard. You also need to take a lot more into account when planning for random variables.
Example - in the run-up to the Wild open last year, I played against Zananananan four times in a row (this was before they put measures in place to prevent that). First game, he creamed me with a Mech'thun variant. Second game, I swapped to Evenlock (which I was confident could put out enough pressure to reliably get the win). Third game, he in turn swapped to an APM Priest variant and creamed me. Fourth, he did so again. At that point I may have gotten annoyed and stopped playing, but that's not the point...
The point is that if you looked at the various meta reports at that time, neither Mech'thun druid nor APM Priest were even listed. But they were strong enough to take wins off what was, at that time, one of the strongest decks in the Wild meta. And we're not talking lower ranks, either - this was around 150 Legend, and Zananananan is, to my understanding at least, a professional (I, quite decidedly, am not and couldn't compete with him).
Anyway. That's why I personally enjoy Wild. The above notwithstanding, however, I also fully appreciate that it's not for everyone. I can be frustrated with it sometimes too. All I can say is - if you're not enjoying it, don't play it?
Honestly, I do my dailies and gtfo. I've been a wild player since it's inception, and this expansion, I've found myself playing in standard mode. I guess Bibli finally managed to push me away from there as I suspected they would after they left big priest unchecked for more than two years. I always knew this moment was gonna come and here we are.
I mean wild doesn't bring the company any money (not the amount expected). They brought this format so we wouldn't burn their offices to the ground but looking at the way they've been handling the player base there, it's obvious too me that they don't give a fuck about us. They have zero incentive making your experience better in wild, believe me.
I'm still playing this game because I invested so much time and money, that I can't just let it go. I'm still having fun sometimes, but truth is those moments are being engulfed by the bad ones. Even though I've been pretty hyped by this expansion (been waiting for viable dragon shit for years now), I think (hope) this will be my last one nonetheless and that Legends or Runeterra will be my salvation.
Deathrattle and absence of taunt makes this card much less interesting. But effect itself is powerful enough to push opponent to suboptimal trades. In overall still very good control tool.
A VERY powerful 5 drop, this will likely buff one of your minoins as well as give them rush. This will help you fight for board as well as apply pressure. I cannot think of a reason why any midrange wouldn't want to play this. This is a very pro-active card, and we will all hate it soon.
Another thing to keep in mind is that this is another card that can help Shudderwock to copy itself. This card is way more playable than Doppelgangster, although it does require you to already have another minion on the field, but this will do a lot to help shudderwock decks be more consistent.
This does hit your own minions, which doesn't make it as good, but on turn 3 you likely haven't played anything yet. This isn't supposed to be used as a big board clear to get you out of a tight situation, this is supposed to be used in the early turns to slow down aggro decks. Most of the time, this card won't do more than 9 damage, but for 3 mana, that's not too bad. It is like a Volcano, only smaller, and without overload.
I think this card will be very useful as a way for handlocks to do something before turn 4. This will help keep aggro decks in check, which will help warlocks to stay alive long enough to take advantage of all their big dudes.
This card may not seem all too powerful, Spreading Madness wasn't/isn't too good, but this only hits minoins, which makes it very reliable. This will be a key card in helping warlocks to fight for the board in the early game.
Close relative to Curious Glimmerroot but I don't believe it will be played (maybe in some highlander decks). Guessing card from hand is much harder than from deck (especially with this much of random card generation) and value is not good enough. Even correctly guessed card can be useless trash and very similar Madame Lazul is not played at all.
Your opponent spends all their mana and lots of (possibly mana-discounted, handbuffed) cards clearing your board and building a board of their own. Some kind of AOE and then some kind of token generator. There's lots of it about.
You drop Murozond, and - for one card, with no setup - you swing it right back, wiping their board and building your own, PLUS an 8/8
I share Inconspicuosaurus' frustration here. And for the record, Murozond really isn't a worse Tess. Its effect is weaker, that's definitely the case. But on the other hand, you didn't have to fill your entire deck with random-generation garbage just to make it do something. Spells notwithstanding, you have a solid idea of what you'll get when you play it, and you can hold it until you need it or see a good opening.
Beacuse the wording says 'repeat' the effect, I believe if the minion with spell damage dies while the spell is going off, it will revert to 1 damage for the rest of the cards in your hand.
I would say the repeat is an indication that the spell damage will be applied for each repeat giving you 9x2 damage for instance. Most of the time, your base dmg printed on the card gets increased, also visually, so this would mean that the 1 is increased to 2 for instance, yielding a multiplicative factor and not an additive one.
What happens when your spell damage increase minion dies during the spell I don't know but I guess your spell damage is then gone so it will do normal dmg for the remainder of the spell, since spell dmg is a "bord state" attribute.
Off-topic: I've always assumed that 'top card' was just a term used to enhance the game's imitation of a physical card game, while not actually requiring the implementation of card order in a deck; however, the mention of Mischief Maker debunks that notion... sorta. It is possible that Blizzard only implemented the 'top card' in each deck without ordering the other cards?
Also, has anyone tried 'shuffling' cards into a deck right after playing Mischief Maker? Does that change the top card?
Feels really underwhelming to me. It's not going to reliably clear an early board or a big minion. Hell, I'd be down on it even if it was enemy-targets only. Won't see play, Warlock has too many evergreen AoEs to be worth maindecking this.
Card Reveals - Faceless Corruptor & Murozond (Priest Legendary)
I think the main Issue here is the situations you want to play him you can't afford it.
If your opponent played a Puzzle Box the board is most likely clear...so why would you play a puzzle box of your own?
Same goes for Flamestrike.
The best situation I can imagine is your opponent playing a Dragoncaller + Flamstrike + some trashmob, which you can then Murozond into to basically pull an UNO-reverse.....but that's about it.
If your opponent plays a Tirion or an Octosari or whateveer big thing we'll be playing, you usually want to get rid of that card instead of just copying it.
Murozond is good in a value race because he can basically just copy your opponents most valueable minion and add an 8/8 on top...but that's only really relevant in a value based matchup...and if that value based matchups involves battlecries rather than raw stats you're screwed.
Custom Class - Time Traveler (Updated February 17th - Return to Naxxramas added!)
So, Murozond is finally in the game. It's been part of my class for nearly its entire conception, and it's cool to see him finally in the game after he was just confined to a short Arena event.
Card Reveals - Faceless Corruptor & Murozond (Priest Legendary)
I don't know why people are calling Murozond a worse Tess. I think it's quite the opposite. He is a Tess that you have more control over. With Tess you need to: build your deck around her; play cards that add random cards from another class that's not Rogue to your hand or deck (these cards are highly inconsistent); draw those cards if they were in the deck; play them; draw Tess; play her; profit (or not).
You can just throw Murozond in any Priest deck, draw him, wait for the best moment and play him to get more consistent value. Just getting an extra big minion already makes him a worthwhile tempo play. If that minion has some other immediate effect (like Kalecgos), you can get some crazy value.
This legendary can be many things: an 8/8 that summons one or more minions (with abilities or not); an 8/8 with a board clear attached to it (like a Flamestrike); an 8/8 with a Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron attached to it. This card is incredibly flexible surprisingly. He is actually a great card. Way better than Tess, for sure. The downside is only finding the appropriate time to play him. Shouldn't be that hard.
Evasive Drakonid
Dragonmaw Poacher will still do the job. :)
Breath of the Infinite
Solid early game board clear is something Priest needed for a long time. Playable even without dragon (as was Volcanic Potion)
Card Reveals - Faceless Corruptor & Murozond (Priest Legendary)
I... um... Hm. I have no idea how to really value either of these cards.
Faceless Corruptor: Very much feels like a value-trade card. Take an on-board trade, then drop this, transform the crippled minion and double trade. The trouble is... Priest does not exactly lack for AoE, particularly not in this mana range. Sure, they're not as aggressive than this is, but they're a hell of a lot more aggressive. I can only see this being desirable if Priest spontaneously manifests a tempo-oriented deck with the expansion - certainly possible, but I don't see it happening.
Though I will laugh the first time I see someone Corrupt an Albatross and get lethal with it.
Murozond: As I noted in a reply to a pre-existing comment, in support of someone who already posted - comparisons to Tess Greymane are foolhardy. One requires you to build an entire deck around her, the other is a specific mirror of a turn (with some bits missing or randomised). I really have no way of judging the card right now as by its very nature its playability will heavily depend on what the meta looks like post-expansion. However, I can definitely see this being played as a value counter-drop if fat-arsed Dragon decks are rampant.
New Priest Minion - Murozond the Infinite
I am really not sure about this. It is not very reliable, it can be good when fighting against the right deck, but completely useless against others.
This card will see play for two reasons. For one, it is a dragon, which means you don't have to play it in order to gain benefit from it. The only other reason this would be played is if the meta is just right for it. If more than 50% of the meta is mid-range or control decks than this will be a more consistent card. When fighting against aggro this will probably be a 8 mana 8/8 summon a random small minion. against a control deck you can probably get more value out of this, but I think all in all this is just too inconsistent.
Dark Skies
I wonder how it interacts with spell damage.
Usually 1-damage machine gun spells (Like Arcane Missiles or Avenging Wrath) will only add one additional missile per spell damage.
However, spells like Greater Arcane Missiles that deal more than one damage have the spell damage added to each missile (which gives the same overall damage result, but with a different spread)
This is a 1-damage missile spell, but the number of missiles is being determined by the amount of cards in hand, meaning that in theory, spell damage should boost the base damage of each missile by one, making it extremely efficient.
However, since this is Blizzard we're talking about there's no way of knowing how it actually ends up working.
Wild players: how do you still enjoy it?
I personally enjoy Wild on occasion, usually when Standard starts to make me irritable. There are certain decks there, such as Renolock, which can still answer all of the ridiculousness that gets quoted while playing relatively fair. There are others, like Mech'thun Warlock, which can beat the fotm BS decks on average, and that always makes me smile.
There are three factors, though, which probably push me to Wild more regularly than I otherwise would visit:
1. Some of the relative evergreen decks are ones I loved at the time (Renolock being a good one), and it's always nice to be able to revisit an old friend.
2. The average skill level of players in Wild is lower, as well as occasionally coming across someone who blatantly doesn't play Wild much. Which sounds ridiculous - what is life without challenge, after all - but when I've hit a bad patch in Standard it's nice to be able to unwind with a relaxation of requirements.
3. The actual skill requirements of Wild are actually higher than in Standard, players notwithstanding. I'm aware that this statement is going to get some knee-jerk reactions, but hear me out. I accept that the average Wild player is worse than the average Standard one - see point 2 above. However, there is actually a much larger pool of viable decks in Wild than there is in Standard, and has been for a long time. If you play between 5-legend in Standard, you'll see maybe 5 archetypes in 30 games, if you're lucky. You'll see twice that in Wild, if not more. Yes, you'll still see the 'big' decks very often - but there's plenty of stuff which isn't central to the meta that can still take wins with a good pilot.
This, in turn, means that to succeed in Wild requires a breadth of knowledge and understanding of a lot more decks than in Standard. You also need to take a lot more into account when planning for random variables.
Example - in the run-up to the Wild open last year, I played against Zananananan four times in a row (this was before they put measures in place to prevent that). First game, he creamed me with a Mech'thun variant. Second game, I swapped to Evenlock (which I was confident could put out enough pressure to reliably get the win). Third game, he in turn swapped to an APM Priest variant and creamed me. Fourth, he did so again. At that point I may have gotten annoyed and stopped playing, but that's not the point...
The point is that if you looked at the various meta reports at that time, neither Mech'thun druid nor APM Priest were even listed. But they were strong enough to take wins off what was, at that time, one of the strongest decks in the Wild meta. And we're not talking lower ranks, either - this was around 150 Legend, and Zananananan is, to my understanding at least, a professional (I, quite decidedly, am not and couldn't compete with him).
Anyway. That's why I personally enjoy Wild. The above notwithstanding, however, I also fully appreciate that it's not for everyone. I can be frustrated with it sometimes too. All I can say is - if you're not enjoying it, don't play it?
Time Rip
Oh look! Priest now can Assassinate too! Class identity doesn't matter anymore?
New Neutral Minion - Dragonmaw Poacher
RIP Nozdormu the Timeless before he was even released.
Secure the Deck
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End fodder.
Wild players: how do you still enjoy it?
Honestly, I do my dailies and gtfo. I've been a wild player since it's inception, and this expansion, I've found myself playing in standard mode. I guess Bibli finally managed to push me away from there as I suspected they would after they left big priest unchecked for more than two years. I always knew this moment was gonna come and here we are.
I mean wild doesn't bring the company any money (not the amount expected). They brought this format so we wouldn't burn their offices to the ground but looking at the way they've been handling the player base there, it's obvious too me that they don't give a fuck about us. They have zero incentive making your experience better in wild, believe me.
I'm still playing this game because I invested so much time and money, that I can't just let it go. I'm still having fun sometimes, but truth is those moments are being engulfed by the bad ones. Even though I've been pretty hyped by this expansion (been waiting for viable dragon shit for years now), I think (hope) this will be my last one nonetheless and that Legends or Runeterra will be my salvation.
Chronobreaker
Deathrattle and absence of taunt makes this card much less interesting. But effect itself is powerful enough to push opponent to suboptimal trades. In overall still very good control tool.
New Neutral Minion - Faceless Corruptor
A VERY powerful 5 drop, this will likely buff one of your minoins as well as give them rush. This will help you fight for board as well as apply pressure. I cannot think of a reason why any midrange wouldn't want to play this. This is a very pro-active card, and we will all hate it soon.
Another thing to keep in mind is that this is another card that can help Shudderwock to copy itself. This card is way more playable than Doppelgangster, although it does require you to already have another minion on the field, but this will do a lot to help shudderwock decks be more consistent.
Murozond the Infinite
Damn. Boring then...
Faceless Corruptor
ooh --- I need to make a buff-paladin deck now.
New Warlock Spell - Dark Skies
This does hit your own minions, which doesn't make it as good, but on turn 3 you likely haven't played anything yet. This isn't supposed to be used as a big board clear to get you out of a tight situation, this is supposed to be used in the early turns to slow down aggro decks. Most of the time, this card won't do more than 9 damage, but for 3 mana, that's not too bad. It is like a Volcano, only smaller, and without overload.
I think this card will be very useful as a way for handlocks to do something before turn 4. This will help keep aggro decks in check, which will help warlocks to stay alive long enough to take advantage of all their big dudes.
This card may not seem all too powerful, Spreading Madness wasn't/isn't too good, but this only hits minoins, which makes it very reliable. This will be a key card in helping warlocks to fight for the board in the early game.
Envoy of Lazul
Close relative to Curious Glimmerroot but I don't believe it will be played (maybe in some highlander decks). Guessing card from hand is much harder than from deck (especially with this much of random card generation) and value is not good enough. Even correctly guessed card can be useless trash and very similar Madame Lazul is not played at all.
Card Reveals - Faceless Corruptor & Murozond (Priest Legendary)
Your opponent spends all their mana and lots of (possibly mana-discounted, handbuffed) cards clearing your board and building a board of their own. Some kind of AOE and then some kind of token generator. There's lots of it about.
You drop Murozond, and - for one card, with no setup - you swing it right back, wiping their board and building your own, PLUS an 8/8
New Neutral Minion - Faceless Corruptor
This card will benefit Aggro decks the most, giving them a way to deal with taunts if they don't have the spells to clear it.
Card Reveals - Faceless Corruptor & Murozond (Priest Legendary)
I share Inconspicuosaurus' frustration here. And for the record, Murozond really isn't a worse Tess. Its effect is weaker, that's definitely the case. But on the other hand, you didn't have to fill your entire deck with random-generation garbage just to make it do something. Spells notwithstanding, you have a solid idea of what you'll get when you play it, and you can hold it until you need it or see a good opening.
New Warlock Spell - Dark Skies
I would say the repeat is an indication that the spell damage will be applied for each repeat giving you 9x2 damage for instance. Most of the time, your base dmg printed on the card gets increased, also visually, so this would mean that the 1 is increased to 2 for instance, yielding a multiplicative factor and not an additive one.
What happens when your spell damage increase minion dies during the spell I don't know but I guess your spell damage is then gone so it will do normal dmg for the remainder of the spell, since spell dmg is a "bord state" attribute.
Out of Cards Reviews - Descent of Dragons Reveal Season #6
Off-topic: I've always assumed that 'top card' was just a term used to enhance the game's imitation of a physical card game, while not actually requiring the implementation of card order in a deck; however, the mention of Mischief Maker debunks that notion... sorta. It is possible that Blizzard only implemented the 'top card' in each deck without ordering the other cards?
Also, has anyone tried 'shuffling' cards into a deck right after playing Mischief Maker? Does that change the top card?
Warlock Card Reveal - Dark Skies
Feels really underwhelming to me. It's not going to reliably clear an early board or a big minion. Hell, I'd be down on it even if it was enemy-targets only. Won't see play, Warlock has too many evergreen AoEs to be worth maindecking this.