By itself it is not much harder to kill this on turn 3 than it was to kill Ship's Cannon on turn 2. But assuming you have a fast turn 1 and 2 (not unlikely assuming it is an aggressive deck) it could be tricky for the opponent to find the resources to kill it.
I have always enjoyed the technicalities of pirate rogue a lot more than the brutish smorc-ing of pirate warrior, but if anything will get me to at least give it a go again it is the sound of cannon-fire.
4 damage is pretty much always overkill on turn 2, and 1 damage is underwhelming on turn 3, so it is certainly no Fiery War Axe of old.
Still, it adds to the smorc-fest I expect the warrior Galakrond deck to become. The spiritual successor to old pirate warrior, that may or may not use pirates.
Yeah. This and Corrupt Elementalist really make me question Blizz saying the invoke cards are low tempo to justify the powerhouse invoke synergy cards.
Well they're super low tempo in general, just not with shaman. They said they wanted shamans invoke/dragon to be tempo oriented. Their dragon's battlecry isn't quite as much value as other classes (though 2 8/8 rushes is still pretty nutty
2 8/8s with rush is really nutty. Their Galakrond won't play the long game quite as well as some others, but it is still a major upgrade. Currently I just see strong and fast invoke cards that quickly activate overpowered synergy cards, and nowhere is there actually a price to pay other than that you have to choose between this, Hagatha and the quest.
That's an embarrassment of riches, not good design.
The card is solid, but unlikely to be ladder material. It should be noted though: windfury makes magnetic especially scary.
I smiled at the flavour text though: "The hula doll is still absolutely required." which is a call-back all the way to the flavour text of Flying Machine.
It's a 1 mana 1/3 which quite easily becomes a 2/3, but doesn't snowball and the buff is only super meaningful if you overload on an early turn when the overload cost is actually pretty steep. So all in all, it will be played, but won't be cited as the offender if the deck(s) it is in is problematic.
Because I almost always add class cards to decks before any neutrals, I often find myself with an almost all class-card draft anyway. Pally has some meaningful holes in what it can do with its class cards though, so it might be an interesting class to put this effect in.
Either way, I am more than happy for an excuse not to sift through endless pages of neutral cards.
Yeah. This and Corrupt Elementalist really make me question Blizz saying the invoke cards are low tempo to justify the powerhouse invoke synergy cards.
As always I will stress that +2 spell damage is an incredibly powerful and often overlooked ability, the statline on this card is also insane for this effect.
This is a powerful card, although I do wonder if it will ever see play for the fact that it doesn't really fit into the archetypes that I predict will be powerful (Galakrond and Quest).
My hope is that shaman is split between so many powerhouses that don't really work together, that their power level doesn't really rise from where SoU put it.
I suppose dragon shaman needed something other than Lightning Breath to pull it together, and this looks more like that 'something' than Nithogg does.
I had my doubts about when you would actually have a good opportunity to play this, but it looked pretty good in the stream. Granted the reveal streams are rarely good indicators of anything, but I'm a little more optimistic about its potential. Certainly it will be good every once in a while when generated by Galakrond.
Also, the comparisons to Tess are only skin-deep. They are vastly different cards in practice.
Ooh. I might have to make space for this in my wild pirate rogue, which is already a cannon/swarm deck. The only potential downside is that Captain Hooktusk is still the strongest card in the deck.
Whatever, me and [Hearthstone Card (Cap'n Valeera) Not Found] will work something out.
The most important part to enjoying Wild is to never reach rank 5. Preferably mess around at rank 15 if possible, where literally anything goes and your long-built collection can be used to its fullest.
As a good player you may find yourself 'accidentally' climbing to rank 10. That's OK, but to actually enjoy the game mode try to avoid going any further.
Of course if you are a Spike player this may all sound preposterous, but Wild is actually great at low ranks because that is where a lot of people with large collections and no interest in climbing the ladder hang out. You just need to relax and play something a bit stupid to appreciate it.
I actually reached rank 13 last season due to not playing wild for a few months. But, unlike what you described, I faced big priests back to back at those ranks. So this seems even less appealing to me than the warlocks and mages at higher ranks.
OK, so it's not all sunshine and roses, but there is genuine diversity and plenty of surprise decks. Also I did specify rank 15. Rank 14 is normally quite diverse too but 13-11 get worse as people actually try to bridge the gap to 10.
I don't know if there is much variation with this across servers though (I'm on EU).
The most important part to enjoying Wild is to never reach rank 5. Preferably mess around at rank 15 if possible, where literally anything goes and your long-built collection can be used to its fullest.
As a good player you may find yourself 'accidentally' climbing to rank 10. That's OK, but to actually enjoy the game mode try to avoid going any further.
Of course if you are a Spike player this may all sound preposterous, but Wild is actually great at low ranks because that is where a lot of people with large collections and no interest in climbing the ladder hang out. You just need to relax and play something a bit stupid to appreciate it.
Is it heavy-handed? Perhaps, but you have to keep in mind it doesn't prevent your opponent from armoring up again on later turns, and playing a 5 mana 5/5 rarely accompanies a finishing blow.
More importantly: most tech cards never actually get played, and if they do, they are only played while there are a LOT of decks that they hit in the meta. More than that, tech cards don't really remove decks from the meta so much as put a limit on how much of the meta they can occupy. That threshold is also about the point where people start calling for nerfs. Why? Often because there is no effective tech option available.
In short tech cards can be viewed as preemptive nerfs that simply don't exist unless a deck actually needs nerfing. And that's great in my book.
There can in principle be some collateral damage (e.g. with Thekal in this case), but there are always decks that are weak in a given meta, so just live with it.
Part of me is drooling, imagining this as a Rogue card. But the sane part of me is curious whether it will be played in Druid. I think we'll certainly see a lot of experimentation - it IS strong. Question is, is there a deck that can be built around it? Not current token. Maybe a new token, dragons, taunts (stats on taunts is good!)... We'll see!
Why imagine it being a rogue card when you can just play burgle rogue and (very occasionally) make it a rogue card!
Druid has more card draw options than most classes so it can easily offset the initial card loss (which is not insignificant although few people have mentioned it), but how easy it is to balance minions, removal and draw in an effective deck remains unclear.
It might well be great, but equally I wouldn't be too surprised if it joins the huge pile of potentially bonkers cards that never gets past the experimentation phase.
Cool! I don't care too much about the card at a mechanical level, but knowing I had a hand in releasing him/her/it while helping Hagatha in the Dalaran Heist makes me care a bit more.
Stormhammers are typical weapons for Dwarven Gryphon Riders. And since Hunter got some Gryphons and Dwarves this expansion it kind of makes sense.
Also Gryphon Riders make most sense as hunters.
The dragon synergy is odd though.
If hunter got Falstad as a legendary it would be far better. (One of the dwarven leaders and a gryphon rider himself. Also called a true friend of the red dragonflight according to a Warcraft book Day of the Dragon...)
^ This saves me the bother of writing something similar. Even then though it feels like the biggest class mismatch since (and perhaps surpassing) Omega Agent.
Flavour aside, the card is clearly good if dragon hunter works out. Currently it looks like this might be the primary powerhouse of the deck, but the few times a weapon has taken that spot in the past (I'm thinking Kingsbane, Spectral Cutlass and Skull of the Man'ari) the payoff has been a lot bigger.
On paper it is very good, but very good hasn't always translated to being used competitively.
It looks a bit awkward in rogue, since you don't want the hero power dagger. Hunter and Pally might find some mileage though.
By itself it is not much harder to kill this on turn 3 than it was to kill Ship's Cannon on turn 2. But assuming you have a fast turn 1 and 2 (not unlikely assuming it is an aggressive deck) it could be tricky for the opponent to find the resources to kill it.
I have always enjoyed the technicalities of pirate rogue a lot more than the brutish smorc-ing of pirate warrior, but if anything will get me to at least give it a go again it is the sound of cannon-fire.
4 damage is pretty much always overkill on turn 2, and 1 damage is underwhelming on turn 3, so it is certainly no Fiery War Axe of old.
Still, it adds to the smorc-fest I expect the warrior Galakrond deck to become. The spiritual successor to old pirate warrior, that may or may not use pirates.
I think it keeps going in the same direction.
It's a bit strange for this design to turn up in an expansion about a sky battle, but I love it nonetheless.
2 8/8s with rush is really nutty. Their Galakrond won't play the long game quite as well as some others, but it is still a major upgrade. Currently I just see strong and fast invoke cards that quickly activate overpowered synergy cards, and nowhere is there actually a price to pay other than that you have to choose between this, Hagatha and the quest.
That's an embarrassment of riches, not good design.
The card is solid, but unlikely to be ladder material. It should be noted though: windfury makes magnetic especially scary.
I smiled at the flavour text though: "The hula doll is still absolutely required." which is a call-back all the way to the flavour text of Flying Machine.
Lots of synergies (both new and well established) are possible here, and it will be nice to see what another class can do with a Whirlwind.
But can we take a moment to look at the art: I'm not sure Reno's choice of a longboat-airship really prepared him for this fight.
* Insert Tunnel Trogg comparison here *
It's a 1 mana 1/3 which quite easily becomes a 2/3, but doesn't snowball and the buff is only super meaningful if you overload on an early turn when the overload cost is actually pretty steep. So all in all, it will be played, but won't be cited as the offender if the deck(s) it is in is problematic.
Because I almost always add class cards to decks before any neutrals, I often find myself with an almost all class-card draft anyway. Pally has some meaningful holes in what it can do with its class cards though, so it might be an interesting class to put this effect in.
Either way, I am more than happy for an excuse not to sift through endless pages of neutral cards.
Eugh. I haven't forgotten the strength of Mark of the Lotus. At least there is no Patches to break the early game with it anymore.
Yeah. This and Corrupt Elementalist really make me question Blizz saying the invoke cards are low tempo to justify the powerhouse invoke synergy cards.
My hope is that shaman is split between so many powerhouses that don't really work together, that their power level doesn't really rise from where SoU put it.
I suppose dragon shaman needed something other than Lightning Breath to pull it together, and this looks more like that 'something' than Nithogg does.
I had my doubts about when you would actually have a good opportunity to play this, but it looked pretty good in the stream. Granted the reveal streams are rarely good indicators of anything, but I'm a little more optimistic about its potential. Certainly it will be good every once in a while when generated by Galakrond.
Also, the comparisons to Tess are only skin-deep. They are vastly different cards in practice.
Ooh. I might have to make space for this in my wild pirate rogue, which is already a cannon/swarm deck. The only potential downside is that Captain Hooktusk is still the strongest card in the deck.
Whatever, me and [Hearthstone Card (Cap'n Valeera) Not Found] will work something out.
OK, so it's not all sunshine and roses, but there is genuine diversity and plenty of surprise decks. Also I did specify rank 15. Rank 14 is normally quite diverse too but 13-11 get worse as people actually try to bridge the gap to 10.
I don't know if there is much variation with this across servers though (I'm on EU).
The most important part to enjoying Wild is to never reach rank 5. Preferably mess around at rank 15 if possible, where literally anything goes and your long-built collection can be used to its fullest.
As a good player you may find yourself 'accidentally' climbing to rank 10. That's OK, but to actually enjoy the game mode try to avoid going any further.
Of course if you are a Spike player this may all sound preposterous, but Wild is actually great at low ranks because that is where a lot of people with large collections and no interest in climbing the ladder hang out. You just need to relax and play something a bit stupid to appreciate it.
Is it heavy-handed? Perhaps, but you have to keep in mind it doesn't prevent your opponent from armoring up again on later turns, and playing a 5 mana 5/5 rarely accompanies a finishing blow.
More importantly: most tech cards never actually get played, and if they do, they are only played while there are a LOT of decks that they hit in the meta. More than that, tech cards don't really remove decks from the meta so much as put a limit on how much of the meta they can occupy. That threshold is also about the point where people start calling for nerfs. Why? Often because there is no effective tech option available.
In short tech cards can be viewed as preemptive nerfs that simply don't exist unless a deck actually needs nerfing. And that's great in my book.
There can in principle be some collateral damage (e.g. with Thekal in this case), but there are always decks that are weak in a given meta, so just live with it.
Why imagine it being a rogue card when you can just play burgle rogue and (very occasionally) make it a rogue card!
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Druid has more card draw options than most classes so it can easily offset the initial card loss (which is not insignificant although few people have mentioned it), but how easy it is to balance minions, removal and draw in an effective deck remains unclear.
It might well be great, but equally I wouldn't be too surprised if it joins the huge pile of potentially bonkers cards that never gets past the experimentation phase.
Cool! I don't care too much about the card at a mechanical level, but knowing I had a hand in releasing him/her/it while helping Hagatha in the Dalaran Heist makes me care a bit more.
^ This saves me the bother of writing something similar. Even then though it feels like the biggest class mismatch since (and perhaps surpassing) Omega Agent.
Flavour aside, the card is clearly good if dragon hunter works out. Currently it looks like this might be the primary powerhouse of the deck, but the few times a weapon has taken that spot in the past (I'm thinking Kingsbane, Spectral Cutlass and Skull of the Man'ari) the payoff has been a lot bigger.
On paper it is very good, but very good hasn't always translated to being used competitively.