So new expansion...bit early this time round. Like around a month too early. Not sure why, but can only hope its not a slow pivot towards 4 expansions per year.
My comments on the cards and expansion:
Shaman looks like its gonna go through another rough patch. The quest is interesting but impractical because it forces you to put as many minions and types into your deck just so this can come out quickly, and youre practically guaranteed to play on a curve so its predictable. And the pay off is not even that great, affecting only minions played, not summoned. Only way this can be redeemed is that the quest counts per type instead of per minion, so a duo type minion can proct it twice, though I highly doubt thats gonna be how it works.
That DK quest...why is this, of all cards, need to be a triple rune card? So the deck is more or less curated by team5 because the wiggle room is practically non existent.
New Elise condition is funny. Only a control deck can play this card.
Story of carnassa has just made the queen carnassa quest redundant, not that the card was any good a decade ago anyway
Blob of tar might actually be insane. Practically ensuring that at least one minion from your opponent will die. We'll see how this work in practice.
Endbringer umbra will likely get nerfed, or cause another card to get nerfed at some point.
Its the new hearthstone design philosophy now. Trying to design lower power level cards seemingly so they dont keep breaking wild and keep standard interesting. Because let's be honest, its designed entirely with the quest in mind. On its own, its unplayable shit.
I like yours because the condition of spending 5 corpses is entirely the reason why its only 1 mana.
Amirdrassil - If this didnt have refresh mana crystals, it'll be completely unplayable. But it does, so it'll see play in some capacity, and probably at some point of time require every deck to tech in demolition renovator.
Frostburn Matriach - Its amazing that a card like this at turn 5 isnt even remotely powerful enough to get played in a DK deck. Handbuff decks does the job far better anyway.
Everburning Phoenix - Probably never see any play. Because why would it? Its a worse frostwolf warmaster with a deathrattle that doesnt matter in an expansion that doesnt have draka in it.
Petal picker - Shouldve been in the expansion itself. Because it bridges a problem that most imbue decks find themselves in and thats the lack of cards. Makes emerald bounty looks even worse, day by day.
Zaqali Flamemancer - Continuing the trend of miniset epics that looks interesting but is actually unplayable shit. Its not that the battlecry is difficult to trigger, its the fact that youre actively contriving this card to work. Will the payoff even be sufficient to bother with? Only a real midrange deck can make it happen, and chances are good it wont save you vs aggro and it wont outvalue control. And let's not kid ourselves, this card will be a brick in your hand 90% of the time anyway.
The raza rework is brutal, practically deleting the card.
Removing bob's ability to steal minions makes the card all but useless to most decks. The only good thing now is the freeze effect, just ask how many times youve even used that.
Terran card nerfs are near inconsequential. But zerg got fucked because infestor is basically dead, and zerglings just lost the only good thing they ever had. At least terran cards still functions the same way they did
Nerf to incindius is weird. Like is this really that insane? For the most part its never played on curve anyway, and is mostly a control counter.
Zarimi, alien encounters, hydration station, expanse, orbital halo, hero cards, and painter's virtue remains strong cards that will continue to see play.
Is this zilliax's 5th nerf? Like really team5, if you hate unkilliax so much just move the card to wild. Without the reborn, unkilliax is basically dead at last. We'll have to see whether it was worth it.
Arkonite defence crystal died for dhunter's new cards
Leaving protoss cards alone will come back to haunt team5. Im expecting them to get nerfed at some near future
Its a high gamble from team5 because lets be honest the upcoming expansion is mostly underpowered at best, and at worst is uninspirational i.e. shit. The mass nerfs is needed to have them see play but we'll have to see whether its the great beyond cards thats the biggest beneficiaries of these nerfs, because Im still convinced that starships arent really that bad. Now that most of the removals are gone, it might actually shine now.
Tyrande - Its pretty much broken because you can easily just play her turn 7, then turn 8 you just blow your opponent away with stuff like acupuncture and moonwell. As long as youre not dead yourself, that's 24 damage which will for the most part be enough. Might even do more with spell damage.
Outside of that, well the only real concern is that there's not much else to use her with. There's no free for amber, or something that puts big stuff on board. Ritual of the new moon helps but chances are you'll rather just play it on 5.
Priest imbue cards and hp - I guess we finally found out the fuss that was about raza's rework. I thought the imbued hp was gonna be nuts, but turns out its basically just popping out a card every turn that you cant keep, so effectively its useless in the early game.
Its not merely that, but the fact that the imbue cards for priest are rather shit. Lunarwing messenger has only 1 health and so will never realistically do much else other than its battlecry, and kaldorei priestess is too expensive and doesnt remove board. The only good thing about all this is that its a control deck's hp, so you dont need to add in the other neutral imbue cards into your deck and just fuck it, 4 would be enough.
A better discussion would be to ask whether its even worth it. Tyrande is already a good enough finisher on her own, and the protoss cards are far better for value. So where does this even come in?
The other priest cards - Its does what it says on the tin. There's not much to comment on it because all of them just do damage or summon board. Nothing special here or anywhere. Feels more like hunter cards to me, because when you say priest the first thing that comes to mind is useless or toxic, these cards are decent but uninspirational.
Priest cards good. Or rather I should say better than the others. Solid cards for a class that traditionally get toxic cards.
Nythendra - Its an alright card. The main issue is that you need two unholy runes and so this card can never feature in a control or rainbow deck, something which in all fairness would have been a consideration, especially in rainbow decks.
What this card is is just a big dude on board thats sufficiently sticky enough to annoy and force answers from your opponent. Answering the 7/7 may well be easy but the subsequent 1/1s is not. Dont expect this to do anything more than that. At least this card has taunt, otherwise it'll be completely unplayable since the reformation is at the start of your turn i.e. she cant attack.
Hideous husk - The only thing significant about this card is that its a control buster. The threat of this makes every leech practically a soft taunt and there will be a time where the opponent is left with 15 max health. The problem though, is that this card is practically useless vs aggro, something that control decks need to actually be doing well against. It will heal you for 6, but that's not the same as lifesteal; both gnomemuncher and blood boil are significantly better precisely because of that keyword. Well, its a good thing that team5 rotated them then -__-
Rite of Atrocity - Possibly the best dark gift card in the expansion because its cheap. Fair to say that discover options are much stronger in DK relative to other classes as well
All in all for DK, decent cards but no real deck in sight. We'll probably see some kind of rainbow DK from paradise again, since most of those cards are still intact and in an underpowered meta might be better than most other decks. Perhaps thats the most frustrating thing about DK this expansion; none of the cards are bad, but the rune restrictions all but guarantee that you're either playing the exact deck team5 cooked up, or theyre just not gonna be played. And at the moment, its certainly looking more the latter than the former.
Spark of life - Its a one mana discover a spell and therefore will be playable. Not much else to say. Druid spells can be good if you hit ramp early but its always a gamble at the end
Stellar Balance - The only point here is that youre spending 2 mana to deal damage to face. Its kinda not that great, because you can just fireball face with 4 mana and deal 6 damage without having to spend an additional 6 mana to deal a total of 8 damage. Its a discover card for more damage, other than that you'll never see it in deck inclusions.
Q'onzu - Ive no idea why this is a legendary. Another one of those deadline day dart toss cards, because in what world would anyone even bother playing this outside of it being a 3/4 discover a spell card. I suppose it has better stats than vulpera scoundrel, so that's why its a legendary :P
And no, the ability to put the spell on your opponent's topdeck is not a big deal. You ruined your opponent's topdeck, maybe, but guess what? They may not actually care. Most decks nowadays draws well enough, and what mage spell is so terrible that giving it to your opponent necessitates a comically exaggerated sad face out of them? I suspect this option to be picked only out of desperation.
Aessina - It may look like you can put this in any deck but in reality it'll only be the hp wisp mage deck that this will see play in. Because there's no world that you can get 20 minions to die in a game as mage without cards that generate a fuck ton of tokens, of which mage really doesnt have any. And its only really decent because if your opponent has big minions down you cant guarantee its death, or guarantee significant damage to face. I suppose you can always just expanse + this to deal 20 damage to face.
As for the other imbue hp cards...its rather good. Wisp mage may actually be overpowered enough in an underpowered meta that it might get nerfed, unless team5 have (predictably) printed a neutral card that disrupt hp. Why is it good? because it does two things that hearthstone games rely on - damage that can hit face or clear boards, and puts out board yourself. At high enough levels, the hp alone can destroy the opponent because its basically a board flip every turn for two mana. Wisprider in particular practically doubles your hp for that turn, combined with sing-along buddy to deal massive damage.
Whether it can sustain this throughout the next year? Probably not. In fact, its only playable in an underpowered meta because its probably too slow. Any decent midrange deck probably destroys this deck. Consider facing against discover hunter and have four 2/5s out on board. Your hp effectively now does nothing significant and you're probably gonna die. And that scenario is hardly unique.
At least mage does have a deck ready, even if the legedary is a bit meh. Will this be better than playing protoss mage though? Pretty sure its not, until protoss cards inevitably gets nerfed.
Fractured Power - I just find this funny because its practically 2 mana wild growth for warlock, with the only difference being that its one turn late. Likely going to see play in all slow warlock decks because its ramp. You dont ignore ramp
Archdruid of Thorns - This is devourer of souls made into a battlecry. Dont bother thinking up of value, because the only way this card will ever be playable is as an OTK mechanism. At some point in the next two years, that'll define whether this card is playable or not
Avant-Gardening - Creature of madness at least puts down a 1/2 body whereas this card does not. Unless deathrattle minions are so damn important and the pool is so damn small, this card wouldnt see any light of day
Rotten Apple - Its such a weird card because its nigh unplayable in standard and yet you just know its gonna terrorize wild
Rotheart Dryad - The deathrattle is fine, but why on earth is the statline a mere 1/1 when its not even a battlecry? Draws you your win con sure, but conventionally deathrattle minions tend to have better stats. Is this card so insane that an extra health point is not allowed? Its playable sure, but it has near no board presence even played on 1.
Wallow, the Wretched - Ordinarily a card like this would be prime trash. But because it is possible to get both charge and windfury from dark gifts this card just got elevated to cheese material and thus would be playable.
The only mitigating factor is that dark gift cards tend to be shit. I stand by my opinion that dark gifts as a mechanic is simply not very good, and is burdened by the fact that its always one turn slower than regular vanilla cards. You simply cannot build a deck from vanilla cards that is only sometimes good and expect to win games. Doesnt help that of all the gifts available only a small handful are good, and no matter how big the card you just know its gonna be destroyed the next turn.
Warlock cards dont look too good, but theres still another half left so fingers crossed.
Mark of Usol - Basically just the same rethread of cards like subdue. It'll likely see play simply because paladin sometimes needs removal options and such things are about as good as it gets.
Ursine Maul - Seriously, one of the best weapons. Draw two cards, deal 8 damage in two turns. And all that for 4 mana. And likely the card you'll be drawing will be your win cons.
Renewing Flames - If it werent for the lifesteal, this card would have been decent but unplayable even with ursol supporting it. And if ursol wasnt a card then this card is trash. Fortunately for it, both conditions are met so this card is playable. And Id be surprised if it wasnt.
Ursol - It might get better because at the moment, theres really only one card thats worth considering and that's renewing flames. All other spells arent especially good or are cheap enough that you'll be better off playing it yourself.
That said though, get renewing flames to play itself for three turns is backbreaking because not only does it mean your opponent would need to overcome 10 health gain per turn, they'll also need to navigate past 10 damage every turn.
Lastly, the imbue hp cards - Unlike the other classes, I kinda like paladin's imbue hp because at some point youre essentially summoning 3-4 cost dragons for free so its kinda like if youre playing mini ysera, unleashed for the cost of 2 mana.
That said though, if there isnt some kind of card that cheapens hp, this archetype is too stiff. Either play aegis of light on turn one or you dont get to play the game because though all the cards imbue your hp, you still need to spend 2 mana doing it, ensuring that your gameplan is always one turn slower. There is no world where you can play vanilla cards that do nothing for 4 turns and expect to win the game. Even midrange decks would destroy you well before turn 6, never mind aggro.
Pally cards are decent, or at least a coherent gameplan can be seen. And at very least I dont get the impression that terran shaman and warrior can easily destroy it.
If theres no neutral card that is practically tour guide then these imbue hp archetypes that team5 are pushing hard will never work.
The one for paladin has got to be the most egregious of all. If you dont play aegis of light on turn 1, the entire deck fails, whereas if you did then you get to play the game.
Shadowcloaked Assailant - Its bad. Ghastly gravedigger is the better version of a disruptor that saw very little play when it was in standard, and thats largely because you still have to win the game instead of merely preventing your opponent from doing so. This card is way too expensive to begin with and I cant help but feel that the only reason why it costs 4 mana is to circumvent the usual sonya bs, not that I feel this card would be OP even if it were possible.
Nightmare fuel - Not bad, but you wouldnt be playing this in a deck that isnt specifically thief rogue and even then I feel its not that good. Most decks tend to be minion heavy and synergistic to their deckbuild. Getting one minion rarely ever gives you a decent enough advantage.
Mimicry - About as shit as it looks in standard. In wild, its more fuel for mill rogue, and its there that this card will truly shine. In standard however, this card will do nothing more than accelerate your death.
Web of deception - Its not better than breakdance, and in fact its far worse. And breakdance itself tend to sport poor winrates, despite its inclusion into rogue decks in standard.
Renfelral, the Malignant - The general thought process is surely to just bounce this a few times, then play giants for zero mana and trap half their hand, fingers crossed that they have no answer. Its a decent enough strat, but rogue will be losing both breakdance and tar slick in the next expansion and so have zero ways of dealing with board. In other words, you'll find it immensely hard to bounce this around and stay alive, unless youre really really lucky.
Not to mention that any aggro deck over the past decade can and will destroy a deck with such a strat. We've seen it before and theres nothing to suggest this will change now.
Still a few cards left, and usually if team5 leaves them unrevealed then you can bet its gonna be good, or at least interesting. So rogue is not folded yet.
But these cards though? Cant see it. Few decent ones, but nothing broken.
Exotic houndmaster - Now that we've seen theres not that many hp support for hunter, well this card is just trash. The new hp is give a beast in your hand +1 attack and cost 1 less but in the absence of cards like tundra rhino there's simply no payoff to doing it. Better just to hit face for 2 damage unless youre really gunning for that malorne to win the game for you.
Mytical runebear - Its ironically not bad given that hunter does have handbuff cards like reserved spot that does curve to this card. But its a load of contrivance to make work. I suppose its possible, which would be backbreaking for decks without instant answers and even then its likely they cant deal with both on turn 4.
Verdant dreamsaber - Not good. There's not many ways to reduce costs of beast to begin with and even if you could its not really that good either.
Yup, hunter set remains poor as I imagined it yesterday.
Broll bearmantle - It'll see play but I highly doubt it'll be any good. Its too contrived, and only huffer is good out of the three companions. So its a 1/3 chance of getting actual value, and 1/3 to get a brick. Not to mention that realistically you only ever get 6 shots max, so it'll never be an OTK even if you contrive your deck to get it.
Amphibian spirit - Probably crap. But then again, the difference this time compared to all the frog cards in hearthstone is that you can buff a minion that have initiative. Maybe it'll see play but more likely you build around this card, get AoEd, remove it from your deck and swear to never play it again.
Spirit bond - Makes grace of the greatwolf look completely like arse
Hunter's set this time round, not gonna lie, looks like shite. Looks like its gonna be zerg hunter all the way until the miniset because I cant see any of these cards seeing play past this expansion, and perhaps not even in this expansion. Only goldrinn and broll stand anywhere near a chance. Spirit bond's not bad, and that's about it.
Omen - Its not bad legendary, but stuck in a side that commonly plays aggro and have no business lasting until turn 10, youve got to wonder if the only way omen sees actual inclusion into decks and played is via something like cliff dive, and even then ironically youd prefer omen to actually die instead of staying alive and shuffled back into the deck.
Even as dhunters are braced to for deathrattle synergy, omen is simply too slow and somewhat redundant because every other card from dhunter is faster and more efficient. Id suspect the only way youd see him being played is via malorne.
Defiled spear - Its not as good as dreadprisons glaive, and the fact that you cannot guarantee this to hit face or minions consistently adds another layer of doubt that this card will see play at all. Perhaps it will, given that theres so few dhunter weapons actually worth playing, and for whats it worth you can just hit face so it'll always hit a minion, though at random.
Ravenous felhound & ferocious felbat - will be played in unison because why not? Both cards practically gurantee proper hell to your opponent unless they can remove it without triggering the deathrattle. The only problem with both cards is your opponent can and probably will just ignore it, just like deathrattle dhunter in the old barrens meta. And like that old archetype, its highly likely this will only be playable in a low powerlevel meta, because any aggro deck from the last decade will just steamroll this deck into the tarmac.
Alara'shi - Not good. Dont even bother thinking about it. Prestor druid was great for one expansion run and that deck had a reliable tutor with a very strong dragon pool. This card doesnt even do anything close to that, and is more closer to archthief rafaam in comparison i.e. this card will see zero play and remain a head scratcher as to how it even passed the design stage. If I was cruel Id say its a result of too many beers near deadline date.
Dreadseed package - No, this is not even remotely in the same ballpark as the old wildseeds package. What made the latter good (and then subsequently nerfed twice) is that it gave plenty of intiative, with the worse of the trio being the 2/5 taunt because theres precisely none of it. The dreadseed package is exactly that, and whats worse is that your opponent can see it coming a mile away. The best of the lot has to be the dog, because you get 3 damage out of it. Getting the snake is practically a middle finger jab up your breeches.
All in all dhunter's set is at least respectable because I can definitely see the deathrattle package being playable, which at least is a change over the last two expansion of practically nothing. That said though, theres nothing here to suggest longevity because none of the cards are broken, and if introduced in the current meta will do absolutely fuck all, stuck in tier 3 at best.
Love me some deathrattle dhunter though, and this set does deliver that.
Ohn'ahra - More like on its way to be the worse wild god this expansion, and its not that the card is terrible but not only is it unreliable, it also forces you to build your deck way too rigidly. So in effect it can only ever be played in a very, very specific deck, namely big shaman with zero removal options, lest you destroy your own board and practically skip a turn.
Its weird but I feel it would have been better as a battlecry minion because at least if you get a few minions out you can still attack with them. Only way this can be redeemed is somehow you get some effect that will sequence your cards specifically in an order so at least this card wouldnt fuck you over, but until then its the worst legendary likely this expansion.
Emerald bounty - This card is just hilarious. At least we know why team5 rotated ancestral knowledge out of core because otherwise this card is simply unplayable hot garbage. Unfortunately, even with ancestral knowledge gone, this card's condition is so ridiculous you can only imagine a deck desperate for draw playing it.
Plucky podling - Its rather unfortunate because its a decent card but I feel that even if its good it'll be targeted so hard that you'll never play this on 1. So essentially its a 3 drop for 3 mana? Weird thing to include into your deck. But if youre playing evolve shaman then just play it because why not?
Glowroot lure - The best card for shaman this expansion and even then its mid. You can imagine a swarm shaman that clicks hp a lot being meta at some point in the next two years but shaman's cards this expansion is so wildly shit that I cant see this being played until the next expansion.
And finally, Typhoon. Words fail me when I saw this card. Its such a unmitigated pile of hot shit that you have to wonder whether theres some surprise being install here, because actual human beings designed this card. 10 mana to essentially play psychic scream, I mean why the extra 3 mana? Is it so wonderful that SOME of the minions gets shuffled into your deck that team5 had no choice but to bump it up to 10 fucking mana? Even at 8 mana I wouldnt think to play this.
There's some copium saying that this card can be repeated by nobundo so youve got three turns of board clears, but it doesnt actually explain how you even get to the point where you play this card at all. Most decks would destroy you way before this card is active and its all well and good to deny your opponent but what is your win con?
Cant help but say that shaman got fucked early. Guess its terran shaman all the way then, or big shaman because its core is still present. Good luck incorporating the new cards in though.
Ysondre - The other build around for warrior but its only good if you can somehow cheat this out. Playing this on turn 6-7, then praying it will die so you can play succumb to madness to get it back, or use clutch of corruption on it, its just a tad too slow.
But whatever you can say in this card's favour, its certainly not going to see much play because everyone would be playing hydration station warrior anyway. Not to mention that the moment this card gets bobed you kindly lose your gameplan.
Eggbasher - Will see play the same way rowdy fan saw play. Thought admitably any semblance of an aggro warrior seeing play will likely revolve around draenei and this card will likely be redundant.
Broodkeeper - Decent card that covers warrior's lack of initiative in the early game, but you need to build this around dragons, which is a downside, because if youre building around dragons chances are good youre a midrange deck that can play a turn 1 minion. Still, if youre building a dragon deck this card goes in it because why not.
Succumb to madness - There's probably something broken you can do with this but we'll see if theres enough dragons to make it worthwhile.
Gonna review the other cards later, because tortolla definitely is worth talking on its own.
Yea, there's just no way this card doesnt see play and will in fact be responsible for getting bob nerfed because look at this shit. Cheat it out with chemical spill, then when your opponent is done knocking this down, rez it back with hydration station along with maybe battlecruisers and unkilliax. More or less mows down aggro decks on its own, is near impossible to kill without specifically minion-based destroy effects, easily cheated out, can be tutored, and can be resurrected. Compare this with the other wild gods so far and that's a no brainer. Getting this out of malorne would be backbreaking for the opponent.
Bob and black knight never look better. And if warrior is meta next expansion there's a near guarantee that bob or hydration station gets nerfed.
Hammul Runetotem - Its barely a condition at all. Making a druid deck with only nature cards do hamper them slightly but not as much as you would expect. The real question would be, is it worth it? And I kinda dont think that it is. The imbued hp is basically jades except you can only do it once per turn, most aggro decks would destroy you well before this gets going and even midrange decks can threaten with massive minions or overwhelming boards that this would rarely matter.
Compare this with the current hp druid, or hell, just compare this with dragon hp druid. Imagine doing 5 damage per turn with 2 mana and that still only barely competitive.
The only reason why I think this card is playable is because of pure novelty, and that its highly likely that the powerlevel of the next rotation would be low enough for this to succeed.
Horn of plenty - Gonna be played in all druid decks because why not. At least we can be comforted that nourish is no longer in standard.
Reforestation - Lucky that frost lotus seed is rotating otherwise there's zero reason to play this. At least its draw two for two. Decent, though underpowered because you need to wait three turns to draw an extra card.
Grove shaper - Its too slow to ever be good competitively, and theres yet to be a nature spell that damages face, or present a board wipe. So no go for me. Might get better if the meta is slow enough or theres better nature spells.
Evergreen stag - The sort of card you design when deadlines up and you cant think of anything else. Either that or this was once an OP card that got nerfed to oblivion. I simply cannot understand the thought process behind the design of this card other than it being pure filler. Unless embiggen is being brought back to standard this card is unplayable trash. When you consider that cards like origami dragon and stone drake saw zero play in standard, what chance does this card even have?
Not to mention that druid dont tend to play minions like these anyway. Toyrantus, druid of the plains, and immortal are perfectly good cards that will see play in other classes, but not in druid where play patterns tend to be either sky high or rock bottom.
Forestlord Cenarius - Very flavourful. Unfortunately its also...well, bad. 10 mana to put up to three big dudes with taunt, because lets face it you'll never use this as a psuedo bloodlust to end games. Definitely underpowered for a 10 mana card, because for 10 mana, you'll either need to win games, threaten lethal, or at least prevent your opponent from doing so. This card passes the buck by building up taunts and then imagining your opponent having no answers. And what's more, ironically this doesnt work with cards like embrace of nature, so technically its actually worse than drum circle.
Will it be playable? Well, maybe. Because you simply have to imagine there being a way to cheat this out, or maybe malorne is just that good and you get a 1 mana cenarius consistently.
All in all, quite underwhelming for a druid set. I was expecting there to be at least a few broken as hell cards but instead its the opposite: cant see any of it. But its druid, and it'll always find a way to be toxic as fuck, even in weak expansions.
Toreth the unbreaking - At first glance this looks broken. Basically granting divine shield minions immunity because theres just no way to deal damage three times to a minion and somehow still be in the game. Unfortunately though, this card is only ever broken in arena, because in competitive standard theres so many ways to remove minions that this comes across as simply useless, not even compared favourably to Amitus. Ironically, this card likely can just solo down paladin on its own, so if it ever gets mind controlled you might as well just concede then and there.
Critter caretaker - Its just a weird card because you'll never play this in anything other than control and do control decks even want this? Comparable to mistress of mixtures, something that was meta roughly 8 years back and which saw little to no play when it was reintroduced.
Mother duck - Will likely be playable in swarm decks and maybe DK because its practically 4 corpses + removal.
Ancient of yore - Aggro decks nowadays will destroy you far faster than this can heal and youve developed nothing on board so its like a 5 mana shield block. Might see play but Im not optimistic.
Meadowstrider - I like it only because it has 11 health and taunt. Unfortunately for this it'll never be playable in standard competitive. Too slow, easily removed, and its ability to negate fatigue is vastly underpowered compared to kiljaeden.
So new expansion...bit early this time round. Like around a month too early. Not sure why, but can only hope its not a slow pivot towards 4 expansions per year.
My comments on the cards and expansion:
Its the new hearthstone design philosophy now. Trying to design lower power level cards seemingly so they dont keep breaking wild and keep standard interesting. Because let's be honest, its designed entirely with the quest in mind. On its own, its unplayable shit.
I like yours because the condition of spending 5 corpses is entirely the reason why its only 1 mana.
Comments on the new cards;
Amirdrassil - If this didnt have refresh mana crystals, it'll be completely unplayable. But it does, so it'll see play in some capacity, and probably at some point of time require every deck to tech in demolition renovator.
Frostburn Matriach - Its amazing that a card like this at turn 5 isnt even remotely powerful enough to get played in a DK deck. Handbuff decks does the job far better anyway.
Everburning Phoenix - Probably never see any play. Because why would it? Its a worse frostwolf warmaster with a deathrattle that doesnt matter in an expansion that doesnt have draka in it.
Petal picker - Shouldve been in the expansion itself. Because it bridges a problem that most imbue decks find themselves in and thats the lack of cards. Makes emerald bounty looks even worse, day by day.
Zaqali Flamemancer - Continuing the trend of miniset epics that looks interesting but is actually unplayable shit. Its not that the battlecry is difficult to trigger, its the fact that youre actively contriving this card to work. Will the payoff even be sufficient to bother with? Only a real midrange deck can make it happen, and chances are good it wont save you vs aggro and it wont outvalue control. And let's not kid ourselves, this card will be a brick in your hand 90% of the time anyway.
Just a few comments;
Its a high gamble from team5 because lets be honest the upcoming expansion is mostly underpowered at best, and at worst is uninspirational i.e. shit. The mass nerfs is needed to have them see play but we'll have to see whether its the great beyond cards thats the biggest beneficiaries of these nerfs, because Im still convinced that starships arent really that bad. Now that most of the removals are gone, it might actually shine now.
Tyrande - Its pretty much broken because you can easily just play her turn 7, then turn 8 you just blow your opponent away with stuff like acupuncture and moonwell. As long as youre not dead yourself, that's 24 damage which will for the most part be enough. Might even do more with spell damage.
Outside of that, well the only real concern is that there's not much else to use her with. There's no free for amber, or something that puts big stuff on board. Ritual of the new moon helps but chances are you'll rather just play it on 5.
Priest imbue cards and hp - I guess we finally found out the fuss that was about raza's rework. I thought the imbued hp was gonna be nuts, but turns out its basically just popping out a card every turn that you cant keep, so effectively its useless in the early game.
Its not merely that, but the fact that the imbue cards for priest are rather shit. Lunarwing messenger has only 1 health and so will never realistically do much else other than its battlecry, and kaldorei priestess is too expensive and doesnt remove board. The only good thing about all this is that its a control deck's hp, so you dont need to add in the other neutral imbue cards into your deck and just fuck it, 4 would be enough.
A better discussion would be to ask whether its even worth it. Tyrande is already a good enough finisher on her own, and the protoss cards are far better for value. So where does this even come in?
The other priest cards - Its does what it says on the tin. There's not much to comment on it because all of them just do damage or summon board. Nothing special here or anywhere. Feels more like hunter cards to me, because when you say priest the first thing that comes to mind is useless or toxic, these cards are decent but uninspirational.
Priest cards good. Or rather I should say better than the others. Solid cards for a class that traditionally get toxic cards.
Nythendra - Its an alright card. The main issue is that you need two unholy runes and so this card can never feature in a control or rainbow deck, something which in all fairness would have been a consideration, especially in rainbow decks.
What this card is is just a big dude on board thats sufficiently sticky enough to annoy and force answers from your opponent. Answering the 7/7 may well be easy but the subsequent 1/1s is not. Dont expect this to do anything more than that. At least this card has taunt, otherwise it'll be completely unplayable since the reformation is at the start of your turn i.e. she cant attack.
Hideous husk - The only thing significant about this card is that its a control buster. The threat of this makes every leech practically a soft taunt and there will be a time where the opponent is left with 15 max health. The problem though, is that this card is practically useless vs aggro, something that control decks need to actually be doing well against. It will heal you for 6, but that's not the same as lifesteal; both gnomemuncher and blood boil are significantly better precisely because of that keyword. Well, its a good thing that team5 rotated them then -__-
Rite of Atrocity - Possibly the best dark gift card in the expansion because its cheap. Fair to say that discover options are much stronger in DK relative to other classes as well
All in all for DK, decent cards but no real deck in sight. We'll probably see some kind of rainbow DK from paradise again, since most of those cards are still intact and in an underpowered meta might be better than most other decks. Perhaps thats the most frustrating thing about DK this expansion; none of the cards are bad, but the rune restrictions all but guarantee that you're either playing the exact deck team5 cooked up, or theyre just not gonna be played. And at the moment, its certainly looking more the latter than the former.
Spark of life - Its a one mana discover a spell and therefore will be playable. Not much else to say. Druid spells can be good if you hit ramp early but its always a gamble at the end
Stellar Balance - The only point here is that youre spending 2 mana to deal damage to face. Its kinda not that great, because you can just fireball face with 4 mana and deal 6 damage without having to spend an additional 6 mana to deal a total of 8 damage. Its a discover card for more damage, other than that you'll never see it in deck inclusions.
Q'onzu - Ive no idea why this is a legendary. Another one of those deadline day dart toss cards, because in what world would anyone even bother playing this outside of it being a 3/4 discover a spell card. I suppose it has better stats than vulpera scoundrel, so that's why its a legendary :P
And no, the ability to put the spell on your opponent's topdeck is not a big deal. You ruined your opponent's topdeck, maybe, but guess what? They may not actually care. Most decks nowadays draws well enough, and what mage spell is so terrible that giving it to your opponent necessitates a comically exaggerated sad face out of them? I suspect this option to be picked only out of desperation.
Aessina - It may look like you can put this in any deck but in reality it'll only be the hp wisp mage deck that this will see play in. Because there's no world that you can get 20 minions to die in a game as mage without cards that generate a fuck ton of tokens, of which mage really doesnt have any. And its only really decent because if your opponent has big minions down you cant guarantee its death, or guarantee significant damage to face. I suppose you can always just expanse + this to deal 20 damage to face.
As for the other imbue hp cards...its rather good. Wisp mage may actually be overpowered enough in an underpowered meta that it might get nerfed, unless team5 have (predictably) printed a neutral card that disrupt hp. Why is it good? because it does two things that hearthstone games rely on - damage that can hit face or clear boards, and puts out board yourself. At high enough levels, the hp alone can destroy the opponent because its basically a board flip every turn for two mana. Wisprider in particular practically doubles your hp for that turn, combined with sing-along buddy to deal massive damage.
Whether it can sustain this throughout the next year? Probably not. In fact, its only playable in an underpowered meta because its probably too slow. Any decent midrange deck probably destroys this deck. Consider facing against discover hunter and have four 2/5s out on board. Your hp effectively now does nothing significant and you're probably gonna die. And that scenario is hardly unique.
At least mage does have a deck ready, even if the legedary is a bit meh. Will this be better than playing protoss mage though? Pretty sure its not, until protoss cards inevitably gets nerfed.
Fractured Power - I just find this funny because its practically 2 mana wild growth for warlock, with the only difference being that its one turn late. Likely going to see play in all slow warlock decks because its ramp. You dont ignore ramp
Archdruid of Thorns - This is devourer of souls made into a battlecry. Dont bother thinking up of value, because the only way this card will ever be playable is as an OTK mechanism. At some point in the next two years, that'll define whether this card is playable or not
Avant-Gardening - Creature of madness at least puts down a 1/2 body whereas this card does not. Unless deathrattle minions are so damn important and the pool is so damn small, this card wouldnt see any light of day
Rotten Apple - Its such a weird card because its nigh unplayable in standard and yet you just know its gonna terrorize wild
Rotheart Dryad - The deathrattle is fine, but why on earth is the statline a mere 1/1 when its not even a battlecry? Draws you your win con sure, but conventionally deathrattle minions tend to have better stats. Is this card so insane that an extra health point is not allowed? Its playable sure, but it has near no board presence even played on 1.
Wallow, the Wretched - Ordinarily a card like this would be prime trash. But because it is possible to get both charge and windfury from dark gifts this card just got elevated to cheese material and thus would be playable.
The only mitigating factor is that dark gift cards tend to be shit. I stand by my opinion that dark gifts as a mechanic is simply not very good, and is burdened by the fact that its always one turn slower than regular vanilla cards. You simply cannot build a deck from vanilla cards that is only sometimes good and expect to win games. Doesnt help that of all the gifts available only a small handful are good, and no matter how big the card you just know its gonna be destroyed the next turn.
Warlock cards dont look too good, but theres still another half left so fingers crossed.
Mark of Usol - Basically just the same rethread of cards like subdue. It'll likely see play simply because paladin sometimes needs removal options and such things are about as good as it gets.
Ursine Maul - Seriously, one of the best weapons. Draw two cards, deal 8 damage in two turns. And all that for 4 mana. And likely the card you'll be drawing will be your win cons.
Renewing Flames - If it werent for the lifesteal, this card would have been decent but unplayable even with ursol supporting it. And if ursol wasnt a card then this card is trash. Fortunately for it, both conditions are met so this card is playable. And Id be surprised if it wasnt.
Ursol - It might get better because at the moment, theres really only one card thats worth considering and that's renewing flames. All other spells arent especially good or are cheap enough that you'll be better off playing it yourself.
That said though, get renewing flames to play itself for three turns is backbreaking because not only does it mean your opponent would need to overcome 10 health gain per turn, they'll also need to navigate past 10 damage every turn.
Lastly, the imbue hp cards - Unlike the other classes, I kinda like paladin's imbue hp because at some point youre essentially summoning 3-4 cost dragons for free so its kinda like if youre playing mini ysera, unleashed for the cost of 2 mana.
That said though, if there isnt some kind of card that cheapens hp, this archetype is too stiff. Either play aegis of light on turn one or you dont get to play the game because though all the cards imbue your hp, you still need to spend 2 mana doing it, ensuring that your gameplan is always one turn slower. There is no world where you can play vanilla cards that do nothing for 4 turns and expect to win the game. Even midrange decks would destroy you well before turn 6, never mind aggro.
Pally cards are decent, or at least a coherent gameplan can be seen. And at very least I dont get the impression that terran shaman and warrior can easily destroy it.
How long has it been? 10 years?
Lol never thought this game would even see the light of day. Wonder if reynad is even still here.
If theres no neutral card that is practically tour guide then these imbue hp archetypes that team5 are pushing hard will never work.
The one for paladin has got to be the most egregious of all. If you dont play aegis of light on turn 1, the entire deck fails, whereas if you did then you get to play the game.
Shadowcloaked Assailant - Its bad. Ghastly gravedigger is the better version of a disruptor that saw very little play when it was in standard, and thats largely because you still have to win the game instead of merely preventing your opponent from doing so. This card is way too expensive to begin with and I cant help but feel that the only reason why it costs 4 mana is to circumvent the usual sonya bs, not that I feel this card would be OP even if it were possible.
Nightmare fuel - Not bad, but you wouldnt be playing this in a deck that isnt specifically thief rogue and even then I feel its not that good. Most decks tend to be minion heavy and synergistic to their deckbuild. Getting one minion rarely ever gives you a decent enough advantage.
Mimicry - About as shit as it looks in standard. In wild, its more fuel for mill rogue, and its there that this card will truly shine. In standard however, this card will do nothing more than accelerate your death.
Web of deception - Its not better than breakdance, and in fact its far worse. And breakdance itself tend to sport poor winrates, despite its inclusion into rogue decks in standard.
Renfelral, the Malignant - The general thought process is surely to just bounce this a few times, then play giants for zero mana and trap half their hand, fingers crossed that they have no answer. Its a decent enough strat, but rogue will be losing both breakdance and tar slick in the next expansion and so have zero ways of dealing with board. In other words, you'll find it immensely hard to bounce this around and stay alive, unless youre really really lucky.
Not to mention that any aggro deck over the past decade can and will destroy a deck with such a strat. We've seen it before and theres nothing to suggest this will change now.
Still a few cards left, and usually if team5 leaves them unrevealed then you can bet its gonna be good, or at least interesting. So rogue is not folded yet.
But these cards though? Cant see it. Few decent ones, but nothing broken.
Three cards I missed out;
Exotic houndmaster - Now that we've seen theres not that many hp support for hunter, well this card is just trash. The new hp is give a beast in your hand +1 attack and cost 1 less but in the absence of cards like tundra rhino there's simply no payoff to doing it. Better just to hit face for 2 damage unless youre really gunning for that malorne to win the game for you.
Mytical runebear - Its ironically not bad given that hunter does have handbuff cards like reserved spot that does curve to this card. But its a load of contrivance to make work. I suppose its possible, which would be backbreaking for decks without instant answers and even then its likely they cant deal with both on turn 4.
Verdant dreamsaber - Not good. There's not many ways to reduce costs of beast to begin with and even if you could its not really that good either.
Yup, hunter set remains poor as I imagined it yesterday.
Broll bearmantle - It'll see play but I highly doubt it'll be any good. Its too contrived, and only huffer is good out of the three companions. So its a 1/3 chance of getting actual value, and 1/3 to get a brick. Not to mention that realistically you only ever get 6 shots max, so it'll never be an OTK even if you contrive your deck to get it.
Amphibian spirit - Probably crap. But then again, the difference this time compared to all the frog cards in hearthstone is that you can buff a minion that have initiative. Maybe it'll see play but more likely you build around this card, get AoEd, remove it from your deck and swear to never play it again.
Spirit bond - Makes grace of the greatwolf look completely like arse
Hunter's set this time round, not gonna lie, looks like shite. Looks like its gonna be zerg hunter all the way until the miniset because I cant see any of these cards seeing play past this expansion, and perhaps not even in this expansion. Only goldrinn and broll stand anywhere near a chance. Spirit bond's not bad, and that's about it.
Omen - Its not bad legendary, but stuck in a side that commonly plays aggro and have no business lasting until turn 10, youve got to wonder if the only way omen sees actual inclusion into decks and played is via something like cliff dive, and even then ironically youd prefer omen to actually die instead of staying alive and shuffled back into the deck.
Even as dhunters are braced to for deathrattle synergy, omen is simply too slow and somewhat redundant because every other card from dhunter is faster and more efficient. Id suspect the only way youd see him being played is via malorne.
Defiled spear - Its not as good as dreadprisons glaive, and the fact that you cannot guarantee this to hit face or minions consistently adds another layer of doubt that this card will see play at all. Perhaps it will, given that theres so few dhunter weapons actually worth playing, and for whats it worth you can just hit face so it'll always hit a minion, though at random.
Ravenous felhound & ferocious felbat - will be played in unison because why not? Both cards practically gurantee proper hell to your opponent unless they can remove it without triggering the deathrattle. The only problem with both cards is your opponent can and probably will just ignore it, just like deathrattle dhunter in the old barrens meta. And like that old archetype, its highly likely this will only be playable in a low powerlevel meta, because any aggro deck from the last decade will just steamroll this deck into the tarmac.
Alara'shi - Not good. Dont even bother thinking about it. Prestor druid was great for one expansion run and that deck had a reliable tutor with a very strong dragon pool. This card doesnt even do anything close to that, and is more closer to archthief rafaam in comparison i.e. this card will see zero play and remain a head scratcher as to how it even passed the design stage. If I was cruel Id say its a result of too many beers near deadline date.
Dreadseed package - No, this is not even remotely in the same ballpark as the old wildseeds package. What made the latter good (and then subsequently nerfed twice) is that it gave plenty of intiative, with the worse of the trio being the 2/5 taunt because theres precisely none of it. The dreadseed package is exactly that, and whats worse is that your opponent can see it coming a mile away. The best of the lot has to be the dog, because you get 3 damage out of it. Getting the snake is practically a middle finger jab up your breeches.
All in all dhunter's set is at least respectable because I can definitely see the deathrattle package being playable, which at least is a change over the last two expansion of practically nothing. That said though, theres nothing here to suggest longevity because none of the cards are broken, and if introduced in the current meta will do absolutely fuck all, stuck in tier 3 at best.
Love me some deathrattle dhunter though, and this set does deliver that.
Ohn'ahra - More like on its way to be the worse wild god this expansion, and its not that the card is terrible but not only is it unreliable, it also forces you to build your deck way too rigidly. So in effect it can only ever be played in a very, very specific deck, namely big shaman with zero removal options, lest you destroy your own board and practically skip a turn.
Its weird but I feel it would have been better as a battlecry minion because at least if you get a few minions out you can still attack with them. Only way this can be redeemed is somehow you get some effect that will sequence your cards specifically in an order so at least this card wouldnt fuck you over, but until then its the worst legendary likely this expansion.
Emerald bounty - This card is just hilarious. At least we know why team5 rotated ancestral knowledge out of core because otherwise this card is simply unplayable hot garbage. Unfortunately, even with ancestral knowledge gone, this card's condition is so ridiculous you can only imagine a deck desperate for draw playing it.
Plucky podling - Its rather unfortunate because its a decent card but I feel that even if its good it'll be targeted so hard that you'll never play this on 1. So essentially its a 3 drop for 3 mana? Weird thing to include into your deck. But if youre playing evolve shaman then just play it because why not?
Glowroot lure - The best card for shaman this expansion and even then its mid. You can imagine a swarm shaman that clicks hp a lot being meta at some point in the next two years but shaman's cards this expansion is so wildly shit that I cant see this being played until the next expansion.
And finally, Typhoon. Words fail me when I saw this card. Its such a unmitigated pile of hot shit that you have to wonder whether theres some surprise being install here, because actual human beings designed this card. 10 mana to essentially play psychic scream, I mean why the extra 3 mana? Is it so wonderful that SOME of the minions gets shuffled into your deck that team5 had no choice but to bump it up to 10 fucking mana? Even at 8 mana I wouldnt think to play this.
There's some copium saying that this card can be repeated by nobundo so youve got three turns of board clears, but it doesnt actually explain how you even get to the point where you play this card at all. Most decks would destroy you way before this card is active and its all well and good to deny your opponent but what is your win con?
Cant help but say that shaman got fucked early. Guess its terran shaman all the way then, or big shaman because its core is still present. Good luck incorporating the new cards in though.
Thoughts on other cards:
Ysondre - The other build around for warrior but its only good if you can somehow cheat this out. Playing this on turn 6-7, then praying it will die so you can play succumb to madness to get it back, or use clutch of corruption on it, its just a tad too slow.
But whatever you can say in this card's favour, its certainly not going to see much play because everyone would be playing hydration station warrior anyway. Not to mention that the moment this card gets bobed you kindly lose your gameplan.
Eggbasher - Will see play the same way rowdy fan saw play. Thought admitably any semblance of an aggro warrior seeing play will likely revolve around draenei and this card will likely be redundant.
Broodkeeper - Decent card that covers warrior's lack of initiative in the early game, but you need to build this around dragons, which is a downside, because if youre building around dragons chances are good youre a midrange deck that can play a turn 1 minion. Still, if youre building a dragon deck this card goes in it because why not.
Succumb to madness - There's probably something broken you can do with this but we'll see if theres enough dragons to make it worthwhile.
Gonna review the other cards later, because tortolla definitely is worth talking on its own.
Yea, there's just no way this card doesnt see play and will in fact be responsible for getting bob nerfed because look at this shit. Cheat it out with chemical spill, then when your opponent is done knocking this down, rez it back with hydration station along with maybe battlecruisers and unkilliax. More or less mows down aggro decks on its own, is near impossible to kill without specifically minion-based destroy effects, easily cheated out, can be tutored, and can be resurrected. Compare this with the other wild gods so far and that's a no brainer. Getting this out of malorne would be backbreaking for the opponent.
Bob and black knight never look better. And if warrior is meta next expansion there's a near guarantee that bob or hydration station gets nerfed.
Hammul Runetotem - Its barely a condition at all. Making a druid deck with only nature cards do hamper them slightly but not as much as you would expect. The real question would be, is it worth it? And I kinda dont think that it is. The imbued hp is basically jades except you can only do it once per turn, most aggro decks would destroy you well before this gets going and even midrange decks can threaten with massive minions or overwhelming boards that this would rarely matter.
Compare this with the current hp druid, or hell, just compare this with dragon hp druid. Imagine doing 5 damage per turn with 2 mana and that still only barely competitive.
The only reason why I think this card is playable is because of pure novelty, and that its highly likely that the powerlevel of the next rotation would be low enough for this to succeed.
Horn of plenty - Gonna be played in all druid decks because why not. At least we can be comforted that nourish is no longer in standard.
Reforestation - Lucky that frost lotus seed is rotating otherwise there's zero reason to play this. At least its draw two for two. Decent, though underpowered because you need to wait three turns to draw an extra card.
Grove shaper - Its too slow to ever be good competitively, and theres yet to be a nature spell that damages face, or present a board wipe. So no go for me. Might get better if the meta is slow enough or theres better nature spells.
Evergreen stag - The sort of card you design when deadlines up and you cant think of anything else. Either that or this was once an OP card that got nerfed to oblivion. I simply cannot understand the thought process behind the design of this card other than it being pure filler. Unless embiggen is being brought back to standard this card is unplayable trash. When you consider that cards like origami dragon and stone drake saw zero play in standard, what chance does this card even have?
Not to mention that druid dont tend to play minions like these anyway. Toyrantus, druid of the plains, and immortal are perfectly good cards that will see play in other classes, but not in druid where play patterns tend to be either sky high or rock bottom.
Forestlord Cenarius - Very flavourful. Unfortunately its also...well, bad. 10 mana to put up to three big dudes with taunt, because lets face it you'll never use this as a psuedo bloodlust to end games. Definitely underpowered for a 10 mana card, because for 10 mana, you'll either need to win games, threaten lethal, or at least prevent your opponent from doing so. This card passes the buck by building up taunts and then imagining your opponent having no answers. And what's more, ironically this doesnt work with cards like embrace of nature, so technically its actually worse than drum circle.
Will it be playable? Well, maybe. Because you simply have to imagine there being a way to cheat this out, or maybe malorne is just that good and you get a 1 mana cenarius consistently.
All in all, quite underwhelming for a druid set. I was expecting there to be at least a few broken as hell cards but instead its the opposite: cant see any of it. But its druid, and it'll always find a way to be toxic as fuck, even in weak expansions.
Toreth the unbreaking - At first glance this looks broken. Basically granting divine shield minions immunity because theres just no way to deal damage three times to a minion and somehow still be in the game. Unfortunately though, this card is only ever broken in arena, because in competitive standard theres so many ways to remove minions that this comes across as simply useless, not even compared favourably to Amitus. Ironically, this card likely can just solo down paladin on its own, so if it ever gets mind controlled you might as well just concede then and there.
Critter caretaker - Its just a weird card because you'll never play this in anything other than control and do control decks even want this? Comparable to mistress of mixtures, something that was meta roughly 8 years back and which saw little to no play when it was reintroduced.
Mother duck - Will likely be playable in swarm decks and maybe DK because its practically 4 corpses + removal.
Ancient of yore - Aggro decks nowadays will destroy you far faster than this can heal and youve developed nothing on board so its like a 5 mana shield block. Might see play but Im not optimistic.
Meadowstrider - I like it only because it has 11 health and taunt. Unfortunately for this it'll never be playable in standard competitive. Too slow, easily removed, and its ability to negate fatigue is vastly underpowered compared to kiljaeden.