May be premature to say this, but I think the quest is not good, mostly because the murloc pool is not good enough. You'll never have enough murlocs to make this deck work and stuffing your deck with them makes your mid-end game completely redundant. Just think about menagerie priest with its near endless reload, menagerie DK with strong burn cards, and both decks while being viable is just bait anything above platinum rank. I cant recall a single time Ive actually struggled against the two decks, and Ive no reason to believe that this murloc iteration will be any different.
The fact that Cora has confirmed that the quest was buffed late in dev makes you wonder just how bad the decks really is in playtesting.
The Food Chain - I have no idea where team5 are going with this. The conditions arent difficult to fulfill, its just that the reward is so wildly inconsistent whyd you want to build a deck around it? Seems to me that the deck is just going to be an ordinary beast midrange deck that will likely be destroyed by just about any competitive tier 1-2 deck simply because hearthstone games are either too fast like menagerie priest/DK, or you just get outvalued by starship decks or warlock.
The only way this card sees play is that everything else is nerfed around it so you can actually get away with playing vanilla beast on board in multiple turns and not expect to get destroyed.
Pterrorwing Ravager - You just love to see cards like this being printed solely to make the quest bearable. At least this has rush, but again, its just a simple minion on board that wont do much else other than hit stuff for 7 damage, assuming it even survives the first trade.
Supreme Dinomancy - This card can legit be a built around. Aggro hunter, spam board with stuff like RC Rampage, or alien encounters, then buff them up and win that way. Makes a beast deck more viable, and no, I dont think you need to play quest to win. Also, this makes all of carnassa's raptors a 5/4 that draws a card. Should be respectable as a win con if nothing else.
Niri of the Crater - Probably the most powerful and interesting card you can give to a class that's not rogue or druid. Whether or not this card is viable next expansion, we can be damned sure it will be at some point. Being able to cast spells twice can never truly be ignored.
Cower in Fear - Of course, playing vanilla beasts every turn will usually get you killed. Thats why team5 printed this OP as fuck card that only works with beasts played on curve. Unfortunately, I can see this card being nerfed at some point. Its a removal option that cost zero mana. Only rogues and mage can get away with shit like this, and only because them two classes never play curvestone.
Kinda like hunter's set this expansion. Some good tools for discover hunter, but also enough to see some sort of aggro deck as well. Looking forward to seeing if we can get carnassa hunter up to tier 2.
Cursed Catacombs - Zero mana draw a card, its gonna see play. Even if the card can only be played in the mid-late game, its still worth it.
Escape the Underfel - Its a bit of a weird one, because though the reward is very powerful I dont think the deck is gonna be very good. The conditions requires you to basically play an aggro deck, and because the rift requires a card to sac, you have to have a constant supply of token cards in order to get your reward of two felbeasts that are threatening but def losses their effectiveness as the game goes on.
The whole thing kinda reminds of wallowlock, which despite being fairly good, is always either neverplayed or just not viable to be played. And that one can easily deal 30 damage in one turn around turns 8-10.
Story of Lakkari - Its a decent late game option for aggro, and that's about it. Not that theres many aggro decks around for warlock. Maybe in wallowlock? Because ideally youd want to play this card to keep your momentum up, and not to start a board push.
Razidir - Gonna make everyone hate its existence. Depending on how often we see this card, it might just get nerfed because clearly you'll never play this without the kindred active, and once it is, your opponent losses a card while you put a 4 mana 7/7 on board. How is it that we can see so many mediocre cards across this expansion, and then something like this prop up?
Krog, Crater King - Its rather shit isnt it? If youre gonna play a 9 mana card, it needs to either win you the game or prevent your opponent from doing so. The main problem with this card is that its a pseudo removal, kinda like freezing ragnaros. The worst part is that this card only does the effect at the end of the turn, so you cant even proceed to kill those 1/1s yourself.
The persistent effect might well not be there. There's a zero percent chance this card even lives beyond the turn its played.
Unleash the Colossus - On first impression the card might be shit. The quest conditions are so specific, dealing up to 30 damage with very specific cards. Not all of those damage need go to face of course, but what if your opponent's a control deck that doesnt play minions until turn 5-6? The quest reward may not even come active until very late game where you just get outvalued by the massive amounts of healing and armour in hearthstone nowadays.
Also, suppose you get the colossus early, does it even win you the game? You wouldve spent most of your stingers, and theres only so many 2 damage spells/damage sources which are already spent getting to that reward.
Hive map - Generic but good. Get two spells out of the card. Not quite taste of chaos, but an okay card.
Entomologist Toru - Its not that the card is not interesting, or weak. Its just that its so incredibly slow at 9 mana. There might well be some combo deck that makes this card OP as fuck, but as it stands theres more chance of this being yet another never played card.
And thats it really. Didnt comment on the other cards because nearly all of them are just uninteresting. They just sort of do things, with no possibility of being better than face value. Its like dhunter is trying to be the blandest class next expansion. Say what you want about the crewmates, bad cards as they are, at least theyre interesting.
Restore the Wild - Alright heres the thing. This card wants you to flood the board, and the reward presumes that youre gonna win by board control. And yet, not only does this card take up your first turn, the subsequent cards revealed are so slow as fuck its hard to imagine this quest being completed any earlier than turn 6. In fact, one does wonder: why even bother with the quest? Just play all these board-flood cards and win that way. The reward itself isnt even game winning, and can be vipered, so what the fuck? The reward shouldve been an 8/8 for 5 that permanently buffs the board by +2+2, and with cards like TREEESS! being printed you gotta wonder if that wasnt the initial idea from the start.
Not even mentioning the fact that spell damage druid wins usually around turn 7-8, can only barely be countered/interacted with, and is not quest dependent.
Hybridization - I dont know what optimal use this card would be, but I can tell you already its likely gonna be toxic
Eternal Bloodpetal - Theres potential for this card. Assuming we see more deathrattle synergies, this card may actually see more play. But for now, its sole potential is being something on board that your opponent will try hard to ignore, making it easier to use board buffs.
So druid. Got another expansion where theyre not given anything to abuse, so we can safely say that its gonna be spell damage druid all the way until something receives buffs or the deck gets nerfed, which is the more likelier option.
But commenting on druid's set next expansion, I think its fairly shit to be honest. The quest is too slow and redundant for hearthstone nowadays so I dont expect to see it much in standard competitive, and the other legendary, Loh, is far too slow, but has potential because you can just build a giants deck and have a board of 8/8s when you play this card, and is indeed the card that looks the most interesting to build around.
Bralma Searstone - Its only here because of the seering elementals, without which shes basically just raid leader for a deck that presumably plays similarly to elemental mage. Occasionally, you play this on 4 + an elemental and it sticks, then you punish them by following up into slagclaw for good damage that might take tempo from board, or just hit face for 8+ damage. Part of me feels that this card couldve read +1 damage from all sources and transform a decent card into an incredible one for a class that barely has any playable decks aside from nebula shaman. Would at least make for interesting deck builds, but as it stands you'll only ever see this card in one deck, if at all.
I mean for fuck sake, this card isnt even at least an elemental, the least team5 couldve done that wouldnt break anything whatsoever, but we cant have nice things can we?
Slagclaw - I like this card, partially because its the only interesting card shaman has so far that actually threatens to be anything more than decent. Will it be playable though? My personal feelings is that elemental shaman will be tier 2-3 and be completely ignored by the community past the first month, so probably not as much as Id like.
Sizzling swarm - Too much respect given to the sizzling elementals. Its reminiscent of deathborne but nowhere near as insane as that card. In fact, this card isnt even in the same ball park. If your opponent has board, this card will do absolutely nothing more than a mini fireball to face. Might be subject to a buff to 5, because lets be real, even at 5 its only decent.
So all in all, what is up for shaman? That last two commons and one rare unrevealed has got to be some of the most broken things we've ever seen or its gonna be nebula shaman for another 4 months. You can see what team5 ideally wants: a quest elemental shaman deck that plays on board, puts ashalon on 5-6 and snowballs from there. The problem? Well, you'll get destroyed as you wiggle around playing vanilla curve cards while you watch your opponent either 1) freeze your board for 5 turns straight and then blows your board+face with 20 damage, 2) your opponent draws their entire deck by turn 5 and kills you before you get ashalon even out, 3) your opponent gains 30-60 armour/health and destroys you with a massive starship that you cant clear.
I mean, this elemental shaman doesnt even look like its gonna be better than the current elemental mage.
The Forbidden Sequence - Its probably playable, but its also well, shit. Or at very least it wont win you the game. Either way, its not difficult for mage to play the card off tempo on 1 so you'll probably just play it because mage already play so many discover cards to begin with. The reward is hardly gamebreaking, and even if it turned out to be OP, you can counter it with viper.
Relic of Kings - Unless the 8 mana spell pool is just this insane bit, I dont think this card will get anywhere. Clearly created to be this pay off for the origin stone. Part of me feels that it would have been twice the card if it said minions instead of spell.
Story of the waygate - Cant ever disrespect a card like this, but its one of those cards that requires hands on to tell because part of me says the card will only see play in this exact discover mage deck.
Titanographer Osk - Its probably shit isnt it. Once a while you get the option to mind control, wipe the board, or refresh your mana crystals. But more often than not its stuck in your hand recycling between two equally shit options, or you just get mowed down long before it gets anywhere
Ancient Raptor - Just a casual 5/1 with divine shield on 2. If you happen to be a deck or class that cannot counter this, this card may just do 15 damage to your face before you mount up any sort of defensive maneuver. Small nerf to harbinger of the blighted, something that shouldve been printed in the small expansion.
Rockskipper - Dont know whether this would be viable, but rogues will 100% try and make your life miserable nonetheless.
Crator Gator - If only this reads armour instead of health, it would have been in every deck. Instead, you'll very nearly never see this
Whirling stormdrake - Wonderful art but you will only ever see this as a random roll from imbue paladin or via evolve shenanigans. A real terror in arena. In standard competitive though, its fairly limp. Most decks dont ever get that far that they need a removal option for two big minions on 9, and relying on this to stick past the turn its played is a near impossibility.
Loh, the living legend - Probably trash but we havent seen the quest yet. Too slow, and even if you did get it up youre still just playing one or two minions a turn. The definition of broken is being able to play multiple high value cards in one turn, and this card kinda only slightly tilts it in your favour instead of outright wins. Wouldnt you rather just ramp aggressively instead, and play your win con early?
Ultragigasaurus - Its the ultragiga meme of this expansion. Unless theres a better way to cheat it out only druid will bother with this card, assuming this card is even viable over the many, many other cards thats better.
Curious Explorer - They went on to nerf harbinger of the blighted, when something soft like this would have easily done the same. Because lets be honest, this card is not merely bad its unplayable shit.
Crystal Tender - Might be premature, but I think this card might actually be sneaked into every deck. Punishes opponent for starting first, and heavily punishes most druids. Plus it has tradeable, so its not a brick in hand if the two conditions are not met.
Tar Tyrant - Its the sort of card that you wont see placed into a competitive standard deck and yet if it somehow appears on board your opponent would be cursing throughout the day
Platysaur - Will see play and might be abused further by rogues to draw their whole deck, not that they're facing much trouble doing it already, though I think a 1 mana draw 1 isnt going to help with the toxicity that is cycle rogue.
Steamfin Thief - When you consider that mother duck exist with no conditions, and is objectively better than this card, you kinda think team5 is either hiding something or they just forgot about that this card exist.
Torga - Tutors your kindred cards, thats just about the only thing it can do. Probably see some niche play, assuming theres some kindred card that absolutely wins you the game
Enter the lost City - Looks good in theory but how many hearthstone games even last that long nowadays? Not to mention that by playing this default control deck, you'll leave yourself at the mercy of some of the most tilting win cons ever in hearthstone, assuming the aggro decks dont just mash your head in first.
City chief Esho - Is the kind of card that makes you worry about the direction of the next expansion. Tribal synergy decks tend to have the shortest shelf life in hearthstone because theyre not interesting and is highly predictable. Is the card good though? Well, I think theres a possibility that the card is OP but no one would be playing it past diamond.
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.
Gonna just comment on the quest first.
May be premature to say this, but I think the quest is not good, mostly because the murloc pool is not good enough. You'll never have enough murlocs to make this deck work and stuffing your deck with them makes your mid-end game completely redundant. Just think about menagerie priest with its near endless reload, menagerie DK with strong burn cards, and both decks while being viable is just bait anything above platinum rank. I cant recall a single time Ive actually struggled against the two decks, and Ive no reason to believe that this murloc iteration will be any different.
The fact that Cora has confirmed that the quest was buffed late in dev makes you wonder just how bad the decks really is in playtesting.
The Food Chain - I have no idea where team5 are going with this. The conditions arent difficult to fulfill, its just that the reward is so wildly inconsistent whyd you want to build a deck around it? Seems to me that the deck is just going to be an ordinary beast midrange deck that will likely be destroyed by just about any competitive tier 1-2 deck simply because hearthstone games are either too fast like menagerie priest/DK, or you just get outvalued by starship decks or warlock.
The only way this card sees play is that everything else is nerfed around it so you can actually get away with playing vanilla beast on board in multiple turns and not expect to get destroyed.
Pterrorwing Ravager - You just love to see cards like this being printed solely to make the quest bearable. At least this has rush, but again, its just a simple minion on board that wont do much else other than hit stuff for 7 damage, assuming it even survives the first trade.
Supreme Dinomancy - This card can legit be a built around. Aggro hunter, spam board with stuff like RC Rampage, or alien encounters, then buff them up and win that way. Makes a beast deck more viable, and no, I dont think you need to play quest to win. Also, this makes all of carnassa's raptors a 5/4 that draws a card. Should be respectable as a win con if nothing else.
Niri of the Crater - Probably the most powerful and interesting card you can give to a class that's not rogue or druid. Whether or not this card is viable next expansion, we can be damned sure it will be at some point. Being able to cast spells twice can never truly be ignored.
Cower in Fear - Of course, playing vanilla beasts every turn will usually get you killed. Thats why team5 printed this OP as fuck card that only works with beasts played on curve. Unfortunately, I can see this card being nerfed at some point. Its a removal option that cost zero mana. Only rogues and mage can get away with shit like this, and only because them two classes never play curvestone.
Kinda like hunter's set this expansion. Some good tools for discover hunter, but also enough to see some sort of aggro deck as well. Looking forward to seeing if we can get carnassa hunter up to tier 2.
Cursed Catacombs - Zero mana draw a card, its gonna see play. Even if the card can only be played in the mid-late game, its still worth it.
Escape the Underfel - Its a bit of a weird one, because though the reward is very powerful I dont think the deck is gonna be very good. The conditions requires you to basically play an aggro deck, and because the rift requires a card to sac, you have to have a constant supply of token cards in order to get your reward of two felbeasts that are threatening but def losses their effectiveness as the game goes on.
The whole thing kinda reminds of wallowlock, which despite being fairly good, is always either neverplayed or just not viable to be played. And that one can easily deal 30 damage in one turn around turns 8-10.
Story of Lakkari - Its a decent late game option for aggro, and that's about it. Not that theres many aggro decks around for warlock. Maybe in wallowlock? Because ideally youd want to play this card to keep your momentum up, and not to start a board push.
Razidir - Gonna make everyone hate its existence. Depending on how often we see this card, it might just get nerfed because clearly you'll never play this without the kindred active, and once it is, your opponent losses a card while you put a 4 mana 7/7 on board. How is it that we can see so many mediocre cards across this expansion, and then something like this prop up?
Krog, Crater King - Its rather shit isnt it? If youre gonna play a 9 mana card, it needs to either win you the game or prevent your opponent from doing so. The main problem with this card is that its a pseudo removal, kinda like freezing ragnaros. The worst part is that this card only does the effect at the end of the turn, so you cant even proceed to kill those 1/1s yourself.
The persistent effect might well not be there. There's a zero percent chance this card even lives beyond the turn its played.
Unleash the Colossus - On first impression the card might be shit. The quest conditions are so specific, dealing up to 30 damage with very specific cards. Not all of those damage need go to face of course, but what if your opponent's a control deck that doesnt play minions until turn 5-6? The quest reward may not even come active until very late game where you just get outvalued by the massive amounts of healing and armour in hearthstone nowadays.
Also, suppose you get the colossus early, does it even win you the game? You wouldve spent most of your stingers, and theres only so many 2 damage spells/damage sources which are already spent getting to that reward.
Hive map - Generic but good. Get two spells out of the card. Not quite taste of chaos, but an okay card.
Entomologist Toru - Its not that the card is not interesting, or weak. Its just that its so incredibly slow at 9 mana. There might well be some combo deck that makes this card OP as fuck, but as it stands theres more chance of this being yet another never played card.
And thats it really. Didnt comment on the other cards because nearly all of them are just uninteresting. They just sort of do things, with no possibility of being better than face value. Its like dhunter is trying to be the blandest class next expansion. Say what you want about the crewmates, bad cards as they are, at least theyre interesting.
Restore the Wild - Alright heres the thing. This card wants you to flood the board, and the reward presumes that youre gonna win by board control. And yet, not only does this card take up your first turn, the subsequent cards revealed are so slow as fuck its hard to imagine this quest being completed any earlier than turn 6. In fact, one does wonder: why even bother with the quest? Just play all these board-flood cards and win that way. The reward itself isnt even game winning, and can be vipered, so what the fuck? The reward shouldve been an 8/8 for 5 that permanently buffs the board by +2+2, and with cards like TREEESS! being printed you gotta wonder if that wasnt the initial idea from the start.
Not even mentioning the fact that spell damage druid wins usually around turn 7-8, can only barely be countered/interacted with, and is not quest dependent.
Hybridization - I dont know what optimal use this card would be, but I can tell you already its likely gonna be toxic
Eternal Bloodpetal - Theres potential for this card. Assuming we see more deathrattle synergies, this card may actually see more play. But for now, its sole potential is being something on board that your opponent will try hard to ignore, making it easier to use board buffs.
So druid. Got another expansion where theyre not given anything to abuse, so we can safely say that its gonna be spell damage druid all the way until something receives buffs or the deck gets nerfed, which is the more likelier option.
But commenting on druid's set next expansion, I think its fairly shit to be honest. The quest is too slow and redundant for hearthstone nowadays so I dont expect to see it much in standard competitive, and the other legendary, Loh, is far too slow, but has potential because you can just build a giants deck and have a board of 8/8s when you play this card, and is indeed the card that looks the most interesting to build around.
Bralma Searstone - Its only here because of the seering elementals, without which shes basically just raid leader for a deck that presumably plays similarly to elemental mage. Occasionally, you play this on 4 + an elemental and it sticks, then you punish them by following up into slagclaw for good damage that might take tempo from board, or just hit face for 8+ damage. Part of me feels that this card couldve read +1 damage from all sources and transform a decent card into an incredible one for a class that barely has any playable decks aside from nebula shaman. Would at least make for interesting deck builds, but as it stands you'll only ever see this card in one deck, if at all.
I mean for fuck sake, this card isnt even at least an elemental, the least team5 couldve done that wouldnt break anything whatsoever, but we cant have nice things can we?
Slagclaw - I like this card, partially because its the only interesting card shaman has so far that actually threatens to be anything more than decent. Will it be playable though? My personal feelings is that elemental shaman will be tier 2-3 and be completely ignored by the community past the first month, so probably not as much as Id like.
Sizzling swarm - Too much respect given to the sizzling elementals. Its reminiscent of deathborne but nowhere near as insane as that card. In fact, this card isnt even in the same ball park. If your opponent has board, this card will do absolutely nothing more than a mini fireball to face. Might be subject to a buff to 5, because lets be real, even at 5 its only decent.
So all in all, what is up for shaman? That last two commons and one rare unrevealed has got to be some of the most broken things we've ever seen or its gonna be nebula shaman for another 4 months. You can see what team5 ideally wants: a quest elemental shaman deck that plays on board, puts ashalon on 5-6 and snowballs from there. The problem? Well, you'll get destroyed as you wiggle around playing vanilla curve cards while you watch your opponent either 1) freeze your board for 5 turns straight and then blows your board+face with 20 damage, 2) your opponent draws their entire deck by turn 5 and kills you before you get ashalon even out, 3) your opponent gains 30-60 armour/health and destroys you with a massive starship that you cant clear.
I mean, this elemental shaman doesnt even look like its gonna be better than the current elemental mage.
The Forbidden Sequence - Its probably playable, but its also well, shit. Or at very least it wont win you the game. Either way, its not difficult for mage to play the card off tempo on 1 so you'll probably just play it because mage already play so many discover cards to begin with. The reward is hardly gamebreaking, and even if it turned out to be OP, you can counter it with viper.
Relic of Kings - Unless the 8 mana spell pool is just this insane bit, I dont think this card will get anywhere. Clearly created to be this pay off for the origin stone. Part of me feels that it would have been twice the card if it said minions instead of spell.
Story of the waygate - Cant ever disrespect a card like this, but its one of those cards that requires hands on to tell because part of me says the card will only see play in this exact discover mage deck.
Titanographer Osk - Its probably shit isnt it. Once a while you get the option to mind control, wipe the board, or refresh your mana crystals. But more often than not its stuck in your hand recycling between two equally shit options, or you just get mowed down long before it gets anywhere
Fair, knew that the comma meant something.
Ancient Raptor - Just a casual 5/1 with divine shield on 2. If you happen to be a deck or class that cannot counter this, this card may just do 15 damage to your face before you mount up any sort of defensive maneuver. Small nerf to harbinger of the blighted, something that shouldve been printed in the small expansion.
Rockskipper - Dont know whether this would be viable, but rogues will 100% try and make your life miserable nonetheless.
Crator Gator - If only this reads armour instead of health, it would have been in every deck. Instead, you'll very nearly never see this
Whirling stormdrake - Wonderful art but you will only ever see this as a random roll from imbue paladin or via evolve shenanigans. A real terror in arena. In standard competitive though, its fairly limp. Most decks dont ever get that far that they need a removal option for two big minions on 9, and relying on this to stick past the turn its played is a near impossibility.
Yeah, you might be right. You dont get any advantage starting first or second, so theres no actual use for this card in general.
But on the other hand its just a way to take druid off the menu in case they ever get too rampant. That alone does make the card useful.
Loh, the living legend - Probably trash but we havent seen the quest yet. Too slow, and even if you did get it up youre still just playing one or two minions a turn. The definition of broken is being able to play multiple high value cards in one turn, and this card kinda only slightly tilts it in your favour instead of outright wins. Wouldnt you rather just ramp aggressively instead, and play your win con early?
Ultragigasaurus - Its the ultragiga meme of this expansion. Unless theres a better way to cheat it out only druid will bother with this card, assuming this card is even viable over the many, many other cards thats better.
Curious Explorer - They went on to nerf harbinger of the blighted, when something soft like this would have easily done the same. Because lets be honest, this card is not merely bad its unplayable shit.
Crystal Tender - Might be premature, but I think this card might actually be sneaked into every deck. Punishes opponent for starting first, and heavily punishes most druids. Plus it has tradeable, so its not a brick in hand if the two conditions are not met.
Tar Tyrant - Its the sort of card that you wont see placed into a competitive standard deck and yet if it somehow appears on board your opponent would be cursing throughout the day
Platysaur - Will see play and might be abused further by rogues to draw their whole deck, not that they're facing much trouble doing it already, though I think a 1 mana draw 1 isnt going to help with the toxicity that is cycle rogue.
Steamfin Thief - When you consider that mother duck exist with no conditions, and is objectively better than this card, you kinda think team5 is either hiding something or they just forgot about that this card exist.
Torga - Tutors your kindred cards, thats just about the only thing it can do. Probably see some niche play, assuming theres some kindred card that absolutely wins you the game
Enter the lost City - Looks good in theory but how many hearthstone games even last that long nowadays? Not to mention that by playing this default control deck, you'll leave yourself at the mercy of some of the most tilting win cons ever in hearthstone, assuming the aggro decks dont just mash your head in first.
City chief Esho - Is the kind of card that makes you worry about the direction of the next expansion. Tribal synergy decks tend to have the shortest shelf life in hearthstone because theyre not interesting and is highly predictable. Is the card good though? Well, I think theres a possibility that the card is OP but no one would be playing it past diamond.
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.