Unsurprising that his contract is not renewed, because microsoft is the kind of scum that would get rid of community managers that earn the trust and likability of its customer base.
Hope to see him back at vshearthstone at some point, likely next year.
Rogue looks screwed. The quest in game looks and feels like shit. Quest is slow as fuck, forces you to play poor cards, and the quest reward cant match the value of other decks, not to mention that even getting there is already a mountain in of itself. Im almost certain its gonna be buffed because shuffling 5 things into the deck and not dying is apparently really really hard
Dhunter might be interesting. I scoffed at the quest requirement in the reveals but I really didnt see a lurker build coming at all. Theres a chance it could actually work, but Im not holding my breath because of the bs pally would be doing
Resuscitate looks incredible, especially with deathrattle minions. The priest quest looks fine as well, but it could easily be just a case of facing unrefined builds
Beast hunter has incredible potential. The quest, not so much. Story of Carnassa might overshadow the quest by a country mile
Druid quest is always an AoE away from disaster
...And finally, the meta dominator in my opinion, which is not even remotely close, is murloc pally. Seriously, even accounting for day 1 unrefined builds etc. murloc pally not only looks incredible, its potentially unstoppable. And thats largely because the quest reward is persistent and stacks, which I originally thought was only a 1 time effect every 5 murlocs you summon on board. I watched a pally get its board wiped and then one tyrannogill later its three 6/4s on board with random bonus effects. Grunty summoning four 6/7s, steamfin thief summoning two 5/5s with rush, etc.
Its a massive slap to the face to both druid and shaman, who hoped to do the same, but is bogged down by insane quest requirements and the need to actually spend mana to play the reward. Pally quest's requirement is paltry and the reward is instantaneous with zero mana requirement. How is that even remotely fair? Its just quest rogue all over again. The only way you beat this deck is hyper aggro or burn, because you'll never win the late game against this. If this deck doesnt get a week 1 nerf Id be very surprised.
I just find it funny that the first cool thing added to the game and theyre charging an extortionate 158 bucks for it .
Because lets be real, no matter how incredible pets will be in hearthstone, no ones gonna pay that amount for it. Especially for any serious players out there, past turn 3 you'll most likely just forget it existed, because youre playing a game where concentration is in fairly short supply. Whats more incredible is that if it were simply on sale for 30-60-80 usd, most people would just call blizz a greedy mf and move on. This one however, takes incredible amounts of piss by making you gamble for an item that's a mere 0.1% chance (not even 1%, I mean seriously) to pull, and even up to 9 pulls its still only a 6.67% chance out of two items left, with the last pull costing 5k runestones (50 usd).
Wouldnt even bother with it, and Im sure even whales would be maxing their mom's credit card through gnashed teeth. Fairly certain at some point blizz would prob sell this at 60 bucks in the store, maybe 1 year in when we have 5 different pets around to choose from.
Thats fair if you dont like the term. Top legend is often a skewed list of maybe 2-3 decks playing against each other. Hence why if you use the hsguru site for decklists, you often see weird tech inclusions into otherwise standard competitive decks. Its not my intention to make my opinions sound elitist or anything like that. Specifically on that point about imbue pally, Im well aware that it has a high win rate, I was only trying to say that the higher the skill level goes, the worse imbue pally tends to get.
My views is mostly from the standpoint of those who wants to win consistently and will therefore more often than not be playing against the bottom-mid tier of legend. If viability or losing doesnt impact your fun, then by all means you can just play anything, and thus my comment wouldnt and shouldnt be relevant.
Opu the Unseen - You cant ignore a board swing card that draws you 3 cards. One way or another this card will see some play as long as rogue remains a viable class on the tiers 1-2.
Lie in Wait - I really like the design, but really, this card will likely be competitively viable only for the ability to draw two asteroids/eruptions for 1 mana, and that's being generous. As with most of the other quests, its too slow against aggro, and the reward can easily be outvalued by starships etc. and that's if you dont get destroyed by turn 7-8 by spell damage druid or cycle rogue. In a weird sort of way, this is basically imbue pally but without the insane late game potential, and even that deck is shit tier at the top of legend.
It is a good design though. You can bet it will be played, not least because of its innate synergy with agency espionage, the card most fun decks try their hardest to make viable.
Neferset Weaponsmith - Its so unfortunate that this card is 4 mana because it makes the card practically unplayable in competitive standard. Had this been 2-3 mana instead, it would have at the very least make for a fun weapon rogue deck, but instead its too slow for a burn plan, and too weak for value.
Can see some sort of thief deck that plays the quest, or just plain old cycle rogue with added ninjas because what else is there in this expansion for rogue players. They either play thief decks at the bottom of legend, or they play miracle/cycle rogue at the top of legend.
Shellnado - Its not as good as so many of the other AoEs relying on armour that have been printed in the past, but it has certain niches. For one thing, this card deals 1 damage multiple times which means it'll kill off reborn, divine shield, and deathrattle minions fairly well. And secondly, warrior doesnt really have any good AoE cards. Their best one is probably hostile invader on turn 6.
Fortify - Its bash+, or just plain worse shield slam. If youre gonna build a control warrior deck that goes all out into removal, this card will be in it. Otherwise, cant see why anyone would bother
Windpeak Wyrm - Wouldve been OP if brann was still in standard. As it is, its kinda okay-ish. Youd play this in the ysondre dragon deck but not much else. Solid card that will turn heads in arena but in standard competitive its just meh.
Archaios - Not quite Amet, in fact not that great at all. The fact that it requires the minion to attack in order to gain the buff, and that the buff isnt even that good, what is this card even supposed to do? It seemed to be the sort of card that will only be good if it stays on board but there's zero chance of that happening anyway.
Wilted Shadow - Its an OTK card. Outside of a dedicated deck that allows for this to repeatedly strike face its just not that good. The healing offsets some of the damage done as it is. Its nowhere near the same as illidari inquisitor, which has only seen play a few times in its history in standard competitive. The only good news for this card is that I can already see a combo deck involving this in it, but not sure if it'll be viable in a meta where health can easily ramp to 50-60.
Story of Amara - Its a meme card that will never see inclusion into a deck, but remains a devastating card out of discovers or random rolls.
Reach Equilibrium - Its a good quest with a good payoff. Not the level of toxicity you commonly see from priest decks, probably not even as good as the standard hog dhunter deck, but at least you can play this in a control deck and have more stuff to do other than just kill your opponent through sheer boredom.
The only problem I can see with this card is that...well, its kinda worst than just about every starship deck Ive seen in standard so far. So why play this when you can just play a starship deck that offers better payoff?
Resuscitate - Not sure what we can do with this yet, but whenever you see stuff like this you kinda imagine someone building some insane tier 1-2 deck that features this card.
So at least priest isnt screwed this time. I can see some deck with wilted shadow and manegerie maybe working around resuscitate and the quest. Not quite the toxic levels that are normally associated with priest, but there's something here to work with, which is more than I can say for other classes like shaman.
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.
Game was dead before it began. Im surprised it took this long
At least mercs held my interest for that brief period while it was alive. Never even bothered with this one.
Unsurprising that his contract is not renewed, because microsoft is the kind of scum that would get rid of community managers that earn the trust and likability of its customer base.
Hope to see him back at vshearthstone at some point, likely next year.
First impressions:
...And finally, the meta dominator in my opinion, which is not even remotely close, is murloc pally. Seriously, even accounting for day 1 unrefined builds etc. murloc pally not only looks incredible, its potentially unstoppable. And thats largely because the quest reward is persistent and stacks, which I originally thought was only a 1 time effect every 5 murlocs you summon on board. I watched a pally get its board wiped and then one tyrannogill later its three 6/4s on board with random bonus effects. Grunty summoning four 6/7s, steamfin thief summoning two 5/5s with rush, etc.
Its a massive slap to the face to both druid and shaman, who hoped to do the same, but is bogged down by insane quest requirements and the need to actually spend mana to play the reward. Pally quest's requirement is paltry and the reward is instantaneous with zero mana requirement. How is that even remotely fair? Its just quest rogue all over again. The only way you beat this deck is hyper aggro or burn, because you'll never win the late game against this. If this deck doesnt get a week 1 nerf Id be very surprised.
I just find it funny that the first cool thing added to the game and theyre charging an extortionate 158 bucks for it .
Because lets be real, no matter how incredible pets will be in hearthstone, no ones gonna pay that amount for it. Especially for any serious players out there, past turn 3 you'll most likely just forget it existed, because youre playing a game where concentration is in fairly short supply. Whats more incredible is that if it were simply on sale for 30-60-80 usd, most people would just call blizz a greedy mf and move on. This one however, takes incredible amounts of piss by making you gamble for an item that's a mere 0.1% chance (not even 1%, I mean seriously) to pull, and even up to 9 pulls its still only a 6.67% chance out of two items left, with the last pull costing 5k runestones (50 usd).
Wouldnt even bother with it, and Im sure even whales would be maxing their mom's credit card through gnashed teeth. Fairly certain at some point blizz would prob sell this at 60 bucks in the store, maybe 1 year in when we have 5 different pets around to choose from.
Thats fair if you dont like the term. Top legend is often a skewed list of maybe 2-3 decks playing against each other. Hence why if you use the hsguru site for decklists, you often see weird tech inclusions into otherwise standard competitive decks. Its not my intention to make my opinions sound elitist or anything like that. Specifically on that point about imbue pally, Im well aware that it has a high win rate, I was only trying to say that the higher the skill level goes, the worse imbue pally tends to get.
My views is mostly from the standpoint of those who wants to win consistently and will therefore more often than not be playing against the bottom-mid tier of legend. If viability or losing doesnt impact your fun, then by all means you can just play anything, and thus my comment wouldnt and shouldnt be relevant.
Opu the Unseen - You cant ignore a board swing card that draws you 3 cards. One way or another this card will see some play as long as rogue remains a viable class on the tiers 1-2.
Lie in Wait - I really like the design, but really, this card will likely be competitively viable only for the ability to draw two asteroids/eruptions for 1 mana, and that's being generous. As with most of the other quests, its too slow against aggro, and the reward can easily be outvalued by starships etc. and that's if you dont get destroyed by turn 7-8 by spell damage druid or cycle rogue. In a weird sort of way, this is basically imbue pally but without the insane late game potential, and even that deck is shit tier at the top of legend.
It is a good design though. You can bet it will be played, not least because of its innate synergy with agency espionage, the card most fun decks try their hardest to make viable.
Neferset Weaponsmith - Its so unfortunate that this card is 4 mana because it makes the card practically unplayable in competitive standard. Had this been 2-3 mana instead, it would have at the very least make for a fun weapon rogue deck, but instead its too slow for a burn plan, and too weak for value.
Can see some sort of thief deck that plays the quest, or just plain old cycle rogue with added ninjas because what else is there in this expansion for rogue players. They either play thief decks at the bottom of legend, or they play miracle/cycle rogue at the top of legend.
Shellnado - Its not as good as so many of the other AoEs relying on armour that have been printed in the past, but it has certain niches. For one thing, this card deals 1 damage multiple times which means it'll kill off reborn, divine shield, and deathrattle minions fairly well. And secondly, warrior doesnt really have any good AoE cards. Their best one is probably hostile invader on turn 6.
Fortify - Its bash+, or just plain worse shield slam. If youre gonna build a control warrior deck that goes all out into removal, this card will be in it. Otherwise, cant see why anyone would bother
Windpeak Wyrm - Wouldve been OP if brann was still in standard. As it is, its kinda okay-ish. Youd play this in the ysondre dragon deck but not much else. Solid card that will turn heads in arena but in standard competitive its just meh.
Archaios - Not quite Amet, in fact not that great at all. The fact that it requires the minion to attack in order to gain the buff, and that the buff isnt even that good, what is this card even supposed to do? It seemed to be the sort of card that will only be good if it stays on board but there's zero chance of that happening anyway.
Wilted Shadow - Its an OTK card. Outside of a dedicated deck that allows for this to repeatedly strike face its just not that good. The healing offsets some of the damage done as it is. Its nowhere near the same as illidari inquisitor, which has only seen play a few times in its history in standard competitive. The only good news for this card is that I can already see a combo deck involving this in it, but not sure if it'll be viable in a meta where health can easily ramp to 50-60.
Story of Amara - Its a meme card that will never see inclusion into a deck, but remains a devastating card out of discovers or random rolls.
Reach Equilibrium - Its a good quest with a good payoff. Not the level of toxicity you commonly see from priest decks, probably not even as good as the standard hog dhunter deck, but at least you can play this in a control deck and have more stuff to do other than just kill your opponent through sheer boredom.
The only problem I can see with this card is that...well, its kinda worst than just about every starship deck Ive seen in standard so far. So why play this when you can just play a starship deck that offers better payoff?
Resuscitate - Not sure what we can do with this yet, but whenever you see stuff like this you kinda imagine someone building some insane tier 1-2 deck that features this card.
So at least priest isnt screwed this time. I can see some deck with wilted shadow and manegerie maybe working around resuscitate and the quest. Not quite the toxic levels that are normally associated with priest, but there's something here to work with, which is more than I can say for other classes like shaman.
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.