- It generates 4 corpses for 3 mana, which is useful and sometimes crucial. The 4 tokens itself counts as removal, something unholy doesnt necessary always have.
- It has an innate combo with undead synergy, but more importantly you can use this card with Sickly Grimewalker and remove 4 minions for 6 mana. Plague DK often needs removal, and this card might be one part of that.
Just a good card for 3 mana. Simple, flexible, and more importantly not a multi rune card.
It'll see play, but its effect make it necessary for you to excavate up till tier 2 and then pray you can drop this down for a 0 mana card at tier 3.
Its not always easy or consistent, but Id imagine excavate being good so this card gets good marks if only because it does exactly what you want it to do. The 0 mana discount helps a ton too, to offset the poor stats for cost.
Rather astounding that its a single rune card considering that it'll never see play in a UUU deck. Even at best it'll appear in rainbow DK simply to spend those corpses so you can have your finale that ultimately 9/10 times would never kill the opponent outright.
But even considering that function, is it actually better than corpse bride on that regard? Taking a swing at a random 8 cost minion against a consistent 8/8, that's a question to ask. Id still prefer corpse bride if only because I get another 4/4 to go with it.
The first major issue is that its a multi rune card and so by default can only fit into 1-2 decks at best. Baffling, when you consider that what it does essentially is neither game breaking nor exclusive to specific rune archetypes.
The second major issue is its stats. 8 health is pretty difficult to take down on 4, but with that 1 attack it more or less ensures that it'll always be value traded so if your opponent has a board you cannot by default play this card unless 6 corpses for 4 mana is what you wanted.
And finally, the biggest issue of them all. If somehow kept alive, this card gives you 5 health. In what world is 4 mana for 5 extra health worth considering, especially since it has to actually stay alive to do it.
If there is a silver lining to this card, its this. That it may have been designed specifically to die on 4, so you can play Corpse Bride on 5 for a minimum 6/6, or to allow you to better use Fistful of Corpses. Ironically that's the best use of the card. Play it and pray it gets removed so you get to play other, stronger cards. Is this really worth a legendary slot? My opinion is, no.
Alright heres the thing. I rate this card 4 stars, but then that nasty little frost rune gone and ruin everything and my final rating would be a 3. And that's being generous.
There's really nothing wrong with the card. Its balanced enough, that I feel it'll get to around 5 mana consistently in most matches. And its base high attack of 6 ensures that it'll usually take two enemy minions out.
In my opinion, a card like this should not even have a rune restriction. It properly fits into every archetype, each with their own way of cheapening it. At present, I can only see one deck playing it and that's rainbow DK, an archetype that has repeatedly failed with team5 stubbornly doubling down on the rune system.
Such a shame. It'll suffer the same fate as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a good card thats capped at the knee through no fault of its own.
Will it work this time? BUU plague DK might make something, but thus far from what Im seeing its not looking good. They need an AoE option. Pray that they do get something of that sort.
Was there even a control priest back then that played benedictus at all? All priest post KotFT was pretty much raza priest, the only time Ive ever seen it in competitive is literally as a meme.
Maybe Im misremembering but there wasnt even a pure attrition control deck during that era, all the way until witchwood after all the DKs rotated. Only one that I remember, and that deck was crap as well, was controlock, before the kobolds set started.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
One of the problems with Overheal as an archetype (and strategy in general) is a serious lack of payoff cards.
I dont think its lacking payoffs. Heartbreaker Hedanis and Heartthrob are actually pretty good, the latter especially. The main problem is that there isnt really a load of cheap heals to trigger them consistently and quickly enough.
And thats exactly what I think this card suffers from.
Its a card you'll hate and hate alot to see when facing priest.
Bad enough that control priest is a pain in the arse to deal with, now youre giving them flexible healing options that heal for a ton, for very little mana.
One point of commentary. I dont think this card actually triggers overheal because the description clearly writes 'damaged character' which implies that it only fully heals something, not overheal it. The excess however is a different story. But it does quite demand that you heal something first, and if theres nothing to heal this card does nothing.
Then I think to myself, how many times have anyone actually seen Heartbreaker Hedanis in the past 6 months. The answer being very, very few. I personally never seen this played against me, though I have played it myself.
The problem is that its actually pretty difficult to overheal past 4, which is what this card starts out with. Not to mention that its unlikely to ever do more than two AoEs at a time. And lastly, for each healing option you play on this card you're actually not healing your face, which can be big.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
On one hand it'll more consistently give you what you need off your opponent and they will always need to be on their toes as to what they give you.
On the other hand, its cost more than Identity Theft and its more likely to overdraw you while giving you something like two cards. Good players will know how to play around this card to avoid giving you their very best cards.
Its so matchup dependent that I cant really say its gonna see much play because Id rather just play Identity Theft 9/10 times.
Its not good, in fact for 4 mana its actually gonna do less than most priest removal options. If you think about it, why indeed would you play this over The Light! It Burns!, or just Holy Smite, which are cheaper and more efficient.
You can remove two minions for the price of one card, for 5 mana. You know what else you can do? Just play an actual AoE card that priest has, like Clean the Scene.
The only true niche it has is the fact that its a shadow card, so you can play this into shadow priest, no problem. That's really it. Its gonna see play only out of discovers because I cant see anyone legitimately put this card in their deck.
To me, this card is trash. But Ive stated before that you can never disrespect lifesteal, so Im forced to concede that it might actually see play.
So you create a bunch of tokens on board, and your opponent scratches their head thinking what are you gonna do with these tokens. And there isnt really an answer, because priest has no wide board buffs so they can indeed just ignore the bugs and go directly to your face. The fact that this card costs 5 mana is added insult to injury, because it neither reliefs tempo nor does it add much to it.
But again, the fact that it has lifesteal means unless there's an AoE you're gonna heal for 7 one way or another. So as usual its highly unlikely that your opponent can afford to disrespect the board. That said, this card is unlikely to win you games and will be a good card straight out of discovers rather than inclusion.
Whether intentional or not, this card is an instant pick for aggro decks like shadow priest, who already plays plenty of 1 drops.
It does have synergy with pip the potent, but its usage will be largely in tempo oriented decks. Unless there's something that takes full advantage of 0 mana cards, like copy effects etc., this card is unlikely to see play outside of tempo decks.
I can see this being a problem at some point. You can never disrespect anything that can get to 0 mana.
Unless Im very much mistaken, the quickdraw effect allows you to steal your opponent's spells from their deck.
Either way, Im not that optimistic about this card's chances because the better card already exist in the form of Identity Theft, which although does not steal cards, allows you to pick two cards of your opponent's hand/deck. In the grand scheme of things, its unlikely that one spell stolen from your opponent will win you the game anyway.
Might see play in control priest but I still feel its gonna miss out. Its best chance is actually highlander, because there's 30 cards that need filling and this one is a card option thats not too bad in of itself.
Unless youre very specifically going against an OTK deck or a big deck this card is completely worthless.
I dont think it'll ever see actual inclusion into decks but really out of discovers is the only chance it has. There's just no reason whatsoever to play this card over the many other cards available. It neither wins games nor get you out of unwinnable games.
I dont know how to assess this card because its certainly a powerful reloader and I always feel cards that copy specific cards in your hand must be respected because it'll always end up becoming some sort of OTK at some point. The fact that Funnel Cake is in priest as well means there's always a chance.
But at present moment, Im not seeing where this card fit. Its certainly never gonna be seen in control because it does nothing in that deck other than giving you a few more single kill removal options. Its not likely a fit for undead priest. Overheal priest is the most likely but that deck isnt really much worth shouting about.
Still, as mentioned you can never write off a card like this.
I kinda forgot about Prison of Yogg-Saron because that card hasnt been seen again ever since Yogg-Saron, Unleashed was introduced. Ironically its because prison of yogg is superceded in its usage by yogg himself.
Now, with the nerfs, Im even less optimistic about new yogg's chances because Id just play prison of yogg instead. 9 mana mind-control or board clear is terrible in 2023. Unless there's a way to cheat him out I dont think hes ever gonna see any more play outside of meme potential.
I dont play much wild admitably. But I feel you can easily tech Skulking Geist and/or Archivist Elysiana for that, aside from just killing them faster which is entirely possible in wild. But more to the point, its never a good thing to play a card that will have only one good matchup. You cant even just play it for tempo because it ruins your deck (and is poorly stated for cost), unless that's entirely the plan.
Also, there's no reason why a card like that is 7 mana. Team5 pre-emptively set his mana cost high so the chances of mischief is a lot less likely. Its unlikely to do anything now other than being filler.
Guess the funding for team5 must have been severely stretched, because these harken us back to the brode days when nerfs more or less remove cards from the game.
Because the nerf to jailer, yogg and tony is about as unimaginative as it can get. Jailer now gains immune as opposed to giving it out, not even a stat buff. Tony is practically warsong-ed, being now completely worthless. And yogg got neutered to such an extent as to render it unusable to all but meme. Is it really that much to ask for yogg to either have a limit to the mana reduction, or just replacing the Mass Hysteria ability.
Oh well, I guess that's an easy 3200 dust, more if there are still some that havent dusted tony from before.
Other nerfs are fine. Embrace of Nature definitely needs nerfing because it'll be relevant throughout its lifespan, its still relevant even post nerf to me. Rake and Prison Breaker have been responsible for patching over weaknesses of both druid and rogue so it had to be done as well. I still think rake will see play, but probably prison breaker would be confined to rogue.
There's two things of note with this card.
- It generates 4 corpses for 3 mana, which is useful and sometimes crucial. The 4 tokens itself counts as removal, something unholy doesnt necessary always have.
- It has an innate combo with undead synergy, but more importantly you can use this card with Sickly Grimewalker and remove 4 minions for 6 mana. Plague DK often needs removal, and this card might be one part of that.
Just a good card for 3 mana. Simple, flexible, and more importantly not a multi rune card.
It'll see play, but its effect make it necessary for you to excavate up till tier 2 and then pray you can drop this down for a 0 mana card at tier 3.
Its not always easy or consistent, but Id imagine excavate being good so this card gets good marks if only because it does exactly what you want it to do. The 0 mana discount helps a ton too, to offset the poor stats for cost.
Its a card specifically designed to amp up Climactic Necrotic Explosion.
Rather astounding that its a single rune card considering that it'll never see play in a UUU deck. Even at best it'll appear in rainbow DK simply to spend those corpses so you can have your finale that ultimately 9/10 times would never kill the opponent outright.
But even considering that function, is it actually better than corpse bride on that regard? Taking a swing at a random 8 cost minion against a consistent 8/8, that's a question to ask. Id still prefer corpse bride if only because I get another 4/4 to go with it.
Could have been better, but to me its shit.
The first major issue is that its a multi rune card and so by default can only fit into 1-2 decks at best. Baffling, when you consider that what it does essentially is neither game breaking nor exclusive to specific rune archetypes.
The second major issue is its stats. 8 health is pretty difficult to take down on 4, but with that 1 attack it more or less ensures that it'll always be value traded so if your opponent has a board you cannot by default play this card unless 6 corpses for 4 mana is what you wanted.
And finally, the biggest issue of them all. If somehow kept alive, this card gives you 5 health. In what world is 4 mana for 5 extra health worth considering, especially since it has to actually stay alive to do it.
If there is a silver lining to this card, its this. That it may have been designed specifically to die on 4, so you can play Corpse Bride on 5 for a minimum 6/6, or to allow you to better use Fistful of Corpses. Ironically that's the best use of the card. Play it and pray it gets removed so you get to play other, stronger cards. Is this really worth a legendary slot? My opinion is, no.
Alright heres the thing. I rate this card 4 stars, but then that nasty little frost rune gone and ruin everything and my final rating would be a 3. And that's being generous.
There's really nothing wrong with the card. Its balanced enough, that I feel it'll get to around 5 mana consistently in most matches. And its base high attack of 6 ensures that it'll usually take two enemy minions out.
In my opinion, a card like this should not even have a rune restriction. It properly fits into every archetype, each with their own way of cheapening it. At present, I can only see one deck playing it and that's rainbow DK, an archetype that has repeatedly failed with team5 stubbornly doubling down on the rune system.
Such a shame. It'll suffer the same fate as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a good card thats capped at the knee through no fault of its own.
Oh dear, DK is going multi rune again.
Will it work this time? BUU plague DK might make something, but thus far from what Im seeing its not looking good. They need an AoE option. Pray that they do get something of that sort.
Was there even a control priest back then that played benedictus at all? All priest post KotFT was pretty much raza priest, the only time Ive ever seen it in competitive is literally as a meme.
Maybe Im misremembering but there wasnt even a pure attrition control deck during that era, all the way until witchwood after all the DKs rotated. Only one that I remember, and that deck was crap as well, was controlock, before the kobolds set started.
I dont think its lacking payoffs. Heartbreaker Hedanis and Heartthrob are actually pretty good, the latter especially. The main problem is that there isnt really a load of cheap heals to trigger them consistently and quickly enough.
And thats exactly what I think this card suffers from.
Its a card you'll hate and hate alot to see when facing priest.
Bad enough that control priest is a pain in the arse to deal with, now youre giving them flexible healing options that heal for a ton, for very little mana.
One point of commentary. I dont think this card actually triggers overheal because the description clearly writes 'damaged character' which implies that it only fully heals something, not overheal it. The excess however is a different story. But it does quite demand that you heal something first, and if theres nothing to heal this card does nothing.
At first I thought this card is overpowered.
Then I think to myself, how many times have anyone actually seen Heartbreaker Hedanis in the past 6 months. The answer being very, very few. I personally never seen this played against me, though I have played it myself.
The problem is that its actually pretty difficult to overheal past 4, which is what this card starts out with. Not to mention that its unlikely to ever do more than two AoEs at a time. And lastly, for each healing option you play on this card you're actually not healing your face, which can be big.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
I really dont know how to judge this card.
On one hand it'll more consistently give you what you need off your opponent and they will always need to be on their toes as to what they give you.
On the other hand, its cost more than Identity Theft and its more likely to overdraw you while giving you something like two cards. Good players will know how to play around this card to avoid giving you their very best cards.
Its so matchup dependent that I cant really say its gonna see much play because Id rather just play Identity Theft 9/10 times.
Its not good, in fact for 4 mana its actually gonna do less than most priest removal options. If you think about it, why indeed would you play this over The Light! It Burns!, or just Holy Smite, which are cheaper and more efficient.
You can remove two minions for the price of one card, for 5 mana. You know what else you can do? Just play an actual AoE card that priest has, like Clean the Scene.
The only true niche it has is the fact that its a shadow card, so you can play this into shadow priest, no problem. That's really it. Its gonna see play only out of discovers because I cant see anyone legitimately put this card in their deck.
To me, this card is trash. But Ive stated before that you can never disrespect lifesteal, so Im forced to concede that it might actually see play.
So you create a bunch of tokens on board, and your opponent scratches their head thinking what are you gonna do with these tokens. And there isnt really an answer, because priest has no wide board buffs so they can indeed just ignore the bugs and go directly to your face. The fact that this card costs 5 mana is added insult to injury, because it neither reliefs tempo nor does it add much to it.
But again, the fact that it has lifesteal means unless there's an AoE you're gonna heal for 7 one way or another. So as usual its highly unlikely that your opponent can afford to disrespect the board. That said, this card is unlikely to win you games and will be a good card straight out of discovers rather than inclusion.
Whether intentional or not, this card is an instant pick for aggro decks like shadow priest, who already plays plenty of 1 drops.
It does have synergy with pip the potent, but its usage will be largely in tempo oriented decks. Unless there's something that takes full advantage of 0 mana cards, like copy effects etc., this card is unlikely to see play outside of tempo decks.
I can see this being a problem at some point. You can never disrespect anything that can get to 0 mana.
Unless Im very much mistaken, the quickdraw effect allows you to steal your opponent's spells from their deck.
Either way, Im not that optimistic about this card's chances because the better card already exist in the form of Identity Theft, which although does not steal cards, allows you to pick two cards of your opponent's hand/deck. In the grand scheme of things, its unlikely that one spell stolen from your opponent will win you the game anyway.
Might see play in control priest but I still feel its gonna miss out. Its best chance is actually highlander, because there's 30 cards that need filling and this one is a card option thats not too bad in of itself.
Unless youre very specifically going against an OTK deck or a big deck this card is completely worthless.
I dont think it'll ever see actual inclusion into decks but really out of discovers is the only chance it has. There's just no reason whatsoever to play this card over the many other cards available. It neither wins games nor get you out of unwinnable games.
I dont know how to assess this card because its certainly a powerful reloader and I always feel cards that copy specific cards in your hand must be respected because it'll always end up becoming some sort of OTK at some point. The fact that Funnel Cake is in priest as well means there's always a chance.
But at present moment, Im not seeing where this card fit. Its certainly never gonna be seen in control because it does nothing in that deck other than giving you a few more single kill removal options. Its not likely a fit for undead priest. Overheal priest is the most likely but that deck isnt really much worth shouting about.
Still, as mentioned you can never write off a card like this.
I kinda forgot about Prison of Yogg-Saron because that card hasnt been seen again ever since Yogg-Saron, Unleashed was introduced. Ironically its because prison of yogg is superceded in its usage by yogg himself.
Now, with the nerfs, Im even less optimistic about new yogg's chances because Id just play prison of yogg instead. 9 mana mind-control or board clear is terrible in 2023. Unless there's a way to cheat him out I dont think hes ever gonna see any more play outside of meme potential.
I dont play much wild admitably. But I feel you can easily tech Skulking Geist and/or Archivist Elysiana for that, aside from just killing them faster which is entirely possible in wild. But more to the point, its never a good thing to play a card that will have only one good matchup. You cant even just play it for tempo because it ruins your deck (and is poorly stated for cost), unless that's entirely the plan.
Also, there's no reason why a card like that is 7 mana. Team5 pre-emptively set his mana cost high so the chances of mischief is a lot less likely. Its unlikely to do anything now other than being filler.
Guess the funding for team5 must have been severely stretched, because these harken us back to the brode days when nerfs more or less remove cards from the game.
Because the nerf to jailer, yogg and tony is about as unimaginative as it can get. Jailer now gains immune as opposed to giving it out, not even a stat buff. Tony is practically warsong-ed, being now completely worthless. And yogg got neutered to such an extent as to render it unusable to all but meme. Is it really that much to ask for yogg to either have a limit to the mana reduction, or just replacing the Mass Hysteria ability.
Oh well, I guess that's an easy 3200 dust, more if there are still some that havent dusted tony from before.
Other nerfs are fine. Embrace of Nature definitely needs nerfing because it'll be relevant throughout its lifespan, its still relevant even post nerf to me. Rake and Prison Breaker have been responsible for patching over weaknesses of both druid and rogue so it had to be done as well. I still think rake will see play, but probably prison breaker would be confined to rogue.