Its only viable in a deck that wants more of a tribe, usually in a deck that features a grand reward for doing so. As such, the only real deck you'll ever see this card exist in is in quest pirate warrior.
In nearly all other decks, the chances of you getting something good is so small it'll never be worth it. In many ways it reminds me of Dragon Breeder, and that card is a ton more consistent than this card will ever be, yet still saw no play.
The only other niche is discovering from tribes that has small pools like quilboar. You're very likely to get Death Speaker Blackthorn, for example, or Death's Head Cultist, something that can easily save your life. But I doubt its good enough to see inclusion in standard, outside of pirate warrior.
Unfortunately, throughout its lifetime that's really all it did - being used by aggro. The only other deck that isn't aggro which included this card was shudderwock shaman.
Because if you need defensive healing you're probably better off just playing Death's Head Cultist.
Probably going to see play if nothing else because it has the potential to be 0 mana. Fact is that even two of these is enough to do 10 damage out of nowhere, and for paladin this is fairly significant, because traditionally paladin has lots of trouble ending games.
Just jam a deathrattle or stealth minion and there you go. With cards like Battleground Battlemaster, you can legit setup lethal with nothing more than a Worgen Infiltrator that stuck for a turn.
But we'll have to see what other holy spells paladin gets. They are after all losing most of their best holy spells post rotation, so the prospect of the first copy of this card being 0 mana is kinda slim if Im honest.
A nice little addition for quest pirate warrior, being a card that generates more pirates is no bad thing. But it does suffer from the fact that you need first a pirate to stick on board.
Most useful to discover from tribes that have small pools like quilboar, and perhaps naga. In most others, the selections are just so vast in terms of quality it'll hardly ever be worth including this card into your deck.
But if Im honest, probably seen nowhere else other than quest pirate warrior. Just too fair for consideration in standard.
I guess we should be fortunate that Lady Liadrin is rotating, otherwise this card is absolutely nuts.
However, this card has plenty of proving to do, because Im not yet convinced paladin can come close to spending 10 mana on holy spells in a game. Not only are some of the best holy spells rotating (librams, Blessing of Authority, Hand of A'dal, etc.) but it has anti synergy with Stonehearth Vindicator, one of the staples of paladin right now. The best we can imagine this card being would be around 3-5 mana (and it'll subsequently likely make the second copy free), but this can certainly change as we see more holy spells get introduced.
But the payoff is good, its nearly illegal in some cases, because at some point it'll likely make any minion sticking threatening lethal. And that's saying alot for a class that has thus far been as fair as it can be in 2022 hearthstone.
Pretty sure WoW lore is big enough to have more than one pirate captain it in so even if warrior gets hooktusk, perhaps rogue will get her kinda evil twin or something. Its likely that rogue would be pirate themed as well, judging by the sole rogue card reveal so far.
If Mr. Smite didn't exist, this card would be hot garbage. But fortunately, it does, so this card is just a decent 7 drop that demands a silence or it'll likely deal more than 10 damage to your face provided theres no taunts.
Im a bit intrigued, because Ive always thought the quest wasn't good enough even before it got nerfed, simply because its too linear, too dependent on pirates, and you've got to give up your first turn. This card allows aggro-midrange warrior to play something other than 100% pirates while still having a decent end game, with smite threatening lethal should the ship not be silenced.
The drawback of this card, like so many other colossal minions, is that it costs 7, and the game can very well end way before then. At very least unlike the other colossal minions so far, this one doesn't care if your opponent can deal with it; this minion being dead is the best result you can probably hope for.
Before anyone start holding up their torches and pitchforks, this is not quest pirate warrior support. Its far too costly, is a beast, and there's no obvious way warrior can kill the ship themselves so it's wide open for silences, not the mention that this along with the quest reward is just unnecessary overkill.
And then there's the pay off. With Mr. Smite its probably dealing around 10-12 damage, because most pirates are low costed, and the earliest you can do this is turn 8, which means you get to play smite along with only two pirates for face damage...which can be blocked by taunts. Of course, if you manage to discover mr smite himself as a 1 costed card, that's different, but its no different from highroling with juggernaunt anyway.
I think if you run this card at all you'd probably wont be running it in quest warrior, but some kind of midrange warrior with a smite end game. Quest warrior's powerlevel drops exponentially each time they dont draw a pirate, and since they dont tend to draw very well, they can easily end up losing the early game which will more or less scupper their ship regardless of how powerful this card may or may not end up to be.
Its an instant board swing that comes with tremendous stats on its own, even if it doesn't gain the stats of what is eats. There is a downside in that your opponent can potentially get their minions back if they manage to kill it, but they'd have to get past a 4/7 taunt first and then that taunt removes the downside.
Another thing to consider is that its essentially clearing your opponent's board, not your own. So you can play this under any circumstances without fear of losing your own minions, something most warlock board clears don't necessarily enjoy.
It is an 8 mana card however, the only true weakness of this card. Will it be viable? That'll depend very much on whether team5 can deliver on their promise for a more board oriented game next rotation. If they fall short of that promise, Ive a feeling none of the colossal units will see any play.
Its obviously compares badly with modresh, but it does have one thing going for it: if you can consistently flood the board with mechs, this is just a finisher that has no other requirement other than drawing and playing it, something modresh doesn't necessarily enjoy.
The card can only get better as more mechs are revealed down the line. If magnetic, along with stuff like Zilliax gets back into core, then we might just have a winner here, even if modresh boast a superior effect, because the current wildfire mage is really just a combination of non-synergistic cards, of which mech mage may not suffer from.
Its going to be played simply because its the only thing druid has for a draw engine so far down the reveals. If there's nothing else, then they really are just clutching at straws, praying that the core set gives them either Wrath or Nourish because the alternative is this card, or a guff on curve.
Its practically like Overflow, a card that's only there because there's little else druid has for card draw. The fact that this can generate a decent taunt minion is a nice bonus, but will never be why druids would play this card, considering that Scale of Onyxia is the better defensive option available.
Its really just a different Exotic Mountseller, and that's putting it charitably. The problem is that unless you're running massive spells, this card would likely end up giving you 0-2 drops most of the time, and even then it might be of sub par quality because there's really not many rush minions on those range of minions. Not to mention that Animated Broomstick is now gone, so if this does not generate either a taunt or a rush minion its pretty much a waste of time. Better off playing Deviate Dreadfang, if Im being honest.
But Ive a feeling that druids' theme this time round would be big spells, which would account for why they thought this card could succeed. And it actually might. Even a simple 7-8 cost spell is more than enough to power up this bad girl. The drawbacks may only be a small footnote, depending of course if druid gets more big spell support.
It really costs way too much, but druids may not really have much of a choice, given that most of their draw power are rotating. Which also brings us to another problem, which is that druids' draw power are rotating, so how big of a taunt are we really expecting?
It kinda reminds me a little of Overflow, in that its not really that great of a card but because druids then really struggle with card draw it was played anyway. This one at least will put out a decent taunt minion, and we are all acquainted with druids playing well above what they should, so a 6/6 on turn 4-5 while drawing 3 is still a decent pay off for throwing your entire hand for ramp at the start of the game.
The question to ask is whether the minions summoned would come down in the order of the spell's cost. If yes, then this card has the potential of being screwed by druid's tons of cheap spells clogging the pool.
And that's about the problem with the card in general; druid simply plays too many cheap spells. So if its in your hand on turn 1, chances are it'll summon a board full of 0-2 drops, something that most decks should easily be able to deal with or completely ignore.
Nevertheless, its a good card that floods the board, and if druid has some kind of finisher like Arbor Up in the next expansion, then there might yet be room even if this does nothing but summon a board of wisps.
Because Sorcerer's Gambit is still in standard. And I bet someone high up in team5 is just waiting for the opportunity to make me consider taking a hiatus off the game.
Considering that Mordresh Fire Eye does 10 damage to everything, this card looks fairly weak by comparison. But at very least with two mechs generated from this card, it can deal a decent 2 damage AoE so its not completely garbage.
A good start for a possible mech mage archetype. But I remain unconvinced mage can pull it off. What it really needs now is a mech that'll flood the board with other mechs, something like Replicating Menace, and a decent midrange mech to top it up.
Team5 did say they would bring back a keyword from the past, so maybe magnetic? Would make mech mage look better if nothing else.
Its honestly going to be competing for a spot with Venomous Scorpid for the generation role, because at very least that card is a soft taunt and comes with no conditions albeit at a higher mana cost of 1.
I suppose mage would still be playing this because they'd be losing two really good early game generators in Wandmaker and Wand Thief, so if generation is the game this one will take it if only because you can easily play both this and scorpid in the same deck.
There is one drawback though; its a minion. And far as team5 has shown, they'd really love shoving spell mage down our throats. So fingers crossed that there's no more siphon manas, incanter's flow, or cram session down the pipeline or like every other minion in mage, it can sit on the sidelines dreaming only of what could be.
I doubt it removes them from the graveyard. The wording permanently is used because otherwise they'd have to write 'destroy the devoured minions', since the term 'remove' itself is confusing seeing that the minions are already 'removed'. But without testing, this is something no one but a dev can confirm.
This card is the exact murloc payoff I would want for a murlock deck.
Bloodscent Vilefin into this is just crazy to consider, especially if the next meta is more board based.
It does have some drawbacks. This card only has 4 health, so its relatively easy to remove it, and therefore securing the board back for yourself should you lose it from Gigafin. But if you're doing that, then youre not dealing with the 4/7, which is threatening in its own right. And the maw has taunt, so that's an additional layer, and for a 8 cost card, that's a crucial element.
In terms of flavor though, its a bit confusing. Why shouldn't removing the maw give you back the minions instead of the murloc itself? Perhaps its because they didn't want a scenario whereby warlock just removes the second minion themselves and so this card has no drawbacks.
Artwork is nice. Been some time since a card art actually attempts and somewhat succeeds in showing a terrifying monster. And hearthstone being so cartoony as it is, its a somewhat amazing achievement.
Its only viable in a deck that wants more of a tribe, usually in a deck that features a grand reward for doing so. As such, the only real deck you'll ever see this card exist in is in quest pirate warrior.
In nearly all other decks, the chances of you getting something good is so small it'll never be worth it. In many ways it reminds me of Dragon Breeder, and that card is a ton more consistent than this card will ever be, yet still saw no play.
The only other niche is discovering from tribes that has small pools like quilboar. You're very likely to get Death Speaker Blackthorn, for example, or Death's Head Cultist, something that can easily save your life. But I doubt its good enough to see inclusion in standard, outside of pirate warrior.
Unfortunately, throughout its lifetime that's really all it did - being used by aggro. The only other deck that isn't aggro which included this card was shudderwock shaman.
Because if you need defensive healing you're probably better off just playing Death's Head Cultist.
Probably going to see play if nothing else because it has the potential to be 0 mana. Fact is that even two of these is enough to do 10 damage out of nowhere, and for paladin this is fairly significant, because traditionally paladin has lots of trouble ending games.
Just jam a deathrattle or stealth minion and there you go. With cards like Battleground Battlemaster, you can legit setup lethal with nothing more than a Worgen Infiltrator that stuck for a turn.
But we'll have to see what other holy spells paladin gets. They are after all losing most of their best holy spells post rotation, so the prospect of the first copy of this card being 0 mana is kinda slim if Im honest.
A nice little addition for quest pirate warrior, being a card that generates more pirates is no bad thing. But it does suffer from the fact that you need first a pirate to stick on board.
Most useful to discover from tribes that have small pools like quilboar, and perhaps naga. In most others, the selections are just so vast in terms of quality it'll hardly ever be worth including this card into your deck.
But if Im honest, probably seen nowhere else other than quest pirate warrior. Just too fair for consideration in standard.
I guess we should be fortunate that Lady Liadrin is rotating, otherwise this card is absolutely nuts.
However, this card has plenty of proving to do, because Im not yet convinced paladin can come close to spending 10 mana on holy spells in a game. Not only are some of the best holy spells rotating (librams, Blessing of Authority, Hand of A'dal, etc.) but it has anti synergy with Stonehearth Vindicator, one of the staples of paladin right now. The best we can imagine this card being would be around 3-5 mana (and it'll subsequently likely make the second copy free), but this can certainly change as we see more holy spells get introduced.
But the payoff is good, its nearly illegal in some cases, because at some point it'll likely make any minion sticking threatening lethal. And that's saying alot for a class that has thus far been as fair as it can be in 2022 hearthstone.
Pretty sure WoW lore is big enough to have more than one pirate captain it in so even if warrior gets hooktusk, perhaps rogue will get her kinda evil twin or something. Its likely that rogue would be pirate themed as well, judging by the sole rogue card reveal so far.
If Mr. Smite didn't exist, this card would be hot garbage. But fortunately, it does, so this card is just a decent 7 drop that demands a silence or it'll likely deal more than 10 damage to your face provided theres no taunts.
Im a bit intrigued, because Ive always thought the quest wasn't good enough even before it got nerfed, simply because its too linear, too dependent on pirates, and you've got to give up your first turn. This card allows aggro-midrange warrior to play something other than 100% pirates while still having a decent end game, with smite threatening lethal should the ship not be silenced.
The drawback of this card, like so many other colossal minions, is that it costs 7, and the game can very well end way before then. At very least unlike the other colossal minions so far, this one doesn't care if your opponent can deal with it; this minion being dead is the best result you can probably hope for.
You cant get pirates from other classes, its a discover effect. So only warrior and neutral pirates.
Before anyone start holding up their torches and pitchforks, this is not quest pirate warrior support. Its far too costly, is a beast, and there's no obvious way warrior can kill the ship themselves so it's wide open for silences, not the mention that this along with the quest reward is just unnecessary overkill.
And then there's the pay off. With Mr. Smite its probably dealing around 10-12 damage, because most pirates are low costed, and the earliest you can do this is turn 8, which means you get to play smite along with only two pirates for face damage...which can be blocked by taunts. Of course, if you manage to discover mr smite himself as a 1 costed card, that's different, but its no different from highroling with juggernaunt anyway.
I think if you run this card at all you'd probably wont be running it in quest warrior, but some kind of midrange warrior with a smite end game. Quest warrior's powerlevel drops exponentially each time they dont draw a pirate, and since they dont tend to draw very well, they can easily end up losing the early game which will more or less scupper their ship regardless of how powerful this card may or may not end up to be.
Its an instant board swing that comes with tremendous stats on its own, even if it doesn't gain the stats of what is eats. There is a downside in that your opponent can potentially get their minions back if they manage to kill it, but they'd have to get past a 4/7 taunt first and then that taunt removes the downside.
Another thing to consider is that its essentially clearing your opponent's board, not your own. So you can play this under any circumstances without fear of losing your own minions, something most warlock board clears don't necessarily enjoy.
It is an 8 mana card however, the only true weakness of this card. Will it be viable? That'll depend very much on whether team5 can deliver on their promise for a more board oriented game next rotation. If they fall short of that promise, Ive a feeling none of the colossal units will see any play.
Its obviously compares badly with modresh, but it does have one thing going for it: if you can consistently flood the board with mechs, this is just a finisher that has no other requirement other than drawing and playing it, something modresh doesn't necessarily enjoy.
The card can only get better as more mechs are revealed down the line. If magnetic, along with stuff like Zilliax gets back into core, then we might just have a winner here, even if modresh boast a superior effect, because the current wildfire mage is really just a combination of non-synergistic cards, of which mech mage may not suffer from.
Its going to be played simply because its the only thing druid has for a draw engine so far down the reveals. If there's nothing else, then they really are just clutching at straws, praying that the core set gives them either Wrath or Nourish because the alternative is this card, or a guff on curve.
Its practically like Overflow, a card that's only there because there's little else druid has for card draw. The fact that this can generate a decent taunt minion is a nice bonus, but will never be why druids would play this card, considering that Scale of Onyxia is the better defensive option available.
Its really just a different Exotic Mountseller, and that's putting it charitably. The problem is that unless you're running massive spells, this card would likely end up giving you 0-2 drops most of the time, and even then it might be of sub par quality because there's really not many rush minions on those range of minions. Not to mention that Animated Broomstick is now gone, so if this does not generate either a taunt or a rush minion its pretty much a waste of time. Better off playing Deviate Dreadfang, if Im being honest.
But Ive a feeling that druids' theme this time round would be big spells, which would account for why they thought this card could succeed. And it actually might. Even a simple 7-8 cost spell is more than enough to power up this bad girl. The drawbacks may only be a small footnote, depending of course if druid gets more big spell support.
It really costs way too much, but druids may not really have much of a choice, given that most of their draw power are rotating. Which also brings us to another problem, which is that druids' draw power are rotating, so how big of a taunt are we really expecting?
It kinda reminds me a little of Overflow, in that its not really that great of a card but because druids then really struggle with card draw it was played anyway. This one at least will put out a decent taunt minion, and we are all acquainted with druids playing well above what they should, so a 6/6 on turn 4-5 while drawing 3 is still a decent pay off for throwing your entire hand for ramp at the start of the game.
The question to ask is whether the minions summoned would come down in the order of the spell's cost. If yes, then this card has the potential of being screwed by druid's tons of cheap spells clogging the pool.
And that's about the problem with the card in general; druid simply plays too many cheap spells. So if its in your hand on turn 1, chances are it'll summon a board full of 0-2 drops, something that most decks should easily be able to deal with or completely ignore.
Nevertheless, its a good card that floods the board, and if druid has some kind of finisher like Arbor Up in the next expansion, then there might yet be room even if this does nothing but summon a board of wisps.
Anything. Anything that pushes that degraded archetype out of standard at least is a major plus in my books.
I'm all in favor of giving mage all the most OP mechs in the world, just as long as they promise never to print another Cram Session, Incanter's Flow, or Refreshing Spring Water ever again.
Because Sorcerer's Gambit is still in standard. And I bet someone high up in team5 is just waiting for the opportunity to make me consider taking a hiatus off the game.
Considering that Mordresh Fire Eye does 10 damage to everything, this card looks fairly weak by comparison. But at very least with two mechs generated from this card, it can deal a decent 2 damage AoE so its not completely garbage.
A good start for a possible mech mage archetype. But I remain unconvinced mage can pull it off. What it really needs now is a mech that'll flood the board with other mechs, something like Replicating Menace, and a decent midrange mech to top it up.
Team5 did say they would bring back a keyword from the past, so maybe magnetic? Would make mech mage look better if nothing else.
Its honestly going to be competing for a spot with Venomous Scorpid for the generation role, because at very least that card is a soft taunt and comes with no conditions albeit at a higher mana cost of 1.
I suppose mage would still be playing this because they'd be losing two really good early game generators in Wandmaker and Wand Thief, so if generation is the game this one will take it if only because you can easily play both this and scorpid in the same deck.
There is one drawback though; its a minion. And far as team5 has shown, they'd really love shoving spell mage down our throats. So fingers crossed that there's no more siphon manas, incanter's flow, or cram session down the pipeline or like every other minion in mage, it can sit on the sidelines dreaming only of what could be.
I doubt it removes them from the graveyard. The wording permanently is used because otherwise they'd have to write 'destroy the devoured minions', since the term 'remove' itself is confusing seeing that the minions are already 'removed'. But without testing, this is something no one but a dev can confirm.
This card is the exact murloc payoff I would want for a murlock deck.
Bloodscent Vilefin into this is just crazy to consider, especially if the next meta is more board based.
It does have some drawbacks. This card only has 4 health, so its relatively easy to remove it, and therefore securing the board back for yourself should you lose it from Gigafin. But if you're doing that, then youre not dealing with the 4/7, which is threatening in its own right. And the maw has taunt, so that's an additional layer, and for a 8 cost card, that's a crucial element.
In terms of flavor though, its a bit confusing. Why shouldn't removing the maw give you back the minions instead of the murloc itself? Perhaps its because they didn't want a scenario whereby warlock just removes the second minion themselves and so this card has no drawbacks.
Artwork is nice. Been some time since a card art actually attempts and somewhat succeeds in showing a terrifying monster. And hearthstone being so cartoony as it is, its a somewhat amazing achievement.