Probably ran out of neutral legendary slots. There's usually two neutrals and two class legendaries. I guess they weigh up the pro and cons and decided that both kazakusan and onyxia needed to be neutrals, and leeroy being a class card just doesn't feel right.
To be honest, this midset looks weaker and less interesting than the last 3. Maybe its because its so close to the rotation, and this set is trying to pre-empt it. It just feels a bit - unexciting to me, for the lack of a better term.
I can see lots of people are disappointed by the artwork, but I think its just another case of the pic being too large to fit the card. Pretty sure the full version will redeem it somewhat. I still get chills looking at Darius Crowley and how dumb it looked...until I saw the full art and suddenly it makes sense.
Its a card for ramp druid, because in nearly everywhere else, I'd much rather just play Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, which comes a turn earlier. 2 turns, if we're counting damage done to face. Immunity is only nice in so far as you get to stick an 8/8 to face, and this one merely has a chance whereas new alex deals it immediately without questions asked.
In ramp druid however, this card is absolute monster. Basically clear everything while having an 8/8 stick around, a feature that would almost certainly relegate yogg to meme level because that's exactly what druid needs. The fact that you can do this a lot earlier in ramp druid only emphasizes on my point.
The card is fine. Strong, reliable at what it does. Unfortunately, only druids will play it.
The problem is the mana cost, and the fact that it doesn't just win the game for you. Basically its currently a weaker card in comparison with Alexstrasza the Life-Binder because new alex can hit face for 8 unconditionally, while this Raid Boss Onyxia only threatens to do the same. Forget the whelp gained immunity, that's only relevant in the first turn, because no one would save up a whelp in hand just to combo up with this card. Hell, it'll never truly survive a turn, because if it did, youre probably winning, whelp or no.
That said, ramp druid would not just love this card, its likely a near mandatory requirement. It not only removes most boards on its own, its cost is negligible in something like ramp druid. Not to mention that they can discover it via Resizing Pouch.
Its a card you play because you want to play this, not because its inherently good on its own. Mozaki, Master Duelist does the job a 100 times better and with Cram Session, it can even reload out of a small hand so you're not altogether screwed based on your hand size.
This card however, is 100% setup or die. Basically it has about as much chance to live a turn as an ice cube down a hot pavement, so when this is out you're either swinging board or outright winning. Not exactly impossible to accomplish, but often enough mage has plenty other stuff that accomplishes the same thing with more consistency.
Dont even bother talking about wild. In what world is this ever going to compare favorably with Flamewaker?
Well, that's our payoff for Drakefire Amulet. Just discount that amulet, summon two of these and play a bunch of 0 mana spells and completely turn the tide.
Or you can just setup everything the same way and win with mozaki instead. Several turns earlier too I may add.
Oh well. But hey, at least it has 12 health so its not 100% certain that it'll be removed the next turn. Just 90% certain.
Its honestly not that bad to me. Basically if you're playing a slower non-curve deck then this is practically a 4/5 taunt on the cheap. Hell, skip your first turn and your 3rd becomes 1 step stronger.
Of course, you need to actually first have it in your hand (presumably) for this to work. But if youre not playing many 1 drops or youre a control deck, mulligan for this card isn't all that bad a choice.
While this card is unlikely to ever take over the meta, its a neat little option available for those that want to make it work.
Its not going to make it currently, but there's always a chance this card gets better in post rotation, because this card isn't really too bad as long as you can honor kill something and 3 health isn't exactly rare amongst good minions.
Not bad, but not good either. And rogue being dumpster right now does help for this card's case.
Honestly, its surpassed by Insight, whether its to tutor out Kazakusan or other minions.
But in a dedicated dragon deck its fine. Draw a card with a 4 damage removal is strong, though not game ending. And then there's the problem of having a dedicated dragon deck in standard. There needs be more dragon synergy other than this card to make it work.
Im more into this card making waves post rotation rather than right now.
The fact is that this card can potentially buff something by 8 shouldn't be underestimated. Samuro for example can absolutely wipe the floor clean with naught but two mana extra.
There is however plenty of competition. Noble Mount being a better card doesn't help this one's case, and in card does require your opponent have a board, which is usually not a good thing for paladin, because they'd always want to be ahead on initiative or board.
One niche it does have; tradeable. Something of which can save your life in case you get screwed hard. And unlike the more situational City Tax, this card plays to the pally gameplan well anyway.
10 is a lot of mana to ask, and not only can this card potentially whiff, in what world are we living in where discovering two dragons can end games? For 10 mana I can play Pyroblast, Rune of the Archmage, Mask of C'Thun. Hell I can just dawngrasp with 3 mana to spare. The dragons summoned out of this will likely not even have rush, and there's not many of them having taunt neither. You cant even use it with broom for gods sake. Actually, what are the dragons we're looking at to summon anyway?
Getting this discounted is a nice thought, which applies to all the above except for dawngrasp. So that's not a merit. Maybe cheating it out from something like Iceblood Tower? Well, that would actually require iceblood tower to first be good, which in my opinion it isn't.
There's still hope. One more legendary from this midset, and its a mage card and its a dragon. So that card is presumably the real kicker here that'll make this card soar.
Its strong, but you'll never see this outside of a discover effect. Druid has only ever cared about removal insofar as the early game is concerned because they let their minions do the talking in the late game. And in the late game druid wants initiative, not reacting to opponents gameplan.
Still, even if its only ever out from a discover effect, the card is fundamentally strong on its own so there's that.
At a second look, both you and frosthearth might be right that its a mage card. Since mage got that card that summons dragons I suppose its only logical to give them one they would want to discover out.
Of course, it could turn out to be that very elusive deathrattle payoff for rogue...but at this point Ive stopped hoping. Its a mage card.
Im looking at the color of the banner on the bottom of the card. That's where it indicates its class, and its certainly not a mage card. We can see kazakusan and onyxia being neutrals and mida being a priest card. The last looks like its a rogue card.
Yes it does have lifesteal and divine shield, but played on 6 your opponent can just completely ignore it and go ruin your face. And if they can't ignore it, then its healing you for 8 minimum. Wouldn't you be better served just playing Lightshower Elemental instead, for the same cost, same healing, but has an additional taunt.
It does have a small niche in that you can copy it and shuffle multiple midas back to your deck, but since you can only drop this on turn 6, how many midas do you think you'll ever be drawing?
- Scale of Onyxia would only ever be good out of a discover. On its own, the only reason why this isn't straight up trash is because those whelps have rush and druid lacks removal options. I dont see anyone putting this deliberately in their druid decks.
- Drakefire Amulet right now would be absolutely rubbish if it werent for that tradeable tag. The only redeeming feature of this card is that its discover twice, not discover once for 2 dragons. So you get two shots at getting what you want. But what exactly is it that you would want out of this card?
- Not sure how Ring of Courage works. Does it buff randomly or all on the same minion according to how many minions are on your opponent's board? Its kinda an alright card, but will likely be supplanted easily by other buffs costing two like Noble Mount. The tradeable tag shouldn't be underestimated too.
- Horn of Wrathion would unlikely be consistent enough to play for its secondary effect unless we see a return of dragon priest. It does draw a minion, and since Insight is rotating in 2 months that may be a niche worth its price.
- Tooth of Nefarian is a nice little tool for rogue. Too bad that its a honor kill card, and therefore there's an innate consistency issue.
- And finally Gear Grubber. An interesting card to say the least because all it takes is one discount to make it worth it. Since most decks tend to skip their 1st turn this could be a card worth considering. Its certainly not a card for aggressive decks. Might find some niche in control decks, but we're all familiar with how that goes.
Probably ran out of neutral legendary slots. There's usually two neutrals and two class legendaries. I guess they weigh up the pro and cons and decided that both kazakusan and onyxia needed to be neutrals, and leeroy being a class card just doesn't feel right.
Most interesting cards of this set to me;
Kazakusan, Curse of Agony, Bracing Cold, Dragonbane Shot, Mi'da, Pure Light, Razorglaive Sentinel, Gear Grubber
To be honest, this midset looks weaker and less interesting than the last 3. Maybe its because its so close to the rotation, and this set is trying to pre-empt it. It just feels a bit - unexciting to me, for the lack of a better term.
Probably plenty of people trying out priest and druid to make Kazakusan work.
I can see ramp druid doing better from this midset, maybe a comeback from quest hunter and control priest as well.
I can see lots of people are disappointed by the artwork, but I think its just another case of the pic being too large to fit the card. Pretty sure the full version will redeem it somewhat. I still get chills looking at Darius Crowley and how dumb it looked...until I saw the full art and suddenly it makes sense.
Perhaps, maybe in a big dragon deck. And assuming that the meta switches to something close to barrens meta.
Its just that 10 mana is quite a lot. There's not many reasons why someone would put this over new alex or even ysera to be honest.
Its a card for ramp druid, because in nearly everywhere else, I'd much rather just play Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, which comes a turn earlier. 2 turns, if we're counting damage done to face. Immunity is only nice in so far as you get to stick an 8/8 to face, and this one merely has a chance whereas new alex deals it immediately without questions asked.
In ramp druid however, this card is absolute monster. Basically clear everything while having an 8/8 stick around, a feature that would almost certainly relegate yogg to meme level because that's exactly what druid needs. The fact that you can do this a lot earlier in ramp druid only emphasizes on my point.
The card is fine. Strong, reliable at what it does. Unfortunately, only druids will play it.
The problem is the mana cost, and the fact that it doesn't just win the game for you. Basically its currently a weaker card in comparison with Alexstrasza the Life-Binder because new alex can hit face for 8 unconditionally, while this Raid Boss Onyxia only threatens to do the same. Forget the whelp gained immunity, that's only relevant in the first turn, because no one would save up a whelp in hand just to combo up with this card. Hell, it'll never truly survive a turn, because if it did, youre probably winning, whelp or no.
That said, ramp druid would not just love this card, its likely a near mandatory requirement. It not only removes most boards on its own, its cost is negligible in something like ramp druid. Not to mention that they can discover it via Resizing Pouch.
Its a card you play because you want to play this, not because its inherently good on its own. Mozaki, Master Duelist does the job a 100 times better and with Cram Session, it can even reload out of a small hand so you're not altogether screwed based on your hand size.
This card however, is 100% setup or die. Basically it has about as much chance to live a turn as an ice cube down a hot pavement, so when this is out you're either swinging board or outright winning. Not exactly impossible to accomplish, but often enough mage has plenty other stuff that accomplishes the same thing with more consistency.
Dont even bother talking about wild. In what world is this ever going to compare favorably with Flamewaker?
Well, that's our payoff for Drakefire Amulet. Just discount that amulet, summon two of these and play a bunch of 0 mana spells and completely turn the tide.
Or you can just setup everything the same way and win with mozaki instead. Several turns earlier too I may add.
Oh well. But hey, at least it has 12 health so its not 100% certain that it'll be removed the next turn. Just 90% certain.
Its honestly not that bad to me. Basically if you're playing a slower non-curve deck then this is practically a 4/5 taunt on the cheap. Hell, skip your first turn and your 3rd becomes 1 step stronger.
Of course, you need to actually first have it in your hand (presumably) for this to work. But if youre not playing many 1 drops or youre a control deck, mulligan for this card isn't all that bad a choice.
While this card is unlikely to ever take over the meta, its a neat little option available for those that want to make it work.
Its not going to make it currently, but there's always a chance this card gets better in post rotation, because this card isn't really too bad as long as you can honor kill something and 3 health isn't exactly rare amongst good minions.
Not bad, but not good either. And rogue being dumpster right now does help for this card's case.
Honestly, its surpassed by Insight, whether its to tutor out Kazakusan or other minions.
But in a dedicated dragon deck its fine. Draw a card with a 4 damage removal is strong, though not game ending. And then there's the problem of having a dedicated dragon deck in standard. There needs be more dragon synergy other than this card to make it work.
Im more into this card making waves post rotation rather than right now.
The fact is that this card can potentially buff something by 8 shouldn't be underestimated. Samuro for example can absolutely wipe the floor clean with naught but two mana extra.
There is however plenty of competition. Noble Mount being a better card doesn't help this one's case, and in card does require your opponent have a board, which is usually not a good thing for paladin, because they'd always want to be ahead on initiative or board.
One niche it does have; tradeable. Something of which can save your life in case you get screwed hard. And unlike the more situational City Tax, this card plays to the pally gameplan well anyway.
What else can I say, it sucks.
10 is a lot of mana to ask, and not only can this card potentially whiff, in what world are we living in where discovering two dragons can end games? For 10 mana I can play Pyroblast, Rune of the Archmage, Mask of C'Thun. Hell I can just dawngrasp with 3 mana to spare. The dragons summoned out of this will likely not even have rush, and there's not many of them having taunt neither. You cant even use it with broom for gods sake. Actually, what are the dragons we're looking at to summon anyway?
Getting this discounted is a nice thought, which applies to all the above except for dawngrasp. So that's not a merit. Maybe cheating it out from something like Iceblood Tower? Well, that would actually require iceblood tower to first be good, which in my opinion it isn't.
There's still hope. One more legendary from this midset, and its a mage card and its a dragon. So that card is presumably the real kicker here that'll make this card soar.
Or more likely this card just sucks.
Its strong, but you'll never see this outside of a discover effect. Druid has only ever cared about removal insofar as the early game is concerned because they let their minions do the talking in the late game. And in the late game druid wants initiative, not reacting to opponents gameplan.
Still, even if its only ever out from a discover effect, the card is fundamentally strong on its own so there's that.
At a second look, both you and frosthearth might be right that its a mage card. Since mage got that card that summons dragons I suppose its only logical to give them one they would want to discover out.
Of course, it could turn out to be that very elusive deathrattle payoff for rogue...but at this point Ive stopped hoping. Its a mage card.
Im looking at the color of the banner on the bottom of the card. That's where it indicates its class, and its certainly not a mage card. We can see kazakusan and onyxia being neutrals and mida being a priest card. The last looks like its a rogue card.
There's a graphic showing the legendaries;
So we have one dragon left because the other is 100% going to be onyxia. I dont think its wrathion though, and its a rogue card too.
No taunt, no rush, and then it costs 6 - OooErr
Yes it does have lifesteal and divine shield, but played on 6 your opponent can just completely ignore it and go ruin your face. And if they can't ignore it, then its healing you for 8 minimum. Wouldn't you be better served just playing Lightshower Elemental instead, for the same cost, same healing, but has an additional taunt.
It does have a small niche in that you can copy it and shuffle multiple midas back to your deck, but since you can only drop this on turn 6, how many midas do you think you'll ever be drawing?
Well, here we go.
- Scale of Onyxia would only ever be good out of a discover. On its own, the only reason why this isn't straight up trash is because those whelps have rush and druid lacks removal options. I dont see anyone putting this deliberately in their druid decks.
- Drakefire Amulet right now would be absolutely rubbish if it werent for that tradeable tag. The only redeeming feature of this card is that its discover twice, not discover once for 2 dragons. So you get two shots at getting what you want. But what exactly is it that you would want out of this card?
- Not sure how Ring of Courage works. Does it buff randomly or all on the same minion according to how many minions are on your opponent's board? Its kinda an alright card, but will likely be supplanted easily by other buffs costing two like Noble Mount. The tradeable tag shouldn't be underestimated too.
- Horn of Wrathion would unlikely be consistent enough to play for its secondary effect unless we see a return of dragon priest. It does draw a minion, and since Insight is rotating in 2 months that may be a niche worth its price.
- Tooth of Nefarian is a nice little tool for rogue. Too bad that its a honor kill card, and therefore there's an innate consistency issue.
- And finally Gear Grubber. An interesting card to say the least because all it takes is one discount to make it worth it. Since most decks tend to skip their 1st turn this could be a card worth considering. Its certainly not a card for aggressive decks. Might find some niche in control decks, but we're all familiar with how that goes.