5 stars for the minion, 2 stars because its a druid minion. Its sad, because on its own the card is fundamentally sound, in fact its great. But trapped in a class that currently only plays either hyper aggro or ramp, this card just misses the mark.
Aggro druid has Park Panther, which comes out a turn earlier, and the healing is negligible in that deck. So no sound reason to have this card there. Ramp druid plays nothing but big stuff, where something like Cenarion Ward is simply the better option.
Well, there's some silver lining at least. The card is fundamentally sound, so maybe post rotation? Certainly not now.
Archivist Elysiana has only ever been viable because Dr. Boom, Mad Genius was broken, and the only way to win the mirrors was just this card. On its own merits elysiana has never truly been good, because it costed 8 (nerfed to 9 before reverting), had no taunt or rush, and is generally considered a tech card (against bombs, etc.)
This card shares many of its flaws, but the reward being so good, its likely worth the risk. I can already see druid decks with this card being tier 2. You're likely right that it wont break the meta, but not mainly because of power creep, but also because fundamentally its an 8 mana card with neither rush nor taunt, and does essentially nothing the turn its played.
That Magister Dawngrasp interaction you mentioned has a double edge. You do discover two cards but you draw only one. Meaning unless you've draw options, you're really just 50-50 your choice of cards each turn, getting worse as the game progresses. In my opinion, that's something you dont want.
In any case, that mana increase is relevant, because its not easy even for mage to cast 7 mana do nothing, especially in a format like duels. A timely one too, because with most of the more dangerous treasures getting rarer or removed altogether, there isn't really alot of burn decks available so obviously something like ping mage gets better.
Good point. I still think its okay, because its basically like warrior's bombs, and honestly would warlock save up 3 cards just to pull it off with tamsin, and then there's the rng factor because its your opponent who needs to draw those, not yourself, making it substantially less consistent than something like garrote.
If you play while your deck only contain dragons, it replaces your deck with treasures from duels. That's what I get from kibler's video.
Strong yes, but impractical, unless you prestor on 6, or...somehow play a no minion deck...hmmmm
Maybe spell mage or druid, with this as the ultimate end game greed card? If you can cheat this out early it might be lights out. Fingers crossed you can never cheat this out early.
Edit: as noted by Suchti0352, it basically works like elysianna. So its discovers the treasure you replace your deck with. That's insane. Now we only have to work out how to get to turn 8 and beyond without dying.
- Stormwind Avenger is a soft taunt. Play it on 3 and your opponent will do everything they can to remove it. In libram pally its just absurd amounts of damage...in theory. In reality, it'll never actually survive a turn past turn 5, so its damage is likely only going to be increased twice at best. And with only 1 damage at the start, its not exactly hard to remove until further buffed.
- Battle Vicar is one of those interesting cards for paladin that is currently more relevant in duels and on post rotation, because I can't think of too many reasons why'd you run this in your pally deck. Control pally isn't a thing, and libram pally would rather just draw their librams.
- SI:7 Smuggler is only good because its an SI card.
- Smokescreen is yet another attempt at deathrattle rogue. While I like the concept, and really love deathrattle decks, I think it'll never make it past tier 3. It reminds me heavily of Roll the Bones and Shadow of Death: very good cards in theory, but never really seeing upper tier play.
The first problem is that its an 8 cost card, and the second is that you'll want to have decent deathrattles in your deck, and currently there's not many we'd run in rogue. Maybe Death's Head Cultist and korrak? Because the main issue here is survivability.
Bizarrely, drawing 5 cards is a problem in of itself. That means your hand must be 5 cards or less or this card would just burn your cards (and presumably not trigger those burned deathrattles).
- Spirit Mount is just good. Burn shaman would love it. We'll have to see if every shaman can somehow fit this everywhere now, because spell damage is no joke with shaman.
- Bracing Cold is just very good healing in a class that has little to none. But the best part of this card isn't the healing, its mana cheat. Just imagine reducing something like dunk tank by 2 mana. Im a little concerned, but at least it isn't bs levels of stupid like Siphon Mana or octobot.
- Impfestation is that one card that'll make aggro tear its hair out. Certainly hard counters aggro druid.
- Curse of Agony = 6 damage for 1 mana against rogue, mage and ironically warlock. Even more funnier is that you'd likely never play this against warlock. Meta dependent for sure.
- Hit It Very Hard is still good removal for 1 mana. Unless there's a way to get that 10 damage to face (outside of Soulbound Ashtongue) it'll likely just be decent but rarely played.
- Shoulder Check will likely be more relevant after broom rotates.
- Boomkin is another one of those cards which in theory is incredibly strong in other classes, but stuck in a class like druid its now a middling meh. Its certainly not bad, doing 4 damage or healing with a 4/5 body, the problem is that the card has no taunt, and costs 5, which means aggro druid wouldn't go there and ramp druid would rather just play something like Cenarion Ward. It doesn't even curve well from a turn 4 Overgrowth, one of the few things guaranteed druid would want to do.
I have some hopes for this card, because its still a decent card on its own.
- Raid Negotiator can theoretically win the game if it gets you Nourish. The problem is that it's not guaranteed to do that, and hence its application is likely niche at best.
- Furious Howl would have been a broken card in old hearthstone but hunter now can actually decently draw with Barak Kodobane and generally plays midrange cards like Trampling Rhino, so I guess this may be more powerful post rotation? Certainly I dont see it now.
- Pet Collector I like. There are ways you can just jam big beasts in your deck and get a massive swing with this card on 5. Might not make it, but certainly interesting.
- Dragonbane Shot. Quest hunter would love it. If there's even a slight chance you can reduce its cost it may well just be broken.
- Keen Reflex is another card to weaponize tokens. Expendable Performers = 14 damage for 9 mana. That's respectable, even without kurtrus. Its not even too bad a card without the combo.
- Wings of Hate (Rank 1) is just a good card. Play it early, late, whatever, its still good for 1 mana.
- Razorglaive Sentinel has potential. But with skull still in standard, we'd much rather just play that. Maybe herald the return of aggro dhunter in standard?
Edit: realised that keen reflex is in fact 2 mana. Oh well. Burst damage option is still there, just a little harder to reach ideal levels.
It could be a display bug. I think I saw this from reddit somewhere. You will still take damage its just that its showing the immune animation while you're attacking.
I haven't seen this myself to be honest, having played my share of weapon rogue in duels.
Is there any hope? Yes. Big spell mage would love more AoE thats smaller than Flamestrike,
I hope this is sarcasm, because if you played it with Big Spell Mage Iceblood Tower and call this from deck, it will just go hitting random minions for a flimsy 1-3 damage. Not even worth putting it in any deck. Honestly, Fire Sale is much better for trading purpose
In my opinion, Iceblood Tower is a poor card to begin with, and if I was playing big spells it wouldn't be in my list. I should've also added that this is a fairly decent card in any spell mage, where its likely to actually accomplish something. Fire Sale is, as you say, a better card in most circumstances.
Just trying my best to see how this card can fit into anything other than a trash can.
Shaman always had problems clearing boards in the early game, and this card fills that gap so well, while not destroying your board to boot.
But the reason why this card would probably see more play than just quest shaman is because its a fire spell, and one that doesn't threaten to skip your next turn Perpetual Flame, wink* wink*. Shaman is already playing Multicaster, so this fits rather well.
Its downside is its cost. But it can be a potential boon, corrupting Dunk Tank, while also ruining the opponent's board.
Outside of that I'd rate Loot Hoarder over it. The honor kill will only ever proct because your opponent's an idiot, or you can strategically buff the attack to fit using librams etc. And the frenzy, while not necessarily easy to deny, means you probably can't draw the same turn you play it.
Probably see some niche play, but its probably still continuing the tradition of shitty midset epic cards. Mind you, its the best out of the lot. Bar is set low, but still this is the best midset epic so far.
Arena filler. Or Duels fodder. Basically its never going to see play in standard.
Even on its own merits, its still needs a dragon activator, so in addition to having to actually put this in your deck, it needs to have at least 4 dragons to even be marginally consistent.
The only reason why this card isn't taking home 5 stars from me is that its 100% only ever going to be played in a heavy, control oriented warrior.
But honestly, this is about as good as it can get. A 4/5 taunt is already better than vanilla 4 cost minions, and being able to destroy something along is just crazy. Maybe bring managerie warrior back before rotation? We'll see. But if this card doesn't see play, it would be through no fault of its own.
Its not that great to be honest. Dealing 3 for 4 mana is no longer as powerful as it used to be, even with that 4/4 body. Also, this card is infinitely less consistent than Duskbreaker, the real reason why it was broken in the first place.
Priest AoE often have to work on demand, because they rarely play for tempo on board. And it would be cruel irony to have one but not the other spell condition this card requires. I have a feeling that would happen really more often than not.
I will concede its a decent card in quest priest, because you can drop it with or without the AoE effect just to get past tier 1 of the quest, something you can't necessarily do with the much better AoE Hysteria. Pretty much everywhere else its just not going to cut it.
The only thing taking this card down is its cost. Fire Sale by comparison burns the entire board, and comes out a turn earlier. This card has the potential to do more, but your opponent would wisely play around this, and the only way this card would ever be in contention to be more than trash, it has to do at least 4-6 damage. Not exactly an easy feat.
Is there any hope? Yes. Big spell mage would love more AoE thats smaller than Flamestrike, and rogue has an additional AoE option via Wand Thief. Just dont bet your house on this card.
Its a 6/6 for 5, with a nice tempo swing coming with it.
But it has a terrible downside - the battlecry kills randomly, and more crucially, it discards a card from your hand, which in most decks that's not zoo is an instant no-no. We have seen in the past how hand discards are fairly devastating, and even while Soulwarden and High Priestess Jeklik was in standard discolock never really flew anywhere further than tier 2-3, usually the latter.
Its only hope is for the meta to change to big minions, or for some form of discolock/zoolock to come back. And honestly, Im not optimistic.
It requires you to hold on to these spells, and this being a situational card makes it a big problem. Against a fast deck, you'd might be forced to not play your Thrive in the Shadows or Palm Reading on curve because you might be gambling your clear away. That's just really iffy for a board clear effect that is usually needed on demand.
5 stars for the minion, 2 stars because its a druid minion. Its sad, because on its own the card is fundamentally sound, in fact its great. But trapped in a class that currently only plays either hyper aggro or ramp, this card just misses the mark.
Aggro druid has Park Panther, which comes out a turn earlier, and the healing is negligible in that deck. So no sound reason to have this card there. Ramp druid plays nothing but big stuff, where something like Cenarion Ward is simply the better option.
Well, there's some silver lining at least. The card is fundamentally sound, so maybe post rotation? Certainly not now.
Archivist Elysiana has only ever been viable because Dr. Boom, Mad Genius was broken, and the only way to win the mirrors was just this card. On its own merits elysiana has never truly been good, because it costed 8 (nerfed to 9 before reverting), had no taunt or rush, and is generally considered a tech card (against bombs, etc.)
This card shares many of its flaws, but the reward being so good, its likely worth the risk. I can already see druid decks with this card being tier 2. You're likely right that it wont break the meta, but not mainly because of power creep, but also because fundamentally its an 8 mana card with neither rush nor taunt, and does essentially nothing the turn its played.
That Magister Dawngrasp interaction you mentioned has a double edge. You do discover two cards but you draw only one. Meaning unless you've draw options, you're really just 50-50 your choice of cards each turn, getting worse as the game progresses. In my opinion, that's something you dont want.
In any case, that mana increase is relevant, because its not easy even for mage to cast 7 mana do nothing, especially in a format like duels. A timely one too, because with most of the more dangerous treasures getting rarer or removed altogether, there isn't really alot of burn decks available so obviously something like ping mage gets better.
Good point. I still think its okay, because its basically like warrior's bombs, and honestly would warlock save up 3 cards just to pull it off with tamsin, and then there's the rng factor because its your opponent who needs to draw those, not yourself, making it substantially less consistent than something like garrote.
Damn, that makes the card even better than I thought.
Thanks for the note
At least it deals your opponent's fatigue damage. So in most cases its just 6 damage. Its no garrote that's for sure.
Does it discover treasures? I think it replaces the deck with random treasures.
If you play while your deck only contain dragons, it replaces your deck with treasures from duels. That's what I get from kibler's video.
Strong yes, but impractical, unless you prestor on 6, or...somehow play a no minion deck...hmmmm
Maybe spell mage or druid, with this as the ultimate end game greed card? If you can cheat this out early it might be lights out. Fingers crossed you can never cheat this out early.
Edit: as noted by Suchti0352, it basically works like elysianna. So its discovers the treasure you replace your deck with. That's insane. Now we only have to work out how to get to turn 8 and beyond without dying.
More new cards :)
- Stormwind Avenger is a soft taunt. Play it on 3 and your opponent will do everything they can to remove it. In libram pally its just absurd amounts of damage...in theory. In reality, it'll never actually survive a turn past turn 5, so its damage is likely only going to be increased twice at best. And with only 1 damage at the start, its not exactly hard to remove until further buffed.
- Battle Vicar is one of those interesting cards for paladin that is currently more relevant in duels and on post rotation, because I can't think of too many reasons why'd you run this in your pally deck. Control pally isn't a thing, and libram pally would rather just draw their librams.
- SI:7 Smuggler is only good because its an SI card.
- Smokescreen is yet another attempt at deathrattle rogue. While I like the concept, and really love deathrattle decks, I think it'll never make it past tier 3. It reminds me heavily of Roll the Bones and Shadow of Death: very good cards in theory, but never really seeing upper tier play.
The first problem is that its an 8 cost card, and the second is that you'll want to have decent deathrattles in your deck, and currently there's not many we'd run in rogue. Maybe Death's Head Cultist and korrak? Because the main issue here is survivability.
Bizarrely, drawing 5 cards is a problem in of itself. That means your hand must be 5 cards or less or this card would just burn your cards (and presumably not trigger those burned deathrattles).
- Spirit Mount is just good. Burn shaman would love it. We'll have to see if every shaman can somehow fit this everywhere now, because spell damage is no joke with shaman.
- Bracing Cold is just very good healing in a class that has little to none. But the best part of this card isn't the healing, its mana cheat. Just imagine reducing something like dunk tank by 2 mana. Im a little concerned, but at least it isn't bs levels of stupid like Siphon Mana or octobot.
- Impfestation is that one card that'll make aggro tear its hair out. Certainly hard counters aggro druid.
- Curse of Agony = 6 damage for 1 mana against rogue, mage and ironically warlock. Even more funnier is that you'd likely never play this against warlock. Meta dependent for sure.
- Hit It Very Hard is still good removal for 1 mana. Unless there's a way to get that 10 damage to face (outside of Soulbound Ashtongue) it'll likely just be decent but rarely played.
- Shoulder Check will likely be more relevant after broom rotates.
Alright, new cards :)
- Boomkin is another one of those cards which in theory is incredibly strong in other classes, but stuck in a class like druid its now a middling meh. Its certainly not bad, doing 4 damage or healing with a 4/5 body, the problem is that the card has no taunt, and costs 5, which means aggro druid wouldn't go there and ramp druid would rather just play something like Cenarion Ward. It doesn't even curve well from a turn 4 Overgrowth, one of the few things guaranteed druid would want to do.
I have some hopes for this card, because its still a decent card on its own.
- Raid Negotiator can theoretically win the game if it gets you Nourish. The problem is that it's not guaranteed to do that, and hence its application is likely niche at best.
- Furious Howl would have been a broken card in old hearthstone but hunter now can actually decently draw with Barak Kodobane and generally plays midrange cards like Trampling Rhino, so I guess this may be more powerful post rotation? Certainly I dont see it now.
- Pet Collector I like. There are ways you can just jam big beasts in your deck and get a massive swing with this card on 5. Might not make it, but certainly interesting.
- Dragonbane Shot. Quest hunter would love it. If there's even a slight chance you can reduce its cost it may well just be broken.
- Keen Reflex is another card to weaponize tokens. Expendable Performers = 14 damage for 9 mana. That's respectable, even without kurtrus. Its not even too bad a card without the combo.
- Wings of Hate (Rank 1) is just a good card. Play it early, late, whatever, its still good for 1 mana.
- Razorglaive Sentinel has potential. But with skull still in standard, we'd much rather just play that. Maybe herald the return of aggro dhunter in standard?
Edit: realised that keen reflex is in fact 2 mana. Oh well. Burst damage option is still there, just a little harder to reach ideal levels.
It could be a display bug. I think I saw this from reddit somewhere. You will still take damage its just that its showing the immune animation while you're attacking.
I haven't seen this myself to be honest, having played my share of weapon rogue in duels.
In my opinion, Iceblood Tower is a poor card to begin with, and if I was playing big spells it wouldn't be in my list. I should've also added that this is a fairly decent card in any spell mage, where its likely to actually accomplish something. Fire Sale is, as you say, a better card in most circumstances.
Just trying my best to see how this card can fit into anything other than a trash can.
Shaman always had problems clearing boards in the early game, and this card fills that gap so well, while not destroying your board to boot.
But the reason why this card would probably see more play than just quest shaman is because its a fire spell, and one that doesn't threaten to skip your next turn Perpetual Flame, wink* wink*. Shaman is already playing Multicaster, so this fits rather well.
Its downside is its cost. But it can be a potential boon, corrupting Dunk Tank, while also ruining the opponent's board.
Right now, its bless priest, paladin or nothing.
Outside of that I'd rate Loot Hoarder over it. The honor kill will only ever proct because your opponent's an idiot, or you can strategically buff the attack to fit using librams etc. And the frenzy, while not necessarily easy to deny, means you probably can't draw the same turn you play it.
Probably see some niche play, but its probably still continuing the tradition of shitty midset epic cards. Mind you, its the best out of the lot. Bar is set low, but still this is the best midset epic so far.
Arena filler. Or Duels fodder. Basically its never going to see play in standard.
Even on its own merits, its still needs a dragon activator, so in addition to having to actually put this in your deck, it needs to have at least 4 dragons to even be marginally consistent.
The only reason why this card isn't taking home 5 stars from me is that its 100% only ever going to be played in a heavy, control oriented warrior.
But honestly, this is about as good as it can get. A 4/5 taunt is already better than vanilla 4 cost minions, and being able to destroy something along is just crazy. Maybe bring managerie warrior back before rotation? We'll see. But if this card doesn't see play, it would be through no fault of its own.
Its not that great to be honest. Dealing 3 for 4 mana is no longer as powerful as it used to be, even with that 4/4 body. Also, this card is infinitely less consistent than Duskbreaker, the real reason why it was broken in the first place.
Priest AoE often have to work on demand, because they rarely play for tempo on board. And it would be cruel irony to have one but not the other spell condition this card requires. I have a feeling that would happen really more often than not.
I will concede its a decent card in quest priest, because you can drop it with or without the AoE effect just to get past tier 1 of the quest, something you can't necessarily do with the much better AoE Hysteria. Pretty much everywhere else its just not going to cut it.
The only thing taking this card down is its cost. Fire Sale by comparison burns the entire board, and comes out a turn earlier. This card has the potential to do more, but your opponent would wisely play around this, and the only way this card would ever be in contention to be more than trash, it has to do at least 4-6 damage. Not exactly an easy feat.
Is there any hope? Yes. Big spell mage would love more AoE thats smaller than Flamestrike, and rogue has an additional AoE option via Wand Thief. Just dont bet your house on this card.
Its a 6/6 for 5, with a nice tempo swing coming with it.
But it has a terrible downside - the battlecry kills randomly, and more crucially, it discards a card from your hand, which in most decks that's not zoo is an instant no-no. We have seen in the past how hand discards are fairly devastating, and even while Soulwarden and High Priestess Jeklik was in standard discolock never really flew anywhere further than tier 2-3, usually the latter.
Its only hope is for the meta to change to big minions, or for some form of discolock/zoolock to come back. And honestly, Im not optimistic.
It requires you to hold on to these spells, and this being a situational card makes it a big problem. Against a fast deck, you'd might be forced to not play your Thrive in the Shadows or Palm Reading on curve because you might be gambling your clear away. That's just really iffy for a board clear effect that is usually needed on demand.