Tavern brawls like these ought to just straight out ban pogos and patches. I always get in an out within hours of release simply for that reason, before the humongous piles of pogos and counter pogo decks start populating the brawl.
Granted that something like this will almost always break at some point, whether its pogos or the dreaded Ice Block, but its really such a frustrating experience that I cant understand why team5 even persist with it. Just give us random stuff, at least I wont get a stroke playing all these bipolar matches.
Looking at so many of these cards, it would appear that we've gone to yet another level with the powerlevel. Its fairly obvious that team5 is trying to push control strats, with so many cards that either freezes, cheap taunts, and even cheaper removals.
Honor kill is going to at least be more successful than overkill at first glance, because team5 really pushed this keyword hard. I did notice that there is a huge number of honor kill cards triggering with 2 health minions, which means it'll likely push these guys out of the game. Looks like this might be the one expansion where we dont just jam Cult Neophyte everywhere.
Its great when it works. Basically fulfilling the role of a board clear and spammer at the same time.
Of course, that's part of the problem. There's a big likelihood it'll never work out the way you hoped. More often than not you'll summon one wyvern out because no one will play around this possibility, and then this gets removed. The only time this card is a major threat is specifically against token/aggro decks, and even then because of how honor kill works, you might take value trades that wouldn't summon a minion out.
However, if the meta is right this card will probably feature fairly often. And that says alot for a card in a class where many cards are usually deemed good in other classes but absolute rubbish in druid. This one stands right in the middle, waiting for the right time to make its mark.
On paper it looks inconsistent at best. But I'm not writing this one off until the meta settles because the pay off is so great its not impossible for this to see some play, even if its only in aggro decks. Being able to give your board divine shield is about as good as it can get.
Drop this out on 2. Your opponent will scramble to kill it or play no minions, because of this work, it'll give you such a massive advantage.
Probably never used. Not only does this require an honor kill to be relevant at all, its much more consistent predecessor, Tour Guide, is still here. And your opponent will likely play around this hard, if they think your hp is worth it.
Its only ever going to see play in either mage or hunter. Nothing else.
I assume that after one turn, whenever you thaw this it'll be able to attack immediately. But likely it wouldn't or otherwise it'll be way too strong.
Will it ever be a core meta card? Too inconsistent for it to ever be. But sometimes when it does work, your opponent will be covering his face like he's just scored an own goal.
Its a good card even with that condition. There are ways to gain armor while still playing something. You get 3 armor for each Cargo Guard, 5 from Shieldmaiden and another 5 from rokara. And you've got your trusty hp to help out too.
So this will never really be a play on curve, unless you're playing something like Frozen Buckler, but as a end game win condition, it doesn't need to be. Its like Leeroy, it'll never be played on curve but simply by being cheaper than alternatives, its immediately a go to card.
Even if its not meta now, it'll be at some point. Because being able to dish out 9 damage earlier than turn 8 is worth it.
6 mana 9/9 with Charge. I don't know: I don't like those stats for that cost, and Charge is basically a Tier 3 keyword (it's certainly no Taunt). I think the powercreep of Hearthstone is such that a 9/9 on Turn 6 that can attack immediately isn't good enough. It's not like before turn 6 you can play a minion that gains you 3 Armor at the end of the turn, or a 4 mana AoE that gains you Armor, or any cheap spells that gain you, say, 10 or 8 Armor, or use a Hero Power that gains Armor. I mean, Warrior isn't really an Armor class, at the end of the day, and that's really what bothers me about this card: it forces Warrior to play completely outside its identity to gain Armor just to activate what is, in my opinion, a worse King Krush. I mean, it doesn't even have a minion tribe. What, am I supposed to play this 9/9 on turn 6 and eat my opponent's largest minion while still putting pressure on their life total? Do I just send 9 damage face? That's not even one third of their life total! Where am I getting the rest of that damage? From other minions? Why have I allowed this bit to go on for so long? Probably the only people still reading this are the ones who think that I'm being completely serious, and let's be completely honest: no one really reads these comments, do they? Everyone just scrolls immediately to the bottom of the thread so they can post their thoughts on the card and don't even take a second to look at someone else's thoughts, and those that do are mainly doing so because they want to find people that disagree with them. That's all the internet is, isn't it? Just people looking for something to disagree with. Certainly this long block of text is so uninviting that no one is going to bother to read it; it might even get marked as spam, at this point I honestly don't care. I'll even throw in a couple of random cards Dr. Boom to give this a little Recurring Villain color because there's not a chance anyone has the patience to actually read the words, they'll just think I've made a couple of card comparisons Vanndar Stormpike or synergy ideas Larry, Cashier of Women's Clothing, because no one is going to read this and there's a man in a cloak standing behind you. There's not, but you looked, didn't you? I'm exhausted.
You're really an evil genius in the making. Purposefully writing such a wonderfully long prose that I have no choice but to read it to the end. Only to get a payoff equal to what is a monty python's holy grail ending.
Did it occur to you as you're writing, or was this the genius plan all along? :)
Its not as value oriented as the other hero cards, but this one delivers well in terms of just winning. Basically unless you've played this card your opponent will constantly be looking over his shoulder whenever he starts playing big minions because this can easily just scam a win out of nowhere. Against paladin its particularly insane, making sure that handbuff pally will never sleep well at night.
But at the end without that its still just a weapon that deals 5 damage twice, which means its technically too expensive for its value, because the hero power is simply deal 2 damage, with only occasionally gaining 4 armor. But honestly, it'll never realistically gain much in armor because you'd much rather hit face with hp anyway.
Gaining 5 armor also puts you that close to Captain Galvangar, which is a massive plus.
So we've waited long for a deathrattle card in rogue to be introduced so the earlier deathrattle support aren't completely shit. And we duly got rewarded by a card that basically fits any and all roles as a deathrattle target.
The only way this card backfires spectacularly is if you get offered up the pre-prime cards like Lady Vashj for example, which doesn't really do much tempo wise. On the other hand you can easily highroll Najak Hexxen and just have a 4 mana Mind Control in a class with Shadowstep.
Good arena card. But is so mundane that its practically combo filler in ranked. I cannot for the life of me understand why'd anyone would want to play this unironically in a standard ranked deck, because we're coming close to the point where even a 4/5 on 3 is no longer good enough, and this one needs to be combo-ed out to even start dreaming of being viable.
Oh well, filler is filler. There's no much else to say
If this unconditionally gets a copy, then its great. But unfortunately, it needs to honor kill for 2 in order to trigger, which drastically reduces its consistency.
The irony is that this will likely consistently work against most decks that play for tempo, which would probably give you a card you won't be using, only rarely will this ever turn out to be a winner.
The genius level play is to play out Spy-o-matic, honor kill something and simulate a discover a card from your opponent's topdecks. But that's stretching it so far I wouldn't think that's a winning play.
Whenever it works, its amazing. But when it doesn't work you're just screwed by 2 mana.
For that reason, its likely only ever coming out via discover.
There is a small niche it has over Holy Smite, which is to technically double your deathrattle value, for a late game Xyrella push. This does conveniently kill Shadowed Spirit, and will summon another one out. Maybe that's where this card is heading towards.
It draws two cards in a class that can't really draw much. This is just good.
That it is a deathrattle is slightly concerning, but that means it does synergize well with Xyrella, the Devout, so priest is not lacking in any card draw for much longer.
A small issue in that it draws specifically a holy and shadow spell, which means you can't play it in shadow priest or its literally just a Big Ol' Whelp. But overall a nice solid addition to priest's arsenal.
Its just bad in a class that already has plenty of board clears. Even in zoo, if you really need a board clear very badly, just play Grimoire of Sacrifice, which though needs a sacrificial target, is at very least a mere 1 mana, which will allow you to regain tempo.
As far as the draw is concern, this is also an area of which warlock is not lacking in. Hullbreaker, for example, tutors two spells, cost 1 less and comes with a stick.
Also, there's not many fel spells available to take advantage of the additional effect. Dark Portal is as good as it gets, and even that's not really good.
Its so baffling in design that I feel that team5 is withholding something somewhere. Or maybe initial impressions is just that; this card is shit.
The very flexibility of this card makes this just insane. For all intends and purposes this is just another N'Zoth, the Corruptor at the price of 8. Better yet, this surpasses it by essentially allowing you to just reap the rewards of a deathrattle like a battlecry,
However, as it is currently, this card in standard isn't really plugging any holes nor will it be enough to push priest out of the deep end. Its more like a control card, because it'll likely clear the board and heal you a bunch. At least in standard, it's not likely to ever let you finish off any opponent from anything more than 10 health, and if you're facing a combo deck this doesn't really do much in disrupting them either.
Also, that hp is just crazy. Dealing 5 damage for 2 mana. Granted it'll swap every turn, but that's still significant damage. Certainly in control mirrors, you'll not hesitate to just play this right away, because the hp grants an immediate advantage over your opponent.
Tavern brawls like these ought to just straight out ban pogos and patches. I always get in an out within hours of release simply for that reason, before the humongous piles of pogos and counter pogo decks start populating the brawl.
Granted that something like this will almost always break at some point, whether its pogos or the dreaded Ice Block, but its really such a frustrating experience that I cant understand why team5 even persist with it. Just give us random stuff, at least I wont get a stroke playing all these bipolar matches.
Looking at so many of these cards, it would appear that we've gone to yet another level with the powerlevel. Its fairly obvious that team5 is trying to push control strats, with so many cards that either freezes, cheap taunts, and even cheaper removals.
Honor kill is going to at least be more successful than overkill at first glance, because team5 really pushed this keyword hard. I did notice that there is a huge number of honor kill cards triggering with 2 health minions, which means it'll likely push these guys out of the game. Looks like this might be the one expansion where we dont just jam Cult Neophyte everywhere.
With Reconnaissance I think team5 thinks they dont need to print anymore deathrattle cards for rogue, for like a few expansions at least.
If you needed hard removal in your deck, this is about as good as it can get.
But not being a fel spell would dampen it somewhat from use. Its likely a good card in midrange dhunter, rather than control.
Still, those pesky giants have always been troubling your local dhunter. Just jam this card and remove it.
It only damages enemies. So your fel imps are safe :)
Its great when it works. Basically fulfilling the role of a board clear and spammer at the same time.
Of course, that's part of the problem. There's a big likelihood it'll never work out the way you hoped. More often than not you'll summon one wyvern out because no one will play around this possibility, and then this gets removed. The only time this card is a major threat is specifically against token/aggro decks, and even then because of how honor kill works, you might take value trades that wouldn't summon a minion out.
However, if the meta is right this card will probably feature fairly often. And that says alot for a card in a class where many cards are usually deemed good in other classes but absolute rubbish in druid. This one stands right in the middle, waiting for the right time to make its mark.
On paper it looks inconsistent at best. But I'm not writing this one off until the meta settles because the pay off is so great its not impossible for this to see some play, even if its only in aggro decks. Being able to give your board divine shield is about as good as it can get.
Drop this out on 2. Your opponent will scramble to kill it or play no minions, because of this work, it'll give you such a massive advantage.
Probably never used. Not only does this require an honor kill to be relevant at all, its much more consistent predecessor, Tour Guide, is still here. And your opponent will likely play around this hard, if they think your hp is worth it.
Its only ever going to see play in either mage or hunter. Nothing else.
I assume that after one turn, whenever you thaw this it'll be able to attack immediately. But likely it wouldn't or otherwise it'll be way too strong.
Will it ever be a core meta card? Too inconsistent for it to ever be. But sometimes when it does work, your opponent will be covering his face like he's just scored an own goal.
Straight from blizz. A small image mismatch. Just wanted to preserve this for later when they eventually reuse this portrait.
But the card? Yeah its good. If Bumper Car sees play, why wouldn't this?
Its a good card even with that condition. There are ways to gain armor while still playing something. You get 3 armor for each Cargo Guard, 5 from Shieldmaiden and another 5 from rokara. And you've got your trusty hp to help out too.
So this will never really be a play on curve, unless you're playing something like Frozen Buckler, but as a end game win condition, it doesn't need to be. Its like Leeroy, it'll never be played on curve but simply by being cheaper than alternatives, its immediately a go to card.
Even if its not meta now, it'll be at some point. Because being able to dish out 9 damage earlier than turn 8 is worth it.
You're really an evil genius in the making. Purposefully writing such a wonderfully long prose that I have no choice but to read it to the end. Only to get a payoff equal to what is a monty python's holy grail ending.
Did it occur to you as you're writing, or was this the genius plan all along? :)
Its not as value oriented as the other hero cards, but this one delivers well in terms of just winning. Basically unless you've played this card your opponent will constantly be looking over his shoulder whenever he starts playing big minions because this can easily just scam a win out of nowhere. Against paladin its particularly insane, making sure that handbuff pally will never sleep well at night.
But at the end without that its still just a weapon that deals 5 damage twice, which means its technically too expensive for its value, because the hero power is simply deal 2 damage, with only occasionally gaining 4 armor. But honestly, it'll never realistically gain much in armor because you'd much rather hit face with hp anyway.
Gaining 5 armor also puts you that close to Captain Galvangar, which is a massive plus.
So we've waited long for a deathrattle card in rogue to be introduced so the earlier deathrattle support aren't completely shit. And we duly got rewarded by a card that basically fits any and all roles as a deathrattle target.
The only way this card backfires spectacularly is if you get offered up the pre-prime cards like Lady Vashj for example, which doesn't really do much tempo wise. On the other hand you can easily highroll Najak Hexxen and just have a 4 mana Mind Control in a class with Shadowstep.
This is just what deathrattle rogue needs.
Good arena card. But is so mundane that its practically combo filler in ranked. I cannot for the life of me understand why'd anyone would want to play this unironically in a standard ranked deck, because we're coming close to the point where even a 4/5 on 3 is no longer good enough, and this one needs to be combo-ed out to even start dreaming of being viable.
Oh well, filler is filler. There's no much else to say
If this unconditionally gets a copy, then its great. But unfortunately, it needs to honor kill for 2 in order to trigger, which drastically reduces its consistency.
The irony is that this will likely consistently work against most decks that play for tempo, which would probably give you a card you won't be using, only rarely will this ever turn out to be a winner.
The genius level play is to play out Spy-o-matic, honor kill something and simulate a discover a card from your opponent's topdecks. But that's stretching it so far I wouldn't think that's a winning play.
Whenever it works, its amazing. But when it doesn't work you're just screwed by 2 mana.
For that reason, its likely only ever coming out via discover.
There is a small niche it has over Holy Smite, which is to technically double your deathrattle value, for a late game Xyrella push. This does conveniently kill Shadowed Spirit, and will summon another one out. Maybe that's where this card is heading towards.
It draws two cards in a class that can't really draw much. This is just good.
That it is a deathrattle is slightly concerning, but that means it does synergize well with Xyrella, the Devout, so priest is not lacking in any card draw for much longer.
A small issue in that it draws specifically a holy and shadow spell, which means you can't play it in shadow priest or its literally just a Big Ol' Whelp. But overall a nice solid addition to priest's arsenal.
Its just bad in a class that already has plenty of board clears. Even in zoo, if you really need a board clear very badly, just play Grimoire of Sacrifice, which though needs a sacrificial target, is at very least a mere 1 mana, which will allow you to regain tempo.
As far as the draw is concern, this is also an area of which warlock is not lacking in. Hullbreaker, for example, tutors two spells, cost 1 less and comes with a stick.
Also, there's not many fel spells available to take advantage of the additional effect. Dark Portal is as good as it gets, and even that's not really good.
Its so baffling in design that I feel that team5 is withholding something somewhere. Or maybe initial impressions is just that; this card is shit.
The very flexibility of this card makes this just insane. For all intends and purposes this is just another N'Zoth, the Corruptor at the price of 8. Better yet, this surpasses it by essentially allowing you to just reap the rewards of a deathrattle like a battlecry,
However, as it is currently, this card in standard isn't really plugging any holes nor will it be enough to push priest out of the deep end. Its more like a control card, because it'll likely clear the board and heal you a bunch. At least in standard, it's not likely to ever let you finish off any opponent from anything more than 10 health, and if you're facing a combo deck this doesn't really do much in disrupting them either.
Also, that hp is just crazy. Dealing 5 damage for 2 mana. Granted it'll swap every turn, but that's still significant damage. Certainly in control mirrors, you'll not hesitate to just play this right away, because the hp grants an immediate advantage over your opponent.