Its good in a meta that plays minions, but more interesting is how the UI would work, because this could easily be an entire expansion by itself. We'll have to see how well team5 have built it, but impressive it is both in its keyword and design.
But as with most 8 mana cards, its really dependent on the meta, because if Illidari Inquisitor got bumped out of standard, then what chances are there for other 8 mana minions?
It has charge so it'll be good one way or another. Impressive, considering that if this card is even remotely good you'll be expecting team5 to get death threats.
Aside from the obvious pirate warrior deck, it has a interesting niche in rogue where Efficient Octo-bot exists. Just discount a few good pirates and burst them to hell with smite at 5 mana or less.
Im not that worried to be honest, because its still a 6 mana minion that deals but 6 damage. And since there's no deathrattle pirate as yet, its basically never realistically doing more than charging itself. The one reason it could get more heat than it deserves is getting this via the juggernaunt, which is basically game over unless something weird happens.
Its amazing how underwhelming Edwin, Defias Kingpin looks compared to Mr. Smite, who might as well be a thinly disguised Leeroy, and will be in just about any aggro deck simply because its a 6 mana deal 6, which in standard currently is about as good as it gets. On top of this, if the juggernaunt ever spawns him for free, that's basically an instant win out of rng's bum.
Sneed is interesting. But a tad expensive, and is existing in a meta where people dont play much minions. Still, its at least an interesting take, considering the words "you choose the targets". Might be revolutionary in terms of UI for hearthstone.
Cookie is just fine. A good murloc for any occassion.
Youre right, so it doesn't. I cant find anything to prove it anyway. But it was always in my mind that its in ultra rare, I just cant remember where I saw it.
It was announced ages ago that meek mastery was in ultra rare pool 2. That was done along with oops spells, and rally the troops in an attempt to reduce its frequency in duels (meek mastery was like a guaranteed in anything past 7 wins before this).
Why is book of wonders in pool 2 anyway? Seems like the one thing to avoid 90% of the time.
Legendary loot is just broken in the right deck. At the moment, if rogue gets it and selects something like Aluneth or Woecleaver, its just lights now there and then.
Of all the treasures removed/nerf, not addressing fireshaper is likely a mistake. Mind tether is good, but its not insurmountable especially in the later levels. Having both this and fireshaper on the other hand, should be illegal.
Its amazing how much effort is being placed so to avoid actual human pvp encounters. Looks like this aspect is being optimized to hell as well.
The AI in mercs aren't very smart. From what I experienced, the bot will calculate the maximum amount of damage it can do (considering critical hits) and target the merc with the lowest health. Which means, 90% of the time it'll target something not so essential like healers. It'll also queue up attacks even when its attack is 0, make up taunts when the entire opposing team are casters, and there seem to be a sequence it'll follow, like using an ability with cooldown 1 on turn 2 even if its doing less damage (if you get the perk that removes the cooldown, you'll see this often).
Of course Im commenting on the pve where you're going against mercs. But Im fairly certain the AI for pvp aren't going to be any different.
If blizz would like players to start buying these packs, it might do to actually improve the pack quality because its clear that each pack dramatically gets worse the more mercs you have, and the more packs you open.
In hearthstone hearthstone, each pack guarantees at least 40 dust so at very worst you can open up to 3 to get a rare card. In mercs, you can just as easily get more coins for mercs you dont need/have, and be exactly the same spot as you were from before opening any packs.
Mercs is not the most predatory of games out there with gacha mechanics. But on top of its shallow gameplay lies a completely nonsensical grind, as the most effective way to grind coins for individual mercs currently would be to use 1 merc (yes only 1) and grind out barrens heroic 1. About 3-4 matches for a paltry 10 coins, and yet this is more effective than beating ragnaros any number of times over.
Just another filler card for old time sake. Because how else are we to evaluate a card like this? The mere fact that its unreliable relegates it to meme status almost at the immediate offset, for people to fawn over and have a laugh, because if you are for a second thinking that this card can seriously be anything more the game's officially fked.
Sounds like a pipdream. 5-mana is a lot and you can't rely on setting up a board before. The fact that it hits face is nice but I fear that most of the time you actually want this to hit minions.
Sure, there's theSin'dorei Scentfinder or Rodent Nest 2 turn set up, but how often is that going to be a thing? I'm getting ever so slightly frustrated with this trend of the miniset just giving a bunch of disjointed gimmick cards instead of actual support for existing archetypes.
Maybe if the parrot allows you to copy Rat King and you can get a bunch of those out.
Kinda hoping I'M wrong on this because I like the idea of a Beast deck with an actual gameplan other than hoping not to run into a single boardclear.
Team5's usual design motto is to have a few cards that help existing archetypes while the majority is for new archetypes.
There is currently a beast hunter deck that uses wolpertingers and pack mule along with plenty of copy cards like Northshire Farmer and Dire Frenzy and I can assure you its not merely a meme. You have plenty of reload, so board clears aren't really going to do much to this deck.
Well for one, Reapers Scythe is rotating in approximately 3-5 months. Secondly it helps create trade synergies (auctioneer jax). sometimes cards aren't printed for the current meta dapper. sometimes they are printed for the future meta.
The big problem with this card is not merely competition, but also that its basically a 4 mana deal 5, which is respectable, but without the upgrade its worse than just about any weapon available. To upgrade it, you need to first dump the card and play it, and since you're spending one mana to get rid of it, you're not playing on curve for tempo, which is nearly impossible to do for any midrange or aggro deck. Then you got to draw it again, and then and only then you're swinging for 5, up to 15 in three turns.
Outrider's axe is weaker than reaper's scythe in aggro quest warrior, but in control quest its the weapon of choice. So where will this fit in? There's one niche it does have is that its basically an infinite weapon in a control game where you can get this up to 6 or 8 durability for a nearly indestructible weapon - assuming no oozes. A nice game plan, but I dont think its going to make it.
The future can sort itself out when it comes. Maybe the midset legendary's going to blow everyone's mind away and suddenly this card goes from trash to god tier in one swoop. But until then, it doesn't look good for this card.
But this card is bizarrely not a 3/4 at least. Im guessing team5 has a decent beast designed out and didn't want this card ripping it to shreds. Because if there isn't a consistent target for this, then its just trash.
Aggro pirate warrior would love this, because this card is an instant threat to any deck and will never be left alive beyond the same turn its played. On empty boards this card can easily do 4 damage to the opponent's face.
There's no other way to describe this as an instant 5 star card, because even if it does absolutely nothing its still a pirate and warrior in standard really needs those, desperately.
Maybe in zoo, maybe in quest zoo. But really, will you put this in your deck, especially considering that Unstable Shadow Blast basically does better? The only niche I can see is in zoo where you Tour Guide on 1, and then take back board on 2 with this card after a tap.
Unless there are better and cheaper ways to hurt yourself on the cheap (because you cant just play raise dead whenever you want) this card is just not very good. Even then, warlock has access to better cards to remove board.
Its a good card for zoo, just don't expect to get much more from it. The upgrade after traded is basically moot because zoo never wants to skip their first turns and certainly dont want to pay mana to upgrade or draw until the end game where this card is quite useless then.
Maybe useful at some point as a sacrificial lamb to better cards like Plague of Flames. But until then, Im not expecting to see this card played outside of its base form.
Doesn't matter what you think now. Someone somewhere at some point of time will break the entire game with this card.
But on its own? Maybe as a on curve follow up to a cheapen Arid Stormer for a good board swing, or get yourself another Instructor Fireheart. The possibilities are endless.
As long as octobot isn't nerfed or rotated, this card is hot trash.
The 2/2 weapon is probably the only shining glory in this card's design. Being able to discount one spell by one is just laughable considering that octobot discounts all cards in your hand. Plus, what else are you really going to do with this card outside of the discount factor? At least SI:7 Extortion will kill something.
Edit: After some thought, there might be a chance this just slots into poison rogue. Its a weapon, and if you dont need it you can just trade it back, discount something so essentially its cycling for nothing.
And being a weapon means that you can just play it in case you cant wait for Swinetusk Shank anymore.
Okay, so its not hot trash. But its very close to it.
Its good in a meta that plays minions, but more interesting is how the UI would work, because this could easily be an entire expansion by itself. We'll have to see how well team5 have built it, but impressive it is both in its keyword and design.
But as with most 8 mana cards, its really dependent on the meta, because if Illidari Inquisitor got bumped out of standard, then what chances are there for other 8 mana minions?
It has charge so it'll be good one way or another. Impressive, considering that if this card is even remotely good you'll be expecting team5 to get death threats.
Aside from the obvious pirate warrior deck, it has a interesting niche in rogue where Efficient Octo-bot exists. Just discount a few good pirates and burst them to hell with smite at 5 mana or less.
Im not that worried to be honest, because its still a 6 mana minion that deals but 6 damage. And since there's no deathrattle pirate as yet, its basically never realistically doing more than charging itself. The one reason it could get more heat than it deserves is getting this via the juggernaunt, which is basically game over unless something weird happens.
Its amazing how underwhelming Edwin, Defias Kingpin looks compared to Mr. Smite, who might as well be a thinly disguised Leeroy, and will be in just about any aggro deck simply because its a 6 mana deal 6, which in standard currently is about as good as it gets. On top of this, if the juggernaunt ever spawns him for free, that's basically an instant win out of rng's bum.
Sneed is interesting. But a tad expensive, and is existing in a meta where people dont play much minions. Still, its at least an interesting take, considering the words "you choose the targets". Might be revolutionary in terms of UI for hearthstone.
Cookie is just fine. A good murloc for any occassion.
Youre right, so it doesn't. I cant find anything to prove it anyway. But it was always in my mind that its in ultra rare, I just cant remember where I saw it.
It was announced ages ago that meek mastery was in ultra rare pool 2. That was done along with oops spells, and rally the troops in an attempt to reduce its frequency in duels (meek mastery was like a guaranteed in anything past 7 wins before this).
Why is book of wonders in pool 2 anyway? Seems like the one thing to avoid 90% of the time.
Legendary loot is just broken in the right deck. At the moment, if rogue gets it and selects something like Aluneth or Woecleaver, its just lights now there and then.
Of all the treasures removed/nerf, not addressing fireshaper is likely a mistake. Mind tether is good, but its not insurmountable especially in the later levels. Having both this and fireshaper on the other hand, should be illegal.
Its amazing how much effort is being placed so to avoid actual human pvp encounters. Looks like this aspect is being optimized to hell as well.
The AI in mercs aren't very smart. From what I experienced, the bot will calculate the maximum amount of damage it can do (considering critical hits) and target the merc with the lowest health. Which means, 90% of the time it'll target something not so essential like healers. It'll also queue up attacks even when its attack is 0, make up taunts when the entire opposing team are casters, and there seem to be a sequence it'll follow, like using an ability with cooldown 1 on turn 2 even if its doing less damage (if you get the perk that removes the cooldown, you'll see this often).
Of course Im commenting on the pve where you're going against mercs. But Im fairly certain the AI for pvp aren't going to be any different.
If you have all the epics mercs, the next thing will be epic portraits. If you have all portraits, you'll get epic coins.
If blizz would like players to start buying these packs, it might do to actually improve the pack quality because its clear that each pack dramatically gets worse the more mercs you have, and the more packs you open.
In hearthstone hearthstone, each pack guarantees at least 40 dust so at very worst you can open up to 3 to get a rare card. In mercs, you can just as easily get more coins for mercs you dont need/have, and be exactly the same spot as you were from before opening any packs.
Mercs is not the most predatory of games out there with gacha mechanics. But on top of its shallow gameplay lies a completely nonsensical grind, as the most effective way to grind coins for individual mercs currently would be to use 1 merc (yes only 1) and grind out barrens heroic 1. About 3-4 matches for a paltry 10 coins, and yet this is more effective than beating ragnaros any number of times over.
Just another filler card for old time sake. Because how else are we to evaluate a card like this? The mere fact that its unreliable relegates it to meme status almost at the immediate offset, for people to fawn over and have a laugh, because if you are for a second thinking that this card can seriously be anything more the game's officially fked.
Well, I can see that this card is happily fulfilling the tradition of useless miniset epics.
Team5's usual design motto is to have a few cards that help existing archetypes while the majority is for new archetypes.
There is currently a beast hunter deck that uses wolpertingers and pack mule along with plenty of copy cards like Northshire Farmer and Dire Frenzy and I can assure you its not merely a meme. You have plenty of reload, so board clears aren't really going to do much to this deck.
The big problem with this card is not merely competition, but also that its basically a 4 mana deal 5, which is respectable, but without the upgrade its worse than just about any weapon available. To upgrade it, you need to first dump the card and play it, and since you're spending one mana to get rid of it, you're not playing on curve for tempo, which is nearly impossible to do for any midrange or aggro deck. Then you got to draw it again, and then and only then you're swinging for 5, up to 15 in three turns.
Outrider's axe is weaker than reaper's scythe in aggro quest warrior, but in control quest its the weapon of choice. So where will this fit in? There's one niche it does have is that its basically an infinite weapon in a control game where you can get this up to 6 or 8 durability for a nearly indestructible weapon - assuming no oozes. A nice game plan, but I dont think its going to make it.
The future can sort itself out when it comes. Maybe the midset legendary's going to blow everyone's mind away and suddenly this card goes from trash to god tier in one swoop. But until then, it doesn't look good for this card.
Turnabout is fair play.
But this card is bizarrely not a 3/4 at least. Im guessing team5 has a decent beast designed out and didn't want this card ripping it to shreds. Because if there isn't a consistent target for this, then its just trash.
Smaller Swipe, but in my opinion, not better than Minefield.
But no one says you cant just play them both.
Aggro pirate warrior would love this, because this card is an instant threat to any deck and will never be left alive beyond the same turn its played. On empty boards this card can easily do 4 damage to the opponent's face.
There's no other way to describe this as an instant 5 star card, because even if it does absolutely nothing its still a pirate and warrior in standard really needs those, desperately.
Maybe in zoo, maybe in quest zoo. But really, will you put this in your deck, especially considering that Unstable Shadow Blast basically does better? The only niche I can see is in zoo where you Tour Guide on 1, and then take back board on 2 with this card after a tap.
Unless there are better and cheaper ways to hurt yourself on the cheap (because you cant just play raise dead whenever you want) this card is just not very good. Even then, warlock has access to better cards to remove board.
Its a good card for zoo, just don't expect to get much more from it. The upgrade after traded is basically moot because zoo never wants to skip their first turns and certainly dont want to pay mana to upgrade or draw until the end game where this card is quite useless then.
Maybe useful at some point as a sacrificial lamb to better cards like Plague of Flames. But until then, Im not expecting to see this card played outside of its base form.
Doesn't matter what you think now. Someone somewhere at some point of time will break the entire game with this card.
But on its own? Maybe as a on curve follow up to a cheapen Arid Stormer for a good board swing, or get yourself another Instructor Fireheart. The possibilities are endless.
As long as octobot isn't nerfed or rotated, this card is hot trash.
The 2/2 weapon is probably the only shining glory in this card's design. Being able to discount one spell by one is just laughable considering that octobot discounts all cards in your hand. Plus, what else are you really going to do with this card outside of the discount factor? At least SI:7 Extortion will kill something.
Edit: After some thought, there might be a chance this just slots into poison rogue. Its a weapon, and if you dont need it you can just trade it back, discount something so essentially its cycling for nothing.
And being a weapon means that you can just play it in case you cant wait for Swinetusk Shank anymore.
Okay, so its not hot trash. But its very close to it.