It might actually be unironically be one of shaman's best cards this expansion, not even the famed Doctor Holli'dae, because unlike that card this one I can imagine being in most if not all shaman decks.
Forget the buff. This is straight up draw a spell for 2 mana with a 2/2 body. If it were a neutral card you'd play it in your deck if there is any hint of spells in it.
In a dedicated deck, you can play this along with Trusty Companion and get a massive 5/7 taunt for 4 mana, plus draw 2 cards.
A so-so card that will only be played in highlander.
Discovering spells is good, but for 2 mana with no further discounts and only healing your face for 5, that's kinda weak. If you think about it, you'll almost never bother with the healing, and just play this on 2 for the discover effect.
Runed Orb for mage is good because it relieves tempo, this card does not. Its not even a close comparison.
Its a decent card, kinda the stuff you put into highlander because you really need to stuff 30 cards into a deck. Its not mind boggling good, or just never played, but somewhere right in the middle.
I'd say the best thing about this card is that you can get it off a discover option. There's really little else to recommend this. Shaman rarely ever plays control, and this card isnt pushing any boundaries any time soon.
This card is great, comparable to Hand of A'dal 90% of the time. Shaman tends to play tribal minions the most, and anyone who puts this card into their deck will likely have built around it.
So you get a nice little buff along with a card for 2, what's there not to like. Its gonna see play one way or another, because the only deck it doesnt fit into is combo, and even then its not definite.
Apart from everything mentioned, the art is also well drawn, cutesy stuff. 5 stars all round.
The card is strong, but its tied to highlander which severely limits its viability. Basically, when it comes to highlander Ive always thought shaman does the worse in, because so many of their cards either work synergistically or situationally.
But if we rate this card on its own, the only good thing about the staff is that it generates taunts. Its extremely high durability doesnt actually factor in too much because its nearly impossible to ever finish the weapon naturally. Not to mention that its powerlevel is always going to be capped by the fact that vipers will naturally be everywhere.
Overall, its gonna see play only if highalnder is viable, and if it is viable then certainly you'd play this card anyway, there's just no reason not to.
Team5 printed this solely to encourage players to play midrange elemental shaman, and also because we can already see the problem with that archetype: It gets destroyed by aggro.
This card plugs one of the few holes in that deck, very nicely too. Id imagine this card seeing play, but only in that deck. The overload is way too severe for any other deck to take it, unless the overload is entirely the reason to play this.
But again, you need to respect the lifesteal and this card has all the elements required to be good as a high cost card. Rush, lifesteal, and windfury.
Probably only seen in control, because in nearly all other archetypes its way too slow. But if ever there's a way to cheat it out it'll be completely insane.
Payoff for playing midrange elemental is good, because this card is excellent.
As to whether it can carry the whole archetype that's another question entirely. Because we can already see the main issue with this payoff. You need to consistently drop an elemental every turn, and in 2023 doing something like that usually will get you destroyed by aggro.
We'll have to see whether there's enough good elementals incoming to truly judge whether this thing can fly. From what Ive seen, its likely to end up like pirate rogue at the start of sunken city: Good enough, but falls flat very quickly as the meta develops.
Here's the thing. There's already a BUU plague DK that's doing decently well.
That deck needs removal options and this is one such. So it'll see play.
Not too happy that its a multirune card, but admitably even if it wasnt it wouldnt see play in UUU or BBB decks for its own reasons. So in this instance Id say its okay, even though its kinda annoying.
Discover effects are good in DK. Hence, this card will see play. Its really that simple. Even if you dont trigger the quickdraw its gonna give you a chance at getting an undead you wouldn't normally have access to, such as Pile of Bones, or reska. Or even Frost Queen Sindragosa, imagine playing that card on 5.
There's just nothing else for it. Id be surprised if this card doesnt see play.
Decently strong car...wait, its a fucking multirune card.
FFS team5, why.
Its more or less established that the frost excavate DK would be something for DK to do next expansion, so why'd you put an unholy rune requirement there? Or are we debating whether Frostwyrm's Fury is something we'd definitely, definitely never play just to fit a card like this in the deck.
The only reason why Im not lowering my score further than 3 stars is that I concede there might* be a chance we'd just play plague UUF DK, so this card can fit in fine. But seriously, even if excavate is good, you'd always want to play frostwyrm's fury because why wouldnt you? Nothing comes close to that card in terms of power.
- It generates 4 corpses for 3 mana, which is useful and sometimes crucial. The 4 tokens itself counts as removal, something unholy doesnt necessary always have.
- It has an innate combo with undead synergy, but more importantly you can use this card with Sickly Grimewalker and remove 4 minions for 6 mana. Plague DK often needs removal, and this card might be one part of that.
Just a good card for 3 mana. Simple, flexible, and more importantly not a multi rune card.
It'll see play, but its effect make it necessary for you to excavate up till tier 2 and then pray you can drop this down for a 0 mana card at tier 3.
Its not always easy or consistent, but Id imagine excavate being good so this card gets good marks if only because it does exactly what you want it to do. The 0 mana discount helps a ton too, to offset the poor stats for cost.
Rather astounding that its a single rune card considering that it'll never see play in a UUU deck. Even at best it'll appear in rainbow DK simply to spend those corpses so you can have your finale that ultimately 9/10 times would never kill the opponent outright.
But even considering that function, is it actually better than corpse bride on that regard? Taking a swing at a random 8 cost minion against a consistent 8/8, that's a question to ask. Id still prefer corpse bride if only because I get another 4/4 to go with it.
The first major issue is that its a multi rune card and so by default can only fit into 1-2 decks at best. Baffling, when you consider that what it does essentially is neither game breaking nor exclusive to specific rune archetypes.
The second major issue is its stats. 8 health is pretty difficult to take down on 4, but with that 1 attack it more or less ensures that it'll always be value traded so if your opponent has a board you cannot by default play this card unless 6 corpses for 4 mana is what you wanted.
And finally, the biggest issue of them all. If somehow kept alive, this card gives you 5 health. In what world is 4 mana for 5 extra health worth considering, especially since it has to actually stay alive to do it.
If there is a silver lining to this card, its this. That it may have been designed specifically to die on 4, so you can play Corpse Bride on 5 for a minimum 6/6, or to allow you to better use Fistful of Corpses. Ironically that's the best use of the card. Play it and pray it gets removed so you get to play other, stronger cards. Is this really worth a legendary slot? My opinion is, no.
Alright heres the thing. I rate this card 4 stars, but then that nasty little frost rune gone and ruin everything and my final rating would be a 3. And that's being generous.
There's really nothing wrong with the card. Its balanced enough, that I feel it'll get to around 5 mana consistently in most matches. And its base high attack of 6 ensures that it'll usually take two enemy minions out.
In my opinion, a card like this should not even have a rune restriction. It properly fits into every archetype, each with their own way of cheapening it. At present, I can only see one deck playing it and that's rainbow DK, an archetype that has repeatedly failed with team5 stubbornly doubling down on the rune system.
Such a shame. It'll suffer the same fate as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a good card thats capped at the knee through no fault of its own.
Will it work this time? BUU plague DK might make something, but thus far from what Im seeing its not looking good. They need an AoE option. Pray that they do get something of that sort.
Was there even a control priest back then that played benedictus at all? All priest post KotFT was pretty much raza priest, the only time Ive ever seen it in competitive is literally as a meme.
Maybe Im misremembering but there wasnt even a pure attrition control deck during that era, all the way until witchwood after all the DKs rotated. Only one that I remember, and that deck was crap as well, was controlock, before the kobolds set started.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
One of the problems with Overheal as an archetype (and strategy in general) is a serious lack of payoff cards.
I dont think its lacking payoffs. Heartbreaker Hedanis and Heartthrob are actually pretty good, the latter especially. The main problem is that there isnt really a load of cheap heals to trigger them consistently and quickly enough.
And thats exactly what I think this card suffers from.
Its a card you'll hate and hate alot to see when facing priest.
Bad enough that control priest is a pain in the arse to deal with, now youre giving them flexible healing options that heal for a ton, for very little mana.
One point of commentary. I dont think this card actually triggers overheal because the description clearly writes 'damaged character' which implies that it only fully heals something, not overheal it. The excess however is a different story. But it does quite demand that you heal something first, and if theres nothing to heal this card does nothing.
It might actually be unironically be one of shaman's best cards this expansion, not even the famed Doctor Holli'dae, because unlike that card this one I can imagine being in most if not all shaman decks.
Forget the buff. This is straight up draw a spell for 2 mana with a 2/2 body. If it were a neutral card you'd play it in your deck if there is any hint of spells in it.
In a dedicated deck, you can play this along with Trusty Companion and get a massive 5/7 taunt for 4 mana, plus draw 2 cards.
A so-so card that will only be played in highlander.
Discovering spells is good, but for 2 mana with no further discounts and only healing your face for 5, that's kinda weak. If you think about it, you'll almost never bother with the healing, and just play this on 2 for the discover effect.
Runed Orb for mage is good because it relieves tempo, this card does not. Its not even a close comparison.
Its a decent card, kinda the stuff you put into highlander because you really need to stuff 30 cards into a deck. Its not mind boggling good, or just never played, but somewhere right in the middle.
I'd say the best thing about this card is that you can get it off a discover option. There's really little else to recommend this. Shaman rarely ever plays control, and this card isnt pushing any boundaries any time soon.
This card is great, comparable to Hand of A'dal 90% of the time. Shaman tends to play tribal minions the most, and anyone who puts this card into their deck will likely have built around it.
So you get a nice little buff along with a card for 2, what's there not to like. Its gonna see play one way or another, because the only deck it doesnt fit into is combo, and even then its not definite.
Apart from everything mentioned, the art is also well drawn, cutesy stuff. 5 stars all round.
The card is strong, but its tied to highlander which severely limits its viability. Basically, when it comes to highlander Ive always thought shaman does the worse in, because so many of their cards either work synergistically or situationally.
But if we rate this card on its own, the only good thing about the staff is that it generates taunts. Its extremely high durability doesnt actually factor in too much because its nearly impossible to ever finish the weapon naturally. Not to mention that its powerlevel is always going to be capped by the fact that vipers will naturally be everywhere.
Overall, its gonna see play only if highalnder is viable, and if it is viable then certainly you'd play this card anyway, there's just no reason not to.
Team5 printed this solely to encourage players to play midrange elemental shaman, and also because we can already see the problem with that archetype: It gets destroyed by aggro.
This card plugs one of the few holes in that deck, very nicely too. Id imagine this card seeing play, but only in that deck. The overload is way too severe for any other deck to take it, unless the overload is entirely the reason to play this.
This card should by right never see play.
But again, you need to respect the lifesteal and this card has all the elements required to be good as a high cost card. Rush, lifesteal, and windfury.
Probably only seen in control, because in nearly all other archetypes its way too slow. But if ever there's a way to cheat it out it'll be completely insane.
Payoff for playing midrange elemental is good, because this card is excellent.
As to whether it can carry the whole archetype that's another question entirely. Because we can already see the main issue with this payoff. You need to consistently drop an elemental every turn, and in 2023 doing something like that usually will get you destroyed by aggro.
We'll have to see whether there's enough good elementals incoming to truly judge whether this thing can fly. From what Ive seen, its likely to end up like pirate rogue at the start of sunken city: Good enough, but falls flat very quickly as the meta develops.
Here's the thing. There's already a BUU plague DK that's doing decently well.
That deck needs removal options and this is one such. So it'll see play.
Not too happy that its a multirune card, but admitably even if it wasnt it wouldnt see play in UUU or BBB decks for its own reasons. So in this instance Id say its okay, even though its kinda annoying.
Its simple to judge a card like this.
Discover effects are good in DK. Hence, this card will see play. Its really that simple. Even if you dont trigger the quickdraw its gonna give you a chance at getting an undead you wouldn't normally have access to, such as Pile of Bones, or reska. Or even Frost Queen Sindragosa, imagine playing that card on 5.
There's just nothing else for it. Id be surprised if this card doesnt see play.
Decently strong car...wait, its a fucking multirune card.
FFS team5, why.
Its more or less established that the frost excavate DK would be something for DK to do next expansion, so why'd you put an unholy rune requirement there? Or are we debating whether Frostwyrm's Fury is something we'd definitely, definitely never play just to fit a card like this in the deck.
The only reason why Im not lowering my score further than 3 stars is that I concede there might* be a chance we'd just play plague UUF DK, so this card can fit in fine. But seriously, even if excavate is good, you'd always want to play frostwyrm's fury because why wouldnt you? Nothing comes close to that card in terms of power.
There's two things of note with this card.
- It generates 4 corpses for 3 mana, which is useful and sometimes crucial. The 4 tokens itself counts as removal, something unholy doesnt necessary always have.
- It has an innate combo with undead synergy, but more importantly you can use this card with Sickly Grimewalker and remove 4 minions for 6 mana. Plague DK often needs removal, and this card might be one part of that.
Just a good card for 3 mana. Simple, flexible, and more importantly not a multi rune card.
It'll see play, but its effect make it necessary for you to excavate up till tier 2 and then pray you can drop this down for a 0 mana card at tier 3.
Its not always easy or consistent, but Id imagine excavate being good so this card gets good marks if only because it does exactly what you want it to do. The 0 mana discount helps a ton too, to offset the poor stats for cost.
Its a card specifically designed to amp up Climactic Necrotic Explosion.
Rather astounding that its a single rune card considering that it'll never see play in a UUU deck. Even at best it'll appear in rainbow DK simply to spend those corpses so you can have your finale that ultimately 9/10 times would never kill the opponent outright.
But even considering that function, is it actually better than corpse bride on that regard? Taking a swing at a random 8 cost minion against a consistent 8/8, that's a question to ask. Id still prefer corpse bride if only because I get another 4/4 to go with it.
Could have been better, but to me its shit.
The first major issue is that its a multi rune card and so by default can only fit into 1-2 decks at best. Baffling, when you consider that what it does essentially is neither game breaking nor exclusive to specific rune archetypes.
The second major issue is its stats. 8 health is pretty difficult to take down on 4, but with that 1 attack it more or less ensures that it'll always be value traded so if your opponent has a board you cannot by default play this card unless 6 corpses for 4 mana is what you wanted.
And finally, the biggest issue of them all. If somehow kept alive, this card gives you 5 health. In what world is 4 mana for 5 extra health worth considering, especially since it has to actually stay alive to do it.
If there is a silver lining to this card, its this. That it may have been designed specifically to die on 4, so you can play Corpse Bride on 5 for a minimum 6/6, or to allow you to better use Fistful of Corpses. Ironically that's the best use of the card. Play it and pray it gets removed so you get to play other, stronger cards. Is this really worth a legendary slot? My opinion is, no.
Alright heres the thing. I rate this card 4 stars, but then that nasty little frost rune gone and ruin everything and my final rating would be a 3. And that's being generous.
There's really nothing wrong with the card. Its balanced enough, that I feel it'll get to around 5 mana consistently in most matches. And its base high attack of 6 ensures that it'll usually take two enemy minions out.
In my opinion, a card like this should not even have a rune restriction. It properly fits into every archetype, each with their own way of cheapening it. At present, I can only see one deck playing it and that's rainbow DK, an archetype that has repeatedly failed with team5 stubbornly doubling down on the rune system.
Such a shame. It'll suffer the same fate as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a good card thats capped at the knee through no fault of its own.
Oh dear, DK is going multi rune again.
Will it work this time? BUU plague DK might make something, but thus far from what Im seeing its not looking good. They need an AoE option. Pray that they do get something of that sort.
Was there even a control priest back then that played benedictus at all? All priest post KotFT was pretty much raza priest, the only time Ive ever seen it in competitive is literally as a meme.
Maybe Im misremembering but there wasnt even a pure attrition control deck during that era, all the way until witchwood after all the DKs rotated. Only one that I remember, and that deck was crap as well, was controlock, before the kobolds set started.
I dont think its lacking payoffs. Heartbreaker Hedanis and Heartthrob are actually pretty good, the latter especially. The main problem is that there isnt really a load of cheap heals to trigger them consistently and quickly enough.
And thats exactly what I think this card suffers from.
Its a card you'll hate and hate alot to see when facing priest.
Bad enough that control priest is a pain in the arse to deal with, now youre giving them flexible healing options that heal for a ton, for very little mana.
One point of commentary. I dont think this card actually triggers overheal because the description clearly writes 'damaged character' which implies that it only fully heals something, not overheal it. The excess however is a different story. But it does quite demand that you heal something first, and if theres nothing to heal this card does nothing.