At some point there would be enough good elementals to actually make this work, and make elemental mage a thing.
But for now its just a card found wanting, wanting for more actual elementals in mage. Not to mention the fact that elemental mage even back then used to be shit anyway. I'll respect this card, simply because if there were going to be any chance for elemental mage, it'll be because of this card.
Realistically its merely an Arcane Intellect 90% of the time. Refreshing Spring Water is/was good because you can just slam it on 5 (4 before it was nerfed) and draw cards for 1 mana. This card however, requires you to play spells before it even gets decent, and to do more you'd have to rely on other cards played first, to get to spell schools mage don't usually have.
In other words, you'd play this because your deck is geared towards that direction anyway. I highly doubt the deck itself to be in any shape good, and this card is likely one of the more contentious of all.
Its a card for big mage, and yet bizarrely requires ideally small spells to be good.
In other words, its mostly a discover option. Its never realistically a build around, because it doesn't win games on its own, and requires a quite frankly difficult condition to fulfill without dying. At most its a greed card, the sort of thing you put into your deck so you dont just lose to control decks.
The powerlevel of this card depends on the pay off, and this card to be fair is one such.
I dont really like cards that rely on other cards to be good, especially since at default mage really only has three spell school types. As Coral Keeper found much to its dismay, that you cant really just play spells for the sake of charging up a card because you'd lose tempo and you'll likely just lose the game in general, at least in standard.
But the biggest problem with this card is actually redundancy. We already have plenty of payoffs in mage, Vexallus, Grand Magister Rommath, DJ Manastorm, Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable. All of them powerful, better and faster than this card, and yet neither sports any good win rates.
Is there any reason not to just play Aegwynn, the Guardian? A card that's proven to be good, and even dead still does retains its value.
Well, its still crap to be honest. I mean, in 2023 a vanilla minion that does nothing more on board is pretty much a no-no, and this card really doesn't stand a chance against other better 2 drops like Trench Surveyor. Even in mech mage, you'd rather just have cheap minions like 1 drops to combo with Mecha-Shark, and magnetize doesn't trigger that neither.
Outside of a mech deck this card gets even worse, so no point discussing that. The only good out of this card is from discovers or random effects. A minion that can freeze may sometimes be good, but more often than not just redundant. Mage has plenty other ways to freeze.
It is possible to respect and appreciate the advances of our society today and still feel there's much left to be desired. I dont suffer cramping conditions standing in the local bus for 1 hour thinking how nice it is that I dont have to walk to work. Shit is shit, we should call it as it is, while still respecting the fact that our forefathers once trekked 5 miles to go to school with a bag weighing in 2 kg. No point in condescension. The world has moved on.
Imagine your employers paying you a pittance and then telling you to be grateful because just over 200 years ago slaves were paid a pint of grain and half a salted fish for a weeks hard work.
If you cant stand to people bemoaning on the internet I think its fair to say you should just ignore them, especially since its easy enough to do so. Ignore the emotional outburst and make your point, if there is any. If not, then walk on. Makes life simpler and happier.
Admitably, I never really did understand how some people can get upset looking at others getting upset, especially if they are no way involved at all. Its like they feel second-hand hurt because they happen to be within the vicinity of a shouting match. I'd personally just walk on to be honest.
That's a good point, although I'd contend that its too easy to tech against and it has a near zero percent change to beat blood DK, one of the most annoying decks in the game.
I think if shaman can actually control the game past turn 6-7 there might well be a good chance we'll actually see From De Other Side deck work consistently.
Unless youre specifically quest shaman you'll never want to fill your deck with overload cards and for 2 mana this card barely does anything useful to any consistent degree.
Florist does more or less the same, but with a wider pool to hit, and none of the downsides of having a bunch of overload cards. It still saw zero competitive play outside of week 1.
The only way this card sees play is that team5 went mad and made some bs overload card that fills your entire board for 4 mana, overload you for 5, that's where this card would do something useful.
So you play a bunch of nature spells after Flash of Lightning, but because shaman's nature card tend to be shit youre likely not going to do much. Here's a card that solves every one of those problems, because it hits everything and incentivized popoff turns.
Along with Flash of Lightning this is easily shaman's best card this set (aside from the titan of course). The fact that they both go hand in hand makes it even better. Better still, you could discover Crash of Thunder and suddenly you're ahead on tempo.
Even if flash of lightning didn't get printed, Ive no doubt this card would see play. Flexibility is something shamans tend to need, since most of their stuff tend to be middling.
This card will either be the best weapon shaman has got or easily the weakest. The key thing here is that its too inconsistent and youre not in total control over how it works.
So you want to snipe off the best minion from your opponent's board but he has a bunch of tokens. You kill one with the swing and the 3 damage removes the key minion. Success. But conversely if the 3 damage doesn't hit the key minion, you'll look like an absolute knobhead wouldn't you?
In control shaman it'll be an easy inclusion. Everywhere else Im not so sure.
I personally love cards like these but I cant see where this card fits outside of control shaman. Its just too slow to be useful, too low health to stay alive, and its effect is hardly game winning. Neptulon is great because it spawns two hands that must be dealt with, this card also summons tokens but with a near 0% chance of actually surviving.
Its one of those cards you dont ever want in your deck but will be pleasantly surprised to see in discover options or random evolve chances.
Its mana cheating and as such will always need to be respected.
Only good thing here is that its only nature spells and shaman's nature spells tend to be piss weak. Which is perhaps why team5 went for it and made this card a nature spell too.
There's no obvious payoff as yet to all this mana cheating, but you can never underestimate it. It'll come good at some point.
Its a support card for control shaman, but in a more limited capacity it can also do well in most shaman decks that actually play nature spells.
Just play Flash of Lightning on 3 and then on 4 you can pop off with Lightning Reflexes which will get you tempo back and sometimes even more. A decent enough payoff for just a few cards.
On paper this looks good, fantastic even. Turning one of shaman's greatest conundrums into a strength that's more flexible than Overdraft ever could.
But ironically in standard shaman simply cannot reliably load up on overload because there's really not many cheap overload cards. This card is just asking for Lightning Bloom and Perpetual Flame to come back to standard just so you can draw more than 2 cards.
Its going to be a hit in quest shaman, whether in wild or twist (which Im sure no one is asking or waiting for). But in standard, it needs more support, more cheap overload cards, a similar problem suffered by Inzah, which thus far sees no play.
Go back far enough and you'd be watching telly the size of a playing card. My own experience wasn't as severe, since it was about the size of four playing cards. Unfortunately, I wasnt lucky enough to actually play an atari, but I did once own a pc with a massive memory capacity of 256 kb.
Today my screen is the size of a deck of cards. So what has it got to do with criticizing bad practices? They do it, I call them out on it. Its really that simple.
Its funny because that's basically paying steam to advertise their games.
Im really sick of all these companies forcing consumers to download and use their platform just to play games. In my opinion, if you get your game through steam, you should not be forced to download a third-party platform software, login into accounts, etc. just to play the game you want.
Still, at least battlenet and steam are respectful platforms that dont make you do gymnastics just to play them. Uplay on the other hand is an utter mess. One of the reasons why I rarely ever play their games is that I cant stand their platform. Had to go through several hurdles just to login and after the first few times I simply just said fuck it.
Mage's best card this expansion.
Simple, flexible, and useful in just about any mage deck. You can say fairer than that.
At some point there would be enough good elementals to actually make this work, and make elemental mage a thing.
But for now its just a card found wanting, wanting for more actual elementals in mage. Not to mention the fact that elemental mage even back then used to be shit anyway. I'll respect this card, simply because if there were going to be any chance for elemental mage, it'll be because of this card.
Realistically its merely an Arcane Intellect 90% of the time. Refreshing Spring Water is/was good because you can just slam it on 5 (4 before it was nerfed) and draw cards for 1 mana. This card however, requires you to play spells before it even gets decent, and to do more you'd have to rely on other cards played first, to get to spell schools mage don't usually have.
In other words, you'd play this because your deck is geared towards that direction anyway. I highly doubt the deck itself to be in any shape good, and this card is likely one of the more contentious of all.
Its a card for big mage, and yet bizarrely requires ideally small spells to be good.
In other words, its mostly a discover option. Its never realistically a build around, because it doesn't win games on its own, and requires a quite frankly difficult condition to fulfill without dying. At most its a greed card, the sort of thing you put into your deck so you dont just lose to control decks.
The powerlevel of this card depends on the pay off, and this card to be fair is one such.
I dont really like cards that rely on other cards to be good, especially since at default mage really only has three spell school types. As Coral Keeper found much to its dismay, that you cant really just play spells for the sake of charging up a card because you'd lose tempo and you'll likely just lose the game in general, at least in standard.
But the biggest problem with this card is actually redundancy. We already have plenty of payoffs in mage, Vexallus, Grand Magister Rommath, DJ Manastorm, Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable. All of them powerful, better and faster than this card, and yet neither sports any good win rates.
Is there any reason not to just play Aegwynn, the Guardian? A card that's proven to be good, and even dead still does retains its value.
So powercrept Snowchugger
Well, its still crap to be honest. I mean, in 2023 a vanilla minion that does nothing more on board is pretty much a no-no, and this card really doesn't stand a chance against other better 2 drops like Trench Surveyor. Even in mech mage, you'd rather just have cheap minions like 1 drops to combo with Mecha-Shark, and magnetize doesn't trigger that neither.
Outside of a mech deck this card gets even worse, so no point discussing that. The only good out of this card is from discovers or random effects. A minion that can freeze may sometimes be good, but more often than not just redundant. Mage has plenty other ways to freeze.
Firstly, a point to make about your comments.
It is possible to respect and appreciate the advances of our society today and still feel there's much left to be desired. I dont suffer cramping conditions standing in the local bus for 1 hour thinking how nice it is that I dont have to walk to work. Shit is shit, we should call it as it is, while still respecting the fact that our forefathers once trekked 5 miles to go to school with a bag weighing in 2 kg. No point in condescension. The world has moved on.
Imagine your employers paying you a pittance and then telling you to be grateful because just over 200 years ago slaves were paid a pint of grain and half a salted fish for a weeks hard work.
If you cant stand to people bemoaning on the internet I think its fair to say you should just ignore them, especially since its easy enough to do so. Ignore the emotional outburst and make your point, if there is any. If not, then walk on. Makes life simpler and happier.
Admitably, I never really did understand how some people can get upset looking at others getting upset, especially if they are no way involved at all. Its like they feel second-hand hurt because they happen to be within the vicinity of a shouting match. I'd personally just walk on to be honest.
That's a good point, although I'd contend that its too easy to tech against and it has a near zero percent change to beat blood DK, one of the most annoying decks in the game.
I think if shaman can actually control the game past turn 6-7 there might well be a good chance we'll actually see From De Other Side deck work consistently.
Looks good but likely it'll never see play.
Unless youre specifically quest shaman you'll never want to fill your deck with overload cards and for 2 mana this card barely does anything useful to any consistent degree.
Florist does more or less the same, but with a wider pool to hit, and none of the downsides of having a bunch of overload cards. It still saw zero competitive play outside of week 1.
The only way this card sees play is that team5 went mad and made some bs overload card that fills your entire board for 4 mana, overload you for 5, that's where this card would do something useful.
Remember Stormstrike? This is that now.
Comes with an overload, for whatever reason. But it'll still power up your Doomhammers and Horn of the Windlord. For that reason alone it'll see play.
Wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of burn shaman, or midrange shaman featuring this card at some point.
Its your popoff payoff.
So you play a bunch of nature spells after Flash of Lightning, but because shaman's nature card tend to be shit youre likely not going to do much. Here's a card that solves every one of those problems, because it hits everything and incentivized popoff turns.
Yes, it'll see play.
Along with Flash of Lightning this is easily shaman's best card this set (aside from the titan of course). The fact that they both go hand in hand makes it even better. Better still, you could discover Crash of Thunder and suddenly you're ahead on tempo.
Even if flash of lightning didn't get printed, Ive no doubt this card would see play. Flexibility is something shamans tend to need, since most of their stuff tend to be middling.
This card will either be the best weapon shaman has got or easily the weakest. The key thing here is that its too inconsistent and youre not in total control over how it works.
So you want to snipe off the best minion from your opponent's board but he has a bunch of tokens. You kill one with the swing and the 3 damage removes the key minion. Success. But conversely if the 3 damage doesn't hit the key minion, you'll look like an absolute knobhead wouldn't you?
In control shaman it'll be an easy inclusion. Everywhere else Im not so sure.
I personally love cards like these but I cant see where this card fits outside of control shaman. Its just too slow to be useful, too low health to stay alive, and its effect is hardly game winning. Neptulon is great because it spawns two hands that must be dealt with, this card also summons tokens but with a near 0% chance of actually surviving.
Its one of those cards you dont ever want in your deck but will be pleasantly surprised to see in discover options or random evolve chances.
Its mana cheating and as such will always need to be respected.
Only good thing here is that its only nature spells and shaman's nature spells tend to be piss weak. Which is perhaps why team5 went for it and made this card a nature spell too.
There's no obvious payoff as yet to all this mana cheating, but you can never underestimate it. It'll come good at some point.
Lots of support for control shaman. Will we actually see a more consistent Rivendare, Warrider into From De Other Side?
Its a support card for control shaman, but in a more limited capacity it can also do well in most shaman decks that actually play nature spells.
Just play Flash of Lightning on 3 and then on 4 you can pop off with Lightning Reflexes which will get you tempo back and sometimes even more. A decent enough payoff for just a few cards.
On paper this looks good, fantastic even. Turning one of shaman's greatest conundrums into a strength that's more flexible than Overdraft ever could.
But ironically in standard shaman simply cannot reliably load up on overload because there's really not many cheap overload cards. This card is just asking for Lightning Bloom and Perpetual Flame to come back to standard just so you can draw more than 2 cards.
Its going to be a hit in quest shaman, whether in wild or twist (which Im sure no one is asking or waiting for). But in standard, it needs more support, more cheap overload cards, a similar problem suffered by Inzah, which thus far sees no play.
Go back far enough and you'd be watching telly the size of a playing card. My own experience wasn't as severe, since it was about the size of four playing cards. Unfortunately, I wasnt lucky enough to actually play an atari, but I did once own a pc with a massive memory capacity of 256 kb.
Today my screen is the size of a deck of cards. So what has it got to do with criticizing bad practices? They do it, I call them out on it. Its really that simple.
Its funny because that's basically paying steam to advertise their games.
Im really sick of all these companies forcing consumers to download and use their platform just to play games. In my opinion, if you get your game through steam, you should not be forced to download a third-party platform software, login into accounts, etc. just to play the game you want.
Still, at least battlenet and steam are respectful platforms that dont make you do gymnastics just to play them. Uplay on the other hand is an utter mess. One of the reasons why I rarely ever play their games is that I cant stand their platform. Had to go through several hurdles just to login and after the first few times I simply just said fuck it.