But outside of the obvious OTK, most arcane spells are expensive enough that this card will almost never be used alongside it. The best I can think of is Arcane Intellect, and that's because you'll likely have the apprentice down to reduce its cost anyway. Otherwise you'd have to reduce the cost of your spells or elementals to make it happen, something you can't (for the time being) do in standard. There's really only Siphon Mana in terms of discounts
The kind of card that can get better because look at it, its a brann for spells. Arcane spells that is.
Its main purpose is, as you guessed it, to supply you with arcane bolts. So if the bolts are key then this would be key.
But it is significantly worse than Arcane Wyrm. Bad stats for cost, and being a deathrattle means your opponent can interact with it (or you got to pop it).
Viability dependent on arcane bolt's, which is not a good sign for this card.
Arcane hasn't always been the best spell school in mage, so this is just an apprentice for an OTK, which is perfectly fine because its predecessor was never used outside of one anyway.
But this is one of those cards that can never be ignored or discounted no matter how useless they are in the current meta. At some point of time some pro will make full use of the card and eventually it'll get its much coveted vote to be nerfed, like all other broken cards do.
Its main purpose is to give you Arcane Bolts and a decent turn 1 minion. The bolts of course is pretty good far as a ping goes, but crucially provides you the ammunition you need for an OTK with Vexallus strats.
Cheap enough to brann it out while youre doing other stuff.
Well here we go, arcane bolt OTK all setup. 9 mana, Vexallus -> Magister's Apprentice -> one spell damage minion + 4 Arcane Bolts = 32 damage. And by the looks of it, you can get at least 8 arcane bolts per game as of this reveal. So its theoretically possible to do it even if they have 60 health.
Dangerous stuff, except mage doesn't draw the same way warlock or druid does, and its still susceptible to a mad duke play. Lose Vexallus and the whole house of cards crumbles down. I think we see the problem here; spooky mage can reliable end games somewhere around turn 10 and unlike this deck is at least more resilient against most archetypes and doesn't just auto lose to theotar. So in other words this OTK is unconvincing, at least not in a meta that's filled with so many disruption cards.
That said, Im pretty sure it'll be at least tier 2-3, and some pro will make full use of double magister's apprentice, regardless of whether vexallus actually ends the game.
Mana gain for other classes have been explored before, like Lightning Bloom and Escaped Manasaber but as most would predict it, they just dont work all that well for classes that wasn't specifically designed to work with it. Druid (much to my displeasure) tend to be designed with plenty of excellent late game strats, which incentives consistent mana growth, something that other classes tend to lack.
We can also argue that this has been explored in other classes indirectly via the concept of mana cheating, which often become problematic in the same way.
Mana ramp is one of those things that needs delicate balancing, and I dont think we need it being introduced in other classes.
Support for aggro druid, and seems like team5 is doubling down on the hordes of undead thing with druid. But Im still not entirely convinced because there's just so many non-undead cards you'd run in aggro druid, which is why I feel there's a possibility that aggro druid will simply exist without Elder Nadox or Wither, good cards they may be.
Still the second half of druid yet unrevealed. And man I sure hope there isn't any 4/6 taunts being cheated out for zero mana being printed in this expansion.
Not too surprised to see this being printed, since Wither itself becomes useless once the undead horde are all gone. So it makes sense that there should be a card that generates undead boards back
But this card has more applications than merely as reload for aggro druid. Basically this card is another Scale of Onyxia, assuming the first one is played. Or alternatively you can run a multitude of small defensive minions like Annoy-o-Tron and Plated Beetle, and this card will properly bring them back, sort of like a psuedo Spreading Plague that needs buildup.
I can see plenty of applications for this card, no matter the deck.
it discovers two spells and then… what? You still paid 3 mana to cast a spell that you'd easily put into your deck or maybe even Discover or draw from another card, like Runed Orb, Spellcoiler, Deepwater Evoker, Arcanologist, Nerubian Vizier, School Teacher, much better cards to get spells, with Vast Wisdom you get… 0 mana advantage or potential value from it at most, well, 0 mana advantage + a dead card that you'll probably wont want to play unless you have leftover mana in your reserves since otherwise playing it normally feelsbad.
Hell, even Warlock had a Discover 2 cards card (Twisted Knowledge) for 2 mana, and that only saw play for a brief time. Arcane Intellect is also a card that gets you two cards that would be most certainly useful from your deck.
In wild, you have cards like Primordial Glyph which is basically free spell from three choices, Evocation, Magic Trick, Starscryer and many, many, many more cards that can do a much better job than this at creating spells. …Apologies if its a bit long, but it really feels like it Discovered spells of higher cost (ill say 5, at most), the team feared that it'd be too powerful, and then changed it so that no one could potentially abuse it in any kind of dirty plays. I'm really sorry, I just really think this card is that bad unless it gets buffed to.. idk, 4 mana or less, maybe then I can see fringe cases of use.
It didn't work for warlock because most warlock cards tend to have drawbacks, and warlock draws so effortlessly it never seemed reasonable to do it. Just tap hero power, that's the same net gain of cards.
But for mage however, discovering spells is often very dangerous, because mage has plenty of damage and stall spells. Imagine getting a third Solid Alibi, or even just plain secret like Counterspell. That's game defining stuff. Mage being one of the few classes that can consistently get away with off tempo plays, so paying 3 mana to do nothing is not unreasonable.
That said, I have misgivings for this card's viability, not because of powerlevel, but because its mostly redundant. Where would such a card be played? Likely only in XL decks and that's because of the 10 additional card slots.
The best cards for pally this expansion is undoubtedly the blood knights, because they are fast and cover up a significant problem in pally's card library in standard - they're fast, they take initiative, and they do face damage. Like seriously, you can drop brann on turn 3 and there's a good chance paladin cant clear it. Even something as simple as Peasant on turn 1 and pally can't remove it for several turns.
The dragon package however, is bust in my opinion. Too slow, and while they're not necessarily unplayable, we can already see that constructed play beyond aggro tends to favor shenanigans and is usually less about stats. Ive played dragon control pally, and while its playable its not optimal because the dragons in standard tend to suck. The only thing going for it is Kazakusan, and even then its so slow you might as well try making The Countess work instead.
But its early days, and there can yet be more dragons to be introduced, or the blood knight cards are so good that even the dragon package is playable because of it.
Anachronos is just good though. No need synergies, you can legit play this in every paladin deck. May not necessarily be a winning card, but it provides an option that most paladins simply dont have.
Its not bad, but not good neither. Certainly nowhere near the efficiency of Swindle, the one card that every rogue mains want back in standard.
But miracle lists always need more draw, so why not? At least its likely playable, which is more than can be said for a lot of better looking cards.
Better than Gone Fishin' because at very least this card might actually do something other than draw. The comparison is obvious, but lots of lists are cutting gone fishin precisely because its dead card without combo. Dont think the same can be said about this card, if nothing else.
As an added bonus it can hit face. So it has synergies with spell damage as well.
The only redeeming factor is the fact that its a shadow spell, and thus has synergies.
Aside from that, its really one of those things that looks good but further probing revealing how shit it actually is. Because what indeed is priest going to raise back up with this card?
At the moment, the most obvious target here is Elwynn Boar. But that's only if you play this early, because all the other support minions also cost less than 3.
Its a fine card, because basically it discovers 2 spells. The fact that the pool is restricted means you'll likely find what you need, like another Arcane Bolt or even Frozen Touch. Menacingly this can also get you secrets, which can help with mind games.
But the problem is very stark; where does this fit in? Spooky mage doesnt need it, not relevant in big spell mage, so the only natural fit is in XL decks, which pretty much sums up the problem itself. I can see this being a choice discover option, but inclusion into decks is a bit of a stretch.
The key here is how well druid can flood their board with undead, because this card for some reason only works with that. And since many of aggro druid's staples are non-undead, its kinda hard to see it immediately auto included. Very likely it'll only work in one very specific list at the end.
Can't even see this as a pure removal option because without undead on board its going to do nothing, which is why it will only ever be seen in aggro druid, unless team5 prints yet another Scale of Onyxia that summons undead minions.
Deathrattle support for rogue? Are we sure this isn't a mage card or something. Pretty sure its against the rules to print such things for rogue
But jokes aside. This card is good, and will likely make for a barrel of laughs with Snowfall Graveyard. As to its practical applications, Im still running my brain for a payoff, because its kinda slow, even if it cheats out Stoneborn General.
More likely it'll be inserted into mine rogue, and work from there.
Im actually surprised that the total revenue from the entire country only factors 3%.
But perhaps not too surprised. Im fairly certain that most serious players use VPN, so likely the currency paid cannot be tracked or paid in USD instead of yuan. China have other distractions, mobile being a serious thing there, and hearthstone being so expensive I cant see it topping charts anyway.
Very likely blizz wouldn't even bother trying to regain access. Chinese players would likely have a wealth of options to gain access to western media, the only question being how desperate would they be.
Sticky as hell, and its kinda the thing that aggro druid really needs, particularly since druid currently lacks ways to protect their board from being endlessly destroyed.
Also helps that it synergizes with all those 'undead dead a turn before' cards.
Yup, that about does it for a review. Its not supposed to be good, which it really isn't, but its kinda the stuff priest tends to get one way or another.
Its your main man for the OTK setup.
But outside of the obvious OTK, most arcane spells are expensive enough that this card will almost never be used alongside it. The best I can think of is Arcane Intellect, and that's because you'll likely have the apprentice down to reduce its cost anyway. Otherwise you'd have to reduce the cost of your spells or elementals to make it happen, something you can't (for the time being) do in standard. There's really only Siphon Mana in terms of discounts
The kind of card that can get better because look at it, its a brann for spells. Arcane spells that is.
Its main purpose is, as you guessed it, to supply you with arcane bolts. So if the bolts are key then this would be key.
But it is significantly worse than Arcane Wyrm. Bad stats for cost, and being a deathrattle means your opponent can interact with it (or you got to pop it).
Viability dependent on arcane bolt's, which is not a good sign for this card.
Arcane hasn't always been the best spell school in mage, so this is just an apprentice for an OTK, which is perfectly fine because its predecessor was never used outside of one anyway.
But this is one of those cards that can never be ignored or discounted no matter how useless they are in the current meta. At some point of time some pro will make full use of the card and eventually it'll get its much coveted vote to be nerfed, like all other broken cards do.
Its main purpose is to give you Arcane Bolts and a decent turn 1 minion. The bolts of course is pretty good far as a ping goes, but crucially provides you the ammunition you need for an OTK with Vexallus strats.
Cheap enough to brann it out while youre doing other stuff.
Well here we go, arcane bolt OTK all setup. 9 mana, Vexallus -> Magister's Apprentice -> one spell damage minion + 4 Arcane Bolts = 32 damage. And by the looks of it, you can get at least 8 arcane bolts per game as of this reveal. So its theoretically possible to do it even if they have 60 health.
Dangerous stuff, except mage doesn't draw the same way warlock or druid does, and its still susceptible to a mad duke play. Lose Vexallus and the whole house of cards crumbles down. I think we see the problem here; spooky mage can reliable end games somewhere around turn 10 and unlike this deck is at least more resilient against most archetypes and doesn't just auto lose to theotar. So in other words this OTK is unconvincing, at least not in a meta that's filled with so many disruption cards.
That said, Im pretty sure it'll be at least tier 2-3, and some pro will make full use of double magister's apprentice, regardless of whether vexallus actually ends the game.
Mana gain for other classes have been explored before, like Lightning Bloom and Escaped Manasaber but as most would predict it, they just dont work all that well for classes that wasn't specifically designed to work with it. Druid (much to my displeasure) tend to be designed with plenty of excellent late game strats, which incentives consistent mana growth, something that other classes tend to lack.
We can also argue that this has been explored in other classes indirectly via the concept of mana cheating, which often become problematic in the same way.
Mana ramp is one of those things that needs delicate balancing, and I dont think we need it being introduced in other classes.
Support for aggro druid, and seems like team5 is doubling down on the hordes of undead thing with druid. But Im still not entirely convinced because there's just so many non-undead cards you'd run in aggro druid, which is why I feel there's a possibility that aggro druid will simply exist without Elder Nadox or Wither, good cards they may be.
Still the second half of druid yet unrevealed. And man I sure hope there isn't any 4/6 taunts being cheated out for zero mana being printed in this expansion.
Not too surprised to see this being printed, since Wither itself becomes useless once the undead horde are all gone. So it makes sense that there should be a card that generates undead boards back
But this card has more applications than merely as reload for aggro druid. Basically this card is another Scale of Onyxia, assuming the first one is played. Or alternatively you can run a multitude of small defensive minions like Annoy-o-Tron and Plated Beetle, and this card will properly bring them back, sort of like a psuedo Spreading Plague that needs buildup.
I can see plenty of applications for this card, no matter the deck.
It didn't work for warlock because most warlock cards tend to have drawbacks, and warlock draws so effortlessly it never seemed reasonable to do it. Just tap hero power, that's the same net gain of cards.
But for mage however, discovering spells is often very dangerous, because mage has plenty of damage and stall spells. Imagine getting a third Solid Alibi, or even just plain secret like Counterspell. That's game defining stuff. Mage being one of the few classes that can consistently get away with off tempo plays, so paying 3 mana to do nothing is not unreasonable.
That said, I have misgivings for this card's viability, not because of powerlevel, but because its mostly redundant. Where would such a card be played? Likely only in XL decks and that's because of the 10 additional card slots.
The best cards for pally this expansion is undoubtedly the blood knights, because they are fast and cover up a significant problem in pally's card library in standard - they're fast, they take initiative, and they do face damage. Like seriously, you can drop brann on turn 3 and there's a good chance paladin cant clear it. Even something as simple as Peasant on turn 1 and pally can't remove it for several turns.
The dragon package however, is bust in my opinion. Too slow, and while they're not necessarily unplayable, we can already see that constructed play beyond aggro tends to favor shenanigans and is usually less about stats. Ive played dragon control pally, and while its playable its not optimal because the dragons in standard tend to suck. The only thing going for it is Kazakusan, and even then its so slow you might as well try making The Countess work instead.
But its early days, and there can yet be more dragons to be introduced, or the blood knight cards are so good that even the dragon package is playable because of it.
Anachronos is just good though. No need synergies, you can legit play this in every paladin deck. May not necessarily be a winning card, but it provides an option that most paladins simply dont have.
Its not bad, but not good neither. Certainly nowhere near the efficiency of Swindle, the one card that every rogue mains want back in standard.
But miracle lists always need more draw, so why not? At least its likely playable, which is more than can be said for a lot of better looking cards.
Better than Gone Fishin' because at very least this card might actually do something other than draw. The comparison is obvious, but lots of lists are cutting gone fishin precisely because its dead card without combo. Dont think the same can be said about this card, if nothing else.
As an added bonus it can hit face. So it has synergies with spell damage as well.
The only redeeming factor is the fact that its a shadow spell, and thus has synergies.
Aside from that, its really one of those things that looks good but further probing revealing how shit it actually is. Because what indeed is priest going to raise back up with this card?
At the moment, the most obvious target here is Elwynn Boar. But that's only if you play this early, because all the other support minions also cost less than 3.
Its a fine card, because basically it discovers 2 spells. The fact that the pool is restricted means you'll likely find what you need, like another Arcane Bolt or even Frozen Touch. Menacingly this can also get you secrets, which can help with mind games.
But the problem is very stark; where does this fit in? Spooky mage doesnt need it, not relevant in big spell mage, so the only natural fit is in XL decks, which pretty much sums up the problem itself. I can see this being a choice discover option, but inclusion into decks is a bit of a stretch.
Its good, but very clunky.
The key here is how well druid can flood their board with undead, because this card for some reason only works with that. And since many of aggro druid's staples are non-undead, its kinda hard to see it immediately auto included. Very likely it'll only work in one very specific list at the end.
Can't even see this as a pure removal option because without undead on board its going to do nothing, which is why it will only ever be seen in aggro druid, unless team5 prints yet another Scale of Onyxia that summons undead minions.
Deathrattle support for rogue? Are we sure this isn't a mage card or something. Pretty sure its against the rules to print such things for rogue
But jokes aside. This card is good, and will likely make for a barrel of laughs with Snowfall Graveyard. As to its practical applications, Im still running my brain for a payoff, because its kinda slow, even if it cheats out Stoneborn General.
More likely it'll be inserted into mine rogue, and work from there.
I think the main problem is that it doesn't cheese out neptulon, which is why the comparison is a little suspect.
Im actually surprised that the total revenue from the entire country only factors 3%.
But perhaps not too surprised. Im fairly certain that most serious players use VPN, so likely the currency paid cannot be tracked or paid in USD instead of yuan. China have other distractions, mobile being a serious thing there, and hearthstone being so expensive I cant see it topping charts anyway.
Very likely blizz wouldn't even bother trying to regain access. Chinese players would likely have a wealth of options to gain access to western media, the only question being how desperate would they be.
Sticky as hell, and its kinda the thing that aggro druid really needs, particularly since druid currently lacks ways to protect their board from being endlessly destroyed.
Also helps that it synergizes with all those 'undead dead a turn before' cards.
Dont know what broken things you can do with this card but somehow someway some pro will make it happen.
For that reason alone Im tentatively giving this 5 stars, simply because its inevitable.
Its thief priest support.
Yup, that about does it for a review. Its not supposed to be good, which it really isn't, but its kinda the stuff priest tends to get one way or another.