Even after the manathirst its fairly unspectacular. 4 mana deal 6 damage to a minion is about as standard as it gets nowadays, and your opponent would likely be playing something bigger at those turns.
A neutral freeze effect, but that's meaningless because freeze effects are only ever good in dedicated decks, so this is in fact a card for either shaman, mage or DK, but weaker than the options available for those classes.
So if you are playing this card, it'll be presumably because its a cheap silence. But since silences are tech choices and this only gains that effect on turn 6, its unreliable. Besides, Royal Librarian and starfish fills that void perfectly.
Supports questlock but let's be real here you'll never play this just for that reason because warlock has far better ways for self damage. Hell, you can even play bs stuff just to ping your own face if youre so desperate, not to mention that this damages at the end of the turn, so you can't even play tammy the same turn you get her.
But as an aggro card this is solid. Its hard to remember that a 4/5 body is in fact a real threatening card in the early turns and at turn 3 its nearly guaranteed to do at least 4 damage to face before its eventual removal. That 2 damage to your face is insignificant when youre the one pressing.
You can never write off stuff like these because its practically a better Scalerider, or Gyreworm and both saw play in their times. 3 damage is neat though, being the bare minimum of good removal damage these days.
If there's a dragon deck this card would be in it, because its just a decent team player. Not a Duskbreaker or Alexstrasza, but like most of us common folk this card would do most of the work and get the least of the recognition.
Its the kind of card that might be useful because it may suit the meta and you need to protect something. The problem is that AoE these days aren't all that rare and this card does nothing against that.
Another bigger problem is redundancy. Why'd anyone play this over Blademaster Okani is beyond me. Even okani himself is rarely an auto pick in decks, let alone this one.
I just dont understand what they're trying to accomplish with manathirst. Surely the whole point is to choose between playing a card now for a smaller effect or waiting for a larger effect. Cards like this is just unplayable without the manathirst so there's just no choice is there?
Put it in another way you're paying 3 mana to play a turn five 2+3 drop. If this is good enough then fine, but even aggro decks would stay clear of this one. The 10 manathirst might as well never exists, because most games dont even last all that long to begin with. Even control decks can't afford a brick in their hand for 10 turns.
Baffling design. It feels so purposeful that the 'can't target face' effect is a battlecry, almost like team5 wants us to either rez it or wring it out of our hand for an OTK.
Either that, or they've blatantly brought Il'gynoth back one way or another.
Or a third possibility. Devs got drunk one day before design deadline and this card is just this shit.
What is the point of Translocation Instructor when its so blantantly worse than Soul Seeker. Or are we toying with the idea that its strictly more useful that the minion dies on your opponent's side?
But Hawkstrider Rancher though. That's scary as hell. Fortunately, it requires minions to be played to gain the effect. Imagine if its summon. Implock would be tier 1 all over again.
March of the lich King is so far proving to be a bit mixed, because Ive now seen so many OP cards for DK while the cards available to the other classes are so poor. Its like all the design energy went towards DK and every other class/neutrals have to have a share of the scraps left behind. Manathrist so far looking disappointing, possibly because of the obsession with making the baseline minion crap or vanilla. If there isn't a card that synergizes with all these manathrist cards it might possibly prove to be a dud.
Silvermoon Arcanist is only one mana off Guild Trader, but infinitely less useful because of the lack of tradeable, and its usage is simply against minions. I can't see many reasons to play this over Enchanter.
Crystal Broker does nothing until turn 5. A very strict manathirst card indeed.
Sanctum Spellbender has a neat effect but very likely its only really good from evolve shenanigans rather than inclusion because of its costs. You can't even make an argument for aggro decks, because this doesn't protect against AoE. Unless the meta revolves around one card's ability to target minions, this will unlikely make any impact.
Amber Whelp is about 2 years too late. Only priest is playing dragons now, and I dont see why they'd play this card. It does powercreep both Scalerider and Blackwing Corruptor
Bloodied Knight is good. I mean 3 mana 4/5 with a paltry downside most aggro decks would shrug off. Only thing stopping it is redundancy because most gameplans nowadays seems to be tribe related.
Basically recycle Mo'arg Artificer, except now it also includes damage outside of spells.
But costing 3? That's hard, because when artificer was 3 it saw no play outside of dhunter and that's because of a combo. Likely DK will make use of it because of lifesteal and really nowhere else.
I'll be honest, this card is shit. I just cant see the merits of cards like these. Pyros, Build a Snowman, and the primes (with a few exceptions) all weren't good enough in their time and here's another one testing the old Einstein adage once again.
So to get into a few details. The main problem of this card is that it does nothing without triggering manathrist and the stats suck. Even the final reward of the card is lacklustre, even with 16 damage because its split, so every face damage that doesn't kill face is damage lost. The only way this ever sees play is via some crazy manathrist combo enabler that is yet to be revealed, or it goes into druid, because no other class can trigger the manathirst faster than druid, and also because druid is the only class that can naturally play out the final reward with Brann Bronzebeard.
But of course, the ultimate killer to the card's viability is perhaps to ask - why aren't you just playing Sire Denathrius instead?
This card is interesting, because it features some bonuses if you wait, but you get a progressively better card sooner if you dont. Alternatively, you can just treat it as though as the manathirst is the actual cost of the card and the effects are the battlecries.
So that said, is this a good card? Likely not in my opinion, except in druid. Discounts dont work well with this class because of how manathirst work, but ramp should. And also because druid is the only class that can naturally play this alongside Brann Bronzebeard for a psuedo-denathrius finisher. All other classes would prefer to play other, better stuff with less convoluted conditions. I mean, even Sire Denathrius is easier to work with than this card.
Not to mention that the card's stats aren't good for its cost, and you need to play it off curve just so its secondary effect triggers. Even then, with the exception of the last, they're not really that good.
The million dollar question here would be whether it keeps the buffs when it returns to hand. We can't answer this by referring to Youthful Brewmaster's effect (which resets the buffs) because if the answer to that question is no, then this card is irredeemable shit, which I refuse to believe.
Because aside from everything else, you're paying 5 mana to play a 3/5 taunt minion. That alone dooms the card. But if it retains the buffs that means the card is just a 0 mana taunt that needs to be removed owing to its insane attack stat.
So tentatively I'd rate this a good three stars, with the assumption that it will retain the buff. If it doesnt however, this legendary card might as well be a mean joke, fun poking at an OP class.
Funny this card, because while its so useless at face value, it'll fit very fine into a blood unholy deck.
Because being able to remove a minion while playing one yourself, at the early turns, is fairly invaluable. 2 damage to your face is insignificant in that regard.
Playable stuff at least, if nothing else. Not likely to have a high play winrate, but decent, and that's fine enough.
Dont see where this card goes. Runeforging does make a lifesteal Arcanite Reaper, but in a deck with two blood runes its unlikely that your gameplan is face anyway, so this is strictly a control card, and a really bad one at that. I'd rather just play Frostmourne, because at least that card sticks to the gameplan. But both weapons will likely make way for Soulbreaker, a much better card for the deck.
As for this card. Im sure its shit. Unless blood DK becomes a midrange burn deck this card does nothing and contributes very little. Its like Lightbringer's Hammer - The whole point of the weapon is completely gone when you realise that you need to strike minions and minions do damage. So will I spend 5-6 mana for a removal option that hits twice? No, unless Ive no choice.
Its unbuffed Tidal Surge. And that card, even at 3, is seeing no play today. Even in control decks a 4 mana deal 6 damage is kinda shit honestly.
But you'll play it regardless because blood DK needs healing, and there's really no many other removal options available anyway. It's kinda that 28th card in the list, to be disposed off once there's better cards.
Its just insane that team5 is blatantly powercreeping established cards to DK.
This is just Holy Smite with an upside. And most conventional 2 mana removal cards do the same damage, and this cost only 1. Of course this will get played. Even in control priest holy smite used to be one of the better cards in that deck.
Best part of this card is you can just play it, no fuss no bother, on turn 2 and get value plus a 3/2 minion on curve. For that reason alone this card I'd rate over Darkfallen Neophyte or Blood Tap.
Can even get better, because it grants its attack. Meaning you can imagine Malignant Horror with 5 attack and played on curve that's insane.
Arena card, and even then an unreliable one.
Even after the manathirst its fairly unspectacular. 4 mana deal 6 damage to a minion is about as standard as it gets nowadays, and your opponent would likely be playing something bigger at those turns.
A neutral freeze effect, but that's meaningless because freeze effects are only ever good in dedicated decks, so this is in fact a card for either shaman, mage or DK, but weaker than the options available for those classes.
So if you are playing this card, it'll be presumably because its a cheap silence. But since silences are tech choices and this only gains that effect on turn 6, its unreliable. Besides, Royal Librarian and starfish fills that void perfectly.
I guess its shit then.
Soul Seeker is 100% better than this card.
Why'd this one need exist again?
Supports questlock but let's be real here you'll never play this just for that reason because warlock has far better ways for self damage. Hell, you can even play bs stuff just to ping your own face if youre so desperate, not to mention that this damages at the end of the turn, so you can't even play tammy the same turn you get her.
But as an aggro card this is solid. Its hard to remember that a 4/5 body is in fact a real threatening card in the early turns and at turn 3 its nearly guaranteed to do at least 4 damage to face before its eventual removal. That 2 damage to your face is insignificant when youre the one pressing.
You can never write off stuff like these because its practically a better Scalerider, or Gyreworm and both saw play in their times. 3 damage is neat though, being the bare minimum of good removal damage these days.
If there's a dragon deck this card would be in it, because its just a decent team player. Not a Duskbreaker or Alexstrasza, but like most of us common folk this card would do most of the work and get the least of the recognition.
Its the kind of card that might be useful because it may suit the meta and you need to protect something. The problem is that AoE these days aren't all that rare and this card does nothing against that.
Another bigger problem is redundancy. Why'd anyone play this over Blademaster Okani is beyond me. Even okani himself is rarely an auto pick in decks, let alone this one.
Worthless filler card in constructed.
I just dont understand what they're trying to accomplish with manathirst. Surely the whole point is to choose between playing a card now for a smaller effect or waiting for a larger effect. Cards like this is just unplayable without the manathirst so there's just no choice is there?
Put it in another way you're paying 3 mana to play a turn five 2+3 drop. If this is good enough then fine, but even aggro decks would stay clear of this one. The 10 manathirst might as well never exists, because most games dont even last all that long to begin with. Even control decks can't afford a brick in their hand for 10 turns.
Baffling design. It feels so purposeful that the 'can't target face' effect is a battlecry, almost like team5 wants us to either rez it or wring it out of our hand for an OTK.
Either that, or they've blatantly brought Il'gynoth back one way or another.
Or a third possibility. Devs got drunk one day before design deadline and this card is just this shit.
What is the point of Translocation Instructor when its so blantantly worse than Soul Seeker. Or are we toying with the idea that its strictly more useful that the minion dies on your opponent's side?
But Hawkstrider Rancher though. That's scary as hell. Fortunately, it requires minions to be played to gain the effect. Imagine if its summon. Implock would be tier 1 all over again.
March of the lich King is so far proving to be a bit mixed, because Ive now seen so many OP cards for DK while the cards available to the other classes are so poor. Its like all the design energy went towards DK and every other class/neutrals have to have a share of the scraps left behind. Manathrist so far looking disappointing, possibly because of the obsession with making the baseline minion crap or vanilla. If there isn't a card that synergizes with all these manathrist cards it might possibly prove to be a dud.
Two bad ones and fortunately a few better cards;
Silvermoon Arcanist is only one mana off Guild Trader, but infinitely less useful because of the lack of tradeable, and its usage is simply against minions. I can't see many reasons to play this over Enchanter.
Crystal Broker does nothing until turn 5. A very strict manathirst card indeed.
Sanctum Spellbender has a neat effect but very likely its only really good from evolve shenanigans rather than inclusion because of its costs. You can't even make an argument for aggro decks, because this doesn't protect against AoE. Unless the meta revolves around one card's ability to target minions, this will unlikely make any impact.
Amber Whelp is about 2 years too late. Only priest is playing dragons now, and I dont see why they'd play this card. It does powercreep both Scalerider and Blackwing Corruptor
Bloodied Knight is good. I mean 3 mana 4/5 with a paltry downside most aggro decks would shrug off. Only thing stopping it is redundancy because most gameplans nowadays seems to be tribe related.
Basically recycle Mo'arg Artificer, except now it also includes damage outside of spells.
But costing 3? That's hard, because when artificer was 3 it saw no play outside of dhunter and that's because of a combo. Likely DK will make use of it because of lifesteal and really nowhere else.
I'll be honest, this card is shit. I just cant see the merits of cards like these. Pyros, Build a Snowman, and the primes (with a few exceptions) all weren't good enough in their time and here's another one testing the old Einstein adage once again.
So to get into a few details. The main problem of this card is that it does nothing without triggering manathrist and the stats suck. Even the final reward of the card is lacklustre, even with 16 damage because its split, so every face damage that doesn't kill face is damage lost. The only way this ever sees play is via some crazy manathrist combo enabler that is yet to be revealed, or it goes into druid, because no other class can trigger the manathirst faster than druid, and also because druid is the only class that can naturally play out the final reward with Brann Bronzebeard.
But of course, the ultimate killer to the card's viability is perhaps to ask - why aren't you just playing Sire Denathrius instead?
This card is interesting, because it features some bonuses if you wait, but you get a progressively better card sooner if you dont. Alternatively, you can just treat it as though as the manathirst is the actual cost of the card and the effects are the battlecries.
So that said, is this a good card? Likely not in my opinion, except in druid. Discounts dont work well with this class because of how manathirst work, but ramp should. And also because druid is the only class that can naturally play this alongside Brann Bronzebeard for a psuedo-denathrius finisher. All other classes would prefer to play other, better stuff with less convoluted conditions. I mean, even Sire Denathrius is easier to work with than this card.
Not to mention that the card's stats aren't good for its cost, and you need to play it off curve just so its secondary effect triggers. Even then, with the exception of the last, they're not really that good.
Its has a 1 blood rune requirement. So it can't fit into frost/unholy, unless its one for each rune.
Fortunately, for all of us, the best frost cards are all 3 rune cards, so it cant get more OP than it already is.
The million dollar question here would be whether it keeps the buffs when it returns to hand. We can't answer this by referring to Youthful Brewmaster's effect (which resets the buffs) because if the answer to that question is no, then this card is irredeemable shit, which I refuse to believe.
Because aside from everything else, you're paying 5 mana to play a 3/5 taunt minion. That alone dooms the card. But if it retains the buffs that means the card is just a 0 mana taunt that needs to be removed owing to its insane attack stat.
So tentatively I'd rate this a good three stars, with the assumption that it will retain the buff. If it doesnt however, this legendary card might as well be a mean joke, fun poking at an OP class.
Funny this card, because while its so useless at face value, it'll fit very fine into a blood unholy deck.
Because being able to remove a minion while playing one yourself, at the early turns, is fairly invaluable. 2 damage to your face is insignificant in that regard.
Playable stuff at least, if nothing else. Not likely to have a high play winrate, but decent, and that's fine enough.
Dont see where this card goes. Runeforging does make a lifesteal Arcanite Reaper, but in a deck with two blood runes its unlikely that your gameplan is face anyway, so this is strictly a control card, and a really bad one at that. I'd rather just play Frostmourne, because at least that card sticks to the gameplan. But both weapons will likely make way for Soulbreaker, a much better card for the deck.
As for this card. Im sure its shit. Unless blood DK becomes a midrange burn deck this card does nothing and contributes very little. Its like Lightbringer's Hammer - The whole point of the weapon is completely gone when you realise that you need to strike minions and minions do damage. So will I spend 5-6 mana for a removal option that hits twice? No, unless Ive no choice.
Its unbuffed Tidal Surge. And that card, even at 3, is seeing no play today. Even in control decks a 4 mana deal 6 damage is kinda shit honestly.
But you'll play it regardless because blood DK needs healing, and there's really no many other removal options available anyway. It's kinda that 28th card in the list, to be disposed off once there's better cards.
Its just insane that team5 is blatantly powercreeping established cards to DK.
This is just Holy Smite with an upside. And most conventional 2 mana removal cards do the same damage, and this cost only 1. Of course this will get played. Even in control priest holy smite used to be one of the better cards in that deck.
Best part of this card is you can just play it, no fuss no bother, on turn 2 and get value plus a 3/2 minion on curve. For that reason alone this card I'd rate over Darkfallen Neophyte or Blood Tap.
Can even get better, because it grants its attack. Meaning you can imagine Malignant Horror with 5 attack and played on curve that's insane.