The problem is that it forces you to either play totem shaman, or play Party Favor Totem, because there's no other realistic way you can play enough totems to get this cheap enough to be worth it.
And looking at the other support cards for totem this time round, I get the feeling that team5 really wants us to fit totems into the regular midrange and control shell, but very likely that is not going to work. So its aggro totem shaman or bust for this card.
Such a sad case because if Totemic Reflections was still in standard, this card is an instant 5/5.
To be honest, this card buffs Halkias by a great deal.
The main problem I have with halkias is the fact that you can trigger the secret and interact with it. Now we have something that will only trigger when your opponent has used up their mana. Meaning they will be highly unlikely to deal with it without also throwing their board into it.
But of course, the main reason whyd you even play this card is because it draws you two cards for 2 mana. And no player can properly play while avoiding triggering this so its practically an efficient draw engine even if your opponent can see it coming a mile away.
Its a strong removal card that priest desperately needs.
For the longest time priest have been juggling Shadow Word: Death and Holy Smite. Now there's a card that may conceivably do both tasks. And at 1 mana this thing is just flexible enough to fit into most priest decks.
The fact that its discover makes it a hell lot more consistent than Thoughtsteal ever can be. It does require you to play 3 mana do nothing but priest can often afford doing such things.
Being a shadow card means you can play it in aggro priest. Perhaps that's the reload that deck needs?
If by some stretch you can buff this then this card is amazing.
Even if you can't, its two 2/5s on 4. Is there really a discussion here? With Pelagos around this card will always be threatening to do something, and 5 health is quite a lot.
Likely cant get it to work on curve, and then this only reduces their cost by 2.
Its basically kindling for The Harvester of Envy, but basically useless most of the time. Swiftscale Trickster is being played in rogue though its highly inconsistent with its delivery, solely because of two copies of Jackpot! but in that case it works because jackpot can easily win you the game. This on the other hand cannot.
So why play it? Probably for memes, because for what its worth it makes harvester look less shit.
If you manage to catch Lightray with it, you'll likely be dropping two 5/5s taunt and this card is magnificent.
The fact that it tutors is the real power here. Just imagine putting minimal amounts of paladin cards and suddenly your cariel is 100% tutored by this thing. A long shot, but it does point out what the card is capable of.
Just when I thought it can't get any worse it got worse, very much worse.
This card is just hot garbage. Inconsistent, high cost, and even at its best its only doing 10 damage to minions. Oh yes, if only you have minions on board then this does 10 extra damage to face. Or, just play Battleground Battlemaster + any cheap buff and accomplish the same exact thing but more flexible and a 100 times more reliable.
If you put your faith in this card, you'll be hammered faster than tirion's theme music can play.
Its decent, and probably what secret mage needs because very likely its going be playing from behind most of the time.
But its so much a downgrade from Arcane Flakmage, which can fire off multiple times, on whim. This card offers an AoE at the end of the turn, so if there's taunts you cant strike face.
But arcane flakmage isn't in standard, so what the hay. You'll play it in secret mage, because you can and this minion isn't bad.
Just a terrible card for hunter. Very high cost, dependent on opponent's board, and then there's redundancy. Why even bother playing this when you can do better by tempoing up.
But that's not to say this is completely rubbish. If your opponent has a bunch of tinyfins and you've played Twinbow Terrorcoil the turn before, then this card does more than 30 damage.
Let's be honest here. The only reason why'd you even consider playing this is because you can easily have no other deathrattles other than Sesselie of the Fae Court. And then your opponent either deals with the massive 7 damage or kill it and enable your shit.
But without taunt, this card is already a hard pass. And then you consider the fact; why the hell would you even want to play this card at all? Just play ramp druid, ramp into Celestial Alignment and win the game. Had this card had taunt it might have served some niche because druids get dumpstered on by tempo. But sadly, or perhaps happily for us, this does not.
The fact is that you're trading one card away for 3 damage, when you could easily just play nagas and accomplish the same feat with Predation. The idea behind this card must surely be that you can play decks that dont have a high volume of nagas, but then again what will you be playing in place of it?
A staple in some kind of vomit dhunter that also plays Magnifying Glaive, because otherwise, I dont think its going to get anywhere. Dhunters may be able to draw well, but they cant give up tempo in the same way warlocks can.
You pump upwards to 24 damage on a minion with at least 7 health, with two of these + Coordinated Strike
In fact this card can actually just end the game, or otherwise make your opponent not play certain cards. Even one of these with coordinated strike can already do 6 damage.
Likely one of the standouts for aggro dhunter, though because of its combo-esque nature it'll probably be more fitting for a slower deck, like token dhunter. We'll have to see how consistent this card can get.
Okay, here's a few comments on the new cards, and the full set in general;
- Secret mage is looking possible. One of the chief problems I have with the archetype in standard is the loss of Kirin Tor Mage, and team5 just went up and print another one in anonymous informant. So it is then possible to just play a secret along with orion for some value.
- Dude pally on the other hand looks weak as shit. In fact either team5 is planning for something in the midset or the idea really is for steward to simply upgrade your hp. There's only one way to flood board with dudes, an emphasis on growing one instead of multiple dudes, and the fact that the support cards for it are weak as hell.
- Totem shaman might be possible, but Im not holding my breath. Both Gigantotem and Carving Chisel are really good cards, but totems themselves are relatively weak until The Stonewright is played. And with no way to tutor it, and no way to snowball like Totemic Reflection, its looking too slow to go against aggro decks and most control can easily deal with the multiple 0 attack totems. It needs a card that increases the likelihood of the totems actually surviving, and a decent comeback mechanism. Midset perhaps?
- Warrior has some neat cards. Will this support the damaged archetype? Perhaps not. But I can see some form of rush/taunt midrange warrior coming
- Creepy Painting has the potential to be the standout card in this expansion. This copies even enemy minions.
- Thief priest looking like its ready to ensure no one in hearthstone is having any fun
- Some form of aggro dhunter might be on the cards. Alot of good cheap cards this time round. Sadly, I think everyone would just be playing control relic dhunter instead.
In terms of which class got the best stuff this expansion. Probably dhunter, followed by hunter and then druid. Shaman has a few good cards, priest has support for thief, secret rogue is shit but the others are fairly good, warrior needs testing, paladin is all over the place, warlock has imps and one really powerful card but otherwise meh.
Dhunter is the only class in my opinion where there's few to no bad cards. The archetype can suck, but it looks functional.
Probably one of the best cards in the game. Unironically.
Basically unless youre a control deck there's a good chance you'll be playing at least a minion a turn so this card is practically free after somewhere around 3-4 turns and with a 3/4 lifesteal body you'll get back a little tempo and some health.
This is not Corridor Creeper, by any stretch, but its really close. I expect to see plenty of this card.
Infuse only trigger in hand. The way it works is that the new card replaces the old, the same way corrupt works. Hence why bouncing an infused/corrupt minion, it will remain that way.
Its hard to say. In tempo matchups if youre spending 3 mana to do nothing while I'm equipping a weapon doing damage for probably 2 turns at least, technically youre playing from behind, since I can clear and develop a board on my own the next turn.
Traditionally cards that give your opponent stuff have never been viable in constructed. So Im not that optimistic about this card's chances. Even if your opponent guesses wrong, is there any reason to play this over Stormwind Freebooter?
Unexpected, especially a class like paladin where mundane but effective cards are everywhere.
But is it any good? Well, the conditions forces you to drop cards like Mr. Smite and Varian, King of Stormwind, both of which are fairly staples in paladin decks nowadays. At least Lightray can be played alongside this so youre not exactly playing a 7 mana do nothing.
I suppose its playable in control paladin, and I say that only because Im sure you can still stick smite in there. Chances are good you'll be drawing that smite before this card even becomes useful. Because 3 legendaries or not, your win con will likely still be smite, not this card. But who knows, perhaps having three legendaries is more than enough a win con. Just dont let the mad duke steal this card or worse, the invitations.
The legendary invitations, according to reddit, are 3 mana and reads, discover a legendary minion from another class. Costs 0
Perhaps one of the most unexpected cards to be dumped onto paladin, and likely the most interesting cards paladin has gotten for a fairly long time. But is it any good?
Let's say I can see this being played, because control pally is a thing. But outside of that Im not too sure. The fact is that this is still a 7 mana do nothing and three legendaries the following turn are not a guarantee of results. Plus, its highly likely that paladin has a win con outside of playing good stuff until one of the heads explode, so where does this card feature?
The conditions are fairly tiny, but it does force you to drop Mr. Smite. Then again, why not play both anyway? Unless smite is the forth last card in your deck, you'll likely draw it before this card does anything useful anyway. And your win con remains mr smite, regardless of whether this card is in or not.
The pirate is bad. Like all other such cards, it gives a copy to the opponent if they guess correctly, but this one is far more dangerous than the rest because weapons have initiative, in that your opponent can play and swing them immediately. The only good side to this coin is the fact that its very likely substantially harder to guess than the others because weapons don't tend to vary much in terms of quality, and even a deliberate bad pick will likely still be good enough to do the job.
As for the fluffiest weapon capable of splitting your head, yet unnamed, its alright. Not a world beater by any stretch, but once infused and equipped your opponent has to then play around this thing until they viper it. And being able to grant your board a +2+2 can easily be game winning. I can see there being a deck for it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if its inconsistent output forces it off.
The problem is that it forces you to either play totem shaman, or play Party Favor Totem, because there's no other realistic way you can play enough totems to get this cheap enough to be worth it.
And looking at the other support cards for totem this time round, I get the feeling that team5 really wants us to fit totems into the regular midrange and control shell, but very likely that is not going to work. So its aggro totem shaman or bust for this card.
Such a sad case because if Totemic Reflections was still in standard, this card is an instant 5/5.
To be honest, this card buffs Halkias by a great deal.
The main problem I have with halkias is the fact that you can trigger the secret and interact with it. Now we have something that will only trigger when your opponent has used up their mana. Meaning they will be highly unlikely to deal with it without also throwing their board into it.
But of course, the main reason whyd you even play this card is because it draws you two cards for 2 mana. And no player can properly play while avoiding triggering this so its practically an efficient draw engine even if your opponent can see it coming a mile away.
Its a strong removal card that priest desperately needs.
For the longest time priest have been juggling Shadow Word: Death and Holy Smite. Now there's a card that may conceivably do both tasks. And at 1 mana this thing is just flexible enough to fit into most priest decks.
Madame Lazul saw play, so why wouldn't this one?
The fact that its discover makes it a hell lot more consistent than Thoughtsteal ever can be. It does require you to play 3 mana do nothing but priest can often afford doing such things.
Being a shadow card means you can play it in aggro priest. Perhaps that's the reload that deck needs?
If by some stretch you can buff this then this card is amazing.
Even if you can't, its two 2/5s on 4. Is there really a discussion here? With Pelagos around this card will always be threatening to do something, and 5 health is quite a lot.
Likely cant get it to work on curve, and then this only reduces their cost by 2.
Its basically kindling for The Harvester of Envy, but basically useless most of the time. Swiftscale Trickster is being played in rogue though its highly inconsistent with its delivery, solely because of two copies of Jackpot! but in that case it works because jackpot can easily win you the game. This on the other hand cannot.
So why play it? Probably for memes, because for what its worth it makes harvester look less shit.
If you manage to catch Lightray with it, you'll likely be dropping two 5/5s taunt and this card is magnificent.
The fact that it tutors is the real power here. Just imagine putting minimal amounts of paladin cards and suddenly your cariel is 100% tutored by this thing. A long shot, but it does point out what the card is capable of.
Just when I thought it can't get any worse it got worse, very much worse.
This card is just hot garbage. Inconsistent, high cost, and even at its best its only doing 10 damage to minions. Oh yes, if only you have minions on board then this does 10 extra damage to face. Or, just play Battleground Battlemaster + any cheap buff and accomplish the same exact thing but more flexible and a 100 times more reliable.
If you put your faith in this card, you'll be hammered faster than tirion's theme music can play.
Its decent, and probably what secret mage needs because very likely its going be playing from behind most of the time.
But its so much a downgrade from Arcane Flakmage, which can fire off multiple times, on whim. This card offers an AoE at the end of the turn, so if there's taunts you cant strike face.
But arcane flakmage isn't in standard, so what the hay. You'll play it in secret mage, because you can and this minion isn't bad.
Just a terrible card for hunter. Very high cost, dependent on opponent's board, and then there's redundancy. Why even bother playing this when you can do better by tempoing up.
But that's not to say this is completely rubbish. If your opponent has a bunch of tinyfins and you've played Twinbow Terrorcoil the turn before, then this card does more than 30 damage.
Yeah, its probably rubbish.
Let's be honest here. The only reason why'd you even consider playing this is because you can easily have no other deathrattles other than Sesselie of the Fae Court. And then your opponent either deals with the massive 7 damage or kill it and enable your shit.
But without taunt, this card is already a hard pass. And then you consider the fact; why the hell would you even want to play this card at all? Just play ramp druid, ramp into Celestial Alignment and win the game. Had this card had taunt it might have served some niche because druids get dumpstered on by tempo. But sadly, or perhaps happily for us, this does not.
Its probably not going to be as good as it looks.
The fact is that you're trading one card away for 3 damage, when you could easily just play nagas and accomplish the same feat with Predation. The idea behind this card must surely be that you can play decks that dont have a high volume of nagas, but then again what will you be playing in place of it?
A staple in some kind of vomit dhunter that also plays Magnifying Glaive, because otherwise, I dont think its going to get anywhere. Dhunters may be able to draw well, but they cant give up tempo in the same way warlocks can.
You pump upwards to 24 damage on a minion with at least 7 health, with two of these + Coordinated Strike
In fact this card can actually just end the game, or otherwise make your opponent not play certain cards. Even one of these with coordinated strike can already do 6 damage.
Likely one of the standouts for aggro dhunter, though because of its combo-esque nature it'll probably be more fitting for a slower deck, like token dhunter. We'll have to see how consistent this card can get.
Okay, here's a few comments on the new cards, and the full set in general;
- Secret mage is looking possible. One of the chief problems I have with the archetype in standard is the loss of Kirin Tor Mage, and team5 just went up and print another one in anonymous informant. So it is then possible to just play a secret along with orion for some value.
- Dude pally on the other hand looks weak as shit. In fact either team5 is planning for something in the midset or the idea really is for steward to simply upgrade your hp. There's only one way to flood board with dudes, an emphasis on growing one instead of multiple dudes, and the fact that the support cards for it are weak as hell.
- Totem shaman might be possible, but Im not holding my breath. Both Gigantotem and Carving Chisel are really good cards, but totems themselves are relatively weak until The Stonewright is played. And with no way to tutor it, and no way to snowball like Totemic Reflection, its looking too slow to go against aggro decks and most control can easily deal with the multiple 0 attack totems. It needs a card that increases the likelihood of the totems actually surviving, and a decent comeback mechanism. Midset perhaps?
- Warrior has some neat cards. Will this support the damaged archetype? Perhaps not. But I can see some form of rush/taunt midrange warrior coming
- Creepy Painting has the potential to be the standout card in this expansion. This copies even enemy minions.
- Thief priest looking like its ready to ensure no one in hearthstone is having any fun
- Some form of aggro dhunter might be on the cards. Alot of good cheap cards this time round. Sadly, I think everyone would just be playing control relic dhunter instead.
In terms of which class got the best stuff this expansion. Probably dhunter, followed by hunter and then druid. Shaman has a few good cards, priest has support for thief, secret rogue is shit but the others are fairly good, warrior needs testing, paladin is all over the place, warlock has imps and one really powerful card but otherwise meh.
Dhunter is the only class in my opinion where there's few to no bad cards. The archetype can suck, but it looks functional.
Probably one of the best cards in the game. Unironically.
Basically unless youre a control deck there's a good chance you'll be playing at least a minion a turn so this card is practically free after somewhere around 3-4 turns and with a 3/4 lifesteal body you'll get back a little tempo and some health.
This is not Corridor Creeper, by any stretch, but its really close. I expect to see plenty of this card.
Infuse only trigger in hand. The way it works is that the new card replaces the old, the same way corrupt works. Hence why bouncing an infused/corrupt minion, it will remain that way.
Its hard to say. In tempo matchups if youre spending 3 mana to do nothing while I'm equipping a weapon doing damage for probably 2 turns at least, technically youre playing from behind, since I can clear and develop a board on my own the next turn.
Traditionally cards that give your opponent stuff have never been viable in constructed. So Im not that optimistic about this card's chances. Even if your opponent guesses wrong, is there any reason to play this over Stormwind Freebooter?
Unexpected, especially a class like paladin where mundane but effective cards are everywhere.
But is it any good? Well, the conditions forces you to drop cards like Mr. Smite and Varian, King of Stormwind, both of which are fairly staples in paladin decks nowadays. At least Lightray can be played alongside this so youre not exactly playing a 7 mana do nothing.
I suppose its playable in control paladin, and I say that only because Im sure you can still stick smite in there. Chances are good you'll be drawing that smite before this card even becomes useful. Because 3 legendaries or not, your win con will likely still be smite, not this card. But who knows, perhaps having three legendaries is more than enough a win con. Just dont let the mad duke steal this card or worse, the invitations.
The legendary invitations, according to reddit, are 3 mana and reads, discover a legendary minion from another class. Costs 0
Perhaps one of the most unexpected cards to be dumped onto paladin, and likely the most interesting cards paladin has gotten for a fairly long time. But is it any good?
Let's say I can see this being played, because control pally is a thing. But outside of that Im not too sure. The fact is that this is still a 7 mana do nothing and three legendaries the following turn are not a guarantee of results. Plus, its highly likely that paladin has a win con outside of playing good stuff until one of the heads explode, so where does this card feature?
The conditions are fairly tiny, but it does force you to drop Mr. Smite. Then again, why not play both anyway? Unless smite is the forth last card in your deck, you'll likely draw it before this card does anything useful anyway. And your win con remains mr smite, regardless of whether this card is in or not.
The pirate is bad. Like all other such cards, it gives a copy to the opponent if they guess correctly, but this one is far more dangerous than the rest because weapons have initiative, in that your opponent can play and swing them immediately. The only good side to this coin is the fact that its very likely substantially harder to guess than the others because weapons don't tend to vary much in terms of quality, and even a deliberate bad pick will likely still be good enough to do the job.
As for the fluffiest weapon capable of splitting your head, yet unnamed, its alright. Not a world beater by any stretch, but once infused and equipped your opponent has to then play around this thing until they viper it. And being able to grant your board a +2+2 can easily be game winning. I can see there being a deck for it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if its inconsistent output forces it off.