Its almost cthun-like but it does suffer from a few drawbacks.
Firstly you need to actually have drawn it for it to start powering up. With the starting damage being a mere 5, this needs to raise upwards to 15 for it to realistically do anything useful. And secondly its 10 mana, which means its competing with the likes of nepulon and Raid Boss Onyxia. Theres definitely arguments that you'd might prefer a minion that would be good without first setting up. And like all these late game minions, its always vulnerable to a snipe from Mutanus the Devourer
That said, this card is definitely a druid card. Druids can ramp beyond 10 mana (which means its possible to brann it out for a win), raises wide boards naturally via Scale of Onyxia etc., tutor this card with Capture Coldtooth Mine, and generally bshitting everyone in the game with end game minions. In my opinion, this card will likely end with an even more obnoxious ramp druid, resulting in a nerf to other druid cards (guff, please do it) before too long. I mean, its kinda ridiculous now, its like team5 cant design druid to be anything else other than the usual feast or famine shit.
As to whether it can fit anywhere else? Im not optimistic. The sire is a good card, but most games would end way before he even wakes up.
If by some miracle you can infuse it by turn 4 this card is amazing.
The problem is most paladin aggro decks can't really draw or generate enough stuff on board. So the idea that this card is infused by turn 4 is kinda iffy, though certainly not impossible.
Surely, you must be thinking about standard.
Wild's paladin has got plenty of options to summon at the very least 3 minion by turn 3/(2+coin).
Yes, Im talking about standard.
The power level in wild is such that I feel discussing about the card's viability in it is fairly pointless unless its really, really powerful in of itself. Which this card certainly is not, even if its infused by turn 4.
Im put off not just by the fact that the card can be silenced but also because the effect is really just too weak to build around. After this dies out, you get a 4/4 for 2 hp which should theoretically be good, but is it really? The dudes have neither taunt nor rush, and its only one minion.
I think what team5 is envisioning right here is a hp that spawns a 4/4 dude, so you can play this in a control deck and spam hp every turn. That's probably where this card functions the best in. But I really don't think the win rate would justify its inclusion. Hack the System has shown that even with multiple 4/3s every turn in a control deck, its still not good enough to reach tier 2, so what does that say about this card's chances?
Dragonrider Talritha is tons better because it tends to create a really massive dragon that cannot be ignored. A 4/4 dude per turn is dangerous, but nowhere near the same with what talritha tends to offer. Incidentally, talritha saw nearly 0 competitive play and I'll rate that card better than steward anyday.
Perhaps with more reveals it would become more evident what team5 wants to do for pally this expansion. But this legendary as it stands right now, to me, is trash.
If by some miracle you can infuse it by turn 4 this card is amazing.
The problem is most paladin aggro decks can't really draw or generate enough stuff on board. So the idea that this card is infused by turn 4 is kinda iffy, though certainly not impossible.
But it does summon two dudes. So if the synergy works then this card would be in it.
Honestly, I dont want to crap on legendaries so early, but this is trash. Even if it was printed back in 2016 it would still be teetering on the edge of being viable, that's how bad it looks right now.
For a start, being a deathrattle means it needs to first die for your dudes to get big and even after that without further help its only buffing one dude. And of course its perpetually at the mercy of silences, which means even if this card manages to reach tier 1, it can be countered easily.
And then there's the cost. This thing is slow, too slow. 3 mana for a chance to spawn a 4/4 in future, and only one 4/4 at a time after its dead. Even the shittiest aggro deck would end your life way before your 4/4 starts mattering.
The only way steward can get better is that we get something to duplicate its effect, or some crazy card that makes your deathrattles immune to silences. Or dude synergy is inherently so powerful that you'll play this card regardless of its powerlevel. Dude synergy hasn't worked since odd pally in the old baku/genn days, and I just dont see this card stopping that trend anytime soon.
If the hypothetical dude pally must work it would be because of this card.
But the best thing about this card is that it fills up your hand with two paladin cards, which makes it possible to power up your snobs and gnolls. That alone makes this card viable in my opinion. Forget the dude synergy. If I can play a 5/4 rush gnoll for 1-2 mana on 4, that's real power.
The dudes also help power up infuse cards, which is a neat bonus. All in all, this is a decently good card with a competitive edge.
Perhaps team5 have finally cracked the code and found out that spending 2 mana to summon a 1/1 is about as threatening as a week old puppy. The two commons listed here are decent, but the legendary absolutely sucks. I have absolutely no idea why its a deathrattle, costs 3, and somehow we're supposed to be amazed by it.
I mean, just have a look at how murloc shaman/warlock work and you can instantly see why these dude synergy cards are doomed to failure. A murloc deck left unchecked can threaten to end games at about turn 4, whereas this thing is just getting started.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the rest of the unrevealed cards for paladin will make up for it and suddenly dude pally will be tier 1, but as it stands currently I can't see it. If you want to play dudes, you're better off just playing quest paladin, which currently is untiered.
In standard druid has as much deathrattle synergy as much as mage has buffs.
So unless this is yet more cruel jokes by team5, Im willing to bet big that druid would be getting a very powerful deathrattle card, in the same vein as Hadronox. Because if it doesn't then this card is just effing useless.
Is this where we're heading team5? Just kick more sand into deathrattle rogue's face. Give other classes better deathrattles and deathrattle triggers, because its not like rogue needs any themselves.
The only thing here that's interesting is that it draws a card, up to three times, meaning its one of priest's best card draw option aside from combo-Northshire Cleric
Probably just play it. Because why not? Its drawing you cards and priest needs that, especially if renathal is added to the mix.
We will likely never know how good these things are until we've seen the decklist or tested the deck ourselves. Its really 50-50 because unlike abyssal curses you can easily transform, freeze, or silence the things and then they're completely useless. Worse still, they hit enemies, so its not even guaranteed face damage unlike the much consistent abyssal curses.
So fingers crossed that it will work, because Im getting sick of all the uninteractive shit mages tend to throw every expansion.
Its a good card. In fact its great. Basically its Fireball split into two parts, and if I was asked whether mage wants more fireballs I would reply yes.
If you have a full board this card can potentially replicate itself twice, making it 9 damage for 6 mana.
I can't help by feel that this is practically Dragged Below pre-nerf. So weak it'll never see any real competitive play if it weren't for the fact that its generating you skeletons.
Perhaps having a two 2/2s on board and 4 armor makes it slightly more bearable than 4 mana dragged below, but we'll have to see. That 4 armor was contrived in, Im sure, precisely because team5 is aware that 4 mana 4/4s aren't exactly winning material. Perhaps that is what will make this card more than it looks.
How many times have Rancor actually worked? That's more or less an indication on whether this card will get anywhere.
Blizzard does better, Fire Sale does more damage, so the only reason why youre even playing this card is because it can potentially swing board. How likely? In my opinion, very unlikely.
Potentially powerful on par with what Zilliax once was.
That really depends on whether paladin gets either more draws or generation because for the most part its not unusual for paladins to have small hand sizes by turn 5. But if you had a more powerful, more consistent Corpsetaker, you'd play it and make it work.
Its likely going to work because team5 doesn't just print out stuff like these without first making sure that it would work somehow, and at very worst they can easily buff the archetype. Because with a legendary as iconic as KT, it would be a darn shame if it didn't work.
The only problem with the volatile skeletons on the whole, and thus the viability of this card, is that it hits any enemy, not just face. If abyssal curses functioned the same way they would be no where near as viable as they are now, and thus I'm concluding that the volatile skeletons wouldn't work, get buffed, and then terrorize the meta.
If only KT costs 7, you can then brann it out for a real win. Perhaps it will get buffed at some point. Because Im fairly sure ping mage is tons more consistent than this archetype.
At this point any mention of deathrattle rogue is basically a meme, so let's hope that Hedge Maze had better not be yet another bait for one. But on its own merits its kinda dangerous, even if you have to first pay 3 mana for it. Having a 0 mana deathrattle trigger can be insane.
Err, the Maze is a druid card (though they should really have chosen a paler brown for it!), so I guess druid is a deathrattle class now as well? Poor deathrattle rogue, it can't catch a break :P
Yeah, kinda missed out with that one. Oh well, pile on more shit on deathrattle rogue, why not?
I mean, its almost like team5 gets up messing with deathrattle rogue hopefuls.
Reminds me of Shadow Clone. Likely this card will share its fate.
The problem with this card is that your opponent will nearly always just attack with their weakest minion first, so they suffer little damage back and they get to kill the minion summoned out.
But there's always the chance that your opponent has one big boy out, attacks your face and get double back to his on your turn. Unfortunately, that's only ever likely to happen once in a lifetime.
Livestream early? That's yet another precedent made I guess. Kibler is an all rounder, so in my opinion they made a good choice.
So priest's location gives out buffs, make me think that paladin's would be to give out divine shields.
At this point any mention of deathrattle rogue is basically a meme, so let's hope that Hedge Maze had better not be yet another bait for one. But on its own merits its kinda dangerous, even if you have to first pay 3 mana for it. Having a 0 mana deathrattle trigger can be insane. Edit: Its a druid card, can't read apparently :(
As for mage's new identity, volatile skeletons is just another word for bomb mage. But with shaman having more transform effects given to them, as well as priest's omnipresence for silences, the extra interactivity would probably make it less consistent than abyssal curses or bombs.
Its almost cthun-like but it does suffer from a few drawbacks.
Firstly you need to actually have drawn it for it to start powering up. With the starting damage being a mere 5, this needs to raise upwards to 15 for it to realistically do anything useful. And secondly its 10 mana, which means its competing with the likes of nepulon and Raid Boss Onyxia. Theres definitely arguments that you'd might prefer a minion that would be good without first setting up. And like all these late game minions, its always vulnerable to a snipe from Mutanus the Devourer
That said, this card is definitely a druid card. Druids can ramp beyond 10 mana (which means its possible to brann it out for a win), raises wide boards naturally via Scale of Onyxia etc., tutor this card with Capture Coldtooth Mine, and generally bshitting everyone in the game with end game minions. In my opinion, this card will likely end with an even more obnoxious ramp druid, resulting in a nerf to other druid cards (guff, please do it) before too long. I mean, its kinda ridiculous now, its like team5 cant design druid to be anything else other than the usual feast or famine shit.
As to whether it can fit anywhere else? Im not optimistic. The sire is a good card, but most games would end way before he even wakes up.
Yes, Im talking about standard.
The power level in wild is such that I feel discussing about the card's viability in it is fairly pointless unless its really, really powerful in of itself. Which this card certainly is not, even if its infused by turn 4.
Im put off not just by the fact that the card can be silenced but also because the effect is really just too weak to build around. After this dies out, you get a 4/4 for 2 hp which should theoretically be good, but is it really? The dudes have neither taunt nor rush, and its only one minion.
I think what team5 is envisioning right here is a hp that spawns a 4/4 dude, so you can play this in a control deck and spam hp every turn. That's probably where this card functions the best in. But I really don't think the win rate would justify its inclusion. Hack the System has shown that even with multiple 4/3s every turn in a control deck, its still not good enough to reach tier 2, so what does that say about this card's chances?
Dragonrider Talritha is tons better because it tends to create a really massive dragon that cannot be ignored. A 4/4 dude per turn is dangerous, but nowhere near the same with what talritha tends to offer. Incidentally, talritha saw nearly 0 competitive play and I'll rate that card better than steward anyday.
Perhaps with more reveals it would become more evident what team5 wants to do for pally this expansion. But this legendary as it stands right now, to me, is trash.
If by some miracle you can infuse it by turn 4 this card is amazing.
The problem is most paladin aggro decks can't really draw or generate enough stuff on board. So the idea that this card is infused by turn 4 is kinda iffy, though certainly not impossible.
But it does summon two dudes. So if the synergy works then this card would be in it.
Honestly, I dont want to crap on legendaries so early, but this is trash. Even if it was printed back in 2016 it would still be teetering on the edge of being viable, that's how bad it looks right now.
For a start, being a deathrattle means it needs to first die for your dudes to get big and even after that without further help its only buffing one dude. And of course its perpetually at the mercy of silences, which means even if this card manages to reach tier 1, it can be countered easily.
And then there's the cost. This thing is slow, too slow. 3 mana for a chance to spawn a 4/4 in future, and only one 4/4 at a time after its dead. Even the shittiest aggro deck would end your life way before your 4/4 starts mattering.
The only way steward can get better is that we get something to duplicate its effect, or some crazy card that makes your deathrattles immune to silences. Or dude synergy is inherently so powerful that you'll play this card regardless of its powerlevel. Dude synergy hasn't worked since odd pally in the old baku/genn days, and I just dont see this card stopping that trend anytime soon.
If the hypothetical dude pally must work it would be because of this card.
But the best thing about this card is that it fills up your hand with two paladin cards, which makes it possible to power up your snobs and gnolls. That alone makes this card viable in my opinion. Forget the dude synergy. If I can play a 5/4 rush gnoll for 1-2 mana on 4, that's real power.
The dudes also help power up infuse cards, which is a neat bonus. All in all, this is a decently good card with a competitive edge.
Ah yes, the latest iteration of dude synergy.
Perhaps team5 have finally cracked the code and found out that spending 2 mana to summon a 1/1 is about as threatening as a week old puppy. The two commons listed here are decent, but the legendary absolutely sucks. I have absolutely no idea why its a deathrattle, costs 3, and somehow we're supposed to be amazed by it.
I mean, just have a look at how murloc shaman/warlock work and you can instantly see why these dude synergy cards are doomed to failure. A murloc deck left unchecked can threaten to end games at about turn 4, whereas this thing is just getting started.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the rest of the unrevealed cards for paladin will make up for it and suddenly dude pally will be tier 1, but as it stands currently I can't see it. If you want to play dudes, you're better off just playing quest paladin, which currently is untiered.
In standard druid has as much deathrattle synergy as much as mage has buffs.
So unless this is yet more cruel jokes by team5, Im willing to bet big that druid would be getting a very powerful deathrattle card, in the same vein as Hadronox. Because if it doesn't then this card is just effing useless.
Is this where we're heading team5? Just kick more sand into deathrattle rogue's face. Give other classes better deathrattles and deathrattle triggers, because its not like rogue needs any themselves.
The only thing here that's interesting is that it draws a card, up to three times, meaning its one of priest's best card draw option aside from combo-Northshire Cleric
Probably just play it. Because why not? Its drawing you cards and priest needs that, especially if renathal is added to the mix.
Lol, let's just sweep that under the rug and pretend everything is still okay.
Doubtless hireek would have worked but team5 chickened out. Yeah, let's go with that.
It'll see play because its another way to generate more skeletons.
Outside of that its just a so much weaker Ray of Frost in my opinion. But you do get a 2/2 each shot, so maybe the mana cost is justified.
We will likely never know how good these things are until we've seen the decklist or tested the deck ourselves. Its really 50-50 because unlike abyssal curses you can easily transform, freeze, or silence the things and then they're completely useless. Worse still, they hit enemies, so its not even guaranteed face damage unlike the much consistent abyssal curses.
So fingers crossed that it will work, because Im getting sick of all the uninteractive shit mages tend to throw every expansion.
Its a good card. In fact its great. Basically its Fireball split into two parts, and if I was asked whether mage wants more fireballs I would reply yes.
If you have a full board this card can potentially replicate itself twice, making it 9 damage for 6 mana.
I can't help by feel that this is practically Dragged Below pre-nerf. So weak it'll never see any real competitive play if it weren't for the fact that its generating you skeletons.
Perhaps having a two 2/2s on board and 4 armor makes it slightly more bearable than 4 mana dragged below, but we'll have to see. That 4 armor was contrived in, Im sure, precisely because team5 is aware that 4 mana 4/4s aren't exactly winning material. Perhaps that is what will make this card more than it looks.
How many times have Rancor actually worked? That's more or less an indication on whether this card will get anywhere.
Blizzard does better, Fire Sale does more damage, so the only reason why youre even playing this card is because it can potentially swing board. How likely? In my opinion, very unlikely.
Potentially powerful on par with what Zilliax once was.
That really depends on whether paladin gets either more draws or generation because for the most part its not unusual for paladins to have small hand sizes by turn 5. But if you had a more powerful, more consistent Corpsetaker, you'd play it and make it work.
Its likely going to work because team5 doesn't just print out stuff like these without first making sure that it would work somehow, and at very worst they can easily buff the archetype. Because with a legendary as iconic as KT, it would be a darn shame if it didn't work.
The only problem with the volatile skeletons on the whole, and thus the viability of this card, is that it hits any enemy, not just face. If abyssal curses functioned the same way they would be no where near as viable as they are now, and thus I'm concluding that the volatile skeletons wouldn't work, get buffed, and then terrorize the meta.
If only KT costs 7, you can then brann it out for a real win. Perhaps it will get buffed at some point. Because Im fairly sure ping mage is tons more consistent than this archetype.
Yeah, kinda missed out with that one. Oh well, pile on more shit on deathrattle rogue, why not?
I mean, its almost like team5 gets up messing with deathrattle rogue hopefuls.
Reminds me of Shadow Clone. Likely this card will share its fate.
The problem with this card is that your opponent will nearly always just attack with their weakest minion first, so they suffer little damage back and they get to kill the minion summoned out.
But there's always the chance that your opponent has one big boy out, attacks your face and get double back to his on your turn. Unfortunately, that's only ever likely to happen once in a lifetime.
Livestream early? That's yet another precedent made I guess. Kibler is an all rounder, so in my opinion they made a good choice.
So priest's location gives out buffs, make me think that paladin's would be to give out divine shields.
At this point any mention of deathrattle rogue is basically a meme, so let's hope that Hedge Maze had better not be yet another bait for one. But on its own merits its kinda dangerous, even if you have to first pay 3 mana for it. Having a 0 mana deathrattle trigger can be insane. Edit: Its a druid card, can't read apparently :(
As for mage's new identity, volatile skeletons is just another word for bomb mage. But with shaman having more transform effects given to them, as well as priest's omnipresence for silences, the extra interactivity would probably make it less consistent than abyssal curses or bombs.