Yeah, team5 just cant help themselves. Remove Savage Roar, introduce Arbor Up. Then remove arbor up and then this card comes along. Will we ever have a year where druids aren't just killing you because you have the temerity of not board clearing them for the umpteen time?
The only thing here is that this card is not a spell, have conditions, and more importantly, doesn't just win you the game because you've bran-ned this out.
Probably one for the future. Most aggro druids rely on Oracle of Elune shenanigans and so rarely plays alot of nature spells. But it wont be long before we start seeing spell aggro druids again, so this card can only ever look upwards not downwards.
This card allows druid to have a gameplan that's not ramp to 20 and win. And because its much more flexible than most other cards its not entirely useless against aggro neither, unlike the alex+brann deal.
Just one of those cards that can only get better. I wont be too surprised to see some form of spell damage OTK druid at some point in the next 2 years.
It has to be respected, that's about the only praise I'll ever be affording this card. If its on board you'll kill it, rather than ignore it.
Any druid deck that plays this is inherently playing aggro, so in what world can druid afford to play off curve, just so this card can gain an extra pair of legs? Plus, its just a 2/2 minion at the start, which means just about any minion will kill it.
The card on its own merits is good if not great. Its not only board but also answers, and if you value trade its just nuts on 5.
The problem is really just the case of whether you really even want to play it on 5. Snowfall Guardian remains the most important card in the deck and it allows shaman complete freedom to ignore the board. So what is this card accomplishing? I tried shaman without guardian and got my arse kicked hard. So I doubt this card would take over the meta any time soon.
But again, its a good card so it wouldn't surprise me if it sees play. A very powerful discover option too, so its only ever going to go up from here.
If there was a card that would elevate this archetype its this card. Basically you'll dump your hand with this card alone, or cheapen Gorloc Ravager for turn 4. Its just flexible enough that it'll make just about anything possible you want to do with murlocs.
The main problem here is reload. You can dump your hand sure, but if it gets answered then you're really screwed. So its really all or nothing with this card. It'll either win the game the next turn, or you'll have your head between the palms of your hand.
Piss poor card art. But hey. For a card this potent, you'd think team5 would choose to give it something more original or at least recycle something from battlegrounds instead of this.
6/6 on 4 is already decent. Being able to dredge, and load up the board is even better.
Just a good murloc on 4. For murloc shaman, which features bloodlust as a win con, that's really enough. Certainly I can see no reason not to play this in a murloc shaman deck. The only tricky thing is if it would elevate murloc shaman as a deck. And my answer is a lukewarm no. But it'll still see play, and honestly, its still a good card in that deck.
Its not a bad card but current in warlock there's really very little proactive shadow spells around, so even triggering this card's effect is tricky, let alone doing it on curve.
And then there's the fact that any deck playing these shadow spells tend to control decks. So in what world does a 4/4 for 3 that does 2 damage fits that playstyle? If warlock isn't nuking the board, they're drawing cards or healing their face.
But its a decent card so I expect it to see play in future, assuming there's more support on the way. There's still hope.
Its just bad. There's plenty of memes up in reddit faceswapping this card with Millhouse Manastorm and that's an apt comparison. Because for the price of infinite mana to your opponent you put up a good stated minion on turn 5. If your opponent cannot kill you outright on turn 6, then very likely their health would be low enough for you to finish them off the following turn.
But the problem starts from the fact that warlock really hasn't got a lot of burn in standard. There's cards like Hellfire, Demonic Assault, the curse cards, and that's about it. Forget about this card living for a turn, or your board for the matter. If youre allowing your opponent carte blanche on their turn, only an aggro deck is not guaranteed to answer this card's 7/7 stats. So a good estimate of health shaved would be around the lines of 10 health, dealing with this minion and developing a good board. Hardly enough that warlock can take advantage of it on their turn to kill the opponent.
And then there's worse case scenario, your opponent is a control deck. Plays his entire deck, heals back all that lost health (via armor, which is always cost efficient, or via maki roll which guarantees a reno effect) and then completely outvalues you (via kazakusan etc.) or outright destroys you.
Even a respectable midrange deck will play enough stuff while suffering around 10-15 damage. Develop a board warlock is ill-equipped to handle (divine shield etc.) and then wipes that smile off your face.
In my opinion, the cons far outweight the pros. I cannot imagine many scenarios where playing this card leads to success. Unless warlock gets lots of burn, stealth minions, or defensive tools like Cloak of Shadows, I cant ever see this being played.
The card will likely suffer the same fate. Because strictly on its viability its really just a tech card which I suspect is designed to prevent curselock mirrors from camping to fatigue.
I call it the new glide because it hard counters both combo and control, and because its magnet for pitchforks. Unlike glide, however, this card can never be good, because team5 fully understands the implications of this card being meta. To me, the real primary motivation for anyone to even play it would be to grief - hence my displeasure.
Im a bit doubtful, but I haven't actually play murloc shaman this meta yet. You play this on turn 3 along with another murloc so your ravager cost 3 on turn 4, but is that really a scary enough play? If this was a warlock card it would be insane but in shaman, Im not too sure.
Edit: I should add that I still think its a strong card, because it allows you swarm the board followed by something like bloodlust to finish the game. But that doesn't change my initial impression that this card allows an all-or-nothing, and really nothing else.
Its hard counter against combo and control. In fact its so hard that I feel that only reason for justifying its design is because team5 reckons that warlock usually never have trouble against these archetypes with or without this card. So the questions remains; why even print it? Because if it sucks against aggro and midrange, while warlock traditionally having no problems with combo and control, what exactly is this card supposed to be accomplishing?
Unfortunately for us, this card does exist, so if you happen to be playing control against warlock you're practically fucked when this card gets played, regardless of the timescale. The only thing that saves you from pulling your hair out against this trash pile of shit is that theorectically Sir Finley, Sea Guide should be able to save your cards from being burnt.
The only other justification I can think of is that its created solely to prevent the bs scenario curselock brings to the table, and that is camping. Basically this card discourages and even outright prevents it from happening. So why print problematic cards that require even more problematic band-aids for? Just admit that the curse idea is shit and let it be. I mean, they are more than willing to let felock get shafted, but not curselock apparently.
At least Im convinced this card is nothing more than a tech card, and a really bad one at that, so it'll likely never see play. But like Glide itself, all we are asking is just 'but why'
Tidelost Burrower - A strong murloc option. That is to say, if its ever going to be viable at all. Currently murloc shaman isn't all that popular but according to hsreplay is holding its own. Unfortunately, in standard right now, Im not seeing why this card would do anything more than grant you a 6/6 stat ball on turn 4.
Clownfish - When I first saw this minion in mercs, I thought it was the single worst piece of art available and now they damn well went ahead and pasted it on a standard hearthstone card. The card itself is very strong though. Basically allows you to go all in like Spitelash Siren. Unlike siren, since this card can neither reload your hand nor grant you anything else other than a murloc swarm, you're really all in - as in if you dont win the next turn chances are good you're dead.
Command of Neptulon - A card made for Wrathspine Enchanter. Fortunately, this card is still good on its own. But its likely not going to fit the whole burn shaman package, because why bother dealing with the board when you can freeze it for 4 turns?
Spirit of the Tides - Probably never played. The last thing an aggressive druid needs is to skip curve just so this card can elevate itself once.
Herald of Nature - Team5 removes Savage Roar, prints Arbor Up. Then they remove arbor up and print this card. At least we can be thankful for small mercies that this card grants a 1/2 instead of 2/1.
And finally Moonbeam, perhaps one of the best cards for druid. Its combo potential, and it allows druids to play that same degenerate ramp druid except now you can't interact with it. Probably something for the future, because druid in standard is currently so deep in shit it cant hold its head up. But I've a feeling this card will be insane at some point in the next year. Perhaps not even that far in the future. On its own right now, its just exactly what I need for a burn druid up in duels.
Immolate is the new glide. Basically someone at team5 got dumped by his childhood sweetheart one day and swears revenge on the world of hearthstone. Its not about the viability of the card, which to be frank, isn't going to be consistently good as many would think, its simply to piss the opponent off while you sip your fking tea.
Like seriously, why even bother playing hearthstone when you can be fucked at any given moment because youre playing anything heavier than aggro-midrange. It hard counters certain archetypes so hard yet does nothing to others. In other words, how are you ever fixing this problem when it inevitably causes nothing but grief, eh team5?
Herald of Shadows - Probably just never sees play, unless there's plenty of aggressive shadow spells and you're playing midrange. Still can happen at some point but certainly not what warlock needs right now
Commander Ulthok - Funny little card that will never see play. Basically if your opponent is combo this card can immediately win the game for them. The dream of your opponent being railed into a spot they cant dig themselves out of is a rare thing indeed, because aggro decks will just laugh while control decks will simply heal back what they've lost.
Had this been a hunter card it might still have a chance. But in warlock, where there's hardly any burn spells, its just shit you serve to yourself in the morning.
Igneous Lavagorger - Not too bad as a defensive card. From the Depths may be the go to option for control warrior right now, but I still think you can run both. Just remove something like heavy plate for it, because the taunt, armor gain, and dredge may simply be better. Its still a 3/5 taunt, gain x health. Surely not to be ignored.
Tidal Revenant - Probably not too good even in big warrior. Its kinda an upgrade over Mo'arg Forgefiend in of itself, but since big warrior tends to cheat out minions, the lack of the battlecry effect makes it way too poor a card. Warrior have better options than a middling Cenarion Ward.
Clash of the Colossals - is interesting. Because you get to play yours first, you are technically in the hot seat. The problem is that traditionally cards that give opponent stuff tends to be shit, and I can see no indication why this will change. You never want to give your opponent a colossal option because let's face it, 90% of the time your opponent will, by the grace of god, get a better colossal than yourself.
Aggro decks would love it because its basically delaying an answer from the opponent. And because aggro decks tend to pressure face most of the time, delaying a card for one turn may prove decisive.
But if youre not piling on the pressure consistently, being able to prevent one card from play is hardly ever going to win the game. Blademaster Okani is a good card because it usually eats a card from your opponent (on top of preventing a curve play) while this card merely delays it. That's a huge difference in my opinion.
Perhaps my earlier wording was harsh. Calling it useless isn't appropriate because I can see a world where aggro decks play this card. But beyond that Im struggling to see how to fit it in decks. Most pros hand read pretty well anyway, so being able to peak at 3 cards is hardly any reason to make way for this card in a deck.
On turn 10 there's no doubt its the better card than lokholar. But most decks dont last till turn 10, and lokholar can cost as low as 5. Ive seen lokholar do very ridiculous stuff before, and that's because it covers your back in case you're facing an aggro deck. This card doesn't do that, and unfortunately for it, unless the meta turns back to value or druids, then I'd be slotting icelord over neptulon any day - that is to say if I have to pick between the two.
The only thing going for it is that its a beast and a deathrattle. At turn 8 this card really doesn't do much other than skip your turn. But at turn 5, its monstrous, which is why its likely to only ever see play in both priest and hunter.
In all other situations, this card is just trash. Putting lots of stats down is one thing, trying not to die doing so is quite another. How many times can you realistically skip a turn above turn 6 and not die?
Even Blackwater Behemoth at turn 8 will at very least heal you for 8. This card does jack shit except clog your board up so you can't play anything else, or even worse, get your board frozen for 4 turns.
In many cases, Lokholar the Ice Lord or Raid Boss Onyxia is just the better minion. This card can indeed clear 2 minions most of the time without taking damage, but at an eye watering 10 mana it has a better chance of being sushi in Mcdonalds than see any play. The only niche this card has is that druid tends to play big stuff early, and this is indeed very big.
But outside of druid, this card hasn't a snowball's chance in hell. Perhaps there's more supporting cards to be revealed which will make this card look better. At the moment though, its only slightly, very slightly, less embarrassingly bad than the original Neptulon
Not really as terrible as it seems, in the right deck. Basically for aggro decks, this allows you not only to scout but also to block a potential answer to your opponent's turn. Imagine murlock playing this card after establishing a board, its just game over. Revenant Rascal has proven before that disruption in aggro decks can be dangerous.
The problem is of course, youre essentially playing this card for disruption and nothing else, so why not just play Blademaster Okani, which does the same thing except it has a better stat build. Outside of aggro, this card is just nearly worthless, but that's not to say that it'll never see play. The fact that its able to stop answers from your opponent must be respected either way.
A tech card at the end. Its viability is completely dependent on the meta. So I wouldn't ignore it
Yeah, team5 just cant help themselves. Remove Savage Roar, introduce Arbor Up. Then remove arbor up and then this card comes along. Will we ever have a year where druids aren't just killing you because you have the temerity of not board clearing them for the umpteen time?
The only thing here is that this card is not a spell, have conditions, and more importantly, doesn't just win you the game because you've bran-ned this out.
Probably one for the future. Most aggro druids rely on Oracle of Elune shenanigans and so rarely plays alot of nature spells. But it wont be long before we start seeing spell aggro druids again, so this card can only ever look upwards not downwards.
This card allows druid to have a gameplan that's not ramp to 20 and win. And because its much more flexible than most other cards its not entirely useless against aggro neither, unlike the alex+brann deal.
Just one of those cards that can only get better. I wont be too surprised to see some form of spell damage OTK druid at some point in the next 2 years.
It has to be respected, that's about the only praise I'll ever be affording this card. If its on board you'll kill it, rather than ignore it.
Any druid deck that plays this is inherently playing aggro, so in what world can druid afford to play off curve, just so this card can gain an extra pair of legs? Plus, its just a 2/2 minion at the start, which means just about any minion will kill it.
The card on its own merits is good if not great. Its not only board but also answers, and if you value trade its just nuts on 5.
The problem is really just the case of whether you really even want to play it on 5. Snowfall Guardian remains the most important card in the deck and it allows shaman complete freedom to ignore the board. So what is this card accomplishing? I tried shaman without guardian and got my arse kicked hard. So I doubt this card would take over the meta any time soon.
But again, its a good card so it wouldn't surprise me if it sees play. A very powerful discover option too, so its only ever going to go up from here.
If there was a card that would elevate this archetype its this card. Basically you'll dump your hand with this card alone, or cheapen Gorloc Ravager for turn 4. Its just flexible enough that it'll make just about anything possible you want to do with murlocs.
The main problem here is reload. You can dump your hand sure, but if it gets answered then you're really screwed. So its really all or nothing with this card. It'll either win the game the next turn, or you'll have your head between the palms of your hand.
Piss poor card art. But hey. For a card this potent, you'd think team5 would choose to give it something more original or at least recycle something from battlegrounds instead of this.
6/6 on 4 is already decent. Being able to dredge, and load up the board is even better.
Just a good murloc on 4. For murloc shaman, which features bloodlust as a win con, that's really enough. Certainly I can see no reason not to play this in a murloc shaman deck. The only tricky thing is if it would elevate murloc shaman as a deck. And my answer is a lukewarm no. But it'll still see play, and honestly, its still a good card in that deck.
Its not a bad card but current in warlock there's really very little proactive shadow spells around, so even triggering this card's effect is tricky, let alone doing it on curve.
And then there's the fact that any deck playing these shadow spells tend to control decks. So in what world does a 4/4 for 3 that does 2 damage fits that playstyle? If warlock isn't nuking the board, they're drawing cards or healing their face.
But its a decent card so I expect it to see play in future, assuming there's more support on the way. There's still hope.
Its just bad. There's plenty of memes up in reddit faceswapping this card with Millhouse Manastorm and that's an apt comparison. Because for the price of infinite mana to your opponent you put up a good stated minion on turn 5. If your opponent cannot kill you outright on turn 6, then very likely their health would be low enough for you to finish them off the following turn.
But the problem starts from the fact that warlock really hasn't got a lot of burn in standard. There's cards like Hellfire, Demonic Assault, the curse cards, and that's about it. Forget about this card living for a turn, or your board for the matter. If youre allowing your opponent carte blanche on their turn, only an aggro deck is not guaranteed to answer this card's 7/7 stats. So a good estimate of health shaved would be around the lines of 10 health, dealing with this minion and developing a good board. Hardly enough that warlock can take advantage of it on their turn to kill the opponent.
And then there's worse case scenario, your opponent is a control deck. Plays his entire deck, heals back all that lost health (via armor, which is always cost efficient, or via maki roll which guarantees a reno effect) and then completely outvalues you (via kazakusan etc.) or outright destroys you.
Even a respectable midrange deck will play enough stuff while suffering around 10-15 damage. Develop a board warlock is ill-equipped to handle (divine shield etc.) and then wipes that smile off your face.
In my opinion, the cons far outweight the pros. I cannot imagine many scenarios where playing this card leads to success. Unless warlock gets lots of burn, stealth minions, or defensive tools like Cloak of Shadows, I cant ever see this being played.
The card will likely suffer the same fate. Because strictly on its viability its really just a tech card which I suspect is designed to prevent curselock mirrors from camping to fatigue.
I call it the new glide because it hard counters both combo and control, and because its magnet for pitchforks. Unlike glide, however, this card can never be good, because team5 fully understands the implications of this card being meta. To me, the real primary motivation for anyone to even play it would be to grief - hence my displeasure.
Im a bit doubtful, but I haven't actually play murloc shaman this meta yet. You play this on turn 3 along with another murloc so your ravager cost 3 on turn 4, but is that really a scary enough play? If this was a warlock card it would be insane but in shaman, Im not too sure.
Edit: I should add that I still think its a strong card, because it allows you swarm the board followed by something like bloodlust to finish the game. But that doesn't change my initial impression that this card allows an all-or-nothing, and really nothing else.
Its hard counter against combo and control. In fact its so hard that I feel that only reason for justifying its design is because team5 reckons that warlock usually never have trouble against these archetypes with or without this card. So the questions remains; why even print it? Because if it sucks against aggro and midrange, while warlock traditionally having no problems with combo and control, what exactly is this card supposed to be accomplishing?
Unfortunately for us, this card does exist, so if you happen to be playing control against warlock you're practically fucked when this card gets played, regardless of the timescale. The only thing that saves you from pulling your hair out against this trash pile of shit is that theorectically Sir Finley, Sea Guide should be able to save your cards from being burnt.
The only other justification I can think of is that its created solely to prevent the bs scenario curselock brings to the table, and that is camping. Basically this card discourages and even outright prevents it from happening. So why print problematic cards that require even more problematic band-aids for? Just admit that the curse idea is shit and let it be. I mean, they are more than willing to let felock get shafted, but not curselock apparently.
At least Im convinced this card is nothing more than a tech card, and a really bad one at that, so it'll likely never see play. But like Glide itself, all we are asking is just 'but why'
Tidelost Burrower - A strong murloc option. That is to say, if its ever going to be viable at all. Currently murloc shaman isn't all that popular but according to hsreplay is holding its own. Unfortunately, in standard right now, Im not seeing why this card would do anything more than grant you a 6/6 stat ball on turn 4.
Clownfish - When I first saw this minion in mercs, I thought it was the single worst piece of art available and now they damn well went ahead and pasted it on a standard hearthstone card. The card itself is very strong though. Basically allows you to go all in like Spitelash Siren. Unlike siren, since this card can neither reload your hand nor grant you anything else other than a murloc swarm, you're really all in - as in if you dont win the next turn chances are good you're dead.
Command of Neptulon - A card made for Wrathspine Enchanter. Fortunately, this card is still good on its own. But its likely not going to fit the whole burn shaman package, because why bother dealing with the board when you can freeze it for 4 turns?
Spirit of the Tides - Probably never played. The last thing an aggressive druid needs is to skip curve just so this card can elevate itself once.
Herald of Nature - Team5 removes Savage Roar, prints Arbor Up. Then they remove arbor up and print this card. At least we can be thankful for small mercies that this card grants a 1/2 instead of 2/1.
And finally Moonbeam, perhaps one of the best cards for druid. Its combo potential, and it allows druids to play that same degenerate ramp druid except now you can't interact with it. Probably something for the future, because druid in standard is currently so deep in shit it cant hold its head up. But I've a feeling this card will be insane at some point in the next year. Perhaps not even that far in the future. On its own right now, its just exactly what I need for a burn druid up in duels.
Immolate is the new glide. Basically someone at team5 got dumped by his childhood sweetheart one day and swears revenge on the world of hearthstone. Its not about the viability of the card, which to be frank, isn't going to be consistently good as many would think, its simply to piss the opponent off while you sip your fking tea.
Like seriously, why even bother playing hearthstone when you can be fucked at any given moment because youre playing anything heavier than aggro-midrange. It hard counters certain archetypes so hard yet does nothing to others. In other words, how are you ever fixing this problem when it inevitably causes nothing but grief, eh team5?
Herald of Shadows - Probably just never sees play, unless there's plenty of aggressive shadow spells and you're playing midrange. Still can happen at some point but certainly not what warlock needs right now
Commander Ulthok - Funny little card that will never see play. Basically if your opponent is combo this card can immediately win the game for them. The dream of your opponent being railed into a spot they cant dig themselves out of is a rare thing indeed, because aggro decks will just laugh while control decks will simply heal back what they've lost.
Had this been a hunter card it might still have a chance. But in warlock, where there's hardly any burn spells, its just shit you serve to yourself in the morning.
Igneous Lavagorger - Not too bad as a defensive card. From the Depths may be the go to option for control warrior right now, but I still think you can run both. Just remove something like heavy plate for it, because the taunt, armor gain, and dredge may simply be better. Its still a 3/5 taunt, gain x health. Surely not to be ignored.
Tidal Revenant - Probably not too good even in big warrior. Its kinda an upgrade over Mo'arg Forgefiend in of itself, but since big warrior tends to cheat out minions, the lack of the battlecry effect makes it way too poor a card. Warrior have better options than a middling Cenarion Ward.
Clash of the Colossals - is interesting. Because you get to play yours first, you are technically in the hot seat. The problem is that traditionally cards that give opponent stuff tends to be shit, and I can see no indication why this will change. You never want to give your opponent a colossal option because let's face it, 90% of the time your opponent will, by the grace of god, get a better colossal than yourself.
Aggro decks would love it because its basically delaying an answer from the opponent. And because aggro decks tend to pressure face most of the time, delaying a card for one turn may prove decisive.
But if youre not piling on the pressure consistently, being able to prevent one card from play is hardly ever going to win the game. Blademaster Okani is a good card because it usually eats a card from your opponent (on top of preventing a curve play) while this card merely delays it. That's a huge difference in my opinion.
Perhaps my earlier wording was harsh. Calling it useless isn't appropriate because I can see a world where aggro decks play this card. But beyond that Im struggling to see how to fit it in decks. Most pros hand read pretty well anyway, so being able to peak at 3 cards is hardly any reason to make way for this card in a deck.
On turn 10 there's no doubt its the better card than lokholar. But most decks dont last till turn 10, and lokholar can cost as low as 5. Ive seen lokholar do very ridiculous stuff before, and that's because it covers your back in case you're facing an aggro deck. This card doesn't do that, and unfortunately for it, unless the meta turns back to value or druids, then I'd be slotting icelord over neptulon any day - that is to say if I have to pick between the two.
The only thing going for it is that its a beast and a deathrattle. At turn 8 this card really doesn't do much other than skip your turn. But at turn 5, its monstrous, which is why its likely to only ever see play in both priest and hunter.
In all other situations, this card is just trash. Putting lots of stats down is one thing, trying not to die doing so is quite another. How many times can you realistically skip a turn above turn 6 and not die?
Even Blackwater Behemoth at turn 8 will at very least heal you for 8. This card does jack shit except clog your board up so you can't play anything else, or even worse, get your board frozen for 4 turns.
In many cases, Lokholar the Ice Lord or Raid Boss Onyxia is just the better minion. This card can indeed clear 2 minions most of the time without taking damage, but at an eye watering 10 mana it has a better chance of being sushi in Mcdonalds than see any play. The only niche this card has is that druid tends to play big stuff early, and this is indeed very big.
But outside of druid, this card hasn't a snowball's chance in hell. Perhaps there's more supporting cards to be revealed which will make this card look better. At the moment though, its only slightly, very slightly, less embarrassingly bad than the original Neptulon
Not really as terrible as it seems, in the right deck. Basically for aggro decks, this allows you not only to scout but also to block a potential answer to your opponent's turn. Imagine murlock playing this card after establishing a board, its just game over. Revenant Rascal has proven before that disruption in aggro decks can be dangerous.
The problem is of course, youre essentially playing this card for disruption and nothing else, so why not just play Blademaster Okani, which does the same thing except it has a better stat build. Outside of aggro, this card is just nearly worthless, but that's not to say that it'll never see play. The fact that its able to stop answers from your opponent must be respected either way.
A tech card at the end. Its viability is completely dependent on the meta. So I wouldn't ignore it