Its an excavate card so it'll see play if excavate warlock is playable.
That's about it really. The main factor is indeed just to trigger more excavate, because you're probably aiming to get to The Azerite Snake as soon as possible. Screw the card, its main function is for a higher purpose, and thus even if its effect is simply just to excavate it'll see play.
Personally I think this card is a miss because at current moment of writing there's just no good fel spells. Ironically had this card came out during alterac it would at very least be an impactful card, over the many fel spells that were introduced then.
But will this card see play? Probably yes, because lifesteal is a keyword you can never ignore and always must be respected. Even if I personally dont think its as good as it seem, you'll play this because of deck synergy. At very least the card grants you two 1 mana deal 3 damage fel spells so you can do something with it.
Its practically Soulciologist Malicia in all but name. Bizarrely this card has less stats by 1. Is that extra health and attack really that OP team5?
So, there's no real reason to review cards like these. Its gonna see play if excavate sees play. No reason not to play it, especially since you'll likely need that board swing option for playing so many excavate cards that probably dont do more than putting stats on board.
Its unlikely to ever win you games on its own, but then again neither did malicia and yet that card functioned pretty well with good win rates.
Boost the health and then team5 has to now design cards around it and inevitably the same result will come off.
Renathal was the first true exception whereby additional health are granted on an optional basis and we already seen the effects of renathal in the game. Suddenly aggro decks can sustain entire matches without ever running out of stuff, burn damage got increasingly more insane and in some cases near infinite, and certain classes go far into greeding their entire deck. Burn mage can virtually destroy any 30 health deck without a whimper, but struggle against a 40 health control deck.
To me, there's just no reason to ever buff the starting health of any class because inevitably team5 would design around it. If they needed a class to last longer in the game, all they got to do is to print better sustain cards for them. We've seen it with priest already. The class went from being a laughing stock for having less than healing than paladin, to the point that you sometimes genuinely needed 60 damage in total to kill them.
Also, the additional health means certain classes pretty much gets pigeonholed into one archetype or another. How is it fair for shaman to play aggro with 40 health against the same archetype in hunter who has 10 less health? If we print more powerful aggro tools for hunter to compensate, then what happens when they face a more controlling or greedy dhunter? Its just not ideal whichever way we do it.
In my opinion, the hero health in hearthstone hearthstone is perfect. No need to tweak what isnt broken.
Only downside is that its contending the same position as Awakening Tremors, which is better against control. But I would still say its a more optimal card in most situations.
Its mostly a good card off random generation/discovers. On its own its kinda weak, very matchup dependent. There's simply no reason for hunter to tech in single removal unless the meta turns to turn 4 giants again.
But of course, if youre playing highlander this card can be contentious for a place. Because its really not bad just too situational.
Its basically a better Soul of the Forest for hunter, and that might be relevant because hunter can surprisingly build up a wide board fairly often, the problem usually is that nobody respects it because there's simply no way for hunter to close out games using something like Bloodlust
But with this card there might be chance for aggro hunter that spams board. Play with this card to protect it and its all good.
At present, Im not seeing how that kind of deck could be made, but admitably this helps a ton.
When you think about it, how often it is that hunter's hand-related tactics ever worked in standard? From Big Dreams to Hunting Party, every one of them are good on paper but on practice often falls flat.
So this card wants you to be using cards like Bestial Madness but the problem is that hunter simply dont need/rely on such things to ever be good. So you give up 2 mana to buff your hand, then your opponent plays a 3 drop on an empty board and youre practically dead. Its really is just like that most of the time for hunter.
There's only two things of note here; firstly that we're heading towards rotation in 5 months time and a smaller pool will certainly benefit this card greatly. And secondly, if ever you get this card to 9 attack he'll get you King Krush, meaning its entirely possible to get double KK if handbuff is convenient enough to be done.
But really. Just play arcane hunter for a match and you'll instantly see why hunter doesn't need convoluted shit like this.
It might actually be unironically be one of shaman's best cards this expansion, not even the famed Doctor Holli'dae, because unlike that card this one I can imagine being in most if not all shaman decks.
Forget the buff. This is straight up draw a spell for 2 mana with a 2/2 body. If it were a neutral card you'd play it in your deck if there is any hint of spells in it.
In a dedicated deck, you can play this along with Trusty Companion and get a massive 5/7 taunt for 4 mana, plus draw 2 cards.
A so-so card that will only be played in highlander.
Discovering spells is good, but for 2 mana with no further discounts and only healing your face for 5, that's kinda weak. If you think about it, you'll almost never bother with the healing, and just play this on 2 for the discover effect.
Runed Orb for mage is good because it relieves tempo, this card does not. Its not even a close comparison.
Its a decent card, kinda the stuff you put into highlander because you really need to stuff 30 cards into a deck. Its not mind boggling good, or just never played, but somewhere right in the middle.
I'd say the best thing about this card is that you can get it off a discover option. There's really little else to recommend this. Shaman rarely ever plays control, and this card isnt pushing any boundaries any time soon.
This card is great, comparable to Hand of A'dal 90% of the time. Shaman tends to play tribal minions the most, and anyone who puts this card into their deck will likely have built around it.
So you get a nice little buff along with a card for 2, what's there not to like. Its gonna see play one way or another, because the only deck it doesnt fit into is combo, and even then its not definite.
Apart from everything mentioned, the art is also well drawn, cutesy stuff. 5 stars all round.
The card is strong, but its tied to highlander which severely limits its viability. Basically, when it comes to highlander Ive always thought shaman does the worse in, because so many of their cards either work synergistically or situationally.
But if we rate this card on its own, the only good thing about the staff is that it generates taunts. Its extremely high durability doesnt actually factor in too much because its nearly impossible to ever finish the weapon naturally. Not to mention that its powerlevel is always going to be capped by the fact that vipers will naturally be everywhere.
Overall, its gonna see play only if highalnder is viable, and if it is viable then certainly you'd play this card anyway, there's just no reason not to.
Team5 printed this solely to encourage players to play midrange elemental shaman, and also because we can already see the problem with that archetype: It gets destroyed by aggro.
This card plugs one of the few holes in that deck, very nicely too. Id imagine this card seeing play, but only in that deck. The overload is way too severe for any other deck to take it, unless the overload is entirely the reason to play this.
But again, you need to respect the lifesteal and this card has all the elements required to be good as a high cost card. Rush, lifesteal, and windfury.
Probably only seen in control, because in nearly all other archetypes its way too slow. But if ever there's a way to cheat it out it'll be completely insane.
Payoff for playing midrange elemental is good, because this card is excellent.
As to whether it can carry the whole archetype that's another question entirely. Because we can already see the main issue with this payoff. You need to consistently drop an elemental every turn, and in 2023 doing something like that usually will get you destroyed by aggro.
We'll have to see whether there's enough good elementals incoming to truly judge whether this thing can fly. From what Ive seen, its likely to end up like pirate rogue at the start of sunken city: Good enough, but falls flat very quickly as the meta develops.
Here's the thing. There's already a BUU plague DK that's doing decently well.
That deck needs removal options and this is one such. So it'll see play.
Not too happy that its a multirune card, but admitably even if it wasnt it wouldnt see play in UUU or BBB decks for its own reasons. So in this instance Id say its okay, even though its kinda annoying.
Discover effects are good in DK. Hence, this card will see play. Its really that simple. Even if you dont trigger the quickdraw its gonna give you a chance at getting an undead you wouldn't normally have access to, such as Pile of Bones, or reska. Or even Frost Queen Sindragosa, imagine playing that card on 5.
There's just nothing else for it. Id be surprised if this card doesnt see play.
Decently strong car...wait, its a fucking multirune card.
FFS team5, why.
Its more or less established that the frost excavate DK would be something for DK to do next expansion, so why'd you put an unholy rune requirement there? Or are we debating whether Frostwyrm's Fury is something we'd definitely, definitely never play just to fit a card like this in the deck.
The only reason why Im not lowering my score further than 3 stars is that I concede there might* be a chance we'd just play plague UUF DK, so this card can fit in fine. But seriously, even if excavate is good, you'd always want to play frostwyrm's fury because why wouldnt you? Nothing comes close to that card in terms of power.
Its an excavate card so it'll see play if excavate warlock is playable.
That's about it really. The main factor is indeed just to trigger more excavate, because you're probably aiming to get to The Azerite Snake as soon as possible. Screw the card, its main function is for a higher purpose, and thus even if its effect is simply just to excavate it'll see play.
Personally I think this card is a miss because at current moment of writing there's just no good fel spells. Ironically had this card came out during alterac it would at very least be an impactful card, over the many fel spells that were introduced then.
But will this card see play? Probably yes, because lifesteal is a keyword you can never ignore and always must be respected. Even if I personally dont think its as good as it seem, you'll play this because of deck synergy. At very least the card grants you two 1 mana deal 3 damage fel spells so you can do something with it.
Its practically Soulciologist Malicia in all but name. Bizarrely this card has less stats by 1. Is that extra health and attack really that OP team5?
So, there's no real reason to review cards like these. Its gonna see play if excavate sees play. No reason not to play it, especially since you'll likely need that board swing option for playing so many excavate cards that probably dont do more than putting stats on board.
Its unlikely to ever win you games on its own, but then again neither did malicia and yet that card functioned pretty well with good win rates.
Boost the health and then team5 has to now design cards around it and inevitably the same result will come off.
Renathal was the first true exception whereby additional health are granted on an optional basis and we already seen the effects of renathal in the game. Suddenly aggro decks can sustain entire matches without ever running out of stuff, burn damage got increasingly more insane and in some cases near infinite, and certain classes go far into greeding their entire deck. Burn mage can virtually destroy any 30 health deck without a whimper, but struggle against a 40 health control deck.
To me, there's just no reason to ever buff the starting health of any class because inevitably team5 would design around it. If they needed a class to last longer in the game, all they got to do is to print better sustain cards for them. We've seen it with priest already. The class went from being a laughing stock for having less than healing than paladin, to the point that you sometimes genuinely needed 60 damage in total to kill them.
Also, the additional health means certain classes pretty much gets pigeonholed into one archetype or another. How is it fair for shaman to play aggro with 40 health against the same archetype in hunter who has 10 less health? If we print more powerful aggro tools for hunter to compensate, then what happens when they face a more controlling or greedy dhunter? Its just not ideal whichever way we do it.
In my opinion, the hero health in hearthstone hearthstone is perfect. No need to tweak what isnt broken.
Far as I know Mortal Coil is that card you put in your deck because you dont have other cards to put in.
Its not that great these days. You'd be better off playing Tour Guide 90% of the time.
The stealth is really what makes this card good.
Only downside is that its contending the same position as Awakening Tremors, which is better against control. But I would still say its a more optimal card in most situations.
Its mostly a good card off random generation/discovers. On its own its kinda weak, very matchup dependent. There's simply no reason for hunter to tech in single removal unless the meta turns to turn 4 giants again.
But of course, if youre playing highlander this card can be contentious for a place. Because its really not bad just too situational.
Its basically a better Soul of the Forest for hunter, and that might be relevant because hunter can surprisingly build up a wide board fairly often, the problem usually is that nobody respects it because there's simply no way for hunter to close out games using something like Bloodlust
But with this card there might be chance for aggro hunter that spams board. Play with this card to protect it and its all good.
At present, Im not seeing how that kind of deck could be made, but admitably this helps a ton.
I have no idea why this card costs 5.
When you think about it, how often it is that hunter's hand-related tactics ever worked in standard? From Big Dreams to Hunting Party, every one of them are good on paper but on practice often falls flat.
So this card wants you to be using cards like Bestial Madness but the problem is that hunter simply dont need/rely on such things to ever be good. So you give up 2 mana to buff your hand, then your opponent plays a 3 drop on an empty board and youre practically dead. Its really is just like that most of the time for hunter.
There's only two things of note here; firstly that we're heading towards rotation in 5 months time and a smaller pool will certainly benefit this card greatly. And secondly, if ever you get this card to 9 attack he'll get you King Krush, meaning its entirely possible to get double KK if handbuff is convenient enough to be done.
But really. Just play arcane hunter for a match and you'll instantly see why hunter doesn't need convoluted shit like this.
It might actually be unironically be one of shaman's best cards this expansion, not even the famed Doctor Holli'dae, because unlike that card this one I can imagine being in most if not all shaman decks.
Forget the buff. This is straight up draw a spell for 2 mana with a 2/2 body. If it were a neutral card you'd play it in your deck if there is any hint of spells in it.
In a dedicated deck, you can play this along with Trusty Companion and get a massive 5/7 taunt for 4 mana, plus draw 2 cards.
A so-so card that will only be played in highlander.
Discovering spells is good, but for 2 mana with no further discounts and only healing your face for 5, that's kinda weak. If you think about it, you'll almost never bother with the healing, and just play this on 2 for the discover effect.
Runed Orb for mage is good because it relieves tempo, this card does not. Its not even a close comparison.
Its a decent card, kinda the stuff you put into highlander because you really need to stuff 30 cards into a deck. Its not mind boggling good, or just never played, but somewhere right in the middle.
I'd say the best thing about this card is that you can get it off a discover option. There's really little else to recommend this. Shaman rarely ever plays control, and this card isnt pushing any boundaries any time soon.
This card is great, comparable to Hand of A'dal 90% of the time. Shaman tends to play tribal minions the most, and anyone who puts this card into their deck will likely have built around it.
So you get a nice little buff along with a card for 2, what's there not to like. Its gonna see play one way or another, because the only deck it doesnt fit into is combo, and even then its not definite.
Apart from everything mentioned, the art is also well drawn, cutesy stuff. 5 stars all round.
The card is strong, but its tied to highlander which severely limits its viability. Basically, when it comes to highlander Ive always thought shaman does the worse in, because so many of their cards either work synergistically or situationally.
But if we rate this card on its own, the only good thing about the staff is that it generates taunts. Its extremely high durability doesnt actually factor in too much because its nearly impossible to ever finish the weapon naturally. Not to mention that its powerlevel is always going to be capped by the fact that vipers will naturally be everywhere.
Overall, its gonna see play only if highalnder is viable, and if it is viable then certainly you'd play this card anyway, there's just no reason not to.
Team5 printed this solely to encourage players to play midrange elemental shaman, and also because we can already see the problem with that archetype: It gets destroyed by aggro.
This card plugs one of the few holes in that deck, very nicely too. Id imagine this card seeing play, but only in that deck. The overload is way too severe for any other deck to take it, unless the overload is entirely the reason to play this.
This card should by right never see play.
But again, you need to respect the lifesteal and this card has all the elements required to be good as a high cost card. Rush, lifesteal, and windfury.
Probably only seen in control, because in nearly all other archetypes its way too slow. But if ever there's a way to cheat it out it'll be completely insane.
Payoff for playing midrange elemental is good, because this card is excellent.
As to whether it can carry the whole archetype that's another question entirely. Because we can already see the main issue with this payoff. You need to consistently drop an elemental every turn, and in 2023 doing something like that usually will get you destroyed by aggro.
We'll have to see whether there's enough good elementals incoming to truly judge whether this thing can fly. From what Ive seen, its likely to end up like pirate rogue at the start of sunken city: Good enough, but falls flat very quickly as the meta develops.
Here's the thing. There's already a BUU plague DK that's doing decently well.
That deck needs removal options and this is one such. So it'll see play.
Not too happy that its a multirune card, but admitably even if it wasnt it wouldnt see play in UUU or BBB decks for its own reasons. So in this instance Id say its okay, even though its kinda annoying.
Its simple to judge a card like this.
Discover effects are good in DK. Hence, this card will see play. Its really that simple. Even if you dont trigger the quickdraw its gonna give you a chance at getting an undead you wouldn't normally have access to, such as Pile of Bones, or reska. Or even Frost Queen Sindragosa, imagine playing that card on 5.
There's just nothing else for it. Id be surprised if this card doesnt see play.
Decently strong car...wait, its a fucking multirune card.
FFS team5, why.
Its more or less established that the frost excavate DK would be something for DK to do next expansion, so why'd you put an unholy rune requirement there? Or are we debating whether Frostwyrm's Fury is something we'd definitely, definitely never play just to fit a card like this in the deck.
The only reason why Im not lowering my score further than 3 stars is that I concede there might* be a chance we'd just play plague UUF DK, so this card can fit in fine. But seriously, even if excavate is good, you'd always want to play frostwyrm's fury because why wouldnt you? Nothing comes close to that card in terms of power.