Very nice anti aggro tool, filling a slot only really filled by bloodmage thalnos currently in setting up wipes with cheap AoE. I like it, but I like it less than thalnos.
Very expensive card. Mech hunter can't afford to run silly value cards. Best case that I can think of is theis plus zilliax for two 6/5 taunt lifesteal divine shield minions, which is not amazing for 9 mana.
More battlecry boardwipes in this expansion than any other as far as I remember. This card is a little pricy, but can probably do good work against pirates. You will have a few matchups where this is your best card, but in most cases it will be a 5 mana neutral flanking strike, which is not super good or super bad.
Teron + ??? + Play Dead + Feign Death = win the game, probably.
In terms of more regular use, this can probably go into a midrange deck as a way of effectively delaying board wipes if the opponent has no silence. Otherwise, you just avoided a board wipe by wiping your own board for them.
A neutral sap, if you need one, here it is. Can be a super-Conceal if you want to do something stupid with your deck, but I would err on the proper use being about the same as sap but for classes without efficient silence/removal effects for aggro.
...? In terms of actually using this card, I can only think of deliberately triggering the deathrattle to do something that amounts to making nithogg eggs where the summons don't have rush. Very poor card.
I can only see this being used effectively against aggro decks, definitely not in them. As shown by quests, giving up turn 1 hurts you less than any other turn, but this gives value much sooner than a quest. I think it has more potential than you might expect. Super bad after turn 1 though, maybe suffers due to that.
Better than Bash. Probably finds a place as a tool against aggro, but compared to shield bash, this feels very poor against midrange decks. Still sets up executes or plague of wrath, or maybe even Crush if the enrage package really works.
Pirate warrior doesn't really want this. Arcanite reaper serves better as five mana ten damage than seven mana eighteen damage, just because wasting tempo in your crucial early turns is not something aggro can do. Maybe sees play in a midrange "weapons matter" deck, but other weapon support cards have failed to ignite anything like that before.
Could be anywhere from gain 4 armor to a Time Out!. Very matchup dependant. Might see play if malygos based combos become powerful. As a side note, use it in fatigue warrior + 2 coldlights to take no damage while killing your opponent?
In very early turns of the game, warlocks would currently use mortal coils and kobold librarians to contest the board. Is this better? I'm leaning on no, just because it is so poor against decks that do not demand very early interaction.
A bad front half for a decent prime. Maybe useful with an old style dead man's hand warrior. Fairly likely to see some play in slower warrior decks, but the weakness of the front card might just make this one unusable.
Does warlock need a Militia Commander? I would say probably not. If you need to discard your priciest card, Expired Merchant is more efficient, but maybe if it is the core of your deck, this card can be a backup copy.
Did warlocks really need handbuff? It makes theoretical sense for the hand size class to get hand buff, but this card takes the slowness intrinsic in handbuff and ramps it to maximum. Not seeing this doing well in a world where pirate warrior type decks demand two board clears before this even wakes up.
Discounting combo pieces is something warlock typically does semi often - mecha'thun and any of the many thaurissan combos come to mind - but this seems unreliable in a class where your combo pieces are often weird and discounts need to go on your final win cards rather than your discount-ers. Unreliable, expensive and probably not combo-able.
Voidlord is superior to this card if you want a cheated demon to slow the game down. This does not dilute your bloodreaver guldan pool with voidwalkers though, so maybe this sees some play as a third voidlord? Unlikely, but very plausible.
Very nice anti aggro tool, filling a slot only really filled by bloodmage thalnos currently in setting up wipes with cheap AoE. I like it, but I like it less than thalnos.
Very expensive card. Mech hunter can't afford to run silly value cards. Best case that I can think of is theis plus zilliax for two 6/5 taunt lifesteal divine shield minions, which is not amazing for 9 mana.
More battlecry boardwipes in this expansion than any other as far as I remember. This card is a little pricy, but can probably do good work against pirates. You will have a few matchups where this is your best card, but in most cases it will be a 5 mana neutral flanking strike, which is not super good or super bad.
Teron + ??? + Play Dead + Feign Death = win the game, probably.
In terms of more regular use, this can probably go into a midrange deck as a way of effectively delaying board wipes if the opponent has no silence. Otherwise, you just avoided a board wipe by wiping your own board for them.
A neutral sap, if you need one, here it is. Can be a super-Conceal if you want to do something stupid with your deck, but I would err on the proper use being about the same as sap but for classes without efficient silence/removal effects for aggro.
...? In terms of actually using this card, I can only think of deliberately triggering the deathrattle to do something that amounts to making nithogg eggs where the summons don't have rush. Very poor card.
I can only see this being used effectively against aggro decks, definitely not in them. As shown by quests, giving up turn 1 hurts you less than any other turn, but this gives value much sooner than a quest. I think it has more potential than you might expect. Super bad after turn 1 though, maybe suffers due to that.
Better than Bash. Probably finds a place as a tool against aggro, but compared to shield bash, this feels very poor against midrange decks. Still sets up executes or plague of wrath, or maybe even Crush if the enrage package really works.
A nice card in theory. Very good if you can enable it on turn 3. If midrange warrior decks are good, this will probably work well in them.
Pirate warrior doesn't really want this. Arcanite reaper serves better as five mana ten damage than seven mana eighteen damage, just because wasting tempo in your crucial early turns is not something aggro can do. Maybe sees play in a midrange "weapons matter" deck, but other weapon support cards have failed to ignite anything like that before.
A better Apfelbaum for warriors. Probably sees some play, especially with the potential with buffs.
A strong play if it can cost 4 or less. If cards like risky skipper can enable a new enrage warrior, this could be a good card to run.
Bouncing Blade + Defile. I would treat this more like a deadly shot than anything else. Probably not great but not unplayable either.
Could be anywhere from gain 4 armor to a Time Out!. Very matchup dependant. Might see play if malygos based combos become powerful. As a side note, use it in fatigue warrior + 2 coldlights to take no damage while killing your opponent?
In very early turns of the game, warlocks would currently use mortal coils and kobold librarians to contest the board. Is this better? I'm leaning on no, just because it is so poor against decks that do not demand very early interaction.
A bad front half for a decent prime. Maybe useful with an old style dead man's hand warrior. Fairly likely to see some play in slower warrior decks, but the weakness of the front card might just make this one unusable.
Does warlock need a Militia Commander? I would say probably not. If you need to discard your priciest card, Expired Merchant is more efficient, but maybe if it is the core of your deck, this card can be a backup copy.
Did warlocks really need handbuff? It makes theoretical sense for the hand size class to get hand buff, but this card takes the slowness intrinsic in handbuff and ramps it to maximum. Not seeing this doing well in a world where pirate warrior type decks demand two board clears before this even wakes up.
Discounting combo pieces is something warlock typically does semi often - mecha'thun and any of the many thaurissan combos come to mind - but this seems unreliable in a class where your combo pieces are often weird and discounts need to go on your final win cards rather than your discount-ers. Unreliable, expensive and probably not combo-able.
Voidlord is superior to this card if you want a cheated demon to slow the game down. This does not dilute your bloodreaver guldan pool with voidwalkers though, so maybe this sees some play as a third voidlord? Unlikely, but very plausible.