This is the peak of what win more cards look for Paladin. A very cheap beatstick slapped in the board while the other minions you have deal with your opponents' minions. The moment Paladin gets strong tempo swings is the moment they get back on top of Hearthstone.
While not on Flamewaker levels of annoyance, this is an example of a curve with insane reach a possibly face damage pressure. Tempo mage could reemerge thanks to this guy and, for example, Mozaki, Master Duelist as high end on the deck.
Hunter is in a weird situation here. This guy provides amazing reach to your low damage spells, allowing Hunter to bypass their "weakness" dealing with big minions. But the deck that would abuse this effect is a deck that historically ignored big minions anyway. So, I guess this might be slapped in Face Hunter just because it can use its effect? I don't expect the decks' winrate to skyrocket because of it, but it can increase slightly because you killed the odd Taunt minion allowing you to push extra face damage.
On highlander or midrange, since they combat the board mostly on minion combat, this card will most likely shine less. That being said, it is still a very powerful and design restricting effect. Toxmonger actually allowed cards like Elven Archer to become a threat in the original Quest Hunter, driving the deck almost to tier 2 status in decks highest point, iirc.
Honestly, if you think about it, Druid was already a combo class, although their comboes relied on huge board swings. Whether this card can make said combos become more OTK focused remains to be seen. Still scary though.
In my opinion, if a control style DH is to emerge, it will be on the back of this card. Chaos Nova deals one more damage, but costs 2 more and doesn't leave a 3/2 behind. Even in tempo DH you can slap one copy in a Soul Fragment deck to tech against other tempo decks..
Well, this card is like a Multi-Shot, but you can control one of the shots and it can go face. It can, overall, force brutal tempo swings, which is what Rogue wants, so it can be good even by itself.
Top end for totem decks, I guess. It's a balanced good card, so it probaly won't see play. Copying this with Totemic Reflection is an 8 mana combo to summon 2 4/5 sticks. And while the Deathrattle is very Bloodlust-able, it's very underwhelming by itself.
I believe this card won't make Totem Shaman, it will at most be a useful tool for the decks endgame.
While I could consider this an interesting tech card, it should be costed as that, a tech card. Sprint casts 7 mana and was actually used for a while, mostly because it was paired with a card that made it cost 4. This costs 4 without a second card to combo with, making it perhaps a bit too good.
The last tech card that had premium mana for its effect was Bad Luck Albatross, ended up being nerfed.
Ah yes, Thought Erasure on a decent body. That will totally be a very cool card to play with and against.
Even Warlock's disruption is very condidtional, I mean, look at Chaos Gazer, it gives your opponent an actual interactive way to deal with a discard type effect. Even Gnomeferatu is less toxic in that regard.
When you play this and activate the Outcast effect, your worst scenario is your opponent topdecking the card you shuffled, which means this card stopped one draw and allowed you to see a portion of your opponent's hand.
So, tempo Priest can be a thing now. The deck already has access to Silence (ok-ish card for tempo), Lazul's Scheme (nice reach), Circle of Healing (a staple in old versions of the deck, though that card was the most oppressive combined with Northshire Cleric), Power Word: Shield (making this guy a 2/8) and Whispers of EVIL (a generally decent to good card for a tempo based Priest deck). All of these allow for the card to be activated immediately.
Yes, Shadow Madness is amazing in control, but this card is much more proactive when fighting for the board, making it very scary when the Priest player is actually proactive. And Tempo Priest is one of those decks that is a couple of cards away right now from really popping off.
Statwise, it's insane, as it is very tanky yet has enough attack to be a threat on a Minion vs Minion Board fight. Also shows the difference between just one stat, especially when compared to Malygos, Aspect of Magic.
It's effect is also powerful in the sense it can snowball really fast and really hard.
However, and this is a very tough call to make, this card won't shine that much unless tempo mage is revived (though that deck can revive on the wieght of this card alone). That, or you get one from Font of Power, as the spell mage deck runs a lot of small spells already. Plus, Combustion fits really well on that deck.
Looking at the current Tempo DH deck, even them could slap one copy of this as a last ditch effort to regain the board. Also, lets not forget that DH has a lot of tempo based reach with all the weapons and tendency to stick minions on the board.
I see this card as a premium choice on discover effects more than as auto include. Also, it can be slapped on Highlander dragon decks that have the space for it.
All effects make for either a really good tempo oriented 2 drop or a decent to good value generator. On one hand, it makes the card decently consistnet, on the other, it can give Prince Keleseth levels of RNG frustration in the sense that it can be either game winning (like on Xarkkal's example) or borderline useless because of some non interactive shenanigans.
I actually like the idea of a card that relies on the board to get its effect, but I don't believe it should be put on a early game minion. If this card was like a 7 mana 6/6 or even 7/7 with similar effects, it would probably be a bit less annoying to play against.
This is the peak of what win more cards look for Paladin. A very cheap beatstick slapped in the board while the other minions you have deal with your opponents' minions. The moment Paladin gets strong tempo swings is the moment they get back on top of Hearthstone.
T1 Lab Partner
T2 Frostbolt
T3 Sorcerer's Apprentice + Frostbolt
T4 Sorcerer's Apprentice + Fireball
While not on Flamewaker levels of annoyance, this is an example of a curve with insane reach a possibly face damage pressure. Tempo mage could reemerge thanks to this guy and, for example, Mozaki, Master Duelist as high end on the deck.
Hunter is in a weird situation here. This guy provides amazing reach to your low damage spells, allowing Hunter to bypass their "weakness" dealing with big minions. But the deck that would abuse this effect is a deck that historically ignored big minions anyway. So, I guess this might be slapped in Face Hunter just because it can use its effect? I don't expect the decks' winrate to skyrocket because of it, but it can increase slightly because you killed the odd Taunt minion allowing you to push extra face damage.
On highlander or midrange, since they combat the board mostly on minion combat, this card will most likely shine less. That being said, it is still a very powerful and design restricting effect. Toxmonger actually allowed cards like Elven Archer to become a threat in the original Quest Hunter, driving the deck almost to tier 2 status in decks highest point, iirc.
Honestly, if you think about it, Druid was already a combo class, although their comboes relied on huge board swings. Whether this card can make said combos become more OTK focused remains to be seen. Still scary though.
After the nerf to Metamorphosis, Demon Hunters will possibly start having trouble when dealing with 5 Health minions.... and it's gone!
Slap this on T4, attack with it and on T5 attack with it again. T6, here come Warglaives of Azzinoth. Insane pressure through face hits.
In my opinion, if a control style DH is to emerge, it will be on the back of this card. Chaos Nova deals one more damage, but costs 2 more and doesn't leave a 3/2 behind. Even in tempo DH you can slap one copy in a Soul Fragment deck to tech against other tempo decks..
Well, this card is like a Multi-Shot, but you can control one of the shots and it can go face. It can, overall, force brutal tempo swings, which is what Rogue wants, so it can be good even by itself.
Wow, if only Demon Hunter's cards were good yet balanced like this one in their first expansion...
Top end for totem decks, I guess. It's a balanced good card, so it probaly won't see play. Copying this with Totemic Reflection is an 8 mana combo to summon 2 4/5 sticks. And while the Deathrattle is very Bloodlust-able, it's very underwhelming by itself.
I believe this card won't make Totem Shaman, it will at most be a useful tool for the decks endgame.
While I could consider this an interesting tech card, it should be costed as that, a tech card. Sprint casts 7 mana and was actually used for a while, mostly because it was paired with a card that made it cost 4. This costs 4 without a second card to combo with, making it perhaps a bit too good.
The last tech card that had premium mana for its effect was Bad Luck Albatross, ended up being nerfed.
Ah yes, Thought Erasure on a decent body. That will totally be a very cool card to play with and against.
Even Warlock's disruption is very condidtional, I mean, look at Chaos Gazer, it gives your opponent an actual interactive way to deal with a discard type effect. Even Gnomeferatu is less toxic in that regard.
When you play this and activate the Outcast effect, your worst scenario is your opponent topdecking the card you shuffled, which means this card stopped one draw and allowed you to see a portion of your opponent's hand.
So, tempo Priest can be a thing now. The deck already has access to Silence (ok-ish card for tempo), Lazul's Scheme (nice reach), Circle of Healing (a staple in old versions of the deck, though that card was the most oppressive combined with Northshire Cleric), Power Word: Shield (making this guy a 2/8) and Whispers of EVIL (a generally decent to good card for a tempo based Priest deck). All of these allow for the card to be activated immediately.
Yes, Shadow Madness is amazing in control, but this card is much more proactive when fighting for the board, making it very scary when the Priest player is actually proactive. And Tempo Priest is one of those decks that is a couple of cards away right now from really popping off.
Statwise, it's insane, as it is very tanky yet has enough attack to be a threat on a Minion vs Minion Board fight. Also shows the difference between just one stat, especially when compared to Malygos, Aspect of Magic.
It's effect is also powerful in the sense it can snowball really fast and really hard.
However, and this is a very tough call to make, this card won't shine that much unless tempo mage is revived (though that deck can revive on the wieght of this card alone). That, or you get one from Font of Power, as the spell mage deck runs a lot of small spells already. Plus, Combustion fits really well on that deck.
Powerful yet balanced, beautifully designed, so far my favorite card in this expansion.
Looking at the current Tempo DH deck, even them could slap one copy of this as a last ditch effort to regain the board. Also, lets not forget that DH has a lot of tempo based reach with all the weapons and tendency to stick minions on the board.
I see this card as a premium choice on discover effects more than as auto include. Also, it can be slapped on Highlander dragon decks that have the space for it.
While not amazing, it does help delay spell based answers to your board, which can be game winning, as we've seen with Loatheb.
All effects make for either a really good tempo oriented 2 drop or a decent to good value generator. On one hand, it makes the card decently consistnet, on the other, it can give Prince Keleseth levels of RNG frustration in the sense that it can be either game winning (like on Xarkkal's example) or borderline useless because of some non interactive shenanigans.
I actually like the idea of a card that relies on the board to get its effect, but I don't believe it should be put on a early game minion. If this card was like a 7 mana 6/6 or even 7/7 with similar effects, it would probably be a bit less annoying to play against.
Small typo in the square rulings for "Murloc", it's written Palain instead of Paladin.