Really cool card, you don't even need to run many spells, just make sure the only spells you do run are shadow ones. Might this be the time for an aggressive, tempo-oriented priest list which doesn't have games drag out to thirty minutes?

Seems rather specific, and not really worth a card spot. You really want it as early as possible (because stat increases matter less as the game goes on), which means that you'll have less minions in hand. You then have to play divine shield minions, which then have to lose their divine shields, in order to buff the minions left in your hand. I just don't see it being anything other than absurdly slow.

Amazing card, will see play in any and every controlling mage deck. It's just that I don't see many controlling mage decks taking shape until they get more survival tools.

The quest seems hard to complete, and Mage just doesn't have enough face spells right now to really capitalise on the reward. Might change with more revealed cards though.

Cool card, but just seems like a worse Ace Hunter Kreen most of the time, which already is mostly a tech option and not a core card.

Cool, unique effect, but too slow and unimpactful for the aggressive styles that hunter likes to play.

Good card, but seems a bit too slow for hunter. It usually wants to do its big board summoning in the early game with Kolkar Pack Runner, while playing solitary big dudes (Trampling Rhino) and face things after turn 5.

It's mana cheat, so it's bound to be good. Will be hard to manipulate it to always highroll, but if it does it's gamewinning (Guardian Animals, Survival of the Fittest, Cenarion Ward being the most obvious highrolls).

Kind of slow and not sure where it would fit in, but it's good removal. Can see it in a deck with Guardian Animals to enable and pump up your Lake Thresher if you draw it naturally.

Nice to finally see this Warcraft legend in Hearthstone. Seems like a good card for control warrior, albeit a bit slow. Not sure if rush warrior wants it since at that point in the game you usually want to go face, but the 7 mana slot is rather dry so it might slot in.

Corpsetaker and The Curator on steroids, extremely good. You get an 8 mana 7/7 Taunt Divine Shield Rush which draws 3 cards, which is insanely overstatted. The deckbuilding demands also aren't that big, most non-spell based decks run Rush and Taunt minions anyway, Divine Shield can just be a 1-of. For instance, you can run it in Clown Druid to tutor Animated Broomstick and Carnival Clown, or in N'zoth Paladin to tutor cards like Taelan Fordring, Murgur Murgurgle, Carousel Gryphon, etc. It's great tempo and great value in 1 card. Also will be bonkers in arena.

Corpsetaker and The Curator on steroids, extremely good. You get an 8 mana 7/7 Taunt Divine Shield Rush which draws 3 cards, which is insanely overstatted. The deckbuilding demands also aren't that big, most non-spell based decks run Rush and Taunt minions anyway, Divine Shield can just be a 1-of. For instance, you can run it in Clown Druid to tutor Animated Broomstick and Carnival Clown, or in N'zoth Paladin to tutor cards like Taelan Fordring, Murgur Murgurgle, [Hearthstone Card (Caroussel Gryphon) Not Found], etc. It's great tempo and great value in 1 card. Also will be bonkers in arena.

Nice deck lists! Immediately shared the article with some F2P friends, they seem like good starters for people trying to get into the game.

Apotheosis reflects the true issue with the Lifesteal mechanic, which is that it can steal life that isn't there. If a minion with lifesteal deals 8 damage to a 2-health minion, it should only steal 2 life, not 8. After all, how can you steal life that isn't there? It would also fix the ridiculousness that is "hit the right cards with skull" OTK DH.

Lots of cool decks, gonna try out that Odd Deathrattle DH! Thanks!

That's too bad :( Never picked up the game due to a shortage of time, but I really hoped it'd thrive. Always sad to see passionate people have to give up their dream. I also want to give a huge shout-out to Nirast, who put so much time and effort into putting a spotlight on the game on this site.

I found last week's design contest very interesting. It seemed like a very hard but interesting mechanic to balance cards around, with a lot of creative room. One of my main problems with the cards was that sometimes you could just easily make a minion-based deck and throw in the card without paying any real penalty (kinda like the winning card tbh, although that one is quite balanced). I really loved all the cool cards that would really force you into creative deckbuilding, both due to their restriction and their pay-off. One of my favourite prompts ever.

I think he's just really suffering under the purely remote format, quite different from casting at a caster desk. However I've always found him to be one of the weaker casters, it's just more clear when you put him next to actually very good casters like Jia, Darroch and Sottle.

Great article Aesan. Especially loved the part where you put a spotlight on all the non-GM players who are still notable players in the competitive Hearthstone scene.