I'm very skeptical about the card's power. You'll basically have to keep him in hand until your big swing turn to prevent him from getting killed or wasting the Spellburst for some cheap utility spells like Ray of Frost. Will there be decks that can afford to do so and/or will the swing be worth it?
I'm very curious to see how much play this will end up seeing. Are there decks that are willing to have a dead draw to give them a chance for four potentially improved draws.
Too random to see any serious play. The statline gives it a solid chance to survive longer, but also prevents it from being an actual threat. I wonder if there's a mana cost with guaranteed positive outcomes...
Ridiculously strong tempo card on curve if you just happen to have some Spell Damage survive. It will be tried out for sure, but I wouldn't be certain that it will get included to the eventual refined lists.
I wonder if the ghost is also a murloc? I think it's a decent card overall, tag or no. But if both minions are murlocs, it might have slightly better use in murloc decks.
As Blizzard is consistently inconsistent, Spectral Flyer is also a Murloc. That might change eventually, as Ghostly Charger lost its Beast tag after community feedback, and Witchwood Grizzly saw the bear's color change to brown for the same "ghosts should not have tribes" reason.
If Paladin finally claws its way back to meta, this card will surely be one of the reasons why. It doesn't do much if you're behind, but if you're the aggressor, it's extremely annoying to deal with.
Do we know if, if only one deathrattle died, both welps gain the same effect? Could play that in Warrior after Kargath Bladefist dies...
In case this wasn't answered yet, only one Whelp would even get a Deathrattle. I'd imagine that if two minions with the same Deathrattle have died, both Whelps would get the same Deathrattle.
Will probably fight with Imprisoned Observer for a slot in Standard Highlander lists. If Tempo Mage becomes a thing again, this surely makes the cut in those decks as well.
On an interview wayyy back when the duplicate protection was extended to all rarities, Ben Lee had this to say:
"Generally, we don't particularly want players to disenchant their cards. That's a bit of a new mentality for us, especially when you think about things like achievements in the future, and game modes potentially linking to older parts of your collection. If you're destroying your cards, you're kind of harming yourself [in relation to] future things that we're planning. So, we want people to open their cards, feel good about them, and keep them."
Bit more recently, he directly told that you can use Wild cards in the game mode in a Reddit AMA:
"The new game mode coming later this year will allow you to use cards from older and newer sets. Currently, we aren't putting any restrictions on which sets can be played within it, and there might even be some cool hidden secrets for using some of the older cards 😉. - Ben"
To the side discussion of the thread, they'll never make Wild cards cheaper to craft, I just don't see it. Why would you ever punish your players for keeping their cards? They definitely can offer cheap Wild pack bundles or similar, but anything further than that will cause a community backlash.
It's a very slight change but it's there! Not so easy to see in spells but the minion should be detectable, unless it's really an issue with your monitor.
Since there have been no card reveals or any announcements yet, I'd bet late August. Additionally, the Spirit Blossom festival doesn't end until August 19th, and I'd be surprised if we got a new region before that.
77 revealed (76 properly, one leaked), 58 remaining. Only the Priest Legendary is missing. Not sure about the epic count but if I understand correctly, they can't be anything else than Demon Hunter or Neutral cards.
Seems kinda busted. The cards that create Soul Fragments are solid in itself, so there's not really any drawbacks in running them. I'd daresay the battlecry might get a nerf to +2/+2 at some point, unless the meta pushes Fragment Warlocks out before that and the card never gets to shine.
After the cost reduction nerfs they just did they decide to print another cost reduction card? At least it doesn't make the cards cost 0. Still, it can be absolutely broken against control and requires pretty much immediate hard removal, which is the kind of design I really dislike. However, if the meta gravitates towards aggro or tempo, it's likely going to be too slow to see much play.
I expected/hoped that Jandice is the Mage/Rogue Legendary and while that turned out to be true, the effect is a letdown for me personally. I mean it's super strong, but it's also very RNG-y and bland in my opinion.
With many classes lacking the option to reliably ping anything, I'd imagine the second part of the text can be ignored in most matchups which causes the effect to be borderline broken. But that's just my take on it.
The casters will be L0rinda, Jia, NaySyl, and the Americas Grandmasters duo Gallon and languagehacker.
Some of Blizzard's recent remote-casted tournaments have had some audio issues time to time though so he might end up solo casting something, but at least it isn't intended.
I'm very skeptical about the card's power. You'll basically have to keep him in hand until your big swing turn to prevent him from getting killed or wasting the Spellburst for some cheap utility spells like Ray of Frost. Will there be decks that can afford to do so and/or will the swing be worth it?
I'm very curious to see how much play this will end up seeing. Are there decks that are willing to have a dead draw to give them a chance for four potentially improved draws.
Too random to see any serious play. The statline gives it a solid chance to survive longer, but also prevents it from being an actual threat. I wonder if there's a mana cost with guaranteed positive outcomes...
Ridiculously strong tempo card on curve if you just happen to have some Spell Damage survive. It will be tried out for sure, but I wouldn't be certain that it will get included to the eventual refined lists.
As Blizzard is consistently inconsistent, Spectral Flyer is also a Murloc. That might change eventually, as Ghostly Charger lost its Beast tag after community feedback, and Witchwood Grizzly saw the bear's color change to brown for the same "ghosts should not have tribes" reason.
Twilight Runner and Lake Thresher gave this card a fighting chance to see play.
If Paladin finally claws its way back to meta, this card will surely be one of the reasons why. It doesn't do much if you're behind, but if you're the aggressor, it's extremely annoying to deal with.
In case this wasn't answered yet, only one Whelp would even get a Deathrattle. I'd imagine that if two minions with the same Deathrattle have died, both Whelps would get the same Deathrattle.
Will probably fight with Imprisoned Observer for a slot in Standard Highlander lists. If Tempo Mage becomes a thing again, this surely makes the cut in those decks as well.
I guess that's what he was intended for, as the Paladin deck recipe for the expansion is Duel/Big Paladin.
For the card itself, I think there's a good chance it ends up being a solid card. Unless the meta is Tempo/Aggro.
That's the plan! Be prepared for some serious review spam in the coming days.
On an interview wayyy back when the duplicate protection was extended to all rarities, Ben Lee had this to say:
"Generally, we don't particularly want players to disenchant their cards. That's a bit of a new mentality for us, especially when you think about things like achievements in the future, and game modes potentially linking to older parts of your collection. If you're destroying your cards, you're kind of harming yourself [in relation to] future things that we're planning. So, we want people to open their cards, feel good about them, and keep them."
Bit more recently, he directly told that you can use Wild cards in the game mode in a Reddit AMA:
"The new game mode coming later this year will allow you to use cards from older and newer sets. Currently, we aren't putting any restrictions on which sets can be played within it, and there might even be some cool hidden secrets for using some of the older cards 😉. - Ben"
To the side discussion of the thread, they'll never make Wild cards cheaper to craft, I just don't see it. Why would you ever punish your players for keeping their cards? They definitely can offer cheap Wild pack bundles or similar, but anything further than that will cause a community backlash.
It's a very slight change but it's there! Not so easy to see in spells but the minion should be detectable, unless it's really an issue with your monitor.
Since there have been no card reveals or any announcements yet, I'd bet late August. Additionally, the Spirit Blossom festival doesn't end until August 19th, and I'd be surprised if we got a new region before that.
77 revealed (76 properly, one leaked), 58 remaining. Only the Priest Legendary is missing. Not sure about the epic count but if I understand correctly, they can't be anything else than Demon Hunter or Neutral cards.
Seems kinda busted. The cards that create Soul Fragments are solid in itself, so there's not really any drawbacks in running them. I'd daresay the battlecry might get a nerf to +2/+2 at some point, unless the meta pushes Fragment Warlocks out before that and the card never gets to shine.
40, four for each class pairing.
After the cost reduction nerfs they just did they decide to print another cost reduction card? At least it doesn't make the cards cost 0. Still, it can be absolutely broken against control and requires pretty much immediate hard removal, which is the kind of design I really dislike. However, if the meta gravitates towards aggro or tempo, it's likely going to be too slow to see much play.
I expected/hoped that Jandice is the Mage/Rogue Legendary and while that turned out to be true, the effect is a letdown for me personally. I mean it's super strong, but it's also very RNG-y and bland in my opinion.
With many classes lacking the option to reliably ping anything, I'd imagine the second part of the text can be ignored in most matchups which causes the effect to be borderline broken. But that's just my take on it.
The casters will be L0rinda, Jia, NaySyl, and the Americas Grandmasters duo Gallon and languagehacker.
Some of Blizzard's recent remote-casted tournaments have had some audio issues time to time though so he might end up solo casting something, but at least it isn't intended.