Part of me is drooling, imagining this as a Rogue card. But the sane part of me is curious whether it will be played in Druid. I think we'll certainly see a lot of experimentation - it IS strong. Question is, is there a deck that can be built around it? Not current token. Maybe a new token, dragons, taunts (stats on taunts is good!)... We'll see!
Mage is the undoubted winner with this card, but Priest and Warrior are also quite well off. The others are lackluster - Paladin can find a variety of secrets, but none are amazing, and I doubt Dragon Secret Paladin will exist. Shaman has damage, but dragons in Shaman seems odd so far.
There's little point to using this vanilla-ly. You can't rely on your opponent to play good minions, and if they have, you probably want to remove them instead. (unless you just want to enjoy some shenanigans)
That said, perhaps this could be fun with the deathrattle synergies in Priest. It's cheap, so it's easy to layer effects on it and build a board. If I pull it, I won't be happy, but I won't be miffed, either.
Hah, I know it says albatross, but all I'll be able to imagine while playing this card are the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Victory is mine? Mine? MINE? MINEMINEMINEMINEMINE?!
I do find it amusing that this has even the smallest amount of synergy with Toxic Reinforcements.
More seriously, this looks rather strong. Whether it fits in some sort of Dragon Hunter... well, given the cards we've seen so far, I don't think there will be a Dragon Hunter! Hunter only has four dragons, and they don't share much synergy. This fits nicely with typical Hunter cards, though. Small rushes like Springpaw, secrets like Explosive Trap, tokens left behind by mechs, and such. It's rather expensive, but it seems likely to see play regardless.
I don't predict this to be too impactful. Mech decks are usually fast-paced affairs; while this effect is certainly the nuts, it's just a bit too expensive. Somewhat like how Wargear has been slowly phased out of the most competitive mech lineups, this might be a trap card as well.
That said, this is exactly the sort of card that might set up some shenanigans, and for that, I like it.
I was WONDERING why the reveal image looked like a Macy's parade float... And there it is.
Cute as the card is, though, it seems bad. I'd rather play Mecharoo than this; it's not likely to survive long enough for the health gain to be a boon.
Well! After giving out free Galakronds, they had to rope us into spending our dust on something, I see. Just as they did with Twin Emperor Vek'lor for C'Thun.
That said, there's no way that I won't be crafting this. It's useful at all points in the game, it's got a great effect, and the stats are nice. Plus that jawline! So manly and chiseled that it's got spikes in it, yeehaw.
This is a lovely card. Against more aggressive decks, healing is a great way to stall for one more turn to draw your board clear. Antique Healbot was played, and so this likely will be as well.
However, what if Dragon Paladin ends up not needing healing? Then this is just a 5-mana 4-6, which is alright, especially with Dragonrider Talritha, but not amazing. It is possible that this will end up being a 1-of card or not included at all, depending on the situation it finds itself in. For Dragon Paladin, at least. As others have said, it could fit in any Paladin deck that needs healing, and I imagine it will for a long time to come.
Frankly, I'm not so sure about this one. It's certainly not a good turn 5 play. You do, at least, have a good chance of discovering something useful on turn 6, but that's only two cards out of the bunch - the Nova and the Polymorph. The Tome, the Frostbolt, and the Missiles are underwhelming; random Mage spells aren't generally good, and the others just don't do enough. The Fireball, the Intellect, and the Flamestrike may be worth it, and it's certainly nice to discover extra card draw or removal, but you'd have to be in a place where you can afford to float 5 mana for them. That's more likely to be a control matchup - in which the Flamestrike or the Intellect might not have so much relevance.
So, neat idea, but possibly underwhelming. We'll see!
Neat :) As others have said, spell-on-a-stick cards have always been great, and this particular design has been very effective in the past. Especially seeing as Standard has few good board clears that come out earlier than this does, I do expect it to be meta-defining in some fashion. You don't need a big ole win condition if you can just consistently spit out value in the early and mid-game!
Between the Draconic Lackey, the new neutral dragons we'll be seeing, and Warlock's new dragons, I think it's quite possible that this will be part of a meta-defining deck. Imagine Evolve Shaman trying to deal with the healing and removal from this plus the board clear from Crazed Netherwing!
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the Warlock legendary! (even if I hope it's bad, 'cause the more bad cards there are, the less dust I want)
Man, that's a nice card. It comes on an opportune turn (though it requires combo), it's a precise tutor, and its stats are alright.
Between this expansion and the last, I get the feeling that we're building up to something. This, Anka, the Buried, Whirlkick Master... It feels a bit silly to release these and not another great deathrattle or combo card. Though it's possible that Waxadred and this are it. Or maybe there'll be none at all. I can hope!
I have no doubt that this is a card created purely for those who enjoy building memey decks. I also have no doubt that I will create some of those memey decks.
Thus, is it good? No. It is slow and unpredictable. But do I want it? ... Does a bear poo in the woods?
This is different from the other sidequests. Why? Because the reward goes to your hand!
Unlike in Hunter or Mage, here you don't have to crimp your line of play so that the reward won't be summoned. And, importantly for Druid, when you can save the cards in your hand you can enable combos, whether that's Gonk or else. That's sort of why the card feels so neat - you might have a 4-4 with rush or an 8-8 from time to time, but since bloody when can you put three Claws (or SIX Claws) into a deck? Never! This is exciting.
I'd like to point out, too, that Druid does love to have a big hand. Ferocious Howl, Wispering Woods, and Bewitched Guardian exist. Which is likely hopeful exaggeration, but I do that sometimes.
As I've noted on the other sidequest pages, an issue with evaluating these cards is that they're not something we've seen before. The question that we don't have the answer to is: will a card (that you draw, unlike a normal quest) with a payoff requiring a turn or more of a specific line of play be worth it? After all, one of the best ways to evaluate a card is to ask what it can do to the board right away, without any synergies, Arena-style, and... this does nothing. Guessing at its effectiveness is unintuitive.
That said, this reward seems easily obtainable for Hunter. The questions will simply be whether it's not valuable enough to be among the 30 best cards for a deck and whether sidequests are, well, worth it!
This is one of those legendaries where the effects are obviously good, but so generally applicable that it's hard to say what sort of deck you'd want to put him in. Free attacks added to your Invoke cards is great, card draw is great, buffs are great, and a weapon is great! The natural thought, as most seem to agree, is that he would be put into an aggressive Warrior deck, but Galakrond could also be good with Taunts, dragons, or any of the other synergies out there. If I were a new player coming in this expansion, I think I'd start out playing Warrior!
I think the viability of this and all the side quests will ride on how awful it feels to pull it in the later game, where it does nothing for you. I'm quite curious about that in general, actually, seeing as we haven't had any too-similar cards printed.
That said, let's assume that it's easy to hero power three times, with the new support cards being added incentive. Is there a Hunter deck which would want a spell which straight-up summons three Leper Gnomes? Well... there's a reason Face Hunter has slowly been pushed out by Midrange Hunter. Even with the new 1-drop, it doesn't seem likely that we'll see a return of that, much as I think it'd be refreshing to have a hyperaggro deck back in the meta.
However. Hunter also received two other new cards, Corrosive Breath and Phase Stalker. Along with secrets like Rat Pack that excel in compressing the enemy's decision tree, perhaps we'll see a more midrangey deck which uses the new secret or dragon synergy to stall and stall and build up chip damage while clearing the opponent's minions... and then charge up full aggro once the opponent is low enough. There have been those types before, though they've mostly been spell-burn Shamans or Mages.
If I open it, I'll have to try it, if only to feel a little icky again.
Part of me is drooling, imagining this as a Rogue card. But the sane part of me is curious whether it will be played in Druid. I think we'll certainly see a lot of experimentation - it IS strong. Question is, is there a deck that can be built around it? Not current token. Maybe a new token, dragons, taunts (stats on taunts is good!)... We'll see!
Yessir, it's terrible. But on the bright side, you can put this, Transmogrifier, and Recombobulator all in the same deck!
Mage is the undoubted winner with this card, but Priest and Warrior are also quite well off. The others are lackluster - Paladin can find a variety of secrets, but none are amazing, and I doubt Dragon Secret Paladin will exist. Shaman has damage, but dragons in Shaman seems odd so far.
There's little point to using this vanilla-ly. You can't rely on your opponent to play good minions, and if they have, you probably want to remove them instead. (unless you just want to enjoy some shenanigans)
That said, perhaps this could be fun with the deathrattle synergies in Priest. It's cheap, so it's easy to layer effects on it and build a board. If I pull it, I won't be happy, but I won't be miffed, either.
Neat neat neat! Nothing is more exciting than adaptable card draw. This can enable so many fun decks.
Reminds me a bit of our old friend, Azure Drake. 5-mana 4-4 draw a card is quite alright.
Hah, I know it says albatross, but all I'll be able to imagine while playing this card are the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Victory is mine? Mine? MINE? MINEMINEMINEMINEMINE?!
I do find it amusing that this has even the smallest amount of synergy with Toxic Reinforcements.
More seriously, this looks rather strong. Whether it fits in some sort of Dragon Hunter... well, given the cards we've seen so far, I don't think there will be a Dragon Hunter! Hunter only has four dragons, and they don't share much synergy. This fits nicely with typical Hunter cards, though. Small rushes like Springpaw, secrets like Explosive Trap, tokens left behind by mechs, and such. It's rather expensive, but it seems likely to see play regardless.
I don't predict this to be too impactful. Mech decks are usually fast-paced affairs; while this effect is certainly the nuts, it's just a bit too expensive. Somewhat like how Wargear has been slowly phased out of the most competitive mech lineups, this might be a trap card as well.
That said, this is exactly the sort of card that might set up some shenanigans, and for that, I like it.
I was WONDERING why the reveal image looked like a Macy's parade float... And there it is.
Cute as the card is, though, it seems bad. I'd rather play Mecharoo than this; it's not likely to survive long enough for the health gain to be a boon.
Well! After giving out free Galakronds, they had to rope us into spending our dust on something, I see. Just as they did with Twin Emperor Vek'lor for C'Thun.
That said, there's no way that I won't be crafting this. It's useful at all points in the game, it's got a great effect, and the stats are nice. Plus that jawline! So manly and chiseled that it's got spikes in it, yeehaw.
This is a lovely card. Against more aggressive decks, healing is a great way to stall for one more turn to draw your board clear. Antique Healbot was played, and so this likely will be as well.
However, what if Dragon Paladin ends up not needing healing? Then this is just a 5-mana 4-6, which is alright, especially with Dragonrider Talritha, but not amazing. It is possible that this will end up being a 1-of card or not included at all, depending on the situation it finds itself in. For Dragon Paladin, at least. As others have said, it could fit in any Paladin deck that needs healing, and I imagine it will for a long time to come.
Frankly, I'm not so sure about this one. It's certainly not a good turn 5 play. You do, at least, have a good chance of discovering something useful on turn 6, but that's only two cards out of the bunch - the Nova and the Polymorph. The Tome, the Frostbolt, and the Missiles are underwhelming; random Mage spells aren't generally good, and the others just don't do enough. The Fireball, the Intellect, and the Flamestrike may be worth it, and it's certainly nice to discover extra card draw or removal, but you'd have to be in a place where you can afford to float 5 mana for them. That's more likely to be a control matchup - in which the Flamestrike or the Intellect might not have so much relevance.
So, neat idea, but possibly underwhelming. We'll see!
Neat :) As others have said, spell-on-a-stick cards have always been great, and this particular design has been very effective in the past. Especially seeing as Standard has few good board clears that come out earlier than this does, I do expect it to be meta-defining in some fashion. You don't need a big ole win condition if you can just consistently spit out value in the early and mid-game!
Between the Draconic Lackey, the new neutral dragons we'll be seeing, and Warlock's new dragons, I think it's quite possible that this will be part of a meta-defining deck. Imagine Evolve Shaman trying to deal with the healing and removal from this plus the board clear from Crazed Netherwing!
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the Warlock legendary! (even if I hope it's bad, 'cause the more bad cards there are, the less dust I want)
Man, that's a nice card. It comes on an opportune turn (though it requires combo), it's a precise tutor, and its stats are alright.
Between this expansion and the last, I get the feeling that we're building up to something. This, Anka, the Buried, Whirlkick Master... It feels a bit silly to release these and not another great deathrattle or combo card. Though it's possible that Waxadred and this are it. Or maybe there'll be none at all. I can hope!
I have no doubt that this is a card created purely for those who enjoy building memey decks. I also have no doubt that I will create some of those memey decks.
Thus, is it good? No. It is slow and unpredictable. But do I want it? ... Does a bear poo in the woods?
This is different from the other sidequests. Why? Because the reward goes to your hand!
Unlike in Hunter or Mage, here you don't have to crimp your line of play so that the reward won't be summoned. And, importantly for Druid, when you can save the cards in your hand you can enable combos, whether that's Gonk or else. That's sort of why the card feels so neat - you might have a 4-4 with rush or an 8-8 from time to time, but since bloody when can you put three Claws (or SIX Claws) into a deck? Never! This is exciting.
I'd like to point out, too, that Druid does love to have a big hand. Ferocious Howl, Wispering Woods, and Bewitched Guardian exist. Which is likely hopeful exaggeration, but I do that sometimes.
As I've noted on the other sidequest pages, an issue with evaluating these cards is that they're not something we've seen before. The question that we don't have the answer to is: will a card (that you draw, unlike a normal quest) with a payoff requiring a turn or more of a specific line of play be worth it? After all, one of the best ways to evaluate a card is to ask what it can do to the board right away, without any synergies, Arena-style, and... this does nothing. Guessing at its effectiveness is unintuitive.
That said, this reward seems easily obtainable for Hunter. The questions will simply be whether it's not valuable enough to be among the 30 best cards for a deck and whether sidequests are, well, worth it!
This is one of those legendaries where the effects are obviously good, but so generally applicable that it's hard to say what sort of deck you'd want to put him in. Free attacks added to your Invoke cards is great, card draw is great, buffs are great, and a weapon is great! The natural thought, as most seem to agree, is that he would be put into an aggressive Warrior deck, but Galakrond could also be good with Taunts, dragons, or any of the other synergies out there. If I were a new player coming in this expansion, I think I'd start out playing Warrior!
I think the viability of this and all the side quests will ride on how awful it feels to pull it in the later game, where it does nothing for you. I'm quite curious about that in general, actually, seeing as we haven't had any too-similar cards printed.
That said, let's assume that it's easy to hero power three times, with the new support cards being added incentive. Is there a Hunter deck which would want a spell which straight-up summons three Leper Gnomes? Well... there's a reason Face Hunter has slowly been pushed out by Midrange Hunter. Even with the new 1-drop, it doesn't seem likely that we'll see a return of that, much as I think it'd be refreshing to have a hyperaggro deck back in the meta.
However. Hunter also received two other new cards, Corrosive Breath and Phase Stalker. Along with secrets like Rat Pack that excel in compressing the enemy's decision tree, perhaps we'll see a more midrangey deck which uses the new secret or dragon synergy to stall and stall and build up chip damage while clearing the opponent's minions... and then charge up full aggro once the opponent is low enough. There have been those types before, though they've mostly been spell-burn Shamans or Mages.
If I open it, I'll have to try it, if only to feel a little icky again.