You know, once upon a time, I thought that Dart Trap would be a very strong card. Thing was, though, that while 5 is a lot of damage (F-F-FLEX TAPE), dealing 5 damage randomly can often be quite meaningless; many, many decks run a fair bit of small stuff and even in the perfect clearing scenario where there is, say, just one Emperor Thaurissan, there's also no guarantee that this will hit it.
Thus, it's not a card you'll want in an aggro deck or a control deck. You want this card is in an aggressively-focused midrange deck which loves to put out soft taunts and threats, continually stretching the opponent's resources. Fortunately, this is a category Hunter has excelled in recently. While there isn't likely to be a 'Hero Power Hunter' in Standard, you could find a midrange deck which utilizes some of those cards, have the mech tag tutor this (Ursatron) into Highlander Hunter, or just put it in Mech Hunter. We'll see! I have no doubt that it will see some sort of play.
My F2P side loves any rare card that can discover legendaries for it, of course. Otherwise, it's a good card that can slot into most any deck that wants what it's got. What's not to love?
It does remind me of Dark Arakkoa, which in large part enabled C'thun Druid. Maybe we'll see something similar occur.
Technical question - will this, like Wild Growth, provide you with a draw if you try to ramp at 10 mana? I feel like I remember that they decided that was a niche interaction somehow, with regard to other ramp cards, but I don't remember.
Otherwise, I agree with the more skeptical folks in this thread! It's a good card... if Druid ends up playing dragons. Otherwise, it will be a card that makes your Wild meme decks (read: MY wild meme decks, get outta heah) more consistent. Currently, that's up for grabs. Ysera isn't consistent or early enough to be deck defining, and Emerald Explorer is quite good but similarly not THAT good. It is, unfortunately, hard to imagine dragons making it into the Choose One shell of Quest Druid, so we'll need to see more powerful dragons, or this won't hit as hard as folks expect.
On the bright side, though, besides the meme side, this will be around for a while! If not this set, hey, maybe we'll receive some dragons that enable Druid in the next. Or maybe Team 5 will decide that these synergies are a one-set thing, as they often have.
Ah, man. I guess I won't be running Stonehill Defender in my 'jam as many White Eyes as possible in here' deck, anymore. It already doesn't find them very consistently!
What card d'you guys think prompted this change to Discover? Perhaps Dr. Boom's hero power?
I appreciate the content that you create, and I did enjoy this article very much, but your responses to the comments below are off-putting. I'll explain why.
In this reply, for instance. You mention three times that you'll take all criticism for the sake of improving your piece, which isn't necessary. The commenter wasn't rude, I don't believe, but you mention twice that you won't tolerate any rude comments. As opposed to you asking for no rudeness, your tone during certain parts - "Just be gentle to community's card choices and decks while commenting.", "For starters, why don't you offer a characteristic cards but not a dull one such as Puddlestomper?" - borders on rudeness to the original commenter: the first implies that he was rude, when he wasn't, and the second implies that he would be so dumb as to suggest a card like [Hearthstone Card (Puddlestomper.) Not Found] Finally, your response was unnecessarily lengthy and the italics used feel overly dramatic.
Overall, the impression this comment gives is one of a defensive person who has rushed to defend his article, has perceived more rudeness in the comment above than what is actually there, and as a result ends up being verbose, dramatic, and slightly rude. I don't say this to be hurtful - this is a very understandable thing to do, and I don't respect your enjoyable writing or yourself less because of it - but to bring attention to something that I don't believe most people would take the time to point out to you. If you're going to be putting yourself and your work in front of large numbers of people, correcting this is important. In the future, I would recommend taking a moment to simplify your thoughts before you reply to something - Is responding to this worth it? What are the important points to respond to here? What impression do I want to give?
We've built up pretty unique shuffle effects in several classes, which might be fun to explore. Astral Tiger and Malorne in Druid, Deck of Wonders and Forgotten Torch in Mage, Immortal Prelate in Paladin, Bwonsomdi and Benedictus shenanigans for Priest, Rogue's ability to infinite shuffle ANYTHING, White Eyes in Shaman (I've got a whole deck built around summoning as many as possible, it's great!), and Dead Man's Hand or Explore Ungoro! in Warrior. Not to mention all the lovely neutral effects, like Weasel Tunneler (*smoker grunt*), both Elises, the Portal cards, The Darkness, and Hakkar.
Much agreed with DoubleSummon! If I make a highlander deck, this is going in it. There are all sorts of minions that this helps you feel better about playing in less optimal situations.
Just imagine! The mellifluous, dulcet tones of her turtley voice filtering through your quivering ear-holes as you play, for the fourth time this game, the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron! The only puzzle my opponent shall complete is sudoku. *Brode laughter*
It's lovely that we've finally gotten an effect like this for Combo cards. For such a flavorful, unique mechanic, it's odd that we've never had a Combo-focused archetype. And while I don't think that this card will cause that to happen in a competitive way, it does create the option of creating a deck all around Combo cards. That sounds fun!
Regards to competitive viability, similar effects have seen play many times over. Lyra the Sunshard is the obvious comparison, but Underbelly Angler, Lock and Load, and Lifeweaver are very similar, while Mana Cyclone, Gazlowe, and Exotic Mountseller are somewhat similar. Point being that, at the least, this type of card proves to be a possible build-around. All of these cards have seen extensive theorycrafting. The gatekeepers to viable deck-crafting seem to be cost, card pool, and activation ease. Exotic Mountseller and Gazlowe are far harder to use due to their high cost. Lyra also has a higher cost, but Priest has plenty of small spells and cards like Radiant Elemental to discount them. Thus, Lyra turns small spells over efficiently, quickly turning the board around for cheap while also generating valuable spells for later. Mana Cyclone does much the same, trading small spells for more small spells and for larger spells, with the added benefit of increasing hand size for Mountain Giant (a playstyle not too accessible to Rogue, sadly). Not to mention that the Cyclone is a discountable Mage Elemental. Underbelly Angler's activation cards cannot be discounted, but it is 2 mana and murlocs are mostly 1 or 2 mana, making it much the same as the other two. Mana Cyclone, Underbelly Angler, and Lyra the Sunshard, the best of this group, are all easily activated and have a desirable pool of random cards to offer that can be played on the same turn. Unlike them, cards like Gazlowe have an undesirable pool to draw from - while 1-mana spare parts can be discounted and played over his 6-mana body, the minions he generates are quite random and usually not playable right away, leading to a lackluster turn. On the opposite side of the coin, Lifeweaver generates consistently alright cards, but its healing is tougher to come by than spare parts. It's also a specific mechanic without much support in Druid, unlike Angler's murlocs, which ask for and support a deck with mostly murlocs.
This said, we now have several ways to tell how good Whirlkick Master is. It has a low cost, which is good. Like Angler, it has a relatively synergistic activation requirement, given that Rogue has several currently played Combo cards (Eviscerate, SI:7 Agent, Edwin VanCleef, EVIL Miscreant and Raiding Party, depending). This is unlike Lifeweaver, with its healing cards. However, the stumbling block comes with the available pool of Combo cards, which are analyzed below.
3, Perdition's Blade - One of two weapons. Quick multi-target removal that lasts into the next turn. Great option.
3, Edwin VanCleef - The man himself. He can be played right away for, likely, a 6-6 or 8-8, or saved for a larger turn later. Good option.
3, SI:7 Agent - Proactive small lump of stats. Historically great. Great option.
3, Hooked Scimitar - The other weapon. Cheap, good removal, with value for later turns. Great option.
3, Cutthroat Buccaneer - If you have a weapon up, it's alright. If you don't, it's just a small body, which is alright. Okay option.
3, Headcrack - Pure face damage. You'd rather play other cards. Bad option usually, okay option in a face-oriented deck.
4, Raiding Party - If your deck wants to run Raiding Party, it runs it already. Admittedly, the Buccaneer is a pirate and Cursed Castaway exists, but the success of that type of deck and this card seems unlikely to me. Time will tell how this option stands, but it is definitely bad if you don't want it.
5, Crazed Chemist - Expensive. Can only be played right away with 9 or 10 mana, and has situational board effect, even if it may be useful later on. Bad option.
6, Kidnapper - Similar to Crazed Chemist. Notably, however, it may be alright in a face-oriented deck. Still a bad option, though.
At first, this seems to be an okay pool - these cards are pretty good. But to note is that the average cost of these cards is around 3. Before card quality is even discussed, given an activation cycle of the 2-mana Whirlkick Master into 2/3 cost Combo card, this means a player can only play the generated card right away with 7~ mana, besides Preparation into Eviscerate/Cold Blood lowering that cost by 2, which is inconsistent. All the best cards of this type have been able to generate 0 and 1 cost cards, while this can only do so quite rarely.
Also, as we've seen from the evaluated cards, the best of them have generated cards that can be played immediately and proactively. While most of the cheap options here can be proactive, the above shows that they are not immediate. We see that, though Underbelly Angler seems a fitting comparison, Whirlkick Master is far worse. It has less likelihood to survive on turn 2 and even if it does, barring Preparation into Eviscerate, the cards generated on turn 3 cannot be played for another turn. The deck that utilizes this card is also unlikely to be like Priest, which could wait until later turns to use Lyra the Sunshard. The generated cards seem to promote either a board-flood deck or a SMORC deck, neither of which like to drag the game out. (Though I acknowledge that this deck speculation is the shakiest bit of my evaluation) One might say that you don't need to play the generated cards immediately - you could play Master and activate it for 4 or 5 mana, then use the generated card next turn. This seems like a weak turn for a weak result, to me.
My conclusion is, then, that this card will not be competitive. Even Lock and Load, which I feel is the most similar card available, was supported by discounted secrets and other easy activation methods. But it is possible that Blizzard prints a great, cheap Combo card, or that my evaluation of how powerful the turns and decks I imagined are riddled with stinky holes. Regardless, it will be a fun buildaround card for years to come! That is exciting.
Oh! It deals 20 damage to each entity, not 20 damage split between all of them. I'm not sure why I assumed the latter. This looks like the sort of card that will have me bent over my computer for hours, trying in vain to refine a deck for it. Lovely.
You know, once upon a time, I thought that Dart Trap would be a very strong card. Thing was, though, that while 5 is a lot of damage (F-F-FLEX TAPE), dealing 5 damage randomly can often be quite meaningless; many, many decks run a fair bit of small stuff and even in the perfect clearing scenario where there is, say, just one Emperor Thaurissan, there's also no guarantee that this will hit it.
Thus, it's not a card you'll want in an aggro deck or a control deck. You want this card is in an aggressively-focused midrange deck which loves to put out soft taunts and threats, continually stretching the opponent's resources. Fortunately, this is a category Hunter has excelled in recently. While there isn't likely to be a 'Hero Power Hunter' in Standard, you could find a midrange deck which utilizes some of those cards, have the mech tag tutor this (Ursatron) into Highlander Hunter, or just put it in Mech Hunter. We'll see! I have no doubt that it will see some sort of play.
My F2P side loves any rare card that can discover legendaries for it, of course. Otherwise, it's a good card that can slot into most any deck that wants what it's got. What's not to love?
It does remind me of Dark Arakkoa, which in large part enabled C'thun Druid. Maybe we'll see something similar occur.
Technical question - will this, like Wild Growth, provide you with a draw if you try to ramp at 10 mana? I feel like I remember that they decided that was a niche interaction somehow, with regard to other ramp cards, but I don't remember.
Otherwise, I agree with the more skeptical folks in this thread! It's a good card... if Druid ends up playing dragons. Otherwise, it will be a card that makes your Wild meme decks (read: MY wild meme decks, get outta heah) more consistent. Currently, that's up for grabs. Ysera isn't consistent or early enough to be deck defining, and Emerald Explorer is quite good but similarly not THAT good. It is, unfortunately, hard to imagine dragons making it into the Choose One shell of Quest Druid, so we'll need to see more powerful dragons, or this won't hit as hard as folks expect.
On the bright side, though, besides the meme side, this will be around for a while! If not this set, hey, maybe we'll receive some dragons that enable Druid in the next. Or maybe Team 5 will decide that these synergies are a one-set thing, as they often have.
Ah, man. I guess I won't be running Stonehill Defender in my 'jam as many White Eyes as possible in here' deck, anymore. It already doesn't find them very consistently!
What card d'you guys think prompted this change to Discover? Perhaps Dr. Boom's hero power?
I appreciate the content that you create, and I did enjoy this article very much, but your responses to the comments below are off-putting. I'll explain why.
In this reply, for instance. You mention three times that you'll take all criticism for the sake of improving your piece, which isn't necessary. The commenter wasn't rude, I don't believe, but you mention twice that you won't tolerate any rude comments. As opposed to you asking for no rudeness, your tone during certain parts - "Just be gentle to community's card choices and decks while commenting.", "For starters, why don't you offer a characteristic cards but not a dull one such as Puddlestomper?" - borders on rudeness to the original commenter: the first implies that he was rude, when he wasn't, and the second implies that he would be so dumb as to suggest a card like [Hearthstone Card (Puddlestomper.) Not Found] Finally, your response was unnecessarily lengthy and the italics used feel overly dramatic.
Overall, the impression this comment gives is one of a defensive person who has rushed to defend his article, has perceived more rudeness in the comment above than what is actually there, and as a result ends up being verbose, dramatic, and slightly rude. I don't say this to be hurtful - this is a very understandable thing to do, and I don't respect your enjoyable writing or yourself less because of it - but to bring attention to something that I don't believe most people would take the time to point out to you. If you're going to be putting yourself and your work in front of large numbers of people, correcting this is important. In the future, I would recommend taking a moment to simplify your thoughts before you reply to something - Is responding to this worth it? What are the important points to respond to here? What impression do I want to give?
Crushing my opponents with double Ancient Ones, created with the new Paladin quest reward! It's wonky, but so are most great things.
We've built up pretty unique shuffle effects in several classes, which might be fun to explore. Astral Tiger and Malorne in Druid, Deck of Wonders and Forgotten Torch in Mage, Immortal Prelate in Paladin, Bwonsomdi and Benedictus shenanigans for Priest, Rogue's ability to infinite shuffle ANYTHING, White Eyes in Shaman (I've got a whole deck built around summoning as many as possible, it's great!), and Dead Man's Hand or Explore Ungoro! in Warrior. Not to mention all the lovely neutral effects, like Weasel Tunneler (*smoker grunt*), both Elises, the Portal cards, The Darkness, and Hakkar.
I like what you're on to here, with the eggs and these Priest cards. Even if I don't pull the quest, I'll be trying it out. Thanks!
Much agreed with DoubleSummon! If I make a highlander deck, this is going in it. There are all sorts of minions that this helps you feel better about playing in less optimal situations.
My favorite card is Tortollan Pilgrim.
Just imagine! The mellifluous, dulcet tones of her turtley voice filtering through your quivering ear-holes as you play, for the fourth time this game, the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron! The only puzzle my opponent shall complete is sudoku. *Brode laughter*
Okay, here me out here: Swarm Deathrattle Warrior. It's not a good idea... but it's a good idea!
This enables me to cast the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron more than twice. That is all that I need to know. It is a good card. The best.
It's lovely that we've finally gotten an effect like this for Combo cards. For such a flavorful, unique mechanic, it's odd that we've never had a Combo-focused archetype. And while I don't think that this card will cause that to happen in a competitive way, it does create the option of creating a deck all around Combo cards. That sounds fun!
Regards to competitive viability, similar effects have seen play many times over. Lyra the Sunshard is the obvious comparison, but Underbelly Angler, Lock and Load, and Lifeweaver are very similar, while Mana Cyclone, Gazlowe, and Exotic Mountseller are somewhat similar. Point being that, at the least, this type of card proves to be a possible build-around. All of these cards have seen extensive theorycrafting. The gatekeepers to viable deck-crafting seem to be cost, card pool, and activation ease. Exotic Mountseller and Gazlowe are far harder to use due to their high cost. Lyra also has a higher cost, but Priest has plenty of small spells and cards like Radiant Elemental to discount them. Thus, Lyra turns small spells over efficiently, quickly turning the board around for cheap while also generating valuable spells for later. Mana Cyclone does much the same, trading small spells for more small spells and for larger spells, with the added benefit of increasing hand size for Mountain Giant (a playstyle not too accessible to Rogue, sadly). Not to mention that the Cyclone is a discountable Mage Elemental. Underbelly Angler's activation cards cannot be discounted, but it is 2 mana and murlocs are mostly 1 or 2 mana, making it much the same as the other two. Mana Cyclone, Underbelly Angler, and Lyra the Sunshard, the best of this group, are all easily activated and have a desirable pool of random cards to offer that can be played on the same turn. Unlike them, cards like Gazlowe have an undesirable pool to draw from - while 1-mana spare parts can be discounted and played over his 6-mana body, the minions he generates are quite random and usually not playable right away, leading to a lackluster turn. On the opposite side of the coin, Lifeweaver generates consistently alright cards, but its healing is tougher to come by than spare parts. It's also a specific mechanic without much support in Druid, unlike Angler's murlocs, which ask for and support a deck with mostly murlocs.
This said, we now have several ways to tell how good Whirlkick Master is. It has a low cost, which is good. Like Angler, it has a relatively synergistic activation requirement, given that Rogue has several currently played Combo cards (Eviscerate, SI:7 Agent, Edwin VanCleef, EVIL Miscreant and Raiding Party, depending). This is unlike Lifeweaver, with its healing cards. However, the stumbling block comes with the available pool of Combo cards, which are analyzed below.
2, Eviscerate - Cheap removal. Great option.
2, Defias Ringleader - Cheap board-fill. Good option.
2, Cold Blood - Situational card that is not good outside of its situation, but generates damage for later. Okay option.
3, EVIL Miscreant - The value parade stomps onward. Promotes board-flood and Spirit of the Shark synergy. Great option.
3, Perdition's Blade - One of two weapons. Quick multi-target removal that lasts into the next turn. Great option.
3, Edwin VanCleef - The man himself. He can be played right away for, likely, a 6-6 or 8-8, or saved for a larger turn later. Good option.
3, SI:7 Agent - Proactive small lump of stats. Historically great. Great option.
3, Hooked Scimitar - The other weapon. Cheap, good removal, with value for later turns. Great option.
3, Cutthroat Buccaneer - If you have a weapon up, it's alright. If you don't, it's just a small body, which is alright. Okay option.
3, Headcrack - Pure face damage. You'd rather play other cards. Bad option usually, okay option in a face-oriented deck.
4, Raiding Party - If your deck wants to run Raiding Party, it runs it already. Admittedly, the Buccaneer is a pirate and Cursed Castaway exists, but the success of that type of deck and this card seems unlikely to me. Time will tell how this option stands, but it is definitely bad if you don't want it.
5, Crazed Chemist - Expensive. Can only be played right away with 9 or 10 mana, and has situational board effect, even if it may be useful later on. Bad option.
6, Kidnapper - Similar to Crazed Chemist. Notably, however, it may be alright in a face-oriented deck. Still a bad option, though.
At first, this seems to be an okay pool - these cards are pretty good. But to note is that the average cost of these cards is around 3. Before card quality is even discussed, given an activation cycle of the 2-mana Whirlkick Master into 2/3 cost Combo card, this means a player can only play the generated card right away with 7~ mana, besides Preparation into Eviscerate/Cold Blood lowering that cost by 2, which is inconsistent. All the best cards of this type have been able to generate 0 and 1 cost cards, while this can only do so quite rarely.
Also, as we've seen from the evaluated cards, the best of them have generated cards that can be played immediately and proactively. While most of the cheap options here can be proactive, the above shows that they are not immediate. We see that, though Underbelly Angler seems a fitting comparison, Whirlkick Master is far worse. It has less likelihood to survive on turn 2 and even if it does, barring Preparation into Eviscerate, the cards generated on turn 3 cannot be played for another turn. The deck that utilizes this card is also unlikely to be like Priest, which could wait until later turns to use Lyra the Sunshard. The generated cards seem to promote either a board-flood deck or a SMORC deck, neither of which like to drag the game out. (Though I acknowledge that this deck speculation is the shakiest bit of my evaluation) One might say that you don't need to play the generated cards immediately - you could play Master and activate it for 4 or 5 mana, then use the generated card next turn. This seems like a weak turn for a weak result, to me.
My conclusion is, then, that this card will not be competitive. Even Lock and Load, which I feel is the most similar card available, was supported by discounted secrets and other easy activation methods. But it is possible that Blizzard prints a great, cheap Combo card, or that my evaluation of how powerful the turns and decks I imagined are riddled with stinky holes. Regardless, it will be a fun buildaround card for years to come! That is exciting.
Oh! It deals 20 damage to each entity, not 20 damage split between all of them. I'm not sure why I assumed the latter. This looks like the sort of card that will have me bent over my computer for hours, trying in vain to refine a deck for it. Lovely.
How do you feel about Clutchmother Zavas or The Soularium, mate?