This card is deceptively strong, because the spell you cast with her on board will automatically have spell power + 1 !
This means that arcane missiles will shoot at least 4, Ray of Frost will do 4 damage to a minion that's frozen, Arcane Breath deals at least 3, etc.
Mage also has ways to discount spells with the Sorcerer's Apprentice and Incanter's flow, which can make the cheapest spells free and the medium cost spells to be cheap, so I think running cards like fireball or Rolling Fireball with this lady isn't completely unviable.
That said, like some players have already pointed out, this cards weakness is not the lack of damaging spells in a Mage deck, but the lack of draw available in standard.
In wild Mage still has Stargazer Luna along with a plethora of cheap spells that would help keep this machine running, but standard does not have a substitute for that outside of good old Gadgetzan Auctioneer or Elemental Allies (which requires a specific deck build) so far.
There's always the option to refill your hand with spells from Cyclone or Evocation but more often than not they're too expensive to fire them all.
I do see this card being partnered up with violet spellwing for some easy and cheap spelldamage gain, however.
How interesting - they printed a weapon that gets more value if you don't attack with it.
initially players will be tempted to use this with just medium to big cost cards (around 4-10), but there's not many spells you can play like that on curve for either class - Paladin's 4 drop spells consists of either a pitiful AOE, a single target removal/card draw, a single target buff spell or an AOE that would just make this minion have 1 health. Warrior on the other hand 4 drops are all single target removal that either need specific deck building (molten breath), a weaker fireball or...Dr Boom's scheme.
please note I'm reviewing this card before all cards have been revealed, we'll most certainly have more spells by the time of the full release. At this time Paladin has more higher cost spells than Warrior in standard but Libram of hope is the only one that's seeing competitive play and you wouldn't play this weapon in a libram deck because of Libram of Justice
In my opinion this weapon is for control decks to help get extra value from the spells you'll already be playing.
Warrior using Shield Block for some armor and card draw? get an extra speed bump against your opponent.
Paladin using Duel! to hopefully pull out Colossus of the Moon? at least get a 5/5 with taunt when you accidentally pull out a murmy instead.
Because no one will use these taunts to win the game, just to prolong the game SO they can win.
The last two class giants printed for Priest and Warlock saw minimal play during their initial release before being substituted for more efficient minions.
Grave Horror was a 12 mana minion that was discounted by (1) for each spell you cast on your turn and Jumbo Imp was discounted by (1) for each friendly demon that died while it was in your hand.
This Giant will most likely see home in a control deck, which Priest and Warlock can excel at, where damage mitigation is key.
This means taking damage and restoring it.
Warlock has good tools that help them TAKE damage, their default hero power helps them deal 2 damage to themselves while they draw this card. There's also a long list of spells and minions and standard and wild that allows the warlock to hurt themselves to receive a positive benefit, Rain of Fire has been a popular mention already, but their class healing is very very weak, with NetherBreath and Aranasi BroodMother requiring deck construction to utilize them the best.
Priest has the opposite problem, they can restore 2 health with their hero power, but their library is more geared toward self help than self hurt. Priests are able to mitigate damage taken but they won't be able to be proactive on the damage end.
Cards such as this and the Brittlebone Destroyer I believe will help open doors to old archetypes and decklists of Warlock and Priest - self harm and Obelisk Priest. Warlock received some cards that didn't see much play with Neferset Destroyer and Diseased Vulture, two cards that reward self punishing plays. Priests Obelisk quest saw some fairly competitive play in Ulduum, and a deck list that requires you to mitigate what your opponent damages sounds like it'd be a shoe in.
I believe this would make this giant a contender for control decks, but not the popular handlock or resurrect priests we've seen since they're overtaken with the Galakrond package since DoD
I think the cards we've seen now are just precursors for the rest of the set. Priest and Warlock are clearly going to get more health control based on this card alone, just as their legendary foreshadows them having more deathrattle/reborn minions
We've already seen Warlock have a good deathrattle this expansion with the Spider egg minion, this legendary is also telling us that priest will have deathrattles to play with as well (fitting, since it's in scholomance).
because of this minion's cost you'll want to play him followed by at least 2-3 minions that you don't mind dying for some 4/4 - namely either lackeys or cheap death rattles or Reborn minions such as Leper Gnomes, Evil Conscriptors, Grandmummies, Fiendish Servants, Murmies, even Reliquary or Souls or Ebonlocke would be good to play after this minion.
We still need to see what other deathrattles and maybe (?) reborn minions we get in this set
However because of the cost you won't be able to run him in the most aggressive of decks, like Houndmaster Shaw (same cost 'n stat line) this minion will probably be more at home in a midrange list.
There's a lot of things to consider when looking at this card:
First: The deathrattle can be activated by either traditional means OR by discard. which means that if you get lucky with a Soulfire spell, you can get 2 2/1's for the price of 1 mana that removes a minion. You can also use this card with say Felfire bolt for the same effect, but that's 3 mana and really at that much you can just use shadowbolt (which doesn't see much play these days). But since this card HAS a death rattle I'm certain this reveal is a precursor to a future Warlock spell that requires you to kill off a friendly minion for it to activate (like Grim Rally or Unholy Sacrifice).
I also wouldn't be surprised if a Priest/Warlock spell will be the one that activates this card on your turn, since both classes have had an affinity for triggering deathrattles.
Secondly: Discard - this is going to seem incredibly appealing to everyone, but bear in mind Warlock's strongest (i.e. most used) discard minions say "Discard the HIGHEST cost card in your hand" and play them with Hand of Gul'dan. That's not saying you can't sculpt your hand to have this as your highest cost card but I feel if you were to mulligan for a card to discard it wouldn't be this.
Third: The zoo. People are going to say this is a great zoo card and I agree, in no large part because Imprisoned Scrap Imp will be in standard until the end of next year. a 2 mana 3/3 with a death rattle to summon 2 2/1's is pretty strong. There's options to use this with Teron Gorefiend as well to activate it and then summon it again at a later time.
TL;DR it's really strong for aggressive and mid-range decks.
Okay I've had time to compare this spell with some others and I think it's really strong.
Mage in standard has been missing early AOE since Shooting Star and Celestial Emissary rotated, making them reliant on Flame Ward which can either be removed (very rarely) or activated in a way to avoid massive loss on your opponents side.
This can be used in conjunction with cards like Mo'arg Artificer or any spell damage minion to clear a board early on before it gets too big so you don't have to wait until turn 5 for Rolling Fireball.
If I understand the video correctly, the excess damage is dealt to BOTH adjacent minions instead of splitting it up evenly.
Will most definitely see play in highlander decks, will probably be a follow up spell for the Devolving Missiles
before I give a formal review I just want to say I'm DELIGHTED to see more of Genzoman's artwork in Hearthstone.
Now then -
This card is really good tempo since you can get about 5-9 worth of mana for the price of 4 mana.
That said this card will probably be NOT good ON tempo unless your playing warrior, since Rogue's weapons are generally pretty weak and disposable unless you're using Deadly Poison (I will not consider wild options, those are just too many to cover).
Warriors on the other hand CAN play this on curve since they're best cheap weapon, Fiery Waraxe is 3/2 for 3 mana, which makes this lady a 7 mana turn for 4. Other weapons Warrior might play with this lady is Arcanite Reaper, Wrenchcalibur and Gorehowl. If Corsair Cache was still giving +1 attack this lady would be viable in pirate lists.
Now, Rogues can use weapons like the Mirage Blades, Hooked Scimitars or Waggle Pick with this lady but I have not seen those weapons in the Galakrond deck lists and I'm not sure if this gal is enough to warrant their return.
I feel like this should be a warlock card, since its weaker than Flamestrike in terms of damage but it also damages your own minions.
But it refills your board, too, so even if you kill your own guys you'll still have the board, which makes it a strong control card.
This card looks like an answer to sticky token decks or very aggressive zoo decks where the blades of Azzinoth (just 1 mana cheaper that does the same damage!) can't clear the board.
But against those decks you'd probably just rather run Altruis the Outcast and go off with him since not only does that CLEAR the board but damages your opponent as well, and it'll take about as much mana.
Maybe this card can make Netherandamus finally playable.
The more I review this card the more I change my mind on it.
At first glance it's a faster Cairne Bloodhoof that, unlike the classic legendary, will just die to all but the weakest AOE spell available.
However, also unlike Cairne, if it's removed by AOE your opponent will probably be behind on the board, which means the token may hit face, making your opponent consider if they want to take 8 damage between two turns or not.
Also making this card more interesting is the stealth synergy cards Rogue received in AoO, cards like Ashtongue slayer will gaurantee Lillian kills a target and Greyheart sage can at least be used to draw some cards.
Also I'm glad that Team 5 is shifting Rogue away from just burgle mechanics and looking towards more stealth options.
it's a good control card, terrible for tempo tho, since you need to either spend mana to change your health OR have an effect like that set up the turn prior, in which case your opponent will spend THEIR turn removing THAT card.
Not particularly exciting but it's solid, I'm sure it'll see play.
yeah, I remember that before it was nerfed to 6 mana Blades of Azzinoth were in autoinclude in the Tempo DH deck lists.
a minion like this makes using face a no-issue.
This card is deceptively strong, because the spell you cast with her on board will automatically have spell power + 1 !
This means that arcane missiles will shoot at least 4, Ray of Frost will do 4 damage to a minion that's frozen, Arcane Breath deals at least 3, etc.
Mage also has ways to discount spells with the Sorcerer's Apprentice and Incanter's flow, which can make the cheapest spells free and the medium cost spells to be cheap, so I think running cards like fireball or Rolling Fireball with this lady isn't completely unviable.
That said, like some players have already pointed out, this cards weakness is not the lack of damaging spells in a Mage deck, but the lack of draw available in standard.
In wild Mage still has Stargazer Luna along with a plethora of cheap spells that would help keep this machine running, but standard does not have a substitute for that outside of good old Gadgetzan Auctioneer or Elemental Allies (which requires a specific deck build) so far.
There's always the option to refill your hand with spells from Cyclone or Evocation but more often than not they're too expensive to fire them all.
I do see this card being partnered up with violet spellwing for some easy and cheap spelldamage gain, however.
the Incanter's Flow can already reduce spells below (1) if enough are played in a match.
What will hold this card back isn't just cost but draw
How interesting - they printed a weapon that gets more value if you don't attack with it.
initially players will be tempted to use this with just medium to big cost cards (around 4-10), but there's not many spells you can play like that on curve for either class - Paladin's 4 drop spells consists of either a pitiful AOE, a single target removal/card draw, a single target buff spell or an AOE that would just make this minion have 1 health. Warrior on the other hand 4 drops are all single target removal that either need specific deck building (molten breath), a weaker fireball or...Dr Boom's scheme.
please note I'm reviewing this card before all cards have been revealed, we'll most certainly have more spells by the time of the full release. At this time Paladin has more higher cost spells than Warrior in standard but Libram of hope is the only one that's seeing competitive play and you wouldn't play this weapon in a libram deck because of Libram of Justice
In my opinion this weapon is for control decks to help get extra value from the spells you'll already be playing.
Warrior using Shield Block for some armor and card draw? get an extra speed bump against your opponent.
Paladin using Duel! to hopefully pull out Colossus of the Moon? at least get a 5/5 with taunt when you accidentally pull out a murmy instead.
Because no one will use these taunts to win the game, just to prolong the game SO they can win.
Had a match against Paladin earlier where I got Prince Liam and turned all the Hallucinations into random legendaries.
That was a fun match
The last two class giants printed for Priest and Warlock saw minimal play during their initial release before being substituted for more efficient minions.
Grave Horror was a 12 mana minion that was discounted by (1) for each spell you cast on your turn and Jumbo Imp was discounted by (1) for each friendly demon that died while it was in your hand.
This Giant will most likely see home in a control deck, which Priest and Warlock can excel at, where damage mitigation is key.
This means taking damage and restoring it.
Warlock has good tools that help them TAKE damage, their default hero power helps them deal 2 damage to themselves while they draw this card. There's also a long list of spells and minions and standard and wild that allows the warlock to hurt themselves to receive a positive benefit, Rain of Fire has been a popular mention already, but their class healing is very very weak, with NetherBreath and Aranasi BroodMother requiring deck construction to utilize them the best.
Priest has the opposite problem, they can restore 2 health with their hero power, but their library is more geared toward self help than self hurt. Priests are able to mitigate damage taken but they won't be able to be proactive on the damage end.
Cards such as this and the Brittlebone Destroyer I believe will help open doors to old archetypes and decklists of Warlock and Priest - self harm and Obelisk Priest. Warlock received some cards that didn't see much play with Neferset Destroyer and Diseased Vulture, two cards that reward self punishing plays. Priests Obelisk quest saw some fairly competitive play in Ulduum, and a deck list that requires you to mitigate what your opponent damages sounds like it'd be a shoe in.
I believe this would make this giant a contender for control decks, but not the popular handlock or resurrect priests we've seen since they're overtaken with the Galakrond package since DoD
That said this is one ugly looking monster
I think the cards we've seen now are just precursors for the rest of the set. Priest and Warlock are clearly going to get more health control based on this card alone, just as their legendary foreshadows them having more deathrattle/reborn minions
A powerful legendary for both Warlock and Priest.
We've already seen Warlock have a good deathrattle this expansion with the Spider egg minion, this legendary is also telling us that priest will have deathrattles to play with as well (fitting, since it's in scholomance).
because of this minion's cost you'll want to play him followed by at least 2-3 minions that you don't mind dying for some 4/4 - namely either lackeys or cheap death rattles or Reborn minions such as Leper Gnomes, Evil Conscriptors, Grandmummies, Fiendish Servants, Murmies, even Reliquary or Souls or Ebonlocke would be good to play after this minion.
We still need to see what other deathrattles and maybe (?) reborn minions we get in this set
However because of the cost you won't be able to run him in the most aggressive of decks, like Houndmaster Shaw (same cost 'n stat line) this minion will probably be more at home in a midrange list.
I KNEW there was going to be an egg activator when they showed the spider egg today.
I mean there's more to this card than that but I was still right.
and what priest deck can utilize this at the moment? Resurrect and Galakrond don't really use that many disposable death rattle minions...
I love that his flavor text reveals that he has treats for his cat in his robes.
oh right, not sure why I was thinking it was a 1/2
or heck play it after Imprisoned Scrap Imp activates and get a 3/3 that summons 2 2/1's.
It's a very flexible card.
There's a lot of things to consider when looking at this card:
First: The deathrattle can be activated by either traditional means OR by discard. which means that if you get lucky with a Soulfire spell, you can get 2 2/1's for the price of 1 mana that removes a minion. You can also use this card with say Felfire bolt for the same effect, but that's 3 mana and really at that much you can just use shadowbolt (which doesn't see much play these days). But since this card HAS a death rattle I'm certain this reveal is a precursor to a future Warlock spell that requires you to kill off a friendly minion for it to activate (like Grim Rally or Unholy Sacrifice).
I also wouldn't be surprised if a Priest/Warlock spell will be the one that activates this card on your turn, since both classes have had an affinity for triggering deathrattles.
Secondly: Discard - this is going to seem incredibly appealing to everyone, but bear in mind Warlock's strongest (i.e. most used) discard minions say "Discard the HIGHEST cost card in your hand" and play them with Hand of Gul'dan. That's not saying you can't sculpt your hand to have this as your highest cost card but I feel if you were to mulligan for a card to discard it wouldn't be this.
Third: The zoo. People are going to say this is a great zoo card and I agree, in no large part because Imprisoned Scrap Imp will be in standard until the end of next year. a 2 mana 3/3 with a death rattle to summon 2 2/1's is pretty strong. There's options to use this with Teron Gorefiend as well to activate it and then summon it again at a later time.
TL;DR it's really strong for aggressive and mid-range decks.
Okay I've had time to compare this spell with some others and I think it's really strong.
Mage in standard has been missing early AOE since Shooting Star and Celestial Emissary rotated, making them reliant on Flame Ward which can either be removed (very rarely) or activated in a way to avoid massive loss on your opponents side.
This can be used in conjunction with cards like Mo'arg Artificer or any spell damage minion to clear a board early on before it gets too big so you don't have to wait until turn 5 for Rolling Fireball.
If I understand the video correctly, the excess damage is dealt to BOTH adjacent minions instead of splitting it up evenly.
Will most definitely see play in highlander decks, will probably be a follow up spell for the Devolving Missiles
before I give a formal review I just want to say I'm DELIGHTED to see more of Genzoman's artwork in Hearthstone.
Now then -
This card is really good tempo since you can get about 5-9 worth of mana for the price of 4 mana.
That said this card will probably be NOT good ON tempo unless your playing warrior, since Rogue's weapons are generally pretty weak and disposable unless you're using Deadly Poison (I will not consider wild options, those are just too many to cover).
Warriors on the other hand CAN play this on curve since they're best cheap weapon, Fiery Waraxe is 3/2 for 3 mana, which makes this lady a 7 mana turn for 4. Other weapons Warrior might play with this lady is Arcanite Reaper, Wrenchcalibur and Gorehowl. If Corsair Cache was still giving +1 attack this lady would be viable in pirate lists.
Now, Rogues can use weapons like the Mirage Blades, Hooked Scimitars or Waggle Pick with this lady but I have not seen those weapons in the Galakrond deck lists and I'm not sure if this gal is enough to warrant their return.
I feel like this should be a warlock card, since its weaker than Flamestrike in terms of damage but it also damages your own minions.
But it refills your board, too, so even if you kill your own guys you'll still have the board, which makes it a strong control card.
This card looks like an answer to sticky token decks or very aggressive zoo decks where the blades of Azzinoth (just 1 mana cheaper that does the same damage!) can't clear the board.
But against those decks you'd probably just rather run Altruis the Outcast and go off with him since not only does that CLEAR the board but damages your opponent as well, and it'll take about as much mana.
Maybe this card can make Netherandamus finally playable.
I mean probably not but I like him so I can hope.
The more I review this card the more I change my mind on it.
At first glance it's a faster Cairne Bloodhoof that, unlike the classic legendary, will just die to all but the weakest AOE spell available.
However, also unlike Cairne, if it's removed by AOE your opponent will probably be behind on the board, which means the token may hit face, making your opponent consider if they want to take 8 damage between two turns or not.
Also making this card more interesting is the stealth synergy cards Rogue received in AoO, cards like Ashtongue slayer will gaurantee Lillian kills a target and Greyheart sage can at least be used to draw some cards.
Also I'm glad that Team 5 is shifting Rogue away from just burgle mechanics and looking towards more stealth options.
I mean who runs betrayal in 2020 tho?
it's a good control card, terrible for tempo tho, since you need to either spend mana to change your health OR have an effect like that set up the turn prior, in which case your opponent will spend THEIR turn removing THAT card.
Not particularly exciting but it's solid, I'm sure it'll see play.