The kind of card you want to play when you know what to ask for, so this is likely going to be best in slower decks but maybe certain aggressive decks will run it to get some reach late in the game? It kind of depends on how reliable he is, which we don't know right now, but he could be a regular presence in the meta for the foreseeable future.
I mean, sure. It's a little like a slower Flametongue Totem that's permanent, which is OK. Probably not going to see a ton of play but it could prove me wrong.
This is strong. Razzle Dazzle decks (both Shaman and DK) could like it as a removal spell that can be either Frost or Fire. It's possible that this could enable the DK minion that costs 1 if something is Frozen, but that's probably too optimistic. I think we see this quite a bit.
I think this is probably too weak for Warlock decks, they're probably happy relying on INFERNAL and Pop'gar for healing. For Rogue, this might be intriguing thanks to Shadowstep and Breakdance so it might replace Health Drink in decks that run Health Drink? It's OK, might have some upside.
This is solid removal for Control Warrior and something you're probably going to want to try to play around as an aggressive deck (DH's Location sort of organically plays around it). I think this is good enough to make the cut in most Control and slower Tempo Warrior decks.
A decent defensive minion. If Warrior is having trouble staying alive in the midgame this might be worth a shot in Control decks. A meta call, and not an auto include.
Finally got around to finishing two of Sanderson's secret projects Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and The Sunlit Man. TSM was OK. Yumi is probably my favorite of the four secret projects - a decent little mish-mash of epic fantasy and rom com.
On the classics front, I read my first full Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It's great. I've a few other Dickens novels on my TBR list.
I also just finished a really good nonfiction book, Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane. It's a nature book about nature books, and about nature words (specifically those used by rural natives of the British isles) that builds a bond between the land and those who live there. He writes about the lives and works of a lot of other nature writers so I've got a bit of a list of books to check out. Currently listening to J.A. Baker's The Peregrine on that recommendation (read by David Attenborough) and it's fantastic so far.
This is a less flexible pre-nerf Lightning Bloom and you're effectively telegraphing your intentions to do something big next turn; but if your opponent has no way to interfere with your plans then you're good to go. Really powerful, gives you the ability to drop a bomb a few turns early, or get you into more expensive Ramp spells that can lock in those extra Mana crystals. Splish Splash Whelp (as it currently exists) is better, but this card might be a real problem in the new meta.
You could use this to tutor a handful of specific Taunt minions, so it's got utility. It feels a little slow (the draw only comes after it dies, so it might be useless in slower matchups) so I'm thinking it's a fringe card that sees very little play - if it does, there's a specific card it's tutoring.
If Druid/Warrior can turbo up to 10 a few turns early in a consistent fashion, then this is a fantastic card and one that they can use to gain back any tempo they may have lost while Ramping up. Really strong, will see play in Ramp decks if they can get to 10 fast enough.
It's decent value, but there's a lot of dross in the Taunt minion pool and I'm not sure that, unless I really want a lot of Taunt minions specifically, that I would run this card. Maybe Tourist Warrior uses it to get extra copies of the Tourist for additional agony? If Druid plays this it's probably in Dragon Druid - there's a decent amount of Taunt Dragons that see play.
This is strong, especially if you can regularly get it out before turn 5 - it's just great Taunt stats that will help you survive against aggressive decks. If Splish Splash Whelp comes back untouched, this is a great minion for Dragon Druid and probably will slot right into that archetype (perhaps occupying the spot of a now-nerfed Doomkin?).
This feels more like a card for Tourist Warrior than for Druid, but what a card it is: Resurrecting Zilliax by itself is worth 8 Mana, then you can rez stuff like Muensterosity, the Tourist, or maybe Bouldering Buddy (and this is just stuff from the new set). On top of the Ramp that Druid/Warrior got, this could be a big late-game bomb for both classes.
So this is a better Wild Growth that Warrior can also put in decks. Suffice it to say that this will see play, and a lot of it. Warrior and Druid are, for the most part, already the kings of late game (Warrior because of how much value they can get out of Brann, Druid because they can get to the late game faster) so this just adds to that dominance with extra Mana once you're in the late game (and a little boost in getting there). Seeing all these Druid Ramp cards, I have only one thing to say: They had better damn well nuke Doomkin from orbit in the next balance patch.
My gut feeling is that this is mainly going to be run in Tourist Druid to repeat off of Mistah Vistah or draw with Under the Sea (that kind of deck would probably need a Ramp Druid that doesn't run a lot of cheap Ramp spells, which might be out of the question). It's an OK spell - decent survivability and it does give you the option of getting some of that Mana back (so instead it's more like a 4 Mana Choose Twice: Gain 5 Armor or Draw 2 Cards). Unless they do some heavy nerfs when the expansion drops I feel pretty good about Druid's chances of turboing this out - the only drawback is that it doesn't give you any board presence.
So on the one hand, yes paying 7 for a 4/5 that summons random locations is bad... but this is Druid we're talking about and it's not out of the question for them to have 7 Mana on turn 4 or something ridiculous like that. So while I don't think this will see a lot of play, Druid is the one class that can make it work.
For what it does, this card is pretty strong, especially in slower matchups. As far as Mage cards go, I'm mainly seeing this as an option for Spell Damage Druid, since it could get Go With the Flow and Seabreeze Chalice for extra Spell Damage and burst and Rising Waves for board control. If it's just your normal Ramp Druid, then I don't think it would grab much more than Tsunami, Rising Waves, and maybe Tide Pools. Pretty good card, I wouldn't be surprised if it saw play in a variety of decks.
It's cheap buffs and it only costs a card slot to get three drinks, so I can imagine people will at least try it out in buff Warrior decks. I'm assuming it's random, which makes this card a lot weaker, but maybe there's some deck that can figure out a way to make it work.
This is fantastic - both for Warrior and for Hunter. My first instinct was to pair it with Dorian in Big Minion decks, and that is pretty nice. But really, this goes good with just about any deck - for example in Reno Warrior you're paying 3 to tutor Zilliax plus two other minions and that's pretty strong by itself.
Decent removal on a stick (and check out that synergy with Brann and/or Saloon Brewmaster) that you can boost the potency of by buffing the minion. It's probably not good enough if you're not in a deck that regularly gives its minions in hand more stats, but it should be worth the shot if you can regularly find the means of beefing this bad boy.
The kind of card you want to play when you know what to ask for, so this is likely going to be best in slower decks but maybe certain aggressive decks will run it to get some reach late in the game? It kind of depends on how reliable he is, which we don't know right now, but he could be a regular presence in the meta for the foreseeable future.
I mean, sure. It's a little like a slower Flametongue Totem that's permanent, which is OK. Probably not going to see a ton of play but it could prove me wrong.
This is strong. Razzle Dazzle decks (both Shaman and DK) could like it as a removal spell that can be either Frost or Fire. It's possible that this could enable the DK minion that costs 1 if something is Frozen, but that's probably too optimistic. I think we see this quite a bit.
I think this is probably too weak for Warlock decks, they're probably happy relying on INFERNAL and Pop'gar for healing. For Rogue, this might be intriguing thanks to Shadowstep and Breakdance so it might replace Health Drink in decks that run Health Drink? It's OK, might have some upside.
This is solid removal for Control Warrior and something you're probably going to want to try to play around as an aggressive deck (DH's Location sort of organically plays around it). I think this is good enough to make the cut in most Control and slower Tempo Warrior decks.
A decent defensive minion. If Warrior is having trouble staying alive in the midgame this might be worth a shot in Control decks. A meta call, and not an auto include.
Finally got around to finishing two of Sanderson's secret projects Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and The Sunlit Man. TSM was OK. Yumi is probably my favorite of the four secret projects - a decent little mish-mash of epic fantasy and rom com.
On the classics front, I read my first full Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It's great. I've a few other Dickens novels on my TBR list.
I also just finished a really good nonfiction book, Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane. It's a nature book about nature books, and about nature words (specifically those used by rural natives of the British isles) that builds a bond between the land and those who live there. He writes about the lives and works of a lot of other nature writers so I've got a bit of a list of books to check out. Currently listening to J.A. Baker's The Peregrine on that recommendation (read by David Attenborough) and it's fantastic so far.
This is a less flexible pre-nerf Lightning Bloom and you're effectively telegraphing your intentions to do something big next turn; but if your opponent has no way to interfere with your plans then you're good to go. Really powerful, gives you the ability to drop a bomb a few turns early, or get you into more expensive Ramp spells that can lock in those extra Mana crystals. Splish Splash Whelp (as it currently exists) is better, but this card might be a real problem in the new meta.
You could use this to tutor a handful of specific Taunt minions, so it's got utility. It feels a little slow (the draw only comes after it dies, so it might be useless in slower matchups) so I'm thinking it's a fringe card that sees very little play - if it does, there's a specific card it's tutoring.
If Druid/Warrior can turbo up to 10 a few turns early in a consistent fashion, then this is a fantastic card and one that they can use to gain back any tempo they may have lost while Ramping up. Really strong, will see play in Ramp decks if they can get to 10 fast enough.
It's decent value, but there's a lot of dross in the Taunt minion pool and I'm not sure that, unless I really want a lot of Taunt minions specifically, that I would run this card. Maybe Tourist Warrior uses it to get extra copies of the Tourist for additional agony? If Druid plays this it's probably in Dragon Druid - there's a decent amount of Taunt Dragons that see play.
This is strong, especially if you can regularly get it out before turn 5 - it's just great Taunt stats that will help you survive against aggressive decks. If Splish Splash Whelp comes back untouched, this is a great minion for Dragon Druid and probably will slot right into that archetype (perhaps occupying the spot of a now-nerfed Doomkin?).
This feels more like a card for Tourist Warrior than for Druid, but what a card it is: Resurrecting Zilliax by itself is worth 8 Mana, then you can rez stuff like Muensterosity, the Tourist, or maybe Bouldering Buddy (and this is just stuff from the new set). On top of the Ramp that Druid/Warrior got, this could be a big late-game bomb for both classes.
So this is a better Wild Growth that Warrior can also put in decks. Suffice it to say that this will see play, and a lot of it. Warrior and Druid are, for the most part, already the kings of late game (Warrior because of how much value they can get out of Brann, Druid because they can get to the late game faster) so this just adds to that dominance with extra Mana once you're in the late game (and a little boost in getting there). Seeing all these Druid Ramp cards, I have only one thing to say: They had better damn well nuke Doomkin from orbit in the next balance patch.
My gut feeling is that this is mainly going to be run in Tourist Druid to repeat off of Mistah Vistah or draw with Under the Sea (that kind of deck would probably need a Ramp Druid that doesn't run a lot of cheap Ramp spells, which might be out of the question). It's an OK spell - decent survivability and it does give you the option of getting some of that Mana back (so instead it's more like a 4 Mana Choose Twice: Gain 5 Armor or Draw 2 Cards). Unless they do some heavy nerfs when the expansion drops I feel pretty good about Druid's chances of turboing this out - the only drawback is that it doesn't give you any board presence.
So on the one hand, yes paying 7 for a 4/5 that summons random locations is bad... but this is Druid we're talking about and it's not out of the question for them to have 7 Mana on turn 4 or something ridiculous like that. So while I don't think this will see a lot of play, Druid is the one class that can make it work.
For what it does, this card is pretty strong, especially in slower matchups. As far as Mage cards go, I'm mainly seeing this as an option for Spell Damage Druid, since it could get Go With the Flow and Seabreeze Chalice for extra Spell Damage and burst and Rising Waves for board control. If it's just your normal Ramp Druid, then I don't think it would grab much more than Tsunami, Rising Waves, and maybe Tide Pools. Pretty good card, I wouldn't be surprised if it saw play in a variety of decks.
It's cheap buffs and it only costs a card slot to get three drinks, so I can imagine people will at least try it out in buff Warrior decks. I'm assuming it's random, which makes this card a lot weaker, but maybe there's some deck that can figure out a way to make it work.
This is fantastic - both for Warrior and for Hunter. My first instinct was to pair it with Dorian in Big Minion decks, and that is pretty nice. But really, this goes good with just about any deck - for example in Reno Warrior you're paying 3 to tutor Zilliax plus two other minions and that's pretty strong by itself.
Decent removal on a stick (and check out that synergy with Brann and/or Saloon Brewmaster) that you can boost the potency of by buffing the minion. It's probably not good enough if you're not in a deck that regularly gives its minions in hand more stats, but it should be worth the shot if you can regularly find the means of beefing this bad boy.