Rokara is...OK. The Unstoppable Force is really cool, a bit of a Shen Li vibe going there. The main issue is that it only has two Durability, so you're not getting a long-term win out of it (conversely, The Immoveable Object sticks around unless destroyed by an Ooze or replaced, so I guess we know the answer to that question), it's more of a powerspike. And the Hero Power is definitely one of the weaker ones among the Merc Heroes. It's not bad, obviously, but it would definitely struggle to outperform the others in a longer game.
An interesting build-around, yet again trying to push Mage in a Big Spell direction with its Battlecry (although certain small spells, like Ignite aren't necessarily terrible). The Hero Power needs some help getting going, but can scale slowly into heavy damage. Would likely be the Hero to watch if we ever get into a slower meta.
6 mana 9/9 with Charge. I don't know: I don't like those stats for that cost, and Charge is basically a Tier 3 keyword (it's certainly no Taunt). I think the powercreep of Hearthstone is such that a 9/9 on Turn 6 that can attack immediately isn't good enough. It's not like before turn 6 you can play a minion that gains you 3 Armor at the end of the turn, or a 4 mana AoE that gains you Armor, or any cheap spells that gain you, say, 10 or 8 Armor, or use a Hero Power that gains Armor. I mean, Warrior isn't really an Armor class, at the end of the day, and that's really what bothers me about this card: it forces Warrior to play completely outside its identity to gain Armor just to activate what is, in my opinion, a worse King Krush. I mean, it doesn't even have a minion tribe. What, am I supposed to play this 9/9 on turn 6 and eat my opponent's largest minion while still putting pressure on their life total? Do I just send 9 damage face? That's not even one third of their life total! Where am I getting the rest of that damage? From other minions? Why have I allowed this bit to go on for so long? Probably the only people still reading this are the ones who think that I'm being completely serious, and let's be completely honest: no one really reads these comments, do they? Everyone just scrolls immediately to the bottom of the thread so they can post their thoughts on the card and don't even take a second to look at someone else's thoughts, and those that do are mainly doing so because they want to find people that disagree with them. That's all the internet is, isn't it? Just people looking for something to disagree with. Certainly this long block of text is so uninviting that no one is going to bother to read it; it might even get marked as spam, at this point I honestly don't care. I'll even throw in a couple of random cards Dr. Boom to give this a little Recurring Villain color because there's not a chance anyone has the patience to actually read the words, they'll just think I've made a couple of card comparisons Vanndar Stormpike or synergy ideas Larry, Cashier of Women's Clothing, because no one is going to read this and there's a man in a cloak standing behind you. There's not, but you looked, didn't you? I'm exhausted.
Although it costs 10, I'm counting this as more Big Spell support and not a Big Spell in itself (mainly because it doesn't do anything on its own). My initial thought is that this goes into C'Thun Mage, since it can pull out as many as three of the pieces of C'Thun over the course of three turns. Could be a nice combo with Clumsy Courier or Balinda Stonehearth to be played quickly and actually start working towards C'Thun. I say they could be a nice combo, but I legitimately don't see this in a deck that doesn't run either of those minions, it's too expensive otherwise.
Big Spell support, and it's pretty good. I feel like there still aren't enough Big Spells in Standard to make a really good deck (in fact, it feels like there are more cards that care about Big Spells than there are Big Spells), but drawing two spells is a good deal especially if you're only running Big'uns (for to make her stats bigger). I assume if she draws double Hot Streak she dies?
I mean, it's a 2 mana 2/2 weapon that sometimes could draw you a card (albeit one that you didn't put in your deck). Good for Thief Rogue, and you don't necessarily need to hit minions with exactly 2 Health because of things like Deadly Poison. I don't think you runs this card in anything other than Thief Rogue.
A very slow Hero, but I like that. Depending on what you've put in your deck and/or played, it can provide tempo, board clear, Health, Armor - basically whatever you want. Once Xyrella gets going, though, the game will probably pick up a bit since she gets a Mind Blast every other turn. I can't imagine, with all these new Hero cards, that Blizzard will allow Quest decks to continue unchecked if the new set can't knock them down by itself. So, initially, I don't see this making it in the meta but, if we can ever get out from under the thumb of Questlock, I think this could work out pretty nicely in a slower meta where things like board control and value actually matter and your opponent doesn't just play their own game on the other side of the board so you can watch.
I like this a lot. It's really solid for a Secret Hunter deck (or might just be useful for any Hunter deck that happens to be running Secrets to thin out the deck). There's a plenitude of minions with 3 Health to target with this, but it's not the end of the world if you "only" get one Secret for free, that's still really good. Standard Quest Hunter I think wants to try this, since it can pull out Explosive Trap and advance the Quest. I think this sees play, even if Secret Hunter doesn't.
We'll know more about the strength of this card once the rest of Shaman's Freeze package (if there is a "rest of Shaman's Freeze package") is revealed. Right now, it doesn't have enough support tools to be worth running. I doubt we get any cheap freeze effects that go face (at least, nothing cheaper than Frozen Shadoweaver), so this probably lands in some Control Freeze Shaman that uses the effect to more reliably control the board? If something is already Frozen, does getting hit with a Freeze effect still trigger this, or is that not considered "freezing" it? We'll see, likely won't be big for right now.
Very cheap Mind Control effect, and there's enough cheap Silences available that it wouldn't be too hard to use one of those. But let's pretend that you don't even run Silences with Najak, and use him only as a temporary steal: it's still good as a stall tool against faster decks. Stealing a Taunt from Aggro Druid or Pirate Warrior should be very annoying as, most of the time, they'll have to kill the Taunt to get to Najak (Shiver Their Timbers! notwithstanding). I don't think Control Priest will be a huge part of the meta, but I think this is a decent tool for a slow Priest deck if someone wanted to play Priest.
This is definitely a fun meme card, and should not be judged by its ability to win games. It's just for fun, and I think it fills that role pretty well. However, there's no way I would want to play this in Wild Burgle Rogue, solely because of Tess Greymane.
A decent anti-aggro Taunt that comes back from Amulet. The Deathrattle makes it hard to value trade with, and it could be a headache for decks with lots of little guys. Not as useful offensively as Lightshower Elemental, but this should find its place in any Priest decks that want to survive in an aggressive meta.
The best token payoff Demon Hunter has yet received. This could be a problem. If Demon Hunter can discount it quickly enough, there's nothing stopping them from playing a Felosophy or two, slamming down two big bodies, then following up with Battleground Battlemaster like a souped-up Flesh Giant Warlock. Keep your eyes on this one. Maybe not this meta, but eventually we will see it in a top-Tier deck.
A very flexible Battlecry. None of the options are worth 8 mana by themselves, so it's a good thing you can choose two of them. Obviously patterned after Dr. Boom. I hope the Quests allow for a slower, grindier, value-oriented meta because that's the one where Heroes like Bru'kan and Cariel will shine.
A decent stall for slow Warrior decks, to be played at a time where you'd expect to lose all of your armor to the incoming damage anyway. It's pretty bad in any situation that isn't purely defensive, since unlike Shield Block it doesn't gain you any extra benefit. My guess is that this won't be a big part of the meta.
Probably the best name in the set and no I will not be defending my position. Maybe in a meta with a lot of big minions Deathrattle Hunter runs this. Rogue has some Deathrattle synergies, so.... Freeze Rogue? Probably not going to see a ton of play.
Really cool effect, VERY similar to one of the best cards from TESL: Altar of Despair (R.I.P.). While it doesn't provide the same kind of engine that Altar did, this is still a very cool card. It plays well with Eggs or other cheap Deathrattles; it can also be used to turn an Imp (or some other token) into a 2-Drop. I think Zoolock should try this out, they might be surprised at how good it is.
An interesting way to trigger Deathrattles, which could make it worth it to run Snowfall Graveyard since there's less waiting for the Deathrattle to trigger. Counterfeit Blade and Sketchy Information...maybe there's a deck here. We just need to figure out what Deathrattles work best.
Demon Hunter has a variety of cheap ways to increase its Attack, so it shouldn't be too difficult to trigger the Honor Kill. This would likely only see play in aggro DH lists since it rewards you for controlling the board by dealing damage to your opponent. A little bit clunky to make work, but I think it's worth a try because a 1/3 weapon for 1 is a good worst-case scenario (and you can always just ignore the effect and punch your opponent directly in the face).
I like the effect. An interesting way to do a AoE. Effectively, it turns every minion into a potential threat to wipe an aggressive opponent's board and become too big to handle. Really neat in combination with a Taunt minion. Good tool for Control Priest, if that becomes a thing again.
Rokara is...OK. The Unstoppable Force is really cool, a bit of a Shen Li vibe going there. The main issue is that it only has two Durability, so you're not getting a long-term win out of it (conversely, The Immoveable Object sticks around unless destroyed by an Ooze or replaced, so I guess we know the answer to that question), it's more of a powerspike. And the Hero Power is definitely one of the weaker ones among the Merc Heroes. It's not bad, obviously, but it would definitely struggle to outperform the others in a longer game.
An interesting build-around, yet again trying to push Mage in a Big Spell direction with its Battlecry (although certain small spells, like Ignite aren't necessarily terrible). The Hero Power needs some help getting going, but can scale slowly into heavy damage. Would likely be the Hero to watch if we ever get into a slower meta.
6 mana 9/9 with Charge. I don't know: I don't like those stats for that cost, and Charge is basically a Tier 3 keyword (it's certainly no Taunt). I think the powercreep of Hearthstone is such that a 9/9 on Turn 6 that can attack immediately isn't good enough. It's not like before turn 6 you can play a minion that gains you 3 Armor at the end of the turn, or a 4 mana AoE that gains you Armor, or any cheap spells that gain you, say, 10 or 8 Armor, or use a Hero Power that gains Armor. I mean, Warrior isn't really an Armor class, at the end of the day, and that's really what bothers me about this card: it forces Warrior to play completely outside its identity to gain Armor just to activate what is, in my opinion, a worse King Krush. I mean, it doesn't even have a minion tribe. What, am I supposed to play this 9/9 on turn 6 and eat my opponent's largest minion while still putting pressure on their life total? Do I just send 9 damage face? That's not even one third of their life total! Where am I getting the rest of that damage? From other minions? Why have I allowed this bit to go on for so long? Probably the only people still reading this are the ones who think that I'm being completely serious, and let's be completely honest: no one really reads these comments, do they? Everyone just scrolls immediately to the bottom of the thread so they can post their thoughts on the card and don't even take a second to look at someone else's thoughts, and those that do are mainly doing so because they want to find people that disagree with them. That's all the internet is, isn't it? Just people looking for something to disagree with. Certainly this long block of text is so uninviting that no one is going to bother to read it; it might even get marked as spam, at this point I honestly don't care. I'll even throw in a couple of random cards Dr. Boom to give this a little Recurring Villain color because there's not a chance anyone has the patience to actually read the words, they'll just think I've made a couple of card comparisons Vanndar Stormpike or synergy ideas Larry, Cashier of Women's Clothing, because no one is going to read this and there's a man in a cloak standing behind you. There's not, but you looked, didn't you? I'm exhausted.
Although it costs 10, I'm counting this as more Big Spell support and not a Big Spell in itself (mainly because it doesn't do anything on its own). My initial thought is that this goes into C'Thun Mage, since it can pull out as many as three of the pieces of C'Thun over the course of three turns. Could be a nice combo with Clumsy Courier or Balinda Stonehearth to be played quickly and actually start working towards C'Thun. I say they could be a nice combo, but I legitimately don't see this in a deck that doesn't run either of those minions, it's too expensive otherwise.
Big Spell support, and it's pretty good. I feel like there still aren't enough Big Spells in Standard to make a really good deck (in fact, it feels like there are more cards that care about Big Spells than there are Big Spells), but drawing two spells is a good deal especially if you're only running Big'uns (for to make her stats bigger). I assume if she draws double Hot Streak she dies?
I mean, it's a 2 mana 2/2 weapon that sometimes could draw you a card (albeit one that you didn't put in your deck). Good for Thief Rogue, and you don't necessarily need to hit minions with exactly 2 Health because of things like Deadly Poison. I don't think you runs this card in anything other than Thief Rogue.
A very slow Hero, but I like that. Depending on what you've put in your deck and/or played, it can provide tempo, board clear, Health, Armor - basically whatever you want. Once Xyrella gets going, though, the game will probably pick up a bit since she gets a Mind Blast every other turn. I can't imagine, with all these new Hero cards, that Blizzard will allow Quest decks to continue unchecked if the new set can't knock them down by itself. So, initially, I don't see this making it in the meta but, if we can ever get out from under the thumb of Questlock, I think this could work out pretty nicely in a slower meta where things like board control and value actually matter and your opponent doesn't just play their own game on the other side of the board so you can watch.
I like this a lot. It's really solid for a Secret Hunter deck (or might just be useful for any Hunter deck that happens to be running Secrets to thin out the deck). There's a plenitude of minions with 3 Health to target with this, but it's not the end of the world if you "only" get one Secret for free, that's still really good. Standard Quest Hunter I think wants to try this, since it can pull out Explosive Trap and advance the Quest. I think this sees play, even if Secret Hunter doesn't.
Freeze face. Deal 3 damage to Face.
We'll know more about the strength of this card once the rest of Shaman's Freeze package (if there is a "rest of Shaman's Freeze package") is revealed. Right now, it doesn't have enough support tools to be worth running. I doubt we get any cheap freeze effects that go face (at least, nothing cheaper than Frozen Shadoweaver), so this probably lands in some Control Freeze Shaman that uses the effect to more reliably control the board? If something is already Frozen, does getting hit with a Freeze effect still trigger this, or is that not considered "freezing" it? We'll see, likely won't be big for right now.
Very cheap Mind Control effect, and there's enough cheap Silences available that it wouldn't be too hard to use one of those. But let's pretend that you don't even run Silences with Najak, and use him only as a temporary steal: it's still good as a stall tool against faster decks. Stealing a Taunt from Aggro Druid or Pirate Warrior should be very annoying as, most of the time, they'll have to kill the Taunt to get to Najak (Shiver Their Timbers! notwithstanding). I don't think Control Priest will be a huge part of the meta, but I think this is a decent tool for a slow Priest deck if someone wanted to play Priest.
This is definitely a fun meme card, and should not be judged by its ability to win games. It's just for fun, and I think it fills that role pretty well. However, there's no way I would want to play this in Wild Burgle Rogue, solely because of Tess Greymane.
A decent anti-aggro Taunt that comes back from Amulet. The Deathrattle makes it hard to value trade with, and it could be a headache for decks with lots of little guys. Not as useful offensively as Lightshower Elemental, but this should find its place in any Priest decks that want to survive in an aggressive meta.
The best token payoff Demon Hunter has yet received. This could be a problem. If Demon Hunter can discount it quickly enough, there's nothing stopping them from playing a Felosophy or two, slamming down two big bodies, then following up with Battleground Battlemaster like a souped-up Flesh Giant Warlock. Keep your eyes on this one. Maybe not this meta, but eventually we will see it in a top-Tier deck.
A very flexible Battlecry. None of the options are worth 8 mana by themselves, so it's a good thing you can choose two of them. Obviously patterned after Dr. Boom. I hope the Quests allow for a slower, grindier, value-oriented meta because that's the one where Heroes like Bru'kan and Cariel will shine.
A decent stall for slow Warrior decks, to be played at a time where you'd expect to lose all of your armor to the incoming damage anyway. It's pretty bad in any situation that isn't purely defensive, since unlike Shield Block it doesn't gain you any extra benefit. My guess is that this won't be a big part of the meta.
Probably the best name in the set and no I will not be defending my position. Maybe in a meta with a lot of big minions Deathrattle Hunter runs this. Rogue has some Deathrattle synergies, so.... Freeze Rogue? Probably not going to see a ton of play.
Really cool effect, VERY similar to one of the best cards from TESL: Altar of Despair (R.I.P.). While it doesn't provide the same kind of engine that Altar did, this is still a very cool card. It plays well with Eggs or other cheap Deathrattles; it can also be used to turn an Imp (or some other token) into a 2-Drop. I think Zoolock should try this out, they might be surprised at how good it is.
An interesting way to trigger Deathrattles, which could make it worth it to run Snowfall Graveyard since there's less waiting for the Deathrattle to trigger. Counterfeit Blade and Sketchy Information...maybe there's a deck here. We just need to figure out what Deathrattles work best.
Demon Hunter has a variety of cheap ways to increase its Attack, so it shouldn't be too difficult to trigger the Honor Kill. This would likely only see play in aggro DH lists since it rewards you for controlling the board by dealing damage to your opponent. A little bit clunky to make work, but I think it's worth a try because a 1/3 weapon for 1 is a good worst-case scenario (and you can always just ignore the effect and punch your opponent directly in the face).
I like the effect. An interesting way to do a AoE. Effectively, it turns every minion into a potential threat to wipe an aggressive opponent's board and become too big to handle. Really neat in combination with a Taunt minion. Good tool for Control Priest, if that becomes a thing again.