At first glance, this looks very strong: a good statline for its cost, AND a mana battery! It's not nearly as good in practice. If you play this guy on turn 4, it's hard to also trigger Flow for the next turn. His level of expendability is also awkward; generally speaking, on midrange decks you're happy to block with and trade away your expendable units, and you try to protect your champions and value engines like Eye of the Dragon. Do you sacrifice this guy as a blocker to protect your Nexus, or sacrifice Nexus health to protect this unit, when you're also not blocking with Master Yi and Seraphine... there's a reason why Wizened Wizard never saw any play, and it's because he's awkward as hell. Rating: 2 stars
On its face, this looks very good: the weapon is identical to one of the Improvised weapons, as is the case for Great Hammers, only this one is also a Darkin Weapon which can be played as a lategame unit. That sounds pretty good... except Great Hammers are nearly unplayable, and Piltover can't make very good use of a weapon like this, and the Darkin unit is a little slow for a value engine; 8-mana units should be closing a game, not trying to accumulate value. Rating: 2 stars
This sounds super strong because it reminds us of Eye of the Dragon, but it's not. It's a powerful value engine, but it's slow and it's easier for your opponent to deal with by round 6+. It's also poor tempo on the round you play him AND makes it hard for you to trigger Flow for the next round, so you can trigger his ability.
Now let's look at his upside, how strong is his ability? You can summon an ephemeral Empyrean on turn 7, attack with it, summon another on turn 8... which is similar to just playing The Empyrean on turn 7. I guess summoning a new, ephemeral one every turn is better for blocking with it, IF you can keep the Flow going AND you can keep your Dragoncaller alive.
Overall, too slow, too awkward, requires Flow but doesn't contribute to it. Rating: 2 stars
Not impressed by this card. It could be a great turn 3 play, but it's hard to get Flow going so early on and this guy doesn't directly contribute to keep the Flow going into the next turn. He could be a good value play later into the game, but the 4|3 body without any keywords isn't worth as much by then. Maybe Flow decks want this card anyway, but I think it's more likely they'll pass on it. Rating: 2 stars
Arachnoid Sentry and Concussive Palm are very powerful cards, but they are situational and reactive which can be a mismatch for The Witness; maybe the turn you can play it for 2 mana you have no good targets for it or your opponent plays around it by open attacking, and the turn you want to play it for 2 mana, The Witness costs 4.
That said, if you do play him for 2 mana, you're getting an overstatted 2-drop with a powerful effect that also gives you one of your two Flow triggers for the next turn, so you can keep it going.
Overall, this card shouldn't be as ubiquitous as Arachnoid Sentry and Concussive Palm, but it should be good in Flow decks. Rating: 4 stars
This looks better for Nightfall decks than for Daybreak decks. Nightfall decks have more access to keywords like Elusive, Overwhelm and Fearsome, which means they can make better use of the stat buff. Daybreak cards often have huge stats and just get chump blocked. The main problem with this guy is that he's a 2-mana unit that you don't want to play on turn 2, which means he can be real awkward if you draw him early. Rating: 3 stars
Ok, now the buff to Mammoth Shaman makes sense. His main problem always was that he's in a region that has very few tools for pinging the enemy Nexus without spending unit mana. This is a good enabler for Murkwolf Shaman & Mammoth Shaman and it's good support for Scargrounds decks, in both cases adding some badly-needed redundancy to decks that were over-reliant on Ice Shard. When compared to Ice Shard, this is Slow speed, but costs less mana and has an alternate use for destroying equipment, which makes it very competitive overall. This is a good card and I want to give it a higher score, but the deck archetypes that want this card suck and they won't stop sucking just because they get this one new card. Rating: 3 stars
EDIT: I'd given this guy 1 star, but I was unfair to him; he's not THAT bad, I realized, in the context of a Concurrent Timelines deck. Concurrent Timelines could make it easier to summon many units of different subtypes, and it allows Warden to trigger his on-summon effect AND then transform into a better unit, like Gorlith or Brightsteel Formation, with pretty good odds. I don't think this will be competitive, but it's not trash-tier either. Rating: 2 stars
I was worried that it could go off multiple times, but the wording of its ability is the same as for Crackshot Corsair, so I'm fairly confident that it's limited to one trigger per attack.
Super good with any spell trigger units (Starlit Seer, Nami, Ezreal, Lee Sin), but most of those aren't compatible with equipment decks. Also good for buffing Varus' bow. Also a mostly inferior Mystic Shot for Kayn and Varus decks (can't target Nexus, gets shut down by Tough, only hits once until you play your first equipped unit, but better vs. Spellshield). Rating: 3 stars
A bigger Crackshot Corsair for Equipment decks. You won't activate its ability as easily as Crackshot's, but the extra stats are a huge deal on a 1-drop. The main concern is that you're not playing Plunder here, so these Nexus pings aren't a premium commodity in Equipment decks. Rating: 3 stars
Do equipment decks want this type of aggressively-statted Elusive unit? You'd think yes because it's a good unit to buff with equipment, but the problem is that most collectible equipment cards (the ones you can directly slot into your deck) are bad, only Improvised equipment is good and getting those onto this unit would be a big hassle. Still, never underestimate the power of the Elusive keyword. Rating: 3 stars
Pretty good value in an equipment deck, despite the inherent randomness. Do Kayn and Varus want to play for that value though? I think not, but we'll see. Rating: 3 stars
At first glance, this looks very strong: a good statline for its cost, AND a mana battery! It's not nearly as good in practice. If you play this guy on turn 4, it's hard to also trigger Flow for the next turn. His level of expendability is also awkward; generally speaking, on midrange decks you're happy to block with and trade away your expendable units, and you try to protect your champions and value engines like Eye of the Dragon. Do you sacrifice this guy as a blocker to protect your Nexus, or sacrifice Nexus health to protect this unit, when you're also not blocking with Master Yi and Seraphine... there's a reason why Wizened Wizard never saw any play, and it's because he's awkward as hell. Rating: 2 stars
On its face, this looks very good: the weapon is identical to one of the Improvised weapons, as is the case for Great Hammers, only this one is also a Darkin Weapon which can be played as a lategame unit. That sounds pretty good... except Great Hammers are nearly unplayable, and Piltover can't make very good use of a weapon like this, and the Darkin unit is a little slow for a value engine; 8-mana units should be closing a game, not trying to accumulate value. Rating: 2 stars
This sounds super strong because it reminds us of Eye of the Dragon, but it's not. It's a powerful value engine, but it's slow and it's easier for your opponent to deal with by round 6+. It's also poor tempo on the round you play him AND makes it hard for you to trigger Flow for the next round, so you can trigger his ability.
Now let's look at his upside, how strong is his ability? You can summon an ephemeral Empyrean on turn 7, attack with it, summon another on turn 8... which is similar to just playing The Empyrean on turn 7. I guess summoning a new, ephemeral one every turn is better for blocking with it, IF you can keep the Flow going AND you can keep your Dragoncaller alive.
Overall, too slow, too awkward, requires Flow but doesn't contribute to it. Rating: 2 stars
Crazy strong card, could easily see play outside of dedicated Flow decks as well in metas where attachments are common. Rating: 5 stars
Not impressed by this card. It could be a great turn 3 play, but it's hard to get Flow going so early on and this guy doesn't directly contribute to keep the Flow going into the next turn. He could be a good value play later into the game, but the 4|3 body without any keywords isn't worth as much by then. Maybe Flow decks want this card anyway, but I think it's more likely they'll pass on it. Rating: 2 stars
Arachnoid Sentry and Concussive Palm are very powerful cards, but they are situational and reactive which can be a mismatch for The Witness; maybe the turn you can play it for 2 mana you have no good targets for it or your opponent plays around it by open attacking, and the turn you want to play it for 2 mana, The Witness costs 4.
That said, if you do play him for 2 mana, you're getting an overstatted 2-drop with a powerful effect that also gives you one of your two Flow triggers for the next turn, so you can keep it going.
Overall, this card shouldn't be as ubiquitous as Arachnoid Sentry and Concussive Palm, but it should be good in Flow decks. Rating: 4 stars
Discard fodder in discard decks is good, and granting a bunch of Keywords with a card you paid 0 mana for is exceptional. Rating: 5 stars
Like Ye Been Warned, only worse. Not even Plunder decks want this, I think. Rating: 1 star
Pretty bad tempo-wise, but it's a decent value engine that doubles as a late-game bomb. Could see play. Rating: 3 stars
This looks better for Nightfall decks than for Daybreak decks. Nightfall decks have more access to keywords like Elusive, Overwhelm and Fearsome, which means they can make better use of the stat buff. Daybreak cards often have huge stats and just get chump blocked. The main problem with this guy is that he's a 2-mana unit that you don't want to play on turn 2, which means he can be real awkward if you draw him early. Rating: 3 stars
Ok, now the buff to Mammoth Shaman makes sense. His main problem always was that he's in a region that has very few tools for pinging the enemy Nexus without spending unit mana. This is a good enabler for Murkwolf Shaman & Mammoth Shaman and it's good support for Scargrounds decks, in both cases adding some badly-needed redundancy to decks that were over-reliant on Ice Shard. When compared to Ice Shard, this is Slow speed, but costs less mana and has an alternate use for destroying equipment, which makes it very competitive overall. This is a good card and I want to give it a higher score, but the deck archetypes that want this card suck and they won't stop sucking just because they get this one new card. Rating: 3 stars
EDIT: I'd given this guy 1 star, but I was unfair to him; he's not THAT bad, I realized, in the context of a Concurrent Timelines deck. Concurrent Timelines could make it easier to summon many units of different subtypes, and it allows Warden to trigger his on-summon effect AND then transform into a better unit, like Gorlith or Brightsteel Formation, with pretty good odds. I don't think this will be competitive, but it's not trash-tier either. Rating: 2 stars
I was worried that it could go off multiple times, but the wording of its ability is the same as for Crackshot Corsair, so I'm fairly confident that it's limited to one trigger per attack.
Will equipment decks want a bigger version of Purpleberry Shake? My guess is no. Rating: 2 stars
Super good with any spell trigger units (Starlit Seer, Nami, Ezreal, Lee Sin), but most of those aren't compatible with equipment decks. Also good for buffing Varus' bow. Also a mostly inferior Mystic Shot for Kayn and Varus decks (can't target Nexus, gets shut down by Tough, only hits once until you play your first equipped unit, but better vs. Spellshield). Rating: 3 stars
Crazy good in equipment decks. Rating: 5 stars
Synergizes with Varus' level-up condition, but tempo-wise this is pretty horrible, and the value she provides doesn't make up for that. Rating: 1 star
A bigger Crackshot Corsair for Equipment decks. You won't activate its ability as easily as Crackshot's, but the extra stats are a huge deal on a 1-drop. The main concern is that you're not playing Plunder here, so these Nexus pings aren't a premium commodity in Equipment decks. Rating: 3 stars
Do equipment decks want this type of aggressively-statted Elusive unit? You'd think yes because it's a good unit to buff with equipment, but the problem is that most collectible equipment cards (the ones you can directly slot into your deck) are bad, only Improvised equipment is good and getting those onto this unit would be a big hassle. Still, never underestimate the power of the Elusive keyword. Rating: 3 stars
Pretty good value in an equipment deck, despite the inherent randomness. Do Kayn and Varus want to play for that value though? I think not, but we'll see. Rating: 3 stars