Ironbark Protector has been unplayable for such a long time that I don't even know whether it is in Standard or not. For example Mo'arg Forgefiend already obsoleted it.
Using "cannot attack" minions might be the way to make it work indeed, as without discounted huge minions, it's going to be hard to find a good target for this spell.
I'm pretty sure this card itself is broken, but as it is a one-of and not easy to tutor, the deck could suffer from low consistency. On the other hand, Wig Priest is not terrible right now, so adding one more high-roll to it might just make it good enough.
Other bad archetypes like Pirates and Freeze Shaman eventually became playable because new and much more powerful cards.
I don't think it needs all that much support to be good enough, because of the 3 durability. Coining this out on turn 3 gives you a Spider Tank + a 2/3 weapon, that's pretty decent at that stage of the game. I don't think this is a build-around card, but it is likely a good addition to any low-curve deck.
Even if you can craft a deck that could play 30 cards in one turn, the animation slowness makes it unlikely you'll actually be able to execute it. Spectral Pillager OTKs already require good APM and there you can take advantage of a doubled battlecry, but in this case that will just override the weapon instead of giving you twice the damage.
Akama Prime has permanent Stealth, but Akama still saw very little play. It turns out that slower decks run enough taunts and board clears to stop it regardless, while fast decks win or lose before you ever get to play the Prime.
If the endless infusion updates the battlecry itself, it would work with Brilliant Macaw and could then be boosted with Brann Bronzebeard and Bolner Hammerbeak. Surviving until turn 11 should be doable for Shaman with all the freeze cards they currently have.
Some of the Colossals also summon a lot of extra minions, so it's certainly possible to infuse the Sire. However, infusing him to OTK level will be a challenge, so maybe this is more of a card that you add to a 40-card deck than a buildaround.
Edit: Any deck that relies on spells to summon tokens will be extra vulnerable to Mutanus, as there will be fewer other minions in hand to act as lightning rods.
Edit2: Actually, 2x Scales and then also Onyxia herself is already 21 minions, plus Druid can combo this with Brann thanks to the Guff hero card, so maybe an OTK is feasible.
Because of the "start of your turn" condition, I fear that Ancient Harbinger will share Moorabi's fate: even when a deck it was designed to support sees play, it won't be in that deck.
A word of warning: if you're doing Yogg task #9, don't use Riptide on the Coral Elemental with one Swarmer alive. I found out the hard way how that interaction works: it keeps attacking in a loop while taking a tiny bit of damage itself.
I did Yogg Event #8: Mountain Rescue (Heroic Avalanchan with no casualties) using a modified Dragon comp. It relies on Onyxia, so it doesn't fit within the definition of a budget comp, but the other five mercs are rares, so it's relatively accessible. The final fight has a nice tank (Kazakus summoning taunt golems) + DPS (Onyxia) + healer (Sinestra) role distribution.
None of the existing tags really fit for events (like the current Yogg event): I considered "farming" or "achievement hunting", but neither really applies. It would be nice if a party could be tagged as designed for an event. Ideally the event + task could be selected, similar to how Tavern Brawls are handled, but just a single "event" tag would already be an improvement.
In the Mercenaries deck builder, if I add Kazakus, Golem Shaper to the party, I get to choose from 6 pieces of equipment instead of 3. It looks like 3 of them actually belong to Kazakus, while the other 3 belong to Valeera. For the other five mercs in the party I was offered the right 3 pieces of equipment, so I'm assuming that the builder itself is working fine but there is some incorrect data in the DB used to populate it.
I used the dragon comp. While there were a few close calls during the climb (only 2 health remaining in one case), it worked reliably in the boss fight.
If you haven't unlocked Tidemistress Athissa's equipment yet, that's another reason to use her over any other naga.
Brann Bronzebeard actually works quite well for this task, as long as you never click his second ability (Fire). After a few cracks of his whip (first ability), my mercs were effectively immune to Frost damage.
I tried to take control of the Shards using N'Zoth, but for some reason they don't count as minions. I also tried to copy Shards using Kazakus, Golem Shaper, but those copies were golems with Shard abilities rather than actual Shards, so that didn't work either. Fortunately, I had picked up a reward that gave Kazakus +7/+7 for each character that dies, so he was huge by the end of the battle.
Ironbark Protector has been unplayable for such a long time that I don't even know whether it is in Standard or not. For example Mo'arg Forgefiend already obsoleted it.
"Vomit" was the exact same word that came to my mind when I saw these DH cards.
I hope you're right about them not being good. At least we have Prince Renathal, otherwise I would be worried.
The Mass Effect remaster for PC (Origin) can be claimed for free today via Prime Gaming.
Using "cannot attack" minions might be the way to make it work indeed, as without discounted huge minions, it's going to be hard to find a good target for this spell.
I'm pretty sure this card itself is broken, but as it is a one-of and not easy to tutor, the deck could suffer from low consistency. On the other hand, Wig Priest is not terrible right now, so adding one more high-roll to it might just make it good enough.
Other bad archetypes like Pirates and Freeze Shaman eventually became playable because new and much more powerful cards.
I don't think it needs all that much support to be good enough, because of the 3 durability. Coining this out on turn 3 gives you a Spider Tank + a 2/3 weapon, that's pretty decent at that stage of the game. I don't think this is a build-around card, but it is likely a good addition to any low-curve deck.
Even if you can craft a deck that could play 30 cards in one turn, the animation slowness makes it unlikely you'll actually be able to execute it. Spectral Pillager OTKs already require good APM and there you can take advantage of a doubled battlecry, but in this case that will just override the weapon instead of giving you twice the damage.
Akama Prime has permanent Stealth, but Akama still saw very little play. It turns out that slower decks run enough taunts and board clears to stop it regardless, while fast decks win or lose before you ever get to play the Prime.
If the endless infusion updates the battlecry itself, it would work with Brilliant Macaw and could then be boosted with Brann Bronzebeard and Bolner Hammerbeak. Surviving until turn 11 should be doable for Shaman with all the freeze cards they currently have.
Some of the Colossals also summon a lot of extra minions, so it's certainly possible to infuse the Sire. However, infusing him to OTK level will be a challenge, so maybe this is more of a card that you add to a 40-card deck than a buildaround.
Edit: Any deck that relies on spells to summon tokens will be extra vulnerable to Mutanus, as there will be fewer other minions in hand to act as lightning rods.
Edit2: Actually, 2x Scales and then also Onyxia herself is already 21 minions, plus Druid can combo this with Brann thanks to the Guff hero card, so maybe an OTK is feasible.
Because of the "start of your turn" condition, I fear that Ancient Harbinger will share Moorabi's fate: even when a deck it was designed to support sees play, it won't be in that deck.
It's a minion, so Taelan Fordring is still an option and you could use Tuskpiercer to tutor Taelan.
In Wild, Countess Ashmore could be used as a neutral tutor.
If you have an upgraded Onyxia, you can also try this dragon comp to take advantage of her huge damage versus red taunts.
A word of warning: if you're doing Yogg task #9, don't use Riptide on the Coral Elemental with one Swarmer alive. I found out the hard way how that interaction works: it keeps attacking in a loop while taking a tiny bit of damage itself.
Thanks!
I did Yogg Event #8: Mountain Rescue (Heroic Avalanchan with no casualties) using a modified Dragon comp. It relies on Onyxia, so it doesn't fit within the definition of a budget comp, but the other five mercs are rares, so it's relatively accessible. The final fight has a nice tank (Kazakus summoning taunt golems) + DPS (Onyxia) + healer (Sinestra) role distribution.
None of the existing tags really fit for events (like the current Yogg event): I considered "farming" or "achievement hunting", but neither really applies. It would be nice if a party could be tagged as designed for an event. Ideally the event + task could be selected, similar to how Tavern Brawls are handled, but just a single "event" tag would already be an improvement.
In the Mercenaries deck builder, if I add Kazakus, Golem Shaper to the party, I get to choose from 6 pieces of equipment instead of 3. It looks like 3 of them actually belong to Kazakus, while the other 3 belong to Valeera. For the other five mercs in the party I was offered the right 3 pieces of equipment, so I'm assuming that the builder itself is working fine but there is some incorrect data in the DB used to populate it.
I used the dragon comp. While there were a few close calls during the climb (only 2 health remaining in one case), it worked reliably in the boss fight.
If you haven't unlocked Tidemistress Athissa's equipment yet, that's another reason to use her over any other naga.
Brann Bronzebeard actually works quite well for this task, as long as you never click his second ability (Fire). After a few cracks of his whip (first ability), my mercs were effectively immune to Frost damage.
I tried to take control of the Shards using N'Zoth, but for some reason they don't count as minions. I also tried to copy Shards using Kazakus, Golem Shaper, but those copies were golems with Shard abilities rather than actual Shards, so that didn't work either. Fortunately, I had picked up a reward that gave Kazakus +7/+7 for each character that dies, so he was huge by the end of the battle.