I don't see any kind of deck this would fit into. The pay-off is rather slow, so it wouldn't fit in an aggressive deck, but summoning 2/1 minions doesn't seem all that useful in a control deck and the initial minion doesn't have taunt or rush.
In a deck where you damage your own minions, you could trigger its ability more often, but then on turns when the 2/1 get summoned you either cannot activate frenzy or you throw away your reward.
I fear that's likely wishful thinking. While not all game companies are as bad as the WoW team seems to be, one thing that is pervasive in the games industry is that companies take advantage of the passion of developers for making games. Often this takes the form of "crunch": unpaid overtime for months on end. There are also other ways employees are treated unfairly, like companies withholding their names from the credits as retaliation. Blizzard in particular is known for paying salaries that aren't enough to cover the high cost of living in that area of California.
That said, I do have hope that some of the people starting new companies will try to improve the culture of game development, even if they were part of the bad old culture themselves for years.
Eh, you might want to read up on this case: Blizzard is being sued precisely because the company was aware of abuse and didn't take appropriate action for many years.
Their statement was pretty shocking indeed. Tightening policies and sending people to training are empty gestures if HR continues to let harassers get away with it. I was not surprised to see these used as excuses; Ubisoft did the same. What did surprise me was the tone: they're not even willing to consider that these allegations might be true, instead acting all insulted. That's not the attitude of a company that wants to improve.
Warlock does have Backfire, Free Admission, Raise Dead and of course the hero power, so it is not that hard to get a full hand. The main problem is that the pay-off isn't particularly good because of the 6 health and lack of keywords.
I found a use for Serena once: as a decoy in the "Battle of the Bans" Tavern Brawl. I guess people didn't trust it and banned it out of an abundance of caution, while I just put it in there because I needed a backup minion.
It says a lot though that the card was most useful when it didn't see play.
While this would be better than Truesilver on curve if it had 4 attack, in the late game I think it would be a significant drawback that it cannot go face, both because it cannot be used as a finisher and because you might not be able to use it to heal at all if the opponent either has no minions or only high attack minions.
It's also a 4/2 weapon; it doesn't need much upside to be good enough. Maybe copying the deathrattle of Sneaky Delinquent or Devouring Ectoplasm is already enough in an aggressive Rogue deck.
Maybe it would have been playable if it always decreased one card and increased another card every turn. Then you would be sure to get one card to play ahead of curve and you could play the other card on a later turn when mana is less tight. Even with that change, I think it would need to be a 3/4.
I think it's more likely going to hinder than help you as a Quest Priest, since this undoes the curve planning you did in the mulligan and using discover effects. Maybe you could argue that you just don't play it if your hand already curves well, but then you need another 3-drop to play on turn 3.
And even if the effect would be a small net-positive, there is still the question of whether it's enough to compensate for the poor stats. For example Venomous Scorpid is more reliable in fixing your hand and provides a better minion on board.
At 3 overloaded mana crystals, a Lightning Bolt that unlocks them instead of adding one is already pretty insane. Even when you're overloaded for 2 it's probably still good, since it's still like having Arcane Shot and Innervate in one. And if you don't have any overload cards in your hand, you can just trade this in.
It's somewhat similar to Troublemaker. Overall, I think Troublemaker is probably more reliable (more stats, two attacks), but you could curve Lothar into Troublemaker.
Thinking about it more, Wandmaker and Venomous Scorpid are likely the reasons we're not seeing Annoy-o-Tron and Stoneskin Basilisk in decks: slightly worse minions, but getting a spell more than compensates for it.
I don't see any kind of deck this would fit into. The pay-off is rather slow, so it wouldn't fit in an aggressive deck, but summoning 2/1 minions doesn't seem all that useful in a control deck and the initial minion doesn't have taunt or rush.
In a deck where you damage your own minions, you could trigger its ability more often, but then on turns when the 2/1 get summoned you either cannot activate frenzy or you throw away your reward.
I fear that's likely wishful thinking. While not all game companies are as bad as the WoW team seems to be, one thing that is pervasive in the games industry is that companies take advantage of the passion of developers for making games. Often this takes the form of "crunch": unpaid overtime for months on end. There are also other ways employees are treated unfairly, like companies withholding their names from the credits as retaliation. Blizzard in particular is known for paying salaries that aren't enough to cover the high cost of living in that area of California.
That said, I do have hope that some of the people starting new companies will try to improve the culture of game development, even if they were part of the bad old culture themselves for years.
Eh, you might want to read up on this case: Blizzard is being sued precisely because the company was aware of abuse and didn't take appropriate action for many years.
Their statement was pretty shocking indeed. Tightening policies and sending people to training are empty gestures if HR continues to let harassers get away with it. I was not surprised to see these used as excuses; Ubisoft did the same. What did surprise me was the tone: they're not even willing to consider that these allegations might be true, instead acting all insulted. That's not the attitude of a company that wants to improve.
Gonk might still be a meme, but if I get this card I'm certainly going to give Odd Druid another go.
There is already one DH copy card: Zai, the Incredible.
Warlock does have Backfire, Free Admission, Raise Dead and of course the hero power, so it is not that hard to get a full hand. The main problem is that the pay-off isn't particularly good because of the 6 health and lack of keywords.
I found a use for Serena once: as a decoy in the "Battle of the Bans" Tavern Brawl. I guess people didn't trust it and banned it out of an abundance of caution, while I just put it in there because I needed a backup minion.
It says a lot though that the card was most useful when it didn't see play.
While this would be better than Truesilver on curve if it had 4 attack, in the late game I think it would be a significant drawback that it cannot go face, both because it cannot be used as a finisher and because you might not be able to use it to heal at all if the opponent either has no minions or only high attack minions.
Or, given that it can't go face, would 4 attack be OP?
It's also a 4/2 weapon; it doesn't need much upside to be good enough. Maybe copying the deathrattle of Sneaky Delinquent or Devouring Ectoplasm is already enough in an aggressive Rogue deck.
But would that avoid your death? I know that lifesteal is applied before the player death check, but I don't know about weapon deathrattles.
I guess it would have to be: if you copied the deathrattle from Deranged Doctor, you'd expect it to heal you before you die.
Maybe it would have been playable if it always decreased one card and increased another card every turn. Then you would be sure to get one card to play ahead of curve and you could play the other card on a later turn when mana is less tight. Even with that change, I think it would need to be a 3/4.
I think it's more likely going to hinder than help you as a Quest Priest, since this undoes the curve planning you did in the mulligan and using discover effects. Maybe you could argue that you just don't play it if your hand already curves well, but then you need another 3-drop to play on turn 3.
And even if the effect would be a small net-positive, there is still the question of whether it's enough to compensate for the poor stats. For example Venomous Scorpid is more reliable in fixing your hand and provides a better minion on board.
Summon two 7-health minions... This card has potential!
My brain as I was reading the card text: "Why is this a Shaman card? ... Oh no."
Well, at least we're getting Rustrot Viper.
At 3 overloaded mana crystals, a Lightning Bolt that unlocks them instead of adding one is already pretty insane. Even when you're overloaded for 2 it's probably still good, since it's still like having Arcane Shot and Innervate in one. And if you don't have any overload cards in your hand, you can just trade this in.
It's somewhat similar to Troublemaker. Overall, I think Troublemaker is probably more reliable (more stats, two attacks), but you could curve Lothar into Troublemaker.
Thinking about it more, Wandmaker and Venomous Scorpid are likely the reasons we're not seeing Annoy-o-Tron and Stoneskin Basilisk in decks: slightly worse minions, but getting a spell more than compensates for it.
It is weird that they put the rarest keyword last. Maybe that was done as a kind of nerf after he was too good in playtesting?