There's only so many ways I can vary the 'hunting down cards' pun, so I just won't bother this time. The Hunter cards are up!
I am really struggling to come up with new ways to claim our reviews are always correct at this point. We're what, 13 reviews deep now? I guess I could try and draw a false equivalence between number of reviews and presumed efficacy of those reviews. Look, we've done a lot of these, we must be good at them, right?
Ha, got 'em.
The only book to practice Death of the Author.
Quote From Noxious Deathrattle Hunter is starting to get a few cards again, and Carrion Studies is as baseline as it gets. Not much to say here, if only that its effect is just slightly less cool and flexible than other Studies options like the Druid's Nature Studies or even Draconic Studies. A cost reduction for a Deathrattle minion just means less than the cost reductions other such spells offer. Nonetheless, a good value card; Discover cards are always a welcome addition.
They're so FLUFFY!
Quote From Demonxz95 This card is literally just Alleycat that can benefit from handbuffing. In other words, it's a good card, so you play it. Alleycat was good, this is pretty much a better (almost strictly) version of that. Did you put some handbuffs on it? Well, that's good. It's now even better.
Okay, too fluffy, too fluffy!
Quote From FearGralex As they say, there is strength in numbers. Hunters these days have a fairly large amount of swarm tools, and this card absolutely slots right into that kind of deck. But really, you don't even need to build around this card for it to be great. With just one minion on the board, this card is already comparable to Holy Smite, and with more, this card blows almost every other cheap removal spell out of the water, meaning it really doesn't take much to get this to be playable in your deck. Hunters are one of the classes that care the most about mana efficiency, and this card allows you to have great board control for very little cost. I expect this to show up in most Hunter decks while it's legal in Standard.
Well, lesson learned - that comma was necessary.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense This is a strange one. For 1 more mana, you can give your Nerubian Egg +1 Attack and make it a Beast. That… doesn't sound great, but I think it's too dissimilar to really make a fair comparison. Not only is the metagame in a completely different place, but it being a Beast is actually very important, and all the Deathrattle tools available to Hunter right now make this look quite enticing.
The biggest pitfall is that the 4/4 it summons is not also a Beast, which means you don't want to go too all-in on Beast synergies - though incidental ones like Kill Command or Overwhelm will be worth your time. It's also quite a slow card, despite having the ability to kill itself which Nerubian Egg lacked. It'll be two turns before you can attack with your 4/4 - almost comparable to the Dormant mechanic - so you really want to be making use of synergies with this one.
I'm optimistic for this one, but not overly so. If it does see play, it's not going to be the star player in the deck.
It has a lifelong obsession with woodworking that started in late May.
Quote From Echo Over the past few years hunter has gotten a couple minions that kill an random enemy minion if you jump through a hoop, notably Spider Bomb and Rotnest Drake. Both of those cards are incredibly strong and were deck defining cards for their respective decks and I don't see Krolusk Barkstripper being any different. The class has a decent amount of cards to throw out early to help control the board, such as Rapid Fire and Corrosive Breath. The one awkward thing about this card is that its pretty unlikely to be able to drop it on 4 and be able to activate the spellburst, so I feel like most the time it is going to be more of a 5 or 6 drop in the same way that Dragonbane is much more of a 6 drop than it is a 4 drop. I'd be very surprised if this card doesn't see play, especially given the strength of Highlander Hunter.
"Now, you might feel a light impaling sensation..."
Quote From Noxious Alright, this card is lovely. It turns any damage-dealing spell into a targeted Deadly Shot. Any spell, no matter its cost, and no matter its damage, will be able to destroy even the toughest of Gruuls. The equalizer. If you can find a way to keep it alive for longer, all the better.
Literally every damage-dealing Hunter spell is buffed by this card. You don't need to have a beast to get the most out of Kill Command anymore. The new Overwhelm card is a 1-cost annihilator. Arcane Shot as well, but even better, Rapid Fire. With Professor Slate, Rapid Fire can instantly destroy 2 enemy minions. And you can start with a total of four Rapid Fires in your deck, plus any that you Discover.
Beautiful counter against decks with huge minions. I just wish we had him when Obsidian Statue was still in Standard…
Dual Class Cards
Comments
Lot of Odd cards for Hunter this pack. Guess they had to make up for all the powerful Even cards in Outland.
The strength of the "Studies" is in their permanent mana-cost reduction. The only one that doesn't benefit too much is Nature Studies because 1) you can't double the discount; 2) it's hard to save the discount for a specific spell - it's a perfectly fair short-term ramp at best. But doubling discounts on deathrattles, dragons, and demons could provide some serious mana-cheating for classes that don't typically have them. The point is not cheating out the discovered card, but a specific one in your deck.
I disagree with the review of Bloated Python. Regardless if the minion it spawns is a beast or not, the fact that this can be grabbed by Hunter's search cards and buffed as IT is a beast means that this is way better than it is given credit. With all the hand buff that Hunter has now, this card will certainly be a staple in a lot of decks. It's efficient and replaces itself.
I agree, it's like how in some deathrattle/egg decks, its strength doesn't necessarily come from what pops out of the egg, but the fact that the egg itself becomes a threat that needs to be dealt with. Egg Warrior doesn't play Serpent Egg for the Sea Serpent, it's played to be able to cast Inner Rage and Rampage on the egg without having to worry about it being susceptible to hard removal because of its deathrattle.
Of course different deathrattle decks have different purposes, Scarab Egg was played in Zoolock because it could be popped with their sacrifice cards like EVIL Genius and Grim Rally. Deathrattles in Big Rogue were threatening because of their activators to get benefit from huge deathrattles like Carnivorous Cube and Silver Vanguard.
Hunter is a different question because it doesn't seek to directly benefit from the deathrattle itself, but like Warrior, it doesn't have deathrattle synergy that makes the deathrattle threatening. It's threatening because it's a beast that benefits from buffs, and it has a deathrattle that makes it tricky to remove.
Love your reviews, thanks!
Well, Obsidian Statue would take out your Professor Slate when it died, so...
Depends on your board state, and still probably worth it to take down that annoying thing.