Our Thoughts on Wailing Caverns' Demon Hunter, Druid, & Hunter Cards

The Wailing Caverns mini-set has just released and we've got some thoughts to share on the new Demon Hunter, Druid, & Hunter cards.

Our reviews were written prior to the launch of the mini-set, so it'll be interesting to see how they hold up over the next week. With that out of the way, let's jump right into it!

Demon Hunter

Here's another Sigil, just as Celestalon promised a few months ago. To be honest, this one seems quite better when compared to Sigil of Silence and Sigil of Flame: basically a 2 mana 4/4 with Taunt you can set up in the early game to slow down aggression or, why not, be aggressive yourself.

In the end, this is what may push a Sigil to see play: a one-sided effect that grants tempo. Solid option, especially for both Lifesteal OTK and Deathrattle Demon Hunter.

Here's another toy for Deathrattle DH. Rush + removal: definitely what Illidan was looking for, especially since matchups like Gibberling Token Druid are now far too difficult to win.

This is a 2-of on day 1, and likely moving forward, especially if the meta will be board-based and full of little tokens to get rid of.

More big Demons with no other big Demons support and Chaos Nova rotated out of Standard. The effect is a one-sided Nerubian Unraveler, a minion that saw play here and there depending on the meta, but this it comes attached to an 8-cost unit that has Taunt for protection and can sometimes be cheated out earlier by Raging Felscreamer, but as long as Illidari Inquisitor will be a thing, that will be the only only 8-drop Demon you'll be looking forward to play.

Druid

On a first look, Beast Druid has reached that amount of cards where players can start thinking about making a deck out of it and not using it just as a small package (Guardian Animals, Twilight Runner and Lake Thresher, with occasionally Teacher's Pet and Moonfang) in another deck (Clown Druid). We can see Fangbound Druid work in combination with big hitters like Deviate Dreadfang, in alternative or together with a juiced up Living Seed (Rank 1).

The Taunt keyword opens up a whole new world of opportunities. Not only Fangbound Druid offers a bit of protection against Aggro, but it also supports the Taunt archetype pushed in Forged in the Barrens. In an ideal scenario, you'd be able to make plays like turn 2 Razormane Battleguard (which, as we said many times in the past, is a broken card that is bound to see some play eventually) into The Coin/Innervate into Fangbound Druid, with potential to discount Thicchide Kodo, Circus Amalgam and Toad of the Wilds.

Oh boy, mana cheat here we come! People on Reddit have been theorycrafting about OTKs featuring Lady Anacondra and Celestial Alignment: if all your cards cost 1 mana and, since you're Druid, most of your spells belong to the Nature School, you could easily chew through your deck for no cost at all and then kill your opponent with Alexstrasza the Life-Binder shenanigans. While these builds will definitely be tested out once the mini set will be available to everyone, Lady Anacondra also works as a wonderful set up for a Deviate Dreadfang swing turn.

Overall, a pretty boring yet powerful Druid Legendary, which has potential to see play in different deck iterations.

If this is not your first Hearthstone rotation, you surely remember of Ashes of Outland's Spell Druid, a deck filled with spells, Exotic Mountseller and occasionally Ysera, Unleashed as the only minions. It was basically what Token Gibberling Druid is right now but with a heavier top end. Giving this piece of information, it is pretty clear that Dreadfang is supposed to be the spiritual successor of Mountseller. Let's analyze pros and cons.

• Exotic Mountseller costs 1 less mana, which may or may not be a big deal, since Druid has ramp.
• Mountseller summons Beasts from a rather vary pool: while you have some lowrolls (Desert Hare, Ironbeak Owl, Golden Scarab for example), you also have the chance to get some pretty relevant highrolls (King Mukla, Zixor, Apex Predator, Jungle Panther).
• Mountseller's effect triggers in response to any spell, not just Nature ones (especially because back then Spell Schools weren't a thing).

On the other hand:

• We were asking for a worthy Living Seed (Rank 1) target, and we got it: Living Seed (Rank 2) can draw Dreadfang and reduce its cost by 2 mana, so that it will cost even less than Mountseller.
• In case you naturally draw it, there's always Fangbound Druid, although this way you'd dilute Fungal Fortunes.
• Better statline - we're talking about a minion you don't want to directly hit your opponent to death with: your hope is for it to stick as much as possible.
• You'll always summon 4/2s, which won't guarantee you any highrolls or lowrolls, but it the end you were usually looking for a Rush minion like Zixor, Apex Predator or Diving Gryphon in order to trade the opponent's stuff and gain even more tempo - more consistency and flexibility at the cost of giving up your unpredictability.

Overall, we'd say that we received a less highrolly (and therefore usually better) version of Exotic Mountseller, that can be tutored from your deck and that will definitely help the class, given Druid's total lack of removal.

Hunter

If there's one thing Hearthstone has taught us is that we must never underestimate 0 mana spells and their latent potential. While right now the most interesting uses would be on Augmented Porcupine (a guaranteed board clear if you buff it up a bit) or just a Hyena to rush into enemy units (and Wild Dreadscale), our guess is that in the future Team 5 will print a justification for this spell. 

Potentially a 4 mana 5/10, which is both powerful and in line with the Barrens flavor. Not only the card seems very flexible (and therefore pretty good for a pretty straightforward class like Hunter is), but it also has synergy with the likes of Scavenging Hyena.

The 6 Health total makes it so the Sin'dorei Scentfinder will have high chances to get its Frenzy effect triggered, which is definitely something we want to make sure will happen.

Removal for Hunter. Sure, you'll have to tank units with your own face (but Ace Hunter Kreen is a card), but then you'll have the way clear.

Rinling's Rifle showed us that 4 mana weapons with 2 charges are more than enough to be good if they have a powerful effect, so it is really going to come down to what the next meta will be and what Hunter will receive. An interesting application in constructed of the Duels treasure Hyperblaster.

That does it for the first round of our Wailing Caverns reviews. What do you think about the new cards? Have your opinions changed since the set released? Let us know in the comments below!