Out of Cards Reviews - Descent of Dragons Final Reveal #4

Finally, the Shaman cards! We received 7 Shaman cards in total in this final reveal, including their Galakrond. Paired with the final EVIL class, Priest, we have 10 cards total for you to look at today. As always, our reviews are the only truth and you should assume everything we say is and always will be correct; especially the 'flavour text'.

Show me the forbidden elements. Ooh, that's some nice Wax and Tar!

Quote From Demonxz95

This is the effect I'm sure absolutely 100% of us thought would happen at some point in the set. Well, here it is. It ends up competing with Shield of Galakrond for the 5-mana Invoker, which is a tough spot to overtake, but the potential exists.

On face value, it's a 5 mana 3/3 that summons two 2/1 Elementals with Rush. By itself, that's alright. Nothing special, but it's fine. It's a better Bomb Lobber if you look at things like that. The 2/1 Elementals can be buffed with something like Earthen Might or the new Storm's Wrath to increase its damage and/or longevity. But the real kicker here is that it instantly levels up your Galakrond. When you run 2 of this, you don't technically need to run any more Invokers, although you'll still run them for the sake of consistency, and Invocation of Frost is a good card. With Corrupt the Waters, one Corrupt Elementalist alone can fully level up Galakrond, although doing this in practice may be a bit awkward.

It's pretty exciting to see how this will perform, along with the rest of Galakrond Shaman in general.

I was gonna do a surge protector joke here, but I'm coming up short.

Quote From FrostyFeet

I'm pretty sure everyone has already noticed the likeness of the effect to one of our all-time favourite 1-drops, Tunnel Trogg, with the notable exception that this card isn't broken. Make no mistake though, Surging Tempest is a strong 1-drop as well, as it can easily be buffed to a 2/3 with the popular Sludge Slurper or Voltaic Burst, and it even has Elemental synergies (Earthen Might, Elementary Reaction) which Tunnel Trogg doesn't have. Looking at the current aggressive Shaman lists in Standard, there aren't really that many 1-drops to fight the board with. I would be very surprised if this wasn't an automatic inclusion to all aggressive or just heavily overloading Shaman decks as a solid early game minion.

That looks more like a Dragon attack to me, but sure, it was 'The Storm'.

Quote From Nudewookie

This card seems like dangerous, like really dangerous. Thunderhead and Murlocs have a new favorite spell. Shaman has so many ways to generate tokens in today's metagame and will be getting even more with Descent of Dragons. It enables you to have even stickier boards to destroy opponents with Bloodlust. Overload Shaman will be no joke, but I'm not sure exactly what it will look like. This card supports a token-heavy Overload Shaman while others are focused on direct damage. If a deck can support both in DoD, it will be unstoppable.

The Maelstrom is empty and all the Elementals are here.

Quote From linkblade91

Something something "saved the best for last", because this looks like a strong one. Instead of increasing the number of minions with Rush being summoned, the two increase in stats, up to 8/8s: that's significant in the mid- to late-game, where a pair of 8/8s can quickly tear down a major threat or two. They might even survive, something a pack of 2/2s would not accomplish. The Hero Power provides counter-presence throughout the game while you Invoke: summoning a 2/1 with Rush functions similarly to a use of Fireblast Rank 2 (if only against minions). The major difference there is that we can also buff these "Storms", using Storm's Wrath and/or Bloodlust to punch up with our little guys. Sure they're gonna die, but they die in the name of Galakrond! And with Corrupt Elementalist, it's super easy to upgrade our Galakrond to max.

So what does this mean? If you combine the whole package - the heavy Rush tokens, the Hero Power, Invocation of Frost, Dragon's Pack, the 5/2 Claw weapon - it looks like a bunch of pieces to a tempo package, or perhaps even a full-blown Control archetype. Could this be where the Shaman is headed next, flooding the board in the name of controlling it? Time will tell, but I'm happy to experiment with the concept. Bloodlust means any Shaman board is a threat, so a Shaman that holds the battlefield with an army of minions is especially dangerous.

Chill out, guys, they just put Freeze Shaman on ice for a bit. They'll bring it in from the cold soon, I promice.

Quote From linkblade91

In a Galakrond deck, the Invoke means you're summoning a 2/1 with Rush on top of the spell's effect. A 1-mana 2/1 with "Freeze an enemy", hmm…wait a minute, that's Glacial Shard! Glacial Shard definitely saw play, so I can see this spell being used heavily in the aforementioned Galakrond deck. Freeze one enemy while you punch another with the Rush minion; it's got a Control archetype vibe, doesn't it? I like where this is headed. And who knows, maybe this is what was needed for Moorabi to finally see use in Wild!

…that last part was sarcasm. Obviously. Sorry Moorabi.

Cry 'Havoc!', and let loose the dogs of storm.

Quote From linkblade91

This card is nuts. 10/12 in stats, for 5, with both bodies having Taunt? Sure you have to Invoke twice to get them, but a single use of Corrupt Elementalist will fix that problem right up. Getting this down on turn-5 or 6 is the dream; the question is how consistently can one accomplish this? We now know all of the Invoke cards, and between Invocation of Frost, the aforementioned Elementalist, Shield of Galakrond, and maybe Devoted Maniac, I could see it happening…if you have the Coin, anyway. What do all of these cards have in common? They're defensive in nature, focused on controlling the board and holding it. Are we witnessing the dawn of Rush-Wall Shaman?

"Anybody seen Squall? She owes me +2 Attack."

Quote From Demonxz95

Not quite a 4 mana 7/7 with Overload 2, but instead it's something even cooler. In exchange for -2 Attack, we get +2 Spell Damage. That in itself sounds pretty good. In comparison to Cosmic Anomaly, you get the same Spell Damage at the same Cost with +1/+4. Trust me, that 4 Health is a HUGE deal on something with Spell Damage. 5/7 is amazing curve stats on turn 4 and the spells can be pretty good next, but it's cheap enough to where you can also combo it in the late game. If it stays alive, you can possibly surprise your opponent and burst all their Health away. Even if the card doesn't make it in the meta, it's still cool as hell.

She'll leave you incensed.

Quote From Demonxz95

To put it shortly: It's an autoinclude in Galakrond Priest.

Now the question is, will Galakrond Priest be viable? Out of all of the Galakronds, Priest's Galakrond has the best Battlecry, but also arguably the worst Hero Power. Not a bad one, but just not as good as the others. That said, an OTK variant made possible with Fate Weaver exists, so Galakrond Priest already has a lot of potential, and I'm excited for it.

As a Priest card itself, it is possible for the Invoke effect to give you another copy of Disciple of Galakrond, which in itself will get you halfway there to a fully leveled up Galakrond.

So nice, they came back twice!

Quote From linkblade91

I made a card just like this for a custom Lich class, and my version cost 6 because I was afraid it would be busted in a class with Deathrattle synergies. Well…guess which (real) class has a ton of Deathrattle synergies? That's right, the Mage! the Priest, you doofus. There are a number of appealing targets this could apply to, across a wide range of archetypes: Leeroy Jenkins, Bone Drake, Obsidian Statue, Convincing Infiltrator, Mechanical Whelp, and Khartut Defender, to name a few. Could it even make Zerek, Master Cloner a viable minion? Not every deck will want to run this, but in the right archetype I think it could be disgusting. I'm having Resurrect Priest PTSD flashbacks.

"Hey. Hey, Lackeys. You wanna... buy some funnel cake?"

Quote From FrostyFeet

First of all, I love the art of this card. Madame Lazul pulling Goblin Lackey and Kobold Lackey closer for some EVIL planning; the flavor just works for me.

And I'm afraid that might be the end of positives for the card. I can't think of any Priest decks that currently run Lackey-generating cards, and I also can't see any signs of that changing. The card can be easily compared with Sinister Deal: the value created is pretty much the same as Warlocks just pay 1 Mana for the ability to Discover the Lackey. But whereas Gul'dan has the Zoolock archetype and Dark Pharaoh Tekahn to justify playing these 1-drops, Priests have…nothing, really. I would be surprised if the card sees play outside of some fringe decks where you just need cheap spells for Gadgetzan Auctioneer shenanigans.