Are you all enjoying the new adventure? We've begun to see how a few cards will play out in-game already, but that doesn't mean we can't still give our reviews of them! As always, expect only the best advice here - we definitely know what we're talking about and aren't just throwing speculation around wildly. Promise.
Cat got your turn?
Quote From Demonxz95 This is a bit of a cool design. Stealth is a fairly rare keyword nowadays, so it's nice to see it still being used for something imo. I like the ability though, we haven't really seen this type of effect in the game yet. Basically casting a Coin. It would probably be a bit OP if it just added the Coin to your hand for reserve, so instead it uses it right away and you've got to use it that turn. It has the same stat:cost ratio as Stranglethorn Tiger, which is a fairly decent card for budget decks. The upside pushes it over Tiger though. With Stealth, you're pretty much always guaranteed to use the effect at least once. You can possibly get a tempo lead or other significant advantage if you can use the extra mana you get that turn.
I don't see it making huge waves in Constructed, but it's a pretty cool card with a design I'm quite fond of, so I like it nonetheless.
Where did he find a corridor in midair?
Quote From linkblade91 If the history of Hearthstone has taught us anything, it's that free minions are never a bad thing. The Warlock played a bad card (Voodoo Doctor) so they could theoretically pop out a free Happy Ghoul on turn-3. This is like that, but you're encouraged to just play normally and get the free 3/3 anyway. Frenzied Felwing allows you to keep up the pressure and churn out a bigger board for more of that glorious face-damage. I don't play Aggro decks, so I can't really speak well to them, but this seems like a no-brainer card that we'll see plenty of over the coming weeks. Someone will make it work.
Hail to the freeze!
Quote From linkblade91 "(T)hat Freeze" means the Ice Shards work like Water Elementals, Freezing minions they damage. This allows for some board control while the main body does something else. They're easy to ping, though, so you have to be careful of that. Hailbringer is a 5/6 across three bodies, so it's at least a vanilla minion. It's hard to come up with a lot of words to say something is "alright", but the attempt was made: the card is okay, and nowadays "okay" doesn't usually cut it. It could find a home in Wild with Frost Lich Jaina, being both an Elemental and a potential ping target for her Hero Power.
Boom, crap, the sound of my cards; delayed again, again, again, again.
Quote From NudeWookie We currently have better Battlecry cards in the game than we have spells. I treat this card just like Loatheb, situational for Aggro/Midrange decks looking to close out a game with their current board and remove options from their opponent. The best deck in the game right now is some variation of Galakrond Rogue, guess what? They run mainly Battlecry cards. It's most of the deck and pretty much every board clear they have is a Battlecry card like Flik Skyshiv or Kronx Dragonhoof, stopping these on a turn you have a wide board as a Token Druid seems like a good enough reason to include this card as a one-off. I'm curious to see this in tournament play as well, the tighter metagame leaves more room for tech choices that turn games around. I'd love to see playing this on the perfect turn win a game or two.
"So the most important part - when you land, you scream 'I'm in Charge now!', got it?"
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Well, this is a fun little card. My immediate instinct was to compare it to Patches, but the comparison doesn't quite land - Patches was so good because he was easy to summon from many different cards; conversely, you need to draw Skydiving Instructor in order to take advantage of its effect and pull out… something. Presumably an aggressive 1-drop, because if you're trying to combo this with Injured Kvaldir or something you're just asking for several miserable games of drawing cards in the wrong order.
I don't know that this offers quite enough to play it in an aggro deck over other good 3-drops. Admittedly, it only needs to summon a 1/2 to reach 'Vanilla' stats level, but how many Aggro decks were running cards like Sewer Crawler or Razorfen Hunter? I don't see this making too much of a splash - you'll usually prefer synergy cards over a 2/2.
Money: The only license you'll ever need.
Quote From NudeWookie More Quest support! Quests and Sidequests rejoice! This is a fantastic card if you have it on 2, enabling future turns on a great body. Pair this with Questing Explorer and you have 4 solid 2-drops that greatly improve your deck. I'm excited to see how this one plays out, I really think it will see a lot of play and be effective early game for any deck trying to run even a Sidequest. It's great support that will continue to push Quest decks to be good and I'm in favor of that for sure. Druid and Mage specifically benefit from getting an additional coin. Look to see some builds mess around with this card in the future for sure!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Quote From Demonxz95 Is it just me or this machine weirdly cute in some way?
Anyway, moving on, I kinda like this card although it doesn’t seem that strong. The effect is quite flavorful and seems strong on paper, although the only problem I've seen with this is that Mech Hunter hasn't ever been particularly spammy its Mechs. You could perhaps summon a lot of Goblin Bombs are then detonate them somehow with this on field to get a bunch of Mechs, but that seems like too much effort for that effect, especially when you could just Cybertech Chip instead.
Cybertech Chip is a card that didn't have a whole lot of use, and this has a similar effect. This comes with a 2/4 body and represents some continuous value, although it only works on Mechs dying (instead of any of your minions) and can possibly be killed before much value has been achieved. It also has a weird anti-synergy with Magnetic minions.
It's a decent effect, but I don’t see the card being too useful unfortunately. It's also going to be dead after the next rotation when The Boomsday Project leaves, unless they decide to print another Mech expansion next. If anything, I want to see another Elemental expansion. Team 5, please.
How does she kill people? Deadly Snot.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Finally, they are answering my fervent prayers for a functional Dragon Hunter. This card is just good. Remember everyone's favourite secret agent, Drakonid Operative? This comes in with the more aggressive stats, suitable for a Hunter card vs a Priest one, and trades sometimes-better-sometimes-worse drawing a card for removing one of your opponent's minions. It's nuts.
Dragon Hunter, should it ever exist, will absolutely be playing this card no matter if it's Tier 1 or a fringe meme deck. The combination of stats and effect is just too insane not to. Deadly Shot + Vanilla body? This is the kind of card that pushes a deck up a couple tiers.
Frozen 3: Bye Bye Arendelle
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Wow. When I first saw this I was gobsmacked - how many stats? For how much mana? And I guess you could handbuff this too if you were inclined to fits of momentary insanity.
The problem is, this is a Mage card. And Mages don't necessarily want just big minions on the board right now, at least not ones you're playing for their printed mana cost. Elemental Mage decks were always sort of around, kind of working with Frost Lich Jaina, but in her absence this doesn't seem like a big enough pay-off to warrant the experiment.
I'd expect this to see little play, but perhaps some spell-heavy Mage deck which incidentally runs only Elementals as its minions - some kind of Mana Cyclone, Chenvaala, Mana Giant, Mountain Giant nonsense with Elemental Evocation and Elemental Allies as support? This would be the last piece of the puzzle I'd add, but maybe it still makes the cut.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden Mrrggl
Quote From NudeWookie Don't forget that Murloc Paladin is still a thing. The Prismatic Lens + Tip the Scales combo is still just as powerful as ever. Now just slap Divine Shield on all those murlocs and away you go! This also has synergies with Skyfin and other Dragon synergy cards. I think this has potential to turn Murloc Paladin into a more combo-oriented deck that tries to play this and Tip the Scales in one turn to then win the game or come awfully close. It's a win-more card that fits Murloc Paladin nicely. Win-more cards are historically good in Hearthstone, so this card is good as long as Murloc Paladin is a thing.
Not to be confused with the Steal Beatle, "Yesterday".
Quote From NudeWookie Remember the last time Druid could gain tons of armor? We had some amazing decks like Mill Druid with King Togwaggle and the omnipresent MalyDruid that was a staple in the metagame for months. This is a great addition to Druid, which needs just a few more Tempo/Healing plays to make the control or combo archetype viable in today's metagame. If you give a Druid plenty of time it is a dangerous thing with their insane late-game. Look to see the Steel Beetle serve a purpose in future Druid decks.
Thankfully not available from the Goop store.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Flexible Blessing of Kings, but only for Beasts? Alright, I like it.
We've seen these low-cost buffs work out consistently for other classes - Druid with things like Mark of Y'Shaarj, Priest when it briefly had buffed Extra Arms - and Hunter has in the past had some pretty successful aggressive Beast decks. They're missing some of the pieces now - no Crackling Razormaw, no Dire Mole - but with cards like Dire Frenzy to also support this concept, I can see something coming together.
It's generally weaker than other +2/+2 buffs we've seen, but in a class like Hunter weaker might still be workable.
Comments
Just got Rotnest Drake from Primordial Explorer. Opponent was like WTF, as was I. It seems the unreleased cards are in the pool already. Is this a bug, or intended?
Bug.
People in arena is finding the hero mage card RENO
Nice reviews of the new cards compiled together. Thanks for sharing.
I honestly think skydiving instructor is pretty powerful. It is two bodies for one card, plus it gets rid of a bad topdeck. You mentioned that a combo wouldn't be reliable because you wouldn't always draw it, but if you draw your one drop on turn one you probably won't be very upset. You don't need to get the perfect draw each time for this to be worth it.
only in Zoo though. No other deck runs enough 1-drops that are also just good vanilla minions and not pllayed for their battlecries.
Could see Zoo with the new Demon, Flame Imp and Void Walker + the regular Galakrond package. Only downside is you don't get to use Beaming Sidekick.
I agree with Kansas. I see Skydiving Instructor being a very powerful card. You cannot underestimate the power of removing your 1-cost minions to improve your late game draws.
Animated avalanche can also be abused with khadgar and conjurer's calling.
how can it be abused with CC? You can't even play both on the same turn and 7-drops aren't even that good on average (in fact, Avalanche itself is one of the better ones)
Also not sure that for 9-mana the extra 7/6 is that valuable. You wanna play this early and for tempo.
True, 7-drops aren't that good, but imagine playing avalanche on 7, trading one of the avalanches next turn with some hp still remaining and conjuring it, which is still a powerful play. It's not easy to remove both of them, whereas a single mountain giant waiting to be conjured is arguably easier to remove. Giants can come earlier, but the avalanches can still be played as early as turn 5 with elemental evocation. It's probably not the first thing you want to do with this card, but it's interesting to consider when experimenting with an elemental mage build.
My hopes ride with Scalelord, Rotnest Drake and Steel Beetle. (:
I'm pumped to try Escaped Manasaber
I think it will be better than people think.. The beast tag doesn't do a ton for me either. Any class can utilize this card. Solid 4-drop