As it says on the title. Today we're reviewing half of the Class Cards, alphabetically. So Druid, Hunter, Mage and Paladin.
Raven Idol: The ultimate extreme in choosing, Raven Idol, for one mana, lets you Discover a minion or a spell. Druid spells are generally pretty awesome other than a couple less-than-stellar ones you could get the Idol back, or Nourish, but since you can choose it's not really that big of a deal. As far as minions go, it definitely casts a far wider range than the likes of Tomb Spider or Gorillabot or Jeweled Scarab, so the minion discovery is definitely far less consistent. Most of the time you'll egt a druid minion or two among the picks, though, and the various Druids of the X, Mounted Raptor, Darnassus Aspirant, Keeper of the Grove, the Ancients, Malorne et cetera are all decent ones to pick. For 1 mana it's definitely a great utility card to play at the first turn if you don't have a 1-drop minion, or it could just be used when you have one mana left over. Spell is definitely the way to go here, though.
Mounted Raptor: Hello, Piloted Shredder lite! Mounted Raptor is a fun little card to play. It has the stat distribution of a decent 2-drop at 3/2, but you get a random 1-drop minion. It's also a beast, allowing a decent amount of synergy with beast synergy cards like Druid of the Fang and Knight of the Wild. Druids really need more 'if you have a beast, gain X' cards, though. It's a decent three-drop, one that I have an unexpectedly fun time playing. Freaking raptors, man.
Jungle Moonkin: A deceptively bad card, in my opinion. It's a four drop with 4/4 that gives both players Spell Damage +2, like that one Omnitron minion from the Tavern Brawl. The Warcraft geek in me is happy to see a Wildkin finally make it into a Hearthstone card. It's a rather difficult card to play because your opponent gets a huge advantage and can totally punish you with 8-damage Fireballs and 5-damage Hellfires, but on the other hand you don't really play the Jungle Moonkin on turn 4. You wait until you're on turn 8 and then play it with a gigantic Swipe which deals 6 damage to an opponent + 3 damage to everything else your opponent owns. You play it on turn 9 with a Loatheb to stop your opponent from using spells, then next turn you Starfall the fuck out of them. It's a difficult card to play, and definitely needs a spell deck, but it's not that horrible of a card. It's also a beast, for what it's worth.
Dart Trap: Hunters have another Secret to play with! When your opponent uses their Hero Power, Dart Trap launches 5 damage to a random enemy. On paper it's nice to get another secret since the common Hunter secrets (Explosive, Bear and Freezing) all involve the enemy attacking, and having them over-analyze just whether to attack the Hunter's face or attack a minion, or even stop them from attacking with their valuable big minion, is going to possibly put a wrench in the whole mind-games thing. While 5 damage is punishing, the random factor really takes any punch out of it, though. I tried putting this in my Hunter deck and most of the time it hits all those minions you ignore while you go for face, and five damage on a Silver Hand Recruit or a Mad Scientist is just a big waste. And with so many other great Hunter cards, Dart Trap honestly ends up being extremely underwhelming.
Desert Camel: A three mana 2/4 is not exactly a stellar stat distribution, but it allows both players to put a one-cost minion onto the battlefield. And honestly not every deck has one-cost minions. Hunters and Warlocks are really the only ones fond of it, and using three mana to summon a 2/4 plus a free 2/1 Leper Gnome or Worgen Infiltrator is decent. It's a Beast, naturally, so it adds to the wide range of Beasts for Hunters to choose from. It's ultimately too slow for most aggro Hunter decks, and it's extremely risky to play against Warlocks and you might end up giving them free 3/2's on the board, but Desert Camel's not a bad card depending on the deck. It's one of those 'decent if the deck works', though I doubt I'll be using the camel any time soon.
Explorer's Hat: It's a card you get for free! Harrison Jones doesn't make it into the League of Explorers adventure, but his hat does. It's hunter-specific and it gives a minion +1/+1 with the Deathrattle of recovering the hat back. 2 Mana is a bit too expensive for a buff on a class that generally plays hard and fast, though, and the recycling effect I don't think is that good unless you're making a deck that totally abuses Explorer's Hat. Against classes that don't typically play silences like Warrior or Warlock it can be pretty devastating. You can theoretically combo it with cards like Djinni of Zephyrs, Dragonkin Sorcerer or the Valkyr sisters and whatnot, but I still think ultimately the hat's going to be a bit underwhelming, especially in Hunter. Now put it in a proper control deck like Warrior or Paladin that can utterly abuse the 'cast a spell on a minion' mechanic...
Forgotten Torch: The other free card. Roaring Torch deals 3 damage for 3 mana, which is pretty pitiful, but shuffles a 'deal 6 damage' card that deals 3 mana into your deck, basically a discounted Fireball. That makes it pretty decent, especially in a spell-heavy deck or in decks that can abuse Spell Damage. It's a nice alternative to the similar three-mana-deal-three-damage Frostbolt, except instead of freezing you get another spell in your deck. This expansion does have a decent amount of cards that shuffles extra cards into your deck, yeah? It's a bit gimmicky, but it's definitely a decent card.
Etheral Conjurer: Another discover card, this one discovering you a spell. Mage spells are mostly good and you're likely to get one of the freeze spells, or Fireball, or Flamestrike, and you'll be happy. It's great in mid-range mages, and while it looks fragile with a 6/3 stat, by turn 5 you can control the enemy's board so there aren't really any 3/2's left. The fact that Discover lets you choose one of three spells really makes the Etheral Conjurer as good as Raven Idol, except that Mage spells are generally far more devastating. Losing control? Have this Flamestrike. Need lethal? Here, have this Fireball or Pyroblast. It's pretty great in spell mages, and honestly it's a shame it isn't statted as a 5/4 or a 4/5, because it would've been unreal how solid of a minion it is. I guess ethereals just aren't that sturdy. It's great in control mages, it's great to replace your second Azure Drake in Reno decks... it's pretty awesome.
Animated Armor: Ah, the Steel Sentinel turned into a minion! And he is nowhere as OP as his hero ability is. A four mana 4/4 isn't really that powerful, and a class that doesn't really use weapons doesn't really have a need to take one damage at a time. It's great if you can get Animated Armor behind a Taunt to tank those Kill Commands or Fireballs, but honestly any half-competent player will target the Armor first before anything. Mal'Ganis this ain't, and the measly 4/4 means that it's really not going to do much against late-game minions, and on early game the effect doesn't matter.
Sacred Trial: Mysterious Challenger get another toy to play with! This is nowhere as bad as the Noble Sacrifice/Avenge/Redemption combo, though, and I honestly think that it's not as good as the other Paladin secrets. It just adds to the sheer amount of secrets your enemy needs to play around, though, and while they can summon a cheap one-drop Deathrattle minion like Nerubian Egg and have you trigger its effect, it's a nice little way to remove a careless player's minion for one mana, or just confuse your opponent and cause them to play badly. It's decent, I guess.
Keeper of Uldaman: One of my favourite cards in the expansion! A four mana 3/4 is definitely decent, and the Keeper of Uldaman is at the same time a soft removal and a buffing card, much in the spirit of the Mage's Polymorph: Huffer. The Keeper of Uldaman can just be dropped to turn the enemy's Dr. Boom or Ysera into a measly 3/3, allowing the Keeper of Uldaman to whack it and survive the next turn. Or you might need that extra punch to break through the enemy's taunt, and you buff your Silver Hand Recruit from a 1/1 to a 3/3. It's an extremely fun and versatile card to play, and being a decently-statted minion itself doesn't hurt either. Man, Paladins have a crapton of great four-drops.
Anyfin Can Happen: Murloc support cards, oh boy! Anyfin Can Happen summons seven Murlocs on turn ten, and I've enjoyed an insane amount of success with this card. It initially seems bad because it's a ten-mana card and really you could just fill your board and your opponent can just board-clear it without the Murlocs doing anything, but the trick really is to not fill your deck's minions entirely with Murlocs, so out of the seven Murlocs you summon the synergistic ones like Murloc Warleader, Old Murk-Eye and Bluegill Warrior are liable to be summoned. Having two Bluegill Warriors and an Old Murk-Eye buffed by Warleaders and Grimscale Oracles aren't something to laugh at. While the effects of Anyfin Can Happen can be diluted thanks to some Murlocs' effects not triggering (Murloc Tiderunner, Coldlight Seer, Coldlight Oracle) and some of the garbage Murlocs summoned by Murloc Knight possibly showing up, it's still a great way to gain board control -- so long as your opponent doesn't already have lethal on the board, Anyfin Can Happen will force your opponent to either use an AoE spell on your murloc swarm (and chances are they already did it to get rid of your murlocs earlier) or have to trade against them. It's a card that I thought was horrible when I first saw it, but after playing around with it... it's actually pretty awesome. You just have to build a proper deck for it.
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