Museum Curator: I've been fiddling around with Priest a fair bit despite never really giving the class a second look, and I've been finding a pretty decent amount of success with my rather randomly-constructed (non-dragon) Priest decks. Museum Curator is a pretty awesome two-drop, because Deathrattle cards are pretty awesome. Again, Discover lets you choose the cards, and Museum Curator's stat of 1/2 is certainly far more preferable than the Jeweled Scarab. The Priest's only Deathrattle card is the Dark Cultist, and since class cards show up more often the Dark Cultist is going to show up a fair amount of times. And from my experience of playing this card... you can get a shit-ton of awesome things. Putting aside the sticky minions everyone loves (Piloted Shredder, Harvest Golem, Sludge Belcher, Haunted Creeper, Nerubian Egg, Piloted Sky Golem) you can get even legendaries! I've gotten the likes of Cairne Bloodhoof, Chillmaw, Sylvanas Windrunner, Sneed's Old Shredder, Toshley... all awesome cards to have. It's a card that really is far more awesome than it looks like.
Entomb: Again, a card that didn't really impress me when I first saw it. Entomb is really a cheaper version of Mind Control. It only costs 6 mana, but it basically does the same thing as Mind Control -- it removes an opponent's minion and turns it to your side... except instead of making it an immediate presence in the battlefield, you shuffle it into your deck and have a chance to draw it later. At 6 mana it's a bit costly compared to other removals (Assassinate is 5, Polymorph is 4) but none of them allow you to plop that Ysera or Dr. Boom or whatever into your deck. It's surprisingly effective, though a fair amount of practice is needed to play with it.
Excavated Evil: Excavated Evil is... a strange card. Again, it's not bad, but it really is very situational. It's a five-mana version of the Warlock's Hellfire, except costing one more mana and doesn't hit the faces... and it gets shuffled into your opponent, allowing them to use it against you. On paper it looks really bad, but then Priest doesn't really have a good AoE spells beyond Holy Nova (or the gimmicky Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing), and having this alternative in their arsenal is decent. Most of the better Priest minions (Holy Champion and Dark Cultist come to mind) have more than 3 health. And giving Face Hunters a card that damages their own fragile 1-health minions means that you've wasted a Face Hunter's draw, whereas any remaining Patron Warriors will be absolutely punished by this. Paladin decks that rely on swarming the board like Murloc or Quartermaster Paladins will also get completely crushed. It's going to take a lot of practice, however, and sometimes Excavated Evil might backfire against you if you play it against another control deck. However, depending on your deck and the opponent you're facing you might really find Holy Nova more useful. It's nice to have an alternative though.
Pit Snake: The Emperor Cobra's younger cousin. The Pit Snake's a cheap minion at one mana with one health, so it's definitely going to die after attacking whatever you want it to attack. It's horrendously bad against Mages, Druids and Rogues because they'll likely fireblast/hero attack it before you have a chance to attack unless you put stealth on it, but then you're better off playing Patient Assassin or Emperor Cobra itself if you're so desperate for a 'poison' minion. It's not horrible, though. It's a cheap one-mana minion that can threaten big things like Sludge Belchers and Dr. Booms, and seeing that it's a Rogue minion it helps to activate combos if played in later turns. And unlike most other one-drops out there, Pit Snake is a minion that is still useful if you topdeck it in the lategame. Not the best one-drop, obviously, but still a decent card.
Tomb Pillager: Tomb Pillager is a decent card, especially played on a Deathrattle deck. It actually has a decent synergy with Unearthed Raptor below. A four mana 5/4 is decent, powerful enough to kill other 3-5 drops it's facing, and since you gain something from its death the low health isn't that big of a detriment. Coins are extremely great for Rogues to chain combos, and giving Rogues more 0-mana spells means some synergy with things like Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Edwin Van Cleef. It's a great solid 4-drop that works wonders in Miracle and Oil Rogue variants, too, with the extra Coin spell mattering with both Auctioneer triggers and the simple utility of getting more mana in a turn.
Unearthed Raptor: Again, Deathrattles are awesome. I actually made an Unearthed Raptor deck, and while I don't exactly have some of the most dangerous Deathrattles out there (Sylvanas Windurunner in particular is a prime target for duplication) there's a lot of awesome Deathrattles especially from the Naxxramas expansion. Or from this one, even, with the Tomb Pillager actually being a decent Deathrattle to copy from. Unearthed Raptor has a really nice stat distribution at 3/4. Obviously playing it naked doesn't work well, but copy a Piloted Shredder's Deathrattle. Or even a Haunted Creeper, Loot Hoarder and the prime candidate, the Nerubian Egg, if you're playing the Unearthed Raptor on curve. It's a very flexible card, and even if you're forced to drop this without a suitable Deathrattle to clone (and you really should) it's still a decent 3/4 of its own. Hell, if you're feeling lucky and you put Baron Rivendare in your deck... the dream would be turn 2 Nerubian Egg, turn 3 Unearthed Raptor and turn 4 Baron Rivendare. Four 4/4's! Even without the Baron, Simply copying the Nerubian Egg's Deathrattle means that for 3 mana you get a 3/4 that spawns a 4/4. That's insane value.
Tunnel Trogg: Another excellent card. It's not the best card out there, of course, but a lot of Shaman decks in ladder and in arena are fond of using this card, and I can see the appeal. Up until now the only real card that benefited from the Overload mechanic was the Unbound Elemental, who gains a measly +1/+1 for every overload card. The Tunnel Trogg gains +1 Attack for every overloaded crystal. And it's a one drop as opposed to a three drop, making it comparable to the excellent Mana Wyrm in mages. And considering the sheer amount of two-mana and three-mana overload cards (Totem Golem, Feral Spirit, Lightning Storm, Lava Burst) the Tunnel Trogg can easily turn into a 2/3 by turn 2, or turn into a 3/3 by turn 3. The Tunnel Trogg is one of the few genuinely excellent one-mana drops that demand removal, and can definitely hold its own against your 3/2 and 2/3 two-drops thanks to its nice 3 health.
Rumbling Elemental: Nowhere as exciting as the cards we've covered, the Rumbling Elemental is a bit of an underwhelming thing. It's basically a Knife Juggler that deals double damage, but only if you're playing Battlecry minions. Comparable to Ship's Cannon, except that Battlecry minions are far more versatile than the limited Pirates. It's slow and gimmicky, but it's not a bad card. It's not hard to put this card in a Brann Bronzebeard deck, of course, and considering the fact that Shamans have some of the best Battlecry minions in the form of Fireguard Destroyer, Tuskarr Totemic and Fire Elemental, you can easily see the Rumbling Elemental just snowball out of control. With 6 health for 4 mana it's sturdy enough to take a few hits (unlike the Knife Juggler or Ship's Cannon). I haven't had a chance to use it because my Shaman cards are crappy, but it's definitely a fun-looking card.
Everyfin is Awesome: Everyfin is cool when you're part of a team... This is Anyfin Can Happen's Shaman cousin, the last of the murloc synergy cards. Paladins and Shamans are the ones with class-specific murlocs in the Murloc Knight and the honestly underwhelming Slitfin Spiritwalker, though the Shaman has access to Neptulon who helps murlocs out a bit. Everyfin is Awesome is appropriately awesome, because it works even if you don't have a Murloc deck. You can just stock up a couple of Murloc Tiderunners, who are solid swarming minions on their own. Two Murloc Tiderunners turns this into a 3 mana card. Hell, a single Tiderunner turns this into a 5 mana card, making it a far better and more permanent variation of Bloodlust. +2/+2 across the whole board isn't anything to laugh at, especially if you have powerful minions like Fire Elementals or Totem Golems just hanging around. It even makes the Murloc Tinyfin not as worthless because they can just hang around to trigger this card. Compared to Anyfin Can Happen... Anyfin is far more flexible because you don't have to have a developed board, but it's far more unpredictable whereas Everyfin can give you lethal so long as you have a board. And for Shamans having a board is relatively easy.
Curse of Rafaam: Initially it seemed bad to me, but after facing off against a Zoolock that employed liberal use of this card, I've gained a new respect for it. Using the mechanic used in the Chromaggus fight and other various Blackrock Mountain boss fights, Curse of Rafaam spends two mana to lob a card into your opponent's hand that makes them take two damage. Against a Zoolock deck that easily swarms the board, it forces the opponent to choose whether to play a minion on the second/third turn and deal with the Zoolock's enroaching board, or to get rid of this constant two damage in their hand. It's not effective against all classes, though, and you can even force your opponent to trigger your own Stonesplinter Trogg or Burly Rockjaw Trogg. It's a very gimmicky card, but it's one that can sometimes tear you apart if played properly.
Dark Peddler: Dark Peddler is another fun card. Definitely blows the Jeweled Scarab out of the water. It's a two mana 2/2, meaning that it's a decent (if sub-par) body on its own. You discover a one-cost card as opposed to a three-cost card, but obviously for Warlocks it's not a problem considering the sheer amount of good one-drops that they have. Soulfire, Flame Imp, Power Overwhelming, Voidwalker, Mortal Coil, Corruption... and considering you find class cards more often, it's great. It doesn't really fuck up your tempo as well because on turn three you can play your one-drop and a two-drop, or play your one-drop and Soul Tap. It's not going to win any games, but it's definitely one of the more solid cards in Hearthstone.
Reliquary Seeker: A very gimmicky card, one that I thought was absolute trash when I first saw it. If you have six minions, you get a 5/5 for one mana. Of course, a 5/5 costing one mana is absolutely insane... but how often do you have six other minions? Then I remembered that Warlocks have Imp-plosion -- something that destroyed me a couple of times on both ladder and arena. And so long as they have one or two other minions on the field, they're very likely to fill up the board to five or six slots, and it's a small matter of playing another minion and then the Reliquary Seeker. After all, as awesome as a full board of small minions are, sometimes Zoolocks just need big minions. The fact that it's a one-mana minion means playing her is a trivial matter unlike other 'if you have' minions like the utterly moronic Fossilzed Devilsaur. At the end of the day, though, Warlock has access to way better one-drops and such a hard to trigger effect ends up being susceptible to silences, making this nowhere as good as it seems.
Fierce Monkey: A three-mana 3/4 with Taunt! Silverback Patriarch's big brother, except with two extra attack. It's one health more than an Ironfur Grizzly, as the other comparison. It's a beast, though I doubt it's going to matter at all to a Warrior. The Fierce Monkey is a decent three-drop minion, and with the fall of the Patron Warrior deck, TGT and LOE have both been giving us a fair amount of Taunt-support card like Sparring Partner, Bolster, and both Fierce Monkey and Obsidian Destroyer in this expansion. It's a wholly decent card, though there's really not much else to say about it.
Obsidian Destroyer: Obsidian Destroyer is one of my favourite cards in this expansion as well. My Warcraft III fanboy is happy that a Warcraft III unit got made into a card. It's a cool card, and basically Dr. Boom lite, proving that you can have a non-Dr.-Boom 7-drop that doesn't suck. A seven mana 7/7 is a decent stat line, and it summons a 1/1 with Taunt at the end of the turn, forcing your opponent to at least spend a Fireblast or a minion's attack on it. It works great with a Frothing Berserker hanging around in the sidelines, and if the Scarabs survive it's going to make your Bolsters extra-awesome. Definitely a great late-game card, I must say.
Cursed Blade: Easily the worst card in the expansion, and easily one of the worst cards ever. Why would you ever include this card in your deck as opposed to Fiery War Axe I don't know, but damn. I honestly can't see any point at including this card -- yes, for one mana you theoretically can deal 6 damage, but you get double damage. It's not even a Spell Damage thing where you get an extra point or two of damage, you get double damage. If you use the Cursed Blade to kill a Leper Gnome, that's 6 damage straight to your face. If you have the misfortune to fight a Freeze Mage, you can be stuck with this weapon while they Frostbolt and Ice Lance your face. I honestly can't think on top of my head a better card than this -- Wisp, Murloc Tinyfin, Target Dummy, all of those at least put a small presence on the board. Minimal effect, yes, but at least none of them double the damage to your hero. I honestly can't think of why you would want to use this card at all. If it's double damage dealt and double damage you receive it'd be something else, but as it is, the only thing that it's got going for it is being a decent two-mana weapon that costs one mana. That doubles the damage you receive.
Thus ends my review of the League of Explorers cards. Overall it ends up looking somewhat underwhelming. Discover is an excellent tool to play with, and there are certainly some superstars among the new cards (Reno, Finley, Keeper of Uldaman, Ethereal Conjurer, Unearthed Raptor, Obsidian Destroyer) but most of them are fun gimmicky cards or just cards that are decent. But they're far easier to incorporate to decks, Battlecry and Murloc cards aside, compared to the extreme dragon synergy required by the Blackrock Mountain adventure. Granted nothing can compete with how solid the Naxxramas cards are and how indispensable some of them are, but still.
In the future I might update this blog with a couple more Hearthstone-related posts. Maybe talk a bit about the Basic set and general tips for deckbuilding when you're on a gold/dust budget.
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