Hearthstone: The League of Explorers
-blows dust off of blog-
Well, this didn't really pan out as I wanted. I didn't quite have enough time to really play video games, especially to dedicate a huge amount of time to talk about it as I play it. I might do it in the future, but until I actually have free time that's going to be on the bucket list. I also finished the Curse of Naxxramas adventure mode, and I honestly didn't quite have that much interest in just transcribing the dialogue and yapping on and on about the mechanics and how I beat it, not when literally everyone else had done it years ago -- with Youtube footage, to boot!
But Hearthstone recently got a new expansion, this time in the form of a third Adventure Mode, The League of Explorers. Unlike Curse of Naxxramas or Blackrock Mountain, the League of Explorers isn't based on any pre-existing raid dungeon from World of Warcraft, and a lot of its main characters (bar Brann Bronzebeard) are Hearthstone-original creations. It's got a big Indiana Jones vibe -- ironic that Harrison Jones is already a card and therefore didn't have a role in it -- and while three of its four settings are based on pre-existing Warcraft locations, the plot is wholly original and far more on the zany adventure side. It's a fun romp involving genies, murlocs, museum thefts, mummies, troggs and scarab beetles.
And it's definitely an adventure that is friendlier to new players -- I still think that the cards you get from the first few wings of Naxxramas to be some of the most essential cards to really build good decks, but you get just more cards from League of Explorers. You get two free spells just for purchasing the first wing of the adventure!
And one of the things that I really love doing about this blog really is reviewing cards and just talking about them. So for this post, let me talk about the Neutral cards. With pictures, now!
Jeweled Scarab: So, well, I'm going to go through these cards in the rough order that you get them from the adventure mode. And right off the bat we have Jeweled Scarab, showcasing the new mechanic in this expansion: Discover. Discover will let you choose one of three random cards, Arena style, from a pool of Neutral and the Class you're currently playing. It's a surprisingly useful mechanic, allowing players to quickly adapt to situations and even extend the amount of cards available to them. For Jeweled Scarab, you get to Discover a three-cost card, making sure that you play on tempo for the third turn. In exchange for this effect, it gets the pitiful stat of 1/1, lower than most one-drops even. It's not a bad card, but it's not really good either. I've enjoyed some decent success with the Jeweled Scarab, but ultimately there are way too many other better two-drops out there. It dies for way too little effort on the enemy's part, and it's not worth it to buff it if you're playing a Druid or whatever. A bit of a mini-nerf for Piloted Shredder as well, because without the battlecry this is an utterly pointless 1/1 card. Fairly better in Arena, though, where playing on tempo and establishing board control is essential. Also, it's a Beast, which might help out in those Beast Druid decks.
Djinni of Zephyrs: Zinaar, the first boss, got turned into a minion. And not even a legendary! Well, that's what you get for being a non-entity. Zinaar itself already have decent, if unspectacular, stats for a five-drop. 4/6 is respectable, but it has the potential to grow so much more if you happen to have minions on the field and a buffing card in hand. Rogues, Warriors, Druids and especially Paladins have ways to do this, and the Djinni have enjoyed a great deal of success in my control Paladin deck with Blessing of Kings, Blessing of Might and Seal of Champions buffing smaller minions while the already-sturdy Djinni grows ever-bigger. Getting a 7/6 and a 3 attack buff on a minion for a mere 6 mana isn't a laughing matter. Despite not really giving much of a thought to him the Djinni has became one of my favourite if rather unreliable card in this expansion. Though it's an Epic, so it's a given that its effects are slightly more difficult to pull off.
Anubisath Sentinel: Kinda like the Dark Cultist, except the Anubisath Sentinel gives a +3/+3 buff, an relatively awesome amount. On paper it really looks good. You play 5 mana to get a slightly weaker 4/4 minion, but the effect means you get 14 stats worth of value. In practice, though, it's remarkably easy for your opponent to deal with the Anubisath Sentinel, either by silencing it or by killing the other minions first. And a 4/4 means that the Anubisath Sentinel can be dealt with by a four-drop or a couple of two-drops, and unlike the cheap three-mana Dark Cultist, five mana takes up a good chunk of your mana pool even in turns nine or ten. It can be useful, that's for sure, and it's not a bad card, but like the Jeweled Scarab it's a bit underwhelming. And unlike the Scarab where you get a guaranteed three-drop in your hand, with the Anubisath you get a crappy minion for its cost where you don't always get the benefit.
Summoning Stone: Based on that one fun Tavern Brawl where when you cast a spell you get a minion of the same cost. Except, well, you spend five mana on summoning this minion that ultimately does nothing, is absurdly easy for your enemy to deal with since it can't even take out one-health minions, and you can only have so many minions on the board so the value of the Summoning Stone is limited once you cast a couple of spells. You might get some mileage in a Freeze Mage deck where you can stop your enemy's minions from attacking your Summoning Stone with Frost Nova, allowing you to get a couple of effect triggers off, but ultimately it's a fun concept that doesn't really make for a good minion. It costs five mana, too, without providing a really tangible effect on the board -- the Anubisath Sentinel above at least gives you a 4/4 body even if it does nothing.
Ancient Shade: This is a bit of a delicate card to play. Getting a 7/4 minion for four mana is absolutely ridiculous value, of course. And the drawback of shuffling a 'deal 7 damage to yourself' card isn't honestly that bad, since, unlike cards like Flame Imp or Pit Lord you might actually not draw the Ancient Curse card.... especially in rush aggro decks, where the Ancient Shade will definitely find its home. Of course, despite hitting like a gigantic truck on steroids, the Ancient Shade will get wrecked by most popular four drops -- Piloted Shredder, the Yetis and all the rest can easily one-shot the Ancient Shade, and if the opponent has a couple of 2/3 or 2/1 minions from their first three turns then the Ancient Shade is well and truly screwed... but it's still an interesting minion to play, and a nice little alternative to the Best Four-Drop Ever™, the Piloted Shredder. It's not a bad card to play at all especially if you can engineer a Taunt minion to stand in the way or give the Shade Stealth on the turn it's summoned, it's just a bit difficult to play with
Reno Jackson: Reno is easily one of my favourite cards in the game, with his kooky smile and his insane effect. Fully heal your hero! Definitely an effect befitting a legendary, and surprisingly 4/6 for 6 mana isn't horrible at all, so it's not like some of the less-stellar legendaries where their stats really make them way too fragile to justify putting them in your deck. And having only one copy of each card in your deck is actually easier than you think. Obviously some decks like Face Hunter or Freeze Mage can't afford to lose the duplicate spells or minions that make the deck what it is, but so many other non-thematic decks, especially control decks, can easily swap out that second Piloted Shredder or Shielded Minibot or Nerubian Egg or Haunted Creeper or Flame Imp or Dark Cultist for... well, some of the 'good card but not as good as Card X', of which there are a lot of from the Grand Tournament. It's actually a smart move to give these less than stellar cards some chance to shine. So, for example, instead of running two Piloted Shredder, maybe you run a Shredder and an Ancient Shade. Or a Tomb Spider. Or an Evil Heckler. Maybe replace a second Haunted Creeper with the Jeweled Scarab. Those of the cards that are decent but don't make the cut can have their time to muck around. A full heal isn't anything to laugh at -- and surprisingly enough it's balanced enough to allow you to make a comeback from losing, but if the enemy has had sufficient board control they can still easily take out Reno and knock you back down. Reno's awesome.
Tomb Spider: The second wing has only two neutral cards, surprisingly. Tomb Spider is the Webspinner's bigger and far more awesome brother. Like the Scarab, it's weak for its mana cost. A 3/3 for four mana is pretty blah, but at least it won't die to a fireball or an Explosive Trap. Tomb Spider lets you actually choose which beast you want, and it's surprisingly good. Playing it on a Druid or Hunter deck nets you class cards more often than not (the algorithm is skewed towards finding class cards more often) and whereas Webspinners are a luck-based mission where you can get utter trash, the Tomb Spider lets you choose the best out of three. More times than not you'll get value, and the Tomb Spider itself is still free for you for Houndmaster or Ram Wrangler or Druid of the Fang synergy. The Tomb Spider isn't a card you can just stuff into any deck -- though the additional card draw's nice -- but in a properly crafted Beast Druid or Beast Hunter deck, the Tomb Spider is a surprisingly scary utility card.
Brann Bronzebeard: Brann's a rather unique card as well, a reverse version of Baron Rivendare from Curse of Naxxramas. While the Baron's stat line of 1/7 is wacky and means that he's a negligible presence in the battlefield, Brann is one mana cheaper and has one extra attack, so he can actually take out some of your enemy's smaller minions. Having battlecries trigger twice allows you to discover two cards from the Scarab or the Tomb Spider, allows the Fire Elemental to deal six damage on a single minion (the effect repeats twice on the same minion), allows the Draenei Totemcarver, Frostwolf Warlord and dragon synergy cards to get stupidly huge buffs, allows Dr. Boom to summon four Boom Bots... again, though, you really have to make a Battlecry oriented deck and I don't think there's quite enough good Battlecry cards out there to really make a solid deck. I've fought against some pretty awesome Shaman, Rogue and Priest decks featuring Brann, though, and while they are still works in progress Brann definitely has the potential to make some pretty awesome decks in the future. (As a side-note: I totally got wrecked with a Rafaam + Brann combo in an Arena run one time)
Murloc Tinyfin: He's adorable. That's about it, though. A Murloc with the stat line of a Wisp isn't anything to talk home about. I suppose it can just help swarm the field and soak up buffs from the Warleader and Oracle, and help trigger Tidecaller and Murk-Eye buffs, but Murlocs have so many other better alternatives and the 0-mana 1/1 really does absolutely nothing. Murlocs get a couple of great support cards in League of Explorers, but the Tinyfin isn't one of them. I play a Paladin Murloc deck, and I bang my head in frustration any time my Murloc Knight shits out this little bucktoothed baby, or when said bucktoothed baby takes up a slot when I use Anyfin Can Happen. But, well, it's hard to stay angry at a face like that, yeah?
Huge Toad: Huge Toad has one of the funniest artwork in the game. Look at Small Toad just hanging out being cute next to the Huge Toad's leg! The Huge Toad is a decent two-drop. It's a 3/2 with a Deathrattle of dealing a damage to a random enemy, basically a reverse Flame Juggler. It's not as good as the Flame Juggler because it's a Deathrattle as opposed to a Battlecry, and for a Deathrattle it's really underwhelming... but it is a Beast and thus finds itself a nice niche as the go-to 3/2 two-drop for Beast decks, instantly replacing Bloodfen Raptor. It's not a bad card, just a bit underwhelming. These are the cards that can really help to pad out your deck and replace duplicates in Reno decks, however.
Gorillabot A-3: I honestly didn't expect Mech synergy cards to appear in League of Explorers, and the Gorillabot is actually decent. Like the Clockwork Knight, Cogmaster or Goblin Blastmage, though, it requires you to have other mechs on the board for its effect to trigger, and it has a bit of an unimpressive stat-line for a four-drop with 3/4... on the other hand, though, putting a Gorillabot in my Mech Mage and Mech Shaman deck has always given me awesome Mech cards. Sometimes you get absolute winners with Mechwarpers, Fel Reavers, Zap-o-matics, Mimiron and Snowchuggers, and honestly when you come to think of it there really aren't any bad Mech cards that are duds to discover. The requirement for the Gorillabot isn't honestly that hard to comply with, since Mech decks tend to swarm the early game anyway with Mechwarper synergy. It's a card that's actually a fair bit better than I thoguht it would be before actually playing it.
Naga Sea Witch: It's a bit of an odd card, that's for sure. All your cards cost five. You can play her out at turn five and on turn six you can drop 9-mana monstrosities like Ysera or Molten Giant or Ragnaros... but on the hand, cheap cards also become expensive so you can't just lob your one-mana two-mana spells wily-nilly. You can also play Aviana on turn six, and all your minions will cost one (the card you play later will overwrite the earlier card's aura). It's... definitely a difficult card to play, and while it's an insanely cool effect, albeit one that is temporary (like the Auchenai Soulpriest you have a choice to get rid of the Naga Sea Witch's effect). I don't think it's a bad card, even if I haven't really thought of a good deck where she can fit in, but I'm sure she'll find a niche somewhere.
Sir Finley Mrrgglton: Sir Finley is my second-favourite Legendary in this expansion! Sir Finley is a one-mana legendary (who is also a murloc!) that replaces your hero power with a discovered one, and it's brilliant. It works especially well in Shamans, whose ability is a bit m'eh honestly, and I've enjoyed great success using Sir Finley in my Murloc Paladin deck where I don't want to swarm the board with Silver Hand Recruits (I want it to be swarmed with murlocs) but still need to use the hero power to trigger the Murloc Knight or just for the sake of using up my mana... and depending on the situation I can be even more aggressive with Steady Shot, I can help control the board with Fireblast, I can use Heal or Armor Up to just be even more difficult to kill... and that's just for a Murloc Paladin! Sir Finley's versatile enough to find himself in other decks, too. Warlocks can use it when you don't need to Soul Tap anymore, especially in the late game. Druids and Shamans in particular can make use of this power, and Rogue decks that don't make use of weapons can have a far more spammable hero power. a 1/3 isn't a bad stat distribution either, allowing Sir Finley to lay a dapper beatdown on those Leper Gnomes and still survive.
Fossilized Devilsaur: Skelesaurus Hex joins Zinaar as bosses downgraded into neutral minions. And the Devilsaur... isn't impressive at all. An eight mana 8/8 that gains Taunt when you have a beast? It tries to fit into the many Beast support cards that TGT and LOE has seen fit to grant us, but the Devilsaur is a rather crappier version of the Ironbark Protector, a basic Druid card... and the Ironbark Protector is hardly ever played anymore for anyone with access to things like Ancient of War and Druid of the Claw. The effect isn't guaranteed either, and if it's something like an eight-mana 8/9 or 9/9 it would've been better... but as it is, it's a worse version of the Ironbark Protector. To add insult the Devilsaur isn't even a beast, so there literally is no reason to include this card in a Beast synergy deck as opposed to the Ironbark Protector -- and you wouldn't even want to include Ironbark Protector in a Beast synergy deck.
Eerie Statue: It's another bad card in my opinion. It's a more extreme version of the Ancient Watcher, and it costs 4 mana. Like the Ancient Shade up above, it's a four mana with an attack of seven, except unlike the Ancient Shade it has a far more durable 7 health. It also cannot attack unless it's the only minion on the battlefield... which really won't happen ever. You might argue of using Hellfire or Twisting Nether to wipe out the field and then drop Eerie Statue... and then your opponent plays a minion, and then the Eerie Statue is stuck as a space-occupying lesion on the board. Yes, you can give it taunt with Defender of Argus or Sunfury Protector. You can silence it, wasting valuable silences that you can use on the enemy. You can eat it with Void Terror. But it takes way too much effort for something that doesn't really pay off that much, since as a minion it's still susceptible to things like Big Game Hunter, Hex, Polymorph and all the rest of the removal cards out there. And unlike the Ancient Watcher who's cheap at 2 mana, four mana is way too expensive for such a gimmicky card. That said, though, with a proper deck it's definitely something that can rampage around on a board, and a particular card comes to mind -- the Wailing Soul. Hell, throw a Fel Reaver in there and have the Wailing Soul just silence all the drawbacks to your minions. It's actually looking quite attractive now, and even then the Statue can actually activate on its own if you play your cards right and manage to clear the enemy's things by turn 5 after you sunmmon the Statue.
Wobbling Runts: Is a 2/6 for six mana that summons three 2/2 minions when it dies. It's a decent gimmicky card, one that's way too slow for a six-mana card, and having three 2/2 minions isn't honestly that big of a deal other than to get a couple more 2-damage attacks out. The concept is hilarious, though the base Wobbling Runts really coudl've been stat-ed better. A 3/6 or a 4/6 would be far more attractive. My attempts at playing Wobbling Runts in a Deathrattle deck end up not really working out because you can only have seven minions on the board, and with sticky stuff like Haunted Creeper and Piloted Shredder usually hanging out, it doesn't really pan out. Doesn't really have much synergy with Kel'Thuzad or Baron Rivendare either, since the 2/2's will swarm the board way too much. It's not a bad card, though, and a decent card to fill a six-drop slot.
Elise Starseeker: She's a card that I thought was horrible. You shuffle a card into your deck, which when drawn and played will shuffle a second card into your deck, which is a four-mana 6/6 with Taunt that will change everything in your hand and deck into Legendary minions. The fact that you still have to spend money on dropping the Map and the Golden Monkey cards looked like it really sucked... but it turns out to be a great card for Control or Fatigue decks. 3/5 isn't a bad stat line for a four-mana drop, so Elise isn't going to be dead weight when you play her either. And since Control and Fatigue decks tend to draw every card on their deck, it happens quite often in the games featuring Elise that I've seen. And honestly the Golden Monkey's just a nice fun bonus that will clinch that victory in a long run game. It's nice if you manage to get the Golden Monkey out and holy shit that stream of legendary monsters is just going to tear everything your enemy has down. But even if you don't manage to draw it, Elise herself is a decent four-drop that just has an effect that gives you potential to shit King Krush, Dr. Boom, Alexstrasza and Kel'thuzad out.
Arch-Thief Rafaam: Rafaam the SUPREME ARCHAEOLOGIST is a 9-mana card with a slightly-below-average 7/8 statline with a Discover hat always gives you a choice between three spell cards: swarm the board with 3/3 mummies, deal 10 damage randomly to your enemy, or give a minion 10/10. All three cards cost 10 mana, making Rafaam a far more extreme version of the Jeweled Scarab as it gives you a card to nuke the field with next turn. It's particularly great in control decks so long as you're not losing. It's a bit too slow, perhaps, and the 'deal 10 damage randomly' spell is stupidly weak for ten mana (compare it to Avenging Wrath and Arcane Missiles) unless you have, like, a Jungle Moonkin or Malygos out (in which case it's a literal nuke) but that's why Rafaam is awesome -- you can choose the spell you want depending on the state of the board. You have a full board? Get the 10/10 buff and buff one of them -- brilliantly awesome that one time when I happen to have a Djinni on board. You're losing in the control game? So long as your opponent can't lethal you in two turns (and Rafaam can help take out a big minion himself) you can flood the board with a crapton of 3/3's. And woe betide your enemy if you're a Shaman with Bloodlust at hand. You happen to have a Malygos rampaging around? Well, spell damage nuke time. Rafaam is comparable to Ysera (my favourite and first legendary), placed in a far more accessible position for players. Rafaam is a huge finisher that can help you gain control when both sides aren't yielding. Like Ysera, simply playing Rafaam when you're already backed into a corner isn't going to do much, but he's still an awesome way to clinch the victory. Arguably I still think Ysera is far more useful because of the sheer cheap spells Ysera gives you (0 mana Sap, 2 mana 5-damage AoE, 4 mana 7/6 and the crap dryad) but Ysera's randomness means that when you get a card that's unusable to the situation you can't really do much, whereas with Rafaam with a little thinking you can actually make Rafaam's three artifacts win the game.
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