And since we're here talking meta and shit, y'know, why don't we actually take some time to talk about who these characters are in the Warcraft lore before becoming cards? Kill two birds with one stone and all that.
Eydis Darkbane
- Who is She? Eydis Darkbane is a Val'kyr, which are undead angelic Vrykul (half-giants) in service to the Undead Scourge. Together with her sister Fjola (scroll a bit down), Eydis forms one of the bosses in the Trial of the Crusader raid, the raid in the Argent Tournament, the WoW event from which Hearthstone's Grand Tournament is loosely adapted off of. Apparently Confessor Paletress subdued the Val'kyr sisters and they were captured to be then used to test adventurers in said trial. To note that almost every boss (with the exception of the 'Faction Champions' boss fight which included like a dozen people for both Alliance and Horde) from the Trial of the Crusader is adapted into TGT cards in one way or another -- other bosses from that raid include Icehowl, Gormok, Acidmaw, Dreadscale, Anub'arak and Lord Jaraxxus.
- Using this card: Eydis is the stronger of the two Val'kyr twins in my opinion. 3 mana for 3/4 is pretty decent, as the highly-popular three-drop Spider Tank can attest. However, Eydis has the potential to lob three damage here and there if you target this card with buff spells, so Paladins, Priests and Druids can definitely make use of Eydis. I think dealing three damage to a random enemy is a far better side effect of a buff spell compared to, say, her sister's Divine Shield (which can't be chained) or the Dragonkin Sorcerer's +1/+1 (which is too slow, and piling buffs on a minion is just asking for it to get silenced). Eydis would be devastating and could potentially wipe a decently-developed board. You drop her on turn three, and if she survives to the fourth turn you can load, say, Blessing of Kings to deal an extra three damage.
- Cards that work well with this:
- Priests have a bunch of cheap spells: Power Word: Shield and Power Word: Glory are both one-mana, and the Divine Spirit/Inner Fire combo can work as well.
- Paladins have a lot of cheap buff spells, too. Blessing of Might, Hand of Protection and Blessing of Kings are all respectable 1-mana buff spells, and both Seal of Champions and Blessing of Kings are great 3-mana and 4-mana spells respectively. Slightly more gimmicky is Blessed Champion, a 5-mana buff.
- Druids have Mark of the Wild and Mark of Nature -- at 2 and 3 mana each, they are significantly less spammable than the Priest or Paladin example. The other classes have some buff spells too (Rogue's Cold Blood, Warrior's Charge, Shaman's Windfury and Ancestral Healing), but none are really used or are practical to do so.
- If you get a Djinni of Zephyrs out next to Eydis while you're unloading buff spells onto her, you get two suddenly really jacked-up minions while Eydis flings three damage wily-nilly.
- Spare Parts used to work great on Eydis, but (a) they are inconsistent in when you get them and (b) they are out of the Standard Mode next month.
- Cons: No real specific synergy with any pre-established decks, sadly. Maybe you can make a slightly gimmicky deck featuring Eydis, Fjola and Djinni of Zephyrs, but that would take a lot of setup. Again, unloading a lot of buffs on a single minion makes it really vulnerable to silence, and do you really want to waste so much card slots just to enable a card which you may or may not even draw on turn three?
- Conclusion: That said, though, Eydis would work pretty well as a solid three-drop, which has the potential for a pretty great bonus. I don't have Eydis, but she would be a legendary I would welcome and would shove to replace some of my early game cards, which are mostly Naxx/GvG cards at the moment. I've grown to like her after drafting her in a couple of relatively successful Arena runs, and I've had an established board wiped completely clean due to an Eydis Darkbane and a couple of those 1-mana Paladin spells. Now the problem is whether spending so much card slots for the buff spells is worth it. Who knows, maybe it would be.
- Who is She? Scroll up. Fjola is Eydis's twin and features in the same boss fight as she did.
- Using this card: Fjola is near-identical to Eydis other than her effect, so much of my argument is similar. Except Fjola gains Divine Shield instead of dealing 3 damage. Now you can't really spam Divine Shield the way a free 3 damage can. You pop Fjola with a spell, she gains Divine Shield, that's it. Maybe Fjola can trade with another minion, and you target her with a spell again... but then Eydis gets to deal her base attack damage to a random target while still being able to take damage herself. Yes, Fjola can survive unscathed due to her Divine Shield, and it's definitely not a bad effect, but I think I prefer Eydis's effect to Fjola.
- Cards that work well with this: More or less the same with Eydis.
- Cons: Unlike Eydis, casting Hand of Protection or Seal of Champions on Fjola just makes the Divine Shield redundant and useless, and if you're running a buff-centric Paladin deck you would probably put Seal of Champions in. Also, again, Fjola's effect is a lot less spammable than that of Eydis's.
- Conclusion: Fjola is still a solid card, don't get me wrong. For 3/4 with a replenishable Divine Shield -- as of the moment of writing no other minion can regenerate their Divine Shield without the help of a spell -- and therefore being able to whack other minions without taking damage each turn makes Fjola a far less aggressive yet still powerful minion. She's more... consistent and hard to remove, I guess. Whereas Eydis has the potential to kill two or three minions in one turn, she'll take damage from actually hitting the enemies, while Fjola would probably only kill one a turn... but she still remains a healthy 3/4 through it all.
Gormok the Impaler
- Who is He? Gormok the Impaler is a Magnataur that was captured and used for the Trial of the Crusader, part of the 'Beasts of Northrend' gauntlet alongside the Jormungar twins and Icehowl.
- Using this card: Gormok trades away one health from the standard vanilla 4-drop statline (the Yeti's 4/5) in exchange for a battlecry of dealing 4 damage if you have 4 other minions. Four damage is obviously useful, and you can target it onto an enemy. The Blackwing Corruptor is comparable, being a 5-mana 5/4 that deals 3 damage if you have a dragon in hand... but I really think Blackwing Corruptor is better than Gormok for the simple reason that it is far easier to get Blackwing Corruptor to work, whereas Gormok requires a fair amount of setup for something that really isn't worth it.
- Cards that work well with this:
- Both the Paladin and Shaman's hero powers summon free minions.
- Zoolock decks thrive on filling the board with cheap little dudes.
- Cheap minion-generating cards include Mirror Image, Unleash the Hounds, Imp-losion (sadly GvG), Muster for Battle (also GvG) Imp Master, Imp Gang Boss, and minions that summon other minions like Tuskarr Totemic, Onyxia, Dragonling Mechanic, Murloc Tidehunter, Haunted Creeper (sadly Naxx) and Razorfen Hunter.
- Cons: A lot of the cards that can enable Gormok, the most effective among them Imp-losion and Muster for Battle, are being rotated out -- which is probably an incentive not to use Reliquary Seeker from LoE. The rest of the board-spawning cards are either unwieldy (Onyxia), does not work well with this card (Gormok is too slow for Face Hunter decks) or plain shit (Razorfen Hunter, Murloc Tidehunter). It's also difficult to have four minions by turn four unless you really get lucky and your opponent for whatever reason doesn't trade with your minions, so Gormok will either sit in your hand while you try your best to fill the board instead of making proper trades, or enter the field as a sub-par minion with no effect... and it really is easy for your opponent to ensure that you don't have more than four or five minions by a simple Consecration, or, y'know, simply trading with your minions. Even if you get Gormok's effect to go off, the 4 damage is a one-off, unlike the Reliquary Seeker or the Frostwolf Warlord's permanent buff for having a full board. And if you somehow manage to get Gormok's effect off on a big board you're most likely already winning or up against an aggro deck ignoring your minions... if it's the former, why take up a deck slot with Gormok when you can have another card that actually does something far less gimmicky? And if it's the latter, not trading four minions to a bunch of charging minions just to launch four damage to, like, an Arcane Golem or whatever is just plain dumb. See, Gormok is definitely a far, far worse card than the former king of the 4-drop slot, Piloted Shredder... but even with Shredder dethroned, I'd still rather put in cards that are guaranteed to do something -- Defender of Argus, Hungry Dragon, Evil Heckler, Refreshment Vendor, Tomb Spider and Elise Starseeker are all far superior options, and not all of those cards are even top-tier. And we haven't even gotten to the class cards yet, and I would take a Water Elemental or a Murloc Knight to Gormok any day.
- Conclusion: I've seen Gormok the Impaler a couple of times in Zoolock decks, but he has almost always been ineffective, or enter the field to remove just a single minion. He is an inconvenience at best when played on tempo, and when played on far later in the game it's unlikely or him to make that big of an impact.
Nexus Champion Saraad- Who is He? Saraad is brand-new to Hearthstone, one of the handful of original Legendaries not based on a prior WoW character. He is an Ethereal (which have featured in several other Hearthstone cards -- Ethereal Conjurer and Ethereal Arcanist) which is like a magic-elemental-mummy thing, and he's got an Ethereal camel to hang out with him.
- Using this card: Saraad is the definition of 'random'. The spell you get is completely random, and you might fill your hand with things that you can't use -- demon-exclusive Warlock spells are a common dud with Saraad -- but, y'know, Saraad is just so much fun! The probabilities and statistics show that you're likely to get a 1-3 mana spell the most, so unless you're especially unlucky and end up with oh, three Twisting Nethers, Saraad is likely to be more of a boon than not.
- Cards that work well with this: Basically all the TGT cards that help you abuse your hero power helps you to get extra charges off Saraad before your opponent kills it. Maiden of the Lake. Fencing Coach. Coldarra Drake. Garrison Commander. Since you're likely to get spells that deal damage, cards that synergize with you spamming spells work well too. Mages have a lot of these -- Sorcerer's Apprentice, Mana Wyrm, Archmage Antonidas, Flamewaker...
- Cons: All those TGT cards that enable spamming hero powers? They're freaking difficult to set up. Saraad has relatively weak stats for a 5-drop... a 4/5 is a standard for a four drop, and while it is definitely suitable for Saraad's powerful effect, it also makes Saraad relatively fragile. Inspire itself is widely regarded as being relatively difficult and annoying to pull off consistently, and you either drop Saraad and hero power at turn 7 (or six if you have a discounted hero power), or drop him at 5 and hope he lives. There's also no real deck that synergizes relatively well with him.
- Conclusion: Nexus-Champion Saraad isn't the next Dr. Boom or Sylvanas Windrunner. He's definitely less consistent and less likely to dominate the board like his fellow 5-drop Sylvanas. But Saraad is definitely fun to play. He's going to win you some games, he's going to lose you some games, but in any case the random spells he lobs to you are definitely going to be fun to play around with. Saraad is among the handful of Legendaries I own, and while I don't really let him see the light of the day that often, the odd moments that Saraad gallops into battle definitely make memorable matches. How often do you see a Druid launch Bane of Doom to kill an enemy minion, summon Mal'Ganis and then give said Mal'Ganis Stealth with Conceal, thus making my hero immune for the rest of the game? How often do you see a bunch of Mirror Images and Annoy-o-Trons charge into battle buffed with Bolster and Savage Roar? Saraad doesn't always work, of course, and there had been times where he kept giving me Demonfuses and Astral Communions, but still, he is a fun card. He can be slotted into any deck, really, since you don't need all those additional cards to actually trigger his effects, unlike the Val'kyr sisters. And the whole point of playing a game is to have fun.
Bolf Ramshield
- Who is He? Bolf Ramshield is another brand-new character to Hearthstone not based on any prior Warcraft lore. He's a ram-riding dwarf with two shields!
- Using this card: Bolf has a unique effect that's... kind of a Taunt, but not really. Bolf has a respectable stat-line of 3/9, which totals to one less than the standard six-drop, the Boulderfist Ogre. But Bolf has this effect where he soaks up damage done to your hero's face. It's... honestly not as good as it seems, because this means your enemies can hit your hero's face and basically freely kill off Bolf without having to trade into him and take damage. Where a standard taunt minion like the (soon to be retired) Sludge Belcher will tank and murder those Wolfriders and Arcane Golems, Bolf will just stand there while they wail at the hero's face and eventually give up the ghost. He's definitely got a good effect, but he's one of the weaker legendaries.
- Cards that work well with this: Um... Animated Armor, I guess? Just remember to play Animated Armor before you play Bolf, otherwise Bolf will still take full damage from the attacks instead of just one per attack. Though why your enemies would hit the face instead of killing the Animated Armor... yeah. He's a low-attack high-health minion, so maybe you can Inner Fire it as a Priest and have this powerful 9/9 wrecking house... that your opponent can kill without taking any damage to their minions. Um yeah.
- Cons: I think I have articulated myself clear enough in the previous paragraphs. Basically, all he does is add 9 extra health to your hero and gives your enemies free trades to murder him. He also costs six mana... you're definitely better off putting in the likes of Emperor Thaurissan, Justicar Trueheart, Sunwalker, Cairne Bloodhoof or any far more useful other six-drops in the game.
- Conclusion: Bolf isn't completely worthless -- I've actually been helped out a couple of times by him in an Arena run -- I'm sure there are some people out there who can really do awesome stuff with intercepting spell damages and whatnot, but most of the time Bolf won't really do much. I mean, sure, he can trade so he's far more flexible than just giving your hero +9 Armor or whatever.
Justicar Trueheart
- Who is She? The Argent Justicar known as Mariel Trueheart is a female human in service to the Argent Crusade, and is one of the main quest-givers for the Argent Tournament area/event thing. She also apparently defeated and chained up the Val'kyr sisters all by herself.
- Using this card: Justicar Trueheart is an insanely powerful card for control players. Her upgrades for Rogue (equip a 2/2 weapon), Shaman (choose a totem) and maybe Hunter (3 face damage instead of 2) might be underwhelming, but the rest of the class really benefit from her upgrades. Druids double the attack and armor they get! Mages deal 2 damage anywhere! Priests heal 4 health! Paladins summon two tokens! Warlocks get a free draw! The tempo loss made by Justicar Trueheart's weak trading skills really is offset by how awesome the improved hero powers are, and it is especially true for Warriors and Priests. I have faced Control Warrior decks who recover from single-digit health to eventually overpowering me by virtue of gaining 4 armour per turn for the cheap cost of 2 mana. It's an extremely popular card in Control Warrior and Control Priest decks, and a fair amount of mid-range paladins also use it. Hell, after talking about Bolf Ramshield (who has the potential to absolutely do nothing but soak up 9 damage and not hurt your opponent one bit), Justicar Trueheart makes a huge impact on the battlefield and it's a shame, really, that the two are of the same rarity.
- Cards that work well with this: Basically the entire Control Warrior shebang. The sheer speed that a Justicar Trueheart empowered Warrior can just tank up their Armour is unreal, and it helps with things like Shield Slam and simple hero attacking survivability. A Paladin swarming the field with two Silver Hand Recruits per turn can get some real value with Knife Juggler, Quartermaster (soon to be retired), Hobgoblin (also soon to be retired), Competitive Spirit and Warhorse Trainer. Priests healing for a lot is obvious synergy with all the heal-synergistic cards like Prophet Velen, Lightspawn, plus some insane damage potential if you pull off an Auchenai Soulpriest combo.
- Cons: Justicar Trueheart is a 6/3, so she's almost guaranteed to be dead by your next turn to something as small as a 2-drop Huge Toad, so there is that tempo loss. And your opponent sure as hell is going to kill off that scary 6-attack minion, you can bet that.
- Conclusion: Justicar Trueheart is one of the more popular cards in the mid-range and control decks, and with the advent of Reno Jackson decks that rewards you for having a wide variety of cards, she has been worming her way into many such decks simply by how permanent of an impact she makes to your hero power, and how insanely good this effect can snowball if allowed to. I honestly wasn't sure Justicar Trueheart was that good until I start meeting decks with her in them and her effect has been the literal linchpin between victory and defeat.
The Skeleton Knight- Who is He? The Skeleton Knight is one of the more unusual cards in the game, in that he is an alternate version of a card that already exists in the game. In WoW, the Black Knight (who is a Hearthstone card in the Classic set) is the final boss in the 'Trial of the Champions' dungeon, and on one phase of his battle the Black Knight sheds his armour and his rotting flesh and becomes, well, a skeleton. This card represent the Black Knight after his armour is shed... and, yeah, there's absolutely nothing within the Hearthstone game that really shows us that the Black Knight and the Skeleton Knight are the same person. Hey, maybe we can get alternate versions of important characters that became a sub-par card. Like Illidan Stormrage. Maybe make a new good Illidan legendary in full metamorphosis demon form, or his pre-corruption Night Elf form. Just a thought. I mean, the Black Knight is a bit of a side-note -- he's a freaking Monty Python joke, for crying out loud.
- Using this card: Skeleton Knight has a unique 'Joust' effect in that it works after the Skeleton Knight dies, whereas most other cards' Jousting effects happen when they enter the battlefield. There is a chance of you re-summoning the Skeleton Knight after it dies, which is supposed to make up for his rather lackluster stats of 7/4 for a six-drop... meaning anything as low as a four-drop can blow on it and it will crumble. In theory you could stuff it in a super-ultra-duper control deck with a huge chunk of large drop minions, but that's really impractical.
- Cards that work well with this: All the big-mana drops, I guess. In your deck. I dunno. Ancestral Spirit apparently works with this thing and allows you to get a copy in the battlefield while the original goes to either return to your hand or die.
- Cons: He has the stats similar to the Salty Dog, which despite costing one mana less is never used. I mean, sure, he can return to your hand... but the thing is, Jousting is really inconsistent, and you really only win jousts less than half the time. Even with a high enough mana curve in your deck, just what kind of control deck would justify running every single minion costing 5+ mana or more just to get this working? Hell, the Skeleton Knight doesn't even re-summon itself if it succeeds the Joust, it just puts itself into your hand, meaning you have to spend six more mana next turn. Hell, the Skeleton Knight doesn't even have Charge or Stealth (and turning him into, say, a 7/2 or a 6/2 Charge with the same effect would make it really insane), meaning even if you drop him into the field, your opponent is likely to kill him with a couple of weak minions before he could even deal that seven damage where it matters.
- Conclusion: Nah, it's really a bad card. Decent concept, really, that this undead warrior will continue returning back to life due to unfinished business or Monty Python jokes and whatnot, but it's honestly way too inconsistent and even if it works, it isn't guaranteed to last. I think this card is even worse than Gormok and Bolf, who at least have somewhat middling-decent stats even if they don't quite always work the way you want them to.
Chillmaw
- Who is She? Chillmaw probably isn't as prolific as the other named Frost Wyrms like Sapphiron (who starred in The Frozen Throne and was a boss in Naxxramas) or Sindragosa (the ultra-awesome Frost Wyrm Queen that Arthras summons in the Wrath of the Lich King trailer). I mean, yeah, Chillmaw's card here actually uses Sindragosa's TCG art, but hey, undead skeletal ice-breathing dragons are cool -- pun fully intended -- and no wonder the Lich King keeps a shit-ton of them around Icecrown.
- Using this card: Chillmaw is one of the few Dragon-support cards introduced in The Grand Tournament to help out the somewhat lackluster Dragon synergy from the expansion preceding it, Blackrock Mountain. A lot of the late-game dragons in this game don't really have an immediate impact on the game other than maybe Alexstrasza, and even then she is extremely situational. Nefarian, Chromaggus and especially Ysera are great, but you need to wait a turn or two before using the spells they give you. Onyxia's effect is really weak for her cost, Deathwing is awesome but impractical to use both effect-wise and cost-wise, Malygos really demands a spell-deck instead of a Dragon-synergy deck, and Nozdormu sucks. Chillmaw stands at 7 mana, a slot without a good dragon drop, and costs two mana cheaper than most of the other big dragons. She definitely helps to bridge the gap between the 5-mana dragons and the 9-mana ones, and while back before Standard it's hard to compete with Dr. Boom, with the bomb maniac retired for now Chillmaw might actually shine as an actual dragon in a dragon deck. She's certainly wormed her way into a lot of Paladin Dragon and Priest Dragon lists out there, and I have faced against a fair amount of dragons. Chillmaw has 6/6 stats, which is relatively poor for a 7-mana, but she's got Taunt (something no other dragon has), and a 3-damage AoE isn't anything to laugh at either -- it was certainly an unexpected and devastating counter to pre-nerf Grim Patron decks. It can cleanly wipe the entire board clean, while most mid-game dragon minions have slightly more than 3 health to help them survive it.
- Cards that work well with this: Well, dragon decks and dragon-synergy decks, obviously. Twilight Guardian, Blackwing Technician, Blackwing Corruptor, Drakonid Crusher, Twilight Drake, Volcanic Drake, Hungry Dragon, Azure Drake, Ysera, Nefarian, Chromaggus, Deathwing, Alexstrasza, Dragon Consort for Paladins, Twilight Whelp and Wyrmrest Agents for Priests... the 9-mana dragons (Ysera, Alexstrasza, Nefarian, Onyxia if you must) and Deathwing are particularly useful since they're likely to sit in your hand and help activate Chillmaw.
- Cons: The Deathrattle is likely to be popped by your opponent than by you, and there are ways to minimize damage to your minions if you're facing a Chillmaw. She also needs a dragon in-hand to activate, which, while not difficult if you're playing a proper Dragon deck, might not be always the case.
- Conclusion: Chillmaw is cool. Pun intended. Again. She might not always work out, of course, but her effect is definitely a great one and pretty impactful on the board for a relatively low-stat minion for her cost. With the Big Boom gone, Chillmaw has suddenly risen to the very top of the default 7-drop for Dragon decks. And, yes, dragon decks might not be particularly great yet at the moment, but it's certainly got a lot of potential and a lot of fun to play. I really wish I had a Chillmaw for dragon-building purposes...
Skycap'n Kragg
- Who is He? He is the insane orc pirate with a shark-jaw shoulder bracer, a hook-lance riding a giant parrot. JUST BECAUSE. Kragg's artwork is entirely original to Hearthstone, and while there is a male orc named Kragg in World of Warcraft -- a Hunter class trainer -- the fact that that Kragg is a generic orc and this Kragg is a parrot-riding pirate makes an argument for Skycap'n Kragg to be the third TGT-original character. Maybe. I dunno.
- Using this card: Skycap'n Kragg works on the same principle as cards like Molten Giant or Sea Giant, getting a discount in your hand for each condition that is met, and for Kragg, you get a reduction of one mana for each friendly pirate. He's the big pirate support card in this expansion, and definitely miles better than the m'eh Captain Greenskin we got from the basic set. The thing with pirates is that they are fragile, though, and there's way too little of them (unlike Mechs, Dragons and Murlocs) for them to really work well as a tribe. Kragg is also kind of weird as a Charge minion, which are generally have a higher attack to maximize the burst damage done. That said, though, you could potentially deal a eight damage for a small mana cost by dropping a discounted highly discounted Kragg, Shadowstepping it and then dropping him back on board. Ten if you have a Southsea Captain on board. But the thing is, again, Pirates don't exactly have a lot of good cards and while it's cool to get Kragg working on the off chance that it does, he's still too unwieldy and way too weak as a finisher compared to other big chargers like Doom Guard, Leeroy Jenkins, Argent Commander, Arcane Golem or a buffed-up Old Murk-Eye.
- Cards that work well with this: Shadowstep, obviously. And I guess all the Pirate cards.
- Cons: Again, there aren't a lot of good pirate cards out there. Ship's Cannon and Shady Dealer don't carry the Pirate tribe, One-Eyed Cheat and Salty Dog are fragile and never used, Southsea Captain is way too weak compared to other tribe-boosting cards, and the ones that Rogue decks use (Bloodsail Raider, Buccaneer, Southsea Deckhand) are early-game minions that will most certainly die before you get to a turn that you can drop Kragg for good value, Captain Greenskin and Dread Corsair don't have good Pirate synergy. Plus a bunch of Pirate cards are dependent on whether you have a good weapon in play, which means that it will delay Kragg entering the battlefield some more. Also, the fact that it's a 4/6 that can survive an initial trade... doesn't really work in its favour as a charger. Also, the fact that the Argent Commander exists, consistently costing 6 and you get a Divine Shield out of it, means that, y'know, unless we get a crapton of good pirate cards out there, Kragg won't see play.
- Conclusion: Skycap'n Kragg isn't necessarily a bad card. Imagine if this was a Murloc with the same effect instead of a Pirate. It would be so easy to drop this 4/6 Charger at turn 4 or 5 considering that most Murloc decks can probably swarm the board at around that point to bring Kragg down to a 4-mana or 3-mana card, which would be great value. The thing, again, is that Pirates aren't that conducive to swarming the board, and none of the Pirate cards have much synergy with each other. Maybe, like Murk-Eye, Kragg would suddenly gain great value when a bunch of great Pirate cards are released, hopefully before The Grand Tournament is outdated. Right now, though, it's definitely one of the weaker legendaries.
Icehowl
- Who is He? Icehowl is a big Northrend Yeti, and his backstory is basically the same with Gormok the Impaler. Captured and used to battle the adventurers in the Argent Tournament.
- Using this card: Icehowl is a 10/10 for 9 mana. With Charge! Shame he can't attack heroes. Of course, this isn't exactly bad, since this means Icehowl is meant to trade with enemies, killing those annoying Sludge Belchers, Druids of the Claw and Twilight Guardians, and definitely surviving whatever enemy it trades with. Icehowl definitely outclasses poor ol' Kragg. Icehowl is definitely one to control the board, while other big-maana minions finish off the hero's face. The thing is, Icehowl (alongside Ragnaros) is one of the few minions who give a big middle finger to the much-maligned Silence mechanic. You silence Icehowl? Tough luck, he can deal periodic 10 damage to your face now.
- Cards that work well with this: All the silence effects. Wailing Soul, though he's soon to be rotated out. Cards that grant Windfury from the Shaman arsenal might make him even more insane in board-clearing ability.
- Cons: The thing is, while you can direct where Icehowl's damage goes, he's still mighty expensive at 9 mana, and is still vulnerable to that fuckwad Big Game Hunter, still vulnerable to Shadow Word: Death, Polymorph, Hex and all the fun removal stuff. There really isn't much to justify running Icehowl as opposed to something more versatile and cheap like King Krush or Leeroy. Or, hell, even the aforementioned Ragnaros would be far more useful since he can actually still lob lava balls at the enemy's hero if he manages to clear the board, and doesn't even take damage from 'attacking'.
- Conclusion: Icehowl, again, isn't that terrible. He's just completely overshadowed by so many better choices for the late game. Most of the big-attack minions in the game are just bait for removal, and when you have a choice you would definitely want a big-attack card that you can direct where the damage goes. Icehowl does have Charge, ensuring that he wipes out at least a minion, but for nine mana that's such a steep price to pay. It's sadly doomed to probably never really be considered for a deck simply because of how impractical he is, and how much better other high-cost or high-attack minions are. Hell, I would even pick the likes of North Sea Kraken over this, and the Kraken is a common card. Maybe if it had a little bit more going on for it... alas, it's just another example of the Grand Tournament's unique but ultimately lackluster legendaries.
So, to recap...
Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane are well-statted cards that can potentially gain you great value if you have cards to support it, and buff cards are commonly seen in some classes. Justicar Trueheart and especially Chillmaw need a specific kind of deck, but Trueheart can be game-winning in some and Chillmaw is a pretty great card in a dragon deck. Nexus-Champion Saraad is just a decent, fun card, but nothing really special.
Gormok the Impaler and Skycap'n Kragg aren't necessarily bad, and when you manage to get their effect off they can deal a good chunk of damage, but the amount of setup and inconsistent work you need to get them going really isn't worth the subpar stats or replacing a far more consistent and useful card for your deck. Bolf Ramshield, The Skeleton Knight and Icehowl are definitely on the low tier of Legendaries and will sometimes either not do anything at all and die to removal(Icehowl at least will deal 10 damage before dying), and it is definitely better to, again, choose something less flamboyant or spectacular.
Yeah, that's a good half of the neutral legendaries being bad or unusable in a competitive gameplay, and the rest are just acceptable or average-ish. No wonder TGT was met with such lukewarm reception. Coming up next will be the Class Legendaries.
