Hearthstone: The Rest of Gadgetzan [Card Review]

 So yeah, we've got the rest of the expansion revealed a couple of days ago. It just took me a while to type up this review because I've been kind of busy. So we'll go with the more exciting class cards first before finishing up with, well, the less exciting neutrals. I'm very excited for Gadgetzan -- I think it's easily one of the best-designed expansions with a lot of the filler neutrals being very fun even if not all the cards are well designed (*cough*BackstreetLeper*cough*).

But hey, I'm excited for this. There's a lot of thought put into the design, especially from a visual standpoint -- I'm pretty sure that Gadgetzan has the best aesthetic of all the Hearthstone expansions, which isn't a low bar to clear. The Gadgetzan update hits our servers on 1st or 2nd December, which is in two or three days.

• Celestial Dreamer: [Druid] The Dreamer is a 3-mana 3/3, which is kinda sub-par, but she has a battlecry that turns her into a 3-mana 5/5 if a friendly minion has 5 or more health. Which might not be the hardest thing to pull off, considering, y'know, Jade Golems. It's slightly too gimmicky for my tastes, though, but it's definitely a very efficient minion that's meant to be played at a later stage... but you won't feel too bad playing on curve if you really have to. 

  

  Trying so hard not to be a joke

• Shadow Rager: [Rogue] Oh, hey, a Rager card that isn't entirely shit! I think Ice Rager was worth a chuckle, but Am'Gam Rager was just beating a dead horse with a stick. I was a little pissed when someone told me that they printed a fourth Rager card... until I saw it, and it's actually... not bad! It's not good, mind you -- a 3-mana 5/1 is still very fragile and won't survive the first trade, but it's got Stealth which suddenly changes everything. Sure, the Shadow Rager dies to any AoE, but it is significantly more durable than its cousins and more impactful than Moroes. With Rogues gaining access to Shadow Sensei, maybe this is the minion you want to buff? It's not the best card out there, but it's nice to have a Rager card that isn't shit. 
• Luckydo Buccaneer: [Rogue] The Luckydo Buccaneer is a 6-mana 5/5 Pirate, that becomes a 6-mana 9/9 if your weapon has 3 attack. The thing is... Blizzard nerfed Blade Flurry and never ended up giving Rogues those cool weapons that they said Blade Flurry was limiting the design space of. Whispers, Karazhan and Gadgetzan all didn't give Rogues a single weapon, so this kind of feels somewhat bad. It's in the perfect mana spot to be triggered by Assassin's Blade, though, so there's that, so maybe you play this in a Pirate Rogue? The Rogue kit is all over the place this expansion, though. They've got a little of the Jade Golem synergy, a little stealth synergy, a little miracle synergy and a little pirate synergy and I honestly would've liked them to just pick one or two and focus more on it. Though I'm definitely not in the group of people who's doomsaying about Rogue. Rogue isn't in a bad spot! It's just expensive to make a good Rogue deck -- they're perfectly fine even at the moment, and giving them the very powerful Jade Golem synergy is going to make them even more powerful. In other words, this is a good card if you're running Assassin's Blade or Deadly Poison. Otherwise, the Luckydo is better off waiting for a time when Rogues get better weapons.

  

  Sylvanas for your opponent,
  Big-Time Racketeer for you.

• Lotus Illusionist: [Shaman] Because Shamans don't have enough power. Lotus Illusionist is a 4-mana 3/5, barely a stat penalty, and if she gets to hit face, she gets transformed into a 6-mana minion. As we all well know, six mana is the premium statline for evolution and everything. Sylvanas! Cairne! Thaurissan! Aya! Savannah Highmane! And five health isn't too easy to take out on turn four. I guess she gets countered with taunt, but I like her. She's a very interesting card that has a chance to be very good, but at the same time gives the enemy a fair amount of time to remove. Again, Shamans are getting pretty decent cards this expansion, which are all fun-looking and not all overpowering which is nice. 
• Finders Keepers: [Shaman] Very simple card. For one mana, you discover a card with Overload. It also gives you Overload 1. Discover is a very powerful effect, yet still somewhat balanced, and Shamans definitely want Overload cards, who by and by tend to be really powerful. Lightning Storm, Lightning Bolt, Flamewreathed Faceless, Feral Spirit, Doomhammer, Lava Burst, Totem Golem, Jinyu Waterspeaker, Elemental Destruction, Ancestral Knowledge... the only real misses with this card are probably Dust Devil and Forked Lightning, and even those aren't half-bad. Whether you want to waste a card slot for it, though, is a whole other question entirely, and I think the answer leans to no. 
• Alley Cat: [Hunter] A 1-mana beast that summons a 1/1 as a battlecry. It's cute. Arguably better than Fiery Bat, since there are two bodies for your enemy to deal with. Also, it's cute. There's not really much to say about it. It's like a Living Roots that always summons two 1/1's... but they are beasts, so it's definitely powerful. I think I'll just breeze through the Hunter cards -- they're very simple and relatively decent cards.
• Smuggler's Crate: [Hunter] For 1 mana, give a random Beast in your hand +2/+2. Obviously very good -- you want to target your Dispatch Kodos and Rat Packs, but hitting basically anything else, like, Knuckles, or King Krush, or Savannah Highmane, are all great. It's definitely a viable turn 1 play, so long as, y'know, you do have a beast in your hand. Great card, just wonder what smuggling and crates have to do with beasts getting more powerful.
• Hidden Cache: [Hunter] A new hunter secret! You basically do the +2/+2-to-a-minion-in-your-hand effect when they play a minion. Again, even more buffs are great, and you'll probably want it in those kind of decks, but I'm not sure -- I'd rather have another minion to help play with the minion synergy. 
• Public Defender: [Warrior] 2-mana 0/7 with Taunt. The artwork of a Tauren lawyer is cool. The fact that this is basically a Shieldbearer on super-steroids? Not really. Yeah, it gets buffed with Stolen Goods, Grimy Goons synergy and Bolster, but I'd rather wait a turn or two and play something that's actually good. It's not the worst thing out there since in the end dropping even a 2/9 Taunt for 2 mana is half-decent, so in a proper deck he could be great, but it's not the most spectacular card out there.
• Sleep with the fishes: [Warrior] 2-mana, deal 3 damage to all damaged minions. Very... unconventional AoE, that's for sure. As long as you don't have any damaged minions on your side of the board (save for things like Acolyte of Pain), Sleep with the Fishes can be combo'd with Whirlwind or Ravaging Ghoul to just deal a 4-damage AoE on all your enemy's minions. Is it ever better than Brawl or Execute? I don't think so. Cool effect, though, and of course they're going to make a pun on the phrase in a gangster-themed set. 
• Hobart Grapplehammer: [Warrior] So, one of the few legendaries that was left to reveal was the Warrior legendary. Hobart is the smallest Warrior Legendary to date, a mere 2-mana 2/2... but he gives all weapons in your hand AND deck +1 Attack. It's comparable to the Mistcaller, except it affects weapons and doesn't have a crippling statline. It's another in a series of weapon-support cards Warriors are receiving alongside Grimestreet Pawnbroker and the Naga Corsair we'll talk about below, and with Upgrade and Bloodsail Cultist being available to Warriors, yeah, weapon-focused decks are having more and more tools. It's a very good card, as literally all but the worst Warrior deck run two Fiery War Axes. I don't think it's going to be an auto-include, but it's sure a very good card in decks with lots of weapons.
• Freezing Potion: [Mage] 0-mana freeze an enemy minion. Very simple card, cheaper than that one Spare Part card that does the same thing. It's a 'not bad' card to gain from the Kabal Courier, but definitely not one you want to put into your deck -- the effect's too weak, and even if it triggers Ice Lance and Cryomancer (below) Mages have so many better options to choose from. It does make Babbling Book and Cabalist's Tome a little worse, which is a good thing to keep those cards in check. 
• Cryomancer: [Mage] The Cryomancer is a 5-mana 5/5 that gains +2/+2 if the enemy is Frozen. On paper this is very good. A 7/7 for 5 mana is obviously great value, and a 5-mana 5/5, if you're really pressed for a body, isn't bad either. And Mages have a lot of freeze effects, with Frostbolt and Ice Lance in particular being very popular. But there's one real problem with Cryomancer and it's that it doesn't particularly synergize well with current decks. Tempo decks don't want minions that don't discount, generate or have effects with spells. Freeze decks want their consistency and stalling and Cryomancer doesn't work that well into that. Secret decks will, y'know, run predominantly secrets. Definitely a cool card with some cool artwork, though. See what I did there? Heh. Cool. Heh. 
• Greater Arcane Missiles: [Mage] Arcane Missiles on steroids! For a whooping seven mana, you deal three damage to three random targets. Now, interesting thought. Does spell damage enhance the damage-per-missile, or just adds a missile? The way Arcane Missiles work is that it adds a single missile... how will it work with these fatter missiles? In any case, it's a very respectable expensive spell that is a great option to put into Reno-Solia mage decks. As a standalone card it's perhaps worse than Firelands Portal, but it's definitely great if you get it for free.

  

  The Purify that Priests
  deserve.

• Kabal Songstealer: [Priest] This Arakkoa is a 5-mana 5/5 that silences a minion. Finally, a Silence Priest card that's actually good! Spellbreaker and Ironbeak Owl both suffer for having shitty stats for their mana cost, and while Spellbreaker is half-decent, it's still way too fragile since some one-drops can even deal with him. The Kabal Songstealer is a class card, though, and can afford to be stronger. He's a simple silence minion, but the 5-mana 5/5 body is a lot more durable and exciting, and definitely better than Mass Dispel and Silence at disabling enemies.
• Greater Healing Potion: [Priest] More potions! The Greater Healing Potion is a 4-mana spell that restores twelve health. Holy mother of fucks, yeah, for all of you complaining that Paladins get all the best healing, they're definitely compensating with this. It's a great healing tool, that's for sure. Whether Priests will want to run it... I don't think Dragon Priest will run this, but it's definitely a very good, unconditional Twilight Darkmender -- it's cheaper, heals more and doesn't require C'Thun triggers, but it doesn't come with a body. Definitely an inclusion in Reno Priest decks. To note that this is specific to friendly characters, though, so no Auchenai shenanigans with this one. Which is fine.
• Unlicensed Apothecary: [Warlock] The Apothecary is a 3-mana 5/5 Demon! Which is pretty awesome stats, of course, but as all well-statted demons the Unlicensed Apothecary has a drawback, which is dealing 5 damage to your hero if you play another minion while he's alive. The solution, of course, is just not to play any other minions while the Apothecary runs amuck in the field. Warlocks are getting more and more good spells to play around with anyway so you can just theoretically buff up the Apothecary with things like Demonfire or Bloodfury Potion and just have him dismantle the enemy. Even if he eats like a removal or something, chances are you might've just summoned a 3-mana 5/5 for free. Pretty cool card. I love it.  
• Crystalweaver: [Warlock] A four-mana 5/4 that buffs all your demons by +1/+1. Very good addition to zoo Warlock, actually, and any demon synergy cards are very much appreciated. Warlocks love swarming the board with cheap demons like Voidwalker, Flame Imp, Imp Gang Boss and the like, and the Crystalweaver doesn't even get a stat penalty for his buff effect. Pretty simple card, but a cool addition to the Warlock arsenal. 
• Blastcrystal Potion: [Warlock] What an interesting potion! Again, this really pushes the potions as primarily removal tools (with the exception of the odd buffing potion that Warlocks get). The Blastcrystal Potion is a four-mana assassinate... except you're still paying five mana, since you're destroying your own mana crystals. Obviously in the late-game it doesn't matter, and Warlocks having a relatively cheap removal option is definitely appreciated. Again, the Kabal classes all need alternate means to do things like removal or deal damage to properly construct a Reno deck, and Blastcrystal Potion is a pretty cool way to do it. 

  

  Not a vampire, despite her
  fashion sense.

• Kabal Trafficker: [Warlock] I love this card! Again, I love how demon-y the Warlock kit for Gadgetzan is, and after a string of expansions where Warlocks have kind of lost their way and are just given weird things like cutlery and fat councilmen, they're returning to more demon synergy. The Trafficker is a very fair card, a 6-mana 6/6 that gives you a random demon to your hand at the end of each turn. It's very powerful, and its statline isn't half bad. I mean, sometimes it's probably not the demon you want -- having things like Pit Lord or Abyssal Enforcer isn't always good, and you don't want to play them all the time, but by and by demons are really good. Which brings us to...
• Krul the Unshackled: [Warlock] Remember Voidcaller? The little shadowy demon that summons a demon from your hand for free? Well, Krul the Unshackled is the boss of all Voidcallers. He's got a very awesome art, and probably hangs out with Raza in the 

  

  Demons are back!

  weekend to compare glowing chains. Krul is a 9-mana 7/9, not terrible stats, and his battlecry is summon all demons from your hand. It's the Deathwing Dragonlord effect, but it happens as a battlecry and not as a deathrattle, and unlike dragons, you actually don't want the battlecries of many demons. Like, Flame Imps, Pit Lords, Doomguards, Succubi... you don't want their battlecries to go off. And with the Kabal Trafficker giving your hand some demon replenishment since you're likely to have played a fair amount of demons through the game, Krul being awesome is definitiely likely. Even summoning a Jaraxxus for free isn't half-bad, and neutral demons like Malchezaar or Illidan aren't even terrible to bring out with Krul. Of course, you need to run a Reno deck to activate Krul, but Reno Warlocks are fun anyway so why not? Definitely one of my favourite legendaries in the set. 
• Genzo, the Shark: Genzo is a neutral 4-mana 5/4 with a Jeeves-esque effect where both players have to draw until they have 3 cards, but instead of happening at a set time, Genzo's effect happens when he attacks. It's a simple effect and probably cool for decks that have trouble refreshing their hand (Hunters, I'm looking at you) and definitely decent in Zoo. While unique it's slightly boring, but it can be pretty scarily effective. We'll see. I do love how he's holding actual Hearthstone cards with alternate card-backs.

  

  On Saturdays he goes
  bowling with Yogg-Saron.

• Mayor Noggenfogger: The final legendary of the set, Mayor Noggenfogger is an actual character from World of Warcraft -- one of the few Legendaries  from this set to actually be from Warcraft -- and he's featured pretty prominently in the preview newspapers. Unfortunately, his card is kind of shit. He's a 9-mana 5/4, which is atrocious stats, but he'd better have a great ability, right? Nope, it's just, well, all targets are chosen randomly. Presumably this means spells and minions, so it's hard to remove even a 5/4 when you can't aim where that Druid of the Claw is hitting, but at the same time, you're still not getting anything from spending 9 mana, because your targeted spells and minions go haywire too. The only good place to play Noggenfogger is if your opponent's board is full, so there's a very huge chance the minions just hit each other, but if you're going to go for a gambit like that why not just play Yogg-Saron instead, who might actually be advantageous to you?



Probably gets bullied by
Onyxia and Nefarian.





• Wrathion: Behold, the son of Deathwing! Why isn't he a dragon? Just because he's in his human form doesn't mean he's not a dragon! But, man, I love Wrathion, and he's like the only character in the entire set to be an actual Warcraft character -- and it's testament to the team's designing quality that I don't mind dudes like Kazakus, Han'Cho, Aya, White-Eyes, Solia and Krul because their artwork and the sheer story given to us via the newspapers and blog posts really paint them as colourful personalities that the lack of actual proper characters isn't distracting at all. But Wrathion is a character, the good-aligned son of Deathwing, and possibly the final surviving black dragon. Wrathion is a 6-mana 4/5, which is two mana too expensive for his statline... but he lets you draw cards. How many, you ask? Potentially your entire deck, if your entire deck is made up of dragons. You draw a card, and if it's a dragon, you draw another card until you reach something that isn't a dragon. So if you strike out, you basically spend 6 mana to summon a 4/5 body and draw a card. Which... is kinda bad but not that bad. if you're lucky, you get a free Arcane Intellect or Nourish. The trick, really is how many dragons you need in your deck to make this consistent? Put in too much and you'll mill half your deck when Wrathion hits the board. Put in too little and both dragon-synergy effects and Wrathion's effect will fail to pop off. It's definitely a card that I love the design of, and I really wished there were more excavation-style effects like him.
• Weasel Tunneler: A very interesting neutral epic card, the Weasel is a 1-mana 1/1. Bad, right? Yeah, pretty bad. You want at least a 2/1 for your 1-drop, and even then the 2/1 needs to have an effect or two. But the Weasel's a 1/1 that has the Deathrattle of shuffling itself into your opponent's deck, potentially fucking up a draw or two when they desperately need a removal or a minion and they draw this jerkwad instead. It's a very interesting card, like Dirty Rat, but ultimately you're sacrificing a slot or two in your own 30-card deck just to muck around with this. You could theoretically put this in a Beast Hunter or Beast Druid deck where you get the bonus of buffing the Weasel up and using him to trigger 'if there's a beast' effect since buffs don't get translated to the Weasel when he burrows into your enemy's deck. A very, very unique card, but one that might make your deck weaker by playing him. Love the design, though.
• Gadgetzan Socialite: A 2-mana 2/2 that restores 2 health as a battlecry. Very simple card, basically a scaled-down Earthen Ring Farseer and more neutral healing options for classes that need them, or for Reno decks. Not much for me to say about it. 
• Street Trickster: A neutral 3-mana 0/7 with Spell Damage +1. It's also a demon, for all it's worth, making him in a very exclusive club with legendaries Illidan and Malchezaar as neutral demon cards. Unless you're gunning for Priest Inner Fire hijinks, why would you ever play this card over Kobold Geomancer? Kinda bad. Cool artwork, though I'm surprised he's not like Kabal-exclusive or anything.

  

  That's CAPTAIN Small-
  Time Buccaneer to you.

• Small-time Buccaneer: A neutral pirate that looks like a gnome cosplaying as Captain Jack Sparrow, the Small-time Buccaneer (no relation to the Buccaneer) is a one-mana 1/2 Pirate that is a 3/2 as long as you have a weapon equipped. It's an inversion of the popularly played Pirate cards normally buffing your weapon, and it's more akin to the Bloodsail Raider (gain charge if you have a weapon) or Dread Corsair (discounted cost if you have a weapon). Is he going to be impactful enough, though? Having an early game is great, but most Pirate classes already have them in the form of Swashburglar and regular-Buccaneer for Rogues and N'Zoth's First Mate for Warriors. It's a decent card, but not one I'm especially excited about.
• Blubber Baron: The Blubber Baron is a 3-mana gains +1/+1 every time you play a Battlecry minion while he's in your hand. Like Bolvar, but a lot easier to trigger. He starts off pretty badly, though, and you need to play at least three battlecry minions before he starts to get good. Won't be seen anywhere but arena, I think, but man, what a funny looking artwork.
• Defias Cleaner: The Defias Cleaner is a 6-mana 5/7, fair single-point-penalty stats, with the effect of silencing a Deathrattle minion. Which... isn't bad! Relative to his cost, the Defias Cleaner is more cost-efficient than Spellbreaker and definitely moreso than poor Ironbeak Owl, and Deathrattles are pretty high on the list of cards that are great targets for silence. Ultimately I don't really see him being run other than in Reno decks, but he could be cool. Hell, he could be used on your own minions, which could be used on... Moat Lurker? The Beast? Eh. Decent arena card. The fact that the Grimy Goons are going to have a relatively huge presence in the Gadgetzan expansion means that, well, sometimes you really want to silence things that aren't Deathrattle minions and that makes the Defias Cleaner bad. Just play a Spellbreaker. 
• Naga Corsair: The Naga Corsair is a neutral Pirate, with a very nice 4-mana 5/4 statline. She gives your weapon +1 Attack, which is also pretty good, again, being great in Rogues and particularly Warriors. Bloodsail Cultist Warrior decks need more weapon support to help buff their Arcanite Reapers to even bigger heights and while the Naga Corsair doesn't exactly give durability, making her slightly worse than the Cultist or Upgrade, she's a decent body that also helps trigger Bloodsail Cultist. She's a decent card, that's for sure.
• Red Mana Wyrm: So it's a Mana Wyrm on steroids. Like, Kazakus's red mana (which sadly isn't an in-game feature, neither is Kazakus's giant dragon form) is like magical steroids. So the Mana Wyrm doubles its stats into 2/6, and its effect doubles into gaining 2 attack per spell casted. His cost also balloons up to... six mana? Okay, that's just insanely expensive. At four he'd be a very powerful card, at five he's decent... but six? Also, the Red Mana Wyrm is a neutral card, which boggles me. Why can't he be given to Mages? Or make him a tri-class card? I dunno. It's just whatever.
• Streetwise Investigator: Rogues get Stealth and Stealth-buffers this expansion as their little gimmick, and this one asshole just wants to rain on their parade. He's a 5-mana 4/6 neutral that basically makes all Stealth effects on your enemy disappear, like a very expensive but neutral Flare. It's like Eater of Secrets where it's a great tech card if you're facing a class that runs Stealth. Otherwise, I don't think he'll see much play. 

  

  Imported from Pandaria.

• Ancient of Blossoms: 6-mana 3/8 with Taunt. Oh, and he's a neutral. It's a bit weird why this Ancient of Blossoms is a neutral card instead of a Druid card, and why it's wandered all the way to Gadgetzan of all sets. It's not a very good Taunter, I think? It's a Fen Creeper that costs 1 more mana and has two more health, and while I'd pick this over Lord of the Arena... at the end of the day unless you're playing some serious Bolster shenanigans it's not going to have too much impact. And even if you need a mid game taunter wouldn't you rather play things like Druid of the Claw or Allery Armorsmith? It is a neutral so it might see some unexpected uses, but I don't think it's going to be that good.

Hearthstone: More Jade Lotus [Card Review]

 So, a couple of hours after I finished typing up this batch of cards, they revealed the whole Gadgetzan set in one of those 'get Frodan to play decks without knowing what's in them' things, which is always hilarious. But that's going to be a huge, huge article, so have the rest of the Jade Lotus cards -- apparently these are all we're getting in terms of Jade Golem synergy.

• Virmen Sensei: The Virmen Sensei (who has received a massive redesign to be a cool rabbit-man instead of WoW's Virmen design: a rat with rabbit ears) is featured very prominently in the trailer and I honestly half-expected him to be a legendary card or a new character. But it's just a Druid minion. The Virmen Sensei is a 5-mana 4/5, which is one mana cost worse than his actual cost, and he gives a friendly beast +2/+2... more Beast Druid synergy which I honestly didn't expect at all. Obviously comparable to the Hunters' Houndmaster, which gives Taunt in addition to the buff. Houndmaster's got slightly worse stats, but Houndmaster also costs a whole mana point cheaper. Virmen Sensei also has even more things going against him in that a typical Beast Druid already plays Druid of the Claw, Menagerie Warden and Stranglethorn Tiger on turn 5, all of which are far more powerful than Virmen Sensei. I guess it's another option for Druids to buff beasts, but I dunno. This feels like too weak of a card.

  

  ...why does a fish-man even need a boat?

• Gadgetzan Ferryman: Okay, so this card got a huge crapton of flak from the community, who marked it as the next Purify. I actually had a version of this review that I typed up before I saw the community feedback, but didn't publish because I wanted to wait for the huge card dump on monday. And the Ferryman is honestly not that bad! Unlike Purify, which is almost always bad unless in a very specific situation in a very specific deck, or the Toxic Sewer Ooze that is strictly worse than the Acidic Swamp Ooze, the Gadgetzan Ferryman is arguably a card I'd rather have in my deck than the Youthful Brewmaster. It's a 2-mana 2/3, basically vanilla stats, with a Combo that is basically the Brewmaster effect. Yes, it's weird that sometimes the value of a card lies in its effect not activating... but flexibility is a good thing that the two Brewmasters don't have, and if this was a neutral card it would definitely go in all my Reno decks. (Shame that the Ferryman is in the Jade Lotus and not the Kabal). It's another effect available to Rogues that recycles cards like the two Brewmasters, the Shadowcaster, Gang Up and Vanish... is it a good card? Definitely no. Is it a BAD card? Also definitely no. It's a perfectly fine card and I think the community is being ridiculously harsh on him.
• Daring Reporter: A 4-mana 3/3 that gains +1/+1 each time your opponent draws a card. So your opponent faces a 4/4, and it's got some nice artwork! The reporter has been hinted multiple times as a recurring character in the Gadgetzan news reports that's been popping around the community, and it's nice to have her in card form. She's an anti-draw tool, and one that's meant to punish card draw engines. Coming out at turn 4 means she's right on time to intercept those Nourishes and Azure Drakes, and she's especially powerful against Mages' Arcane Intellect and Rogues' Gadgetzan Auctioneer combos. But will she see play as a tech card? She's certainly a lot better than the Hogriders, and while a +1/+1 buff isn't as strong as the Burgly Bully's free coin gimmick, it's still pretty cool, and if nothing else forces a removal from your opponent.
• Shadow Sensei: Another Klaxxi, yay! A Rogue 4-mana 4/4 that gives a Stealth minion +2/+2. This was what everyone was expecting, something that buffs Stealthed minions. Suddenly Jade Assassin, Jade Swarmer, Shaku the Collector and the neutral Finja become somewhat more appealing... but hopefully the Shadow Sensei isn't the only one Stealth buffer. As a 4-mana 4/4 that grants a +2/+2 buff, Shadow Sensei is... okay. It's easier to keep Stealthed minions alive, obviously, but there are better things Rogue can do on turn four than buffing stuff. In theory you get a total of 12 stats for four mana, which is a lot more economical compared to the Virmen Sensei up there. Rogues definitely need more cards like this to really compete with the sheer power that the other classes are getting, and the Sensei certainly looks to be a step in the right direction. But since we're not getting any other Stealth support cards ,well, this will end up being like TGT-era Beast Druid, where there are decent tools available but there's nowhere enough to really make a deck. 
• Jade Claws: Shaman 2-mana 2/2 weapon that summons a Jade Golem as a battlecry. It probably will simply just be swapped out for Spirit Claws in Jade Golem oriented decks. It's a weaker Fiery War Axe -- if we take the overload 1 as cancelling out the Jade Golem advantage -- but it allows Shaman to snowball with Jade Golem as early as turn 2, and the Jade Claws looks to be a lot more reliable and less fragile than the Rogues' Jade Swarmer. 

  

  4-mana 7/7? 0-mana 5/5?
  Yeah, Shamans. We see you.

• White Eyes: Aya Blackpaw's bodyguard from the trailers and preview material, White-Eyes the huge, silent warrior (who might or might not be just a Jade Statue?) is the legendary for Shamans. White Eyes is a 5-mana 5/5 Taunt... that shuffles 'the Storm Guardian' into your deck as a Deathrattle. It's a good thing that it's a Deathrattle, to be honest, because the Storm Guardian? He's a 5-mana 10/10 with Taunt. Goodbye, 4-mana-7/7 and 0-mana-5/5-Taunt, Shamans have a new super-efficient super-statted minion to play with! It's very great value, and it's balanced, too. I don't think you put this into the already oppressive midrange Shaman deck, because it's a much slower card. And 5-mana for 5/5 with Taunt is barely better than the (horrible) Booty Bay Bodyguard, so White Eyes' base body kind of sucks. This is definitely a powerful card, though. Like Elise, sooner or later you draw into the card shuffled into your deck and then BOOM! Your enemy is forced to bring out an answer to the Storm Guardian. Even if the Storm Guardian himself ends up eating like a Hex or Shadow Word: Death, that's still a removal you force out of your opponent. It's not as good or consistent as the Flamewreathed Faceless, which are two 4-mana 7/7's in your deck from the get-go... you have to draw White Eyes and have him die (without him being entombed, hexed, polymorphed, devolved, earth shocked etc) before the 5-mana 10/10 taunt gets shuffled into your deck. So it's balanced, I think, and nowhere as insanely powerful as it appears to be. 
• Sergeant Sally: Sally is a police gnome! She's not a very good police gnome if the amount of criminals in Gadgetzan is in any indication -- and apparently she's a super devil-may-care ultra-reckless 'use the bad guys' superweapons against them' type of crazy cop. But she's got fancy alarm shoulder-pads. That counts for something, right? She's a 3-mana 1/1 with the deathrattle of dealing her attack damage as AoE... but her 1/1 body makes her a bit of a weak thing. I mean, you get an arcane explosion as a deathrattle to a 3-mana minion, but like Abomination or Chillmaw, she's not that good because the enemy can trigger the Deathrattle. You could buff Sally up with Grimy Goon cards, but I don't think that's the way to play her since that'll make her hard to kill off yourself. You could buff her up with Cold Bloods and Abusive Sergeants and run her into something to set off a massive 3-mana AoE, or use things like Ysera's Nightmare or Power Overwhelming -- since she's going to die if those cards are used on her, why not buff her up and deal some huge damage, and then burn the board? I dunno. It's a bit too gimmicky to really see play in my opinion, though, even if a neutral board-clear is pretty good... but definitely a very interesting card. Absolutely love the cameos in the wanted posters, though. Annoy-o-tron, Edwin Van Cleef, Boom Bot, Swashburglar, Deathwing, Possessed Villager, a random Murloc and... BEN BRODE! That made me laugh.

Hearthstone: The Jade Lotus! [Card Review]

 So, the Grimy Goons has had a theme of having many cards buff up minions (and sometimes weapons) in your hand, a boring but theoretically very efficient gimmick. The Kabal has a gimmick of many Potion spells and Reno-style cards with powerful effects if your deck is tailored with only a single copy of each card... though the Kabal honestly has had relatively few card reveals compared to the Goons and not a lot to really embody the cohesive theme. I suspect they're still holding back a fair amount of the more exciting cards -- we have barely seen the Warlock set, in particular -- but now it's the time for the Jade Lotus to shine.

(Plus a couple of other cards from the Kabal, but mostly the Jade Lotus)

Angry that people are
smuggling him everywhere.

So a short while after Raza the Chained was revealed, we get a weird Druid card, the Jade Blossom, shown to us. It's a 3-mana spell that basically lets you do the Wild Growth effect and summon a 'Jade Golem'. Bizarrely, unlike most other summon cards just what a Jade Golem is is not stated ('summon a 4/5 Baine Bloodhoof', 'summon a 1/1 Icky Tentacle') so people are speculating that Jade Golems are going to be a token common to the Jade Blossom cards, somewhat similar to the 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits that Paladins utilize. I mean, the little blurbs and blogs do hint at the Jade Lotus smuggling jade statues and jewels here and there.

Except I don't think people expected Hearthstone to do something as cool as a token that scales. I mean, like, sure, fanmade ideas do all sorts of cool shit like this, but I don't think anyone expected them to actually work and be implemented into the client. The Jade Golem basically is a token that gets summoned stronger and stronger into the battlefield. So, for example, you play a card, and it summons a Jade Golem. You get a 1/1. The next card you play will then summon a 2/2 Golem, then so on and so forth up to a maximum of 30/30, it seems.

Which is honestly pretty sweet. So you basically snowball out of control by spamming so much of these Jade Golem cards that the enemy can just watch helplessly as you get to the late game and, like, do a couple of spells and suddenly a 11/11 and a 12/12 just appears in the field.

I think it's my favourite gimmick out of the three classes. The Kabal one is just, well, crazy but ultimately Raza and Kazakus aside the rest of the Kabal are just permutations of things we've already seen before. The Goons are probably the most efficient, but adding +1/+1 isn't just as flashy as summoning ever-expanding Jade Golems.

Anyway, card reviews. I remain relatively optimistic that the Jade Golems are going to be useful if the classes that use them survive to the late game, and with Shamans (who get free Evolve targets to boot) and Druid (ramp up very quickly) at least they seem to be able to do so. Rogues I'm less certain about, but we haven't seen a lot of Rogue cards yet. Needless to say, the Jade Golem minions are all very powerful with Brann Bronzebeard.

• Burgly Bully: A couple of quick errant dudes that aren't part of the Jade Lotus! The Burgly Bully is a rather ugly-looking Trogg that's a 5-mana 4/6 that adds a coin to your hand whenever the opponent attacks. Unlike the GvG Troggs, this ensures that you get something out of the Burgly Bully if the opponent uses a single spell to take him out... but that, of course, is assuming the opponent uses a spell to take him out. Though, granted, he is a 4/6 instead of a 2/3 or a 3/5 like the two other Troggs, and he's a lot cheaper than Troggzor. Having coins in your hand is very cool especially if you're a Rogue, but chances are in Constructed you won't be able to fit this dude in your deck since he doesn't really do much. It's nice to have more anti-spell cards, but ultimately Burgly Bully just doesn't do enough in my opinion. He's going to be great in arena, though. 
• Mana Geode: PRIEST FINALLY GETS A 2-DROP! It's not quite what Priest is looking for, but it's definitely miles and miles more appropriate and more needed than the very specific Wyrmrest Agent or the relatively disappointing Museum Curator. The Mana Geode is a 2-mana 2/3 that summons a 2/2 every time you heal him, which is pretty cool and insane value. Obviously the idea is to buff the Geode up with things like Power Word: Shield, Kabal Talon-priest and Power Word Tentacles to give this little rock friend more health so it can survive and continually spawn 2/2 tokens, which would be a pretty powerful effect. It's basically a far more powerful version of the Silver Hand Regent, and while it's not utterly game-breaking, I find the Mana Geode a very interesting card that I'm sure people will experiment with. Whether it's the 2-drop that priest needs, though, remains to be seen. 
• Jade Blossom: Finally, we return to the Jade Blossom, which I tried to review without the context as to what a Jade Golem is. I thought it was going to be like a 2/2 token or a 2/1 token, which honestly is decent enough. Mire Keeper gets along by being a 4-mana ramp that summons a weak 3-drop body (3/3), but has the additional flexibility of being able to trade in the ramp for a 2/2 token. Darnassus Aspirant has no stat penalties, being a 2-mana 2/3 that ramps, but her free mana crystal disappears with her death. Jade Blossom? It's a 3-mana Wild Growth, which means it costs a mana more to ramp... but on the other hand you get a Jade Golem. Which is probably going to just be a 1/1 or a 2/2 this early in the game, but it helps to build up larger Jade Golems in the future. It's a bit hard to evaluate the Jade Golems, because if Jade Blossom is the first Jade card you play, then it is "3-mana: gain a mana crystal, summon a 1/1" which is bad. But if it gets to summon a 3/3 then it's fair, and if it summons something big, like, gain a mana crystal and summon a 7/7? That's really wild. Especially in the super-late-game. I'm not sure if Jade Blossom will give the Excess Mana card, but 3-mana summon a 10/10 and draw a card is insane value and Ancient of Lore is just weeping in a corner.

  

  Adorable AND comes
  with a free buddy!

• Jade Spirit: Jade Spirit is a Pandarian elemental spirit, which is one of my favourite designs from World of Warcraft that I'm absolutely happy finally made their way into Hearthstone. It's a very shittily-statted card, a 4-mana 2/3. But it summons a Jade Golem! So at the absolute worst, Jade Spirit is a 2/3 that summons a 1/1, which, again, is shit. If it summons a 2/2 Jade Golem then it's a Barnes that didn't pull out anything good. From 3/3 and above, though, you gain relative value for your 4-mana. So that appears to be the theme, I think. The first two Jade Golem cards you play are going to be a shitty tempo loss, but as the time goes on they get stronger and stronger. Jade Spirit, by the way, is the Jade Lotus's second Tri-Class card after the boring 'discover a card from each class' one. 
• Jade Lightning: Jade Lightning is a Shaman card that costs 4 mana, and deals 4 damage, and also summons a Jade Golem. Assuming that summoning a Jade Golem is budgeted at around 1.5 to 2 mana, then Jade Lightning is a Stormcrack that can hit face, but also comes in at a far later turn. Is 4 damage still relevant at turn 4? My gut says yes, especially with the spell damage toys that Shaman play around with. No, Jade Lightning may be too slow to fit into a regular Midrange Shaman deck, but a Jade Golem Shaman deck? This would definitely be used. It does come it at 4 mana and that feels a little bad, but again, the Jade Golem lets you build up the stats of the Jade Golem pretty quickly and as we all know, Shamans love their 5/5's and 7/7's. I think it's a pretty cool card.

  

  Not sure about the strongest,
   but definitely the cutest.

• Aya Blackpaw: Whereas Don Han'Cho is a huge, big two-headed ogre gangster don with huge brass knuckles and a tommy gun, and Kazakus is a possibly-draconic Zandalari troll that dabbles in super-powerful potions and might employ mind-control to keep his Kabalists in line... Aya Blackpaw is just this cute little Pandaren girl... who has the power to summon ever-increasingly powerful Jade Golems, communes with the spirit of a forgotten Mogu King, and holds the vast Jade Lotus oragnization under her sway. Aya is the last of the tri-class cards for the Jade Lotus, and she's a 6-mana 5/3 that summons a Jade Golem both as a battlecry and a deathrattle. Even if you don't get a particularly huge Jade Golem, you still get value by sheer virtue of doing two buffs to the Jade Golem in that game, so at the very absolute worst (and you wouldn't want your first Jade Golem to drop at turn 6 if you're playing a Jade Golem deck) you're getting a 5/3 that summons a 1/1 and a 2/2, which is 7/6 stats at total for the absolute worst. You're far more liable to get larger golems than that, though. She's a potentially very powerful card, and as a 5/3 she isn't a slouch herself, a small threat in the battlefield that gets removed easily enough for her deathrattle to trigger. She combo's well with Brann Bronzebeard, she combos decently enough with N'Zoth... and, shit, Shadowstep and Shadowcaster works wonders with Aya Blackpaw. Shadowcaster in particular. 
• Jade Shuriken: Comparable to Eviscerate, this Rogue spell deals 2 damage, but if you combo it, it summons a Jade Golem. Might not be the best and most efficient Rogue spell, because Rogues already do 2 damage for 0 mana, and it's hard for Jade Shuriken to compete with Eviscerate and Shadow Strike... but like all the arguments above, you get a free Jade Golem. Very powerful and very efficient if you get like anything more than a 3/3, a very shit turn for you if you just get a 1/1. Still, more cheap spells is great for Rogue.
• Hozen Healer: The Hozen Healer is a neutral card, a 4-mana 2/6 that restores a minion to full health. It's a bit of an interesting card, and might have some synergies with huge cards like Alley Armorsmith or Injured Blademaster, or indeed just any card with a huge health pool. It's geared more towards Priests methinks thanks to Priests generally buffing the healths of their minions and wanting those to stay alive, but I'm not sure about the 2/6 statline, though I'm sure Priests can make it work... with Auchenai this, I think, is a 4-mana kill a minion, get a 2/6, which is actually pretty freaking sweet, but even without the removal combo the Hozen is still quite decent of a card.
• Fight Promoter: Drawing cards is a powerful effect, and thus Fight Promoter is a pretty powerful card. She's a 6-mana 4/4, which is a bit of a weak statline, but if you control a minion with 6 or more health, she draws you two cards. A slightly more conditional and weaker (but cheaper) version of the old Ancient of Lore, and it's actually not that hard to pull off. By turn 6 there surely are a couple of minions with more than 6 health. The problem is whether Fight Promoter will trigger if the 6-health minion is damaged. So if I have like a damaged Doomguard or a damaged Flamewreathed Faceless, will the Fight Promoter trigger? My gut says no, which makes it a bit harder for her to really work, so... yeah. She looked like she had some potential, but I don't think she's as good as she initially looks to me. 
• Jade Swarmer: A Klaxxi! Yay! The Jade Swarmer is a 2-mana 1/1 Stealth with a Deathrattle of summoning a Jade Golem. The Deathrattle is good, but ultimately I think he only exists for Raptor shenanigans, and while he does have Stealth... what good is a Stealthed 1/1? Worgen Infiltrator is only good because of its 2 attack. If he was 1/2 instead Worgen Infiltrator would be monumentally bad. The Jade Swarmer is a minion that you do want to die, so the 1 health is ideal, but the 1 attack might not be so good. The existence of Shakru as the Rogue Legendary makes me want to think that there's going to be some insane card that combos well with Stealth minions, which would make the Jade Swarmer great, but as it is, I don't think I'll want Jade Swarmer on my deck even if I'm playing Jade Golems.
• Jade Idol: Living Roots will soon exit the metagame, but we get a 1-mana Choose One spell card to make up for it. And, boy, what an insane effect! For one mana, you can either summon a Jade Golem... or Gang Up the spell, that is, shuffle three of it into your deck. Obviously the plan is to load up your deck with Jade Idol cards, which would be relatively weak draws, but this card is excellent on two fronts. One is that it's one mana. One mana summon a 1/1 is bad, but you're definitely not doing that with your first Jade Idol you draw. Early on, though, adding a 1/1 token to start the Jade Golem synergy is good enough, while in late game you can just play three or four Jade Idol cards that you've shuffled into your deck and summon like a 6/6, a 7/7 and a 8/8 for three mana. Or maybe you shuffle that last Jade Idol into your deck and get three more Jade Golems out. With Fandral Staghelm on the board? Holy shitballs, man. This makes Druid basically have an infinite way to get more and more Jade Golems into the battlefield, basically ensuring that your late-game is set and that you won't run out of cards that spawn Jade Golems. The other? Is that Druid will never, ever go into fatigue with this deck, all the while summoning stronger and stronger cards. The weakness of this card, though, is that it will be a huge tempo loss early on when you first play it, and you don't want to just be drawing into Jade Idols especially in the early game. We'll see, though. Moreso than any other card on this list, Jade Idol has made me the most excited for the Jade Lotus archetype to be good.

  

  The Mrgrgrlgrl streets
  of Gadgetzan.
  

  
  

• Devolve: Well this was inevitable. And holy shit, look at the artwork! It's Don Han'cho, Aya Blackpaw and Kazakus as Murlocs! The three family leaders! That alone made this card a lark. This is how Hearthstone should do self-reference, not by printing zero effort crap like Backstreet Leper and Am'Gam Rager. Devolve is, well, basically Evolve, but reversed. And done on your opponent. It's 2-mana, which is still hideously cheap. It's not hard removal, of course, but in some cases -- like N'Zoth decks, or a board with an opposing C'Thun -- it's far better to not kill minions but polymorph them into something else. And there are only two polymorphs or two hexes in your deck... but with devolve? You'll basically make their Tirions, Sylvanases and Ragnaroses die not as themselves, and that's really powerful. You eliminate a bunch of Deathrattles, and while the enemy will still have a board you obviously follow it up with a Lightning Storm or a Maelstrom Portal. Of course you might just kind of roll bad RNG with this, and, like, turn a 5-drop into a Flamewreathed Faceless which would be harder to remove, or turn 7-drops into Sylvannases, Thaurissans and Cairnes (protip: never devolve 9-mana and 7-mana enemy minions!) but it's a very interesting card and one that I love dearly to really have some fun shenanigans with. 
• Call in the Finishers: More Murloc ninjas! On the surface, this is like a scaled-down version of Stand Against Darkness. Spend 4 mana to summon four 1/1's, and it's also remarkably similar to the I Am Murloc card from Elite Tauren Chieftain. But the fact that the 1/1s are Murlocs instead of Silver Hand Recruits makes Call in the Finishers a lot more powerful. Granted, four 1/1's get cleared by Arcane Explosions, Wild Pyromancers, Holy Novas, Maelstrom Portals and Fan of Knives remarkably easily, not to mention the slew of Kabal AoE cards... but four Murlocs might make all the difference. A single Coldlight Seer or a Murloc Warleader might be enough to buff the four 1/1 tokens. It's not the most spectacular card out there, but it combos remarkably well with Everyfin is Awesome, turning the card relatively cheap if a couple of the Murlocs survive. It's not the bet card out there... but it's going to be a great utility simply because it exists. Not a good card, but a fun one undoubtedly.
• Jade Behemoth: A huge jade Elekk that's 6-mana 3/6 Taunt that also summons a Jade Golem as a battlecry. At turn six you better have used a couple of Jade Golem cards, because a 6-mana 3/6 with Taunt is shit when Druids also have access to a 6-mana 5/7 Taunt, the Dark Arakkoa from C'Thun decks. If you pay 6-mana to summon a 3/6 Taunt and, like, a 5/5 Jade Golem, it's great value. But, again, we'll have to see if the tempo loss suffered in the early game by Jade Golem decks will be salvageable by the insane tempo swing that the larger Jade Golems will net you. Jade Behemoth's a decent card until then.

  

  Technically a Murloc.

• Jinyu Waterspeaker: In Chinese, 'Jinyu' literally means goldfish. Like, literally just goldfish. So all you English-speaking people out there just see the Jinyu as some oriental-sounding name, but they just sound funny to me. Anyway. The Waterspeaker is a 4-mana 3/6, which is premier stats if the likes of Priest of the Feast are anything to go by. It also restores 6 health as a battlecry, also a very premier healing punch. It's kind of like the Hozen Healer, but it has a specific quantity that can be directed to the face if needed. It also comes with a single Overload point, which, well, as Totem Golems will remind everyone, isn't the worst thing out there. It's a very efficient minion and while healing might not be what Shamans require the most right now -- and it certainly has no business in the totem-centric midrange decks that plague the ladder -- the Jinyu Waterspeaker is going to be a very interesting and powerful tool once the TGT/LOE midrange kit rotates out. One thing that they kind of missed out with the Jinyu is not making them Murlocs... because they are evolved and enlightened Murlocs in the lore. But then, hey. 
• Jade Chieftain: Another Shaman card, and an expensive one at that -- a 7-mana 5/5 minion that summons a Jade Golem... with Taunt. At 7 mana the Chieftain will be dropping with a well-buffed Jade Golem, so the reduction in stats honestly don't matter as long as you get at least a 3/3 to 4/4 Golem. Of course, it's a bit worse than Vek'lor, who only really needs two buff cards to be played earlier in the game, whereas the Jade Chieftain requires you to play around three or four to really be super-awesome, otherwise it's just a 5/5 with a small little taunt buddy that won't matter on turn 7. Again, if you get a 8/8 with Taunt it's awesome, but otherwise I feel that the Chieftain is a wee bit too slow. Cool concept, though.

Hearthstone: More Kabal Cards! [Card Review]

 Even more cards have been revealed. This week we get a lot of Kabal cards, almost all of them, and that makes next week the Jade Lotus's turn.

Last week we've got the Heroic Tavern Brawl thing going on, which seemed to be a mild success? I don't particularly care if it swung either way but there are a lot of people that are so passionate about tournament modes and all this working out, so I'm excited for their sake if nothing else.

Oddly, unlike the Grimy Goons, we barely saw a lot of new Kabal cards throughout this week. We saw like, oh, eight? Nine? Certainly we didn't see even half of the Warlock cards before switching to the Jade Lotus on Sunday. That's interesting...

• Bloodfury Potion: Warlocks get a potion, too, a 3-mana buff that gives a minion +3 Attack. Which is shit, considering Paladins have a one-mana spell that does the same thing. But on a demon, it's a +3/+3 buff, so you're almost always going to use the Bloodfury Potion on a Demon... but it's flexible enough that it becomes an inefficient but still playable buff when obtained by Mages, Priests or non-Demon Warlock decks. It's still pretty bad if you're not playing demons, though, and if anything it's a bit of a nerf to Kabal Cultist. I think Demonfire is better thanks to the flexibility of casting damage.
• Fellfire Potion: Another Warlock potion, this is yet another Hellfire effect similar to the Abyssal Enforcer. Fellfire Potion deals a whopping five damage to all characters for five mana... which compared to Priests' Dragonfire Potion just looks pitiful in comparison. Dealing 5 damage to every one of your minions and your face isn't a cheap effect to pay for an AoE, and unlike the Abyssal you don't even get a 6/6 left over as your board, and unlike Demonwrath and Dragonfire Potion you don't get selective sparing. It's not an unplayable card for sure, but unless Warlocks have some Violet Illusionist shenanigans this is going to be a card that rarely sees play... because if you need that kind of clear why not spare your poor soultapped face the pain and just run Twisting Nether?

  

  Azeroth's version of a
  drug dealer.

• Kabal Crystal Runner: Well, clearly Blizzard is trying to work on the logic that, hey, if Thing from Below made Totem decks work, clearly Mage Secret decks can be pushed with free 5/5's! The Crystal Runner is a 6-mana 5/5 that gets discounted by 2 for every secret played. And yeah, you have ways to cheapen Secrets like with Sorcerer's Apprentice and the new Kabal Lackey, but again... Mage Secrets are just so darn expensive and easy to play around, unlike Hunter's very variable secrets. The fact that the Crystal Runner is a vanilla 5/5 without Taunt (or the obvious Spell Damage) makes her far worse than Thing from Below. And mages tend to focus on spells instead of minions anyway. So yeah, I don't think people will really run this.
• Toxic Sewer Ooze: Did this dude get lost when they were rounding up the 'twisted version of older cards' theme for Whispers of the Old Gods? It feels so weird and out of place considering how cohesive the rest of the Gadgetzan block has been. Toxic Sewer Ooze (who looks like Alolan Muk in cherry flavour) has more in common with Bloodsail Corsair than it does with Acidic Swamp Ooze, though -- and Bloodsail Corsair saw no play elsewhere. Granted, a 3-mana 4/3 is somewhat better than a 1-mana 1/2, but the fact that all it does is remove a piece of durability instead of destroy it outright like his Acidic counterpart (and keep in mind Acidic Swamp Ooze doesn't even have a stat penalty) makes this a pretty bad card unless you're playing Arena, and even then he's just in the 'you could do worse than this' category. 
• Raza the Chained: Well this just makes Inkmaster Solia look...

  

  HE LOOKS SO AWESOME

    somewhat underwhelming in comparison. What a card! First of all, Raza the Chained looked awesome as all hell, but his effect is awesome. Raza drops in at turn 5, and he's a 5/5 so it isn't even a big stat penalty like Mistcaller or Volazj or whatever... and his effect? If you're running a Reno-style highlander deck, your hero power costs zero permanently. It's not while Raza is in play, it's not for this turn only. Permanently. And holy shit, this might just be the legendary that Priests need for their hero power to be a less-good version of Armor Up. Basically every turn you get two free mana that you have to use on your hero power, which is awesome. The fact that this wasn't tied to a minion the way Maiden of the Lake was is what makes Raza so powerful. And, man, the sheer power that you can abuse if you have Shadowform in play in addition to cards like Garrison Commander and Auctionmaster Beardo in play. Lo and behold if you manage to sneak yourself in a Coldarra Drake from the tri-class cards, you literally can use your hero power as much as you want. It's a good thing that Priest is the one that gets this card, because if this was given to Hunter or Warrior then it's just going to be abused to all hell since Warriors don't have an Armor cap. If Mages or Warlocks get Raza it's not bad either. Warlocks might have to think when to push the button due to the life loss, but Mages are perfectly happy with pinging things all day long. Also, Inspire minions are perfectly in love with Raza. Nexus-Champion Saraad is one that is dear to my heart and might just find a home in a Reno deck. And cards that simply benefit whenever something is healed, like Holy Champion? Or just straight-up beat Warriors in their own game with Sir Finley? Or Shadowform twice and just deal 3 damage every turn? Holy shit, what an awesome legendary Raza is. I don't want to prematurely call this overpowered, but... this is a very good card. 
• Jade Blossoms: We start off the Jade Lotus week with this Druid spell card. It lets us summon a 'Jade Golem' and gain an empty mana crystal for 3 mana. Which is yet another ramping tool. 3-mana is a mana spot in Druid that doesn't yet have a mana-ramp tool associated with it (2 has Wild Growth and Darnassus Aspirant, 4 has Mire Keeper and 5 has Nourish) and it's one mana more expensive... but we get a Jade Golem. Whatever the hell that is. We now know what the Jade Golem is! Next post we'll be covering the Jade Lotus cards, which are all extremely interesting. See you guys in a bit when we start covering the Jade Lotus.

Hearthstone: Grimy Goons and the Kabal [Card Review]

 Wow, they're trickle-feeding these cards very, very quickly, aren't they? There's like five to six new cards each day, and I love how they're focusing on the Grimy Goons first, even the neutrals that hang out and rock the style of mafias. At this point they're definitely gunning for a "Give X minion in your hand +1/+1" gimmick with all the goons, and the potential of discovering more Goon-buffing cards with things like Grimestreet Informant suddenly makes those cards more powerful somewhat.

The Kabal then get their turn for reveals since Monday after we wrap up the Grimy Goons, and we'll be covering every single card released until now in this post. Can I just say that how much I love the implementation of M:TG style multi-colour/class factions into Hearthstone? There's the fact that the Goons, Kabal and Lotus are just so freaking flavourful with the descriptions of their activities and their respective brands of crime, the nice little combination of tri-class cards and gimmicks is absolutely fun. I really want some actual multi-class cards and maybe when I'm not as busy I'll talk about older cards that could've been turned into multi-class cards. But as for now, Gadgetzan time!

Also can I just say that I absolutely appreciate how... quickly these cards are being revealed, relatively to the pretty agonizingly slow 'five cards a week' thing that went on for Whispers of the Old Gods and Grand Tournament? There's honestly sometimes a bit too much to process at once and I love it.

Also the Herioc Brawl is this week's Tavern Brawl. Good luck for all of you people confident enough in your abilities with a lot of gold to burn. I'm confident that I have a decent chance to break even, but at the same time I don't even have all the Classic cards yet and I'd rather spend my gold on Gadgetzan packs when the expansion hits. I mean, I have enough Old Gods cards as it is -- Xaril, Deathwing II and Ragnaros the Lightlord are really the only two that I want but don't have and I'd rather not gamble.

We last left off with Dispatch Kodo, so let's pick up the reveals since then...

The mrglrglglgggoons.

• Smuggler's Run: WHY IS THIS NOT A MURLOC-CENTRIC CARD? The artwork in this card is just so awesome. A bunch of crazy mafia murlocs on a motorbike? I saw the art panel on BlizzCon and I am very, very happy and just geeking out when the art director just talks about all the cool weapon concepts they did and used for these artwork, and shame on you for not clapping during his presentation. Smuggler's Run has an awesome artwork. Its effect is giving minions in your hand a mass +1/+1 for 1 mana, and most of the argument here is more or less the same with the other 'give minions in your hand +1/+1' argument. It's inconsistent for the random cards, you sacrifice early tempo for a sick late turn, and it's either going to be too slow or insanely powerful. Smuggler's Run is the spell version of it, and it's dirt-cheap, meaning that you might just want to consider running this instead of the 2-mana 1/1 Grimestreet Outfitter... but I dunno. It's decent. The dream, of course, is to play Smuggler's Run on turn one, buffing cheap minions in your hand, turning the Grimestreet Outfitter into a 2-mana 2/2 that buffs everything in your hand, which makes the Grimestreet [googles] Smuggler a 3-mana 4/6. That gives a third buff to another minion in your hand. If you're lucky enough to hit huge targets like Tirion, Sylvanas or Soggoth with it, or really buff up the new Paladin legendary, Burnbristle Whatshisface... hell, 5-mana 4/4 guy that buffs your hand at the end of each turn suddenly might drop as a 5-mana 6/6, which is scary. So yeah. How consistent these Goon buff decks will end up being is a question of seeing the whole set and playing with it, but the potential that multiple buffing cards have is just so much better than the paltry thing that Mistcaller does.
• Doppelgangster: It's a 5-mana 2/2 that summons two copies of itself as a battlecry. In other words, kind of like an Echoing Ooze, but you do the buffing while he's still in your hand. Obviously, with cards like Smuggler's Run and that one Paladin Grimestreet dude that buffs your entire hand instead of dealing random buffs, Doppelgangster can be horrifyingly powerful since he receives buffs in your hand. The thing is, spending 5 mana for three 2/2's is already a mana more efficient than the new Force of Nature, and thus is great in all Druid swarm decks... but a single buff makes it a 3/3 that summons two other 3/3's, which gives a grand total of 18 stats for 5 mana. And that's just with a single click in buffing. A pretty cool card, honestly wished Blizzard did more, well, 'wild' cards like this and the Dirty Rat. If you can get this buffed to monstrous amounts, the only real thing that can stand in its way is a Mass Dispel. And, well, once you're done trading with your small army of very efficient 5/5's? Evolve that shit! Three 6-mana minions aren't anything to scoff at, considering the power level of 6 mana.
• Grimestreet Protector: A 7-mana 6/6 with Taunt is massively understatted, but it does give adjacent minions Divine Shield. Meaning that it's good if you're already winning on the board, but it's not that good if you're behind. The 'adjacent minions' thing isn't something new, we've seen it with Flametongue or Defender of Argus, both of which also flop without friendly minions. I don't think that the Protector will end up being a staple. Maybe a one-off? Maybe simply because with all the buffing you do, it's likely to hit the board as a 7-mana 7/7 or 8/8. I dunno. Divine Shield isn't as permanent and bursty as an attack buff, so there's that.
• Grimy Gadgeteer: Another example of awesome artwork. Just look at the insanity on that goblin contraption o' doom! It's a 4-mana 4/3 for Warriors that's... easily one of the stronger cards in the Grimy Goons club, because it buffs cards in your hand +2/+2. Every turn, making it better than the, oh, Gnoll that hunters got. It's a very powerful card, but for that reason I don't see him surviving often.
• Thorium Knuckles: Okay, a 4-mana 2/3 weapon is shit, but the ability, buffing a minion for speaking the truth alone, is kind of shitty, to be honest. The Knuckles seem to be wholly generate, not rusted and generally I kind of panicked and brought the earphones alone. The Knuckles don't seem to be replacing Fiery War Axe too often.
• Rat Pack: A 3-mana 2/2 Hunter-only Beast that summons as much 1/1 tokens as the attack it has when it dies. So Houndmaster and Abusive Sergeant can hit this dude. The Deathrattle makes it more resistant to AoE's, unlike the Doppelgangster, but on the other hand... it's just a bunch of 1/1's. Obviously it's not a bad card, but after seeing what Hunters got to synergize with their 'buff minions in your hand' gimmick -- namely, the mini-C'Thun Kodo -- this just felt like too inconsistent of an effect to pull off. It can potentially gain more value than the Infested Wolf, because there's actually a very easy way to buff a card before it dies, since unlike the Dispatch Kodo it's not the attack when Rat Pack comes into play. Abusive Sergeants, Houndmasters and Forlorn Stalkers can all buff the Rat Pack in-field, while all the Grimy Goons card can buff the Rat Pack in your hand. Ultimately summoning a bunch of weak 1/1 tokens that don't have charge is not the most impactful thing in the world, especially not for Hunter (Druids would love it, though) but it's a very, very interesting card. 
• Knuckles: Hilariously, I cracked open a King Mukla card from my Tavern Brawl pack the week that Knuckles was revealed. Knuckles is a huge monkey with the Thorium Knuckles weapon equipped onto both his knuckles! What a fancy monkey. Why isn't he in the trailer? Really wished that he was. Knuckles is a 5-mana 3/7, stats that are comparable to.... Bolf Ramshield, who never saw play. He's also a beast, with the effect of damaging the enemy hero for equal to his damage whenever he damages a minion. So like Trample from M:TG, but better. Again, all the talk about buffing things in your hand apply to Knuckles, too. Being a beast, Knuckles receives the buff from the Trogg Beastrager meaning you can target him specifically. You can just hang on to Knuckles in your hand until you turn him into like a 7/11 or something, drop him down and just have him clear house. Man, the SMOrc-y ness of this card! Face plays taunt? Me still go face. I love it. Whether it's going to be good enough to be played is one thing, but it is one of the more interesting cards in the set.



It's like Two-Face and Don
Corleone had a kid.







• Don Han'Cho: I love the visual design of Don Han'Cho. Blizzard had toyed around with the two-headed Ogre race's split personality in various ways, most notably the 'clumsy' mechanic in GvG, and in the game Heroes of the Storm, the Ogre hero Cho'Gall is controlled by two people. Don Han'Cho doesn't quite embody the two-headedness of ogres that well other than his very excellent design, where someone got to make an excellent suit for one side of his body, complete with a tie and a dapper hat, while the other side is just a dumb ogre face with an undershirt. Really love this design. The Don is a 7-mana 5/6, which is fairly weak (5/6 is bad for a 5-mana without effects, let alone a 7-mana) but his effect is very, very simple. Buff a random minion by +5/+5. At the end of the day it's random, and it is 7 mana (though Don might've been buffed by some of the lesser cards) but hitting just one important minion with a +5/+5 buff... Holy shit. Knuckles, King Krush, Grommash Hellscream, Leeroy Jenkins, Soggoth the Slitherer, C'Thun, Dispatch Kodo... they all love the buff, and for the charge minions in particular it's easy to turn them into lethal damage. Time will tell if the 'buff cards in your hand' archetype would be powerful and consistent enough to withstand the ladder and the competitive scene, but Don Han'Cho is a very simple card with a very devastating effect if done right. Like, you play Brann Bronzebeard, then you play Don Han'Cho for a +10/+10 buff on, oh, a Grom Hellscream. A 14/19. With Charge. And an Enrage effect. Holy fuckballs. No wonder that Don Han'Cho isn't available to Shamans. Can you imagine an Al'Akir given a +10/+10 buff before he even hits the field? Like swatting insects indeed. You hit a C'Thun with this, give him an extra bunch of shots. You hit a Rat Pack, or a Dispatch Kodo, or a Doppelgangster... man, it seemed such a boring legendary when it was revealed. "Oh, just the hand buff thing. But 5 attack." But 5 attack is pretty fucking good. 



In her spare time she teaches
Danny Rand how to hit like iron.

• Madam Goya: After the Don, we cut away from the Grimy Goons and move to the only member of the Jade Lotus we glimpse this week... even though Madam Goya is a fully neutral Legendary. One of the few Legendaries so far that isn't an all-new original character to Hearthstone, Madam Goya is the leader of the black market in World of Warcraft -- very fitting that it's a Pandaren that runs the black market. I approve! Madame Goya is a 6-mana 4/3, which of course is atrocious stats, but she allows you to cheat the system, so to speak, by instantly swapping out a minion for another one in your deck. So obviously the best deal would be shuffling a Wisp, or a totem, or a Silver Hand Recruit, or something disposable and swap it out with, like, Deathwing or Ysera or Ragnaros or Thaurissan or Tirion or Y'Shaarj or Grom Hellscream or one of those big-end babies. The thing is, though, you also shuffle a weak minion into your deck, thereby making it an inevitability that you draw into a shitty 1-mana 1/1 or a totem in the future, so unlike Barnes summoning a weaker copy, Madam Goya actually makes your deck slightly weaker in the process. That said, though, Turn 6 Ragnaros! Shuffling a minion into your deck can have a lot of fun implications, too, like another (if more unreliable) way to recycle win conditions like Reno Jackson, C'Thun or N'Zoth. Or to permanently steal a minion that's been Shadow Madness'ed, or something. Ultimately it feels a lot too gimmicky and just straight-up weird, and the stat penalty is pretty harsh... but I dunno. Barnes ended up being pretty freaking good, so the madam just might be decent? You do have to build your deck so no battlecry minions are in it, though, something that you have some leeway with Barnes and not quite with Goya. 
• Leatherclad Hogleader, Spiked Hogrider & Tanaris Hogchopper: These three are very, very similar and are clearly designed as a set. They differ in their stats (6-mana 6/6, 5-mana 5/5 and 4-mana 4/4 respectively) but they are all fat Quillboars riding teeny-tiny motorbikes that gain Charge under specific circumstances. The Hogchopper looks the coolest, and the Hogleader looks the meanest, but the Hogrider has to be my favourite by just how utterly beefy this pig-man is and how absolutely tiny his ride is. The 6/6 gains Charge if your opponent is holding 6 or more cards, the 4/4 gains Charge if your opponent is holding no cards, and the 5/5 gains Charge if there's an enemy minion with Taunt. Right away the Hogrider seems to be the most easy to proc, simply because your enemy having a Taunt minion seems relatively simple. Whether it's worth it to run these relatively middling minions who may or may not have Charge, though, is another question entirely. The 4/4's going to be extremely hard to play because decks that empty their hands quickly tend to hold a card or two in reserve anyway. The 6/6 might be easier to proc against Control decks, but them having more than 6 cards means a relatively high chance to have an answer to the Hogleader. Ultimately they are interesting conditional Charge cards, but won't see much play, I think.
• Volcanic Potion: And we move into the Kabal! The post for the Kabal that Battlenet blogged a while back is hilarious, far moreso than the Grimy Goons' introduction. Man, I really want some stories or animated shorts starring these characters. We've seen a fair amount of Kabal cards in the first day of reveal, a good chunk of them being Priest cards, but now we get another potion. The Volcanic Potion is a 3-mana deal 2 damage to all minions, which is weird. It's basically the same with Warlock's Demonwrath, other than the demon-sparing effect, and maybe it's less good because of that -- Mages do run a lot of two-mana minions themselves, like Cult Sorcerer, Thalnos or Sorcerer's Apprentice. But Blizzard pushing Reno decks and the fact that Mages are missing that small niche of a mid-game AoE strong enough to clear out totems and whatnot that doesn't cost 6-7 mana means that there might be room in the game for Volcanic Potion. 
• Kabal Chemist: The final tri-class card for the Kabal, the Kabal Chemist is a 4-mana 3/3, which isn't very good stats especially when the effect is nowhere as powerful as Kazakus. You get a random potion, which tend to be powerful. The Volcanic Potion and Dragonfire Potion are both powerful AoE's, the Pint-Size Potion is also immensely powerful, and the Potion of Madness can really be an unexpected monkey wrench. The problem is that it's not a Discover effect, neither will you be happy to get things like Dragonfire Potions when you have a board yourself. It does tie together a nice theme that Warlocks will also receive potions, so the theme for the Kabal seem to be cheap potion spells instead of adding +1/+1 buffs to your hand like the Goons. It's... wildly different, I guess? Not sure if the Kabal Chemist is going to be good. Theoretically it's a more specific version of Babbling Book, and we all knew how that card turned out, so she may just be powerful enough?
• Abyssal Enforcer: When a Hellfire and a Dread Infernal love each other very much, you get this dude. Yeah, big strong demons are back! The Abyssal is a whooping 7-mana 6/6, which is pretty bad stats -- basically Chillmaw without Taunt -- but you get a free Hellfire with it as a battlecry. Which... again, is sort of similar to Chillmaw. Sure, you hit your own board, but then that's what Warlocks do with Hellfire anyway so suddenly it's a 3-mana 6/6 with a built-in Hellfire, which is a lot better. And, man, it's been so long since Warlocks got something powerful and demon-y instead of living cutlery (as much as I love Silverware Golem), mummy curses and fat council-people! I've honestly been neglecting the Warlock deck since, shit, LoE, maybe? Warlocks have never been bad in terms of gameplay, but Zoo decks and Discard decks just don't really capture the feel of what Warlocks should do -- playing powerful game-breaking spells in exchange for selling their own souls (or their cards, in Discard's case) but that particular gimmick ended up being emphasized with Shaman's Overload. No, instead Warlocks just are pigeonholed into very, very boring Zoo Decks, especially with the nerf of the Molten Giant and the powerful demons from GvG and Naxxramas having been out of rotation. Hopefully the Abyssal is a great sign of better things to come in the future.
• Kabal Lackey: Apparently this dude is a Goren, which is a race I didn't know existed in the Warcraft universe. You learn something new every day! The Lackey is a 1-mana 2/1 with Kirin Tor Mage's effect, where the next secret you play this turn costs 0. Kirin Tor Mage saw absolutely no play, mostly because Mages only really run Ice Block and the odd Ice Barrier or two. The set has included a new secret below, but honestly I don't really see you wasting a slot for Kabal Lackey when you can run Mana Wyrm and Babbling Book instead as 1-drops. 

• 

  Valeera's summer holiday job.

  Inkmaster Solia: Mages don't have a stellar record of playable Legendaries, Archmage Antonidas aside. Flame Leviathan was unique but useless in a Mage deck, Anomalus was kind of useless as well, and Rhonin was barely playable but you have so many better options. Inkmaster Solia (who has a wonderful piece of art done for her) is the pretty lady that's responsible on tattooing the magical, sinister tattoo brands that all members of the Kabal have. As a card, she's a 7-mana 5/5, obviously shit stats... but she runs on the Reno Jackson-style 'one copy of each card in your deck' thing that the faction leader Kazakus also has. Her effect, though, isn't as extreme as a full heal or a custom powerful spell, but just makes the next spell you cast this turn cost 0. Now it's not the worst effect out there, but do you really want to spend 7 mana to get a bonus 5/5 to go along with your Flamestrike or Firelands Portal? Granted, a 5/5 is decent value if you're playing a 7-mana spell like those, and definitely the card gives great value if you're shooting a Pyroblast, but Mages have way, way more spells in the 1-4 mana range, and the chances of Solia really working is... not impossible, but relatively hard to pull off. Especially if you're running a Reno-style Mage deck, which means you only have one copy each of Flamestrike, Blizzard, Firelands Portal and Pyroblast, the big spells you'd want this card to hit. Oh, plus the Kazakus Potions, of course. Though maybe the expansion will give us a really powerful high-cost spell that'll make Solia from 'a cool thing if she gets set off' into 'holy shit this is awesome!'? I dunno. It's a card that can potentially be powerful and insane, but equally potentially to just be an underwhelming, situational legendary.
• Potion of Polymorph: Another potion card that you can get from Kabal Chemist! It's... a perfectly fine card. It's a cheaper Polymorph (4-mana) but it's also a secret, so which minion gets hit by it is totally up to how well your enemy plays around secrets. And if you're a Warlock or a Priest and get this card from the Kabal Chemist, it's actually somewhat bad unless Mages have another Potion secret. It can be compared to Mirror Image, and is arguably more or less as easy to play around. With Mirror Image, though, they still have the original minion they summoned (and chances are they predicted the secret and removed the copy you summoned anyway) whereas with Polymorph Potion you've removed a minion. Now it's absolutely worthless against Zoo or Aggro decks, where they don't really care if a Possessed Villager or a Firebat gets turned into a 1/1 Sheep, so it's not a card I see being put into decks. But the fact that Mages have a lot of 'gain random spell' effects makes the existence of this card somewhat relevant. It doesn't do what Cat Trick does for hunters, though, so it's a bit of an 'eh, whatever' card.
• Seadevil Stinger: While I'm disappointed that it's not called "Warloc" or "Murlock", the Seadevil's effect is pretty cool. It's a 4-mana 4/2, which is kinda bad stats -- though somewhat above-average for a Murloc -- but as a battlecry it makes the next Murloc you summon cost health instead of Mana. It's kind of like Cho'gall, except in a murloc-centric deck you actually do want to play murlocs, as opposed to Warlocks not really using any expensive spells that make Cho'gall worthwhile. (Tangentially, maybe that'll change with some great potions this expansion?) This duder here looks like pretty average, and not exactly the best card out there, but it's cool that they're giving Murlocs to other classes other than Paladins. Warlocks do synergize well with a lot of cheap minions -- which is what the Murlocs are -- but time will tell if this will end up being good. My gut says not really, but you never know.
• Bomb Squad: A 5-mana 2/2 that deals 5 damage to an enemy minion... but has the disadvantage of dealing 5 damage to your hero when it dies. The artwork is great, though! What an adorably confused goblin. In a vacuum, it's not the worst card out there. You can drop this and deal 5 damage (5-mana 5-damage is a bit expensive, but not entirely unreasonable) and then use a Brewmaster, a Purify or Madam Goya to sneak your way out of the Deathrattle... or to deal the 5 damage to an enemy Sylvanas without anything on the board, then laugh as they get a 2/2 that deals 5 damage to them... but honestly why go through so much hassle just to deal 5 damage? Dealing 5 damage to your hero may be too harsh a penalty for a relatively weak effect, especially since the Bomb Squad is on the field for your enemy to pop at their leisure. The only real good application is to drop this then Evolve her, which is actually half-decent since she gets transformed into a 6-drop. So yeah, while undoubtedly a very interesting card I highly doubt it'll see much of a place in the metagame.
• Backstreet Leper: Quick mini-edit because this card was revealed an hour after I posted this post. Backstreet Leper is... well, the old Leper Gnome, sort of. He's a 3/1 instead of a 2/1 (like the old Leper Gnome) or 1/1 (like the current Leper Gnome) with the exact same Deathrattle of 2 damage to the enemy hero. He costs three mana, though... which is frankly ridiculous. A two mana increase for a mere 2 stat increase? If the Backstreet Leper was a 3/2 or 2/3 he would've been somewhat fine, but as a 3/1 he's dust fodder. The Leper Gnome's Deathrattle is powerful because it's cheap -- it's basically one mana deal 2 damage with the potential of the minion dealing some damage before it dies. Backstreet Leper is 3 mana deal 2 damage, which is just stupidly bad.

Hearthstone: More Gadgetzan Goons! [Card Review]

 Over the past few days, more Mean Streets of Gadgetzan cards have been revealed here and there. We're still a good month off from the actual release, which is slated to be around mid-December or so, though, so I'm taking it easy with these card reviews.

Sadly, they revealed that the entire expansion will only have nine tri-class cards, which is extremely underwhelming considering the first batch are very boring 'discover one card from each class' ones. This means that one slot across the three factions will be the leaders -- though Kazakus is awesomeballs -- so the third trio needs to be really good. It's a bit of a shame, really. I've been dipping my toe into M:TG a little and just looking at the pretty artwork and complex mechanics, and I really wished Hearthstone had, y'know, done away with some of the bland cards like Auctionmaster Beardo below and had a bit more multi-class cards.

It's a good thing that the next batch -- which are all members of the Grimy Goons -- had a lot more interesting cards, with the Paladins in particular seemingly gunning for a "buff minions in your hand" style of play.... which is interesting! Worrying that it might be slightly uninteractive, but hey.

And I absolutely love the flavour of the in-lore reason that the Goons being summoned leaves directions for other minions to pick up guns and weapons and whatnot. Will talk a bit more in the review itself.

• Auctionmaster Beardo: The first actual Legendary to represent a (albeit minor) character from World of Warcraft, Auctionmaster Beardo is... very underwhelming. He's a 3-mana 3/4, Spider Tank stats, that allows you to refresh your hero power after using a spell. When Garrison Commander allows you immediate access to two hero power uses every turn as long as he's on the field, and him never seeing play... yeah. Ditto for 'use your hero power as many times as you want' Coldarra Drake, who never saw play other than in very weird Executus combo decks... Beardo seems to be the biggest absolute flop of a legendary in this set. 
• Shakru, the Collector: No idea what Shakru is supposed to be. A Saurok, I think? Coolest Saurok I've ever seen, if so. He (She?) is the Rogue Legendary of the set, and interestingly enough, like the Paladin chest-cannon dude Shakru is also relatively cheap, a 3-mana 2/3 with Stealth, and the effect of basically doing the Swashburglar effect whenever he attacks. It's... okay? It's another effect on the line of Swashburglar, Burgle and Undercity Huckster, and potentially allows you to make some huge Ethereal Peddler combos, and one with a potentially continuous effect, but honestly the relatively severe stat penalty makes me wonder if he's going to see play at all. Fellow similar-effect cards like the Huckster or Swashburglar get away by only losing a point or two than the average. Yes, Shakru does gain Stealth, which is a point in favour for him, but a 2/3 on turn 3 doesn't really seem to be strong enough. He's definitely decent, and we've seen understatted minions being playable before, but I'm just not sure if I want more non-Rogue class cards with only Ethereal Peddler synergizing with burgling. We'll see if the 
• Grook-Fu Master is a 5-mana 3/5 with Windfury. He's one cost cheaper than Windfury Harpy (who never saw play, and neither did their bigger Windfury cousin the Grotesque Dragonhawk) and has one less attack. Stupid Hozen, no one's going to use you. Blizzard really seems to like to play it safe with regards to these Windfury minions, because, well, let's face it -- despite the theoretical strength of attacking twice, the only real good Windfury cards are Doomhammer and Whirling Zap-o-matic. Grook-Fu Master seems to be one of those 'filler' cards that will just be tossed aside. Could've at least made him interesting and give him a beast tag, but I guess Hozen are sentient enough?
• Trogg Beastrager: The Trogg Beastrager is something similar to the Forlorn Stalker from Whispers of the Old Gods, a card that buffs some minions in your hand, and he's got somewhat of a similar effect. The Beastrager is a lot more limited, though. He's a 2-mana 3/2, so base 2-mana stats. and as a battlecry he gives a Beast in your hand +1/+1. It's... okay? It's not the most spectacular thing. The Houndmaster has the advantage of a bigger boost and having immediate impact on the board, but the Beastrager allows you to just drop a 3/6 Carrion Grub on turn 3, which then can be boosted by the Houndmaster into a 5/8... that's the dream, for sure. The randomness of the Beastrager probably makes it less of a consistent tool, though the entire existence of the Dispatch Kodo revealed a few days later suddenly makes the Beastrager's limitation suddenly a far, far more consistent and targetable effect than the other 'give a random minion +1/+1'.
• Grimestreet Outfitter: Okay, so this dude is a Paladin card! Somehow. Despite gangsters dealing guns really should be the antithesis of paladins. Oh well. The Outfitter gives all minions in your hand +1/+1, and he's a 2-mana card, meaning it's a bit of a tempo loss to potentially have absolutely powerful turns afterwards. If the Grimestreet Outfitter was the only one of its kind it would suck -- the way Mistcaller never got any play -- but the fact that you can combo him with the Grimestreet Smuggler and Enforcer means that the buff is cumulative. It's a bit more control-y than most, but it really seems to be a powerful effect. The Outfitter might be the weakest of the 'give minions in your hand +1/+1' cards, but he's also the cheapest and his effect is on all minions instead of a random beast like the trogg.
• Stolen Goods: Holy shit, this suddenly made I Know A Guy suddenly appealing! Stolen Goods is a 2-mana card for Warriors, and it gives a random Taunt minion in your hand +3/+3. It's almost a Blessing of Kings for half the price, albeit it targets only Taunt minions in your hand. Warrior C'Thun decks already run Twin Emperor Vek'lor, and this card basically makes your turn 7 into 'summon a 7/9 and a 4/6 with Taunt.' Soggoth the Slitherer becomes an 8/12 that cannot be Hexed or Polymorphed, which is just utterly impenetrable. Even without running Soggoth or Vek'lor, Warriors already run a lot of Taunt minions, with Bloodhoof Brave easily coming to mind for the non-C'Thun variety, but even a buffed Fierce Monkey or Sen'jin Shieldmaster is pretty freaking good. And this new card below, the Alley Armorsmith? Man, a +3/+3 buff that pre-empts your enemy is pretty damn good. I might be a little too optimistic, but it's definitely a nice, new level of card effect that is a lot more refreshing than just 'buff other minions'. Who knows? Maybe finally Bolster Warrior decks can finally get its day.
• Alley Armorsmith: Another Warrior card, a 5-mana 2/7 -- relatively decent stats for a Taunt minion. It also has the effect of gaining armor for each damage it deals, sort-of similar to Armorsmith, but potentially a lot more powerful, especially with cards like Stolen Goods and Bolster able to buff him and actually allowing him to gain you a fair amount of armor. It's just a pretty solid card all around. I'd say that it's better than the Paladin legendary because armour is a lot more valuable than health... and, y'know, more armour is very much desirable to Warriors. We'll have to see if Alley Armorsmith ends up replacing Bravehoof Brave as the Control Warrior's resident mid-game Taunter. Also, holy shit, this is just a gigantic middle finger to Zoo Decks.
• Grimestreet Smuggler: The second Tri-Class card for the Grimy Goons is this fancy Tauren lady... who's honestly a bit of a boring thing. I guess not every card can be like Kazakus, but come on! She's very decent, a 2/4 for 3 mana that gives a random minion in your hand +1/+1, better for her stats compared to the Grimestreet Outfitter (I will get these Grimestreet X dudes all confused at some point). I dunno. It's a very decent card, that's for sure, but I really expected the Tri-Class cards to be something more... exciting than this.
• Grimestreet Enforcer: This one would be very good, actually. 5-mana 4/4 isn't the worst thing out there (certainly beats Mistcaller in that regard, poor old dude) and while it only affects cards in your hand with the +1/+1 buff, in conjunction with cards like Small-Time Recruits to bulk up your hand with minions, as well as the Grimestreet Smuggler and Outfitter to add even more buffs... yeah. Theoretically it's very snowbally, and these cards actually make Wickerflame Whatshisface actually be a lot better since you don't have to play him as a 2/2, but just wait until he gets more and more buffs and drop him as a 6/6 or a 7/7 or something.
• Grimestreet Pawnbroker: Another Warrior card, but the Pawnbroker potentially is one of the strongest among the newest ones revealed in that she's a weapon buff to your hand. She's a 3/3/3 which isn't the worst statline either, barely a penalty. All I can think of at this moment is 'holy fuck Gorehowl', and how annoying it would be to deal with 4/3 Fiery War Axes. I mean, we already have weapon buffs running around in the game but the all require you to have equipped the weapon already and all these 'buff cards in your hand' type cards just look potentially very, very powerful.
• Shaky Zipgunner: Love the artwork for this one. Dunno why. I just like Gnolls, I guess. Zipgunner is a 3/3/3 as well, and instead of a battlecry, he adds +2/+2 to a single target as a Deathrattle. He's definitely a bit of a better fit in current Hunter decks, what with the Forlorn Stalker synergies. The buff is bigger, and it doesn't have to be a beast... yeah, Trogg Beastrager, you just kind of got outshined by this gnoll. This looks like a pretty good card, assuming, of course, the handbuffing gimmick doesn't actually end up flopping. But I seriously doubt that it would be anything but good.
• Worgen Greaser: A lot of people give this card a lot of grief for being a boring vanilla minion. Which I honestly don't... care about? Carrion Grub ended up being relevant, so who knows? Maybe a 4-mana 6/3 might be useful in some way. It's a stat distribution we've never seen before, and far more offensive than Lost Tallstrider. Ultimately it's still definitely filler though.
• Hired Guns: Ditto for this card. 3 mana 4/3 Taunt, which makes it a strictly better Ironfur Grizzly, but all the same I'd rather play a Fierce Monkey (identical stats, but reversed), or a Sen'jin Shieldmasta if I'm so desperate for a taunt. There might be some synergy with the new Warrior cards, maybe? Not very spectacular, though somewhat decent in the Arena. Ultimately it just falls into the same category as Pompous Thespian and Evil Heckler that Taunts with a higher attack stat and lower health just isn't the most efficient thing. It's just a forgettable card, but one thing I'll have to say, though. The artwork's fun.
• Blowgill Sniper: A very... basic card? It's not as basic as the Worgen Greaser, but it's just basically a Bluegill Warrior (2-cost 2/1 Murloc) but instead of having Charge, he has the Elven Archer's ability of dealing one damage. It's... an okay card? I still think Flame Juggler is better simply because he has 2 more health and wins out in sheer power of stats, and in a world where Stormpike Commando, Ironforge Rifleman and Elven Archer never saw play, I don't think the Blowgill Sniper will see any play other than maybe zoo decks. The Blowgill Sniper does have a far more appealing statlie than those three, though, and I love his artwork so I really hope he ends up being good. 
• Dirty Rat: In a break from the Spell Damage gimmick that Kobolds have, the Dirty Rat is a neutral epic Taunt (insert 'potential Warrior Taunt synergy'). He's got a statline comparable to the very popular Deathlord, a mana cheaper with 2-cost and two health less with 2/6. But where Deathlord summons a minion for your opponent upon death, the Dirty Rat forcibly summons a minion from your opponent's hand as a battlecry... the hugest gamble ever. On one hand, forcibly dragging out an un-buffed C'Thun or a Yogg-Saron on the early games, or disabling combo battlecry minions like Alexstrasza, Leeroy Jenkins, Ancient of War... or you might just pull out a Boulderfist Ogre or a Tirion or a Thing From Below or a Ysera and you'll be sad. In Priest, Shaman or Mage you can conceivably rip out a minion just to shoot a removal at it, whatever the minion is. A very, very, very interesting card, that's for sure. It might not be the most consistent card ever, but as far as RNG cards go this is a pretty cool, crazy one. Ultimately it's not a card that's going to be good in Ladder, because most of the time you'll probably not luck on the big combo cards -- though the off chance that you disable their N'Zoth or C'Thun is quite awesome -- because mostly if you pull out a strong minion you do kind of hand them a means to remove Dirty Rat for free, which doesn't happen with Deathlord. 
• Dispatch Kodo: A 4-mana 2/4 Beast that has a C'Thun effect when he drops into the field. It can get buffed by the Trogg and the other Grimestreet cards that Hunter has access to, but the statline is just so... underwhelming. Don't get me wrong. Flame Juggler and C'Thun both are very powerful cards for their respective mana costs, but Flame Juggler is powerful due to the sheer impact taking out a minion in the early game can be, whereas C'Thun deals upwards to 18 damage randomly quite easily... the Kodo can probably only get a couple of buffs, dealing 4 random damage at most when you drop him. It's kind of like Reliquary Seeker or Avian Watcher where they're basically kind of dead, understatted cards in your hand until you can get them to play, which is honestly quite bad in Hunter decks... and while it's not the type of playstyle that Hunters tend to use, it really could be a good card if buffed. Say, two buffs make it a 4/6 that deals 4 damage randomly for 4 mana. Three buffs make it a 5/7 that deals 5 damage. For 4 mana. And with the Zipgunner granting more buffs than most other cards, and the Beastrager being specifically targeted towards Beasts... is it consistent enough to build a deck where Dispatch Kodo is the only beast? I don't think so -- I'd rather have Kill Command and Houndmaster synergies than a conditional and delayed mini-C'thun, but the fact that you might be able to pull off a decent value even with one or two buffs is actually half-decent. If you're running hand-buffing cards you probably want to cut out some beasts anyway, maybe just Dispatch Kodo and maybe Savannah Highmane, relying on Call of the Wild, Animal Companion and whatever for extra beasts. I dunno. 
• Backroom Bouncer: Backroom Bouncer is a bit of a weird card. He enters the board as a 4-mana 4/4, a point worse than your average vanilla 4-drop, and like, oh, the Boogeymonster or Lotus Assassin or Finja or Shakru, you don't have to make the Backroom Bouncer attack and damage/kill an opponent to gain buffs. Other minions must die for him to get... measly +1 Attack. The theoretical unlimited buffs you get by having minions die all the time is kind of moot when you consider that Midnight Drake already enters the board as a high-attack 4-health minion for 4-mana depending on the cards in your hand, and Frostwolf Warlord gets far larger buffs for a single mana cost more and your minions don't have to die. Flesheating Ghoul (who gains +1 Attack for all minions, not just friendly ones) doesn't saw play, and while the Backroom Bouncer arguably has more efficient stats, it's honestly not that good of an effect.

Judging by the trailer, cards we can expect to see in the future include a 3-mana little gnome dude that seems to be part of the Kabal and a 4-cost female pink-haired gnome police officer with a club (we see them on the pre-Blizzard symbol barrage of preview cards). There are the faction leaders themselves, of course, Don Hon'cho of the Guzzlers; Aya the little Pandaren girl and her huge bodyguard of the Jade Lotus, whose names I can't recall at the top of my head. There's a bunny that features prominently in the trailers, presumably part of the Jade Lotus. Two prominent members of the Kabal are a female Draenei and a bunch of imps, plus what appears to be Kazakus transformed into a dragon form? Huh. We've had hints in the newspapers that minor WoW characters Mayor Noggenfogger and Madame Goya, the goblin mayor of Gadgetzan and the Pandaren mistress of the black market respectively, may play a role as cards. Plus there's always Talan the Bartender, who you can talk to in Facebook.