Hearthstone: Un'Goro Reveals, Week 3: More Elementals & Dinosaurs!

 Tomorrow we'll have the ultimate super-final stream where every single card gets revealed. Before then, let's talk about the cards that have been revealed for the past week!

Battlenet blog about creating the Adapt mechanic! Over the week quite a fair amount of cards have been released. Also, the art blog offers some really great insight at the visual design of the cards, which is something that's definitely understated when people are all talking about how viable cards are and stuff. Also we're apparently getting the Time-Lost Proto Drake as a card? Also, the third part of the Malone/Doyle saga has been released. The video with Professor Doyle is a little less remarkable than the previous two, but basically they made it to the foot of the volcano and poor Professor Doyle's expedition sketches got burnt down, and we finally get to see what the full Kaleidosaur card looks like.

Eddie's journal is a little more illuminating. Apparently after their encounter with the Murloc tribe, Eddie's camp and underwear got burnt down by what appears to be Fire Flies. Also Eddie apparently owns the Alley Cat, whose name is called Reginald. Apparently, as they avoid fire elementals, instead of seeing the Un'Goro crater walls, they instead see nothing but the jungle. They encounter Kalimos and his little buddies, but as the volcano erupts and the elementals chase them, they're kidnapped by a Pterrordax.

Crackling Razormaw
Crackling Razormaw's a Hunter minion, a 2-mana 3/2 Beast that Adapts another Beast as a battlecry. It's a pretty simple card, possibly comparable to a lesser Houndmaster that doesn't have as severe a stat loss but only gives a single type of buff instead of the Houndmaster giving stat bonuses and Taunt. I previously said Adapt's roughly equal to one mana's worth of stats, so I guess done right the Razormaw might help out in a general Beast Hunter deck, and suddenly giving Windfury or Poisonous to another minion that's ready to attack ain't something to laugh at. Not sure if he's ultimately going to make the cut or not, but he's certainly a nice companion piece to Kindly Grandmother as the Hunter's resident two-mana drop. Without a Beast on board it's just a Bloodfen Raptor which is just bad, I guess.


King Mosh
Warriors join Hunter this time around as having a gigantic bestial dinosaur as the Class Legendary. One of the giant Devilsaur bosses in the World of Warcraft version of Un'Goro crater, King Mosh is a 9-mana 9/7 Beast, which is obviously not the best statline out there. It's a total of 16 stats, comparable to the 9-mana dragons, but a lot more fragile than the 8/8's and 4/12's that Malygos, Alexstrasza and their ilk have. But King Mosh's suboptimal stat distribution belies a powerful battlecry: Mass Execute. Obviously, Execute is a 2-mana spell, and King Mosh allows you to destroy every single damaged minion on board, which control warriors love a lot. Of course, Mosh eats your own damaged minions, but honestly if it didn't then it would be a bit too broken. King Mosh is comparable to Sleep with the Fishes, a spell from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan that only saw fringe play, mostly because it costs 2-mana, and it only deals 3 damage to damaged minions so it doesn't act like an answer. Mosh allows you to just Whirlwind and murder everything on board. It's definitely slow in a 9 mana slot, but it does work quite well against a board filled with Jades. The Beast tag, for what it's worth, does let it be drawn by the Curator. I don't fully think that King Mosh is going to be in every deck, but it's definitely a great Control Warrior card, and definitely a better legendary than poor Varian Wrynn.

Raptor Hatchling
A card blatantly meant to interact with the swamp queen quest that requires you to summon a whole bunch of one drops is Small Raptor. He's a cute little baby raptor, a 1-mana 2/1 Beast that shuffles its mommy, a 1-mana 4/3 Beast. Theoretically it's 2-mana 6/4, which in itself is such a huge value, but the value's kind of offset, similarly to White Eyes, by the fact that mama raptor is shuffled into your deck instead of summoned immediately by a Battlecry or Deathrattle effect. It does allow you to continue playing one-mana cards without losing tempo, though, helping to complete the quest while not topdecking another 2/1 minion in the late game. How powerful a vanilla beast that shuffles another vanilla beast (albeit an overstatted one) will remain to be seen, but I have a hunch that Raptor Hatchling's going to be pretty good, if nothing else to help enable the Hunters' Quest.


Terrorscale Stalker
The Terrorscale Stalker is a Saurok, and he has a similar effect to Princess Huhuran or Feign Death. The Terrorscale isn't a beast, and has a slight stat penalty, losing a point fro the standard for a 3-mana, but it comes in early so it can help trigger those Kindly Grandmothers, or Small Raptors, and as deck builders will note, the more of a single effect you have in a deck, the more consistent it is. Huhuran is powerful, of course, but the fact that you only have a single copy of that effect makes the deck utilizing her as a whole a little less inconsistent. Terrorscale Stalker fixes that a little, I think. The fact that the Terrorscale Stalker is a lot cheaper mana-wise than Princess Huhuran means that he's a lot easier to combo than the Princess. The big problem is that Terrorscale Stalker suffers from the same problem that Rat Pack does -- it's a 3-mana card, and Hunter tends to be pretty heavy on the three-mana slot. I think it's a perfectly balanced card, especially with that slightly lower stat-line.

Thunder Lizard
Speaking of 3-mana 3/3's, Thunder Lizard is a neutral beast with the battlecry that allows you to Adapt it if you played an Elemental in the previous turn. Which I don't think will really see the cut into Elemental decks? It's one thing if your effect is as powerful as the Tol'vir Stoneshaper (turning into a 4-mana Psych-o-Tron with an extra health ain't no joke), but a simple Adapt to a 3-mana 3/3 isn't something that I really want to run in an Elemental deck, I don't think. Cool artwork, though.

Lightfused Stegodon
Jeez, it's the Quartermaster on steroids! The Lightfused Stegodon is the Paladin's dinosaur, and it's a 4-mana 3/4, which is perfectly one mana less stat-wise. Its battlecry? Adapt all your Silver Hand Recruits. Hitting one Recruit would break even. Hitting three, or four? Man, this dude's going to be insane in Wild with Muster for Battle. And giving the Silver Hand Recruits the Attack buff is basically a free Bloodlust. Giving them the Poisonous adaptation's going to make them a board clear. I really think this dude's a pretty powerful card, one that suddenly makes the 1-mana summon two 1/1 dudes suddenly feel appealing.

Hemet, Jungle Hunter
A very strange card, Hemet the Jungle Hunter is an upgrade to the hilariously bad Hemet Nesingwary from Goblins vs Gnomes, unquestionably the worst of the worst as far as Legendaries go. His effect this time around thankfully has nothing to do with his old, crappier incarnation. Hemet is now a more respectable 6-mana 6/6, and as a battlecry he destroys all cards in your deck that costs less than 3. It's... a very interesting card, which in theory will allow you to get rid of any early-game cards you failed to draw before turn 6, and with a few exceptions those tend to be bad anyway. Obviously not a card you want to play in Pirate Warriors, One-mana Hunters, Jade Druids or Rogue decks, but it is still a pretty interesting card that pulls off a pretty impressive 'thin out your deck' play. Maybe use Hemet to kill every single 1-drop card in your Carnassa Hunter deck, then play Queen Carnassa the next turn, thereby guaranteeing that you'll keep drawing cycle cards? It's going to leave your deck very vulnerable to fatigue, though. I'm not entirely sure what deck New Hemet is going to be used in, some kind of heavy-duty control deck I suppose, but honestly it's going to be a 'wait and see' card.

The Last Kaleidosaur/Galvadon
So after accidentally having its effect be leaked by other language translations, the Paladins' Quest Legendary, Galvadon, is finally confirmed to be a 5-mana 5/5 Beast that Adapts FIVE TIMES as a Battlecry. While the value of Adapt is still questionable until we actually see it in play (remember when we all thought Grimy Goons was going to be good?) Adapt really looks like each Adapt costs somewhere between half to one and a half of a mana. In addition to already having respectable vanilla stats, Galvadon can adapt five times. Which mean he can be a 11/5 with Windfury, Divine Shield and Stealth. Which is just scary and absolutely makes Al'Akir's nonexistent mouth hang agape in jealousy. Galvadon has the potential to really be broken despite his innocuous "eh, same thing but five times" battlecry.

Now what about the quest, though? It's... cast 6 spells on your minions. Which actually doesn't really seem as tricky as the Rogue's Quest, but it's going to take some time before you can get 6 spells out. The only real good buffing Paladin spells at this moment are Blessing of Kings and Dinosize. Even with the Quest, I don't see Blessing of Might, Blessing of Wisdom or Hand of Protection being played, neither Lay on Hands or Forbidden Healing are ever getting cast on minions, and Seal of Champions is rotating out. I guess we'll see Silvermoon Portal or Divine Strength being played after all? It's an interesting quest and an interesting reward. We'll see how well this stacks up against the other quests we've seen so far.

Blazecaller
So yeah, if you're playing Elementals, Blazecaller's definitely a dude you want to put in your deck. It comes on turn 7, so it comes perfectly after the Shaman's Fire Elemental and the Mage's 6-mana version of Pyros. It's a 7-mana 6/6 that deals 5 damage as damage if you played an Elemental the previous turn. And judging by Blackwing Technician, who's also a one-mana-more-expensive-for-his-stat and has a conditional damage dealing battlecry, Blazecaller's a pretty powerful effect. I honestly think that if I make an Elemental Shaman deck, Blazecaller's going to be my 7-drop instead of the Stone Sentinel. It's actually looking pretty good in my opinion, a lot better than the likes of Ozruk.

Servant of Kalimos
Servant of Kalimos is adorable! Also, another neutral Elemental. He costs one mana's worth of stats less, a 4/5 statline for 5 mana. The Servant of Kalimos is also an Elemental, mind you, and its battlecry is one of the better ones -- if you play an Elemental last turn, Discover an Elemental. Discover is a pretty powerful card, and depending on your class you can get some really good Elementals, too. Blazecaller, Kalimos himself, Al'Akir, Ragnaros Lightlord, Fire Elemental, Water Elemental... I think it's a card you'll want for your turn five play if you're running an Elemental deck. A card that discovers another card without stat penalty is actually pretty good, though, again, you really need a dedicated Elemental deck to make it work.


Ravenous Pterrordax
A curious dinosaur that joins Clutchmother Zavas in the ranks of new Warlock beasts, which is something that I honestly didn't expect to ever see. The Pterrordax is a 4-mana 4/4 with the Battlecry of destroying a friendly minion to adapt twice. Warlocks do have ways to make disposable minions with the brand-new Nether Portal, or from Possessed Villager or Forbidden Ritual, though without Imp Gang Boss or Implosion in Standard, it's a bit hard to find disposable 1/1's. I guess killing a Power Overwhelming'd minion is something, except P.O. is leaving Standard as well. Killing like a Flame Imp or Voidwalker will always feel bad, and yes, theoretically it's a huge, huge value boost since you get to Adapt twice, which means you might get something as big as a 4-mana 4/6 with Divine Shield or something. Ultimately I don't think Adapting twice is really worth destroying a friendly minion, though, and it'd be horrible if you topdecked this dude. An empty board means the Pterrordax is a bad 4-mana 4/4, but it's worse if you have a board with valuable minions like Doomguards and the like.

Evolving Spores
A Druid 4-mana spell that adapts all your minions... and it's honestly not very appealing. Gentle Megasaur does the same thing to all Murlocs, and still comes with a body that doesn't even get a stat-to-cost penalty. A 4-mana Adapt really depends on the type of adaptation you get, really. Some adaptations are just bad when done en masse. A mass +1/+1 is overcosted at 4, especially since Mark of the Lotus does it for 1-mana. Mass Stealth, likewise, is a shit choice considering Conceal is also priced at 1-mana. I don't really see the point of making all your minions get Taunt, +3 Health, spell-proof, or get the 1/1 Deathrattle (you'll want to cast Evolving Spores on a full board, and when they die they'll just swarm the board with the maximum amount of 1/1's which isn't that good for 4 mana). I guess mass Divine Shield or mass Poisonous is somewhat decent for trading, but do you really want this card to just do that? The +3 Attack or mass Windfury are probably best for finisher purposes, but it's not reliable that you get those, and besides Druid still has Savage Roar around. So no, I don't think this card is super reliable or will really be played.


Spirit Echo
Spirit Echo is a card that I didn't expect to see as a Shaman card of all things. It's something that Rogues would really love to have considering their new quest. But Shaman gets yet another strange new toy with Spirit Echo, which is surprising considering their repertoire in the Un'Goro set is split evenly between Murlocs and Elementals, leaning more towards the latter side. Spirit Echo... kinda synergizes with those two, but also kinda don't. Like, Elementals benefit from playing other Elementals, so obviously having a recycle mechanic is useful (ditto for Jade Shaman too, actually), and getting a Kalimos or Blazecaller or Stone Sentinel back, so long as you have an activator, would be pretty great. Of course you still have to pay the cost when you re-play those minions, but it's still pretty good. Now whether you want to pay three mana to give an entire board 'return this card to your hand when it dies', and then have to pay the mana to summon Kalimos or Megafin or Aya Blackpaw or whatever again... I dunno. My gut says that Spirit Echo is good, but situational. We'll see. It's 3 mana, so it's kind of cheap, and comparable effects like Echo of Medivh and Blood Warriors did see play.

Tortollan Primalist
There's not enough Tortollans in this set! For a brand new race, we've got, what, three, four of them in total? The Primalist doesn't seem quite good either. He's a 8-mana 5/4, which is disastrously bad stats, and his effect? A glorified Servant of Yogg-Saron. Yes, you get to choose the spell, so if you get something that definitely targets the enemy (Consecration, Flamestrike, all Secrets) it's good, but is it worth paying 8 mana for a 5/4? Yes, you'll probably want to get the value, but Discover means that the three spells are going to be from your class, which begs the question -- instead of playing this understatted card that has a not insignificant chance to whiff, why not put in said spell?

Spikeridged Steed
Well, at least we're getting a somewhat decent Paladin buff card to play with the quest. It's a +2/+6 and Taunt, which is kind of like a better, more expensive version of Power Word: Tentacles... but the value doesn't stop there, because you summon the 2/6-Taunt as a Stegodon when the buffed minion dies. It's actually not a bad play. I'm not entirely sure if you want to spend your turn six buffing a minion and doing nothing else, and that really seems to be the big weakness of the Paladin Quest -- Galvadon is insanely good, but when are you really going to get the chance to play all the buff cards? Regardless, though, if you do end up playing the Paladin Quest, I'm pretty sure Spikeridged Steed makes it into the deck. (Side-note: this card wins the 'most difficult to pronounce mentally' prize.)

Stegodon
Some sources are citing that the Stegodon from the Spikeridged Steed is actually a collectible card in the set itself? What a fucking boring card that is, then, our first real 'boring statline swapped around' card in the set. It's a slightly more defensive Sen'jin, and that's more or less it.


Cornered Sentry
"Clever girl!"The Sentry's a pretty interesting card. She's similar to Dirty Rat in that she's a 2-mana 2/6 Taunt, but instead of summoning an opponent's minion from their hand, she summons three 1/1 Raptors for the opponent. The flavour's certainly there, this lady explorer just stumbled into the wrong neighbourhood and is now attacked by a group of angry tiny raptors. On one hand, unlike Dirty Rat you don't deny powerful battlecries. But on the other hand, you also minimize the chance of giving your opponent a free huge body on the field, and while three 1/1's can definitely do some work, if Leeroy Jenkins is any indication they tend to not matter much against a 6/2, let alone a 2/6. Plus, this followed up with a Ravaging Ghoul is just amazing. Just don't give the Raptors to a Hunter, lest they do a lot of Adapt/Houndmaster/Beast shenanigans with them.

Hearthstone: Un'Goro Reveals, Week 2 Redux: Raptor Swarms & Ghost Treants

 So yesterday there's a stream reveal of ten or so more cards in the Bahamas tournament thing, as well as a couple of extra cards revealed between the previous reviews I did and this one. Basically the rest of the expansion will be released in a Ben Brode stream next week, and I'll probably do the mass review of everything that shows up next week then. Or maybe I'll do the cards revealed before the stream in one post, and the stream in a separate post. I dunno. We'll see how much I'll have to talk.

Glacial Shard
The Glacial Shard is another one-mana Elemental, which I think is a fair bit better than the Fire Fly. It's a 1-mana 2/1 with a battlecry of freezing an enemy, basically Frost Elemental downsized. One mana's great for triggering Elementals, and as the legendary Hunter quest shows, there's at least one class that really likes one-drops. Freezing enemies might just be a dud effect if the enemy doesn't have minions, but if they do it's actually a pretty decent disable attached to a 2/1. No, not the most powerful one-drop out there, but it's a simple one that's good but not particularly great.

Glorious Glimmerroot
The Glorious Glimmerroot is a very interesting Priest card. It's a 3-mana 3/3, so sub-par stats, but its effect is a unique take on the Drakonid Operative style "copy a card from your opponent's deck" effect... because you play a minigame! You have to look at 3 cards, and choose the one that started in your opponent's deck. If you choose right, then Glimmerroot is a 3/3 that draws a card, like a balanced-statline Drakonid Operative. If you choose wrong then it just kind of sucks. The Glimmerroot is a very interesting case, for sure, in that how powerful it is depends on how good the 'guess these cards' choice algorithm is. If it's a warrior and you're shown Fiery War Axe/Magma Rager/Nozdormu it doesn't take a genius to know which card started in your opponent's deck. If it's Fiery War Axe/Brawl/Grommash Hellscream, on the other hand, it might require some thought to figure out just what kind of Warrior deck your opponent's running. Also, the fact that you'll only draw one card instead of choosing out of three like Drakonid Operative means that you have no real say if the card turns out to be absolutely unusable like Shield Slam or Deadly Potion. Still, a very interesting effect nonetheless.

Volcanosaur
We're all going to get a golden Volcanosaur, so yay for that! The Volcanosaur is a 7-mana minion with a 5/6 statline, which is vanilla for a 5-mana minion. Adapt's rated as 1 mana for the Verdant Longneck, so the Volcanosaur (what a cool piece of art, by the way) uses the two mana's worth of stat deficits to Adapt twice. It's definitely going to lead into an interesting minion. You might get, like, a 8/6 with Stealth, or a 5/6 mini-Soggoth, or a Windfury-Divine Shield combo. Sometimes you just want a huge block of stats, and sometimes maybe you want a flexible creature that can be an emergency taunter or a mini winning condition -- 10 damage due to a Stealthed Windfury ain't nothing to laugh at.


Lost in the Jungle
Paladin spell, where you summon two 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits for 1 mana. Basically Living Roots without the choose one. Part of Living Root's strength is the choice and the potential to deal direct damage. It's a boring card, we don't have any real Silver Hand Recruit synergy (unless you want to combo this with Steward of Darkshire or Dinosize, and I can think of better cards than this) so I don't see this being anything but filler.

Gluttonous Ooze
Oh man, what a card! Acidic Swamp Ooze merely destroys your enemy's weapon. His huge Un'Goro cousin, with a dinosaur skull, is far, far more devastating than the Acidic Swamp Ooze. Meet Gluttonous Ooze, who not only instantly destroys your enemy's weapon, but even heals you up via armour equal to the attack of the destroyed weapon. Toxic Sewer Ooze, bow before your god. It's stat-line is a little poor for 3-mana, so if you're not facing off against a weapon class Gluttonous Ooze is a little worse than Acidic Swamp Ooze, but man, against Warriors? Those huge Upgraded Arcanite Reapers and Gorehowls suddenly get destroyed and get turned into armour for you, which is just a devastating loss to your opponent. I'm actually optimistic that this card's going to be a pretty popular choice if Aggro Pirate Warrior's still going to be around. Also it's honestly about time we got more weapon removal -- and Toxic Sewer Ooze is a piece of shit. The Gluttonous Ooze is just amazing, and it's even useful outside a Pirate Warrior meta.

Mana Bind
A very unique Mage Secret -- when your opponent casts a spell, get a 0-cost copy of it. It doesn't really add anything new, your enemy's going to play Coins and Deadly Poisons to draw out Counterspell anyway... but the off chance that your opponent plays a useful spell it can be a pretty powerful and punishing comeback. 0-mana Pyroblast? Kazakus Potions? Twisting Nethers? Holy Novas? It's not a secret that I really see being super-useful in the same vein that we don't see a lot of Getaway Kodos, but it's definitely a cool card, and one that looks like a lot of fun nonetheless.

Vilespine Slayer
A 5-mana scary-looking plant, the Vilespine Slayer has a measly 3/4 statline... but it has Combo: Destroy a minion. It's Assassinate, but it comes with a 3/4 body as long as you combo it. We've seen that larger Combo minions are a bit harder to hit, like Shado-Pan Rider, but then Shado-Pan Rider is really the only hugely costed Combo card (Kidnapper who?) and the effect isn't really huge enough to warrant playing. Destruction effects, though? Vilespine Slayer destroys an enemy and still stays on the board, and I do think that it might be one of the cards that you play in a Shadowstep-Shadowdancer style deck. It even benefits from the "turn your minions into a 5/5" thing from the Crystal Core. It's probably not the most ideal minion to complete the Rogue quest, but I can see myself trying out the Vilespine Slayer in those decks, that's for sure. A very interesting design, and the fact that it's not a spell probably will save it from being nerfed like so many other Rogue cards.

Living Mana
Oh, man, this is a very cool card. For 5 mana, you transform all your mana crystals into 2/2 Treants with the Deathrattle of giving back a mana crystal each. You can only have so many minions on the board, so you can only spend 7 mana at the most. It fills your board with seven 2/2's, which is amazing. Your opponent can either remove the Treants or not, and that's going to raise some interesting questions. If they remove it, well, you get your mana back and you just shrug off losing a bunch of 2/2's. If they leave it alone you basically have no mana on the following turn, but then you have a board full of 2/2's. It's like Force of Nature on Steroids, but at the same time, the fact that the effects of recovering your mana crystal is tied to the minions, things like Potion of Madness or Mind Control Tech is going to fuck up your mana. Mass Dispel and Devolve basically just read "destroy 7 of your opponent's mana crystals" at that point. So there's definitely a fair bit of risk there, but it's definitely one of the more clever cards of the expansion, and one that, while not the most practical card, is definitely one of the coolest.

Mirage Caller
Lots of Tol'vir and Anubisath in this expansion, yeah? The Mirage Caller is a smaller Herald Volazj, but she's a 3-mana 2/3 and you only choose one minion to make a 1/1 copy. The smaller size means that Mirage Caller is far easier to set up a combo with than Volazj, and Volazj tends to only hit one or two minions at one go anyway. Ultimately I don't think this is going to be super good mostly because Ragnaros is leaving Standard, but hitting cards with aura effects like Prophet Velen is still going to be pretty powerful for a game-winning combo. It's not going to be that good, though, I predict -- it's a Barnes that requires you to have already done some setup work. 

Corrupting Mist
A very interesting Warlock card. For 2 mana, you cast Corruption on every minion. It's kind of like Doomsayer, but different. Doomsayer doesn't guarantee the destruction of the board, but you can bet that Doomsayer's going to tank a removal or at least 7 damage from your enemy's minions, and it discourages your opponent from summoning any more minions. Corrupting Mist ensures the destruction of the minions already on the board, but during the turn after you play Corrupting Mist your opponent's board is still going to hit your face, plus it doesn't do anything against minions your opponents play on that turn. Still, a pretty interesting design for a card. I'm just not sure it has a place in the current Renolock style decks, or in the hypothetical Discard Warlock we'll have in the future.


Molten Blade
Oh, hey, a Warrior card. Haven't seen a lot of those. Molten Blade is a 1-mana 1/1 weapon... that has the Shifter Zerus effect. For each turn it's in your hand, it transforms into a different weapon. The thing is, one of the weaknesses of Malkorok is that sometimes you get a Cursed Blade and you just lose the game there. Well, Cursed Blade is leaving Standard, so Molten Blade will almost certainly be a good card, and maybe you can bank on it becoming a Doomhammer. Upgraded Arcanite Reaper getting you down? Well, fear an Upgraded Doomhammer! Out of all the weapons that Molten Blade can transform into, I don't think there's any that's particularly bad, and honestly even if you get Light's Justice all you have to do is to wait a turn before it turns into something better.

The Marsh Queen
The Hunter's quest requires you to play seven 1-cost minions, so that's why Hunters got the Tol'vir Warden a couple days back. The reward is Queen Carnassa, a 5-mana 8/8 Beast, itself absolutely an insane beatstick, but that's not all! Carnassa shuffles 15 Raptors, and the Raptors are 1-mana 3/2's... that draw a card as a battlecry. It's absolutely insane, especially in the late game when you can guarantee that the Raptors will be pretty much unstoppable. A more realistic view is that while Carnassa's Brood is still going to draw you a card upon dropping into the field, it's as likely to draw into the other useless 1-drops that you put into your deck to enable this quest. Which is why you need cards like Tol'vir Warden to help thin out your deck, I guess. I can think of a card with like 10-15 one-mana drops, Tol'vir Wardens and some core cards like Savannah Highmanes, Tundra Rhinos (which will be awesome with the 3/2 raptors) and Kill Commands. Carnassa is going to be absolutely powerful when you get to drop her and get what's essentially a self-cycling swarm deck, but on the other hand, how many one-drops do you want to play? Alleycat, Fiery Bat and Argent Squire are all good enough that you'll want to put two of each. Timber Wolf isn't good enough I don't think, but maybe you'll want it in? Maybe Abusive Sergeant or Mistress of Mixtures? We'll see. It's definitely a pretty awesome quest, and, shit, it summons a crapton of dinosaurs! Definitely a quest worth doing. 

Hearthstone: Un'Goro Reveals, Week 2: Elementals & Quests

 So over this week we've got a fair amount of reveals, too. This is done in rough chronological order because I'm doing it as a draft over time as new cards are revealed. I'll get this over with before tomorrow's big stream reveal. We've got... a fair amount.

We also get the Part Two of Professor Doyle's journeys through Un'Goro, and really, it's just free, additional flavour content that Blizzard's not charging the fans for. Poor Doyle's still suffering from the lilyfeather venom from the first part, he and his long-suffering cameraman Eddie find themselves in the company of Murlocs (conveniently off-screen, with all we see are prop hands and dancing shadows) before being fed a cup of some hallucinogenic jungle vine extract before passing out. Moral: do not eat anything handed to you by Murlocs. More hints of the mysterious Paladin quest reward, Galvadon, is shown. It's a 5-mana 5/5, apparently, but we still don't know the effect.

That ties in with a blog that's the third part of Doyle's journals, and this time Eddie's journals actually have cards stuck to them! After their encounter with the Tortollan tribe (whose leader is called Umbra -- a possible Legendary?), they were handed to a tribe of Murlocs, which we see in the video. Eddie's totally convinced that they were being dressed up to be fed to the Murlocs' tribe leader, Megafin... who turns out to be a really, really nice bloke and he's now pen-pals with Eddie. The Murloc village is also on top of a dinosaur's back, and Megafin is this giant Murloc that leads the dinosaur around Un'Goro. The (actually quite long) journal page ends with Eddie and Doyle reaching the base of the volcano, where they part ways with the Tortollan/Murloc community to scale the volcano and seek 'the truth'.

Really like the lore. Just hope that the Un'Goro expansion is a fair bit more balanced with regards to the metagame.

Crystalline Oracle
Priests get a one-mana card that's basically a smaller Shifting Shade with the Elemental tag. It's a Deathrattle card, so it automatically is good for the Awaken-the-Makers style deck, and it's 1/1 statline makes is very comparable to Swashburglar and Babbling Book... except the Crystalline Oracle's a fair bit worse due to the fact that it gives you a card after it dies instead of immediately when it enters the board. The relatively narrower scope that the Oracle can draw form is either an advantage or disadvantage depending on the deck you're facing, and unlike Drakonid Operative, you can't choose. It raised a bit of controversy online, apparently, for being an RNG-fiesta card, and... I don't really understand why this card in particular made people angry compared to other random-effect cards. It's one mana, which means that it's perfect to combo with the 'play an Elemental the turn before' style effects that we'll talk about later below.

Sunkeeper Tarim
The Paladin's minion Legendary is revealed, and he's a cool-looking giant stone statue Tol'vir thing. Tarim is a 6-mana 3/7 that unleashes the Keeper of Uldaman effect (set a minion to 3/3) on every single minion on board. At first I was confused -- it's like a variation of Eadric the Pure, but instead of disabling everyone, it also potentially buffs your opponents' minions. I mean, sure, your little Silver Hand Recruits get buffed, but why would I want give my opponents a board full of 3/3's? What if they have a board of tiny pirates or totems or imps? Why would I want to buff them? Well, when my opponent's board is nothing but Jade Golems, of course! It's a pretty powerful card that's going to fuck up any Jade Golem board, and the fact that Tarim himself is a 3-attack Taunter means that it's literally going to eat up the weakened Jade Golems like breakfast. 3/7 Taunt is literally the perfect statline to go up against a board of 3/3's. Tarim is going to eat up at least two minions and force a third if the enemy doesn't have a ping. No, it's not the kind of hard counter that automatically makes Jade decks fall apart, not at all. But it's still a pretty cool card that does the double work of buffing your board (Stand Against Darkness? No?) and disables your enemy's heavy-hitters at the same time. On the other hand it also has the potential to really screw you over, especially if you are controlling big minions yourself like Tirions... I dunno. We'll see. I honestly am a bit more optimistic about Tarim, and he's probably a card that requires you to really read the board properly before playing him.

Shadow Visions
Priest gets a weird epic spell. It's 2 mana, and it allows you to discover a copy of a spell in your deck... so, yeah, you get an extra copy of whatever spell, and theoretically you can rig it so your deck only contains several specific spells, but why would you want to spend a card slot and two mana instead of just putting the spell again? It's kind of a sneaky way to implement tutoring for spells, but at the same time Priest isn't exactly a class that wants multiples of spells that badly. In Mage or Rogue, Shadow Visions would be pretty awesome, but for the life of me I can't think of a Priest spell that justifies me putting a tempo-loss card and spend two mana to get a copy of it. Like, it's cute, but it's just 2-mana draw a card. And gaining a copy makes it better than Purify, obviously, but that's not a hard bar to clear. It's unique, I guess? Lots of people love this card, but I'm just underwhelmed.

Clutchmother Zavas
Oh hey, a Silithid! Very, very surprised to see a Silithid as a Warlock card of all things -- the Beast tag certainly doesn't matter here. So Zavas is a boss in the Silithid hives that are found in Un'Goro crater, and she synergizes very well with the discard mechanic. The only real cards that benefit from being discarded are Fist of Jaraxxus (which suck) and Silverware Golem (which rock), so adding another minion that benefits from being discarded is very good. One of the problems that fulfilling the quest has is that sometimes you just run out of cards in your hand to discard -- one of the best ways currently to play Soulfire or Doomguard certainly is to play them as the last card in your hand. But therein lies one of the big problems for the Lakkari Sacrifice quest. You run out of cards to discard at one point, and you're going to sacrifice a lot of life to life tap if you didn't manage to get the Malchezaar's Imp combo going. And since Lakkari Sacrifice counts the number of cards you discard instead of the number of discard-effect cards you play, that presents a problem.

Zavas fixes that, both by being a card that benefits from being discarded, as well as keeping sure that there's a card to discard in your hand. Zavas just gets bigger and bigger, getting a not insignificant +2/+2 buff, basically growing and growing and growing, until it becomes like a 2-mana 8/8 or 10/10. And, sure, the Clutchmother is still a glorified beatstick that your opponent will see coming, and a single Shadow Word: Death will get rid of her, but if your opponent doesn't have an immediate answer then Zavas is free to destroy your opponent's face. Not to mention the combo between Clutchmother Zavas and the quest and the stream of 3/2 Imps... Yes, she's not a demon, but then there's not much demons in the Un'Goro crater. Zavas may be a wee bit too slow by virtue of its effect, but I do love that between Sherazin, Elise, King Dred and Zavas we're getting a lot of unique effects for legendaries in this expansion, which I love.

Ozruk
On Tuesday, Battlenet posted a post about Elementals. We get confirmation that eighteen old minions get to become Elementals (Water, Earth, Fire, Frost, Unbound and Rumbling Elementals; Magma and Ice Rager; Anomalus, the two Ragnaroses, Al'Akir, Neptulon, Lightspawn, Dust Devil, Fireguard Destroyer, Arcane Anomaly, and Baron Geddon) -- which is basically everything I guessed would become elementals. The Shades, Ancients and Bog Beasts don't count. But anyway, the gimmick is that Elemental cards get a bonus when you play an Elemental in the previous turn, which actually is a great way to make the older Elemental cards still retain their powerful effects but still interact with the new gimmick. So the Elemental tribe has two distinct cards: Elementals that are just strong minions to play, and newer ones that benefit from playing those other minions before. It makes cards lke Arcane Anomaly, a previously oft-overloooked minion, suddenly be useful because he's now a cheap one-mana minion that activates Elemental synergy. The new Crystalline Oracle and Pyros makes sense when you consider that they're also cheap Elementals to be played on an earlier turn. It's a pretty unique thing going on, instead of doing something similar to Pirates and Murlocs with a 'give +1/+1 to all!' style cards.

Take Ozruk, for example. He's a legendary neural minion, this big-ass earth elemental with beards made up of fungal tendrils or something, a boss in the Deepholme raids in World of Warcraft. He's a 9-mana 5/5 with Taunt, which is obviously garbage stats, but he gets +5 Health for each elemental you played last turn. Which... well, still isn't super good. If you played a single Elemental, then Ozruk becomes a 9-mana Ancient of War. Still shit, because Ancient of War is 7 mana. But if you get to play, like, two or three Elementals, then Ozruk is a 9-mana 5/15 or 5/20, which is a lot better for 9 mana. On the other hand, though, Ozruk is just... a bigger Ancient of War that needs you to jump through some hoops to activate his effect. And even then he gets decimated with a single removal card -- unlike fellow 9-mana neutral taunt legendary Soggoth the Slitherer, a card dear to my heart. Soggoth has the spell-immunity ability which prevents it from being taken down with something as cheap as a Hex, and Ozruk just doesn't quite work that well. I mean, yeah, sure, it's going to be great if Elementals are great, as another weapon in their arsenal, but it's just good and not super-great. And if the effects don't pan out it sucks.


Stone Sentinel
The Stone Sentinel is a Shaman card, and he costs a whooping 7-mana, with a measly 4/4 statline. Eh? Eh? 7-mana 4/4? Cute, Blizzard. The Stone Sentinel requires you to play an Elemental in the previous turn to, well, basically do a free Feral Spirits, summoning two 2/3's with Taunt. Unlike Ozruk, it's an effect that happens once and doesn't stack. Doing the math, you get a 8/10 for seven mana, which is a decent amount of total stats even if the 2/3's are relatively easy to remove by turn seven. I don't think Stone Sentinel is going to be that good. Time will tell if I put my foot in my mouth, of course, but my impression of the Stone Sentinel is that it comes too slow, and it doesn't compare very favourably to Shaman's other seven-drop minion -- the Jade Chieftain, which also summons a creature with Taunt, except Jade is a lot easier to get running than Elementals. Again, there's a huge problem -- the Stone Sentinel is, in theory, a pretty good card, and even has a buddy in Shaman's classic minion the Fire Elemental, a powerful six-drop... but can the elementals outshine the jade? It's not a bad card, but it's not super-great either, and the fact that it's conditional means that if you can't manage to get its effect off it's just an absolutely crap 4/4 for 7 mana.

Fire Fly
Of course, the nature of the Elemental gimmick means that we really need more cheap Elementals, Which is where the next two cards come in. The Fire Fly's cool. He's a 1-mana 1/2 Elemental, so he'll trigger Elemental effects, but as a battlecry he adds a vanilla 1/2 Elemental to your hand, allowing you to have this 1/2 body you can just drop down whenever you get ready to summon an Elemental next turn. The Fire Fly is a minion whose purpose is only to activate larger, stronger Elementals, and it's the existence of cards like this that really make me somewhat confident that the 'play an Elemental the previous turn' gimmick might actually work. Again, I think the tribe needs a lot more support to really work, but cards like Fire Fly are well-designed token-generators that, while weak (1/2 isn't anything to write home about), with enough Elementals that benefit from this gimmick then the Elemental tribal synergy will really work well. Also, this is exactly the way to design a one-mana minion that works well with a synergy yet isn't absolutely overpowering and punishing the way Small-Time Buccaneer and Tunnel Trogg were. Otherwise, though, as cool as the design is, Fire Fly just doesn't cut it if you're not using it for Elemental combo purposes.

Flame Geyser
Similar to Fire Fly, only instead of a 1/2 minion, it's a 2-mana spell that deals 2 damage. It's definitely sub-par value, especially when Tempo Mage loses one of its strongest tools in Flamewaker. It's a weaker card compared to Frostbolt, and while Jade Shuriken does a similar thing, it summons the jade idol immediately on the board. Still, it's kind of fair, being a 2-mana deal 2 damage and draw a (very specific) card. The 1/2 Elemental token's only going to be useful for activating other Elementals. That said, if the Elemental gimmick doesn't work for Mages, then this is a pretty sub-par card.

Primalfin Lookout
A neutral Murloc card that's going to help out in the below Shaman Quest, the Primalfin is a 2-mana 3/2 Murloc, which is nice. As someone who plays a swarm Shaman Murloc deck for a bit, we do need more 2-mana Murlocs. The Primalfin basically plays out similarly to Gorillabot A-3 from League of Explorers, except without a stat penalty. If you have another Murloc on the field, this allows you do discover a Murloc. Definitely a very powerful card for swarm Murloc-type decks, which really seems to be the only Murloc archetype that's going to be viable, considering Anyfin and Everyfin are both rotating out before Un'Goro. We'll see if the Murloc archetype will continue surviving without those two finisher spells, but if they do then Primalfin Lookout looks to be one of the more powerful Murloc cards out there. One of the weakness of Murloc decks (that aren't in Warlocks) is that you tend to run out of cards in your hand, and only Coldlight Oracle is both a Murloc and draws cards (and it draws for your opponent, too) so having a card like this is definitely a great, great boon especially since it's a Discover effect, which is almost always more powerful than just adding a random Murloc -- you get to choose those Warleaders and Finjas. The fact that Murloc Tinyfin and Sir Finley are moving out means that the only real bad, low-statted Murloc left is the 1-mana 2/1 Murloc Raider.

Unite the Murlocs
Sir Finley Mrrglton might not be featured in this expansion as either a card or in the trailers, but he sure shows up in the artwork for this card! It's the Shamans' quest, and it's definitely nowhere as easily to build around as the Priest or the Warlock quests, because it's tied to a specific tribe -- the Murlocs. But that's okay, because everyone will agree that Shaman has had its time to shine as the unshakeable dominator of the meta for an entire year. If the quest revolved around summoning totems or casting overload cards then it's just going to encourage the same spamming of Flamewreathed Faceless and Thing from Below that Shamans did during the Old Gods meta. Having them turn to Murlocs, while probably not the most popular thing to do, is something I like. Mostly because I like Murlocs, so I might just be a little more biased.

Anyway, the quest wants you to summon ten Murlocs. Like Awaken the Makers, it's summon, so Murloc Tiderunner counts as two, and the Shamans' Call the Finishers counts as four. Finja gets you through this quest remarkably quickly too. Ten Murlocs aren't that easy on first glance, but Call the Finishers definitely makes up for it. As mentioned above, Murloc decks tend to play multiple cards in one turn, so having an empty hand is definitely a possibility. Unite the Murlocs rewards this gameplay by giving you Megafin, a mammoth of a Murloc. He's 5-mana 8/8, larger than Flamewreathed, and in addition to being a gigantic beatstick himself he fills your hand with random Murlocs -- which tend to be good if you're playing a Murloc deck. More chances to get Murloc Warleaders, and in the current standard, again, the only 'bad' Murloc in your hand is the 2/1 Murloc Raider. There are problems inherent with this, though, namely because you'll start with one less hand thanks to playing the 'Unite the Murlocs' card on turn one, and Murloc Shaman decks tend to run out of cards really quickly. Sure, Megafin replenishes it, but then it'll be a wee bit more reliant on Coldlight Oracles and Finja to really survive, and if you don't draw into them you're liable to run out of steam before you reach ten. Still, the payoff, the big grand poobah of all Murlocs, is just amazing.

Kalimos, Primal Lord
So lore-wise, Kalimos is absolutely cool. He's a Primal Elemental, which is an Elemental formed out of all four primary elements -- fire, earth, air and water. It's an existence only hinted at in the old RPG sourcebooks, and so far in World of Warcraft only Animus, who's artificially created by the Twilight's Hammer Clan, can claim to be such a type. As an extra bonus, Kalimos's name is definitely derived from Kalimag, the name of the Elementals' language, again, from the old WOW-RPG sourcebooks. But as a card? Kalimos falls into the same category that made Stone Sentinel and Ozruk kind of disappointing. He's a 8-mana 7/7 with a pretty powerful battlecry, and the ability to choose between multiple effects gives him a degree of flexibility. Again, he's a good card, but he's not super-broken the way the Jade cards are and it's still hard to justify running Elemental Shaman over Jade Shaman -- which was, I think, one of the problems with TGT and Karazhan where the newly introduced gimmicks simply aren't powerful enough to compete with the previous toys. Kalimos allows you to choose only one from 6 damage to the enemy hero's face, 3-damage AOE, filling your board with 1/1's, and heal your hero for 12. I guess in an ideal curve-stone world you go from Fire Elemental on turn 6 to Stone Sentinel on turn 7 to Kalimos on turn 8? Turn 8's definitely not a time when you want to fill your board with 1/1's I don't think, but the other three effects definitely pay for Kalimos's below-average statline and the pre-requisite. Like, the  invocation of air choice is basically a free, guaranteed Lightning Storm that always hits for 3, which costs a total of 4-5 mana depending on how you rank Overload. The invocation of fire likewise is a free Lava Burst. But on the other hand... I just don't think Kalimos is honestly that powerful to be the endgame in an Elemental deck, though he's by no means a bad card.

Tol'vir Stoneshaper
It's another card that benefits from playing an Elemental last turn, except the Tol'vir Stoneshaper isn't an Elemental himself. He's a 4-mana 3/5, which is kind of m'eh stats -- one point less than a Yeti -- and he gains Taunt and Divine Shield, essentially becoming a bulkier Psych-o-Tron (who normally costs 5 mana) when you get the effect off. It's a pretty solid card all around, possibly an even better anti-aggro Taunter than Tar Creeper. On the other hand, you're not always guaranteed to get Taunt with him, so while he's not a bad card, he's also a bit more inconsistent which makes up for his pretty nice total value when he does go off. Don't think I have much to say about it -- the Taunt/Divine Shield combo is a pretty awesome wall, and so if you're playing an Elemental deck you'll probably want this dude in it. Again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record -- I'm not sure how viable it'll be.

Hydrologist
A Paladin minion, a 2-mana 2/2. She's a Murloc, too, with an adorable piece of artwork. So what's her gimmick? Well, as a battlecry, you discover a Secret. And unless we get something with a power level comparable to Avenge, Hydrologist's probably not going to see much play. Paladins don't really do Murlocs that well without Anyfin, and hasn't been. So I dunno. Maybe they're getting more cards that'll make Secrets or Murlocs good? As it is, though, I don't really see this card being super playable. Jeweled Scarab was powerful because it gave you a card on-tempo for the next turn, so despite its low stats it's still played. Paladin Secrets tend to be bad, so yeah, it's a filler card. A lot more interesting than Worgen Greaser, mind you, but filler nonetheless.

The Caverns Below
I don't think the Caverns Below is going to be a top-tier quest, but damn if it isn't a wonderfully designed quest. The other three quests revealed so far have all been relatively simple ones that don't require much thought. Summon X number of Y, trigger X keyword Y times. The Caverns Below wants you to play a minion with the same name four times. And it's play, not summon, so no Doppelgangster shenanigans. Obviously you can only get two copies of a minion in your hand, so how do you do this quest? Shadowsteps, Shadowcasters, Thistle Tea, various 'bounce back to hand' cards (Gadgtezan Ferryman anyone? No? Brewmasters then), hell, even Vanish! It's a deck that requires a lot more thought put into it, and honestly I'm a little baffled as to what deck can run with this gimmick and be awesome with it. Of course, the reward isn't super-exciting mostly because I haven't quite figured it out yet. Basically, it's a 5-mana spell and it makes all your minions summoned or played from then onwards be 5/5's. It's big, sure, but at the same time it means a lot of plays like C'Thun or Edwin VanCleef or Jade end up being crap since they can't grow beyond 5/5. On the other hand, cheaper, smaller minions get to be absolutely powerful. Defias Ringleader and Murloc Tidehunter become 2-mana 10/10's split over two bodies. Harvest Golem is a 3-mana 5/5 that summons a 5/5 after it dies. It's still a very curious gimmick, though again it's going to take some thought to think of a deck that can reliably Shadowstep a minion three times and still benefit from the 5-mana card. Maybe something with a draw effect? Novice Engineer is a cheap card with a drawing battlecry effect, and when Crystal Core comes into play she gets turned from 1/1 to 5/5.

Mimic Pod
Old Gods introduced Thistle Tea, a card that see almost no play at all due to the unpredictability of its effect. It's a very unique card, but at 5 mana for something that's unreliable isn't that awesome. Mimic Pod is just the same card, shrunk down into a more manageable 3-mana card, drawing a card and adding another copy of it to your hand. Spending 3 mana to draw a card and get a second one is definitely a lot easier to justify when you accidentally draw like an Assassinate or something -- think of the difference between Arcane Blast and Flame Lance. A cheaper spell with a similar but scaled-down effect tends to be a lot better, especially in Rogue. And it definitely works really well with the Caverns Below.

Tol'vir Warden
Revealed a short while after I posted this post, this is a Hunter card, a 5-mana 3/5 minion that draws 2 1-mana minions as a battlecry. It's another tutor card on the same vein as the Paladin's Small-Time Recruits from the previous expansion, except it comes stuck to a body. A 5-mana 3/5 that draws two cards is pretty great! It's an Azure Drake with stats swapped around and exchanging a Spell Damage for a draw effect. But it draws two one-mana minions. And Hunters tend to not want their one-mana minions on turn 5 or 6. Looking at the current cards, post-rotation, Hunter will still have Fiery Bat, Timber Wolf and Alleycat available to them. Timber Wolf isn't really played a lot, and I don't see any of the neutral 1-manas except maybe (that's a huge maybe) Argent Squire make it into a Hunter deck. So that leaves four cards, if you're running two Bats and two Cats. Maybe you run pirates? Southsea Deckhand and Eaglehorn Bow isn't the best thing out there, but it's something, I guess? Thing is, it's not really that good to play either of them on turn six, and the Warden himself not being a Beast means that it's one less activator for Houndmaster, Kill Command, etc which tends to be Hunter's bread and butter. And the Tol'vir's effect doesn't go off every time, and a 5-mana 3/5 that does nothing is really bad. And I'm honestly unconvinced that drawing any two 1-mana minions would be worth slotting this card into your deck, unless the set gives us some great synergy -- either via strong 1-mana minions or something that'll make Pirate Hunter work. Also, why does this particular Tol'vir seem to keep pet dogs?

HEARTHSTONE CARD GALLERY: Journey to Un'Goro

Hearthstone Card Gallery: Journey to Un'Goro

Last updated: 08/2020 for weapon borders.

11/2020 for Corrupting Mist change

03/2021 for Bloodbloom/Open the Waygate change (I forgot)

03/2021 for The Big Spell Tag Update, Caverns Below, Lakkari Felhound, Tidal Wave buff.

05/2021 for Tidal Surge buff. 

Druid:

Hunter:

Mage:

Paladin:

Priest:

Rogue:

Shaman:

Warlock:

Warrior:

Neutral Cards:

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Uncollectibles:

Adapt Choice Cards:

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NEW HERO PORTRAITS: