Class cards now! We'll go in order. Brief talk about elementals and whatnot below, too.
EDIT: Because I'm not making an additional post for it, enjoy the final part of E. Malone and Professor Doyle's journey. The video gave us a downer ending with a meteor coming down to murder them, but the journals actually expanded a lot on their journey to befriend the Tol'vir and Saurok, activate the Way Gate, hang out with Megafin and Umbra's tribe, and going through the Way Gate back into the present day. Yay!
Jungle Giants/Barnabus the Stomper
The giant who's carrying a community of Murlocs and Tortollans on his back, Barbabus is the Quest reward for Druids. The Druids' Quest is actually relatively simple, especially for Druids -- summon five minions with five or more attack, which honestly isn't that hard to do. Yes, Ragnaros and Sylvannas leaving the metagame does make Druids lose two of the best minions with more than 5 attack, but it's summon. So yes, it's a Quest that works well with the Jade Golems, though Barbabus himself doesn't really work with the Jade Golem game plan. We do get a couple of great minions that work with the Jungle Giants Quest -- Tortollan Forager, Giant Anaconda, Shellshifter -- and reducing every single minion in your deck to zero? Jeez, that's an even more powerful battlecry than Aviana or Astral Communion! And Druids already have a fair amount of powerful minions at their disposal, too. Cenarius, Kun the Forgotten King, Aya Blackpaw, Ancient of War, Tyrantus... jeez, this quest is just pretty damn good, and the fact that it can synergize very well with Jade makes me actually more than a little scared with how powerful Druid might get in the future. It's easily one of the more flexible and powerful quests with a pretty insane reward. Because, shit, free gigantic minions. Yes, the quest is probably going to take slightly longer to play, but Adapt and new cards like Shellshifter really make completing the quest relatively easier than you'd think. And all you need is five, jeez.
Tyrantus
Tyrantus is... much maligned by the community when he came out, for relatively good reason. He's the Druid Legendary, and all he does is a giant beatstick. Tyrantus is a 10-mana 12/12 (Deathwing's stats) with the Fairy Dragon's spellproof ability, and while he's honestly not horrible... what are you going to do with it? Like, there's no real situation where Tyrantus is better than the Jade Golems, and while spellproof is a decent ability to have, preventing Tyrantus from being Hex'd, unlike Soggoth the Slitherer (a card I love, but doesn't see a ton of play) he doesn't even have the Taunt to make him an immediate threat for your enemy. Plus the addition of a lot of Taunts and Poisonous minions in this set, and Tyrantus gets less and less appealing. Like, even when Barnabus has been played, or if you need a big minion to help fill out the quest, or even a big beast, there's always a better minion to play with. Again, he's not horrible, but when is Tyrantus better to play than, say, other big Druid legendaries like Cenarius or Kun? He's a giant beatstick, that's for sure, but cards like Y'Shaarj, both Deathwings or C'Thun are also giant beatsticks that have additional effects.
ShellshifterShellshifter is another 'Druid of the X' style cards, where he's a 4-mana that either becomes a 5/3 Stealth or 3/5 Taunt. So either a Sen'jin Shieldmasta, or a slightly more powerful Jungle Panther. What's more important is that Druids get to play a 5-attack card as early as turn four, easily fulfilling a part of the quest's requirements. Shellshifter is a better Druid of the Flame, simply because it's not just 5/3 or 3/5, but actually gets keywords on top of it that makes it a lot better than just a vanilla minion with stats swapped around.
Giant Anaconda
Snakes! The Anaconda is a 7-mana 5/3 Beast, that as a Deathrattle summons another 5-attack-or-more minion from your hand. So if your Quest isn't complete by turn seven, the Giant Anaconda makes sure to tick two of the five minions you need to summon. Yes, a 5/3 is shit to summon on turn 7, but the Anaconda is just there to die. It's a bit of an expensive tempo loss, but the chance of summoning huge Y'Shaarj's or Soggoths or Tyrantuses from your hand is just amazing. Personally I'm not 100% sure if this snake is actually super good, since some of the >5 attack cards like Ancient of War do need battlecries to go off, but still.
Earthen Scales
A spell that, for one mana, buffs a minion for +1/+1. Pretty crap, right? Well, not when your hero gains armour equal to the minion's attack. It's a very unconventional way to do both the buffing effect that Druids tend to do while still also gaining armour. It's a pretty interesting spell that, if played on the correct minion like an offensive Shellshifter can give you 6 armor for 1 mana, but when played on things like a Jade Golem, or a C'Thun, it's easily 10+ armour for one mana, which is possibly one of the stronger heal/armour up effects in the game.
Elder Longneck
Well, at least not all the Druid cards are good. Elder Longneck is a 3-mana 5/1 Beast, which is Magma Rager stats. And it adapts if you're holding a minion with >5 attack... but it's still a 5/1 itself. Sure, you can give him +3 Health, making him a 3-mana 5/4, and I suppose Divine Shield isn't bad either, but those are just about the only good adaptation on it. Stealth makes it into a Shadow Rager, I suppose, but practically everything else causes him to die to pings. But, still, it's a 3-mana minion that helps to complete your quest, meaning that if nothing else, even if your Adaptations whizz out he's still a card that helps you complete your quest at an earlier turn. I sound negative, but honestly the Elder Longneck is still a pretty powerful card -- if not individually then in how it helps to round up your quest. Jeez, Druids are getting really good cards this expansion, aren't they, when the worst of their cards is still pretty decent?
Tortollan Forager
One of the better cards that's definitely going into your Quest Druid decks is Tortollan Forager, who is a 2-mana 2/2 that discovers a minion with more than 5 attack. Generally, minions with more than 5 attack are good! And Druid's actually got a decent selection of minions with huge attacks. Cenarius, Ancient of War, Dark Arakkoa, Kun, Verdant Longneck... hell, Ancient of Lore, Tyrantus, Menagerie Warden and Ironbark Protector honestly aren't bad discoveries too. I guess Elder Longneck is the one poop discovery in all of this, but still, discover means that you get to choose. And that's not counting all the great neutral huge-attack minions either. It's definitely a card that you'll see a lot in Quest Druid decks, that's for sure.Dinomancy
Do you want to deal 2 damage to the face and buff your minion at the same time? Look no further than Dinomancy, which seems to be one of the better and more fun Hunter cards, and one that actually looks like it's going to be a pretty decent card. Dinomancy, for 2 mana, transforms your hero power into 'buff a Beast for +2/+2'. Which is just insane! In addition to potentially still dealing 2 damage to your enemy's face, the damage stacks as permanent buffs for your minions if your enemy has no way to remove them. It's actually a decent card to play in any Beast deck, and it'll actually help your fragile 1-mana minions in a Quest Hunter deck survive. Yes, you do lose the tempo for the 2 mana you use to play the spell, but shit, the payoff, while slow, actually feels absolutely amazing. I'm pretty optimistic about this card -- seems pretty fucking powerful.
Stampede
Lock and Load, but with Beasts! Rexxar's old Ultimate skill from Warcraft III finally makes it into Hearthstone, and it looks amazing! One of Lock and Load's weakness is that sometimes you get a lot of minions from the effect and you don't get to abuse Lock and Load's "add a card to your hand" effect. Stampede, meanwhile, is a one-mana spell, and for each beast you cast, you get a beast added to your hand. So all Stampede needs is the card itself and a single preferrably cheap Beast. And while there are a lot of bad Beasts out there (you don't want to get an Ultrasaur from this, for example), there's a lot of good Beasts, and most of all, you can potentially just spend all your mana on summoning Beasts, which tend to be good. Also, you know what's awesome to Stampede with? Carnassa's Brood. Complete the quest, and just summon Carnassa's Brood after Carnassa's Brood with Stampede active, and you'll get so many cards in your hands that a Gadgetzan-Jade-Druid will blush.Jeweled Macaw
It's a bird! It's a better Webspinner, a 1-mana 1/1 that adds a Beast to your hand as a Battlecry. And therein lies the strength of the Macaw. Making it have a Battlecry means that it's an inherently better card than Webspinner (which itself is already good!) by making it a better topdeck, and it's actually a pretty ideal card to play alongside Stampede. Definitely a great, if simple, card. Babbling Book can attest to the strength of 1/1 minions that adds random things to your hand, and Jeweled Macaw also works well with both The Swamp Queen and general beast synergies.
Grievous Bite
A mini Explosive Shot, it's a 2-mana spell that deals 2 damage to a minion and 1 mana to those next to it. Seems balanced, also definitely good against Pirates. Does it replace Quick Shot? Not really, since it can't go face, but for what it does, it's definitely reasonably balanced, though I don't see it making particularly big waves in the metagame.
Open the Waygate
So far, the Quest rewards have been insane. Barnabus is. a 5-mana 8/8 that turns every minion in your deck to cost 0. Galvadon is a monster that adapts 5 times. Queen Carnassa turns your deck into a self-cycling army of monster raptors. But none takes the cake of being a game-breaker as much as Time Warp, the Mages' quest reward, which literally breaks the game. You take two turns. What the fuck! What the utter fuck! Sure, the Time Warp card costs 5 mana, which is most of your turn, but damn, it's a pretty powerful card. And the quest requirement? Nothing about Secrets, but you cast 6 spells that didn't start in your deck. And, like the Druid Quest, I honestly think this is easier to complete than you think. Between Babbling Book, Antonidas and Cabalist Tome, you already have core Mage cards that already do that. And that's not to mention things like the Kabal cards from Gadgetzan -- Kazakus creates a spell outside your deck, and both Kabal Chemist and Kabal Courier also gives you spells from outside your deck. Hell, I think even the Coin counts as a spell that didn't start in your deck! And to top it off, the new cards in this set really make this quest work. Elise the Trailblazer, Primordial Glyph, Mana Bind, Steam Surger, Shimmering Tempest... Honestly, the quest could read 'cast 10 spells that started outside your deck' and I bet it'd still be balanced. In Wild it's even more degenerate, with Spellslinger, Unstable Portal, Ethereal Conjurer, Elise Starseeker, and anything that creates Spare Parts.
Now how valuable is taking an extra turn? Depends what you have on the field, of course. If you have an Antonidas it's just GG well played, I think, but honestly even without degenerate Antonidas combos taking an extra turn is pretty damn powerful nonetheless. I'm not sure how viable the Time Warp itself will be, but jeez, no wonder they are moving Ice Lance out.
Primordial Glyph
Because Mages didn't quite have enough ways to discover spells from outside their deck, we get a spell... which discovers a card outside your deck! It's a 2-mana card, which makes you think it's going to be similar to Priest's Shadow Visions, but Primordial Glyph actually gives the 2 mana cost for this card back to you by discounting the spell you discovered by two. Because holy shit, this card is just amazing. The power levels of the cards in this expansion is just amazing.
Meteor
Meteor's a cute card. It's Explosive Shot, on steroids. Lots and lots of steroids. For 6 mana, you deal FIFTEEN damage onto a single minion, and splash 3 minions on the ones adjacent to it. Do you ever want to play this over, say, Flamestrike? It is cheaper but has a shorter range, and while there's the potential of murdering a really large minion like a Ragnaros or a big Jade Golem, I don't think Meteor's ultimately that good of a card for you to put into your deck. I do admit that it feels a lot better than Mage's older "deal huge damage to a minion" card, Flame Lance, by virtue that Meteor is a mini-AoE card.
Steam Surger
Kickass looking artwork, but the Steam Surger is actually one of the more underwhelming cards in the set. Not that it's bad, of course -- it's a 4-mana 5/4 that generates a card. But it's also not quite that awesome as far as cards that benefit from playing an Elemental the turn before goes. You do get a Flame Geyser, which if you're playing an Elemental-themed deck is probably something you'll want, but unlike Shamans, the Mages' legendary minion Pyros... isn't something that needs an Elemental the turn before to be good, so I'm not sure about how the Elemental Mage deck will end up doing. It's a good card if you're running Elementals, with lots of value packed into a single card that generates two more, but since the endgame of Elemental Mage seems to just be Blazecallers and Servants of Kalimos I'm not sure if it's going to be worth playing.
Shimmering Tempest
Dang, this card is awesome. As if Babbling Book isn't enough, the Mage Quest gets additional support in the form of Shimmering Tempest, who is a 2-mana 2/1 Elemental with the Deathrattle of adding a random Mage spell to your hand. It's an amazingly powerful card. Perhaps not super-creative design-wise, but Babbling Book was unbelievably strong despite his innocent-looking effect, and Shimmering Tempest no doubt will be the same. Between the Elemental synergy and the spell-adding effect, Shimmering Tempest looks like he's going to be a core card in various types of Mage decks for sure.
Molten Reflection
For 4 mana, you copy a minion. It's pretty powerful! I'm not quite sure what Mage minion is particularly powerful enough to combo with Molten Reflection -- Antonidas, if he survives, for sure -- but it's basically a Faceless Manipulator for one mana less, and it's a spell, which means Mana Wyrm, Antonidas, Sorcerer's Apprentice all do like this spell. At the same time Molten Reflection also makes it so the Babbling Book/Cabalist's Tome/Shimmering Tempest effect doesn't always just add pure damage to your hand, which is definitely something we needed. Probably not one of the stronger cards in the set, but shit, again, it's still pretty powerful. Un'Goro has some really strong cards, man.
Primalfin Champion
My god, this card. When we all thought Murlocs in Paladins would be dead after Anyfin and Murloc Knight rotates out, in comes Primalfin Champion. No, you probably wouldn't actually play Primalfin Champion in a Murloc deck, but he is going to be absolutely powerful in a Galvadon deck. He's a 2-mana 1/2 that recycles every spell you cast on this minion to your hand. He's the single card that impressed me the most during the stream a couple of days ago, because, holy shit, all the spells you just lobbed on him gets recycled, so the nightmare isn't quite over after you manage to murder him with anything short of Silences, Hexes and Polymorphs. I'm just thinking of how degenerate a deck with Galvadon, Primalfin Champion, Voraxx and Djinni of Zephyrs will be in Wild. Easily one of my favourite cards in the deck, and the stream really put my faith that the Last Kaleidosaur quest might actually be pretty reliably completed.
Adaptation
Oh, hey, a cheap buff spell that's good! How convenient! Adaptation is a pretty powerful card that definitely seeing play in Quest Paladin, and between Adaptation, Blessing of Kings and Spikeridged Steed, we have our 6 cards that we need for the Quest to be completed. Throw in a couple of Dinosizes or Blessings of Wisdom or stuff like that, as well as the Primalfin Champion recycling your buffs, and suddenly it's far more realistic to complete the Paladin's Quest.
Vinecleaver
Vinecleaver would be a great weapon if not for its prohibitive cost. For 7 mana, it's a 4/3 weapon. Quite shit, right? But every time you swing this weapon, it's two 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits, which we know is going to be absolutely awesome with both the Lightfused Stegodon and Sunkeeper Tarim. And that's not counting Wild shenanigans. It's basically six Silver Hand Recruits, so in addition to a 4/3 weapon, you get a delayed and better Stand Against Darkness, and playing this a turn before you do a Lost in the Jungle + Lightfused Stegodon combo means that you suddenly get a crapton of Silver Hand Recruits on the board. Ultimately, though, while I'm actually quite excited about Silver Hand Recruit decks, I don't think Vinecleaver makes the cut.
Lyra, the Sunshard
Dang, Lyra looks absolutely hardcore. Visually, anyway. She's the Priest Legendary, a 5-mana 3/5 Elemental with the passive effect of basically being another Lock-and-Load style effect, but instead of adding random Hunter cards, she adds Priest spells. It's like a worse Nexus-Champion Saraad because she's lower-statted and her effect picks from a smaller pool of cards... but you can cycle through multiple Priest spells in a single turn. It's definitely not going to be in the same deck as the Quest Priest, but you do get some great cheap spells in Binding Heal, and a card that discounts spells in Radiant Elemental. Plus, the existence of this card suddenly makes Shadow Visions suddenly awesome, since that's an extra spell that generates another extra spell, both of which synergizes with Lyra. Granted, not all Priest cards are proactive, so some of the spells you get from her might just whiff out. One of the cards that really look like she's going to be super fun, that's for sure! Particularly good, maybe not (I'm leaning more towards not), but shit, she does look fun.Radiant Elemental
A stat-reversed Sorcerer's Apprentice, with the Elemental tag! Radiant Elemental definitely works well with Lyra, and the ability to just cycle random Priest spells is just amazing. Sorcerer's Apprentice is played in Mage decks even to this day, and while Priest spells aren't as abusable as Mage spells, they're still generally pretty good, and discounting them is also pretty damn good. Not much to say about Radiant Elemental beyond the fact that it's pretty damn good. Also! The wait is over, people, because after so, so long Priests finally have a good two-drop!
Free from Amber
For 8 mana, you Discover a minion that costs at least 8. And then you summon it for free. Which is... amazing! Yes, this expansion did introduce a bunch of crap heavily-costed minions (Tortollan Primalist, brrr...) but 8-mana minions are still pretty good. It's like Forbidden Shaping, I suppose, with the chance to Discover and actually pick a minion that's somewhat good for your situation, as well as the chance to get a bigger minion than 8 mana. And besides, Forbidden Shaping is a card everyone plays on turn 8 anyway, but the thing is, Ragnaros is out of the rotation... but still, powerful minions like Ysera, both Deathwings, Y'Shaarj, and even relatively crap beat-sticks like Faceless Behemoth or Ultrasaur aren't half-bad when they cost only 8 mana -- or less if you have Radiant Elementals on the field. Really, the Discover effect just makes Free From Amber exceptionally powerful, but at the same time not really because Discover only works from your own class, so no Tirion Fordring or King Krush. It's just that the amount of less-than stellar 8-cost-of-more cards are just... quite a lot as of this expansion. I did a quick review of cards above 8 that this can hit in standard:- Super-Special Awesome: Ysera, Malygos (sometimes), Deathwing, Deathwing Dragonlord, Soggoth the Slitherer, Y'Shaarj Rage Unbound
- Not Bad [still has Taunt or whatever]: Charged Devilsaur, Primordial Drake, Giant Mastodon
- I get a beat stick: Ultrasaur, Doomcaller, Gruul, Medivh the Guardian, Blood of the Ancient One, Alexstrasza, Nozdormu, Onyxia, Faceless Behemoth, Molten Giant, Mountain Giant, Sea Giant, Arcane Giant
- I get a crappy statted minion because battlecries don't go off: Tortollan Primalist, Ozruk, C'Thun, Mayor Noggenfogger (has an effect but come on), N'Zoth the Corruptor, Yogg-Saron Hope's End, Boogeymonster
And more times than not all you're getting is a beatstick. There are 29 minions you can discover in standard, and only 9 are good or decent. 13 end up being just beatsticks, and 7 are actually shit. Yes, you Discover the minion which means you're not going to be an idiot and pick Ozruk or C'Thun, but still, I dunno. I don't think this card is as good as an 8-mana Forbidden Shaping, or if it's in wild... if only because Ragnaros the Firelord and Sneed's Old Shredder are both available to bit hit by this thing in wild.
Binding Heal
Flash Heal is rotating out, so have a near-identical version that also heals a minion at the same time! Flash Heal was used a lot, and Binding Heal is just leaps and bounds better for healing a minion too, so it's going to be better than Flash Heal. Not much I can say about it.
Biteweed
Edwin VanCleef's little brother is apparently a fucking man-eating plant. Biteweed is a worse Edwin. Edwin is a 2/2 that gains +2/+2 for every card you played earlier, while Biteweed is a 1/1 that gains +1/+1 instead. Is it good? Yeah, just not as good as Edwin. Will it be played? Maybe as a cheap card you drop before Edwin so after that insane lots-of-coin, lots-of-1-mana-cards, multi-Prep turn you drop a Biteweed before you drop Edwin, so if you played like 4 cards before the big Biteweed-Edwin drop, you'll get like a 5/5 Biteweed and a 12/12 Edwin. It's not super good, but it does give you alternate options for making huge combo-centric minions, albeit one that can't quite ramp as quickly and insanely as Edwin. Ultimately, a cute card but one I don't see being super viable.
Envenom Weapon
For 3 mana, give your weapon Poisonous. This... this is actually pretty good, but I'm not sure when do you play this. With a Violet Illusionist on the field this means that your weapon can just murder huge Jade Golems or Tyrantus-es or C'Thuns without damaging your hero... but wouldn't you rather just play, I dunno, Giant Wasp? It's a unique effect since we've never had a
Razorpetal Lasher
Rogues need cheaper spells to trigger those Biteweeds and Edwin VanCleefs, right? And just slotting the coin in is sometimes not enough. So enter Razorpetal Lasher, a 2-mana 2/2 that was foreshadowed in one of the journal posts. The Lasher, as a battlecry, adds a 1-mana-deal-1-damage spell to your hand, which isn't super-amazing, but it does work well if you really need to wreak havoc or have cheap one-mana cards in your hand to trigger those Gadgetzan Auctioneers and Edwin VanCleefs. Pretty decent card.Razorpetal Volley
Basically the same thing as Razorpetal Lasher, but in spell form. For 2 mana, you get two copies of the Razorpetal card. It's a bit more expensive than the Lasher since you don't get the 2/2 body, but you do get two copies of the card. Which means if done in a particularly good Edwin or Gadgetzan turn, Razorpetal Volley is three cheap spell cards in one.
Obsidian Shard
Oh, hey, a weapon! Been some time since Rogues have gotten a weapon at all, and it's actually a bit of a meme that Blade Flurry was removed for nothing at all. Obsidian Shard isn't a super-great weapon, because it's just a 3/3 that gets discounted for each Burgled card you've played. Yes, discounting this card into a 0- or 1- mana card means that it's a powerful, cheap card that acts like a stronger Fiery War Axe, that also triggers things like combos and whatnot. You definitely put this in a Swashburglar/Hallucination deck, right? I don't think the Burgle deck (weird to be calling it that since Burgle's out of rotation, but okay) has enough cards to really make it work, but between Obsidian Shard and Ethereal Peddler it has a fair amount of support.
Hallucination
One mana, and you Discover a card from your opponent's class. Discover is always miles better than just getting a random thing, which makes Hallucination just better than both Burgle and Swashburglar. It's a great card, and Rogues do love their one-mana spells. And with things like Obsidian Shard, you do have some cards that synergize well with combos.
Fire Plume Harbinger
Shamans get all the cool-looking minions! Fire Plume Harbinger is a 2-mana 1/1. Bad, right? Except it reduces the cost of all Elementals in your hand by 1. Which means I think it's pretty much going to be a must-have in your Elemental deck. He's a pretty shit topdeck, but the fact that he discounts a good chunk of your hand, and cheaper Elementals probably will lead to a fair amount of value, it's a pretty great card with a great artwork. It's just pretty good, with only its 1/1 statline really getting in the way of it being super-OP.Air Elemental
Just a solid one-mana Elemental that isn't super-overpowered. It's just a 1-mana 2/1 that can't be pinged due to having the Fairy Dragon's spellproof ability, and by virtue of being one mana means that he can potentially trigger the 'play an Elemental the previous turn' effects of basically any card since he can be slotted in an earlier turn. There's no 2-mana card that benefits from playing an Elemental before, but it's still a pretty dang good card that I think will just bulk up any Elemental Shaman deck.
Hot Spring Guardian
Bye-bye, Earthen Ring Farseer! Hot Spring Guardian is yet another healing tool for Shaman, but this time it synergizes with the Elemental gimmick, and arguably is a far better three-mana drop than Unbound Elemental or Tar Creeper. It does compete with the Igneous Elemental, and really, it depends whether you want your Shaman to heal more or have more cheap Elemental Tokens to trigger your Kalimoses and Ozruks. A 3-mana 2/4 that restores three health and has Taunt looks so much better than Igneous Elemental to me, at least. The 2/4 Taunt statline is very respectable for 3 mana, and the healing effect is actually not a bad thing to have. Hot Spring Guardian serves as a less-effective Jinyu Waterspeaker, but one that also works very well with the Elemental synergy. So yeah.
Primalfin Totem
Hee hee the artwork on this thing. The Primalfin Totem looks absolutely cute! It's a 2-mana 0/3 Totem that summons a 1/1 Murloc at the end of your turn. It's a good card, but I'm not sure you'd rather play Primalfin Totem over, say, Rockpool Hunter, Bilefin Tidehunter or Murloc Tidehunter. It's a cute card that potentially finishes the Unite the Murlocs quest all by itself, but it's a 0-attack card, it's not a Murloc itself, and there are a lot better Murloc 2-drops out there. I suppose it can help if you decide to tech in like a Thing from Below into your Murloc deck... but why would you do that? A cool card that I'm not sure will be viable, but a cute card nonetheless.
Tidal Surge
For 4 mana, deal 4 damage to a minion and restore 4 health to your hero. Tidal Surge's a very nice little control card for Shaman, and the fact that Tidal Surge doesn't go to the enemy's face is a very, very neat design bit that makes Shamans less insanely face-centric as before. And the restoration aspect of this card does kind of help Shamans deal with the loss of cards like Healing Wave (though arguably with Hot Spring Guardian and Jinyu Waterspeaker, Shaman already has a huge pool of healing tools). It's a pretty cool card, that I don't think will be super viable.
Cruel Dinomancer
This is a card whose effect I really want for some time now -- recover a card you've discarded before. Hey, if Shamans get cards that recover from Overload, why can't Warlocks? The Dinomancer is a 6-mana 5/5 that summons a minion you've discarded this game, so even if it summons like a humble Flame Imp it's already full value stat-wise. If it summons that Doomguard or Lord Jaraxxus (and believe me, Doomguard getting discarded happens a lot more than you think) you might just won the game with the huge tempo swing you just generated. Definitely a card that goes into that Discard-Quest Warlock deck. Between this dude, Clutch-Mother Zavas and Silverware Golem, Discard Warlock's actually looking quite awesome. Yeah, this card has the potential to fizzle out if you've only been discarding spells throughout the game, but still. It's more likely to be left out of Discard decks, simply because it's so conditional, it's a Deathrattle and might just whiff and only summon like a Malchezaar's Imp or something, but still, I love the design of the card even if I don't think it's as awesome as cards like Silverware Golem or Clucthmother.Chittering Tunneler
Another Silithid hanging out with the Warlocks is this little dude. The Tunneler is a 3-mana 3/3 Beast that discovers a spell, then lobs damage to your hero equal to its cost. It's an interesting bit of flexibility, but I don't see it seeing a lot of play. Might be great in a wild Reno deck simply because damage dealt to your face doesn't really matter, and the extra flexibility from adding more burn options is decent.
Bloodbloom
Cho'gall's effect, but in a 2-mana spell form. For 2 mana, you cast a spell with your health instead of your mana. Man, lots of older-legendary-that-didn't-quite-work effects are being revisited in this set, yeah? Princess Huhuran, Herald Volazj, Cho'gall... again, the same problems that plague Cho'gall also plagues Bloodbloom in that I still don't see a particularly good spell that Warlocks really want to cast early. Like, with this spell you can cast Twisting Nether or DOOM! or Felfire Potion or Kara Kazham or Siphon Soul or Feeding Time as early as turn two... but why would you want to? I guess Kara Kazham or Feeding Time's decent when you sacrifice life to play it in the early game, but I'm not very sure about the others.
Tar Lurker
Tar Creeper's bigger brother, Tar Lurker is scaled up appropriately, being a 5-mana 1/7 Taunt that becomes a 4/7 Taunt during your opponent's turn. I guess the Tar Lurker's biggest weakness is that it's in a class that doesn't need Elementals or Taunters. If Tar Lurker was in Shaman, or Mage, or Warrior then he'd be played a fair bit. In Warlock, though, I don't really see him being played a lot. Decent arena card, though.
Feeding Time
For 5 mana, you deal 3 damage and summon 3 1/1 Pterrordaxes, which are Beasts. It's like Imp-losion, but exchanges the randomness for consistency... and it costs one mana more, and doesn't synergize with demons the way Imp-losion did. It's a somewhat decent card, but in the same way that Stormcrack doesn't see as much play as Crackle, I don't see Feeding Time seeing as much play as Feeding Time.
Fire Plume's Heart/Sulfuras
Fire Plume's Heart is the Warriors' quest, and it needs you to play seven Taunt minions... which I think is actually simpler than it seems. Yes, it's going to take a relatively longer time to get there, but you get Sulfuras, which is a 3-mana 4/2 weapon. Which is great, but as a battlecry, Sulfuras changes your hero power into Ragnaros's hero power, which is dealing 8 damage randomly. Which is amazing! Majordomo Executus, eat your heart out! Sulfuras's effect is permanent, too, not just something that you'll only have while the weapon is active. And the bonus 4/2 weapon isn't half bad either, too.Now, how easy is it to summon 7 Taunt minions? Very easy, just probably not one that you can rush to complete the way that you do Rogue, Hunter or Shaman's quests. What Taunt minions do you want? Ornery Direhorn and Direhorn Hatchling (from below) are all great Taunt cards, and since the Hatchling is worth two Taunt minions, that's six... but all of them show up later in the game, and so does Tar Lord (which I'm unconvinced will make the Taunt Quest Warrior deck). The Curator, Alley Armorsmith and Soggoth are great Taunters, but likewise they show up only in the late game. Slightly earlier in the game you have options of Bloodhoof Brave, Infested Tauren and Sen'jin Shieldmasta' for turn 4, but I don't see playing all of them. What about earlier turns? Do you play crap like Pompous Thespian and Goldshire Footman? We did get Cornered Sentry, which is a 2-mana card, and I guess Stubborn Gastropod is quasi-decent, but the lack of early-game Taunters might make this quest a bit harder to complete. Which is fine, though, since it's a pretty control-deck oriented quest, so yeah, you could definitely afford to complete this quest a bit later, equip a powerful weapon and change your hero power into 'murder a thing'. It's definitely one of the more interesting quests, maybe slightly lower in power level compared to some of the other quests, but it still looks fun.
Ornery DirehornA simple card that is pretty powerful. A 6-mana 5/5 with Taunt makes it already great for the Fire Plume's Heart Quest, but it also Adapts as a battlecry. A 6-mana 5/5 Taunt with Divine Shield? A 6-mana 5/8 or 6/6 with Taunt? Obviously not all adaptation choices is good for the Direhorn, but it's definitely a great mid-range taunt card that you'll definitely play in Taunt Warrior, and it replaces Fierce Monkey as a Beast that you can draw with Curator -- who I think will be pretty great in this kind of Warrior deck. No, it's probably not the strongest card out there, and I think it's weaker than the Direhorn Hatchling, but I still think this goes into the Taunt Warrior deck. Definitely better than Sunwalker, I think. Plus, it just looks cool! Triceratops-es are cool!
Direhorn Hatchling
D'awww how adorable. The Direhorn Hatchling is a 5-mana 3/6 Beast with Taunt, which is already somewhat decent (if sub-par for her cost) Taunt minion which fits into the Taunt Warrior deck. Also, like the Ornery Direhorn, she also synergizes well with the Curator, another great Taunt minion. And, yeah, the Direhorn Hatchling isn't the best-statted minion in the game, but she shuffles her mommy into her deck, which is a 5-mana 6/9 Taunt... which is just fucking amazing. A bit slow, that's for sure, but the Direhorn Hatchling is definitely one of the more powerful tools that Warrior receives in this expansion. And Warriors get two of these!
Tar Lord
Another variation of the Tar Creeper, Tar Lord is the Warrior's version, and it's of course a huge Taunt minion so it's something that Warriors would want for the Quest completion. It's a 7-mana 1/11 that turns into a 5/11 wall during your opponent's turn. And... I think it's not as good as Tar Creeper? A 3-mana minion that can't attack that well during your turn is excusable. Spending 7 mana on one? Yes, it's going to soak up a hell lot more damage, but I think all things considered I'd rather play things like the Direhorns or Soggoth or Bog Creeper for my mid-late game Taunters. Still, that's not to say that Tar Lord is bad, because it isn't -- I just don't really see it being super-good compared to other cards, but who knows? Maybe you do want huge Tar Lords to just be a big meat (well, tar) shield while your Sulfuras-enabled hero power just lobs 8 damage everywhere. 11 health is still no joke. Plus (and I sound like a broken record, I know) just look at that hulking tar-skeleton monstrosity! He looks cool. Also, um, Ozruk? Yeah, this common minion's a lot better than you, I think.Sudden Genesis
For five mana, just... summon copies of your damaged minions. None of the Blood Warriors nonsense where you have to re-play them. So this means that if you damage your Grommash Hellscream? Yeah, for 5 mana you get a second 10-attack charging Orc, in addition to whatever other damaged minions you have on board. Yes, it's five mana, but the fact that it's an immediate presence on the board, doing this with either Charge or Taunt minions just makes this suddenly super-powerful. Man, forget King Mosh, a Grommash-Genesis combo is what's going to carry my Warrior deck to victory. Very cool design, one that I think will definitely see some play.
Iron Hide
For one mana, gain 5 armour. It's like Shield Block with a vastly reduced cost, but without the draw. Or Shieldmaiden without the minion. I'm not sure if you'll ever want to play it instead of Shield Block, for the same reason that you never see people use Whirlwind, but love Ravaging Ghoul. Or why Stonehill Defender in this expansion is miles better than I Know A Guy despite being more expensive but stuck onto a body -- I'd rather pay slightly more for an effect that comes with a body (or a card draw) instead of a simple deckslot filler. Still I don't think this spell's going to see play. Which is okay, I think, considering the huge amount of great cards Warriors already get in this expansion.
So let's talk about Taunts and Elementals. One of the more interesting cards that I see work is the Warrior Taunt Quest deck, and it's absolutely very viable to get an insane series of Taunters in play. Assuming you play the Quest card for the first turn, the expansion brings together enough Taunt support (which are all decent cards on their own, too!) to really make a taunt deck work. Of course in the mid-game you'll probably want to play like two cards in a turn to expedite the quest completion, but Fire Plume's Heart is really a deck that aims to control the game in the early and mid-game phase, and later just outvalue the enemy with the Ragnaros hero power. Really loved how the expansion brought together so many new good cards so you're not stuck building a deck with crap like Frostwolf Grunt, Squirming Tentacle or Pompous Thespian just to make this work.
- 2 mana: Cornered Sentry, Dirty Rat, Stubborn Gastropod
- 3 mana: Tar Creeper, Stonehill Defender, Second-Rate Bruiser
- 4 mana: Bloodhoof Brave, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Infested Tauren
- 5 mana: Direhorn Hatchling, Alley Armorsmith, Psych-o-tron, Nesting Roc, Fen Creeper (which isn't even good compared to the others here)
- 6 mana: Ornery Direhorn, Sunwalker, Wrathion
- 7 mana: Tar Lord, The Curator (he draws Beasts and Dragons, too, which actually works), Volcanosaur if he gains Taunt
- 8 mana: Primordial Drake (works with Curator)
- 9 mana: Soggoth the Slitherer
- In addition, if you play weapons, Dread Corsair can potentially just be dropped off anywhen for free.
- 1 mana: Fire Fly, Glacial Shard, Arcane Anomaly, Crystalline Oracle [Priest], Air Elemental [Shaman], Dust Devil [Shaman]
- 2 mana: Volatile Elemental, Shimmering Tempest [Mage], Pyros [Mage], Radiant Elemental [Priest], Fire Plume Harbinger [Shaman]
- 3 mana: Tar Creeper, Igneous Elemental, Magma Rager, Hot Spring Guardian [Shaman], Unbound Elemental [Shaman]
- 4 mana: Fire Plume Phoenix, Water Elemental [Mage], Steam Surger* [Mage], Lightspawn [Priest]
- 5 mana: Servant of Kalimos*, Lyra the Sunshard [Priest], Tar Lurker [Warlock], Earth Elemental [Shaman]
- 6 mana: Frozen Crusher, Frost Elemental, Pyros Token [Mage], Fire Elemental [Shaman]
- 7 mana: Blazecaller*, Baron Geddon, Stormwatcher, Stone Sentinel* [Shaman], Al'Akir [Shaman], Tar Lord [Warrior]
- 8 mana: Kalimos Primal Lord* [Shaman], Anomalus [Mage], Ragnaros Lightlord [Paladin]
- 9 mana: Ozruk*
- 10 mana: Pyros Token [Mage]
- Non-Elementals that benefit from elementals: Thunder Lizard (Turn 3), Tol'vir Stoneshaper (Turn 4)
As you can see, it's actually not super hard to find cards to trigger your elementals. The main turns that you want to play an elemental are turns 3 through 7, or 3 through 6 if you're not playing a Shaman. Yes, there's the problem of drawing the cards you need. Maybe you reach turn 8 and you haven't drawn your Kalimos, or you reach turn 7 without a Blazecaller but honestly there's enough good elementals to go around, and even classes like Warrior or Paladin who have decent class Elementals can actually consider slotting in cards like Servant of Kalimos, Blazecaller or Tol'vir Warden. The sheer amount of one-drop cards you can choose from is also honestly quite appealing, and this is really what I want from card design. There's no way you're putting all of these cards into your Elemental deck, and it's not like Jade or C'Thun decks where there are only like five or six options to choose from to curve out properly and it's already dictated what half your deck is going to look like if you're going for Jade or C'Thun decks. Here we're given free reign with multiple elementals on each mana slot to make do, and honestly while Ozruk isn't amazing, cards like Stone Sentinel, Blazecaller, Kalimos and Servant of Kalimos are all appealing enough to try and make the Elemental synergy work, and even then the archetype balances out being slightly more difficult to pull off by not relying as much on it compared to, say, Murlocs or Dragon decks.
