Kobolds & Catacombs - Final Card Review

 The entirety of the Kobolds & Catacombs expansion was revealed yesterday and the entire expansion will be released some time tomorrow (give or take a region or two) and here we are for an express choo-choo version of card reviews. Some of these are, well... good-in-arena cards that I won't really be discussing that much. Overall the set really looks nice, though, both flavour and power-level wise. Certainly am excited for Mage and Priest myself... Hunter looks like it probably got the shaft this time around (again)? We'll see.

We'll go with class cards first before neutrals, and then, just like Knights of the Frozen Throne, I'll put a prospective ranking of all the cards for Standard Constructed in the bottom.

Astral Tiger: A druid 4-mana 3/5 that shuffles itself into the deck when it dies. It's definitely a cool anti-fatigue tool, but seems more likely to be useful when Jade Idol rotates out. You could argue that you can draw the tiger out with recruit mechanics or whatever, but I don't see it happening very well. Cool design, probably not that playable.

Barkskin: One mana spell that gives a minion +3 health and you gain 3 armour. It's a cheap spell that will activate your Spellstone, and far more flexible to fit into your curve than Oaken Summons. Any druid deck can use minion buffs, whereas not all druid decks can afford to play a recruit-tiny-minions deck. But really -- most of the time, Earthen Scales is strictly better. So yeah, don't see this being particularly good outside of arena.

Rhok'delar: Rhok'delar is the hunter's legendary weapon, and perhaps rather sadly in my opinion, is a weapon to synergize with the all-spells deck that To My Side belongs in. It's perhaps not doable at the moment, although the archetype is a somewhat... interesting one in wild or with future expansions, perhaps? Hunters do get a crapton of spells in this expansion, which is neat, but even with all the spells they have in standard at the moment I don't see it working out. Rhok'delar is a 7-mana 4/2 that generates and fills up your hand with Hunter spells, which is definitely good value if your hand is empty... but on the other hand, you do have to build an all-spell deck... which I personally don't think we quite have the required support for yet. I'm not saying that it's bad, but I mostly think that it's for an archetype that doesn't quite have enough support just yet.

Candleshot: Great art! It's a 1-mana 1/3 weapon that makes the hunter immune while attacking. It's essentially three free pings, and another option for hunter's 1-mana drop (which, at this point, is basically just Alleycat and the new Dire Mole) so yay for that! Notably with Hunter's Mark you can kill anything. Not much to say about Candleshot beyond that, though. It's a cool design, I suppose, and very balanced. I do like it, although I don't think it quite makes it into constructed viability, though.

Flanking Strike: A bigger On the Hunt. For 4 mana, you deal 3 damage (can't go face, sadly), and you summon a 3/3 wolf. Another way to look at it is that it's a strictly better beast version of Fire Plume Phoenix, but in spell version. Definitely playable, even in non-spell-only decks. It's a very solid card in arena and might be constructed viable, because it's one of the many ways to simply control the board and build it in a minion-less deck. Even if the all-spells only archetype ends up not working out (and I don't think it will), Flanking Strike  looks like a decent spell nonetheless.

Cave Hydra: The mechanic unofficially called 'cleave' by many fanmade cards, which is the same ability that Foe Reaper and Scourgelord Garrosh's weapon has, now has made its way to Hunter! Cave Hydra is a very solid minion. It's a 3-mana 2/4 beast, only one attack less than the gold standard for a 3-drop, and it damages minions next to whomever it attacks! It's just a shame that it's not a 4-costed minion because god dang, Hunters have a fuck-ton of cards in the 3-drop slot (Animal Companion, Bearshark and Eaglehorn Bow all being premier cards in that slot). Still, it is a neat little way to perhaps swap around with Bearshark if you're building a deck that wants to control the board more than be aggressive.

Shifting Scroll: The last mage card to be released is another 'random mage spells' card, but I do like that it's actually... not that good! Shifting Scroll is essentially Shifter Zerus in card form, which means it's shit, but it doesn't have a cost. Which is very important, because if you get it out of, say, Cabalist's Tome or Ruby Spellstone, it's a spell that actually takes a turn to transform into a random, playable mage spell. And when it does transform, a random mage spell is certainly better than a random minion like Zerus does. So it's not a good card, but it's definitely a well-designed one in my opinion.

Potion of Heroism: A 2-mana spell that gives a minion Divine Shield, and draws a card? It's a more expensive Hand of Protection (which never sees play) but with card draw built in. And if Iron Hide versus Shield Block is any indication, card draw is definitely a very valid way to make a card go from 'maybe I'll take this in arena' to 'yeah I'll put it into my deck'. It's a neat card for sure, and perhaps goes into the mega-buff deck that they showed off on stream, but ultimately it's perhaps lives and dies depending on Paladin itself.

Gilded Gargoyle: Ah, a weaker Tomb Pillager! That's not to say that Gilded Gargoyle is bad, though. It's just... weaker! And in a class that already has a fuckton of great cards and great deathrattle synergy, Priest really is a class that can afford plopping down a 3-mana 2/2. And even then, a 3-mana 2/2 that gives you a coin isn't necessarily that bad. The thing with Gilded Gargoyle is that, well, most Priests already have 30 good cards so even in Razakus Priest decks that would benefit the most from coins, I don't see Gilded Gargoyle being played. Maybe in a Razakus deck that uses the N'Zoth package?

Psionic Probe: Kind of a shittier Mind Vision, I think, because unlike Mind Vision, Psionic probe can whiff if your opponent's deck just doesn't have any more spells. But it does draw from a narrower subset of cards than Mind Vision -- a random spell triggers your Lyra if nothing else. I dunno. Seems balanced, if not particularly good.

Twilight Acolyte: I don't think I talked about Twilight Acolyte before? I don't feel like I have. In either case, though, I think he's an actually pretty decent card. A 3-mana 2/4 isn't bad, but it's a card that is part of the dragon package, and allows to swap the Acolyte's 2 health with another minion... allowing Priest to finally deal with 4-attack minions at last. And turning an enemy minion to have 2 health? That just makes it susceptible to Potion of Madness, Shadow Word: Death and Cabal Shadow Priest, which makes the Twilight Acolyte perhaps one of the more formidable, if slightly fancier, weapons in the priest's arsenal.

Cavern Shinyfinder: And here's the missing puzzle in Kingsbane decks -- a weapon tutor card. Cavern Shinyfinder is not that bad as a 2-mana 3/1, losing one stat point from the vanilla test of 3/2.  It's fragile as all hell and susceptible to pings, but as a battlecry it draws a weapon from your deck. If the only weapon in your deck is Kingsbane (and it likely is since the only other weapon card played by Rogues is Shadowblade, which isn't super-duper necessary) and that means you kind of guarantee the Kingsbane draw a lot better, because in mulligans there are three cards that you basically means Kingsbane. Shinyfinder lives or dies on Kingsbane's back, so we'll see if Kingsbane is good.

Healing Rain: God I love this card. Such a cool design! Shaman used to have Healing Wave, one of my favourite cards, and it's about damn time that Shamans get another good healing card. Healing Rain costs 3 mana, and restores 12 health among all friendly characters, which means that you might very well heal your entire board. If you have no damaged minions, you essentially heal 12 to your face for 3 mana. And if your enemy has a Northshire Cleric you might very well mill the Priest dry! Pretty cool control tool, although I'm not 100% sure it'll see standard play.

Crushing Hand: A bigger Stormcrack! It is costed exactly the same at 2, except it deals 8 damage and overloads for 3. Overload works with the Sapphire Spellstone, and cheating out huge amounts of damage is far more palatable than Stormcrack's measly 4 damage. And 8 damage is a lot! I'm not sure which Shaman deck can use it, but I do like the design of Crushing Hand.

Dark Pact: You destroy a friendly minion, and restore 8 health to your hero. It's bad, I think, in the way that Unwilling Sacrifice is bad -- you still lose a minion. And while Dark Pact is a cheap heal, and Warlocks do tend to have cheap minions... you still probably won't play this. The fringe application of activating deathrattles probably won't matter either.

Hooked Reaver: A 4-mana 7/7 demon! With Taunt! It only becomes that if your Warlock has 15 or less health, and it's a measly vanilla 3/3 if you bring him back with Bloodreaver Gul'dan or Krul or recruit it with the Lackey, though, so it's not as ideal as it seems. Hooked Reaver does feel like a pretty cool finisher card the way that the Dragonkin 9/9 from Blackrock Mountain is, though. It's definitely another good demons in an expansion that gives Warlock a lot of good demons, and one with enough limitations that it doesn't make demon decks too overpowered. I like it.

Kobold Barbarian: It's just bad, right? The identically-statted Ogre Brute never saw constructed play, and Ogre Brute always has a 50% chance of hitting the target you want. Unless there's one minion, in which case the Barbarian is just as good as the Ogre Brute, Kobold Barbarian always attacks with less than 50% accuracy all the time. So yeah, probably one of the duds in this expansion.

Woecleaver: Warrior's legendary weapon is a Recruit-synergy weapon, an 8-mana 3/3 that Recruits a minion after the hero attacks. I think it's honestly a bit too expensive, because it comes down at least on turn 8. I'm still on the fence about the relative power level of Recruit, and just how powerful it is... and I'm not sure if I want to use an 8-mana 3/3 weapon. It's definitely balanced, though, and I definitely can see enough cards to properly build a Recruit Warrior deck... I'm just not entirely sure that it's going to be that viable. More of a wait-and-see card for me, honestly.

Gemstudded Golem: It's like Ironwood Protector in druid, in that it's a taunt that can only attack with 5 or more armour. Except Warriors gain armour a lot faster than druids, and a 6-mana 5/9 is so much better than a 4-mana 3/6. Gemstudded Golem's 5/9 is comparable to Hungry Ettin's 4/10, and temporarily not being able to attack is certainly a lot better than the Ettin's maybe-summon-a-Gastropod-to-fuck-up-your-day drawback. The Golem's also a neat target for recruit decks that has lots of stats as well. Neat card, I say.

Master Oakheart: What a bizarre card! Oakheart is a 9-mana 5/5, but it recruits three minions -- each with 1, 2 and 3 attack. Not cost, mind you, attack. I'm just scratching my head thinking of just what insane combos I can cheat out with this. Bolvar Fireblood is a candidate, that's for sure. Hadronox or Lord Jaraxxus would be a fun one. Tar Lord, Tar Creeper and Tar Lurker for sure. Pyros? Finja? Maexxna? Ixlid? It's a card that gives a fair amount of deckbuilding challenges, and it's either going to be very bad or very good. At the moment I can only think of a Taunt druid list, because they have 1-attack (Crypt Lord, Druid of the Swarm), 2-attack (Saronite Chain Gang) and 3-attack (Ironwood Golem, Hadronox, Grizzled Guardian). Oakheart is a well-designed card, and while I'm genuinely baffled on how good this card is, I do look forward to the decks that try to make this work in the future.

The Darkness: I cast magic missile upon the darkness! It's... it's a cool card! It's probably not good, though. It's a 4-mana 20/20 that starts off dormant like Sherazin, and it shuffles three candles into the enemy deck. It''s actually a neat stealth counter towards Highlander decks, although by no means is will playing the Darkness just fuck over a highlander priest the way that Skulking Geist was towards Jade Druids. It does delay the Raza turn, although the highlander priest can just Shadowreaper the Darkness all to hell. And while having a big 20/20 that you have no way of killing until it awakens is pretty scary, it's, well, just ultimately a big body and the opposing player will be able to save a removal to deal with it. It also is a play that absolutely does nothing on turn 4, so you do get a huge tempo loss in playing this card. So yeah, a fancy card that's more fun than competitive,  I think.

Corridor Creeper: A 7-mana 5/5 beast that costs 1 less every time a minion dies while this is in your hand? At least it's a minion, not just friendly minions, but even then I don't think it's playable enough even in beast-synergy decks. It's not as rapid a discount as other potential 0-costed minions like Kabal Crystalrunner, Thing From Below or Arcane Tyrant. Definitely a cool card in arena, though.

Shimmering Courser: A 4-mana 3/3 beast that only you can target with spells and hero powers? She definitely won't see play in Hunter because Bearshark is almost always better than her, but it'll perhaps be able to see some play in buff decks. I'm not sure Buff Paladin will be as good as the reveal stream makes it out to be, but I've always loved these 'can't be targeted' mechanics and wished we had more synergy with them. Courser is a cool design, I think, that perhaps finds a great place in Paladin. Spikeridged Steed this and your enemy has no option but to run minions to trade with it. Pretty neat and balanced card, IMO.

Void Ripper: Remember Confuse? From... TGT, I think? Now it's attacked to a 3-mana 3/3 demon! That's neutral! Confuse's a wacky meme card, and Void Ripper is a strictly better version of it. I'm not sure what deck or even class Void Ripper fits in, to be honest.

Ebon Dragonsmith: This card is a dragon! Yay dragons! It's a 4-mana 3/4 that discounts the cost of a weapon in your hand by 2. I don't think warriors or hunters play this, and since priest is probably the only proper class with dragon synergies in standard (and I don't see them playing Dragon Soul in a dragon deck, name notwithstanding) I don't see Ebon Dragonsmith's dragon tag mattering that much. It's probably decent in wild, perhaps? I'm not sure, though, because cards like that Blackwater Pirate from Old Gods never saw play either, so I don't see Ebon Dragonsmith making too many waves.

Kobold Monk: Cool art, huh? It's a neat card, a 4-mana 3/6, which means it's actually a decent vanilla statline, that gives your hero spellproof. It perhaps doesn't work against Quest Mages when they've completed it, but it definitely absorbs at least 6 damage or a removal from spell-heavy decks like Mages and Priests. A cool design, even if I think current constructed decks are too optimized to afford a card like this.

Shrieking Shroom: D'awww he's adorable. Also, a Myconid! D&D references ahoy! The Shroom is perhaps not good at all, though, being a 3-mana 1/2 that summons a random 1-cost minion. Two 1/2's for 3 mana isn't particularly good, even if you protect the Shrieking Shroom, and sometimes you just whiff and get like 1/1's or whatever. It's been compared to Primalfin Totem, but it's like one whole mana more expensive for exchanging the 0/3 into a 1/2... which makes it look super bad.

Scorp-o-matic: 2-mana 1/2 mech that destroys a minion with 1 or less attack? Sure, it kills, like, Crypt Lords and Doomsayers, but why wouldn't I just play a Stampeding Kodo? Cool card, but perhaps not constructed viable. Worth noting is that it could be combo'd with Aldor Peacekeeper to murder anything, and it's not random like the Kodo, so it might perhaps be a neat removal... but I'm not sure if it beats out other types of removal.

Gravelsnout Knight: I love the card art! But it's pretty crappy, to be honest. A 1-mana 2/3, but you summon a random 1-cost for your opponent? When Hungry Dragon, a far more sizable 4-mana 5/6, doesn't see play, I don't think Gravelsnout Knight would, especially since it's in turn 1 where you're trying to maximize as much tempo as possible.

Sleepy Dragon: Hey, here's a candidate for those big recruit decks! Obviously, a 9-mana 4/12 vanilla with taunt isn't good enough to put in decks, but recruited out it's great, and it's another big dragon to put in any big decks that try to synergize with dragons. I think it's just shy of being placed in actual, proper dragon decks, though.

Violet Wurm: Purple Worm! More D&D references! It's a strictly better Sated Threshadon. For a single mana point more, you get 3 more attack, and the 1/1 tokens you get are beasts (as I assume grubs are) instead of murlocs. Definitely great in arena, although I don't think it's quite broken enough for Constructed unless you're trying to make a Recruit Hunter deck -- which I don't think is viable.

Fungalmancer: A shittier Defender of Argus! It's one mana more, but has one less health, and doesn't give taunt? Sure, the stat boost is a lot more than Argus, but I do think it's a lot crappier. It does allow you to go a bit more aggro since it's like a mini-Bonemare buff spread over two bodies... but you need two bodies for Fungalmancer to work. So no.

Green Jelly: A shittier Hogger, as much as I love the card art. Jelly's got less stats than Hogger (3/3 vs 4/4) and the taunts it summons are weaker (1/2 vs 2/2). Hogger doesn't see play, so Jelly probably won't. Definitely a card I'll be mostly happy to see in arena, though.

Trogg Gloomeater: A 5-mana 1/5 taunt/poisonous? Pay 3 less mana and play Stubborn Gastropod instead. Where Venomancer doesn't see play, Trogg Gloomeater is just strictly worse.

Corrosive Sludge: A bigger Acidic Swamp Ooze, with less optimized stats. Acidic Swamp Ooze or Gluttonous Ooze are both strictly better (even though Corrosive Sludge's art looks cool as hell), but I think Sludge's inclusion is more of an arena thing so that the weapon-filled arena also has a common weapon-counter card with a high incidence appearance rating. In constructed, you're better off running either Gluttonous or Acidic Swamp Ooze, or Harrison Jones.

Cursed Disciple: Two Magma Ragers, for only one mana more... isn't much better than a Magma Rager. Cute, and definitely annoying in arena... but I don't see it having any place in constructed.

Shroom Brewer: It's basically a bigger Earthen Ring Farseer, with all the 3's turned into 4's. Definitely great in arena, and maybe usable in control warlock decks? It's definitely a neat design, and maybe replaces Earthen Ring Farseer in Warlock decks.

Sneaky Devil: A 4-mana 2/2 demon with stealth and the Raid Leader effect. It's a strictly better Raid Leader, costing 1 more mana but getting stealth and the demon tag. Ultimately I still think it's a bit too understatted for most zoo or aggro decks, and you'd rather play cards with decent stats like Dire Wolf Alpha or Flametongue Totem or Crystalweaver instead. Cool design, though.

Boisterous Bard: A 3-mana 3/2 that gives all your minions +1 Health! Cool design, but, like Sneaky Devil, probably not that relevant outside of arena.


Stoneskin Basilisk: A 3-mana 1/1 with divine shield and poisonous? It's a bit too fragile for my tastes, although divine shield and poisonous together is a pretty scary combination. The best I can see for this card is as part of a Zombeast, which honestly isn't even that bad.

Sewer Crawler: A Razorfen Hunter with the stats reversed! It's better than Razorfen Hunter because it's the beast that gets the 2/3 body, and beasts tend to have more synergy... but eh, it's still crap.

Kobold Apprentice: You staple an Arcane Missiles onto a 2/1 body and give it a 3 mana cost? That's honestly a bit too much, and I think that Apprentice would be more balanced (and unplayed) if it costed 2 mana. Compare it to cards like Mad Bomber (2-mana 3/2, but can lob everywhere) or Disciple of C'Thun (same stats, but you target 2 damage)... yeah, it's pretty bad.

Dragonslayer: a 3-mana 4/3 that deals 6 damage to a dragon. So we're pre-emptively putting the 'crab' card in the same expansion that they're making huge dragons? I do like that it's not an obnoxious tempo swing the way that Golakka Crawler is, though, and that it's not an instant-destroy effect (oh god, if Dragonslayer just instant-destroys a 9-cost dragon it'd be Big Game Hunter all over again). Pretty cool card design, and will see play, I think, if dragon priests become popular. If nothing else, you kill Cobalt Scalebanes as a neat little counter.

Toothy Chest: Mimics! A crappier Validated Doomsayer -- the effect is exactly the same, but where Validated Doomsayer is a delayed 7/7 for 5 mana, which is a huge tempo gain if he survives, Toothy Chest is at max a 3-mana 4/4. Which is crap.

Fungal Enchanter: More fungus people! It's a smaller Darkscale Healer -- lots of variations on Basic/Classic cards in this final batch of cards -- which is just fine, isn't it? It'll probably find a home mostly in priest decks, I think? It's probably not quite strong enough to be constructed-viable, but it's more well-statted than Darkscale Healer.

Plated Beetle: A River Crocolisk with the deathrattle that gives you 3 armour. It's perhaps not good enough to be put into Warrior decks, I think, even with all the armour synergies, but perhaps in Druid, which has armour synergies and beast synergies? A cool design, I think, and perhaps a card we're somewhat sleeping on.

Wax Elemental: It's a 1-mana elemental with a cool-looking artwork, but it's just a Target Dummy with a divine shield. And, yeah, you probably attack Wax Elemental twice to break the shield, but at 0 attack it's going to be more of a nuisance than anything.


Dire Mole: The humble Dire Mole closes off this humongous review piece, but it's actually a good card! Hell, perhaps out of the slew of more boring neutral cards, Dire Mole is perhaps one of the most viable one, being a very viable 1-drop beast for hunters (they have, what, a grand total of Alleycat in 1-mana?) and aggro druid (which only has Enchanted Raven). A 1/3 for 1 isn't horrible for decks that can buff up Dire Mole with buffs on turn 2 (Crackling Razormaw and Mark of Y'Shaarj respectively), and a 1/3 is definitely a lot harder to kill than the Alleycat's two 1/1's. Definitely a card that I say might be more powerful than it looks.

That's all for the K&C card reviews, and until tomorrow... well met! I know I'm Dungeon Running the first moment I get the expansion, and am most likely going to try out mage, priest and warlock, all of which just looks fun.
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So yeah, here's my quick ranking from 1 to 5, with 1 being unplayable, 2 being maaaaybe unplayable, 3 being average, 4 being good and 5 being the auto-includes. Like what I did for Knights of the Frozen Throne, when we're deep enough into the K&C meta I'll look back at how I rated these cards and see how much I got right.

Keep  in mind, though, that this ranking is strictly for standard constructed, so while there are some cards that may look awesome in wild (Level Up!) or when the rotation hits (Greedy Sprite) or in arena (Unidentified Elixir) they're perhaps too weak in the standard meta. We'll come back in a couple of months to see how accurate I am in my predictions.

Druid:

• 5: N/A
• 4: Branching Paths, Lesser Jasper Spellstone
• 3: Twig of the World Tree, Greedy Sprite
• 2: Ixlid Fungal Lord, Astral Tiger, Oaken Summons, Barkskin
• 1: Grizzled Guardian, Ironwood Golem

Hunter:

• 5: N/A
• 4: Flanking Strike, Cave Hydra
• 3: Kathrena Winterwisp, Lesser Emerald Spellstone
• 2: Seeping Oozeling, Candleshot, Wandering Monster
• 1: Rhok'delar, To My Side, Crushing Walls

Mage:

• 5: Leyline Manipulator, Lesser Ruby Spellstone
• 4: Dragoncaller Alanna, Aluneth, Raven Familiar
• 3: Dragon's Fury, Explosive Runes, Arcane Artificier
• 2: Deck of Wonders
• 1: Shifting Scroll

Paladin:

• 5: N/A
• 4: Lynessa Sunsorrow, Val'anyr
• 3: Benevolent Djinn, Call to Arms, Potion of Heroism
• 2: Lesser Pearl Spellstone, Unidentified Maul
• 1: Level Up, Drygulch Jailor, Crystal Lion

Priest: 

• 5: Psychic Scream
• 4: Twilight Acolyte, Duskbreaker
• 3: Lesser Diamond Spellstone
• 2: Dragon Soul, Twilight's Call, Unidentified Elixir, Gilded Gargoyle
• 1: Temporus, Psionic Probe

Rogue:

• 5: Fal'dorei Strider
• 4: Kingsbane, Lesser Onyx Spellstone
• 3: Sonya Shadowdancer, Elven Minstrel, Cavern Shinyfinder
• 2: Cheat Death, Evasion
• 1: Sudden Betrayal, Kobold Ilusionist

Shaman:

• 5: N/A
• 4: Grumble Worldshaker, Unstable Evolution, Healing Rain
• 3: Murmuring Elemental, Crushing Hand, Kobold Hermit
• 2: Lesser Sapphire Spellstone, Windshear Stormcaller
• 1: The Runespear, Primal Talismans

Warlock:

• 5: Voidlord, Kobold Librarian
• 4: Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Vulgar Homonculus
• 3: Skull of the Man'ari, Hooked Reaver
• 2: Cataclysm, Possessed Lackey
• 1: Rin the First Disciple, Dark Pact

Warrior:

• 5: N/A
• 4: Gather Your Party, Drywhisker Armorer
• 3: Geosculptor Yip, Reckless Flurry, Bladed Gauntlet, Gemstudded Golem
• 2: Woecleaver, Lesser Mithril Spellstone, Unidentified Shield
• 1: Kobold Barbarian

Neutral:

• 5: N/A
• 4: Spiteful Summoner, Arcane Tyrant, Shroom Brewer, Dire Mole
• 3: Master Oakheart, Carnivorous Cube, Shimmering Courser, Hungry Ettin, Furbolg Mossbinder, Kobold Monk, Lone Champion, Sleepy Dragon, Violet Wurm, Green Jelly, Dragonslayer, Fungal Enchanter, Plated Beetle
• 2: Marin the Fox, The Darkness, Zola the Gorgon, Corridor Creeper, Void Ripper, Ebon Drgaonsmith, Shrieking Shroom, Guild Recruiter, Fungalmancer, Sneaky Devil, Boisterous Bard, Sewer Crawler, Stoneskin Basilisk
• 1: King Togwaggle, Dragonhatcher, Grand Archivist, Rummaging Kobold, Scorp-o-matic, Gravelsnout Knight, Feral Gibberer, Silver Vanguard, Trogg Gloomeater, Corrosive Sludge, Cursed Disciple, Hoarding Dragon, Kobold Apprentice, Toothy Chest, Wax Elemental 

Kobolds & Catacombs Card Reviews - Part #5

 I've been kind of behind on this, haven't I? Well, we're having the big final stream on Monday and the acctual expansion to be released on the 7th of December, which makes this a particularly short reveal season, huh? I expected another week or two, but I'm definitely excited that we're getting a new expansion so soon. I'll try to get through these cards a lot faster than I normally do, and to list them per class.

Ironwood Golem: Kinda bad, honestly. It's only got one health over Sen'jin Shieldmasta, and it can't attack unless you have 3 or more armour? There's literally no reason to play this over Sen'jin or Tar Creeper, honestly. This one's fast and simple.

Oaken Summons: For 4 mana, you gain 6 armour and recruit a four or less minion. I mean, you can recruit Ironwood Golem with this, but honestly there's a lot of better cards to recruit than it. It's a very balanced card, and you can guarantee, say, Fandral Staghelm, Greedy Sprite or Crypt Lord (honestly the only non-battlecry minion that costs 4 or less used by any druid list now) with it. On paper it's a good card... but it's too slow for  aggro lists, and control-style druids, be it Big or Jade variations, don't really play a lot of low-cost minions. So it's a good card in a class that can't make use for it, I'd say.

Greedy Sprite: As if Druid didn't already need help ramping... at the moment, druids have four main ramp tools -- Wild Growth at 2, Jade Blossom at 3, Mire Keeper at 4 and Nourish at 5. As someone who faces and plays a decent amount of druid, I can confirm that barring a particularly nasty draw where you draw like Ultimate Infestations and Jade Idols and nothing else, it's child's play to accelerate your ramp as a druid. Greedy Sprite is... a bit too greedy, perhaps. She's a 3-mana 3/1, but instead of giving you a mana crystal as a battlecry the way Mire Keeper does (it's Choose One, but still, the effect happens when the Keeper comes into play) Greedy Sprite does it as a deathrattle.  Is it really worth playing a weak 3-mana 3/1 with a delayed effect, though? I really don't think so... for Jade and Big druid, anyway. And aggro isn't one that wants to ramp up that much... but I dunno. The existence of this card makes cards like Grizzled Guardian and Oaken Summons not that crappy. I do like the card, though I don't think it's going to make as much waves among druid lists as I hope it will. It's more of a pre-emptive inclusion for when Mire Keeper and Blossom rotates out, methinks, which leads me into thinking why don't they just revise the Basic/Classic set? In which case, Greedy Sprite makes for a far, far less of an auto-include compared to the Mire Keeper or Jade Blossom, both which have some uses in the late game to actually build your board. That's a conversation for another day, though.

Ixlid, Fungal Lord: Druid legendary! For 5 mana, you get a 2/4 elemental body that... duplicates any minion you play, as long as he's on board. It's a very powerful effect, and thankfully Ixlid's body is small. And it's only when you play a minion that you summon a copy of it. But considering druid can fuck around with mana, you can get some really weird stuff with Ixlid. You could, like, break your Twig of the World Tree after playing Ixlid, play Kun to refresh your mana and get a second Kun, then play another 9/10 drop and get two of those. Overall, Ixlid is a fun but hard to utilize legendary, I think, which is perfect for Druid because lord knows druid doesn't actually need that much help. Probably not a super-good meta card, but one whose design I like quite a bit.

Lesser Emerald Spellstone: Hunter's spellstone costs 5 mana, and summons two 3/3 wolves,  which is... okay but not great value. Perhaps the thing that kind of kills it for me is the way to upgrade is to play a Secret, then it summons 3 and 4 wolf tokens. It's perhaps thankful that you only have to play a single secret to upgrade, and summoning three or four 3/3 beast bodies is a pretty powerful play. The thing is, though, Secret hunter isn't a particularly good deck, otherwise cards like Cloaked Huntress and Professor Putricide would see more play. Playing in the ladder currently, I honestly see Secret Hunter as a free with with a vast majority of my deck. So yeah. It's a good card, but not one that's going to bring Secret Huner out of its funk, IMO. (Also, Duskbreaker kills all of the wolfies. Just saying)

To My Side: So To My Side is an... interesting card. Obviously, 6 mana for a single animal companion is absolutely shit, but 6 mana for 2 is... maybe decent? It doesn't come too late the way Call of the Wild sometimes does, and animal companions are pretty good. But is it worth it for this card to play an all-spell hunter deck? No. All the strongest Hunter cards are those that interact with minions, or are minions themselves. Even secret decks do need minions like your Huntresses and your Putricides to support it. So yeah, definitely a bad card.

Leyline Manipulator: At this point we've seen all but one of the mage cards, and howdy doy, they're doubling down on both 'random spells' and elemental mage a fuck-ton. And out of all the new cards, Leyline Manipulator is one that scares me the most. He's a 4/5 for 4 mana, which is Yeti stats. He's also an Elemental, which triggers Elemental synergy cards and Lesser Ruby Spellstone and gains lifesteal with Frost Lich Jaina. It also has the Ethereal Peddler effect, which... reduces every single card in your hand that didn't start out in your deck by 2. As if Primordial Glyph, Cabalist's Tome and Babbling Book aren't powerful enough! This is such a monster of a card, really. The effect's immediate, too! And it's cards that didn't start in your hand, so Simulacrum-created Sorcerer's Apprentices, the upgraded versions of Ruby Spellstone, Antonidas Fireballs, Pyros's transformed versions... it's just an insanely powerful card for all types of mages, but particularly Quest Mage. And honestly, it doesn't even get any stat discounts! Whether you're playing Frost Lich Jaina, or Quest Mage, or Elemental Mage, all Mage decks can afford to throw Leyline Manipulator, a couple of Primordial Glyphs and just make great use of 5-mana Flamestrikes and shit. Holy crap, man, this card. And mage doesn't just get one good card, either! Lesser Ruby Spellstone, Explosive Runes and Aluneth are all very strong, and cards like Raven Familiar and Arcane Artificier may very well be good options as well.

Dragoncaller Alanna: Dragoncaller Alanna is the mage legendary and she's... not that good, I think. Alanna is a 9-mana 3/3 that summons a 5/5 dragon token for each spell you cast this game that costs 5 or more. And I really find it hard to justify putting her in. I mean, casting spells that cost more than 5 mana isn't a hard thing to do. Flamestrike, Meteor, Blizzard, Cabalist's Tome... there are no shortage of expensive spells in Mage you want to cast. But I honestly don't think changing your game plan to suddenly swarm the board with dragons is something you want, although Alanna is certainly a better card than others who do that like, say, Onyxia or Sindragosa. (Also, this card gives a big middle finger to Dragonfire Potion) Ultimately, though, while Alanna is a very solid card, I don't really see her making any more waves in the meta than Sindragosa did -- both very solid legendaries that maybe pop up once every twenty mages you face.

Deck of Wonders: I really wish mages got more expensive, crappy spells just in order to make random-mage-spell generating cards weaker. And this expansion gave us two 5-cost mage spells. Deck of Wonders is a fun, if pretty crappy card. For 5 mana, you do nothing! You shuffle five 'Scroll' cards into your deck that, when drawn, casts a random spell the way that Beneath the Grounds or Fal'dorei Strider does. And while the concept (and D&D reference) is cool,  Deck of Grounds essentially acts like a delayed Yogg-Saron that you can't control unless your deck is empty or near-empty. Yogg's biggest strength is that you can control when to bomb the board with a crapton of random spells, and the sheer amount of spells that go off tend to be in your favour. Deck of Wonders doesn't do this, and while perhaps one of the more fun effects in the game, it's not one that I think will be very meta-defining. Which is fun.

Dragon's Fury: Another card in the theoretical 'big spell mage' archetype that Dragoncaller Alanna, Raven Familiar and Arcane Artificier seem to be promoting (I say it won't work, but who knows?) Dragon's Fury is a weird card that reveals (not draws) a spell from your deck and deals its damage to all minions. And for 5 mana, you want at least a 5-damage AoE, I think, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to take out Frostbolts and Fireballs (otherwise Dragon's Fury will be an overcosted Volcanic Potion/Hellfire) for Dragon's Fury to go off. And even then, you damage your own board? Nah, I don't think this is a good card. At least it's not another face mage spell, though.

Val'anyr: The paladin's legendary weapon, Val'anyr, which is definitely a pretty cool card as a weapon that doesn't give a shit if it's destroyed. And I really like how at least three of the weapons in this expansion (Val'anyr, Twig and Kingsbane) all act against weapon removal, which is one of my bigger worries about this expansion. Val'anyr is an overcosted weapon, a 6-mana 4/2... that, when it breaks, buffs a minion in your hand with 4/2 (so they just hold Val'anyr) and also gives the minion the deathrattle to re-equip Val'anyr onto your hero immediately after its death. It's a very funky weapon, for sure. A 4/2 buff isn't ignorable, and dealing 4 damage, and then buffing any minion in your hand with 4/2, and upon their death, Val'anyr gets re-equipped? Sure, you could whiff and have no minion in your hand, but that only happens when you topdeck Val'anyr or play really poorly. Val'anyr is a great twist on the handbuff mechanic, and a very powerful control tool. You're not afraid of losing Val'anyr when you play Tirion or Uther of the Ebon Blade either, which was a problem when those two cards were played, that Ashbringer and Uther's hammer will overwrite each other. Great design, and while the initial 6-mana-for-4/2 is a bit steep to play, I do like the card and I think it's going to be pretty decent.

Crystal Lion: Ah, the Paladins have their own Thing From Below. The thing is, though, it's a mere 5/5 with Divine Shield. Sure, it gets discounted with each Silver Hand Recruit... that's on the board, not summoned throughout the game the way Thing From Below worked. Although Paladins do have Stand Against Darkness, allowing you, on turn 6, to play Stand and Crystal Lion and get five 1/1's and one 5/5 Divine Shield.... but ultimately I feel Crystal Lion's too situational even in a dude-buff deck. I can see cards like Level Up be used in Wild dude-buff decks, but even there I don't see Crystal Lion being used.

Lesser Diamond Spellstone: Lesser Diamond Spellstone is pretty good, and I'm glad it's costed expensively at 7. Unlike Dragon Soul, Diamond Spellstone asks you to cast 4 different spells, and I don't think you have to do it in a single turn. And casting 8 spells over the course of a game isn't that hard for either highlander or big priest. On its base form, Lesser Diamond Spellstone resurrects two different friendly minions. It then goes up to three and four, basically making it a mini-N'Zoth. It's definitely quite decent in Big Priest, and even if you whiff and get a Barnes or a Potion-of-Madness'd minion, you still get two or three of your big dudes. And since the Big Priest deck is like 80% spells anyway, Lesser Diamond Spellstone just looks like a card built for that deck. Again, the only real problem is perhaps the cost, and even then, it's balanced more than prohibitive.

Twilight's Call: Another resurrect card, for 3 mana, Twilight's Call resurrects two different deathrattle minions... but 1/1 copies. It's great in Quest Priest, but I don't think I use it in Big Priest lists. Sure, Obsidian Statue's a great minion to have back, but when you Eternal Servitude an Obsidian Statue and get the full 4/8-Taunt body it's just so much better than a single 1/1 body. And Twilight's Call explicitly says different, so you don't get two tiny Obsidian Statues. It's definitely great in a Quest Priest list, though, and whether it brings back to powerful minions or just two minions that draw cards (Loot Hoarder and the Crystalline Oracle for instance) it's still neat for 3 mana. Ultimately, I'm not sure if it's good enough to see play, but it's good. Not OP, which is certainly not something Priest needs considering the sheer power it has now.


Kingsbane: (Blade Flurry died for you...) Oh man, Rogue's legendary weapon. Is this the Rogue weapon we've all been waiting for? I believe so. Kingsbane isn't bad by itself, a 1-mana 1/3, making it a weaker Light's Justice. but it has an effect. A deathrattle -- shuffling it into its deck, and it remembers all enchantments. Let me remind you that there is no way to silence off weapons. Harrison and Oozes can destroy the Kingsbane, sure,  but all the Rogue needs to do is to re-draw Kingsbane and replay it for the cheap cost of 1 mana. Deadly Poison, Leeching Poison, Envenom Weapon... Tinker's Sharpsword Oil in Wild... Yeah, there are ways to buff up your Kingsbane, and even with a single Deadly Poison, equipping a 4/3 weapon for 1 mana is still insane value. And you know what else? You can get extra Kingsbanes from Rummaging Kobold. You can stop fatigue with Kingsbane returning to your deck all the time. You can even duplicate Kingsbane itself and the weapon-buff spells with Valeera the Hollow. Sadly, we only have one Rogue common left unrevealed so there doesn't seem to be a lot of weapon-buffing love in this expansion, but holy hell, Kingsbane just looks so great. I don't see Kingsbane decks overtaking the current Tempo lists, but damn Kingsbane is the type of weapon I really wish Rogues have more of.

Evasion: The final Rogue secret, Evasion makes your hero immune after its next damage. Which... just makes it a shitty version of Ice Block. It doesn't wait until you become lethal, and you actually do take the initial damage. It's not a bad card if you can activate it properly, but I think Evasion ends up being a bit too tricky and situational to see play.

Elven Minstrel: Hee hee, a bard class. Elven Minstrel is a 4-mana 3/2 that, as a combo, draws 2 minions from your deck. Tutoring is a very powerful ability in any card game, and you can make it so that your deck only has, like, Elven Minstrels, Malygoses and, like, Gadgetzan Auctioneers or something? The stat penalty isn't even that horrible for drawing 2 cards, with the only real problem maybe being the Combo... but it's not that hard to activate for Rogues, to be honest. Overall, Elven Minstrel is a well-designed card, and has the potential to be a pretty powerful draw engine for Rogues.

Lesser Onyx Spellstone: Onyx Spellstone is a pretty cool design, because Vilespine Slayers aren't enough. It destroys enemy minions randomly! For 5 mana, you go from 1 to 2 to 3 random enemy minions. Obviously the Lesser Onyx Spellstone is shit, making it a shittier, overcosted Multi-Shot. But both the regular and the Greater Onyx Spellstone are powerful tools that might just clear your enemy's entire board, and all those big priests and big druids will cry at the sight of this card. The problem is the activation, which wants you to play three Deathrattle cards, so you have to play this in a deathrattle rogue deck, and can't just slip this into an existing deck. I'm certainly going to wild with my old Unearthed Raptor deck (Raptor is, incidentally, easily one of my all-time favourite rogue cards) where it's going to be child's play to upgrade Lesser Onyx Spellstone, but it's a pretty neat design that locks the powerful effect behind a hard but doable quest, so to speak.

Unstable Evolution: Unstable Evolution is a cool card. For 1 mana, you evolve a minion, and the spell returns back into your hand after doing so for the duration of a turn. It helps you to control and stop yourself from getting shit evolutions, which is particularly relevant in this expansion due to the huge amount of shit-stats-for-their-cost minions. Dragoncaller Alanna, Lynessa Sunsorrow, Possessed Lackey, King Togwaggle, Dragonhatcher, Furbolg Mossbinder... there's a lot of crappily-statted minions out there that may just tilt the scales of Evolve Shaman's RNG too much in the failure direction. Which is a bit of a shame, since Shaman doesn't actually have a lot of great cards from this expansion. Unstable Evolution is one of them, though, and definitely fits in well into current Evolve Shaman lists.

Murmuring Elemental: Murmuring Elemental is an interesting card. He's a temporary Brann, and also an elemental... but the fact that it's a 2-mana 1/1, and it's a 'next battlecry this turn' kind of kills it somewhat for me. It's not bad, of course, but part of what made Brann quite good is his very respectable 3-mana 2/4 statline for a permanent effect. Murmuring Elemental is a card you can put two of in your deck, and maybe through some miracle works well in that weird Grumble/Elemental deck. In evolve Shaman... I guess you could double the battlecries of your Saronite and Doppelgangster, with the huge highroll being Murmuring Elemental and Thrall Deathseer in the same turn, and in that miracle scenario you get a 4x mana cost upgrade to your board, and instead of being a 2-mana 1/1 Murmuring Elemental becomes a mighty six-drop... it sounds cool on the off chance that you can get it off with Thrall Deathseer, but otherwise... I don't really see Murmuring Elemental be played, to be honest.

Possessed Lackey: Possessed Lackey is kind of shit. It's a 5-mana 2/2, and as a deathrattle, it recruits a demon. The thing with the Lackey is that it's so... overcosted. Sure, a 5-mana 2/2 that draws a Despicable Dreadlord or Doomguard or Voidlord and plays it for free is amazing. But how often do you get that? What if Lackey draws a Flame Imp instead? (Which, admittedly, you won't put Lackey in a deck with Flame Imps and Voidwalkers). What if you draw your Doomguards and Voidlords before Lackey? Comparing Possessed Lackey to Voidcaller from Naxxramas is just such a piss-poor comparison, with Voidcaller also having a deathrattle that cheats out a demon from your hand. Pretty bad card. 

Skull of the Man'ari: Skull of the Man'ari is an... interesting card. Wow, you summon a random demon from your hand every turn? Amazing! You get to bypass the heavily painful battlecries of Doomguard, Pit Lord, Lakkari Felhound and all that jazz! But the thing that makes Skull of the Man'ari a lot worse than Aluneth is that, well, the Skull is a 5-mana investment that doesn't do anything on the turn it is played, and that makes it a full win-more card. And its effect happens on the start of your turn, which means that the summoned demon can't attack (unless it's a Doomguard). It's not a bad card, though, and between Skull, Krul the Unshackled and Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Warlock has a lot of great demon synergy, and with Doomguard, Voidlord and Despicable Dreadlord it has great big-value demons. Skull of the Man'ari is potentially a powerful card if it manages to not be removed, but it's one that ends up with such a huge tempo loss if your enemy Oozes this. Overall, a card that might not be good after all.

Unidentified Shield: While the Elixir and the Maul are 'okay, but not good', Unidentified Shield is just kinda... poop, I think. It's a 6-mana card that gives you 5 armour and a bonus effect via the 'identify' mechanic. And the possible effects? Gain 10 more armour, deal 5 damage, summon a 5/5 and equip a 5/2 weapon. Out of those, only two are decent, with the Runed Shield option essentially making this a Shieldbearer, and the Spiked Shield option making this an Arcanite Reaper and an Iron Hide strung together. And even then, those aren't particularly amazing. The deal-5-damage-gain-5-armour and especially gain 15 armour are insanely overcosted at 6 mana. Dealing damage is at least decent because it can go face, but all the effects are just so underwhelming. It's perhaps a decent arena card, and the artwork for the shield variations are pretty cool, but it's ultimately a card that I don't think is good.

Reckless Flurry: Armour Flurry! It's not actually as good as it looks like once you think about it. Warriors often have an excess of armour, and spending all of them to AoE the board isn't particularly good, to be honest, not when Warriors have access to Brawl or Shield Slam or Sleep With The Fishes, all far superior board clears and removal options. And you lose all your armour? Yeah, Reckless Flurry is particularly reckless, and it's not a card I think is good at all.

Drywhisker Armorer: Drywhisker Armorer is cool, though. It's a better version of the Worgen Apothecary dude from Old Gods, only instead of health, it gives you armour. Which, as you can see, synergizes with a lot of the new cards, and is just better than health anyway. Armourer is also cheaper, a 2-mana 2/2 as opposed to the Apothecary's far more penalized statline of 5-mana 4/4. It's perhaps not as good or stable as Armorsmiths and the like, but it's definitely a decent card.

Geosculptor Yip: Somewhat better than Rotface, I think? But Geosculptor Yip is a weird legendary. Severely under-statted at 4/8 for 8 mana, Yip summons a random minion equal to your armour, which is nice if Yip gets to summon a free 10-cost minion every turn. As cards like Evolve, Forbidden Shaping and Free From Amber have shown, high-costed minions are pretty good, and 10-cost is one of those slots where you don't have any particularly bad minions in it. The worst is, like, C'Thun or N'Zoth, but a 6/6 or a 5/7 isn't the worst outcome, unlike Rotface who can truly backfire and give you like Nat Pagle or some shit. Geosculptor Yip is a cool card, and you can do a 10-mana combo with Bring It On and Yip to guarantee the 10-mana train to be started. It's a card that I'm perhaps a bit more optimistic about than I should, but Yip does look like a cool, if somewhat impractical, legendary.

Bladed Gauntlet: A very interesting card. It's a warrior weapon, a 2-mana 0/2 that has the same attack as your arrmour... but can't attack heroes. It's definitely a control weapon, but the price of not being able to attack the hero is perhaps a bit too harsh, else Fool's Bane would see more play. Bladed Gauntlet is a lot cheaper than Fool's Bane, though, and Warriors gain armour pretty quickly. With a simple Shield Block, Bladed Gauntlet becomes an Arcanite Reaper... and it's a pretty cool weapon in design. It's definitely really good for Control Warrior if the stars align and we get it back, that's for sure.

Furbolg Mossbinder: A very... interesting card. He's a 1/1 that transforms a friendly minion into a 6/6 elemental (and the tag doesn't really matter since it's not played). And it's pretty hard to have a minion you're happy to turn into a 6/6. I guess Shamans and Paladins can use it pretty well, since they generate tokens, and in that aspect it's neat. But even then all you're getting is a +5/+5 buff at the most, and you still waste 2 mana pushing the hero power button on the previous turn. It's a very interestingly designed card, and you can use Furbolg Mossbinder to transform minions with shit deathrattles (like Rattling Rascal) and you can do some weird Evolve shenanigans with it, but it really feels like a worse Rattling Rascal to me, and Rascal got cut out of Evolve decks pretty quickly. A very cool-looking card, but ultimately not one that I see making its way into meta decks too much.


Dragonhatcher: A 9-mana 2/4 that recruits a dragon at the end of your turn? Yeaaaah, spend one more mana, and play Y'Shaarj instead. Playing Dragonhatcher means that you only want to put big-mana dragons in your deck... and that, by default, eliminates a lot of dragons that cost a little or have powerful battlecries, leaving, what, Ysera and the two Deathwings as the only possible target? And if you draw Dragonhatcher after you draw the two dragons... yeah, this is a crap card. There are lots of better ways to cheat out your dragons, and Dragonhatcher isn't one of them. Cool art, though.