Rastakhan's Rumble Card Review #4 [Final Part!]

 Yeah, this is actually probably the fastest and most rapid reveal season ever, with like five to ten cards per day! That was why the previous review segment ended up covering a pretty significant proportion of the cards. We only have a handful of class cards left, plus the whole bunch of not-quite-as-interesting neutrals at the end. As usual, with every 'final' card review/release deal, I'm going to do a five-point ranking prediction thing.

Without further ado, in order of the classes:

Pounce: Druid's final card is Pounce, which is a 0-mana spell that gives your hero +2 Attack this turn. In a vacuum, it isn't bad. It's just that Druid has so many more powerful cards under their belt, so many archetypes that are better, that I am genuinely unconvinced that this weird Gonk deck is going to work. If nothing else, all Gonk is seems to be just an elaborate and masochistic board clear that sometimes draws a bunch of cards. I tend to try to give cards a chance before they're out, but this weird hero-attack druid just seems pretty weak, isn't it?


Halazzi, the Lynx: The final Loa to be revealed is Hunter's Halazzi, which is a Beast-synergy card. Halazzi is a 5-mana 3/2 Beast that fills your hand with 1/1 Rushing beasts. And... and it's not bad, but compared to how exciting cards like Zul'jin, Master's Call and Revenge of the Wild have been, Halazzi just kind of feels... m'eh? Halazzi isn't unplayable, because 1/1 Rushing beasts in a beast synergy deck is still damn powerful, but the sheer tempo loss you'll get in playing a 5-mana 3/2 is going to hurt way, way more than just, say, playing a regular 5-mana Beast. I dunno. You could throw in some handbuff stuff or some shit, but I don't really see Halazzi working out all that well. Even in a Quest Hunter deck -- which would love a lot of 1-mana Rushers to control the board -- I'm not convinced that sacrificing the tempo is worth it.

Spirit of the Lynx: A 3-mana 0/3 Spirit that gives +1/+1 to any Beast you summon. Which... which isn't bad! It isn't great, because it's basically a shittier Addled Grizzly, and that worked on all minions. Still, it's the sort of neat card that would fit in well in a Beast synergy deck, although I personally don't think Spirit of the Lynx is cheap or powerful enough to really be a staple. It's a neat tech card in this hypothetical Beast Hunter deck, but I don't think it's super-powerful.

Headhunter's Hatchet: A neat weapon, for sure! A 2-mana 2/2 weapon that becomes a 2/3 if you control a Beast. It's kind of a solid weapon all around, honestly, and definitely a good card to put in a Beast deck. 2/2 weapons with a potential upside has tended to see play in most aggro or mid-range decks, so if Beast Hunter works, I can definitely see Headhunter's Hatchet be played -- perhaps instead of Eaglehorn Bow?

Flash of Light: A simple but very good Paladin card, I feel. I'm not 100% convinced that Heal Paladin is going to have enough tools to be a top-tier deck in Standard, but it definitely looks great. And Flash of Light is going to be one of the core cards in that deck if it works. Restoring 4 health for 2 mana, and drawing a card? It's two pretty powerful spells, with the health restoration having pretty powerful potential to synergize with many new cards in this expansion. It's not the most exciting card, but one that I think is going to be an integral part in making healadin work.

Bloodclaw: An interesting Paladin weapon, a 1-mana 2/2 weapon that deals 5 damage to the hero. Again, Paladins do kind of want to damage themselves to start gaining value with heals. I'm not 100% convinced that you'll put in all of the self-damage cards, but I do think that a 2/2 weapon is definitely fairly better than Crystallizer. Maybe you run both? It's perhaps a bit too masochistic for my liking, but weapons are definitely far better than just having a minion that damages you and nothing else.

Auchenai Phantasm: A 2-mana 3/2 Auchenai Soulpriest whose effect isn't continuous, but acts as a battlecry. I guess they realized how crappy Embrace the Shadows was, huh? Auchenai Phantasm is an interesting card -- she's not a badly-statted one, and the combo potential is definitely something that can potentially be powerful. Right now I don't really think that Priest has enough to make a proper Auchenai combo deck work, though.

Stolen Steel: A 2 mana Rogue card that discovers a card -- and it's a specific card, too, a weapon from another class. It's... it's interesting, I guess? Discover-a-card spells like Blazing Invocation and Journey Below have historically been 1-mana and not always played. Weapons are a far, far smaller pool of cards and one that is more likely to be good, though, especially with the large amount of legendary weapons available. Probably more likely to be played in a funny Tess Rogue deck, though.

Serrated Tooth: A 1-mana 1/3 weapon that gives your minions Rush as a Deathrattle? It's... it's interesting, I guess? I don't immediately see any obvious combos with this, but from a stat standpoint it's definitely a solid concept and solid bunch of stats. It's a 1/3 weapon that's only a durability lower than Light's Justice, and Rogue can theoretically destroy their weapon any time by hero powering, triggering the deathrattle. The big question is when Rogues want to give their minions Rush. Maybe it's the Sharkfin Fan huge pirate token board? Not 100% sure if it's going to see play, but an interesting effect.

Wartbringer: A 1-mana 2/1 that deals 2 damage as a battlecry if you played 2 spells this turn. It's... it's kinda shit, isn't it? 2 damage on a 2/1 body isn't going to matter much in the late game, and it's impractical to spend so much spells in the early game. While I am convinced that the spell synergy of Shaman's new cards are probably going to work in some fashion, I don't see Wartbringer as part of it.

Demonbolt: Assassinate for Zoo Warlock! It is 8 mana, and is discounted for each minion you control. Kind of an interesting card, probably a card that could replace the Siphon Soul that some Zoo Warlocks play. It's not going to be too hard for a Zoo deck to discount this to like 4 or 5, and at that point an Assassinate to get rid of the enemy's big threat is not a bad thing to have for Zoo decks.

Blood Troll Sapper: An... interesting card. A 7-mana 5/8 isn't the best set of stats, and she has the effect of dealing 2 damage to the enemy damage any time a friendly minion dies. Another one that seems like she could find a decent spot in a Zoo-centric list, but not one that I'm convinced Zoo needs. Warlock has a lot of better late-game cards that they can sneak in instead of Blood Troll Sapper, I think, although, again, I don't necessarily think this card is outright bad. Just kinda outclassed.

Devastate: A Warrior spell that costs 1 mana and deals 4 damage to a damaged minion. A shitty version of Execute, which costs 1 more! Basically an Execute alternate in Odd Warrior, and relatively useless anywhere else. I'm honestly not super convinced Odd Warrior even needs Devastate.

Dragon Roar: Another Warrior spell, adding 2 random dragons to your hand for 2 mana. Is it better than putting in another dragon? Sometimes, it kind of is. Dragons are a lot different than most 'random' effects in that they tended to be consistently high-end minions (only Faerie Dragon, Marsh Drake and Amalgam cost 3 or less), so you really do know what you're getting from playing this card. Plus, a significant amount of dragons also tend to have battlecries, which you tend to want. And looking briefly into Standard's dragon pool, the only ones that is outright bad is probably Ebon Dragonsmith and Carrion Drake, both of whom have pretty iffy stats. Not the BEST card ever, but one that's probably going to see a fair bit of usage in dragon warrior decks.

Ice Cream Peddler: Neutrals now, and I'm going to be fast here. 4-mana 3/5 that gives you 8 Armor if you control a Frozen minion. Other than Frozen Crusher from Un'Goro and Cryostasis in Shaman, there's no reliable way to control a Frozen minion -- and you're not going to run those two cards just to get 8 Armor from a 4-mana 3/5. Interesting effect, but never going to really see play.

Drakkari Trickster: A 3-mana 3/4! Premium stats, and interestingly, it gives each player a copy of a random card from each other's deck. The only real one among the neutrals on this page that seems borderline playable in constructed, because it's sort of a weird disruptive tool -- it's kind of like Griftah, but you have more of an idea of what you're going to get with Drakkari Trickster. Clogging up your opponent's hand with a potentially useless card is interesting, but at the same time... probably never going to see a lot of usage other than to be a weird counter against Mecha'thun or some shit.

Gurubashi Offering: A 1-mana 0/2 that dies at the start of the next turn and becomes 8 Armor. Too fragile and likely to be destroyed by your enemy. Even if it manages to pan out... it's not worth spending a slot in your deck just to run a 1-mana 0/2.

Arena Patron: Hey, what if Grim Patron is shit and horrendously impractical to activate? You get this. Seriously? Like, the only plausible usage is against a board full of totems or dudes, and even then there are way better cards to play.

Booty Bay Bookie: A 2-mana 3/3 that... gives your opponent a coin? Yeah, if you want to sabotage your chances of victory, especially against some classes. Easily the straight-up worst card in this expansion. I'd rather run a vanilla 3/2 or 2/3.

Serpent Ward: A 2-mana neutral Totem, which is kind of interesting. It's a 0/2 that at the end of your turn basically shoots the enemy hero in the face for 2 damage. Not the worst effect, but never a card you want to willingly put into your deck.

Shieldbreaker: A 2-mana 2/1 that Silences a Taunt minion as a battlecry. It's... it's probably not better than Ironbeak Owl or Spellbreaker, but it's kind of a decent effect, I guess. Most minions you silence tend to be Taunt minions anyway, and having a pretty cheap silence effect is not something I'm just going to discount out of hand. It's probably not going to see a lot of play, but I won't be surprised if some aggro decks or even decks get some mileage out of Shieldbreaker.

Mosh'Ogg Enforcer: An 8-mana 2/14 Taunt/Divine Shield, which... isn't horrible in arena, I guess? And a potential target for Inner Fire shenanigans? You'd basically almost always run Primordial Drake or Amani War Bear over this card, I think, for a generic late-game taunt. It's not necessarily bad. Just utterly outclassed.

Former Champ: Basically identical to Big-Time Racketeer, but with -1/-1 on the bigger body, and one mana less. Big-Time Racketeer basically only ever saw play in the arena, and that's how Former Champ will be.

Dragonmaw Scorcher: A smaller version of Primordial Drake, and probably going to be a card that most dragon decks will run. A 5-mana 3/6 that basically Whirlwinds the board is pretty great! I'm not sure if I'd run this over Cobalt Scalebane, but if your deck's purpose is to control the board and wipe out tokens instead of building up a board of your own -- something that I can see Dragon Warrior doing -- Dragonmaw Scorcher is honestly not a bad card to include in that deck.

Rumbletusk Shaker: A 4-mana 3/2 that dies, and then summons another 3/2. Decent in arena, and basically kind of a shittier Piloted Shredder in constructed. Won't see play.

Arena Treasure Chest: A 4-mana 0/4 that has the deathrattle of drawing 2 cards? There are a lot of better cards out there that can give you card draw without running a 4-mana 0-attack minion. It's not even a good body to buff -- run Mogu'shan Warden if you want high-health shenanigans.

Arena Fanatic: A 4-mana 2/3 that handbuffs your hand. She's neutral, so all classes can play her, but better handbuff cards don't see play, so I don't see a reason that Arena Fanatic sees play outside of Hir'eek decks. Which I still don't think will work.

Regeneratin' Thug: A 4-mana 3/5 that heals 2 health every turn. Interesting? Yes. Decent in arena? Likely. Playable in constructed? Not that likely.

Half-Time Scavenger: A 4-mana 3/5 Stealth that gives you 3 armor with Overkill. She's definitely better than Chillwind Yeti, and it's definitely an interesting combination of effects. Probably pretty great in Arena, but she's just simply not powerful enough to see play in constructed. After all, Coppertail Impostor sees no play.

Ornery Tortoise: A 3-mana 3/5 Beast that deals 5 damage to your hero, and this is... it's just a shit effect, yeah? Even in the more masochistic Warlock or Paladin decks, you don't want to just deal 5 damage without immediately restoring it (Crystalizer), getting a badass early-tempo weapon (Bloodclaw) or getting an overstatted minion (theoretically, like Pit Lord). Ornery Tortoise is none of those, and never going to see play.

Banana Buffoon: A 3-mana 2/2 that adds bananas to your hand. Similar to Razorpetal Lasher, I guess, but one mana more expensive and adds Banana spells instead of 1-damage spells. Ultimately I think he's a bit too weak to see play outside of arena, losing a pretty significant amount of tempo due to his stats.

Spellzerker: A 2-mana 2/3 that has Spell Damage +2 when enraged. She's definitely great in arena, and maybe a potential card to play in constructed? +2 Spell Damage isn't something to laugh at, but looking at Cosmic Anomaly and seeing how that doesn't really see play, I don't think Spellzerker would get a whole ton of traction. I think everyone'll play Bloodmage Thalnos instead.

Dozing Marksman: A 2-mana 0/4 that becomes a +4 Attack when enraged. Pretty interesting effect, but sometimes it is just a 2-mana card that, y'know, dies without your opponent doing much. Better than the Toothy Chest from K&C, but I don't see this card being particularly great in constructed.

Cheaty Anklebiter: A 2-mana 2/1 with Lifesteal, that deals 1 damage. So it's a 2/1 that deals 1 damage, and has the potential to heal up to 3 presuming it trades the next turn. Not the best card out there, but not horrible, I think.

Scarab Egg: A 2-mana 0/2 that summons three 1/1 Scarabs. Probably interesting for a deck similar to the old-school token egg druid, although I'm not 100% convinced it'll work.

Helpless Hatchling: A 1-mana 1/1 baby dragon... that is a beast, apparently? And reduces the cost of a beast in your hand by 1 as a Deathrattle? It's an interesting effect, but it's far worse compared to, say, Galvanizer due to the lack of any sort of huge combo cards involving beasts, and that it's a deathrattle effect instead of a battlecry.

Whew! That's... that's a lot of words. Now to go into my quick ratings!

Druid
I have absolutely no faith for the Gonk/Spirit of the Raptor/Pounce/Savage Striker package, because, as I mentioned above, all it amounts to if it works is giving your hero sort of a Windfury effect as long as he kills minions, and sometimes you get some extra card draw. I can maybe see Spirit of the Raptor be played without the rest of the package because it's cheap, but Druid doesn't really lack in card draw. I'm also unconvinced that Treespeaker is going to revitalize Treant decks -- Treespeaker itself is a decent card, but the Treant decks are just kind of weak.

Predatory Instincts is a decent, if overpriced, tutor card, that I really don't see a whole ton of hope for. Stampeding Roar is a very interesting card, especially when coupled with some of Druid's bigger beasts, although I'm not 100% sure that the deck will actually work. Will note that the insta-Rush given by Stampeding Roar is the only place I can see Ironhide Direhorn in. What else? Oh, Wardruid Loti is just a flat-out generically good card that can be teched in most druid decks. Mark of the Loa is just a flat-out bad card. Clearly, Druid is meant to be the 'loser' class of the set this time around. And that's okay, honestly.

• 5: N/A
• 4: N/A
• 3: Wardruid Loti, Stampeding Roar
• 2: Spirit of the Raptor, Treespeaker, Ironhide Direhorn, Predatory Instincts
• 1: Gonk the Raptor, Pounce, Mark of the Loa, Savage Striker

Hunter
Hunter is... interesting. There are a whole lot of powerful cards -- the hero card Zul'jin being a particularly good one for a more spell-oriented deck, Springpaw possibly being the new quintessential 1-mana drop for Hunter, while both Revenge of the Wild and Master's Call being very exciting powerhouse cards for Hunter. None of them really obviously work in the same deck with all the cards jammed in, and none of them are really obvious slot-ins in any preexisting Hunter decks and I, for one, am definitely excited to start experimenting with them.

And even despite my pessimism with some of the Hunter Cards, they honestly still look like they would work relatively well. I didn't have the best things to say for Bloodscalp Strategist and Spirit of the Lynx, but those two in particular might honestly surprise me and be playable. Not a whole ton that jumps out as either super-game-breaking, but definitely none that are straight-up bad. Even Beast Within and Halazzi just look impractical more than unplayable.

• 5: Springpaw
• 4: Zul'jin, Master's Call, Revenge of the Wild
• 3: Bloodscalp Strategist, Spirit of the Lynx, Headhunter's Hatchet
• 2: Halazzi the Lynx, The Beast Within, Baited Arrow
• 1: N/A

Mage
Mage is an... interesting deck. I have been utterly negative about Elemental Mage throughout my review, and while I don't really have much hope in that particular archetype suddenly being top-tier because of the addition of these cards. Likewise, while the hero power synergy cards are interesting and Jan'alai is going to be pretty great in standard, I don't really think that they will be super powerful? I dunno. Mostly lukewarm about all of this. If Jan'alai works that deck seems to be a pretty great midrange/control deck, whereas I'm really not convinced that Elemental Mage will be particularly powerful with the addition of these three not-quite-as-impressive cards. I think I'll mostly rate a good chunk of the cards in this particular set 2.


Will note that I genuinely am not sure what to make of Hex Lord Malacrass -- he's one of those cards that seem to both be great and also impractical at the same time. Ditto for Splitting Image.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Jan'alai the Dragonhawk
• 3: Hex Lord Malacrass (?), Blast Wave
• 2: Splitting Image, Pyromaniac, Spirit of the Dragonhawk, Arcanosaur, Elemental Evocation, Daring Fire-Eater
• 1: Scorch

Paladin
Oh, man, Control/Heal Paladin really looks interesting, although I'm not sure if it'll work out in Standard. I'll definitely try the shit out of it in Wild, though -- Thekal and Molten Giants seem to be great buddies, and Paladin does have a fair amount of great cards in Wild that can help out the heal archetype, particularly Ragnaros Lightlord and Forbidden Healing. High Priest Thekal, Zandalari Templar and Flash of Light all look to be particularly powerful pieces of this puzzle, while Bloodclaw is... interesting? Not 100% convinced self-harm will work all that well.

Spirit of the Tiger, A New Challenger, Shirvallah and Immortal Prelate all raise very interesting questions for a more spell-heavy (and buff-heavy?) sort of Paladin, and it's another style of deck that I am pretty interested to try out. Particularly Spirit of the Tiger, which just seems pretty powerful coupled with buff spells.  Paladin did get a couple of pretty interesting cards this time around, and it might very well be the most interesting class of this expansion in my opinion.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Spirit of the Tiger, Flash of Light, High Priest Thekal
• 3: Shirvallah the Tiger, A New Challenger, Immortal Prelate, Zandalari Templar
• 2: Blodclaw
• 1: Time Out, Farraki Battleaxe

Priest
Priest seems... kind of wacky this time around! We've got a couple of very fun (even if I don't necessarily think they'll work super-well) archetypes, with both Bwonsamdi and Talanji building their own weird archetypes. Bwonsamdi and the Spirit dealing with wacky 1-mana minions, while Talanji being the big bomb finisher for a Thief Priest.... both sound fun! We also get a bunch of weird Spell Priest support cards (Grave Horror, Sand Drudge) which don't feel super powerful, in my opinion. Mass Hysteria is an interesting new removal for Priest that I do have high hopes for, Auchenai Phantasm is... interesting, if not going to be immediately obvious, whereas I'm unconvinced Surrender to Madness will work.

More than any other class in this set, Priest seems to just have cards that have the least obvious synergy with each other, I think. We'll see if any of these new archetypes actually end up working -- if nothing else, playing with Talanji and Bwonsamdi are going to be as fun as Tess, so...

• 5: N/A
• 4: Mass Hysteria, Bwonsamdi the Dead
• 3: Princess Talanji, Spirit of the Dead
• 2: Auchenai Phantasm, Grave Horror, Sand Drudge, Regenerate, Seance
• 1: Surrender to Madness

Rogue
Rogues are really hammering it home with Pirates, huh? And I can really see a variation of the swarming, early/mid-game pirate deck that just fills up the board with cheap pirates, reloads with Raiding Party, make big Bloodsail Howlers and finishes off the enemy with Cannon Barrage. I just have trouble visualizing where Captain Hooktusk works in this early-game pirate deck. Hooktusk looks like it's powerful, for sure, but she just doesn't have a whole lot of big pirates to work with, particularly in standard. We'll see, though.

Gral and his Spirit look... interesting, but kind of standalone, I think? We do have a bunch of generic, weird utility cards like Stolen Steel, Serrated Tooth and Gurubashi Hypemon, all of which are decent but I'm not sure what deck they go into. And Walk the Plank is just sort of an obvious replacement for Vilespine Slayer in the future of Standard. I dunno. Rogue's kind of weird to me.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Cannon Barrage, Raiding Party, Walk the Plank
• 3: Gral the Shark, Spirit of the Shark, Captain Hooktusk, Serrated Tooth, Bloodsail Howler
• 2: Gurubashi Hypemon, Stolen Steel
• 1: N/A

Shaman
Shaman is another pretty interesting card! It has a distinctive spell theme, but, interestingly, just like control paladin, it's not a deck that's obvious from just looking at the cards. I'm not quite sure Spirit of the Frog or Big Bad Voodoo are that good anymore, and looks just a bit too unwieldy, but I'm definitely a huge fan of both Krag'wa and Zentimo. Throw in some really neat new spells that might genuinely work well, particularly with Krag'wa recycling them, and I'm quite excited just to dick around with Unstable Evolution and Krag'wa in the same deck.

Some other weird miscellaneous cards Shaman gets is Bog Slosher, which is a neat variation for Zola, overload-synergy card Likkim (which is actually pretty fun after I learned how it works -- it gets the bonus twice, on the turn you cast the spell and the turn you overload), and a bunch of spells that... that I'm just not 100% quite sure about, honestly. Pretty sure Wartbringer is bad, while Spirit of the Frog just seems kind of impractical. I'm mostly just excited for Krag'wa, though, and whether the other cards work out... we'll see.

• 5: Krag'wa the Frog
• 4: N/A
• 3: Zentimo, Bog Slosher, Rain of Toads, Likkim
• 2: Haunting Visions, Totemic Smash, Spirit of the Frog
• 1: Big Bad Voodoo, Wartbringer

Warlock
I'm not 100% convinced that the synergies for Warlock will really work out that well. Hir'eek and the hand-buff just seem like it is barely supported, I feel. Discard seems... kinda neat, but just like the Druid hero-power mechanic, I'm slightly confused what the eventual win condition is, unless the win condition is just to spam Jekliks and Doomguards until you overwhelm the enemy. Discard Warlock at least seems particularly interesting in Wild, though, where you have more Discard cards to dick around with. Shriek, though, is probably the stand-out card among the Discard cards where it is probably a card that you'll not be too sad to play in a non-Discard Warlock deck.

Void Contract is an interesting (if ultimately probably unusable) tech card, and I've warmed up significantly to Grim Rally -- it's definitely a good Zoolock card, particularly in Egg variants of the deck. Demonbolt also looks pretty neat for Zoolocks, and both Demonbolt and Grim Rally seem pretty neat cards that will see experimentation in Zoo decks, if nothing else. . Anyway, probably not the best expansion for Warlocks, but the wacky cards at least look weirdly fun to dick around with.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Shriek
• 3: High Priestess Jeklik, Demonbolt, Grim Rally
• 2: Void Contract, Soulwarden, Reckless Diretroll
• 1: Hir'eek the Bat, Spirit of the Bat, Blood Troll Sapper

Warrior
OH BOY DRAGONS! I love dragons, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the dragon package ended up being explored and expanded upon in Rastakhan, and for Warrior to get it, too! I've been wanting for a different sort of Warrior deck, and the Dragon mechanic definitely looks interesting. Smolderthorn Lancer, Emberscale Drake and Warmaster Voone all look to be pretty decent cards.

I'm not super-convinced that the Rhino package will work, honestly. Akali is a decent card, and the Spirit of the Rhino is neat. And if there was a class where a Rush deck would work, it would definitely be in Warrior... but I'm not 100% sure if it'll work out. Akali just feels a bit too unwieldy for me, I think. The other miscellaneous cards... Overlord's Whip is a neat little alternative for Blood Razor, I think, and Sul'thraze is a fun enough value weapon, I feel. There's a bunch of pretty interesting things for Warrior to play around with, for sure! Pretty optimistic for the class.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Emberscale Drake
• 3: Spirit of the Rhino, War Master Voone, Sul'thraze, Overlord's Whip, Dragon Roar, Smolderthorn Lancer
• 2: Akali the Rhino, Devastate
• 1: Heavy Metal

Neutral

Out of the neutral cards... there are definitely a bunch of interesting cards. Oondasta is a pretty interesting combo neutral card that can work well in various different decks. I'm also excited for making weird deathrattle decks with Da Undatakah. Crowd Roaster, Firetree Witchdoctor and Dragonmaw Scorcher look like decent dragon options for that Dragon Warrior deck. Sharkfin Fan seems pretty dang powerful in Pirate decks. I can see Pirate Scalper being used, although that's probably going to be out of lack of choice instead of Ticket Scalper himself being good. While I'm unconvinced, Mojomaster Zihi will probably be an interesting counter against combo decks like Shudderwock and Mecha'thun. Hakkar's probably not going to be super-great, but I definitely look forward to a deck that uses him. There are some cards like Saronite Taskmaster, Masked Contender and Belligerent Gnome that I can actually see working out pretty well in some decks.

There are a lot of crappy neutrals (most of which are the ones covered on this page), but honestly at this point it's kind of par the course. A lot of them are obvious Arena cards as well, which is fine.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Da Undatakah, Oondasta, Crowd Roaster, Dragonmaw Scorcher, Sharkfin Fan
• 3: Mojomaster Zihi, Untamed Beastmaster, Masked Contender, Firetree Witchdoctor, Shieldbreaker, Belligerent Gnome, Ticket Scalper, Saronite Taskmaster
• 2: Hakkar the Soulflayer, Linecracker, Snapjaw Shellfighter, Drakkari Trickster, Mosh'Ogg Enforcer, Amani War Bear, Rabble Bouncer, Arena Fanatic, Rumbletusk Shaker, Regeneratin' Thug, Banana Buffoon, Dozing Marksman, Spellzerker, Scarab Egg, Helpless Hatchling
• 1: Griftah, Mosh'Ogg Announcer, Ice Cream Peddler, Gurubashi Offering, Gurubashi Chicken, Murloc Tastyfin, Soup Vendor, Waterboy, Serpent Ward, Former Champ, Sightless Ranger, Half-Time Scavenger, Arena Treasure Chest, Ornery Tortoise, Cheaty Anklebiter
• 0: [Special 'this is utter garbage' territory] Booty Bay Bookie, Arena Patron

Rastakhan's Rumble Card Review #3

 Well, I didn't really have much of an opportunity to talk about these cards due to my laptop being in the repair shop and everything, so there's a significant amount of cards I have to talk about. Here's a significant portion of the older ones. Will be succinct with a lot of these, although at least I do find it neat that I'm able to talk about the cards with a wider perspective of the other cards in the set as they are released.

(Also: Yay, my laptop's back! Don't expect TV show reviews for a while, though)

Griftah: A lengendary 4-mana 4/5 that discovers two cards (apparently always neutral cards?) and you give one to your opponent at random. Kind of an interesting mechanic, but ultimately kind of pointless, isn't it? It's basically a more controlled version of Tanglefur Mystic from Witchwood (and you'll be forgiven for forgetting that card exists), in that you can guarantee a shit card for your opponent at the cost of getting one for yourself, or vice versa. I don't see this seeing any sort of constructed play.

Da Undertakah: Unlike Griftah, Da Undertakah is a far more interesting neutral card. An 8-mana 8/5 that gains the deathrattles of 3 friendly minions that died earlier? It's not the best card out there (Blizzard seems to be very wary at printing good neutral legendaries, it seems) but it does seem like a fun card to put in any Deathratle-themed deck. Maybe this is the sort of a finisher-value minion that a Deathrattle deck might want? There is a Necrium Blade rogue deck out there, as is Quest Priest. 8/5 is even a pretty good statline for a minion you do want to die. It's not the best legendary out there, but I actually can see an Undertakah deck working out well! Particularly great in Wild, I do think, with a lot more potent Deathrattle synergies there. Kind of excited for this one for sure.

Mojomaster Zihi: Yeah, let's get through all of the neutral legendaries. This last one is... interesting. He is a 6-mana 5/5 that sets each player's mana crystals back to 5, which is kind of a huge anti-combo tech card, basically forcing decks like, say, Mecha'thun or Shudderwock to have to build back up to turn 10, and in any given matchup against Druid you can basically annul their ramp. But at the same time, you yourself have to reach turn 6 to play this, and even then you get a pretty iffy 5/5 minion. It's sort of the same problem that a card like Gnomeferatu or Skulking Geist faces, I suppose -- pretty neat when you meet the exact archetype that this card is techning against, but against most other decks it's barely passable.

Arcanosaur: An interseting card. A 6-mana 3/3 Elemental that basically Hellfires the board if you played an elemental in the previous turn. Priest's Duskbreaker is basically the same thing, except with dragons... and Duskbreaker is 4-mana. And holding a dragon is far, far easier to do than to play a tribal card in the previous turn. Elemental Mage is admittedly one of the Elemental decks with the most support currently, but this isn't something that's going to make it suddenly insane, I think. Even if Elemental Mage suddenly becomes awesome in this meta, Arcanosaur isn't going to be part of it.

Elemental Evocation: A Mage spell that is essentially Preparation, but for Elementals. Significantly better than Arcanosaur for Mage decks, but I don't know... While I have faith that Elemental Evocation is a really powerful card, I don't really have faith for Elemental Mage as a whole in either Wild or Standard. I suppose the addition of helper cards can't hurt, but I don't see this particular package being super-relevant at the moment.

Scorch: Scorch is an interesting spell, again, another one that works alongside Elementals. 4 mana deal 4 damage, but if you played an elemental, the spell costs 1 instead. It's comparable to Wing Blast from Hunter, but at the same time Scorch can only target minions. My gut instinct is to say this card is actually not that good -- it's not really powerful enough to fit into the elemental mage deck list, I think, especially since that deck wants to keep non-elemental minion cards to a minimum (hence why Arcanosaur is an interesting card in that list).

Splitting Image: A new mage secret, and what a fun artwork this one has! It's... it's kind of an interesting card, though, sort of a combination of Snake Trap and Molten Reflection of sorts? Whenever your minion gets attacked, you summon a copy of it? I don't think it's ever going to be as ever-present as, say, Explosive Runes was. It's not a bad Secret, but it's not a hard secret to work around by using spell removal or simply running minions into another one of yours -- and besides, I'm not 100% sure what minion, exactly, Mage is so willing to copy. Ragnaros, I guess? Not bad, but not good, I think.

Grim Rally: An interesting card for Warlock. A 1-mana spell that gives all your minions +1/+1, but you have to destroy your own minion? It's like Mark of the Lotus, but both worse and better. Worse because, y'know, you have to destroy a friendly minion, and a wide-board zoo deck doesn't want to lose minions. But maybe you play a variant deck that plays, oh, Devilsaur Eggs or something that wants to be destroyed? Ultimately, though, while probably a pretty powerful card, Grim Rally is not likely to see play in Zoolock, I think, unless you're really trying to do something cute.

Seance: A 2-mana Priest spell that's basically support for Princes Talanji -- you add a copy of a minion to your hand. Could be one of your big bombs, could be one of your enemy's. It's definitely a card that you would want in this sort of 'steal' Priest, and Seance is essentially a more flexible Convert (remember Convert?). It's a neat support to a legendary card that seems fun to play, if not necessarily the most powerful card in the meta.

Wardruid Loti: Druid's legendary troll champion is... honestly a bit of a disappointment for me. She's a 3-mana card with a Choose One ability, and you choose one of four beasts -- 1/4 Spell Damage +1 (a sturdier Kobold Geomancer), 1/2 Poisonous and Stealth (essentially a Giant Wasp), a 1/6 Taunt (a slightly cheaper Mogu'shan) or a 4/2 Rush (one of the choices for Druid of the Scythe). None of these are particularly great to get for 3 mana except maybe the rusher and the poison-stealth, and while there's something to be said for the insane flexibility of Loti, I'm genuinely not sure if any of her forms are genuinely powerful enough. Maybe in some sort of a weird token druid list? I really don't see it, to be honest. She's a good card, but good cards don't really make it into high-tier constructed decks. Loti's a legendary that's sort of like Cenarius or Gruul or Toshley, cards that are great when you don't have a lot of options, but edged out by far better options eventually.

Spirit of the Raptor: An... interesting card. Spirit of the Raptor is a 1-mana Spirit that, after your hero attacks and kills a minion, gives you a card draw. We really haven't seen all of the druid cards, and while there are certainly some that synergize with "use your hero power to kill things", I do think that it doesn't really quite make a deck just yet, because I'm genuinely not sure what the finisher of this deck is -- you have all these cards that sort of gain value when you use your hero power to kill minions, but what's the big bomb?

Gonk, the Raptor: ...because it certainly isn't the loa, Gonk. Gonk is a 7-mana 4/9 beast with the passive effect of basically giving your hero the same effect as that one giant worm that Hunter had in Old Gods, which is allowing your hero to attack as long as it kills something. Sure, this means you can gain extra value with any card that increases your hero's attack (so long as you kill something), but... but that's basically only really ever useful against Token decks, and also if you have a lot of health/armour to spare when you're at turn 7 and can play Gonk. I dunno -- it's all an interesting package for sure, but I'm not sure if it's enough to make a deck. Gonk himself has a pretty poor statline, and even if you machinegun minions down with your hero (and that's assuming you use Gnash or Malfurion the Pestilent to buff up your hero's attack) it's still basically amounts to a board clear that really hurts your face. I do think that they purposefully gave druids a pretty underwhelming set of cards this expansion, just like how they kicked Warlock in the teeth for the past couple of expansions.

Stampeding Roar: Especially since some of the Druid cards don't really play with the Gonk package. Stampeding Roar joins Predatory Instincts in making a weird Beast-buff decks, and for 6 mana, Stampeding Roar instantly summons a random beast from your hand and adds Rush to it. It's... it's a decent effect, of course -- druids do have some powerful beasts that they would love to summon and buff for 6 mana. Tyrantus and Charged Devilsaurs are the obvious ones, as is Hadronox, but even cards like Witchwood Grizzly means that you bypass the health-penalty battlecry. And giving it Rush? That really should never be underestimated. I'm not 100% convinced that Beast Druid is suddenly going to be top-tier, but Stampeding Roar is probably going to be a good little tech tool for Hadronox Druids or something.

Mark of the Loa: Basically a buffed-up version of Mark of the Wild and Power of the Wild mixed together. you either get +2/+4 and Taunt for 4 mana, which is... honestly kind of bad -- you get +2 health more from Mark of the Wild for two entire mana. Or you summon two 3/2 Raptors, which is exactly double Power of the Wild, but without the benefit of buffing your whole board instead. Pretty sure this card won't see much play -- Druid's got way better buffs than this.

Treespeaker: An... interesting card. Treespeaker is the missing "end-game" card for the Treant package that was given to us during Boomsday Project, a 5-mana 4/4 that transforms all of your 2/2 Treant tokens into 5/5 tokens. It's a very fun and flavourful ability for sure, sort of like a Level Up, but I'm still unconvinced that the current Treant package is honestly powerful enough that even a card like Treespeaker isn't probably going to matter all that much. Again, druids are able to do a whole lot of powerful things without having to resort to a pretty iffy mechanic.

Farraki Battleaxe: A weird weapon for Paladin -- and the only paladin card on this page. 5-mana 3/3, with the effect of buffing a minion in your hand by +2/+2... but only if you Overkill. This is comparable to a Gadgetzan-era weapon for warrior, the Brass Knuckles, but Brass Knuckles's effect always procs. Sure, it's a 4-mana 2/3, and only buffs +1/+1, but Farraki Battleaxe honestly seems even more unwieldier -- it's basically an overpriced Fiery War Axe if you're against a more control-oriented deck. I dunno. It's not a horrible card, but one that probably is utterly outclassed by Val'anyr, Silver Sword and Vinecleaver.

Sightless Ranger: A Rushing 3/4 neutral minion with the Overkill effect of summoning two 1/1 Bats is neat enough... until you realize that she's 5 mana. And while you might be optimistic and say that the card is going to be a value-making token generator against token Shaman or Paladin decks, against most other matchups she's just going to be a shitty 5-mana 3/4 Rush... and you'd rather play actual, good Rush minions.

Captain Hooktusk: The Rogue legendary champion is a pirate! And she's... she's an interesting one all right. Hooktusk is an 8-mana 6/3 pirate that summons three Pirates from your deck, and grants them Rush. And is that impressive? I'm not really sure. A vast majority of pirates are low-cost minions, with the exception of the new Ticket Scalper (which is great with Rush), that crappy legendary from TGT and maybe Southsea Captain. It's certainly a great finisher, but it's also one with a pretty huge ask of having drawn none of the pirates you want by turn 8. As cool as it is to recruit out Ticket Scalper and get the Overkill effect, it's also pretty bad if you, y'know, draw Ticket Scalper. Captain Hooktusk is honestly a pretty great effect, even if it won't one-shot-kill your opponent it's going to control the board pretty well -- but she's going to need some bigger pirate buddies before she really shivers your timbers.

Bloodsail Howler: A new Rogue Pirate, and  Bloodsail Howler is... he's a decent card, a 2-mana 1/1 that gains +1/+1 for each other Pirate you control. Extremely vulnerable to silence, and probably not as stable as Bloodsail Corsair, but a bit of a greedier card. It's another one that plays to Pirate's old way of nice, cheap, early-game minions -- which probably would work in an old-school pirate deck somewhat well, but not on a Hooktusk deck where it's only ever going to be summoned in its un-buffed stage.

Bloodscalp Strategist: A 3-mana 2/4 minion that, if you have a weapon equipped, allows you to discover a spell. It's... it's kind of comparable to a conditional Stitched Tracker, I think. Stitched Tracker allows you to generate a copy of a card from your deck, though, which tends to be better than having a random spell... and Bloodscalp requires you to have a weapon equipped. Ultimately not the worst card generator out there, honestly, but not the best. I'm not even sure you run it with Zul'jin, even.

Master's Call: Now this is interesting! Master's Call is like a far weirder version of Tracking, a 3-mana spell that allows you to Discover a minion from your deck... and if all three of them are beasts, you draw all of them! Hunter has historically been a class that's pretty crappy with card draw, and a card that can potentially draw three cards in one go? And thin your deck, Tracking-s There are some questions due to the vague wording of the card, which is going to affect how good it is -- does it allow you to discover duplicates of the same minion (as with Dire Frenzied minions, for example)? What happens if you only have two minions in your deck? If you don't proc the "draw all three cards", do you draw the minion or is a copy generated by discover? Ultimately, a potentially very powerful card draw.


Zul'jin: Before you read any further, watch this. AmazingLP did that amazing Luna's Pocket Galaxy reveal last expansion, and I really, really love their work. Sure, that video goes give a pretty optimistic view of just how many huge minions you have in your deck, but Zul'jin is a pretty interesting hero! While Deathstalker Rexxar sacrifices the pressure-putting Hunter hero power in favour for one that endlessly creates value, Zul'jin just unleashes Spell hell for 10 mana, unleashing every single spell you've played this game. It's one that probably would require a fair bit more deckbuilding than Deathstalker Rexxar, but honestly there are a fair bit of powerful Hunter spells that will benefit you no matter the board state. Animal Companion, Master's Call, Unleash the Hounds, the Secrets, Emerald Spellstone, Revenge of the Wild,  Deadly Shot... I'm not convinced that Boomzooka is ever going to see play, but Zul'jin acting as a far more stable Yogg-Saron definitely feels like a card that might finally give Control Hunter its finisher. Interestingly, Zul'jin's hero power is basically like an upgraded version of the Mage hero power, dealing 2 damage anywhere, so you can still use it to push damage to face. A significant portion of Hero cards tended to focus more on the hero power as opposed to the battlecry (other than Gul'dan, every other hero card's battlecry seems to be a bonus tacked on), and Zul'jin is an interesting one where the upgraded hero power is the bonus, while the battlecry is the huge bomb you want. Very interesting card for sure. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back and watch that reveal video.

The Beast Within: An interesting buff spell? 1-mana spell that buffs a minion by +1/+1, but forces the minion to attack a random enemy minion. Sometimes in the early stages of the game this doesn't matter when the enemies aren't that many, but do you really want to play a 1-mana spell that buffs a minion by +1/+1? See, the real interesting thing that this card does is allowing a minion to attack twice -- once granted by the card, and a second one being its natural attack, sort of giving it a restricted Windfury buff of sorts. Ultimately, though, I do think this will end up being a bit too impractical to use.

Crowd Roaster: A neutral minion this time around. A 7-mana 7/4 Dragon that, if you're holding a dragon, deals 7 damage to an enemy minion. It's comparable to Blazecaller, except, as I've noted above, 'holding a dragon' is way, way easier to accomplish than 'play an elemental the previous turn'. It's way more passive, so to speak, and far easier to accomplish. A 7/4 might be a less stable body than the Blazecaller's 6/6, but it does deal a huge amount of damage. I guess it's Blackwing Corruptor on steroids, except it, too, is a dragon. While not the best dragon card out there, it's definitely a fun card to consider for dragon decks.

Emberscale Drake: With War Master Voone, it seems that dragon warrior is an archetype they're pushing! Emberscale Drake is basically a cheaper version of Shieldmaiden -- a 5/5 that gives your hero 5 armor. Emberscale Drake is cheaper by 1 mana, but has the (again, relatively easy) ask of you holding a dragon. Not the best or most novel card out there, but one that's pretty solid for dragon packages, I think. I'm not 100% sure what sort of dragon warrior will be born from all the weird tools accessible to the, but I for one am excited to experiment.

Spirit of the Rhino: An... interesting Spirit card, honestly. It's a cheap, 1-mana Spirit with the same Stealth-for-1-turn deal, but its effect is arguably one of the more powerful ones -- your Rush minions are immune for the first turn that they're summoned, which is... pretty exciting! Obviously the most powerful cards with Rush are the likes of the new legendary, Akali, as well as some older ones like Darius Crowley. I'm curious if this actually stacks with Dr. Boom granting Rush to all mechs. It's a powerful card, as immunity for a card that wants to take damage for its first turn is going to be pretty powerful. Very neat card, I say.

Akali the Rhino: A card that made me go "what?" before seeing the Spirit, Akali is an 8-mana 5/5 Rushing minion with the Overkill of drawing another Rush minion and giving it +5/+5. The thing, though, is that for the turn that you play Akali, you are kind of spending 8 whole mana on summoning a 5/5 beast that kills a minion and draws a card. Is that good? Is that better than summoning, say, Darius Crowley, who is cheaper and grows on its own? Even if both cards are granted immune the turn that they pop into the game, I'm not quite sure if I'd rather have Darius or Akali. It's... it's interesting, really. Akali's value really depends on how many rush minions you have in your deck, and how many of them are good. Going head-on for a 5/5 removal, and then drawing a 6/8 Vicious Scalehide that immediately trades and heals you is a powerful swing turn, but on the flip-side if Akali just can't tutor any more Rush minion, then it's just an overpriced 5/5 Rusher. It's... it's a card that I'm genuinely curious about. My gut instinct says that it's bad, but it definitely has the potential to maybe be powerful.

Linecracker: A 7-mana 5/10 that doubles his attack any time he Overkills. Not a bad minion to get out of effects like evolution, Boomship or Free From Amber style spells, but not one that you'll put into your deck. He's way to slow, and comparable cards like Scaled Nightmare and Boogeymonster -- both of whom have easier activators -- never saw play.

Bog Slosher: A fucking weird one, here. Bog Slosher is a 3-mana 3/3 Elemental with the panda ability, returning a minion to your hand... and buffs it by +2/+2? It's... it's honestly kind of a weird card and while I'm not 100% sure what deck Bog Slosher is going to find itself in, it's a pretty interesting effect! The card itself is very, very solid, and I can totally see Bog Slosher fit into an elemental deck, or a battlecry-oriented deck. Most interestingly, it might work as an alternate Zola/Grumble requirement for the Shudderwock combo, although I'm not 100% sure what you take out to fit Slosher in. It's a neat, solid card. I'm just having a bit of a trouble thinking of what deck it's going to stick around in.

Totemic Smash: Not the most powerful spell out there. 1 mana deal 2 damage, with the Overkill effect of summoning a random basic totem. On the surface, it's basically a Holy Smite that sometimes gives you a benefit, because Overkilling with 2 damage isn't going to be available to you most of the time. It's mostly interesting due to its inclusion in Shaman spell pools, though, as it's another spell that can go face, and can be generated by cards like Hagatha or whatever. And maybe you play it in that weird Malygos Shaman list? Certainly you'd rather have Totemic Smash than Frost Shock, I'd wager.

Big Bad Voodoo: Another interesting card, a 2-mana spell that basically gives a friendly minion a Deathrattle that Evolves them. It's a neat, weird variation on Ancestral Spirit, and one that is both better and worse, due to the whole shebang with Evolve. It has the same "oooh, value!" interaction with Zentimo, but I don't really see Big Bad Voodoo working out all that well, honestly. Neither Evolve cards nor Ancestral Spirit see much play nowadays, and while Big Bad Voodoo seems to be a pretty fun card, I don't see it being meta-defining any time soon.

Spirit of the Frog: A 3-mana Spirit that's... quite interesting. You basically cycle through your deck, because any time you cast a spell, you draw a spell from your deck that costs 1 more. You can potentially just sling burn spells at your enemy's face or board, going from Lightning Bolt to Crackle to Lava Burst to Jade Lightning, of course, so long as you have mana to spend. And suddenly Haunting Visions doesn't look super-bad. It's meant to combo with Krag'wa, and... it's interesting -- you can quite literally cycle through a huge chunk of your deck's spells before you get to Krag'wa, and this genuinely opens up a whole ton of different deck-building questions. How do you survive to get to that huge turn before you play Spirit of the Frog followed by Krag'wa? Do you play Hagatha or Witch's Cauldron in that deck?

Krag'wa, the Frog: And the mighty Krag'wa is definitely an interesting loa. A 6-mana 4/6 that, as a battlecry, returns all spells you've played in the previous turn back to your hand. This can just straight-up double the burn spells in your deck! You don't have to play this alongside Spirit of the Frog to be good either (unlike Gonk or Bwonsamdi) -- the two just work particularly well in the same deck. I can definitely see Krag'wa being used independently just as a finisher in a more spell-oriented version of even Shaman, where you suddenly reload on cards like Jade Lightning, Lightning Bolt and (if you're a Wild player) Crackle. It's definitely a card that's going to take a fair bit of experimentation to make a proper deck that works well, but honestly I'm just pretty dang excited to experiment with this big fat frog.

Mass Hysteria: -insert Ghostbusters joke- Mass Hysteria is actually a pretty interesting card! It's really fun to see just the sheer amount of weird board clears that Priest has. Mass Hysteria is basically a Brawl, but played out in such a way that the minions actually fight, instead of "one minion wins the brawl". It's particularly powerful against boards filled with Giants or buffed-up Silver Hand Recruits, but in a lot of aspects it's not quite as good as, say, Psychic Scream. It's still a pretty fun and interesting board clear, though, and I can totally see this being teched into more control-oriented decks. Wild's Big Priest, in particular, is definitely going to want this card to clear turn-5 boards before they get around to summoning their own stuff.

Regenerate: Basically a smaller version of Flash Heal, Regenerate for Priests heals 3 health for 0 mana. I really don't think you do want to have this card around for its healing effect, but more for the fact that it triggers spells. The only real cards of note that need spell activators are probably just Lyra, Dragon Soul and Shadowreaper Anduin, though. It's neat to have this card in Priest's arsenal, but it's not going to really make waves on its own, I don't think.

Sand Drudge: A 3-mana 3/3 that summons a 1/1 Taunt token when you cast a spell? It's... it's probably not a bad card in Arena, but otherwise it's kind of never really going to see any serious play in any Priest decks. Unlike decks that play Violet Teacher, Priest has no way to reliably buff a wide board of low-health minions, so I don't think this card is ever going to see play.

Mosh'Ogg Announcter: A 5-mana 6/5 that... has a reversed version of the GvG Ogre effect. If it works the same way as Noggenfogger does (it still has to be a legal target) then it's still kinda m'eh, isn't it? I dunno. Misdirecting attack from a 6/5 minion doesn't really sound super-useful.

Snapjaw Shellfighter: Another 5-mana minion that misdirects attacks, but to itself. a 3/8 is notably pretty great stat spread for a defensive minion, and while Bolf Ramshield is kind of a shit card, a 3/8 minion that absorbs damage from adjacent minions can definitely be used to absorb damage, from, say, valuable minions like Flametongue Totem or something. Not likely to see a whole ton of play, though.


Overall, though, despite my skepticism about a fair amount of the cards... it's definitely shaping up to be a fun expansion! The Rastakhan's Rumble cards are clearly not very afraid of doing something different, and introducing a lot of wacky mechanics. I'm not sure if it's all going to work out by the end of this expansion, but I certainly am excited to play with the new cards.

Rastakhan's Rumble Card Review #2

 They are not letting up with the new cards, and we have a bunch that look weirdly neat! I don't think we have quite as many here that excites me as much as Bwonsamdi, Jeklik, Oondasta and Hakkar in the last batch, but there are some neat ones here too.

High Priest Thekal: Whoa, what? High Priest Thekal is Paladin's legendary troll, and he's... he's a fucking weird card! A 3-mana 3/4 that converts all but 1 of your health into armor? This dude is basically here in order to set your hero's health to 1 without putting you at risk, thereby allowing for healing synergies. It's an ability that I've seen some fan-made cards do for Priests, and it's certainly a very interesting one! One of the biggest problems with heal-paladins is that they tend to have such a powerful early game presence (be it Righteous Protectors or Muster for Battles or Baku hero powers or Shielded Minibots, depending on the year) that they tend to keep a high health in the early game, meaning cards like Benevolent Djinn tend to not really end up being all that useful. Thekal allows you to basically heal for excess of 29, allowing you to get discounts on Zandalari Templar or to upgrade your spellstones. It's definitely a bizarre, interesting card that needs a fair amount of support,  but I like it! In Wild this and either Reno Jackson or Forgotten Healing are pretty great combos, too. Overall, while I will hold off on saying that this is a super-good card, this is definitely a weird and interesting one for midrange and control paladin lists, which have been gone for quite some time.

Spirit of the Tiger: We've seen Shirvallah, but here's the associated spirit! It's another expensive one, costing 4, and it has the effect of summoning a tiger with stats equal to the cost of any spell you cast. Which... yeah. 4-mana 0/3 is an expensive cost to pay, but that can be potentially off-set by getting insane amounts of value. Take, for example, playing Spirit of the Tiger on the same turn as Blessing of Kings. You basically get a 4/4 token as well as the Blessing of Kings effect, and the potential to gain extra vanilla minions in the future. With far more expensive cards like Dinosize, or A Challenger Arrives or Spikeridged Steed, Spirit of the Tiger can rack up intense amounts of value. It's also a minion that works well in buff paladin, so the 0/3 statline might get turned around a little.

Zandalari Templar: A 4-mana 4/4 that becomes an 8/8 Taunt if you've restored 10 health total in the game. healing-synergy cards from Kobolds & Catacombs didn't really end up working all that well in paladin. Of course, a cheap card that can turn into a huge minion after fulfilling a condition is definitely not something to sleep on, as Hooked Reaver shows. Zandalari Templar requires significantly more work than just taking damage and using your hero power, though with cards like High Priest Thekal and Crystalsmith Kangor, I'm... I'm holding my breath out. I won't say that heal paladin is the new big thing since we haven't seen all of the cards now -- and without some of the old control paladin tools like Forbidden Healing and Ragnaros Lightlod, I'm still unconvinced. Great tools, though, and if control paladin does become a thing, Zandalari Templar is going to be a key part of it.

Walk the Plank: A pretty simple spell, really. For 4 mana, you destroy an undamaged minion. It's basically a cheaper version of Vilespine Slayer as a conditional Assassinate, and while cheaper it's arguably a worse version of Vilespine Slayer due to the not-always-feasible "undamaged" condition. It's neat that they're preparing something for when Vilespine rotates out, though.

Gurubashi Hypemon: Hypemon, hee hee. Gurubashi Hypemon is an interesting card, working similarly to the Shadowcaster mechanic in a way. Hypemon is a 7-mana 5/7, that discovers a 1-mana 1/1 copy specifically of a battlecry minion. There are some pretty powerful battlecry cards out there, but I'm not sure if this card is going to be particularly well fitted to any current Rogue decks.


War Master Voone: DRAGON SYNERGY! When did we last see dragon synergy in Hearthstone, huh? That Scaleworm back in Witchwood? Dragon Warrior was pretty great back in the day thanks to Alexstrasza's Champion, and this time around we've gotten a bunch of extra synergy cards. War-Master Voone is a 4-mana 4/3 (apparently the reveal video had him be a 5-mana 4/5, so he got buffed before his final release!) that copies all dragons in your hand. And while copying things in your hand does mean that you kind of have to do some workarounds... the reveal video shows off the Boomship summoning three big-ass dragons into the field, which is awesome. In addition, in wild, Voone can drastically increase the amounts of dragons you summon with Deathwing Dragonlord, which is the first thing that came to mind when I saw this card. The fact that he's a pretty decent 4-mana 4/3 isn't bad, either. Not a game-breaking card, but it's one that builds up a fun little synergy that I do find to be pretty cool.

Smolderthorn Lancer: A 3-mana 3/2 minion that, if you're holding a dragon, Executes an enemy minion. Removal tied onto a minion is always powerful, as Big Game Hunter and Vilespine Slayer have shown, and Smoldethorn is... decent enough, I suppose, gaining Execute's effect for basically 1 extra mana and a condition. Execute is a card that's seen still-universal play even after it was nerfed, only unused in Odd Warriors. Again, while I'm not sure if this little dragon package is going to revitalize dragon priest for standard, it's definitely a card design that I do like.

Firetree Witchdoctor: A pretty simple support card for dragon decks that don't want to have too many low-cost dragons, Firetree Witchdoctor is comparable to Netherspite Historian. A 2-mana 2/2 that, if you're holding a dragon, discovers a spell. Not particularly great, but definitely not trash! I can see this lady being used in dragon decks for sure.

Revenge of the Wild: A 2-mana Kel'thuzad effect for Beasts only? It's an interesting spell, I guess, and I'm not going to write off any sort of N'Zoth style effect, but the fact that it only affects beasts that die this turn is going to be a huge hindrance to making this an OP card. Interesting spell to print, though. Nothing wrong with that.

Masked Contender: An... interesting card for sure. He's a neutral 3-mana 2/4 that plays a Secret for free from your deck, which is, in a vacuum, great! It's comparable to Mad Scientist, only you get the Secret immediately instead of upon death. On the other hand, Masked Contender requires you to have a Secret already up, and that might be a wee bit too difficult sometimes. I guess the best place to put this in is Secret Hunter decks? I'm not 100% sure if Hunters would want to play this. Probably too weak to play in Wild, where both Mad Scientist and Cloaked Huntress are IMO superior, but definitely can find a place in Standard Secret Hunter decks.

Likkim: A  2-mana 1/3 Shaman weapon, and it's comparable to the post-nerf Spirit Claws, I guess. A 2-mana 1/3 weapon that becomes a smorc-y 2-mana 3/3 weapon. The condition is if you have overloaded mana crystals. I'm not sure if it's strictly better than Spirit Claws, though, a card that, since its nerf, has seen basically no play. Admittedly Likkim does make it so that you can get an advantage out of the overloaded mana crystals, but I am unconvinced that it's actually a good weapon. Neat, though.

Amani War Bear: A 7-mana 5/7 neutral beast with Rush and Taunt. It might be kind of boring, but Amani War Bear is definitely a very solid, if underwhelming, card. I'm not sure if this dude is ever going to be see constructed play, but definitely a solid arena and/or random generation cards. Not much to say here.

Rabble Bouncer: A 7-mana 2/7 Taunt that gets cheaper by 1 for each enemy minion. A bit of a more superior, but lower-attacked Second-Rate Bouncer. She's... she's neat, but I think she takes the anti-token-board thing a bit too far. At the point that you can play a super-cheap 2/7 Taunt, wouldn't you rather play a board clear instead? Kind of okay for Arena, I suppose, and I guess it's a pretty interesting effect to print.

Soup Vendor: No funnel cakes? HERESY. Soup Vendor is a 2-mana 1/4 that draws a card whenever you restore 3 or more health to your hero, and it's... it's neat? Restoring 3 health every turn, specifically to your hero, is kind of unwieldy, though, and I'm pretty sure the only classes that can do this effectively are Paladin, Priest and heal-package Warlock, and neither of them particularly needs that much help in card draw -- or rather, they have better options that doesn't involve healing 3 to face. Cute effect, but ultimately I think this poor tuskarr's just not that good.

Blast Wave: Bit of an... interesting card. On the surface, Blast Wave is an overpriced Volcanic Potion -- 5 mana, nuke the board for 2 damage. But you do get an Overkill effect of gaining random mage spells into your hand, and cards like Babbling Book and Cabalist's Tome have seen play relatively successfully in the past. I think Blast Wave's Overkill triggers for each enemy you killed? If you can only activate the Overkill effect once then Blast Wave is straight-up a trash card. If it can be activated multiple times... it's great against some board states, I suppose, against un-buffed Silver Hand Recruits and Totems, but the Overkill might be a bit harder to activate. A very interesting card, honestly, one that I don't think is super-great, but I'm also prepared to wait and see.

Predatory Instincts: A 4-mana card that draws a beast specifically and doubles its health. It's... it's an interesting tutor card, for sure, and one that's going to be a pretty juicy choice for Hadronox decks to guarantee tutoring out the big card that you want... but 4 mana tutoring a card is pretty hefty of a cost, especially when Druid's other tutor card is, y'know, Juicy Psychmelon. I'm not sure what other specific beast druids would want to tutor out that isn't covered by Juicy Psychmelon already. Sure, you could kind of maybe say that you want to tutor a beast with this card, and then buff it, and then buff it some more with the Beastmaster card. I dunno. I guess Oondasta or the druid loa beast may be a possible choice?

Saronite Taskmaster: Bit of an interesting variant to Zombie Chow -- a 1-mana 2/3 that, when it dies, gives your opponent a 0/3 with Taunt. It's... I dunno. It's something that guarantees some sort of value to your opponent by absorbing 3 damage. Sometimes it's just a 0/3 Taunt that basically acts like "oh, punch the enemy a couple more times" like Zombie Chow's deathrattle does, but it's also a token that might allow your opponent to buff. Priests, Paladins, especially Shamans... I dunno. It's not bad, but I don't think it's particularly good.

Haunting Spirit: A weird Shaman spell. It's a 3-mana version of Preparation, which... is bizarre. It cancels itself out, basically, costing 3 and discounting 3. You also get to discover a spell, so it's kind of basically just a glorified 0-mana "discover a shaman spell" card, which Shaman doesn't really particularly need but isn't super bad. There may be something weird with the wording of this specific card in regards to how it interacts with, say, Electra? Or a way for odd Shaman to discover even spells? I ultimately think it's pretty bad, though -- it only affects the next spell you cast this turn, and I'd honestly just risk running the spells I want instead of this.

Princess Talanji: New Priest Legendary! Princess Talanji is an 8-mana 7/5, that has a very interesting battlecry -- summoning all minions from your hand that didn't start in your deck. Basically it's like a version of  Boomship or Deathwing Dragonlord that just rips everything from your hand. There are ways to accomplish this -- you could play the Bwonsamdi package, but that just seems silly since all the minions generated by Spirit of the Dead already cost 1 mana. You could do some funky things with cards like Archbishop Benedictus, or general 'steal' cards, or Entomb... Holy Water, maybe? Talanji's probably going to need a couple of extra support cards to help out, but that is definitely a powerful effect that's just waiting for the right deck to use.

Murloc Tastyfin: Is he the cook, or  is he the dish? Murloc Tastyfin is... he's an allright card. A 4-mana 3/2 that tutors two Murlocs from your deck is perfectly all right, helping your murloc decks to reload. It's like a delayed Ice Fishing, and some Murloc Shaman decks tech in Ice Fishing (which, IMO, isn't that good, but eh). Tastyfin's probably a bit too slow to see play in wild, but in Standard I can see him working out quite well.

Overlord's Whip: Huh, this isn't a bad weapon at all! 3-mana 2/4 isn't the worst statline out there, and it has the passive effect of dealing 1 damage to every minion you play -- sometimes, as a Warrior, you do want that. Yes, self-harm Warrior was sort of a dud back in Knights of the Frozen Throne, but I don't know -- a weapon (and a 3-mana 2/4 at that) is probably going to be a whole lot more easy to play than Animated Armor. It's a neat little variant compared to Blood Razor, I think. In any case, maybe sometimes it's just a fun little tech card that you put into your deck and you get a couple of value hits with Acolyte of Pain or Grommash Hellscream, and you're happy? Having a reliable way to just enrage Grom right out of the gate is probably the most practical and awesome usage of the whip.