So I kind of waited for the final reveal stream to do this, and then it took quite a bit because there's a lot of cards released in the final reveal stream. Boomsday releases in less than a week, so yay for that! Lots of legendaries to talk about, lots of fancy new cards, and I do have a brief little possible rating system that I'll look back at the end of Boomsday and see just how accurate or inaccurate I am. On the same token, expect a look-back at my own analysis on Witchwood cards sometime later this week.
Prior to the final stream, there were a bunch of stragglers that I added to Part #6. So yeah, check it out for a bunch of legendaries. These reviews will be particularly rapid-fire due to the sheer amount of them, although I'll try to at least talk a bit more on how these cards could theoretically see play in the meta.
Floop's Glorious Gloop: It's Druid's legendary spell, and it's a 1-mana card that gives you, for one turn, an extra mana crystal for each minion that dies this turn. It works on a similar principle to Corridor Creeper, except instead of a free body, you pay 1 mana upfront to ramp up while killing minions in the field. It's not a bad card at all -- and in fact could be pretty damn powerful, but Floop's Gloop (hee hee, the name) feels more like a Twig of the World Tree situation for me. Immensely and potentially powerful effect, but it's going to take some specific deck shenanigans to get there. I could see this working a lot more readily than a lot of other less obvious legendaries in this set, mind you! It's just that druid gets so much power added to the combo archetype that I'm not sure that this is going to fit in that deck.
Tending Tauren: Our final Treant-synergy card is... Cenarius junior? And he's definitely a very good minion on his own. A 6-mana 3/4 that comes with a free Mark of the Lotus, or with two 2/2 bodies, can be compared to a less practical Fungalmancer, and the Treant synergies should, in theory, make up for it. Most token druid decks'll still want to run Fungalmancer, and seeing that we don't actually have any huge Treant-matters card other than the Mulchmuncher, I'm not actually very optimistic for Tending Tauren or the treant archetype to be anything but a fun little novelty.
Flark's Boom-zooka: The Hunters' legendary spell is... interesting? It's got great art, in any case, but it looks so ridiculously
weirdly insane. Flark's Boom-Zooka recruits 3 minions from your deck, and have them immediately attack enemy minions and then die at the end of the turn. The flavour of this is hilarious, and in a different class (Big Priest, for example) it'd be pretty insane... but Flark's Boom-Zooka just feels utterly bizarre in a class like Hunter. You want to summon deathrattles, it seems, but the way deathrattle hunters work is to
keep the deathrattle minions on board and abuse Play Dead mechanics. And for eight mana? My gut instinct is to say naaaah and move on, but I have been proven wrong on many crazy legendaries before.
Necromechanic: Necromechanic is a 5-mana 3/6 with Baron Rivendare's effect, and, yes, she's one mana more expensive. She also has a body that isn't crap -- 3/6 isn't bad -- in exchange for coming a turn later. And... and I dunno. On paper, Hunter would definitely love this effect, especially deathrattle hunter, but I'm not really convinced that they're going to be able to fit this into their pretty refined deck. I guess you maybe take out... Flanking Strike or something? I can totally see this coming on to the board after a bunch of Goblin Bombs or something get played and you just machinegun the enemy down, though.
Goblin Prank: And this card is one of the few reason that the Goblin Bombs deck with Boommaster Flark and Bomb Toss even seem viable to me, really -- initially I thought Flark was cute, and maybe it's a long game of playing Fireworks Mechanic and other magnetic minions, but maybe you have alternate ways, like Goblin Prank here, which acts as a mini Power Overwhelming that also grants the minion rush. And it's actually quite cheap, and the fact that the buffed minion die that turn is pretty neat! Especially if you have a Necromechanic on board. Again, time will tell if one or all of these cards make it into Deathrattle hunter, but I'm just pleased that Deathrattle hunter is even go
Bomb Toss: Bomb Toss is sort of comparable to Flanking Strike. Instead of summoning a 3/3 (arguably costing around less than 3 mana), Bomb Toss summons the Goblin Bomb instead. And instead of dealing 3 damage to a minion, it deals 2 damage to anywhere... and it does mean that it can go face, which is definitely a bit of flexibility that Flanking Strike doesn't have. Yes, the 0/2 Goblin Bomb is weak as hell, but Bomb Toss is a 2-mana spell as well. While not particularly impressive, I can definitely see this being slotted into spell or deathrattle hunt lists.
Venomizer: Venomizer is a pretty great card, isn't it? A 2-mana 2/2 mech with Poisonous?
And it's magnetic, so sometimes the poisonous keyword gets to immediately trade in? It's pretty damn powerful! Put this on a mech that you want deathrattles to go off, and suddenly you get an insant removal! Definitely one of the better mechs in this set, for sure. Not much else that I can say about this one.
Secret Plan: It's a 1-mana spell that discovers a Secret... which is neat for the flexibility, but why wouldn't you just play that Secret in your deck? Unlike, say, Journey Below or I Know A Guy, you don't have the need to find a card that fits the curve since secrets are always 2 mana in hunter, so I'm genuinely at a loss for this one. Neat card in arena and to get off of Rhok'delar, but otherwise kinda crap.
Astral Rift: Mage cards now, and Astral Rift is... immediately unexciting. 2 mana adds 2 random minions in your hand? Yeah, hand-minion Mage is not going to work, and cards like these aren't even particularly appealing to make it work. You would
always run Primordial Glyph over this, where you get a discover effect
and a discount.
Research Project: Coldlight Oracle, but in spell form! Absolutely unexpected that this card is given to mage, but it's... it's kinda bad, is it? Research Project has you spend 2 mana to draw 2 cards, while your opponent draws 2 cards for free? When is this ever better than Arcane Intellect? And Mages don't really do milling tricks particularly well either. Pretty bad.
Glow-Tron: Paladins get arguably one of the most powerful mechs in Glow-Tron, a 1-mana 1/3 Mech, which in and of itself would've been powerful. But that's not all. Glow-Tron has magnetic, which is just kinda ridiculous slapped onto already premium stats. We've seen Dire Mole being played even in decks that don't have beast synergy. Glow-Tron basically fits the same niche that Dire Mole does, only that it actually
does have synergy. You can magnetize this into a Mecharoo and that's just an obnoxious early-turn play, I can tell you that.
Mechano-Egg: Mechano-Egg is one of the bigger egg cards I've seen printed, a 0/5 for 5 mana that summons an 8/8 Devilsaur. Which is awesome, until you look at the mana cost. 5 mana is a whooper for what's essentially a very delayed effect, and, yeah, you could Equality/Pyromancer, you could Sunkeeper Tarim this, you could magnetize things into Mechano-Egg... but you still paid 5 mana for a 0/5. I dunno. It's easily one of the easier eggs to crack, mind you, but it's expensive. Interesting card, though! I'm not knocking its design.
Glowstone Technician: A 6-mana 3/4 that hand-buffs your hand for +2/+2. Which... hand-buff kinda sucks, as Gadgetzan has proven. Glowstone Technician isn't necessarily super bad as a standalone card, but Paladins have no shortage of actually good buffs that applies immediately into the field without a tempo loss like Level Up, Silver Sword, magnetic mechs and the like, so I'm not sure when Glowstone Technician ever gets to see play outside of arena.
Test Subject: I am wholly unconvinced that the Zerek, Master Cloner deck is really going to work. What I
am convinced, though, is that Inner Fire combo priest is actually going to be powerful, and Test Subject here is pretty damn great. A 1-mana 0/2 that you can buff up without fear of 'using up' your Power Word: Shields, Divine Spirits and Inner Fires? You can use this to compete for the board while you draw into other cards that you really want to buff for the combo, and it's even a Deathrattle card, so Zerek's Cloning Library and the Quest both synergize with this. Looks pretty good as a card, actually.
Topsy Turvy: And if Test Subject isn't enough of a buff on combo priest, Topsy Turvy gives you an alternate way to turn your Divine Spirit'd Twilight Drake into a sudden face-destroyer all for the cost of 0-mana. Combo decks already run cards like Void Ripper and Crazed Alchemist anyway for alternate Inner Fire activators, and a 0-cost spell that sometimes can be used to remove cards like Doomsayer in a pinch? Topsy Turvy was a card I dismissed as "shittier Confuse" on my first scroll, and I can't believe that I missed it.
Extra Arms: Great flavour. But when you think about it, a 3-mana spell that buffs a minion for +2/+2 isn't actually efficient at all, especially when Unidentified Elixir does the same thing and throws in an extra effect that you tend to want. Extra Arms does give you a second copy of it, but it's still an overcosted spell.
Crazed Chemist: A... bizarre card, for sure. A 5-mana 4/4 that basically has "Combo: cast Cold Blood". The thing, though, is that 5 mana is kind of expensive, and the reason that the Rogues' Leeroy + Cold Blood + Cold Blood is so scary is that you really only need 7 mana to pull this off. And comboing out a 1-mana card is way easier than 5 mana, Vilespine Slayer notwithstanding. Crazed Chemist is not necessarily a bad card, but I don't think she fits in competitive decks either.
Violet Haze: Not to be confused with Purple Haze. Yeah, this is just bad. 3 mana, add two totally random deathrattle cards to your hand? Nah, it's worse than Astral Rift up above. Man, stop giving Rogue all these great deathrattle synergies without giving them any good deathrattles!
Elementary Reaction: A 2-mana shaman spell that's... fun? For 2 mana, you draw a card, and sometimes you make an extra copy if you played an elemental in the previous turn. Shamans always have problems drawing card, which was the only reason Ancestral Knowledge got run, so I can see this being played. Not super-powerful, but definitely a fun enough effect.
Beakered Lightning: For 0-mana, deal 1 damage to all minions... but overload 2? Yeah, Shamans generally swarm the board and don't want to kill their own totems. Damaging your own side of the board is expensive enough of a cost, but an extra overload 2? Bad card, I'd say.
SPIRIT BOMB: EVERYONE RAISE YOUR HANDS AND GIVE YOUR ENERGY TO GOKU. Love the joke, but the card's just a shittier Shadow Bolt, and being 1 mana cheaper but it hurts you for four mana is just too masochistic. Self-harm is good, but you don't want to go out of the way to use a card as bad as the Genki-dama here.
Doubling Imp: An interesting card, similar in vein to Saronite Chain Gang... but a 3-mana 2/2 Demon. Neat for zoo, if not particularly powerful -- Saronite Chain Gang outclasses this by having Taunt, and I'm pretty sure you still run Imp Gang Boss as the zoo's 3-mana in Wild. It's not a bad card, mind you, and I can totally see Zoo running this.
Nethersoul Buster: This demon ghostbuster is pretty interesting. A 3-mana 1/5 demon, Nethersoul Buster gains +1 attack for each point of damage your hero took this turn, and it's not that hard to deal damage to your face, as anyone who's played with Amethyst Spellstone can attest. But to do that and to drop an extra 3 mana to summon a minion on top of it sometimes isn't practical. There's always life tap, at least, so you get a 3-mana 3/5 at the very minimum that draws you a card. Not super-good, but you can do some fun stuff with this, Flame Imp and Crystallizer.
Ectomancy: Coming in at 6 mana, while my first instinct was "wow, more Voidlord", you can really only realistically maybe get two demons while casting Ectomancy due to the minion board limit. If you want to duplicate demons, play Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Cube or even Facelesss Manipulator instead, all of which come with extra bodies. Too expensive, I think.
Soul Infusion: For 1 mana, you give the left-most minion in your hand +2/+2. Pretty neat for the simple fact that it's pretty cheap, and sometimes you hit cards like Chain Gang and Doubling Imp and you are happy because you get +4/+4 for one mana. Not the best card, but certainly not the worst either.
Weapons Project: The Warrior's project is... interesting? For 2 mana, both players gain 2/3 weapons and 6 armour, and theoretically the weapons and armour cancel each other out perfectly. But
your weapon charges, and you can overwrite the enemy's weapon. Combine this with Ooze or Harrison, and you suddenly get extra value on top of it. Not the most powerful card in the set, but a neat card nonetheless.
Rocket Boots: For 2 mana, you give a minion Rush and draw a card. Fun for cycling, but I'm not sure if this is ever really better than the Charge spell, and
that didn't see play.
Skaterbot: Whew, into the neutrals now! And we'll start off by covering all the mechs first, because that's the huge theme of the set and I kind of want to go through the good and the bad. And not all the mechs are honestly going to be super-good, but the fact that they have tribal synergy perhaps is enough to bring them out into the spotlight far more readily than the elementals did? Skaterbot (he's just a skater boy she said see you later boy) is a 1-mana 1/1 mech with Rush and Magnetic, which is... okay? 1/1 Rush isn't the worst thing out there, because most of the times the Rush ends up getting overwritten when you magnetize Sk8trboi here to another pre-existing mech. But maybe you play Skaterbot and a bigger mech in the same turn? While he doesn't look too strong, I'm not going to dismiss Skaterbot just yet.
Mecharoo: Mecharoo, on the other hand, is proven to be pretty damn strong. A 1-mana 1/1 that summons another 1/1? And both of them are mechs? Possessed Villager has shown that even without tribal tags, it's a pretty powerful minion on its own. But with tribal tags, and in a tribe that now cares for having mech bodies remain on the board? Mecharoo is hands-down one of the most powerful cards in this set, I'd wager, despite being a humble 1-mana kangaroo.
Bronze Gatekeeper: This time, we get a 3-mana 1/5 Taunt and Magnetic... and Bronze Gatekeeper here, on the surface, looks like a more powerful Silverback Patriarch. But it has magnetic, so sometimes it's just a huge buff on a pre-existing minion, and Taunt is a pretty powerful deal as well. Not the most powerful card, but one I see that will be probably used to pad out the three mana curve and to give your deck more magnetic options.
Explodinator: A 4-mana 3/2 that summons two Goblin Bombs. How good are Goblin Bombs, anyway? It's comparable to Grim Necromancer, who never saw play outside of arena, but then Explodinator himself is also a mech, and both Goblin Bombs are mechs... so maybe the weird Flark Goblin Bomb Hunter plays Explodinator? I don't see him being particularly useful elsewhere, though.
Coppertail Imposter: A shittier Stranglethorn Tiger, Coppertail Imposter is a 4-mana 4/4... that has stealth for a single turn. What? The artwork is hilarious, but unless you use this to hide a magnetized effect, this is easily one of the worse mechs.
Steel Rager: Holy shit, an actually good Rager card? Steel Rager is a 4-mana 5/1 with Rush, which... admittedly isn't the best. And it still has Rager stats, so in all likelihood the poor dude just dies after a turn. But sometimes a turn is all you need to have the Steel Rager help act as removal. Not the best card, admittedly, else Swift Messenger would be seeing more play, but the mech tag counts for something, right? I personally don't see it, but it's definitely on the cusp of playability.
Piloted Reaper: Not this guy, though. Piloted Reaper is so much more badass than Piloted Shredder, and shares Shredder's iconic stats... but you summon a random minion from your hand that costs 2 or less? That's shit! Sure, you never get Doomsayers, but you lose the card advantage that regular Shredder would give you. I'd rather run the Pinata instead for my mech 4-drop, and that's not even the best card out there.
Rusty Recycler: Another simple mech, Wall-E over here is a 5-mana 2/6 with Taunt and Lifesteal. That Lifesteal looks innocent, but if you manage to get Rusty Recycler to stick and then build him up... Ultimately, I think, though, this dude is sort of overshadowed by Zilliax. But in and of itself, Recycler isn't a terrible card, if a bit boring.
Damaged Stegotron: A 6-mana 5/12 Taunt Mech? Amazing! ...and then you discover that it's actually a 6-mana 5/6 taunt because it damages itself, Injured Blademaster style. 6 health is a
lot to heal up, and unless it's some bizarre Priest deck that cheats Stegotron out and does a Divine Spirit/Inner Fire combo, I don't see Stegotron working at all. Truly damaged.
Bulldozer: Hee hee, the artwork! Bull Dozer is a 9-mana 9/7 mech with Divine Shield... which is just kinda m'eh, isn't it? You want to play so much more for a 9-mana mech, and it reminds me of Force-Tank Max from GvG, but with a far worse distribution of stats. Force-Tank saw little to no play in constructed, and I suspect Bull Dozer won't, either. Getting this off of a Boomship or Dr. Boom's discovery is
insane, mind you, so while not a good card to put in your deck, probably great to get elsewhere.
Spark Engine: Now we're just mixing Elementals and Mechs? Spark Engine is a 2-mana 2/1 that adds the 1/1 rushing Spark to your hand. In other words, a shittier Fire Fly that mixes up its tribes? I'm not sure having the Rush keyword is worth the extra mana cost. Kinda bad, I think.
Unpowered Mauler: A 2-mana 2/4 that can only attack if you cast a spell this turn. Comparable to Argent Watchman from TGT, which asks you to cast a spell for him to attack, or Silithid Swarmer, who requires the hero to attack. And a 2/4 isn't worth casting a spell to ensure he attacks. Bad card. Can't all be good mechs, after all.
Spark Drill: A 6-mana 5/1 with Rush that adds
two rushing
Sparks to your hand. Play Steel Rager instead, honestly. Artwork's adorable, but you still have to spend mana to summon the Sparks, and 6 mana for 5 Rush damage is just bad.
Spring Rocket: A 3-mana 2/1 that deals 2 damage as a battlecry? Yeah, far better than Spark Engine or Spark Drill. Comparable to Disciple of C'Thun, and while far from the best Mech in the set, a perfectly valid Arena card, I think. Not a bad design at all.
Kaboom Bot: A bigger Boom Bot! That has 2/2 stats, and costs 3 mana. Yeah, it deals 4 damage all the time, but only to a random enemy minion. Don't think that this one's going to ever be played, honestly.
Toxicologist: Holy shit there are still more cards! Toxicologist is a perfectly fine weapon buff, a 2-mana 2/2 that gives your weapon +1 Attack. The problem, really, is that both Rogues and Warriors have way better weapon buffs already.
Cloakscale Chemist: A 2-mana 1/2 with Stealth and Divine Shield? A bizarre combination of keywords, and while not exactly bad, Silent Knight never saw play, and neither will this card.
Whirliglider: A 2-mana 2/1 that summons a Goblin Bomb. It's... it's very low-key, but I don't think that a single goblin bomb is worth the investment of running a 2-mana minion without tribal synergy. Explodinator is at least a mech himself, Boommaster Flark summons a lot of the bombs, and Bomb Toss can go straight to face. I dunno. Whirliglider kind of seems like the one you cut.
Brainstormer: Oh, hey, it's a Twilight Drake, but only works with spell cards in your hand! Yeah, even if spell-heavy decks wanted to play a huge-health minion, in no world do they ever pick Brainstormer over Twilight Drake.
Microtech Controller: An interesting card -- for 3 mana, you summon two 2/1's and two 1/1's, which is kinda like Muster for Battle sans weapon? And the two 1/1's are mechs? Neat for zoo, I suppose. My gut feeling is that this is bad, though I wouldn't be quick to discount this just yet
Electrowright: A 3-mana 4/4, but only if you're holding a spell that costs 5 or more. The thing is, it's just a vanilla minion that's slightly over-statted. And big-spell decks either run so few of them to hit with Spiteful, or are Big Mage decks that don't care about minions anyway. So no.
Crystallizer: Now this is better than Spirit Bomb, if you want to damage your hero. Crystallizer is a 1-mana 1/3, which is fine, but deals 5 damage to your hero while simultaneously healing for 5 armour. It allows an actually realistic combo with Nethersoul Buster. Other than Warlock, maybe you play this with Priest to begin healing your hero while having a health-heavy on-board presence? Not the best card, but an interesting one for sure.
Holomancer: A 5-mana 3/3 that summons a 1/1 of every minion your enemy plays. But they're just 1/1's. Crap, isn't it? The only real time this card is ever going to be useful is against Big Priest, but even then the Big Priest will just laugh and Spirit Lash your 1/1's away. Bad card, honestly.
Loose Specimen: A 5-mana 6/6 Beast that... deals 6 damage randomly split among
your minions. A 5-mana 6/6 isn't terrible exciting, so the only way this gets played is if the battlecry is used to your advantage. And I guess it's a card that could be used to activate all your Goblin Bombs? For Grim Patron activation? I dunno. Not the best epic card in the set, but not the worst, either.
Harbinger Celestia: The last legendary is Celestia, a 4-mana 5/6 with Stealth. A slightly overstatted minion, awesome!
But Celestia transforms into a copy of whatever minion your opponent plays next. So have fun playing a 4-mana Fire Fly, I guess. I'm not quite sure what this is meant to do, honestly. A 5/6 is a vanilla 5-mana, and for just a mere one mana discount, you basically let your opponent clear this for free? Yes, sometimes your opponent will have no choice but to play a huge minion, but guess what? Your opponent dictates the trades, so even if they're forced to play like a Malygos or something, more likely than not they can remove the transformed Celestia. Bad card, I'd say.
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Quick ratings:
Druid:Yeah, I don't see much of the Treant stuff working out -- not that they're bad cards per se, they're just going to be really outclassed by the rest of Druid's awesome stuff and the only real end-game goal for them is the honestly pretty okay Mulchmuncher.... but 'okay' doesn't really cut it for Druid. And they get a lot of really powerful cards in this expansion! Floop, Psychmelon, Biology Project... even if Florist, Gloop and Sprayer don't get to work, they're powerful effects in their own right, really. Easily one of the biggest winners of the set, hands-down. I don't think it's going to be quite as bad as what everyone thinks, but damn if Druid will still hold a strangehold over the top tiers.
- 5: Flobbidinous Floop, Juicy Psychmelon, Biology Project
- 4: Gloop Sprayer, Dreampetal Florist
- 3: Mulchmuncher, Floop's Glorious Gloop
- 2: Tending Tauren, Dendrologist, Landscaping
- 1: N/A
Hunter:Hunter's interesting in that they are trying to promote a mixture of deathrattle hunter and mech hunter. I'm convinced that deathrattle hunter's getting a couple of buffs, although when the dust settles I'm not sure if all the Boomsday Project cards are going to make it into the final iteration of deathrattle hunter. Meanwhile, mech hunter looks all right... I'm just not super convinced that Hunter's two legendaries are any good, is all -- Boommaster Flark is flashy, but could easily whiff. And I'm genuinely not sure with all the Goblin Bombs synergy they seem to have going on. And honestly, I really, really am not sure about a lot of the hunter cards, and I won't be surprised if this is a class I massively rate wrongly.
- 5: N/A
- 4: Necromechanic
- 3: Venomizer, Spider Bomb, Boommaster Flark, Goblin Prank, Flark's Boom-zooka
- 2: Fireworks Tech, Secret Plan, Bomb Toss
- 1: Cybertech Chip
Mage:Definitely unconvinced that the minion hand-mage synergies will work at all. The Spell Damage mechanic they get is... interesting, admittedly, and might work somewhat well, but I'm not quite sure if a proper deck is going to be formed out of this. More likely cards like Cosmic Anomaly end up just getting played without the wacky synergies introduced by this expansion. Worth noting that I genuinely have no idea what to do with Luna or her pocket galaxy, and while they aren't particularly strong in the upcoming Boomsday meta I don't think, they have the potential to suddenly be awesome for sure.
- 5: N/A
- 4: N/A
- 3: Stargazer Luna, Cosmic Anomaly, Shooting Star, Luna's Pocket Galaxy
- 2: Celestial Emissary, Astromancer, Astral Rift, Unexpected Results
- 1: Meteorologist, Research Project
Paladin:Mech Paladin looks great, for sure, and even if the Kangor's Endless Army style of playing combo doesn't work, a swarm style deck is certainly plausible with powerful early game mechs like Glow-Tron. Conversely, there are some completely
bizarre cards introduced in Paladin, like Prismatic Lens and Crystology, which I might just be sleeping on and would turn out to be able to tutor something insane. Crystalsmith Kangor is also maybe a minion that's going to sort of end up like Prince valanar or Wickerflame Burnbristle, a decent, non-game-breaking card that is all right if you get the effect off, but not a super-huge threat. Paladins don't really need a whole lot of help IMO, though.
- 5: N/A
- 4: Glow-Tron
- 3: Kangor's Endless Army, Annoy-o-Module, Mechano-Egg
- 2: Crystalsmith Kangor, Crystology, Prismatic Lens, Shrink Ray
- 1: Autodefense Matrix, Glowstone Technician
Priest:Priest is another huge winner in this one, with a lot of great Deathrattle synergy cards (Reckless Experimenter and Test subject being particularly intriguing). Omega Medic is also a pretty fun card, too, which I've grown to like more and more as time goes on. I'm unconvinced Zerek himself is of any use, and the Cloning Gallery is a card that's just going to be super-awesome or just unplayable. The buff spells are... okay? Can certainly help pad out a possible buff Priest list, although I'm not super convinced they're going to be Tier 1, and Priest will revert back to Inner Fire/Divine Spirit style of buffing minions.
- 5: Reckless Experimenter
- 4: Dead Ringer, Test Subject, Topsy Turvy
- 3: Omega Medic, Zerek's Cloning Gallery
- 2: Zerek Master Cloner, Extra Arms, Power Word: Replicate
- 1: Cloning Device
Rogue:Rogue gets a lot of potentially powerful cards here. Lab Recruiter, a.k.a. Gang Up with legs, is insanely powerful. Academic Espionage lets you roll the dice with potentially devastating results. I'm not sure what deck we'll build with Myra's Unstable Element, but god damn if it's powerful. There are some rather sub-par cards in Rogue's selection, although I've warmed up a little to Myra Rotpsring -- if nothing else, she's a very solid minion on her own and can definitely be slotted into the four slot without much of a fuss. Necrium Blade also ends up impressing me more and more the more I think about it, and we're just waiting for some really good deathrattles to show up.
- 5: Lab Recruiter, Academic Espionage
- 4: Myra's Unstable Element
- 3: Myra Rotspring, Pogo-Hopper, Necrium Blade
- 2: Crazed Chemist
- 1: Blightnozzle Crawler, Necrium Vial, Violet Haze
Shaman:I'm... geniunely not sure about Shaman? Kind of all over the place, with lots of cards that look solid, but I am not sure what deck they fit in. Electra Stormsurge is definitely a powerful card on her own, and with her you can cast a 8-mana double Bloodlust, which is nothing to scoff at. That said, the cheap Overload spells and rushing-Spark synergy don't really look good for me, although I do think that it sort of helps to buff Hagatha spell synergies somewhat. Overall, though, nothing super-duper impressive, I feel.
- 5: N/A
- 4: Electra Stormsurge
- 3: Menacing Nimbus, Omega Mind, Elementary Reaction, Eureka, The Storm Bringer
- 2: Storm Chaser, Thunderhead, Voltaic Burst
- 1: Beakered Lightning
Warlock:The Soularium is a card that I got slightly caught up in hyping up the discard mechanics, but then i realize it's just as powerful in zoo and aggro warlocks, especially to fetch and dump a lot of small dudes. Warlock has a bit of a weird little hand-buff/clone deal going on, which I'm not sure is going to be good, but seems okay to mess around with. Ultimately, though, I think they intentionally curbed the power level of Warlock because of the reign it's been having since K&C.
- 5: The Soularium
- 4: N/A
- 3: Soul Infusion, Spirit Bomb, Void Analyst
- 2: Ectomancy, Doubling Imp, Omega Agent, Nethersoul Buster, Demonic Project
- 1: Dr. Morrigan
Warrior:The Warrior mech seems pretty powerful, for sure, albeit a bit slow and the individual mechs left me somewhat 'whelmed, but Eternium Rover is a pretty strong 1-mana card, Omega Project is a big value drop, and the titular Dr. Boom giving all mechs rush with a one in five chance of allowing you to discover a mech is really pretty dang powerful. Boomship's also a far more stable legendary spell than Flark's Boomzooka, and I can actually think of some degenerate combos to do with Boomship. The rest of Warrior's loadout isn't even bad, honestly, Supercollider and Rocket Boots aside, although I do think that Mech Warriors will probably want to pull more from neutral cards.
- 5: N/A
- 4: Eternium Rover, Omega Project, The Boomship, Dr. Boom Mad Genius
- 3: Security Rover, Beryllium Nullifier, Weapons Project
- 2: Dyn-o-matic
- 1: Rocket Boots, Supercollider
Neutral:Not much to say -- lots of fun mechs with and without magnetic, all of whom have really funky interactions and keyword combinations. If nothing else, it's definitely going to be fun experimenting with these!
- 5: N/A
- 4: Mecharoo, Upgradeable Framebot, Bronze Gatekeeper, Omega Defender, Giggling Inventor, Wargear, Zilliax
- 3: Faithful Lumi, Skaterbot, Galvanizer, Toxicologist, Augmented Elekk, Spring Rocket, Coppertail Imposter, Rusty Recycler, Mechanical Whelp, Bull Dozer
- 2: Goblin Bomb, Cloakscale Chemist, Kaboom Bot, Microtech Controller, Explodinator, Mecha'thun, Replicating Menace, Steel Rager, Whizzbang the Wonderful, Weaponized Pinata, EMP Operative, Loose Specimen, Seaforium Bomber, Subject 9, Arcane Dynamo, Missile Launcher, Spark Drill
- 1: Harbinger Celestia, Crystallizer, Spark Engine, Unpowered Mauler, Whirliglider, Brainstormer, Electrowright, Piloted Reaper, Holomancer, Damaged Stegotron, Star Aligner
Also, while the Standard meta didn’t really change as much… since slightly prior to the release of Boomsday, I’ve been playing a whole lot of Wild, almost exclusively, since the beginning of Boomsday. And my god it's a lot of fun. It's a whole new meta out there, and as someone who has a not-insignificant portion of the cards in Wild (I'm still missing a huge chunk of TGT and GvG), it's been a blast playing around with old buddies.
And my god there's a lot of insane shit that Druids can do in Wild! In addition to your normal Jade stuff, Wild is also home to a pretty insane combination of Aviana/Kun/some stuff combos. If you think Malygos Druid and Togwaggle Druid are oppressive in Standard... you ain't seen nothing yet. Aviana/Kun/Malygos/Floop is a simple one. Aviana/Kun/Togwaggle/Azalina is perhaps one of the more frustrating yet also challenging ones to fight against. Aviana/Kun/Brann Bronzebeard/Star Aligner/Star Aligner/Floop is a hilarious combo. I'm not even mad, I'm just happy Star Aligner found a home somewhere. And the fact that cards like Dirty Rat is still around in Wild actually gives me a way to fight against these sort of combo-centric decks, especially if they don't have any other end-game. I don't think I've ever seen the Treant package, and it really seems that Biology Project is the real big winner for Druid. Floop's not bad, though, and I've seen Psychmelon and Florist every now and then.
Hunter's... Hunter's mostly the same, although I did see a lot of experimentation with aggro mech hunter and deathrattle hunter, I don't think either are super-good. None are bad, though, it's just that there's a lot of better cards out there. I've seen a lot of attempts at making the Goblin Bomb style of Hunter work, but other than aggro mech with Explodinator, I don't think Flark really ended up working. Fun that Explodinator ended up being somewhat great, though. Definitely slept on that card, but turns out that all Hunter needed was a full-board buff, which it has in Wild with Metaltooth Leaper and Feign Death. Not the best cards, but definitely okay.
Paladins.... I haven't actually seen a lot of Paladins since I entered the Rank 5 batch. Below that, Odd Paladin is insanely powerful, with the addition of TGT/GVG-era cards like Quartermaster and Warhorse Trainer really buffing it up. But I think it's just too reliant on swarming the board, and on higher ladder it just didn't manage to be that powerful. I don't think I've ever seen Mech Paladin and neither of the Kangor cards in Wild ladder, though.
Rogue's still pretty fun. Odd Rogue's still top dog, and there are some truly degenerate Kingsbane/Mill variants of Rogue in Wild. I've seen a lot of fun variations of Rogue, though... Pogo-Hopper made it into a real deck, which I adore, and a variation of Deathrattle Rogue with Necrium Blade ended up being pretty dang neat in both Standard and Wild. I've been actually getting a pretty decent winrate with Deathrattle Rogue, although, again, Wild has a fair bit more choices for Deathrattle decks. One of my first legendary pulls from Boomsday is Myra Rotspring, which is... perfectly serviceable as a decent card in Deathrattle and Odd decks, if not as powerful as your Ragnaros or Sylvanas.
Warlock's as powerful as ever in Wild. Zoo's tearing up Standard, as I get it, but in Wild, various versions of Warlock -- Control, Reno, Cube... Warlock's easily one of Hearthstone's most powerful classes right now, and I've never really realized just how utterly powerful Voidcaller and Mal'Ganis are with all the new tools that Warlock got in the past couple of expansions. You think K&C-era Cube Warlock is powerful? Yeah, go whine about your Voidlords; Wild's got Mal'Ganises dropping in to buff all those little demons alongside the Voidlords and Doomguards. Soularium (which I don't have, sadly) is utterly insane in Zoo. I opened Dr. Morrigan and every time I tried to use her she fails, and the only time I ever actually won thanks to Dr. Morrigan was when I played Cube Warlock and a Voidlord was devolved into Morrigan, who proceeded out to pull out the rest of my demons.
Warrior's... Warrior's fun, if nothing else. I crafted the Dr. Boom hero card day one, cracked open a Zilliax, and did not regret it. Control mech Warrior isn't the most powerful archetype, but it's definitely an insanely fun deck to play with, and I've actually even found a home for good old Geosculptor Yip -- in a control deck that will add 7 armour when it becomes a hero, suddenly having an engine that creates 8/8's and the odd 12/12's ends up being pretty dang good. It's one of the most fun decks to play, even if it doesn't quite have the highest win-rate.
