Hearthstone: Frozen Throne Card Reveals, Part 1

 So we've finally reached the 24th of July, and we're starting the ticker-feed of Knights of the Frozen Throne card reveals. So bear with me for a little, because I'm going to try to review most of these cards strictly from a 'first impressions' standpoint. As usual, first impression reviews tend to be mistaken (whoever thought mr. Patches was going to be meta defining?) but hey, here goes!

[This got accidentally taken down yesterday. I've since updated it with the cards up to the Sindragosa reveal, so yep. Because I haven't reviewed the first five cards, I talk about them a little at the end of this.]

Ticking Abomination:
The first card revealed is this handsome dude, the Ticking Abomination. Pretty flavourful card, of course, lore-wise. Abominations are central to the undead armies ever since Warcraft III, and while World of Warcraft's Northrend content did add several upgraded vesions of the Abomination like the Flesh Giants, Flesh Titans and their kin, the abominations still are one of the more iconic designs of Warcraft's undead forces. Being a ticking time-bomb is also for the norm for abominations. The Ticking Abomination is cute, but probably not super-good. It's a 5/6 for 4 mana, a good one mana less than the statline deserves. But just like most highly-statted-for-its-cost fellows, its deathrattle deals 5 damage to all your minions. It's pretty damning because it Flamestrikes your own board (nay, even worse) so using this in aggro or midrange decks is definitely out. And I don't think even N'Zoth decks want this around because if it dies it kind of, y'know, nukes your own board. Like, there's obviously the ideal bit of you killing the Ticking Abomination and killing a Sylvannas Windrunner on your side, but then what about Standard? I don't think you want N'Zoth to bring this dude back, right? I dunno. Highly-statted minions will find a way to be used (look at Humongous Razorleaf!) so maybe some decks that don't use a lot of minions like Priest or Mage might use the Abomination? But then Priests and Mage have their share of minions and so I don't think a 4-mana 5/6 is going to make a huge difference. It's a cool-designed card, but I don't really think this dude's going to see a ton of play even in Arena. Not the best way to start your trickle-down reveal of cards, I'm afraid.


Plague Scientist:
Giving a friendly minion Poisonous is amazing. The thing with giving a friendly minion poisonous is that you essentially slap on a removal for free by, well, essentially giving the poisonous effect charge, if that makes sense. And it's got a kick-ass looking card art (as far as undead gnomes go) and it's in Rogue, so it's a neat flavour bit. And yeah, it's got a stat penalty, a 3-mana 2/3, but surely a 1-mana removal card is worth something? Well, in addition to requiring you to already have another minion on the field, Plague Scientist is also a Combo card. Which means that the setup you need for Plague Scientist to work -- a card to Combo with, plus a minion on the field that you then have to run to whatever you want to destroy -- is a bit too steep, perhaps. Out of the cards revealed on the first day Plague Scientist is certainly the best out of the bunch, but it's certainly not constructed-level viable, I don't think. Vilespine Slayer is a high-costed combo card, too, but it just straight-up murders a minion. Plague Scientist is perhaps comparable to Crackling Razormaw, who doesn't have a stat penalty but only works on beasts and only gives poisonous one out of three times. On the other hand, the Razormaw's flexibility and lack of setup or stat drops outweighs its unreliability for a poisonous effect. Plague Scientist is a very cool concept, don't get me wrong, but I just feel that he demands too much -- from the mana cost to the combo -- for something that's not that easy to deliver.


Ice Breaker
But that doesn't compare to Icce Breaker over here. It's a Shaman weapon, and, god, it's a shit weapon. It's a 3-mana 1/3, which is disastrous stats. A 1/3 weapon is barely decent for 1-mana, and even then 1/3 weapons usually come bundled with a body (N'Zoth's First Mate) or the possibility of raising its attack value (Spirit Claws) and costs far, far less than 3 mana. What does Ice Breaker's effect do? It destroys any minion. Cool, removal! Not really, because the minion in question has to be frozen to be destroyed by the weapon. Why in god's name would you rather use Ice Breaker rather than Hex to remove a minion, I can't say. Like, first, you have to freeze the minion in question, and Shaman's got, what, a grand total of one card, Frost Shock, to do it? Frost Elemental from the neutrals? And then you have to run your face towards that minion, and the whole point of removal is to avoid it killing your face. Sure, you can use, oh, Violet Illusionist to negate the damage to your face if you're that kind of super-convoluted player, but on the other hand that's one charge of the Ice Breaker used. How likely is it for the Ice Breaker's other two charges for removal to be triggered? How likely is it that you have both Frost Shocks and both Frost Elementals in your hand? Not very. And while this does mean that the expansion's probably going to feature a bunch of frost spells for Shaman, the Ice Breaker's still a pretty crap weapon. I mean, Envenom Weapon never saw play outside of Arena, and it's far, far easier to get the effect off compared to Ice Breaker. I dunno. Seems terrible, until proven otherwise.

Blood-Queen Lana'thel
Man, Warlocks can't catch a break, right? Unless the expansion gives us a hell lot of great discard synergy cards (and considering the pretty decent-on-paper Lakkari Felhound, Lakkari Sacrifice and Clutchmother Zavas turned out to be unplayable) Blood-Queen Lana'thel won't break Warlock's streak of crap legendaries since Wilfred Fizzlebang. It's not just me, right? Like, I took a look at the card, smiled when I saw the cool-looking vampire banshee blood elf that is Blood Queen Lana'thel, saw the effect and did a quick double-take. 5-mana with Lifesteal, okay, and she has... +1 Attack to her 1/6 statline for each card you've discarded this game? So assuming you wait until you discard, like, six cards -- the requirement for the Warlock quest -- Lana'thel is a mere 7/6 with lifesteal. Doesn't seem to be super exciting at all for the amount of work you put into her, especially considering that you might very well accidentally discard Lana'thel herself during the process of getting to the point of playing her. Yeah, you could play her earlier, but a 5-mana 3/6 or 4/6 Lifesteal doesn't seem to be super-insane at all. On top of that, Lana'thel isn't a demon, so she doesn't interact at all with any of the demon-buffing cards, leaving her entirely dependent on the discard mechanic (or the odd Abusive Sergeant) to make her work. Unlike Alley Armorsmith, it doesn't even have Taunt to force your enemies to trade into her. Like, sure, it maybe buys the Warlock a turn. Like... I dunno. I guess I'm just super-disillusioned with Warlock at this point? Especially with super-crap cards like Feeding Time and Bloodbloom in the last expansion? Here's hoping that if they do decide to go with Discard as a mechanic to promote this expansion, they'll introduce some cards to level the playing field. I mean, Mages get things like Primordial Glyphs and they're fine, right? Give Gul'dan some love! For now she's bad, but we haven't seen most of the expansion. So. Like Ice Breaker, Lana'thel is terrible until proven otherwise.

Blood Razor
What a cool card! Knights of the Frozen Throne is plagued with pretty underwhelming card reveals ever since its very first trailer, and Blood Razor is honestly the first card outside of Deathstalker Rexxar to make me go, 'huh, that's actually pretty cool and I can probably use it'. It's a 2/2 weapon lumped with two Whirlwind effects, and it costs 4 mana. In an ideal world it'd probably be a 3/2 weapon, but Warriors have enough 3/2's as it is already, and the relative convenience of having an effect be lumped in battlecry and deathrattle has long been proven by the likes of Aya Blackpaw and Toshley. And Warriors do like to deal 1 damage to all minions. I honestly just think of how this is Death's Bite on steroids, and how fun it would be to try and revive Grim Patron Warrior in Wild. In standard its applications thin a little, I think. Enrage Warrior isn't going to be a thing, but it certainly looks like it could be deccent paired with things like Bloodhoof Brave. Certainly a lot more usable than stuff like, oh, Ticking Abomination or Blood Queen Lana'thel.

Prince Taldaram
Taldaram is like, Keleseth's buddy, a fellow member of the darkfallen court or something. He's a neutral legendary, a 3-mana 3/3 that's another weird buildaround card. this time, Taldaram doesn't want you to play 3-cost cards, which I think is a lot more forgiving than Keleseth. But his effect isn't as game-breaking as Keleseth's Mistcaller-style deck-buffing effects,  but rather he simply... transforms into a copy of a minion? A 3/3 copy? Assuming it's a minion on the battlefield, it's honestly a fair bit impractical -- like a worse Faceless Manipulator, right? What do I want to turn him into? Like, sure, a 3/3 Tirion Fordring's cool, but I'd rather have the turtles that can produce more actual Tirion Fordrings. Or like a Malygos's cool, but Shadowcaster or Faceless Manipulator can make extra Malygoses without going through the hoops that Taldaram asks me to. Briefly mentally going through my heads, there are some classes that don't use a lot of 3-drops in standard, and honestly some others can have 3-drop cards wiggled out of them... but is it worth it? The condition might be easier to accomplish compared to Keleseth or the Reno gang, and some people are throwing out Blood of the Ancient One decks which sounds fun if nothing else, but at the same time... eh. Another disappointing legendary. Come on, Blizzard -- you're supposed to excite the customers early on to get them to pre-order!

Nerubian Unraveler
Nerubians! This one uses the artwork of Killix the Unraveler from the old WoW TCG, I believe. It's actually a pretty interesting card, and one that I'll probably experiment with. It's our first anti-spell card since... since motherfucking Loatheb, man. Such a great card, that Loatheb. The Nerubian Unraveler isn't as powerful as Loatheb in terms of spell-disabling, giving them a 2-mana mark-up compared to Loatheb's 5, but the Unraveler's effect is continuous as long as he's on the field. And unlike some of the other cards on this review, the downside... isn't that much of a downside. A 6-mana 5/5 is... fair-ish, I guess, for a non-legendary with this effect? Certainly could shut down some mages and priests that rely heavily on spells. Like, all classes could use spells, sure, but some less so than others. I've played some Hunter decks with only like two Kill Commands as spells, or Paladins with only Consecrations as spells. Unraveler does not look game-breaking, but it certainly looks playable. Just probably won't going to see as much as play as Loatheb did in the past.

Mountainfire Armor
Also definitely playable is Mountainfire Armor. He's a 3-mana 4/3, which is fine and dandy for a 3-mana card, and it's our next Deathrattle card. 4/3 with a deathrattle, gain 6 armour? Amazing value! Of course, there's the minor inconvenience that Mountainfire Armour has to die during your opponent's turn, which might cause you to lose value if you're forced to trade this away, but honestly it's a pretty neat card design and one that I can totally see being played. It's definitely great in arena, I can tell you that much, and in constructed... taunt and aggro warrior in their current forms don't need this card at all, but at the same time we haven't seen a lot of the Warrior kit, so whatever new deck is formed, Mountainfire Armor actually looks good enough to be put into a couple of them. N'Zoth Warrior perhaps? Like, I wouldn't mind having an extra 4/3 show up... It's a pretty cool card that's going to deter enemies from trading or removing it, and that allows for some extra flexibility on your part. Not a super-duper awesome card, I don't think, but another one that looks at least playable.

Professor Putricide
Huh, I wouldn't have pegged Putricide as a Hunter legendary. Like Lana'thel, Professor Putricide is one of the bosses of the Icecrown Citadel raid, which means that the rest of that bunch (Sindragosa, Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Deathbringer Saurfang) are going to be the other class legendaries. That's fine, I guess. And, I mean, can't think of a powerful Icecrown Citadel themed beast on the top of my head. Instead of adapting Putricide's WoW boss fight mechanics, though, Putricide copies his similar-looking minion Mad Scientist's effect. Except on steroids, becuase, y'know, Putricide's WoW model is the Mad Scientist model, but mutated horribly. Putricide's a 4-mana 5/4, again, fair stats, with the continuous effect of after you play a secret, Putricide puts one up for free. It suddenly makes Secret Hunter look so, so damn powerful. One of the biggest weakness back in Karazhan when I tried out Cloaked Huntress decks is that, sure, the Secrets are free, but then my hand's left with like one card for the next turn and that sucks. Putricide allows you to benefit from whether you'd like to put the secrets up one by one, or all at once -- whatever the case he simply doubles your value by summoning random secrets out of thin air and activating it. Is it going to be super-good? It's going to see play, is what I think, and honestly even without the other new Hunter cards (there gotta be a new secret in there, right?) Putricide looks pretty playable. Probably not OP, though.


Ghastly Conjurer
Awesome artwork! The Ghastly Conjurer is our first Mage card reveal, I think. She's a 4-mana 2/6... that adds a Mirror Image to your hand. It's not a bad card, just not quite constructed-level viable, I think. Like, a 2/6 for a 4-mana card that draws you a card from outside your deck isn't bad stats at all. Like, it's sort of comparable to Babbling Book... yet at the same time, instead of the versatility and randomness of Babbling Book (most of the time you kinda want burst damage) the Ghastly Conjurer only adds a mere mirror image. And do you really want that? It's thankfully not a Deathrattle like Rhonin was, which means the effect is immediate, but at the same time why would you want a Mirror Image? I guess it could be used to activate the Mage Quest reliably since it's a card that didn't start in your deck and also very cheap, or a card that can reliably trigger Archmage Antonidas without it having to start in your hand. It's kind of like a less conditional Steam Surger, except instead of the Flame Geyser it adds Mirror Image. Mind you, the Geyser deals actual damage, so I'm not sure how good this will be. My guess is that it's decent as an alternative card to put in quest-centric or control-centric mage decks, but probably won't see a lot of play outside arena unless there's some really cool shenanigans with upcoming cards.

Sindragosa
Another class legendary, another Icecrown Citadel raid. Sindragosa is the queen of the Frost Wyrms, former consort to Malygos, and that kickass giant Frost Wyrm that Arthas resurrected in the very awesome Wrath of the Lich King cinematic trailer released however many years ago (and still one of Blizzard's best cinematics IMO). Her Legendary card is given to Mage, and she's actually kind of like Mage's last Legendary card, Pyros, where it's just a general-utility great Legendary minion that doesn't actually need a specific deck like Putricide or Lana'thel or the two Darkfallen princes. Sindragosa is an 8-mana 8/8, a fair statline for a big minion, and as a battlecry she summons two 0/1 Frozen champions. Frozen champions are 0/1 that adds a random legendary to your hand as a deathrattle, which in mage is highly easy to do. Hero power's the obvious thing, of course, but also Volcanic Potion, a card that saw some marginal play for a cheap, smaller board-wipe. It also is a bit of a AoE deterrant in a sense, while still being fair because it doesn't just summon a random legendary minion but adds it to your hand. It's like a slower, less damage-spammy version of Dr. Boom in a sense. Before you ask, no, putting Ticking Abomination for the sole purpose of triggering the frozen champions is a stupid idea. Other full-board AoE cards like Primordial Drake, Wild Pyromaner or even regular Abomination is so, so much better. Also feel like I have to mention the N'Zoth interaction, even if it's not the best card to bring back with N'Zoth. Also Sindragosa is a dragon, which means it can be fetched by Curator -- though I personally don't really see Curator Mage decks happening. It's a slow card, that's for sure, which hurts her a fair bit. Overall probably not an auto-include card, but still actually a card I won't mind having or crafting. I dunno. I kinda have a soft spot for big, undead dragons, I guess? Chillmaw now has a buddy to hang out with.

Leeching Potion
2 mana, give your weapon lifesteal? For this, I'll be succinct and simple -- give us the strong weapons you promised when you nerfed Blade Flurry, Blizzard! What the hell am I supposed to lifesteal with, a 1/2 weapon? 2 mana deal restore 2 health over 2 turns? Yeah, I'd rather play that silly bartender tauren from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, thank you very much. Sure, Rogue needs recovery because it's so damn fragile without Antique Healbot, but a lifesteal weapon? Come on. Warriors keep getting cool weapons, where's my cool super-speedy powerful rogue dagger? Plus, weapon-buff cards are kinda-sorta weak because an all-purpose anti-weapon counter card called the Acidic Swamp Ooze exists. Like, sure, you could make your Assassin's Blade have Lifesteal and Poisonous and be buffed to huge amounts -- doesn't matter, Ooze. Not a very impressive card, and also not very interseting to talk about.

Chillblade Champion
So I'm going to go through the first five cards revealed during the original reveal stream, which I felt were super-underwhelming, coupled with the first reviews in the 24th being relative crap like Ticking Abomination and Icebreaker.... Chillblade Champion isn't super bad, though. On paper, he's kind of like Truesilver Champion. 4-mana card that does immediate damage and heals. Except Chillblade Champion's a minion, so he doesn't acctually only have two charges, but can probably hit and heal for far more than that. As Wickerflame Burnbristle has proven, something that hits and heals is fully capable of healing your hero to full health if not removed, and Paladin has a crapton of healing effects at its fingertips in Standard at this point in time. Even as a card that trades immediately upon being summoned, Chillblade Champion still probably trades up and removes something while healing your hero for 3 health, which isn't that bad. Assuming it dies by direct trading in the following turn, you get an extra 3 health. If it survives, it can heal you for more. Chillblade Champion isn't the best card ever, but it's certainly a pretty cool common.


Deathstalker Rexxar
Deathstalker Rexxar is the first of our hero cards. Hero cards are cards that we play, and do like a Jaraxxus or Executus effect... except they aren't minions that can accidentally be pulled into the field. I think they're immune to crap like Counterspell as well? Regardless, though, Deathstalker Rexxar turns Rexxar into a zombie! It costs 6 mana to zombify Rexxar, and in addition to 5 extra armour, Deathstalker Rexxar deals 2 damage to all enemy minions as a battlecry. Which probably isn't super-great at turn 6, but at least that means you're doing something on turn 6 when you're just transforming -- you gain armour, and you deal damage. It's not a terrible battlecry considering one of Jaraxxus's biggest weakness is that the first turn that you turn into Jaraxxus you don't do anything but trade with the 3-attack weapon. You also get a brand-new hero power, the Build-a-Beast, where you make a new Zombeast card. It kinda works similarly to Kazakus, except you discover two beasts. I think the beasts you discover must be less than 5 mana, so no Savannah Highmanes here... and I think the pools are slightly different, with the first having more text and the second being filled with vanilla or single-keyword cards, but still... this means you can make things like a Vicious Fledgling with instant-charge by combining it with Stonetusk Boar. Hell, anything combined with Stonetusk Boar, or Young Dragonhawk, or Jungle Panther, simply just gets Charge, Windfury or Stealth for free and there are some pretty gross combinations out there. Of course, this hero power is absurdly slow, especially for a hunter, because you spend 2 mana to build the beast, and then you have to play the initial cost of summoning said beast (the theoretical Stonetusk Fledgling costs 4 mana, for example, which isn't bad, but that's if you strike gold). Ultimately I honestly don't think Deathstalker Rexxar is going to be the best hero card out there, but it does certainly look relatively fun.


Shallow Gravedigger
This card's... okay? It feels more like an arena card, and it's like a reverse-Netherspite Historian, but for deathrattles. It's a 3/1 for 3 mana, but it adds a card only upon dying. It's kind of like Journey Below slapped onto a body, except that a 3/1 isn't super-duper great. It's okay for a minion you're expecting to die, but at the same time you're just feeding 3 mana to get pinged down. It's not the worst thing ever becasue we've had cards like Shimmering Tempest whose function is only to die to add cards to your hand, but I honestly don't think this card is that good. It might see some play in like Quest/N'Zoth Priest thing, but outside of that I find it hard to think that this card's going to see much play. The fact that it's random makes it a lot less viable than other cards like, say, Netherspite Historian. Not a super-big fan, though certainly far better than crap like, well, Ice Breaker.

Spirit Lash
It's Arcane Explosion, but with Lifesteal! What makes the Lifesteal keyword different than, say, Holy Nova or Drain Life is that the life-stolen damage is boosted by Spell Damage. Which is pretty cool. Hallazeal-boosted spells are amazing if hard to pull off, and the reliability of that effect on a single card makes Spirit Lasha lot better than it initially seems. Maelstrom Portal, after all, sees a fair amount of play, but I'm just not sure if the lifesteal will matter all that much on the second turn. Boosted with Bloodmage Thalnos on a subsequent turn it might be decent, but I kind of think that the combination of Lifesteal and a low-cost, low-impact spell isn't the most exciting thing out there. Not a bad card to print, I must say, but not a very exciting one either.

Prince Keleseth
I actually think Prince Keleseth is better than his brother Taldaram, but not by a big margin. The thing is, though, instead of being a shittier Faceless Manipulator, Keleseth's effect of giving all minions in your deck +1/+1, basically Mistcaller's effect, is a lot more valuable than Taldaram. Keleseth himself isn't too badly undercosted like Mistcaller was, a 2-mana 2/2 that boosts cards in your deck isn't horrible, and hitting all minions gives so much more value compared to Hobart Grapplehammer's all weapons. The thing that makes me frown about Keleseth is that, well, what it asks for you is way, way too steep. The idea of not having a single card of a certain cost in your deck is interesting, but 2-mana is one of the most important costs in your deck, and there are some classes whose best cards are there. Druids cannot live without Wild Growth and Wrath. Warriors have Fiery War Axe and Execute. Shamans have Flametongue Totems, Maelstrom Portals, Jade Claws and Devolves. Mages have Primordial Glyphs, Pyros, Sorcerer's Apprentices and Frostbolts. Hunters have all their traps, plus some premium turn-2 beasts like Kindly Grandmother and Crackling Razormaw. Paladins have Hydrologists. Rogues have Eviscerate and Undercity Hucksters. Priests, despite its no-good-2-drop meme, have the all-essential Shadow Word: Pain and the new Radiant Elementals. Warlocks have Dark Peddlers. Admittedly, though, a lot of these are less essential than others. I cannot ever see Mages, Shamans or Druids play a keleseth deck, but you can kinda force Paladins, Rogues and Warlocks to try to live without their 2-mana cards. They're all pretty great with minion-based decks, too, though that does mean no Murlocs for Paladins, while Warlocks cannot run the traditional Zoolock style with Doomsayers and Dire Wolves. Some people suggested playing Keleseth in a Quest Hunter deck... which might actually work! Especially after Queen Carnassa gets dropped onto the field. A swarm of endless 4/3's is a lot scarier than 3/2's. If Blizzard wants to print a weird card, print more cards like Keleseth that gets my head thinking to build a deck, don't make things like Lana'thel or Taldaram where the effect isn't worth meeting the absurd requirements at all.

Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne!

 YES

Thank you, Blizzard.

(Here is the announcement trailer if you missed it)

TL;DR, Frozen Throne hype!

Just look at that artwork! Look at them Death Knights! Jaina with Frostmourne and that fancy staff and purple hair and decayed lips; screeching-wailing-shadow-demon Anduin; Gul'dan with demonic wings and a gigantic scythe; Valeera's Sylvannas cosplay; motherfuckin' Uther with his ice hammer and Death Knight armour; zombie Rexxar with glowing green stuff; Thrall with elemental lightning and ice swirling around him; icy-stag-horn Malfurion with that bad-ass ice Wolverine thing going on; Garrosh... gets an icified Gorehowl.

So yeah, a Frozen Throne themed expansion is something most people were excited for (especially when TGT didn't actually touch a lot on the whole undead Scourge deal and focused more on the tournament), and as a big Warcraft III fan I certainly count myself among them. Like, Dalaran or wherever's cool, but Arthas! Please and thank you. And one of the big questions is how are they going to incorporate the Death Knights -- a tenth class, or something else? Well, it appears 'something else' is right, because we're getting Hero Cards. It's going to represent our heroes being transformed into undead, somewhat similar to the likes of the effects of Lord Jaraxxus except you can't Dirty Rat these heroes. We get to see one, Deathstalker Rexxar. It costs 6 mana to cast and transform yourself into this zombie Rexxar, but you get 5 armour, and you have the battlecry of dealing 2 damage to all enemy minions... and Rexxar's hero power becomes 'Build a Beast', basically similar to Kazakus but you stitch two beasts together to literally combine them into a custom creature. It's pretty cool, that's for sure.

We don't have any confirmed Lich King cards just yet, but the game makers did hint at Arthas a lot, so I'm pretty sure if he's in the game in this new hero system, he'll be a neutral legendary hero. Maybe. Can't lie, I'm a little bummed we're not getting a proper Death Knight class, but this certainly looks like an awesome alternative.

Also people were begging for an undead tribe? Not yet, it seems, but eh, no big loss -- there are way, way more undead cards than elementals and trying to make the older cards balanced is definitely going to be tricky.

I'm also quite happy that they still treat the whole Lich King/Icecrown thing with a modicum of respect and not turn it into, say, disco Karazhan (which worked for that expansion, mind you, but not so much for Icecrown) and while it has its own spin on the whole Death Knight thing to make it uniquely Hearthstone-y, it's still stays relatively true to the original themes people were super-excited about.

Also, we're getting one of the heroes for free if you play through the single-mission content, basically an Adventure Mode that goes through WoW's Icecrown Citadel. Hopefully the bosses will show up on cards, too -- Sindragosa at least I hope gets turned into a card, but Brode did rattle off Blood Queen Lana'thel, Lord Marrowgar, Putricide and a bunch of others so I'm sure they'll show up in some form or other -- I'm pretty sure Marrowgar and Sindragosa showed up in the trailer too. And the fact that we have a story mode fills me with happiness!

We get four cards revealed, with more Deathrattle synergies promised (I'll do a proper card review post once we actually have more than five cards) with this Shallow Gravedigger fellow. Also, we get to see a neutral legendary, Prince Keleseth, a boss in WoW's Utgarde Keep who's got a weird deck-restriction effect -- at first glance he looks like a better-statted Mistcaller but I'm not sure if building a deck without 2-cost cards is worth putting him in.

We also get a new keyword! Everyone likes keywords, right? Lifesteal is our new keyword, and we kind of already have it in Wickerflame Burnbristle (when this minion deals damage, heal that much to your hero). Lifesteal also shows up in spells, which is similar to many other Priest cards (Holy Fire, etc) and Hallazeal the Ascended's effect (I reckon he's going to be rewritten into 'your spell cards have Lifesteal' or something). It's not that hard to tell how good this mechanic will be, I think -- the Priest spell Spirit Lash is cute but doesn't look to be super-good, while Chillblade Champion, a 4-mana 3/2 Lifesteal Charger, doesn't look to be amazing either -- though definitely a decent arena card. It's at first glance, mind you, so maybe I'm super wrong.

Regardless, Death Knights! Undead! Great artwork! I'm super excited ,that's for sure. Bring on the card reveals!

What else can we see in the ticker of cards at the beginning of the trailer? A Crypt Lord, maybe a new Anub'arak card? A golden-winged Val'kyr, a Blood Elf Death Knight (one of the three princes in Icecrown maybe) and the Dovahkiin using Fus Ro Dah a Death Knight with a horned helmet.... and a Furbolg with a shark's head strapped on as a mask. If any of you are too concerned that we're going to dark, there you go. Shark-headed Furbolg.

Also if you've been out from Hearthstone for a while, log in and do your quests. We're having a Ragnaros-themed double gold event thing going on.

I'm going back to my brand-new Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If there's a decrease in the amoutn of articles in this month blame that thing.

Hearthstone News: Rogue Quest Nerf, Legendary Distributions & Announcement of an Announcement

 It's been a busy couple of weeks for Hearthstone. I've not really been playing all that much, being content with just mucking around in the wild ladder and grinding Arena for gold and packs... but not opening them at all. Because there are a fair amount of game-changing things that are coming to Hearthstone.

Fuck this guy, really

Also, July 6th is the next expansion announcement, which some people are saying that it might be called "Return of the Lich King" which I will get super excited for and I do like that unlike Un'Goro the name of the expansion isn't spoiled like three months in advance so there's some degree of uncertainty to it all.

First up is the slightly older news that as with the upcoming expansion, you'll never, ever get a duplicate legendary in your pack, ever again. It cross-checks with your collection, and I appreciate this so much. As someone who got a Tirion in a pack after he crafted it, two Yogg-Sarons in a row, and also got three Hobart Grapplehammers and two Wickerflame Burnbristles out of the Gadgetzan packs, I'm a big fan of this change. It also means that getting Nat Pagle and Captain Greenskin relatively recently in Classic packs means that they will not show up in any more packs I open so yay for that! Oh, and with all new expansions, you're guaranteed a legendary card within your first 10 packs before the traditional pity timer sets in. Yay!

Also a small and slightly less relevant change is that you'll never roll three of the same card in the same pack, which is mostly relevant for common cards.

Thank you, Blizzard. This means I have to hold on to the packs I got from Arena and Tavern Brawl recently, because I'll wait until the guaranteed 'no duplicate legendaries' patch sets in so I won't get those duplicate Ozruks or Nat Pagles.

The next big change is news of an upcoming balance change, which will nerf quest rogue. You need five to trigger the quest instead of four, which I think is still fair! I personally don't think quest rogue is as problematic as some of the older cards they nerfed, but nerfing it before it gets too out of hand (maybe whatever next expansion will have really strong cards that the deck can abuse?) is definnitely a smart move to do. And I do love the fact that the nerf doesn't actually kill the quest card. It's still playable and in my opinion it's still good (if it were six cards, or if the minions became 4/4's or something, I think the card would be dead) just less flexible and a lot trickier than it was before.

So yeah, really liking this. We'll see what the next expansion is, and I'm surprised it's so early on -- Un'Goro might be my favourite expansion in that I didn't feel the brain-dead boredom that I did naer the end of the Gadgetzan and Karazhan expansions.

Hearthstone: Un'Goro Reveals, the Final Stream: Class Cards

 Class cards now! We'll go in order. Brief talk about elementals and whatnot below, too.

EDIT: Because I'm not making an additional post for it, enjoy the final part of E. Malone and Professor Doyle's journey. The video gave us a downer ending with a meteor coming down to murder them, but the journals actually expanded a lot on their journey to befriend the Tol'vir and Saurok, activate the Way Gate, hang out with Megafin and Umbra's tribe, and going through the Way Gate back into the present day. Yay!


Jungle Giants/Barnabus the Stomper
The giant who's carrying a community of Murlocs and Tortollans on his back, Barbabus is the Quest reward for Druids. The Druids' Quest is actually relatively simple, especially for Druids -- summon five minions with five or more attack, which honestly isn't that hard to do. Yes, Ragnaros and Sylvannas leaving the metagame does make Druids lose two of the best minions with more than 5 attack, but it's summon. So yes, it's a Quest that works well with the Jade Golems, though Barbabus himself doesn't really work with the Jade Golem game plan. We do get a couple of great minions that work with the Jungle Giants Quest -- Tortollan Forager, Giant Anaconda, Shellshifter -- and reducing every single minion in your deck to zero? Jeez, that's an even more powerful battlecry than Aviana or Astral Communion! And Druids already have a fair amount of powerful minions at their disposal, too. Cenarius, Kun the Forgotten King, Aya Blackpaw, Ancient of War, Tyrantus... jeez, this quest is just pretty damn good, and the fact that it can synergize very well with Jade makes me actually more than a little scared with how powerful Druid might get in the future. It's easily one of the more flexible and powerful quests with a pretty insane reward. Because, shit, free gigantic minions. Yes, the quest is probably going to take slightly longer to play, but Adapt and new cards like Shellshifter really make completing the quest relatively easier than you'd think. And all you need is five, jeez.

Tyrantus
Tyrantus is... much maligned by the community when he came out, for relatively good reason. He's the Druid Legendary, and all he does is a giant beatstick. Tyrantus is a 10-mana 12/12 (Deathwing's stats) with the Fairy Dragon's spellproof ability, and while he's honestly not horrible... what are you going to do with it? Like, there's no real situation where Tyrantus is better than the Jade Golems, and while spellproof is a decent ability to have, preventing Tyrantus from being Hex'd, unlike Soggoth the Slitherer (a card I love, but doesn't see a ton of play) he doesn't even have the Taunt to make him an immediate threat for your enemy. Plus the addition of a lot of Taunts and Poisonous minions in this set, and Tyrantus gets less and less appealing. Like, even when Barnabus has been played, or if you need a big minion to help fill out the quest, or even a big beast, there's always a better minion to play with. Again, he's not horrible, but when is Tyrantus better to play than, say, other big Druid legendaries like Cenarius or Kun? He's a giant beatstick, that's for sure, but cards like Y'Shaarj, both Deathwings or C'Thun are also giant beatsticks that have additional effects.

Shellshifter
Shellshifter is another 'Druid of the X' style cards, where he's a 4-mana that either becomes a 5/3 Stealth or 3/5 Taunt. So either a Sen'jin Shieldmasta, or a slightly more powerful Jungle Panther. What's more important is that Druids get to play a 5-attack card as early as turn four, easily fulfilling a part of the quest's requirements. Shellshifter is a better Druid of the Flame, simply because it's not just 5/3 or 3/5, but actually gets keywords on top of it that makes it a lot better than just a vanilla minion with stats swapped around.

Giant Anaconda
Snakes! The Anaconda is a 7-mana 5/3 Beast, that as a Deathrattle summons another 5-attack-or-more minion from your hand. So if your Quest isn't complete by turn seven, the Giant Anaconda makes sure to tick two of the five minions you need to summon. Yes, a 5/3 is shit to summon on turn 7, but the Anaconda is just there to die. It's a bit of an expensive tempo loss, but the chance of summoning huge Y'Shaarj's or Soggoths or Tyrantuses from your hand is just amazing. Personally I'm not 100% sure if this snake is actually super good, since some of the >5 attack cards like Ancient of War do need battlecries to go off, but still.

Earthen Scales
A spell that, for one mana, buffs a minion for +1/+1. Pretty crap, right? Well, not when your hero gains armour equal to the minion's attack. It's a very unconventional way to do both the buffing effect that Druids tend to do while still also gaining armour. It's a pretty interesting spell that, if played on the correct minion like an offensive Shellshifter can give you 6 armor for 1 mana, but when played on things like a Jade Golem, or a C'Thun, it's easily 10+ armour for one mana, which is possibly one of the stronger heal/armour up effects in the game.

Elder Longneck
Well, at least not all the Druid cards are good. Elder Longneck is a 3-mana 5/1 Beast, which is Magma Rager stats. And it adapts if you're holding a minion with >5 attack... but it's still a 5/1 itself. Sure, you can give him +3 Health, making him a 3-mana 5/4, and I suppose Divine Shield isn't bad either, but those are just about the only good adaptation on it. Stealth makes it into a Shadow Rager, I suppose, but practically everything else causes him to die to pings. But, still, it's a 3-mana minion that helps to complete your quest, meaning that if nothing else, even if your Adaptations whizz out he's still a card that helps you complete your quest at an earlier turn. I sound negative, but honestly the Elder Longneck is still a pretty powerful card -- if not individually then in how it helps to round up your quest. Jeez, Druids are getting really good cards this expansion, aren't they, when the worst of their cards is still pretty decent?

Tortollan Forager
One of the better cards that's definitely going into your Quest Druid decks is Tortollan Forager, who is a 2-mana 2/2 that discovers a minion with more than 5 attack. Generally, minions with more than 5 attack are good! And Druid's actually got a decent selection of minions with huge attacks. Cenarius, Ancient of War, Dark Arakkoa, Kun, Verdant Longneck... hell, Ancient of Lore, Tyrantus, Menagerie Warden and Ironbark Protector honestly aren't bad discoveries too. I guess Elder Longneck is the one poop discovery in all of this, but still, discover means that you get to choose. And that's not counting all the great neutral huge-attack minions either. It's definitely a card that you'll see a lot in Quest Druid decks, that's for sure.

Dinomancy
Do you want to deal 2 damage to the face and buff your minion at the same time? Look no further than Dinomancy, which seems to be one of the better and more fun Hunter cards, and one that actually looks like it's going to be a pretty decent card. Dinomancy, for 2 mana, transforms your hero power into 'buff a Beast for +2/+2'. Which is just insane! In addition to potentially still dealing 2 damage to your enemy's face, the damage stacks as permanent buffs for your minions if your enemy has no way to remove them. It's actually a decent card to play in any Beast deck, and it'll actually help your fragile 1-mana minions in a Quest Hunter deck survive. Yes, you do lose the tempo for the 2 mana you use to play the spell, but shit, the payoff, while slow, actually feels absolutely amazing. I'm pretty optimistic about this card -- seems pretty fucking powerful.

Stampede
Lock and Load, but with Beasts! Rexxar's old Ultimate skill from Warcraft III finally makes it into Hearthstone, and it looks amazing! One of Lock and Load's weakness is that sometimes you get a lot of minions from the effect and you don't get to abuse Lock and Load's "add a card to your hand" effect. Stampede, meanwhile, is a one-mana spell, and for each beast you cast, you get a beast added to your hand. So all Stampede needs is the card itself and a single preferrably cheap Beast. And while there are a lot of bad Beasts out there (you don't want to get an Ultrasaur from this, for example), there's a lot of good Beasts, and most of all, you can potentially just spend all your mana on summoning Beasts, which tend to be good. Also, you know what's awesome to Stampede with? Carnassa's Brood. Complete the quest, and just summon Carnassa's Brood after Carnassa's Brood with Stampede active, and you'll get so many cards in your hands that a Gadgetzan-Jade-Druid will blush.

Jeweled Macaw
It's a bird! It's a better Webspinner, a 1-mana 1/1 that adds a Beast to your hand as a Battlecry. And therein lies the strength of the Macaw. Making it have a Battlecry means that it's an inherently better card than Webspinner (which itself is already good!) by making it a better topdeck, and it's actually a pretty ideal card to play alongside Stampede. Definitely a great, if simple, card. Babbling Book can attest to the strength of 1/1 minions that adds random things to your hand, and Jeweled Macaw also works well with both The Swamp Queen and general beast synergies.

Grievous Bite
A mini Explosive Shot, it's a 2-mana spell that deals 2 damage to a minion and 1 mana to those next to it. Seems balanced, also definitely good against Pirates. Does it replace Quick Shot? Not really, since it can't go face, but for what it does, it's definitely reasonably balanced, though I don't see it making particularly big waves in the metagame.


Open the Waygate
So far, the Quest rewards have been insane. Barnabus is. a 5-mana 8/8 that turns every minion in your deck to cost 0. Galvadon is a monster that adapts 5 times. Queen Carnassa turns your deck into a self-cycling army of monster raptors. But none takes the cake of being a game-breaker as much as Time Warp, the Mages' quest reward, which literally breaks the game. You take two turns. What the fuck! What the utter fuck! Sure, the Time Warp card costs 5 mana, which is most of your turn, but damn, it's a pretty powerful card. And the quest requirement? Nothing about Secrets, but you cast 6 spells that didn't start in your deck. And, like the Druid Quest, I honestly think this is easier to complete than you think. Between Babbling Book, Antonidas and Cabalist Tome, you already have core Mage cards that already do that. And that's not to mention things like the Kabal cards from Gadgetzan -- Kazakus creates a spell outside your deck, and both Kabal Chemist and Kabal Courier also gives you spells from outside your deck. Hell, I think even the Coin counts as a spell that didn't start in your deck! And to top it off, the new cards in this set really make this quest work. Elise the Trailblazer, Primordial Glyph, Mana Bind, Steam Surger, Shimmering Tempest... Honestly, the quest could read 'cast 10 spells that started outside your deck' and I bet it'd still be balanced. In Wild it's even more degenerate, with Spellslinger, Unstable Portal, Ethereal Conjurer, Elise Starseeker, and anything that creates Spare Parts.

Now how valuable is taking an extra turn? Depends what you have on the field, of course. If you have an Antonidas it's just GG well played, I think, but honestly even without degenerate Antonidas combos taking an extra turn is pretty damn powerful nonetheless. I'm not sure how viable the Time Warp itself will be, but jeez, no wonder they are moving Ice Lance out.

Primordial Glyph
Because Mages didn't quite have enough ways to discover spells from outside their deck, we get a spell... which discovers a card outside your deck! It's a 2-mana card, which makes you think it's going to be similar to Priest's Shadow Visions, but Primordial Glyph actually gives the 2 mana cost for this card back to you by discounting the spell you discovered by two. Because holy shit, this card is just amazing. The power levels of the cards in this expansion is just amazing.

Meteor
Meteor's a cute card. It's Explosive Shot, on steroids. Lots and lots of steroids. For 6 mana, you deal FIFTEEN damage onto a single minion, and splash 3 minions on the ones adjacent to it. Do you ever want to play this over, say, Flamestrike? It is cheaper but has a shorter range, and while there's the potential of murdering a really large minion like a Ragnaros or a big Jade Golem, I don't think Meteor's ultimately that good of a card for you to put into your deck. I do admit that it feels a lot better than Mage's older "deal huge damage to a minion" card, Flame Lance, by virtue that Meteor is a mini-AoE card.


Steam Surger
Kickass looking artwork, but the Steam Surger is actually one of the more underwhelming cards in the set. Not that it's bad, of course -- it's a 4-mana 5/4 that generates a card. But it's also not quite that awesome as far as cards that benefit from playing an Elemental the turn before goes. You do get a Flame Geyser, which if you're playing an Elemental-themed deck is probably something you'll want, but unlike Shamans, the Mages' legendary minion Pyros... isn't something that needs an Elemental the turn before to be good, so I'm not sure about how the Elemental Mage deck will end up doing. It's a good card if you're running Elementals, with lots of value packed into a single card that generates two more, but since the endgame of Elemental Mage seems to just be Blazecallers and Servants of Kalimos I'm not sure if it's going to be worth playing.

Shimmering Tempest
Dang, this card is awesome. As if Babbling Book isn't enough, the Mage Quest gets additional support in the form of Shimmering Tempest, who is a 2-mana 2/1 Elemental with the Deathrattle of adding a random Mage spell to your hand. It's an amazingly powerful card. Perhaps not super-creative design-wise, but Babbling Book was unbelievably strong despite his innocent-looking effect, and Shimmering Tempest no doubt will be the same. Between the Elemental synergy and the spell-adding effect, Shimmering Tempest looks like he's going to be a core card in various types of Mage decks for sure.

Molten Reflection
For 4 mana, you copy a minion. It's pretty powerful! I'm not quite sure what Mage minion is particularly powerful enough to combo with Molten Reflection -- Antonidas, if he survives, for sure -- but it's basically a Faceless Manipulator for one mana less, and it's a spell, which means Mana Wyrm, Antonidas, Sorcerer's Apprentice all do like this spell. At the same time Molten Reflection also makes it so the Babbling Book/Cabalist's Tome/Shimmering Tempest effect doesn't always just add pure damage to your hand, which is definitely something we needed. Probably not one of the stronger cards in the set, but shit, again, it's still pretty powerful. Un'Goro has some really strong cards, man.


Primalfin Champion
My god, this card. When we all thought Murlocs in Paladins would be dead after Anyfin and Murloc Knight rotates out, in comes Primalfin Champion. No, you probably wouldn't actually play Primalfin Champion in a Murloc deck, but he is going to be absolutely powerful in a Galvadon deck. He's a 2-mana 1/2 that recycles every spell you cast on this minion to your hand. He's the single card that impressed me the most during the stream a couple of days ago, because, holy shit, all the spells you just lobbed on him gets recycled, so the nightmare isn't quite over after you manage to murder him with anything short of Silences, Hexes and Polymorphs. I'm just thinking of how degenerate a deck with Galvadon, Primalfin Champion, Voraxx and Djinni of Zephyrs will be in Wild. Easily one of my favourite cards in the deck, and the stream really put my faith that the Last Kaleidosaur quest might actually be pretty reliably completed.

Adaptation
Oh, hey, a cheap buff spell that's good! How convenient! Adaptation is a pretty powerful card that definitely seeing play in Quest Paladin, and between Adaptation, Blessing of Kings and Spikeridged Steed, we have our 6 cards that we need for the Quest to be completed. Throw in a couple of Dinosizes or Blessings of Wisdom or stuff like that, as well as the Primalfin Champion recycling your buffs, and suddenly it's far more realistic to complete the Paladin's Quest.

Vinecleaver
Vinecleaver would be a great weapon if not for its prohibitive cost. For 7 mana, it's a 4/3 weapon. Quite shit, right? But every time you swing this weapon, it's two 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits, which we know is going to be absolutely awesome with both the Lightfused Stegodon and Sunkeeper Tarim. And that's not counting Wild shenanigans. It's basically six Silver Hand Recruits, so in addition to a 4/3 weapon, you get a delayed and better Stand Against Darkness, and playing this a turn before you do a Lost in the Jungle + Lightfused Stegodon combo means that you suddenly get a crapton of Silver Hand Recruits on the board. Ultimately, though, while I'm actually quite excited about Silver Hand Recruit decks, I don't think Vinecleaver makes the cut.

Lyra, the Sunshard
Dang, Lyra looks absolutely hardcore. Visually, anyway. She's the Priest Legendary, a 5-mana 3/5 Elemental with the passive effect of basically being another Lock-and-Load style effect, but instead of adding random Hunter cards, she adds Priest spells. It's like a worse Nexus-Champion Saraad because she's lower-statted and her effect picks from a smaller pool of cards... but you can cycle through multiple Priest spells in a single turn. It's definitely not going to be in the same deck as the Quest Priest, but you do get some great cheap spells in Binding Heal, and a card that discounts spells in Radiant Elemental. Plus, the existence of this card suddenly makes Shadow Visions suddenly awesome, since that's an extra spell that generates another extra spell, both of which synergizes with Lyra. Granted, not all Priest cards are proactive, so some of the spells you get from her might just whiff out. One of the cards that really look like she's going to be super fun, that's for sure! Particularly good, maybe not (I'm leaning more towards not), but shit, she does look fun.

Radiant Elemental
A stat-reversed Sorcerer's Apprentice, with the Elemental tag! Radiant Elemental definitely works well with Lyra, and the ability to just cycle random Priest spells is just amazing. Sorcerer's Apprentice is played in Mage decks even to this day, and while Priest spells aren't as abusable as Mage spells, they're still generally pretty good, and discounting them is also pretty damn good. Not much to say about Radiant Elemental beyond the fact that it's pretty damn good. Also! The wait is over, people, because after so, so long Priests finally have a good two-drop!

Free from Amber
For 8 mana, you Discover a minion that costs at least 8. And then you summon it for free. Which is... amazing! Yes, this expansion did introduce a bunch of crap heavily-costed minions (Tortollan Primalist, brrr...) but 8-mana minions are still pretty good. It's like Forbidden Shaping, I suppose, with the chance to Discover and actually pick a minion that's somewhat good for your situation, as well as the chance to get a bigger minion than 8 mana. And besides, Forbidden Shaping is a card everyone plays on turn 8 anyway, but the thing is, Ragnaros is out of the rotation... but still, powerful minions like Ysera, both Deathwings, Y'Shaarj, and even relatively crap beat-sticks like Faceless Behemoth or Ultrasaur aren't half-bad when they cost only 8 mana -- or less if you have Radiant Elementals on the field. Really, the Discover effect just makes Free From Amber exceptionally powerful, but at the same time not really because Discover only works from your own class, so no Tirion Fordring or King Krush. It's just that the amount of less-than stellar 8-cost-of-more cards are just... quite a lot as of this expansion. I did a quick review of cards above 8 that this can hit in standard:

• Super-Special Awesome: Ysera, Malygos (sometimes), Deathwing, Deathwing Dragonlord, Soggoth the Slitherer, Y'Shaarj Rage Unbound
• Not Bad [still has Taunt or whatever]: Charged Devilsaur, Primordial Drake, Giant Mastodon
• I get a beat stick: Ultrasaur, Doomcaller, Gruul, Medivh the Guardian, Blood of the Ancient One, Alexstrasza, Nozdormu, Onyxia, Faceless Behemoth, Molten Giant, Mountain Giant, Sea Giant, Arcane Giant
• I get a crappy statted minion because battlecries don't go off: Tortollan Primalist, Ozruk, C'Thun, Mayor Noggenfogger (has an effect but come on), N'Zoth the Corruptor, Yogg-Saron Hope's End, Boogeymonster

And more times than not all you're getting is a beatstick. There are 29 minions you can discover in standard, and only 9 are good or decent. 13 end up being just beatsticks, and 7 are actually shit. Yes, you Discover the minion which means you're not going to be an idiot and pick Ozruk or C'Thun, but still, I dunno. I don't think this card is as good as an 8-mana Forbidden Shaping, or if it's in wild... if only because Ragnaros the Firelord and Sneed's Old Shredder are both available to bit hit by this thing in wild. 

Binding Heal
Flash Heal is rotating out, so have a near-identical version that also heals a minion at the same time! Flash Heal was used a lot, and Binding Heal is just leaps and bounds better for healing a minion too, so it's going to be better than Flash Heal. Not much I can say about it.

Biteweed
Edwin VanCleef's little brother is apparently a fucking man-eating plant. Biteweed is a worse Edwin. Edwin is a 2/2 that gains +2/+2 for every card you played earlier, while Biteweed is a 1/1 that gains +1/+1 instead. Is it good? Yeah, just not as good as Edwin. Will it be played? Maybe as a cheap card you drop before Edwin so after that insane lots-of-coin, lots-of-1-mana-cards, multi-Prep turn you drop a Biteweed before you drop Edwin, so if you played like 4 cards before the big Biteweed-Edwin drop, you'll get like a 5/5 Biteweed and a 12/12 Edwin. It's not super good, but it does give you alternate options for making huge combo-centric minions, albeit one that can't quite ramp as quickly and insanely as Edwin. Ultimately, a cute card but one I don't see being super viable.

Envenom Weapon
For 3 mana, give your weapon Poisonous. This... this is actually pretty good, but I'm not sure when do you play this. With a Violet Illusionist on the field this means that your weapon can just murder huge Jade Golems or Tyrantus-es or C'Thuns without damaging your hero... but wouldn't you rather just play, I dunno, Giant Wasp? It's a unique effect since we've never had a

Razorpetal Lasher
Rogues need cheaper spells to trigger those Biteweeds and Edwin VanCleefs, right? And just slotting the coin in is sometimes not enough. So enter Razorpetal Lasher, a 2-mana 2/2 that was foreshadowed in one of the journal posts. The Lasher, as a battlecry, adds a 1-mana-deal-1-damage spell to your hand, which isn't super-amazing, but it does work well if you really need to wreak havoc or have cheap one-mana cards in your hand to trigger those Gadgetzan Auctioneers and Edwin VanCleefs. Pretty decent card.

Razorpetal Volley
Basically the same thing as Razorpetal Lasher, but in spell form. For 2 mana, you get two copies of the Razorpetal card. It's a bit more expensive than the Lasher since you don't get the 2/2 body, but you do get two copies of the card. Which means if done in a particularly good Edwin or Gadgetzan turn, Razorpetal Volley is three cheap spell cards in one.

Obsidian Shard
Oh, hey, a weapon! Been some time since Rogues have gotten a weapon at all, and it's actually a bit of a meme that Blade Flurry was removed for nothing at all. Obsidian Shard isn't a super-great weapon, because it's just a 3/3 that gets discounted for each Burgled card you've played. Yes, discounting this card into a 0- or 1- mana card means that it's a powerful, cheap card that acts like a stronger Fiery War Axe, that also triggers things like combos and whatnot. You definitely put this in a Swashburglar/Hallucination deck, right? I don't think the Burgle deck (weird to be calling it that since Burgle's out of rotation, but okay) has enough cards to really make it work, but between Obsidian Shard and Ethereal Peddler it has a fair amount of support.

Hallucination
One mana, and you Discover a card from your opponent's class. Discover is always miles better than just getting a random thing, which makes Hallucination just better than both Burgle and Swashburglar. It's a great card, and Rogues do love their one-mana spells. And with things like Obsidian Shard, you do have some cards that synergize well with combos.

Fire Plume Harbinger
Shamans get all the cool-looking minions! Fire Plume Harbinger is a 2-mana 1/1. Bad, right? Except it reduces the cost of all Elementals in your hand by 1. Which means I think it's pretty much going to be a must-have in your Elemental deck. He's a pretty shit topdeck, but the fact that he discounts a good chunk of your hand, and cheaper Elementals probably will lead to a fair amount of value, it's a pretty great card with a great artwork. It's just pretty good, with only its 1/1 statline really getting in the way of it being super-OP.

Air Elemental
Just a solid one-mana Elemental that isn't super-overpowered. It's just a 1-mana 2/1 that can't be pinged due to having the Fairy Dragon's spellproof ability, and by virtue of being one mana means that he can potentially trigger the 'play an Elemental the previous turn' effects of basically any card since he can be slotted in an earlier turn. There's no 2-mana card that benefits from playing an Elemental before, but it's still a pretty dang good card that I think will just bulk up any Elemental Shaman deck.

Hot Spring Guardian
Bye-bye, Earthen Ring Farseer! Hot Spring Guardian is yet another healing tool for Shaman, but this time it synergizes with the Elemental gimmick, and arguably is a far better three-mana drop than Unbound Elemental or Tar Creeper. It does compete with the Igneous Elemental, and really, it depends whether you want your Shaman to heal more or have more cheap Elemental Tokens to trigger your Kalimoses and Ozruks. A 3-mana 2/4 that restores three health and has Taunt looks so much better than Igneous Elemental to me, at least. The 2/4 Taunt statline is very respectable for 3 mana, and the healing effect is actually not a bad thing to have. Hot Spring Guardian serves as a less-effective Jinyu Waterspeaker, but one that also works very well with the Elemental synergy. So yeah.


Primalfin Totem
Hee hee the artwork on this thing. The Primalfin Totem looks absolutely cute! It's a 2-mana 0/3 Totem that summons a 1/1 Murloc at the end of your turn. It's a good card, but I'm not sure you'd rather play Primalfin Totem over, say, Rockpool Hunter, Bilefin Tidehunter or Murloc Tidehunter. It's a cute card that potentially finishes the Unite the Murlocs quest all by itself, but it's a 0-attack card, it's not a Murloc itself, and there are a lot better Murloc 2-drops out there. I suppose it can help if you decide to tech in like a Thing from Below into your Murloc deck... but why would you do that? A cool card that I'm not sure will be viable, but a cute card nonetheless.

Tidal Surge
For 4 mana, deal 4 damage to a minion and restore 4 health to your hero. Tidal Surge's a very nice little control card for Shaman, and the fact that Tidal Surge doesn't go to the enemy's face is a very, very neat design bit that makes Shamans less insanely face-centric as before. And the restoration aspect of this card does kind of help Shamans deal with the loss of cards like Healing Wave (though arguably with Hot Spring Guardian and Jinyu Waterspeaker, Shaman already has a huge pool of healing tools). It's a pretty cool card, that I don't think will be super viable.

Cruel Dinomancer
This is a card whose effect I really want for some time now -- recover a card you've discarded before. Hey, if Shamans get cards that recover from Overload, why can't Warlocks? The Dinomancer is a 6-mana 5/5 that summons a minion you've discarded this game, so even if it summons like a humble Flame Imp it's already full value stat-wise. If it summons that Doomguard or Lord Jaraxxus (and believe me, Doomguard getting discarded happens a lot more than you think) you might just won the game with the huge tempo swing you just generated. Definitely a card that goes into that Discard-Quest Warlock deck. Between this dude, Clutch-Mother Zavas and Silverware Golem, Discard Warlock's actually looking quite awesome. Yeah, this card has the potential to fizzle out if you've only been discarding spells throughout the game, but still. It's more likely to be left out of Discard decks, simply because it's so conditional, it's a Deathrattle and might just whiff and only summon like a Malchezaar's Imp or something, but still, I love the design of the card even if I don't think it's as awesome as cards like Silverware Golem or Clucthmother.

Chittering Tunneler
Another Silithid hanging out with the Warlocks is this little dude. The Tunneler is a 3-mana 3/3 Beast that discovers a spell, then lobs damage to your hero equal to its cost. It's an interesting bit of flexibility, but I don't see it seeing a lot of play. Might be great in a wild Reno deck simply because damage dealt to your face doesn't really matter, and the extra flexibility from adding more burn options is decent.

Bloodbloom
Cho'gall's effect, but in a 2-mana spell form. For 2 mana, you cast a spell with your health instead of your mana. Man, lots of older-legendary-that-didn't-quite-work effects are being revisited in this set, yeah? Princess Huhuran, Herald Volazj, Cho'gall... again, the same problems that plague Cho'gall also plagues Bloodbloom in that I still don't see a particularly good spell that Warlocks really want to cast early. Like, with this spell you can cast Twisting Nether or DOOM! or Felfire Potion or Kara Kazham or Siphon Soul or Feeding Time as early as turn two... but why would you want to? I guess Kara Kazham or Feeding Time's decent when you sacrifice life to play it in the early game, but I'm not very sure about the others.

Tar Lurker
Tar Creeper's bigger brother, Tar Lurker is scaled up appropriately, being a 5-mana 1/7 Taunt that becomes a 4/7 Taunt during your opponent's turn. I guess the Tar Lurker's biggest weakness is that it's in a class that doesn't need Elementals or Taunters. If Tar Lurker was in Shaman, or Mage, or Warrior then he'd be played a fair bit. In Warlock, though, I don't really see him being played a lot. Decent arena card, though.

Feeding Time
For 5 mana, you deal 3 damage and summon 3 1/1 Pterrordaxes, which are Beasts. It's like Imp-losion, but exchanges the randomness for consistency... and it costs one mana more, and doesn't synergize with demons the way Imp-losion did. It's a somewhat decent card, but in the same way that Stormcrack doesn't see as much play as Crackle, I don't see Feeding Time seeing as much play as Feeding Time.

Fire Plume's Heart/Sulfuras
Fire Plume's Heart is the Warriors' quest, and it needs you to play seven Taunt minions... which I think is actually simpler than it seems. Yes, it's going to take a relatively longer time to get there, but you get Sulfuras, which is a 3-mana 4/2 weapon. Which is great, but as a battlecry, Sulfuras changes your hero power into Ragnaros's hero power, which is dealing 8 damage randomly. Which is amazing! Majordomo Executus, eat your heart out! Sulfuras's effect is permanent, too, not just something that you'll only have while the weapon is active. And the bonus 4/2 weapon isn't half bad either, too.

Now, how easy is it to summon 7 Taunt minions? Very easy, just probably not one that you can rush to complete the way that you do Rogue, Hunter or Shaman's quests. What Taunt minions do you want? Ornery Direhorn and Direhorn Hatchling (from below) are all great Taunt cards, and since the Hatchling is worth two Taunt minions, that's six... but all of them show up later in the game, and so does Tar Lord (which I'm unconvinced will make the Taunt Quest Warrior deck). The Curator, Alley Armorsmith and Soggoth are great Taunters, but likewise they show up only in the late game. Slightly earlier in the game you have options of Bloodhoof Brave, Infested Tauren and Sen'jin Shieldmasta' for turn 4, but I don't see playing all of them. What about earlier turns? Do you play crap like Pompous Thespian and Goldshire Footman? We did get Cornered Sentry, which is a 2-mana card, and I guess Stubborn Gastropod is quasi-decent, but the lack of early-game Taunters might make this quest a bit harder to complete. Which is fine, though, since it's a pretty control-deck oriented quest, so yeah, you could definitely afford to complete this quest a bit later, equip a powerful weapon and change your hero power into 'murder a thing'. It's definitely one of the more interesting quests, maybe slightly lower in power level compared to some of the other quests, but it still looks fun.

Ornery Direhorn
A simple card that is pretty powerful. A 6-mana 5/5 with Taunt makes it already great for the Fire Plume's Heart Quest, but it also Adapts as a battlecry. A 6-mana 5/5 Taunt with Divine Shield? A 6-mana 5/8 or 6/6 with Taunt? Obviously not all adaptation choices is good for the Direhorn, but it's definitely a great mid-range taunt card that you'll definitely play in Taunt Warrior, and it replaces Fierce Monkey as a Beast that you can draw with Curator -- who I think will be pretty great in this kind of Warrior deck. No, it's probably not the strongest card out there, and I think it's weaker than the Direhorn Hatchling, but I still think this goes into the Taunt Warrior deck. Definitely better than Sunwalker, I think. Plus, it just looks cool! Triceratops-es are cool!

Direhorn Hatchling
D'awww how adorable. The Direhorn Hatchling is a 5-mana 3/6 Beast with Taunt, which is already somewhat decent (if sub-par for her cost) Taunt minion which fits into the Taunt Warrior deck. Also, like the Ornery Direhorn, she also synergizes well with the Curator, another great Taunt minion. And, yeah, the Direhorn Hatchling isn't the best-statted minion in the game, but she shuffles her mommy into her deck, which is a 5-mana 6/9 Taunt... which is just fucking amazing. A bit slow, that's for sure, but the Direhorn Hatchling is definitely one of the more powerful tools that Warrior receives in this expansion. And Warriors get two of these!

Tar Lord
Another variation of the Tar Creeper, Tar Lord is the Warrior's version, and it's of course a huge Taunt minion so it's something that Warriors would want for the Quest completion. It's a 7-mana 1/11 that turns into a 5/11 wall during your opponent's turn. And... I think it's not as good as Tar Creeper? A 3-mana minion that can't attack that well during your turn is excusable. Spending 7 mana on one? Yes, it's going to soak up a hell lot more damage, but I think all things considered I'd rather play things like the Direhorns or Soggoth or Bog Creeper for my mid-late game Taunters. Still, that's not to say that Tar Lord is bad, because it isn't -- I just don't really see it being super-good compared to other cards, but who knows? Maybe you do want huge Tar Lords to just be a big meat (well, tar) shield while your Sulfuras-enabled hero power just lobs 8 damage everywhere. 11 health is still no joke. Plus (and I sound like a broken record, I know) just look at that hulking tar-skeleton monstrosity! He looks cool. Also, um, Ozruk? Yeah, this common minion's a lot better than you, I think.

Sudden Genesis
For five mana, just... summon copies of your damaged minions. None of the Blood Warriors nonsense where you have to re-play them. So this means that if you damage your Grommash Hellscream? Yeah, for 5 mana you get a second 10-attack charging Orc, in addition to whatever other damaged minions you have on board. Yes, it's five mana, but the fact that it's an immediate presence on the board, doing this with either Charge or Taunt minions just makes this suddenly super-powerful. Man, forget King Mosh, a Grommash-Genesis combo is what's going to carry my Warrior deck to victory. Very cool design, one that I think will definitely see some play.

Iron Hide
For one mana, gain 5 armour. It's like Shield Block with a vastly reduced cost, but without the draw. Or Shieldmaiden without the minion. I'm not sure if you'll ever want to play it instead of Shield Block, for the same reason that you never see people use Whirlwind, but love Ravaging Ghoul. Or why Stonehill Defender in this expansion is miles better than I Know A Guy despite being more expensive but stuck onto a body -- I'd rather pay slightly more for an effect that comes with a body (or a card draw) instead of a simple deckslot filler. Still I don't think this spell's going to see play. Which is okay, I think, considering the huge amount of great cards Warriors already get in this expansion.

So let's talk about Taunts and Elementals. One of the more interesting cards that I see work is the Warrior Taunt Quest deck, and it's absolutely very viable to get an insane series of Taunters in play. Assuming you play the Quest card for the first turn, the expansion brings together enough Taunt support (which are all decent cards on their own, too!) to really make a taunt deck work. Of course in the mid-game you'll probably want to play like two cards in a turn to expedite the quest completion, but Fire Plume's Heart is really a deck that aims to control the game in the early and mid-game phase, and later just outvalue the enemy with the Ragnaros hero power. Really loved how the expansion brought together so many new good cards so you're not stuck building a deck with crap like Frostwolf Grunt, Squirming Tentacle or Pompous Thespian just to make this work.

• 2 mana: Cornered Sentry, Dirty Rat, Stubborn Gastropod
• 3 mana: Tar Creeper, Stonehill Defender, Second-Rate Bruiser
• 4 mana: Bloodhoof Brave, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Infested Tauren
• 5 mana: Direhorn Hatchling, Alley Armorsmith, Psych-o-tron, Nesting Roc, Fen Creeper (which isn't even good compared to the others here)
• 6 mana: Ornery Direhorn, Sunwalker, Wrathion
• 7 mana: Tar Lord, The Curator (he draws Beasts and Dragons, too, which actually works), Volcanosaur if he gains Taunt
• 8 mana: Primordial Drake (works with Curator)
• 9 mana: Soggoth the Slitherer
• In addition, if you play weapons, Dread Corsair can potentially just be dropped off anywhen for free. 

And elementals? Again, in addition to the simple 1/2 generated, I am in love with how the set doesn't just design random elementals with crappy effects for every class to see if it works (like what they did with Mechs -- only like slightly more than a half-dozen mechs from the gigantic roster in GvG was actually viable) but actually designed individual elementals that actually look like they can work and deal a fair amount of damage. In quick summary, here's what the elementals for each mana point looks, with asterisks denoting cards that benefit from playing an elemental the turn before.

• 1 mana: Fire Fly, Glacial Shard, Arcane Anomaly, Crystalline Oracle [Priest], Air Elemental [Shaman], Dust Devil [Shaman]
• 2 mana: Volatile Elemental, Shimmering Tempest [Mage], Pyros [Mage], Radiant Elemental [Priest], Fire Plume Harbinger [Shaman]
• 3 mana: Tar Creeper, Igneous Elemental, Magma Rager, Hot Spring Guardian [Shaman], Unbound Elemental [Shaman]
• 4 mana: Fire Plume Phoenix, Water Elemental [Mage], Steam Surger* [Mage], Lightspawn [Priest]
• 5 mana: Servant of Kalimos*, Lyra the Sunshard [Priest], Tar Lurker [Warlock], Earth Elemental [Shaman]
• 6 mana: Frozen Crusher, Frost Elemental, Pyros Token [Mage], Fire Elemental [Shaman]
• 7 mana: Blazecaller*, Baron Geddon, Stormwatcher, Stone Sentinel* [Shaman], Al'Akir [Shaman], Tar Lord [Warrior]
• 8 mana: Kalimos Primal Lord* [Shaman], Anomalus [Mage], Ragnaros Lightlord [Paladin]
• 9 mana: Ozruk*
• 10 mana: Pyros Token [Mage]
• Non-Elementals that benefit from elementals: Thunder Lizard (Turn 3), Tol'vir Stoneshaper (Turn 4)

As you can see, it's actually not super hard to find cards to trigger your elementals. The main turns that you want to play an elemental are turns 3 through 7, or 3 through 6 if you're not playing a Shaman. Yes, there's the problem of drawing the cards you need. Maybe you reach turn 8 and you haven't drawn your Kalimos, or you reach turn 7 without a Blazecaller but honestly there's enough good elementals to go around, and even classes like Warrior or Paladin who have decent class Elementals can actually consider slotting in cards like Servant of Kalimos, Blazecaller or Tol'vir Warden. The sheer amount of one-drop cards you can choose from is also honestly quite appealing, and this is really what I want from card design. There's no way you're putting all of these cards into your Elemental deck, and it's not like Jade or C'Thun decks where there are only like five or six options to choose from to curve out properly and it's already dictated what half your deck is going to look like if you're going for Jade or C'Thun decks. Here we're given free reign with multiple elementals on each mana slot to make do, and honestly while Ozruk isn't amazing, cards like Stone Sentinel, Blazecaller, Kalimos and Servant of Kalimos are all appealing enough to try and make the Elemental synergy work, and even then the archetype balances out being slightly more difficult to pull off by not relying as much on it compared to, say, Murlocs or Dragon decks.  

Hearthstone: Un'Goro Reveals, the Final Stream: Neutral Cards

 Some 60+ cards were revealed last night in a huge stream with Ben Brode and Frodan, and even more cards are revealed thanks to the Facebook gallery (as well as a couple other cards revealed between my last post and this one). Due to the huge, huge length that the page would be if I lumped everything in one page, I'll do neutral cards first, and try to at least be somewhat concise. We'll go with legendaries, then the assorted neutral creatures, then the elementals will be lumped together at the end.

Spiritsinger Umbra
The leader of the Tortollans briefly foreshadowed in the Eddie journals, Umbra is a pretty cool card. He's a 4-mana 3/4, which is slightly understatted, but every time you summon a Deathrattle minion, its deathrattle is triggered immediately. Which is pretty damn powerful! In wild you can do some truly degenerate things with Sylvannas or Shredders or Belchers. In Standard, we still have some really strong Deathrattle minions. Savannah Highmane isn't going anywhere, Cairne Bloodhoof is still around, and both Priest and Hunter Deathrattle decks are going to lap this little turtle dude up. Between Huhuran, the Terrorscale 3-mana dude and Umbra, Hunters suddenly have so many ways to activate the Deathrattles without killing the minions. And Priests have some really good cheap Deathrattle minions that combos absolutely well with Spiritsinger Umbra. He's not going to be an essential card, but he's definitely a very cool neutral legendary.


The Voraxx
The Voraxx, I think, is going to be a card you'll want in your Buff Paladin deck. He's like a reverse Djinni of Zephyrs of sorts, where instead of copying the buff spell cast on another minion, the Voraxx instead creates little 1/1 tokens that get buffed by the same spell you cast on the Voraxx itself. He's also a pretty cool, weird monster-plant thing as well. And at a 4-mana 3/3, he might be a little slow, but he definitely snowballs pretty quickly if you can get like a Blessing of Kings or Spikeridged Steed spell on him. I'm not sure if the Voraxx is going to be good or not, but he definitely has potential, and it's definitely a pretty cool-looking card. Very much appreciate how much Un'Goro's effects have been relatively unique.

Charged Devilsaur
Charge is a powerful mechanic and one that easily snowballs, so Charged Devilsaur is a 8-mana 7/7 Charge... that can't attack heroes on the turn it hits the field. It's a Charge limitation that a lot of fan cards made, allowing the Charged Devilsaur to be an instant-control minion. I don't think the Charged Devilsaur is going to be a super-relevant card, but it is a cool looking art nonetheless! Some Reno (or Kazakus, I suppose) decks or control decks might want to sub this dude in, and it's certainly another minion to synergize with Hunter's Beast synergies or with the Curator (who suddenly became so good in this expansion, by the way, with the abundant number of new good beasts) but I don't see Devilsaur being a super-awesome core card anywhere.

Primordial Drake
The only dragon in this set, the Primordial Drake would've been amazing had it came out with Blackrock and TGT dragons still around. Still, he's going to be great in wild Dragon decks. An 8-mana 4/8 is a bit low in stats, but it has Taunt and deals a mini-Demonwrath as it hits the board. It's only 2 damage, and it hits your allied minions, but it doesn't hit your face and it's a lot easier to control when the AoE slams down on your field, which is one of the weaknesses that my dear Chillmaw has -- your opponent dictates when Chillmaw's effect goes off more than not. So yeah, while the dragons' day in the limelight might be over, the Primordial Drake's still a pretty dang good dragon. Being the only new dragon in a world where Azure Drake, Twilight Guardian and the whole dragon package from Blackrock Mountain is leaving is not super-good for Primordial Drake in standard, though.

Bittertide Hydra
Did we ever have a Hydra card in Hearthstone? I can't remember any. It's awesome to see one of my favourite monsters in Warcraft finally make its debut in Hearthstone! Gahz'rilla, duh. Nevermind that! The Bittertide Hydra has a bit of a unique effect, somewhat like the Warlock class's Wrathguard, as a penalty to its stats. A 5-mana 8/8 is far, far more obnoxious than the Wrathguard's 2-mana 4/3, I think, but it's effect is pretty... damaging. It reflects every damage dealt to it as 3 damage to your her. On one hand, a Fireball or Eviscerate doesn't translate its full 6 damage to your hero, but several Arcane Missiles? Or simple Knife Juggler lobs? Still, a 5-mana 8/8, in the neutral slot no less, isn't something to sneeze at. I'm not convinced that the Hydra will see widespread play, but it does have potential simply by being such a gigantic minion for its cost. The effect is a lot less appealing than the simple Overload from Flamewreathed, and you definitely can't use this dude to trade without it being risky, but it's definitely an interesting enough card that I'm excited to see something like this enter the game.

Stonehill Defender
Definitely a card you're going to see in the Warrior-Quest deck. The Stonehill Defender is a 3-mana 1/4 Taunt, so literally a Silverback Patriarch. But instead of just being a simple unplayable taunt minion, the Stonehill Defender allows you to discover a Taunt minion so it's a Silverback Patriarch and I Know A Guy combined into a single card, making both those pretty shitty cards useless. And it basically accounts for two of the seven minions you want for the Warriors' quest. I'm not sure if the Stonehill Defender's sub-par stats is going to make him ultimately unplayable, but Discover has historically been a very powerful effect so I'm pretty optimistic about the Stonehill Defender.

Bright-Eyed Scout
Kind of like the Naga Sea Witch, but on a single card, and permanently. The Bright-Eyed Scout draws a card as a battlecry, but its cost gets changed into 5. Now 4-mana 3/4 draw a card is decent enough, making her better than Gnomish Inventor, but the effect is a gamble, so you're going to definitely have to build a deck around her effect. Maybe a Y'Shaarj style deck? I dunno. My gut says she's more gimmicky than useful.

Emerald Hive Queen

Well, at least the filler cards in this set look cool! The Hive Queen is a 1-mana 2/3, with the Venture Co. Mercenary effect. A 1-mana 2/3 is obviously bonkers, but it does kind of stop you from summoning any minions for the next two turns or at least until the Hive Queen trades herself away. It's an interesting take on the Zombie Chow statline, where the Emerald Hive Queen's effect might not necessarily be a drawback in a class that doesn't play a lot of early-game minions. Ultimately I don't think she'll see much play, and her effect's actually bad for the Hunter Quest since you want to vomit out your minions as quickly as possible. She looks pretty, tho!

Emerald Reaver

A 1-mana 2/1 Beast that deals 1 damage to each hero as a battlecry. Okay? Not sure why you want that. Kinda similar to Shadowbomber, I guess? The Reaver is a 1-mana Beast, and its battlecry kinda plays to Hunter's need to hit face as many times as you can, so maybe the Reaver goes into your Quest Hunter deck. Otherwise, kind of a filler card. 

Giant Wasp

Lots of Silithid in this set, yeah? The Giant Wasp is a 3-mana 2/2 with Stealth and Poisonous. He's going to trade exactly once, but unlike Emperor Cobra the Stealth means that he's going to deal it's effect more often than not. He's comparable to Patient Assassin, who never saw play, but 2 Health is a lot more valuable and harder to get rid of compared to 2 health. Pretty cool card, especially for arena. 

Rockpool Hunter

A neutral Murloc, and another powerful dude that's definitely going to make it into Shaman Murloc decks. Blowgill Sniper this ain't! The Rockpool Hunter is a 2-mana 2/3 Murloc, which is already vanilla stats, but it buffs a friendly Murloc by +1/+1 permanently. So yeah, it's a Murloc-only Shattered Sun Cleric but without the stat penalty! It's just a great card for Murloc decks all around, and while it's simple and unassuming it's actually a lot better of a Murloc minion than the ones we've gotten for the past three or four expansions, which focused more on Murloc spells. Liking this card a lot. 

Stubborn Gastopod

A 2-mana 1/2 Beast with Taunt and Poisonous. It's going to simply tank a single minion if your opponent can't remove it with spells or tokens. Actually a pretty cool card that might actually see play in the Taunt Warrior -- it's literally not something you're going to trade against, but you have to deal with it because it's a Taunt minion and you're going to want to go for face or to kill other minions. I don't see Gastropod being a super-staple card, but it's definitely a 'filler' style card that I can see working absolutely well in some decks. Again, it's also a beast, so more Beast synergy?

Eggnapper

A 3-mana 3/1 that dies and summons two 1/1 Raptors. Basically a worse Haunted Creeper. Yeah, the statline's offensive, but I don't think I'll ever play this over things like Harvest Golem or Infested Wolf. And... yeah. Don't think I have much to say about this dude. I guess he summons Beasts, which is cool for hunters, but eh. Decent in Arena, I suppose, but Flametongue Totem shenanigans aside, I can't really think of a situation when you'd play this over Harvest Golem. 

Sated Threshadon
A 7-mana 5/7 Beast that summons three 1/1 Murlocs as a Deathrattle. This is actually a lot, lot better than the Eggnapper because 5/7 isn't actually a bad statline for a 7-mana with effect. The Threshadon might be the late-game drop for Murloc decks, maybe, and being a big minion just makes it a whole lot better than a 3/1. A 5-attack minion means he'll be considered in Quest Druids. He's a big Beast with a decent Deathrattle. Not going to be super-relevant in Constructed I think, but probably going to be a great Arena card.

Ultrasaur
Vanilla 10-mana 7/14. It's a Beast so it's Houndmaster-able, but shit, big vanilla minions never saw any play anywhere. I guess we have to be thankful that we only got very few of these boring vanilla or near-vanilla stuff in this expansion.

Giant Mastodon
9-mana 6/10 with Taunt. It's a beast. But there are many better options for both big taunt minions and big Beasts. Decent for Arena, at least, and unlike Ultrasaur it at least has Taunt. More or less pack filler, though.

Humongous Razorleaf
Ancient Watcher's big brother is the big-ass venus flytrap plant from the trailer. It's a 3-mana 4/8 that can't attack. Vasically filling in the niche that Eerie Statue left by being an overstatted minion that can't attack. You can Void Terror it too, I guess. More or less as good as Eerie Statue, which isn't very.

Sabretooth Stalker
Stranglethorn Tiger's bigger, more reckless cousin, the Sabretooth Stalker is a 6-mana 8/2 Stealth. Which... I don't think will see much play. Sabretooth Stalker is a lot better than fellow huge Stealth minion Ravenholdt Assassin, and I guess can be used to push lethal in Beast decks, but one of the strengths of Stranglethorn Tiger is that the 5 health that Stranglethorn has allows it to trade if you really need it too. Sabretooth Stalker's only good for whacking the enemy's face with 8 attack and not much else... which means that it's actually semi-decent, and has some potential, unlike the last three pack fillers.

Vicious Fledgling
A 3-mana 3/3 that Adapts every time this thing attacks the enemy hero. Holy shit, that's actually pretty good! It's probably not going to stick on the board a lot of times (otherwise Lotus Illusionist would see more play), but if it does, it can snowball pretty quickly. And even if you didn't, a 3/3 Beast for 3 isn't the worst thing out there. Historically minions that gain value whenever it attacks the hero hasn't been super-successful, but the Vicious Fledgling is a pretty cool card that might do some degenerate things every now and then. Shit, if it gets either Windfury or Stealth as its first Adaptation, it might just absolutely wreck house. I'm curious just how powerful the Vicious Fledgling will be, and if it'll be a breakout star of a deck the way Raging Worgen was.

Pterrordax Hatchling
Holy shit this dude is adorable. It's a simple 3-mana 2/2 with Adapt, which is actually kind of a crappy statline. Maybe if it's a 3-mana 3/2 or 2/3, getting a full 1/1 discount from the acceptable 3-mana standard the way Volcanosaur or Verdant Longneck were from their respective statlines... Oh well, sadly the Pterrordax Hatchling's a bit of a miss, I guess.

Ravasaur Runt
A 2-mana 2/2 that adapts! Hey, this baby dinosaur is better than the Pterrordax Hatchling by having the same stat and effect for 1 mana less. The catch? You need to have 2 other minions on the field. Which, depending on the deck, might be a little hard to pull off. Zoo Warlock decks or 1-mana Hunter decks might have an easier time pulling this off, I think, albeit not on curve. Still ultimately kinda poop, though.

Devilsaur Egg
More eggs! The Devilsaur Egg is Nerubian Egg's big brother, a 3-mana 0/3 that summons a 5/5. Basically everything's scaled up by 1. Egg decks are pretty fun to play in both Paladins and Druids, and you might even consider this thing in Deathrattle Priests. I really like Nerubian Egg, so I really like this card too. It's going to find a home in egg decks and nowhere else, but still, it's pretty cool.

Nesting Roc
Actually a freaking good card! This two-headed Roc is a 5-mana 4/7 that gains Taunt if you control two other minions. 5-mana 4/7 Taunt is actually quite awesome, and having 2 minions on turn 5 is a lot easier to pull off than the Ravasaur Runt's turn 2. It's just pure stats that scales up quite amazingly up from Sen'jin Shieldmasta, and to top it off? The Roc's a Beast. Lots of Beasts this expansion. Lots of good Beasts. And it actually fits in well in the Hunters' 5-mana slot, if you're playing a more mid-range-y style deck. And it's just absolutely better than Avian Watcher. Both end up being a 5-mana 4/7 Taunt, but Nesting Roc is a beast and has base stats of 4/7 even if the effect doesn't go off, whereas Avian Watcher is a shitty 3/6 if you can't get the effect to go off, plus having a Secret in play tends to be a bit harder to maintain than controlling two other minions. It's just an amazing card, I think, and as far as simple cards go, Nesting Roc might just be ne of the more powerful ones to come out of this set.

Frozen Crusher
Elementals now. Like the Hydra on the top of this article, the Frozen Crusher is a huge statted minion with a drawback. It's neutral too, so Shamans aren't the only class that gets to play with 4-mana 7/7's. The Frozen Crusher is an interesting dynamic, where it's a 6-mana 8/8 Elemental, thus fitting the 6-mana slot for Priests and Mages so they can unleash Blazecaller. It's a far better-statted minion than Frost Elemental, too, which makes it a lot more appealing. But it attacks every two turns, because it freezes itself after attacking. So kind of like Slaking from Pokemon. Still, it's still a 6-mana 8/8, and even if it's frozen every other turn it's still a pretty decent threat. Also Silenceable if you're running Priest. Also not a bad option for Quest Druids. For Shamans I think they'll still want Fire Elementals as the basic 6-drop, though.


Stormwatcher
7-mana 4/8 Elemental with Windfury... and historically, pure Windfury minions have been shit. Doomhammer and Al'akir are the only great Windfury cards, because Doomhammer's a weapon and Al'Akir has Charge, Taunt and Divine Shield in addition to Windfury. Stormwatcher's a lot better than Windfury Harpy or Grook-fu Master by virtue of having 8 mana, which is a lot... but that's not saying much. Again, it's a decent 7-mana slot-filler for the Elemental Curve-stone game plan, but despite the pretty cool-looking art I don't think Stormwatcher'll end up making it into a lot of Elemental decks.

Fire Plume Phoenix
A 4-mana 3/3 Elemental that deals 2 damage as a battlecry. In other words, a scaled-down Fire Elemental. 4 mana is a a slot with many decent Elementals (Mages do have Water Elemental and Steam Surger, Priests have Lightspawn), so maybe the Fire Plume Phoenix might get herself cut out of those decks. She's probably going to fit the Shaman's four-slot, though. Again, having so many variations and options for Elementals at each cost actually makes deck-building a lot more interesting so we don't just go "well, I suppose I'll just put Rumbling Elemental in because I need a 4-mana Elemental". No, now we have multiple options. Do I want a Tol'vir Stoneshaper on turn 4 to gun for a powerful Taunter and possibly fuck up my turn 5 Servant of Kalimos? Or do I want to play it save and put a 4-mana Elemental? And is Fire Plume Phoenix's damage battlecry more valuable than the sheer statline and passive effects that Lightspawn or Water Elemental has? Fire Plume Phoenix is very decent, too.

Igneous Elemental
Very cool artwork! I'm a sucker for fiery Elementals. And one that looks a lot more appealing than Fire Fly, actually. The Igneous Elemental is a 3-mana 2/3 with the deathrattle of adding two 1/2 Elemental tokens to your hand. The statline does make it possibly nowhere as good as some of the Elementals I've described, and the 3-mana Elemental slot does already have Tar Creeper and Hot Spring Guardian hanging around in it, but maybe you want to not play the mid-range Elementals, and just rely on token generators like Igneous Elemental and Fire Fly to get 1-mana tokens, and you just play the huge mid-game to end-game Elementals? Certainly a pretty interesting design. Ultimately I don't think Igneous Elemental will be as good as the other early-game Elementals we got this expansion, but still, I like it.


Volatile Elemental
God damn, the artwork on this dude is just phenomenal! And the Golden one they showed off in the stream looks amazing, too. Volatile Elemental is a 2-mana 1/1 that, as a Deathrattle, deals 3 damage to a random enemy minion. It's more of a delayed Flamecannon than an actual minion, in that respect. It's 2 mana so it's easy to hold on to this and throw it out any time, and while it's a bit of a tempo loss, it does guarantee one dead early-game minion in the next turn -- the fact that it only goes to minions and not face makes it a lot better, I think, in the trading game, and the fact that it's 3 damage means that anything short of a Dirty Rat at that stage of the game is going to die. It's also an Elemental with a Deathrattle, so maybe it's a card you want in your Quest-Priest deck, if your Quest-Priest actually runs Elementals alongside it. Liking this card very much, and the Elemental genre actually looks amazing simply due to the large amount of options you have -- which isn't something I can say about Gadgetzan's tri-class cards where the jade and hand-buff enablers were very samey.

So yeah, optimistic about the Elementals, and I'm actually surprised how little pack filler we have this time around compared to Gadgetzan and Old Gods, because even the 'filler' epics actually look that they can be used, if in janky decks. Going to do class card reviews in a day or two. This article is subject to slight edits over the next few days as maybe I get some different changes in opinions or whatever.