Hearthstone: Frozen Throne Reviews, Part 4

 Also, pack changes are live relatively recently! If you're like me, and have been saving up all those Classic packs from Tavern Brawl and Un'Goro packs from Arena, open them now with the knowledge that you'll never be getting a duplicate legendary ever again.  Hear that, Hobart fucking Grapplehammer? Leave me the HELL alone. I got a Clutchmother Zavas and a Finja from my pile of packs, and a helluva ton of dust. I think they increased the drop rate of golden cards or some such?

Anyway, lots more cards.

Val'kyr Soulclaimer
More cards! Can I just say that the Val'kyr got some of the best artwork in the set? Hopefully these new Val'kyr would prove to be more useful and playable than their TGT predecessors. The Soulclaimer looks like a card that you can play with cards like Blood Razor and Animated Berserker, being a token-generator in vein of Grim Patron, albeit she can't go infinite. She's a 3-mana 1/4 that summons a 2/2 Ghoul every time she gets damaged, which... isn't terrible, but probably not good enough for constructed unless, again, we get more enrage effects. There's probably enough to properly make a deck in standard, though -- we have enough activators (Cruel Taskmaster, Whirlwind, Ravaging Ghoul, Blood Razor, Animated Berseker) and enough good enrage cards (Bloodhoof Brave, Val'kyr Soulclaimer, Frothing Berserker, Amani Berserker, Grommash Hellscream), it's just whether the cards are good enough on their own to be made into a deck. If she has more buddies to synergize with, the Val'kyr Soulclaimer has the potential to be good. Otherwise, she's going to be a pretty m'eh card. The biggest drawback to Val'kyr Soulclaimer right now is her shitty Silverback Patriarch statline. If she was 2 mana, or if she had like 5 health she would've been amazing. As it is, even if the card read "1/3 that summons a 2/2" for 3 mana, would you play it? And that's if you're assuming you have an Animated Berserker to trigger the first ping for free. I dunno. She seems m'eh. 

Stitched Tracker
Stitched Tracker tries to fix one of Hunter's problems -- which is its lack of draw. So he's a weird Frankenstein's monster thing going on, a 3-mana 2/2 that discovers a copy of a card in your deck. The discover effect is double-edged. On one hand, you don't actually thin your deck, and you can only pick minions. On the other hand, the Tracker means that you can replicate valuable minions like Savannah Highmane, or you can just play something that's suitable for your situation, as most discover effects tend to be. The thing about Stitched Tracker is that his statline is pretty bad, especially for a more agressive archetype like Hunters. Likewise, the Stitched Tracker faces the same problem that Bearshark faces in that it competes for the all-valuable three-mana spot that's so, so dang valuable in Hunters, fighting against Animal Companion, Rat Pack and Eaglehorn Bow. To top it off, the Tracker isn't a beast! I'm not sure whether Stitched Tracker or Bearshark will ever make it into ladder Hunter decks, but the presence of another card-draw ability for Hunter other than the crappy Buzzard is certainly welcome. Not the best card in the set, but a pretty decent filler card who might be teched in sometimes.


Sunborne Val'kyr
Sunborne Val'kyr is a minion that, at long last, cares for the positioning of the board. I don't really think that we've gotten many cards outside the Classic set that have effects that care about the position of the board, and Sunborne Val'kyr's pretty cool. She gives a permanent buff, so she isn't as transient as Flametongue Totem, but unfortunately this also does mean that the Sunborne Val'kyr requires wto minions already on the board to actually get maximum value, otherwise she's a 5-mana 5/4, which is pretty bad. Giving two +2 Health bonuses is definitely great, but the setup required might not be that easy, and in classes like Druid, Paladin or Shaman that can swarm the board quickly, I'm not sure if they want a +2 Health bonus as badly as more control-oriented classes like Priest or Warrior. If she gave +1/+1 it would be different, but as it is, she looks like a weaker version of Defender of Argus so despite the kickass-looking artwork she's probably not going to be super playable.

Archbishop Benedictus
I actually legitimately thought this card was an April Fool's Joke! So my reaction when I saw Benedictus was "OMG WHAT A CRAZY CARD" to "oh, an April Fool's Joke, you got me Blizzard!" to "OMG IT'S REAL?!" Now that I've calmed down somewhat, Benedictus is... well, he's a cool lore character, but the card itself isn't super-duper amazing as I initially thought. It definitely shits all over Dead Man's Hand, being a far, far superior anti-fatigue tool especially in a class that already has the inherent ability to heal itself. But 7-mana 4/6 is a steep, steep cost as far as the body is concerned. 4/6 is a familiar statline -- Reno Jackson -- but whereas Reno gives you a fuckton of tempo by healing you completely, Benedictus's effect is insanely long term and he costs a full mana more than Reno. He's going to require a deck that can properly support him to really shine. At a glance we can compare him to Malchezzar, who shuffles 5 random legendaries into your deck and ended up to be relative crap outside of arena... but Benedictus shuffles your opponent's deck. It's their deck at the time that Benedictus hits the field, mind you, so if it's a combo deck some combo pieces may be missing. But at the same time, shuffling your opponent's deck tends to mean that it's going to have synergy with the cards within the opponent's deck, and not just a random scattering of stuff that Malchezzar puts into your deck. Mind you, whether you're going to be able to use those cards is going to be a whole different story altogether. Adding 15-20 cards into your deck is going to dilute your deck significantly... but Benedictus can be treated as a more Elise kind of effect because unlike Malchezzar, you can control when Benedictus's effect hits the board. Especially against control decks, Benedictus is going to be insane. He's not going to do much against aggro or combo decks, or jade druids, though I could be proven wrong. Benedictus's effect is so insanely weird that he's definitely going to be a card that either sinks or swims -- either a Malchezzar or an Elise Starseeker. Either way, though, he looks to be insanely fun and I cannot wait to experiment with him, whether he's good or not.

Embrace Darkness
Embrace Darkness kind of feels bad, yeah? I mean, like, the old 6-mana standard was Sylvannas Windrunner, and she was kinda-sorta 'steal your opponent's minion later'. Embrace Darkness is a targetted spell, but happens like Corruption where it happens at the start of your next turn, allowing the enemy to trade the minion away or at least do a face trade. The only point where Embrace Darkness is great is when you don't have a board of your own for them to trade into, but chances are you're losing anyway. Embrace Darkness isn't a card like Entomb or Sylvannas, other 6-mana cards Priest liked in the past, where the former deals with a card immediately and the latter challenges the board. If nothing else, the biggest impact Embrace Darkness is going to cause is to fuck up Lyra chains because it's such a big fat expensive unplayable spell.


Phantom Freebooter
And we thought we were free from pirates! The Phantom Freebooter works on the reverse of most recent weapon-buffing pirates, and rather receives buffs from the weapon itself. She's a not-inconsiderable 4-mana 3/3 that gains... your weapon's stats. Yeah. No Bloodsail Raider's "fixed-3-health" thing going on here. It looks pretty good! With a Fiery War Axe, Phantom Freebooter gets to become a 6/5 for 4 mana. Like, it's just stats, but Bloodsail Raider manages to be a huge pain in the ass with simple attack buffs. With Arcanite Reaper, she bethe comes a whooping 8/5 (or a 8/4 if you already swung once with the Reaper). And that's without counting the buffs you're pouring onto your weapons with Naga Corsairs, Upgrades and Bloodsail Cultists. The Freebooter's only fair saving grace is her relatively huge mana cost, which isn't something that aggro pirate decks like -- but honestly, the Freebooter may very well be their version of a late-game card. Even then, some people pointed out that this card would be amazing with Doomhammer and Jaraxxus's 3/8 weapon, turning her into a gigantic beatstick. The card honestly looks quite good in pirate decks, and I'm kinda hoping it doesn't work out that well? Looks good, though.

Mindbreaker
In TGT they printed a card called Saboteur, which was a 3-mana 4/3 that Loathebs your opponent's hero power. Mindbreaker is a far more favourable 3-mana 2/5 that... disables both hero powers. I'm not sure what deck he's going to hang out in. Traditionally cards that fuck up both sides of the board like Mana Wraith and Nerub'ar Web-lord (and the new Nerubian Unraveler, although you can play a deck without spells) tend to not be popular. But I guess they put in Mindbreaker into the set just to keep all those fancy Death Knight powers in check? I'm not quite sure if he'll actually see play, mind you -- 2/5 isn't the best statline out there. He shuts down hero powers hard, though, so maybe as a one-off to tech against late-game hero powers? I dunno -- he's kinda weird and to be honest I have no real idea how good Mindbreaker's going to be.

Crypt Lord
Another Druid card, the Crypt Lord is a 3-mana 1/6 Taunt. Higher stats than Tar Creeper! Except there's no way to make it able to actually gain more attack, especially in Druid. The Crypt Lord's effect reads as it gaining +1 Health whenever you summon a minion, and while the expansion is pushing Druid towards a Taunt druid archetype, this doesn't seem like a card that you would ever want in that deck. You'd almost always rather run the Tar Creeper, right? Like, a 1/6 is a bit of an annoyance. In other classes like Priest or Shaman, Crypt Lord would've been a bit more powerful, but in Druid? Nah. It's kind of like Deathlord, except reducing the Deathlord's attack from 2 to 1 is probably not that good. The enemy might lose some one-health minions, sure, but I dunno. Again, you can buff it, but the question will always remain as to why don't you just play Tar Creeper as your 3-mana Taunt drop? The extra health might be annoying, but what makes Tar Creeper good is that it forces trades if your enemy has to trade into it. Crypt Lord doesn't. I don't think it's good, otherwise Mogu'shan Warden would've seen more play. Cool artwork, though.


Tomb Lurker
The Tomb Lurker is another five-mana neutral epic, and another geist in the expansion. The Tomb Lurker is a relatively weak five-mana 5/3. Tomb Lurker is a cheaper card than the identically-statted Necrotic Geist, so the downside isn't that bad, but on the other hand the Tomb Lurker's ability isn't continuous. He does give you a free card, but is it really worth it to add a random Deathrattle minion that died earlier to your hand? I don't honestly think that a 5/3 for 5 that draws a card, even a specific card, isn't all that good, even if you can reuse cards that died earlier. The deathrattle minion that you get isn't always to be the one that came from your deck, though I'm pretty sure your opponent won't be running crap like, say, Bomb Squad or Ticking Abomination just to counter Tomb Lurker. It does mean that you'll probably get some common deathrattle minions that you don't necessarily want like, say, a Mistress of Mixtures or some shit. I dunno. He feels pretty bad at the end of the day, and whether you're playing a N'Zoth-style deck or a quest priest or the like, I don't think that Tomb Lurker will ever make it into those lists.

Thrall, Deathseer
Thrall, the Deathseer! Thrall's original class in Warcraft III was a Farseer, get it? Eh? Eh? Whatever the case, though, Thrall Deathseer costs 5 mana, a fair bit cheaper compared to Death Knight versions of Jaina or Rexxar, and as such adds a more piddly five armour. Thrall, Deathseer is very, very involved with the evolution mechanic, which isn't exactly what I would choose for a Death Knight Shaman, but I really enjoy the evolve mechanic so I just kind of love it. The battlecry does a gigantic double evolution, and Thrall's hero power allows you to evolve any minion for 2 mana. It does allow for a gigantic turn ten Doppelgangster - Thrall Deathseer combo play where you basically summon three seven-mana drops for ten mana, plus whatever value you get from evolving what you have on the board. The initial double evolution means that you actually don't have to be scared of turning your totems into Doomsayers, something that is irritating for the many, many times that I played with evolve shaman decks. Not that you'll be having totems for the rest of the game, mind you. Thrall Deathseer's ability doesn't look super amazing at first glance, but the fact that it's indefinite and not limited to four cards like how normal evolve shaman works... I dunno about you, but even if Thrall Deathseer doesn't get to be a meta-defining card he sure as hell looks fun!

Also, RIP anyone who was expecting Freeze Shaman Death Knight. I may be proven wrong on that front, but pretty sure that the archetype's probably not going to live that well.


Righteous Defender
Righteous Defender is a tiny version of Annoy-o-tron, and she's... okay, I guess. If the set didn't come with Divine Shield synergies like the new Bolvar and the Light's Sorrow weapon, this card would've been kind of trash. I guess the biggest appeal that Righteous Defender has would be the fact that he's so freaking cheap, allowing for combos with Blood Knight or whatever. I dunno, though, because I don't think the new Bolvar or the weapon wouldn't be a great synergy. Another way to think about her is that she's a stronger Argent Squire, which is definitely fine for a class card -- the fact that Divine Shield Paladins are going to run both Argent Squire and Righteous Defender means that their early game's pretty much secure. She's okay for a common, I guess, but she won't break the game. Just kind of boring, is all.

Runeforge Haunter
The Runeforge Haunter is a new Rogue card, a 4-mana 5/3 that... causes your weapon to not lose durability. This is the type of card that's going to help make Rogue weapon synergies really viable, because so far a lot of the Rogue's weapon synergies are just kinda crap outside of arena. Weapons are just so hard to protect. If they don't run out of charges, the Ooze will destroy them, and so it's really hard for you to ask me to waste mana and card resources to buff a weapon -- especially when in rogues it doesn't necessarily help in ending the enemy quicker the way the Warriors' Upgrade cards work. Runeforge Haunter perhaps isn't going to be the card that makes weapon rogue work, and unless we get some more insane cards I don't think it'll work this expansion, but it's certainly a lot better-looking than something like Shadowblade or Leeching Poison. Keeping your weapon around indefinitely is pretty good.  And at worst, the Haunter will keep your weapon from losing a durability for at least a turn -- the 5/3 statline's a bit too fragile, I'm afraid.


Corpse Raiser
So, for 5-mana, you get a 3/3 body and an Ancestral Spirit. Which is more or less fair, since Ancestral Spirit is valued at 2 mana. The Corpse Raiser is neutral, though, so other classes outside of Shaman can use this. Generally I kind of feel that it's a bit slow, although I don't think the card's super bad. The ability to recycle some of your best and most valuable minions -- your Tirions and Antonidases and Doomguards and Highmanes -- is always good. The thing is whether you're going to waste slots in your deck putting Corpse Raiser in instead of, say, a second Doomguard. Certainly not a bad card, in my opinion, and while probably won't be making huge constructed waves, I'd be surprised if some decks didn't at least try to tech this in as an extra greedy value play.

Corpse Widow
Oh, hey, a Ravager at least! The Corpse Widow has the effect of discounting your deathrattles by 2 mana, making her yet another great choice for a deathrattle hunter deck. The Widow is also a beast, which is great. The five slot in Hunter's always a bit awkward to fill in, and Widow might actually fill it in relatively well. Her 4/6 statline isn't horrible for a five-drop, especially a dfive-drop with discount. Discounting cards is always powerful, and discounting 2? This means that you could go into turn 5 with Corpse Widow, and then in turn 6 you play a 4-mana Savannah Highmane and either Hero Power or play a 2-cost card. That's pretty sick, and even if they remove Corpse Widow you'll still be able to play the Highmane as regular. Corpse Widow looks pretty decent, really. She would be amazing in Quest Priest (which is why I guessed they printed this effect for the Hunter class) but she feels pretty solid enough that I think she's going to see some play as well. Hunter's really weird in that they get lots of cards that are great on paper, but I'm not exactly sure how they'll fit into existing Hunter archetypes.


Devour Mind
Oh, hey, look, mega-Mind Vision! I guess it's okay? For 5 mana, you draw 3 cards and that tends to be good. You're definitely putting this into Randuin Priest decks and not, y'know, a less insane deck. Like, replicating stuff is great, and it's just another tool in Priest's arsenal that adds cards to your hand like Mind Vision, Crystalline Oracle, Curious Glimmerroot and Shifting Shade. Oh, and Archbishop Benedictus. Ultimately I'm not sure if this card will really play that much of a role in Randuin Wrynn lists, but stealing three cards is by the par for a decent 5-mana drop (RE: Nourish). And if your game plan does revolve around stealing cards from your opponent, then Devour Mind is a pretty decent mid-game spell. Definitely pretty great in arena, I think, because card draw and advantage is pretty great in arena.

Glacial Mysteries
Is this really the first Mage spell card we've gotten this expansion? I'm surprised at the sheer amount of minions that Mage is getting this time around. Well, Glacial Mysteries brings back flashbacks of the TGT era. "Who am I? None of your business." Glacial Mysteries does what Mysterious Challenger does for Paladin, but it doesn't seem to be that insane, actually. Sure, Mages have more expensive secrets, but Glacial Mysteries both comes in at turn 8, and doesn't come with a 6/6 body. Maeg secrets tend to be more or less passive anyway, with none of them actively disrupting the enemy turn other than Counterspell and maybe Vaporize. Plus, Mages have no trouble drawing into their most important secret, Ice Block, with Un'Goro's Arcanologist. I'm grossly underestimating this card, though, and it might very well turn to be as broken as Mysterious Challenger ever was. As a late-game to guarantee that Ice Block and Ice Barrier gets played for free is amazing. But to get this card after you've drawn all your secrets, or all-but-one of your secrets means that Glacial Mysteries ends up being a 8-mana spell that just whiffs, and that's just bad, right?

Obsidian Statue
Hey, another Warcraft III unit! Soon we'll be moving to full WCIII unit completion and I'll be a very very happy Warcraft III fanboy. Obsidian Statue, in Warcraft III, is the 'sealed' version of the Obsidian Destroyer (who we saw being printed into a card in Warrior a couple of years ago). The Obsidian Destroyer back in Wacraft III was an insane thing that auto-heals your units' health and mana constantly, so it's appropriate that it's given to Priest. In Hearthstone the Obsidian Statue gets Taunt and Lifesteal, and a relatively respectable 4/8 statline for a 9-mana drop. 9-mana has been kind of a tenuous spot, because most cards there are combo pieces (Malygos, Alexstrasza) or just plain don't work. Ysera and Soggoth the Slitherer are the only two cards that I can feasibly see being played as a multi-purpose control card, but by and by Soggoth doesn't see much play due to being a simple beatstick, and Ysera doesn't fit in every deck. Obsidian Statue, though? I won't say that it fits in every Priest deck, but it certainly looks like it's a pretty great multi-purpose late game stalling card. It's a Deathrattle card so it comes back with N'Zoth and helps the Amara Quest. It's Taunt so it slows down things going to your face, and it has Lifesteal to get that extra healing Priest needs. Add to the gigantic, insane 'destroy a random enemy minion' deathrattle, and, god, even if this doesn't hit the most epic target, unlike Unwilling Sacrifice below, chances are the Statue has done a fair bit enough with its Taunt and Lifesteal keywords that the destruction is a bonus at worst and a game-winning RNG play at best.


Simulacrum
It's kind of like Duplicate or Sudden Genesis where you add a copy of a minion to your hand, but the Mages' new spell, Simulacrum, costs 3 mana and always copies the lowest-cost minion in your hand. So if Antonidas is the only minion in your hand, you get him. It helps to get more Sorcerer's Apprentices for your quest mage combo. But I  can't help  but feeling that this card, while potentially being insane in a deck crafted to maximize its use, will end up being dead most of the time, and dead cards in your hand isn't very effective. I mean, you're probably going to want to be copying the value minions like Antonidas, Alexstrasza, Sindragosa, or Arcane Giant right? It could be used to like gain copies of cheaper minions, sure, but other than Sorcerer's Apprentice I don't really see a great use for this. I dunno. Again, it's interesting enough and I may be very well be proven wrong.

Lilian Voss
Lilian's not going to be super-insane. A 4-mana 4/5 (a Yeti, basically) who switches the spells in your hand with other spells? That's not the kind of play you want in your normal Auctioneer Miracle Rogue deck, since Rogue spells are super-efficient and awesome. You want to put Lilian into a Burgle-style deck, as a backup plan in case your Shakus and Swashburglars get you unplayable spells like, oh, Explore Un'Goro or Glacial Mysteries or stuff like that. She helps to reshuffle your stuff, basically. And, well, you could have a hand full of both burgled and rogue spells, drop Lilian, then drop Ethereal Peddler for extra value, but I'm not sure if that's going to be good or just needlessly convoluted. Pretty cool to see Lilian, though -- I remembered playing through the Forsaken opening zones in World of Warcraft, and I remember Lilian Voss and her struggles with the Scarlet Crusade and her dickwad father from that. I'm not 100% sure what she has to do with the Frozen Throne/Icecrown area, but hey.


Unwilling Sacrifice
So, in Gadgetzan, Warlock got the Blastcrystal Potion, which sacrificed a mana crystal for a similar effect to this -- insant enemy minion destruction. That card saw some marginal play, I think, but proved pretty unpopular. Why have the chance of crippling yourself early in the game when you can pay two more mana and Siphon Soul? Well, the mana price, for one. Unwilling Sacrifice is a bit more interesting. It doesn't have the targetted ability that Blastcrystal or Siphon Soul have, which hurts it a fair bit, but it's a lot cheaper at 3 mana... as long as you sacrifice one of your minions. EDIT: Back when I first reviewed this card, I forgot Deadly Shot existed! Yeah, this card is basically similar to the Hunter's Deadly Shot, except that you have to destroy a friendly minion to do it. While there are cards in Warlock that seem to want to push the 'destroy a friendly minion to do a positive thing' like the Ravenous Pterrordax, Shadowflame or the Sanguine Reveler, Unwilling Sacrifice's status as a pretty much shittier Deadly Shot means that it's honestly probably not going to see much play. Yes, I'm comparing cross-class, but honestly at the same time I don't think even if Warlock's super-starved for removal they'll pick Unwilling Sacrifice over things like Siphon Soul or Doomsayer.

Brrrlock
Hahaha, the name! Well, we get our obligatory murloc, and it's a Shaman minion. It's... it's not a super-good minion. Sure, it's another freeze effect, but do you really want a 2-mana 2/2 to do that? If the Brrrloc saw play, I honestly think that it'll do so in Murloc Shaman decks -- be it the quest variant or the Anyfin variant in wild. Again, I'm super-unconvinced that with the tools available right now that Freeze Shaman will really emerge to be a powerful deck. It'll be interesting to try out, that's for sure, and Brrrloc is a cheap variant that still impacts the board, something that Frost Shock doesn't do... but honestly, Glacial Shard's never played solely for its Freeze effect -- it's played because it's a cheap minion that happens to be an elemental. So I dunno. I don't think Moorabi alone is going to be enough to gain value from Freeze, that's for sure, and we've made it clear that I have a pretty low opinion of Ice Breaker. In Murloc decks? It... might be a thing? Not sure, though.

Treachery
Huh, you can give your Ticking Abomination to your opponent! All jokes aside, though, Treachery looks like it's a pretty bad card. For 3 mana, you give your opponent one of your friendly minions. Mostly because most of the bad-deathrattle minions like Zombie Chow or Deathlord have moved to wild. I suppose you can play Corrupted Healbot or Bomb Squad, cast Corruption on it and then and give that to your opponent, but that sounds insanely convoluted. I do love the pretty weird and unique effect that Treachery is promising us, though, and if nothing else it gets points for creativity. I'm not saying that Treachery is an unplayable card, but I do kind of want to see the rest of the expansion and the deathrattle cards in the set before I make my full judgment on Treachery.

Valeera the Hollow
Rogue hero card! And what a strange card she is. Valeera the Hollow costs 9 whooping mana, gains 5 armour... and the hero gains Stealth until your next turn! So unless you have like a Ragnaros or Holy Nova effect or something that deals damage while ignoring targets, Valeera can essentially cheat death for a single turn, which is awesome. Her hero power, however, disappears and beccomes absoltuely passsive -- something I didn't expect because I thought Death Knight Valeera's going to get like a weapon-based hero power. Valeera the Hollow gets the first-ever playable passive hero power,  however. At the start of your turn, she gets this no-mana card that'll transform into a copy of whatever card you first play that turn. Which, while initially sounding like a slower version of Duplicate or whatever... makes me realize that things like Shadowcaster copies, or Preparation, or Malygos, or honestly any kind of value card in your deck can be copied almost infinitely. Which is actually pretty fucking awesome. I honestly am a little baffled at the insanity of Death Knight Valeera's ability, and unlike the other three Death Knights we've already gotten before her, I genuinely have no idea what to think of her. She looks awesome, but difficult to use. We'll see. Definitely looks exciting.

Hearthstone: Frozen Throne Reviews, Part 3

 

I waited a little longer this time aroudn in order to try and get these articles to be less spammy in my blog -- less frequent and with more cards within.

Snowflipper Penguin
So, there's a bit of a reveal stream a couple of days ago, and we start off that particular reveal with this adorable but very underwhelming card. The Snowflipper Penguin is basically the beast vesrion of the Murloc Tinyfin, an adorable baby that's a 0-mana 1/1. But it's a beast. It's definitely not going to be played, no way no how, unless they release a Anyfin-esque card for beasts (and even then it's hard to see him being picked over something like Alley Cat). The Penguin's biggest importance is then to act as a mini-nerf to cards that generate beasts like Jeweled Macaw, as was what Murloc Tinyfin did to Murloc Knight back in the day. It's also a 0-mana buff to anything created by Deathstalker Rexxar's Build-a-Beast hero power, which is pretty cool but not super-duper-relevant. Still, better a cute penguin than yet another worgen greaser, right?

Shadowblade
The Shadowblade is the first proper Rogue weapon we've gotten in years. Like, yeah, Obsidian Shard was a thing but did anyone ever play that? The jury's still out on whether Shadowblade's going to be great. On paper it's decent. 3-mana for Fiery War Axe stats with an additional effect is pretty fair, I think, and being immune for a single turn is definitely a pretty significant effect. Suddenly Envenom Weapon and Leeching Poison isn't going to deal damage to your hero when you clear a minion. Envenoming this on the first turn allows you to basically have a free removal... but then is it what you really want, when Rogues already have access to Vinespine Slayer and Assassinate? The Leeching Poison application is decent enough, but there's not enough cards in Rogue to benefit from the single-turn immunity, I feel. My verdict is that the card's a wait-and-see deal

Defile
Defile is our first Warlock spell, based on the Lich King's iconic ability in the final battle atop the Icecrown Citadel. In Hearthstone, Defile's a very, very interesting card. For 2 mana, Defile deals 1 damage to all minions, and if any die you unleash Defile again. So it basically gets rid of an opposing Warlock's Possessed Villager. It's going to have some really interesting setups with Spell Damage minions such as Thalnos and the Kobold Geomancer because it's going to be dealing 2 damage and then 1 continually. In wild I can actually see the genesis of a Patron Warlock deck with this card. Is it going to be an auto include? Perhaps not, but it's certainly a very interesting effect that's going to have multiple interesting interactions with things like the eggs and other deathrattle minions. Like Fatespinner in the last batch, Defile's a card with a very interesting effect that actually requires you to think hard about how advantageous it is to unleash it upon the board at that time. I've never been bothered by the amount of RNG in Hearthstone, but I equally embrace the addition of these smarter cards, so to speak.

Cryostasis
Cryostasis is a card that, on first glance, looks bad. It either has a brief interaction with Moorabi, otherwise it's this weird combination of a mini-Blessing of Kings and a Freeze effect. Which is just weird. But it's not as bad as some of the other cards in this set, I believe? Certainly not as bad as poor Icebreaker. Cryostasis can be cast on either an enemy minion or a friendly one. Obviously at the moment the only real non-Moorabi advantage with freezing an enemy minion is using Ice Breaker on it, which is stupid for two reasons -- you're putting Ice Breaker in your deck, and you're allowing three extra damage to be dealt to your face. Why not just hex the fucker? Yes, Moorabi-ing an Antonidas or Ragnaros Lightlord is amazing, but also, do you really want to give them a free +3/+3 buff? And if you use it on your own minion, you're going to have it miss an attack. Unless, of course, you're going to buff like a Mana Tide Totem or something which won't attack anyway so you're not missing a ton, and a 2-mana +3/+3 buff over two turns isn't the most horrible thing ever. And also, the way Freeze works is that the minion will skip its next attack, so freezing a minion before it attacks means that it'll un-freeze by the next turn, which isn't as bad as what Cryostasis initially was in my mind. But at the same time, unless we get some more powerful Freeze synergies, I don't see Cryostasis working out particularly well. Woe betide you if you decide to play a Cryostasis-self-buff Shaman, and you're facing a Freeze Mage with Chillwraiths and shit.


Moorabi
More trolls yay! I do hope we get a troll-themed expansion some time down the line. Moorabi has the continuous effect of adding a copy of any frozen minion into your hand, so cards like Voodoo Hexxer, Cryostasis, Frost Elemental, Glacial Shard and Frost Shock's going to basically be turned into free versions of Convert. What's Convert? Do you even remember Convert? It's that 2-mana spell that Priest had in... GvG? TGT? One of those. It's an interesting effect, and, yes, you might be able to get free copies of Antonidases, Ragnaroses, C'Thuns or whatever, but at the same time Moorabi has the laughably weak 6-mana 4/4 statline. Remember another Shaman elemental with such a weak statline? The Mistcaller. Who saw nearly no play, despite a theoretically powerful effect. Mind you, I tried like hell to make Mistcaller work -- I got two of the fucker from packs! And while like, one game out of three the Mistcaller gets some awesome value, the negative tempo from playing a 4/4 at turn 6 is just so punishing. Moorabi's part of a combo piece and not a 'drop and have his awesome battlecry activate' like Mistcaller, so I kind of feel like he's worse than Mistcaller? He's not a horrible effect, and a pretty cool-designed card, and admittedly making him any stronger would make him way too insane. I like my unplayable cards to at least be interesting like Moorabi and Mistcaller and not just poopy like Ticking Abomination.


Eternal Servitude
Huh. This one actually looks great as a late-game card. It's Resurrect, basically, but you can discover the minion you want to resurrect, suddenly making it insanely more powerful. It also costs double. Is two extra mana worth it for the choice of which minion to instantly bring into the field? I'd argue yes. Eternal Servitude (which in itself is a pretty cool concept, by the way, and fits well to the nightmare-eternally-screaming-shadow-wraith Anduin theme) is not going to be played on curve, but I can definitely see a spot for the spell in Quest Priest decks. Shit, now I really, really feel the need to craft the Priest Quest. Eternal Servitude seems good, but not crazy-good. Not much else I think needs to be said about it.


Doomed Apprentice
Doomed Apprentice is, well, Sorcerer's Apprentice's evil twin. She's has the exactly same statline, costs one mana more, and gives a reverse-discount of spells to your opponent. It's comparable to Nerubian Unraveler, but whereas the Unraveler might have some value in shutting down Miracle-Rogue combos or Quest Mage combos due to the not-insignificant 5 health and 2-mana price increase, Doomed Apprentice is so much more fragile, and the 1 extra cost doesn't feel like it's going to impact as much. A lot of talk is made about how Nerubian Unraveler isn't going to have anywhere as much of an impact to Loatheb's insane 5-mana price jack (and also the effect still staying for the turn no matter what), but at least the Unraveler seems semi-decent. Doomed Apprentice just seems... doomed either way due to her shit stats and marginal effect.


Prince Valanar
Out of the three princes, Valanar might be my least favourite. I mean, Taldaram felt pretty bad, what with being a cheaper Faceless Manipulator with fixed stats, but Valanar basically becomes a 4/4 version of Wickerflame Burnbristle if you eliminate all 4-cost cards from your deck. Granted, a 4/4 Wickerflame for 4 mana is amazing, but is it worth the price that Valanar asks? I can kind of see Valanar working in weird janky decks like the Quest Hunter, Zoo Warlock or Quest Rogue, or even Miracle Rogue (although you'll have to take Sherazin out, Valanar's capacity to heal maaaaybe ofsets it?). The thing is that Valanar isn't super-strong in of himself even if his effect gets triggered, and I'm honestly just frowning at this card and going 'eh, moving on'. Like, it's a cool effort to make a 2-mana 2/2, 3-mana 3/3 and 4-mana 4/4 that gains an effect if the deck's build to eliminate their specific number, but at the same time, jeez, their effects are just so... m'eh that I'm not even sure how to react beyond slight apathy. Like, yeah, sure, you could put in all three in a Quest Hunter deck and try to make that work, but none of them other than Keleseth will actually make the deck stronger.


Dead Man's Hand
Dead  Man's Hand is interesting, but ultimately I think is either going to be super-amazing and meta-defining... or a complete flop.  For 2 mana, you shuffle a copy of your hand into your deck. If you shuffle your second Dead Man's Hand into your deck, you potentially chain into infinite cards to prevent fatigue and give those Jade Druids a huge bird flip. The concept of reusing cards like, say, getting extra Brawls, Shield Blocks and whatnot is pretty cool, and the anti-fatigue utility is definitely the card's strongest suit. Control Warrior hasn't really been the same since Elise Starseeker rotated into wild and Jade Druid took the spootlight as Hearthstone's premier fatigue-war deck, and this could actually work very well for a replacement for Elise. Again, though, it requires a fair bit more setup than Jade Idol's automatic self-recycling, and if Gang Up is anything to go by, sometimes you'll find it hard to spend 2 mana to basically do something that'll only give you value in the long long run. Not a bad card by any means, though, it just needs to find a proper home.

Spreading Plague
Remember Unleash the Taunts Protect the King from karazhan? Well, Druids get a version of it, because Druids are all about the Taunt in this expansion apparently. Spreading Plague, in addition to having an awesome artwork, is a 5-mana card that summons a 1/5 Scarab with Taunt, and repeats it until you have the same number of minions as your opponent. This is important because unlike Unleash the Hounds or Protect the King, you can't suddenly have a mega-advantage over your opponent by summoning an equal number of tokens. But Spreading Plague is just great, right? A 1/5 Scarab with Taunt is basically a better Silverback Patriarch (the scarab's presumably a beast, considering the scarab summoned by Obsidian Destroyer), and 5 health is the same amount of health that one of the most popular early-game taunts, Tar Creeper, has. It gives you a crap-ton of tokens to play with whether with Mark of the Lotus or Savage Roar, although I don't think this will fit in the current iteration of Token Druid considering Spreading Plague favours you having a more losing board. It's going to put a gigantic wall in front of any Pirate Warrior deck, though. And while I'm not sure if I want Hadronox to be summoning 1/5 Scarabs instead of Dark Arakkoas and Twin Emperors, Spreading Plague seems good enough that I think it'll see play nonetheless. 1/5 Taunts are far, far better than the 1/1 Taunts that Protect the King summons in that they'll actually resist a lot of removals (Shadow Word: Horror notwithstanding) and actually buy you a turn.


Frost Lich Jaina
Our second hero! Frost Lich Jaina's card has been leaked since like last week, but not her hero power. The hero power she gets? Basically the 2-mana deal 1 damage, but like Bane of Doom, if she kills a minion with the hero power, she's going to summon a Water Elemental. Frost Lich Jaina has one of the most awesome artworks in the set (though the Frost Lich Jaina art in both promotional key arts and the trailers are all pretty boss as well) and it's a shame that she doesn't look super-awesome. Though I might be proven wrong -- she's certainly a card that looks a little bit weird. She comes down at a whooping 9 mana, which is far, far more than Deathstalker Rexxar. And unlike Deathstalker Rexxar, Jaina doesn't actually clear the board. Sure, she gets 5 armour, but all she does is summon a free Water Elemental and swap hero powers. The combination of the new hero power and the fact that all her elementals will have lifesteal permanently throughout the game makes Frost Lich Jaina a pretty hard-to-kill hero, though. I'm not sure if she actually needs an Elemental deck to play though it's going to understandably be better. The Water Elementals Jaina can summon indefinitely doesn't activate your Blazecallers and Servants, sure, but those cards can still be played independently and they'll still have Lifesteal. It's a different type of unkillable mage,  where instead of relying on Ice Blocks and Reno turns, Jaina's survivability is going to be based mostly on having her unstoppable army of Water Elementals freeze, trade and heal her up. The thing is whether Jaina's going to be able to actually use her hero power effectively, because your opponent is sure as hell not going to leave 1-health minion hanging around for you to kill. Which is where Sindragosa suddenly looks better, because Jaina's hero power will still trigger upon killing your own minions. Suddenly if Frost Lich Jaina's already activated, summoning Sindragosa ends up being a 10-turn play where you summon an 8/8 Sindragosa, kill one of the Frozen champions to summon a 3/6 Frost Elemental with Lifesteal, draw a free random legendary out of thin air, and have another Frozen Champion for next turn's hero power ping. Again, though, it looks like a long, control game and I'm not quite sure if the Frost Lich Jaina deck is going to emerge, but it certainly looks fun. We'll see.

Ice Walker
Oh man, this card. The Ice Walker's got sub-par stats, a 2-mana 1/3, but he's an Elemental in Mage (and I just spent a paragraph talking about how Elemental Mage might be super awesome). 2 mana is easy enough to slot into turns before you drop your Servants of Kalimos or Blazecallers, and the Walker is a minion with a continuous effect -- Jaina's hero power now freezes the target! Historically in TGT cards that passively affect the hero power hasn't been played that much -- cards like Fallen Hero, Coldarra Drake and a majority of the Inspire minions don't see play outside of Arena, but the combination of the Elemental synergy and the fact that Ice Walker's going to help to slow down the enemy to reach that insane Frost Lich Jaina turn means that Ice Walker certainly has potential -- moreso than stuff like Doomed Apprentice. I'm not saying that this is the new Pyros or Arcanologist, but it certainly seems like a decent enough card to see constructed play.


Meat Wagon
(Warcraft III references makes me happy!) Holy shit, a Mech! I thought those things were extinct. The last one we got was, what, that crappy burgle-bot from Gadgetzan? Meat Wagon's statted identically to fellow Warcraft III siege engine Demolisher, with 1/4 stats. It costs 4 mana, though, and as a deathrattle, it summons a minion with less attack than this minion. Which... which sounds horrible, to be honest. Sure, you can buff Meat Wagon up with Abusive Sergeant or Grimy Goons hand-buffs, but at the same time the unpredictability and generally weird and inconsistent setup means that I don't really see Meat Wagon being played at all. It's cute, though, and maybe there's a way to ensure that the Meat Wagon always summons like a 0-attack minion? Shaman's Mana Tide, Primalfin and Flametongue Totems are the only things I can think up of that fit this role, and Shamans kind of aren't hurting for options in their 30-card pool. The awesome rap that the reveal came with by J4ckie Chan suggests eggs, Validated Doomsayer and Lightspawn as possibilities, but again, not particularly amazing -- you'll probably want cards that's going to synergize well with the eggs or the Elementals in the first place and not the inconsistency of Meat Wagon. So unless some particularly awesome Mech deck in Wild can think up of something, poor Meat Wagon's just going to be a pretty sub-par, rarely-used epic. It's an interesting card that makes you really think of the amount of stuff you could do with it, though -- and if nothing else, you get to listen to a fun rap.


Necrotic Geist
The Necrotic Geist would be awesome if only it had better stats. The effect is similar to cards like Cult Master or Flesheating Ghoul, arguably better because the Geist puts a 2/2 token into the field immediately. Except its stats are absolutely pitiful at 5/3. Like the only real proper use I can see Necrotic Geist in is in a combo with Unleash the Hounds, but that's like a 9-mana combo for, what, a 5/3 and a board full of 2/2's? I'd rather play Call of the Wild, thank you very much. That said, though, the Necrotic Geist might, might see play in some token decks, but I highly doubt it. I do like his very undead-themed effect, though, and I kind of feel that if you're going to print filler cards, at least have them be like Necrotic Geist or Meat Wagon where they have relatively weird and unique effects and not just... y'know, bad cards like Ticking Abomination or Ice Breaker.


Cobalt Scalebane
Oooh ooooh ooooh new dragon! I've been playing a lot of Dragon Priest in Wild lately, and while Dragon Priest do already have an insanely powerful five-mana dragon, the addition of Cobalt Scalebane into the pool of cards that Netherspite Historian can discover is certainly welcome. The Cobalt Scalebane is like the old Master Swordsmith on steroids, where it gives a random friendly minion the very unsignificant +3 attack at the end of each turn. And the Scalebane has the pretty awesome statline of 5/5 for 5 mana, and he's a dragon, which means dragon synergy and Curator synergy. The Scalebane is just amazing, especially in Arena. Like, I'm not sure if constructed decks can actually make a spot for him, but he's certainly an interesting option to be slotted into board-centric decks or decks that feature the Curator in general. Definitely liking this card. Definitely will be trying to put him into all my Wild dragon decks, although honestly the biggest problem is that it competes with Azure Drake and Drakonid Operative for the 5-mana spot, and with that in consideration Scalebane might find it hard to find a home.

Gnomeferatu

Holy hell, what the fuck is this card! She has 2/3 vanilla stats, which is awesome enough, but she... removes a card from your opponent's deck? Seems like they realize that discarding your own cards is annoying and self-destructive half the time, so Warlocks now decide to discard their opponent's cards! It's obviously not as powerful as it initially seems, but the fact that Blizzard is printing cards that are disruptive to the opponent's hand or deck is actually pretty surprising considering their staunch stance on not doing such a thing. In any case, Gnomeferatu's effect is pretty tame, discarding a single card -- that's like milling them a card, and it's an effect that'll only happen twice throughout the game. It's also not an effect that's great against all decks, with it not mattering that much against aggro decks, but if you burn a Brawl? A Shadow Word?  A Twisting Nether? An Elise? Fandral? Ragnaros? Lord Jaraxxus? Lyra? And we're not even talking about big deck-clinching cards like Alexstrasza, Ice Block, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Archmage Antonidas, and stuff like that. Some decks can survive having a couple of their cards get burned, but combo decks? Moreso than Dirty Rat (which always felt more like a risky play) the Gnomeferatu seems like a properly awesome anti-combo card. She's not as game-breaking as many people think she is, because against non-combo decks her effect might as well as read 'put the topmost card onto the bottom of the deck', but against combo decks? It's going to have, like, a 1/20, or 4/20 chance of discarding a combo piece, otherwise she's just a River Crocolisk. That's not to say that she's bad, but Gnomeferatu isn't as ultra-OP or consistent as she initially seems to be. She's definitely okay, though.

Hearthstone: Frozen Throne Card Reviews, Part 2

 In addition to all these new cards, we also get the revelation that beating the Lich King Adventure/Mission single-player story mode thing once with every class is going to award you with a brand-new Paladin hero skin... young Prince Arthas! Well, shit, I love Uther and Liadrin, but man, the moment I get Arthas there's only going to be a single Paladin skin I ever use forever more. Soon we'll probably have enough alternate hero skins for a top ten Hearthstone hero skins list! (Meanwhile, Druid and Warlock really need some love)

So, anyway. Lots and lots of new cards. These are the reveals for the past... half-week, I think? Images will be edited in later 'cause I'm lazy.

Bring it On
When I first saw this card I laughed out loud. What a shit card! Ironhide was half of this card's effect, but with one less mana. Bring It On gives you 10 armour for 2 mana... and then gives a double-Thaurissan discount on all your opponent's minions? Is this an actual insult? Like, shit, I was actually pissed off when I first saw this card. Then I stopped and thought... putting double the armour gain into basically a half-Reno armour into a single card is convenient, if nothing else. But when is it worth it to do an effect comparable to Milhouse Manastorm, unarguably the worst legendary in the game? Obviously, when you're trying to set up the enemy for Brawl. Of course, if you're using Bring it On at all your opponent's probably going to guess that, 'hey, this dude's giving me free discounts to make me play into a Brawl' and withhold certain cards so... yeah. Probably fun to mind-game people with in lower ranks, but otherwise, a pretty shit card. Still, it got elevated in my mind from 'horrid insult to the playerbase' to 'shit but they're doing something interesting', which is... a bit more okay.

Coldwraith
Coldwraith is another freeze-synergy card, this time for Mages which will have a far easier of a time to freeze stuff than Shamans do. And unlike shitty ol' Shatter, or the sub-par-if-not-activated Cryomancer, Coldwraith has a very okay 3-mana 3/4 statline on a pinch. If an enemy happens to be frozen, you get a bonus card draw. It's a very decent card, it's just that decent probably doesn't quite cut it for constructed. It's definitely a cool card design, and I do like the concept behind it, I'm just sad that Mages have way, way too many multi-purpose cards for a card like Coldwraith to find a proper home in a high-ranking deck. Like, the card's okay. It's just not quite right for mages as they stand in Hearthstone.

Voodoo Hexxer
Everyone called for a freeze-synergy Shaman card to be revealed after the dire Ice Breaker was, and we got Voodoo Hexxer. Will it make Ice Breaker work? Hell no! But is Voodoo Hexxer a good card? Definitely. He's comparable to Alley Armorsmith, with the exact same stats (5-mana 2/7 Taunt) but instead of armouring up every time it attacks, Voodoo Hexxer simply just freezes the enemy. It's... a little underwhelming, to be honest, but it's still a decent card. As a 5-mana taunt it's okay in and of itself, although the ability to freeze probably only matters to hinder pirate warriors from hitting you the next turn. Unlike the Armorsmith it doesn't give you super-value, it just... freezes stuff, which, while a neat bonus, isn't super-impactful. It's a pretty balanced card all around, and a great freeze activator -- it just needs some extra oomph to get there, and Ice Breaker is definitely not it. In itself the Hexxer is a pretty great, solid card, it just needs to find a proper home, just like a good chunk of the cards reviewed here.

Bearshark
Hahahaha, this card! It's actually quite decent, too. I don't think it'll actually make its way into the already overcrowded three-mana slot for Hunters, what with Animal Companion, Eaglehorn Bow and Rat Pack having a bit of a monopoly on that mana slot, but it's actually different enough from them to be considered as an alternative. The Bearshark is a 4/3 for 3 mana with the Faerie Dragon effect (we really need to keyword that -- I've seen it be called spellproof or hexproof or untouchable or something along those lines), which renders it immune to a fair bit of early-game spell removal like Frostbolt... while the Hunters buff their beasts almost exclusively with minion battlecries (Houndmaster, Crackling Razormaw) so it doesn't matter for the Hunters themselves. Unfortunately, though, it's still a 4/3. If it was a 3/4 for 3 with the same ability, it would be insane. As it is, though, a 4/3 still dies to your Fiery War Axes, or to other 3/2 minions, and can't get rid of the ever-popular Tar Creeper. It's not a bad card, though -- if it survives to the next turn to get Houndmaster'd, it'd be a rampaging mountain of value. Historically minions with spellproof (or whatever you're calling it) have been relatively sparse, with only Faerie Dragon and Soggoth really seeing any kind of marginal play, and even then in first-tier decks they tend to be cut out for other chioces. Bearshark's a decent enough play, though probably not always better than Animal Companion's choices (though definitely more consistent). Definitely a card you want in arena, and a card you will be happy to make a zombeast out of. I actually hope this card's better than it looks the way Rat Pack was relatively underestimated, if only because the artwork's so, so damn silly and awesome and I want to see him everywhere.

Hadronox
Hadronox is the Druid legendary, and he's a big creepy demonic spider! He's like, the Nerubians' pet in Azjol-Nerub or something. I need to do a proper lore section for these cards. Perhaps I will. Hadronox is a huge Druid Beast, sitting at 9-mana... with the relatively piddly 3/7 statline. But it acts as a N'Zoth for taunts! Which I was super-excited for. Sure, Warriors have their Taunt Quest decks, but Druids actually have the best Taunt minions. Jade Behemoth, Druid of the Claw, Dark Arakkoa, Ancient of War (which doesn't get summoned by Hadronox, but still), Ironbark Protector... hell, he even works with Curator and vice versa! yet my heart sunk when I realized Hadronox's ability is a deathrattle instead of a battlecry. It does make Hadronox insanely scary if you don't have hex or polymorph, and in wild, with Sludge Belchers and shit he's going to be scarier. He also gets summoned by N'Zoth, allowing for infinite (well, if not infinite then a metric fuckton) amounts of Sludge Belchers. I'm not sure if Hadronox will actually see a lot of play because between his statline and his effect being a deathrattle instead of a battlecry, but he's certainly very exciting. You know what's great with Hadronox? C'Thun decks. Not sure if a Geomancer-taunted C'Thun is going to be summoned by Hadronox, but even then you can get Hadronox to summon both Twin Emperors and Dark Arakkoas, and that alone's going to be insane. I'm not sure if Hadronox will work, but a card that inspires me to make a deck is definitely great design in my books.

Abominable Bowman
Ha ha, get it, Abominable Snowman? I actually chuckled at this. The artwork's pretty dang cool-looking, too, with the Abomination's two smaller hands functioning together to hold the bowstring and to reload the arrows. That aside, though, it's actually a pretty underwhelming card. I won't say that it's bad, but I don't think this dude will see much play unless in very dedicated Deathrattle decks. He's a 7-mana 6/7 that summons a random beast that died this turn as a deathrattle. And therein lies the problem -- Hunters have a lot of weak beasts. Alleycat, and the cat it summons. The little 1/1 spiders, rats and 2/2 hyenas summoned by other common minions. If the Abominable Bowman actually rolls the actual Savannah Highmane or the Infested Wolf then it's actual insane value, but unless you dedicate a Deathrattle Hunter that does not feature weak beast tokens, the Bowman's going to find a hard place to fit in. Like, on paper a 6/7 that summons a 1/1 on Deathrattle gets vanilla stats... but vanilla statted minions aren't viable on the ladder. Mind you, it's not neccessarily a bad card. I can see a more Deathrattle oriented deck where you run N'Zoth, Terrorscale Stalker and Spiritsinger Umbra... but then you'd be sacrificing on so much of the mid-game and early game beast synergies hunters are good at. I don't necessarily see Abominable Bowman being great with the cards we have at the moment, but make no mistake, it's definitely an interesting card that might prove itself to be useful in the future.

Fatespinner
This is one of the more interesting cards of the expansion, and I really, really love it. A lot of the biggest complaints directed to Hearthstone as a game is how RNG it gets sometimes, a complaint that I think people hype out of proportion but definitely valid. Fatespinner is a card that isn't a simple bunch of stats and keywords, so it plays differently every time you play it, but it's dependent on you and not RNG. You pick a Deathrattle... secretly! It's a 5-mana 5/3 that either Hellfires the board (and Druids have been begging for AoE, by the way) or mass-buffs the board with +2/+2. And depending on the board state, either one can be great. Like, maybe your enemy is a simple spell mage with very few minions. Why not give your board a mini Savage-Roar? Most of the time the damage might be the right choice, but the addition of the guessing game and mind-games for your opponent is amazing card design, and the particularly popular Egg Druid archetype actually works well with either one of Fatespinner's abilities. It's probably not the most meta-defining card out there, but it's certainly one of the most interesting ones.

Bolvar,  Fireblood
Hey, new Bolvar! Bolvar Fordragon's greatest achievement in his life (well, in his death) was becoming the new Lich King after the fall of Arthas Menethil, the iconic second Lich King. He's cool, he's a fiery scary noble corpse. He did kind of have a shit card back in GvG, but since this is a Lich King expansion it's kind of appropriate for him to make an appearance, right? Sadly, though, he's not actually super-good. Which is fine. Unlike Lana'thel, New!Bolvar came out in a class that keeps getting great Legendaries for like four or five expansions straight. New!Bolvar isn't super-bad either, it's just that right now there's not many ways to properly play with Divine Shield synergy. We'll have to wait and see. Otherwise, a 5-mana 1/7 with Divine Shield that grows... isn't particularly good. Comparing him to Lana'thel, Lana'thel doesn't need to be on the board to gain buffs, but Bolvar Fireblood gains +2 instead of +1 per tic. He does require you to have a board set up, though, to either trade or Blood Knight up, so... I dunno. He doesn't seem too good, in my opinion. But that's okay. Arthas is the one true Lich King and we know that.

Light's Sorrow
Light's Sorrow has Bolvar's effect, but in weapon form. It's a 4-mana 1/4 weapon, pretty shit, that gains a single point of attack every time a Divine Shield is popped. It's not as bad as Ice Breaker, because it's easier for you to pop Divine Shields, but I really hope, again, that there are more ways to get Divine Shields onto the board otherwise this card's going to be really hard to even activate. Plus, just like most weapons, it dies to Oozes despite its powerful 4 durability. I'm more of a 'wait and see' mentality with Light's Sorrow, until we see all the Paladin cards, but as for now it seems bad.

Corpsetaker
What the hell. 'Winter is coming' indeed. The card honestly surprised me because I thought this was a legendary at first, before I realized I could put two of these into my deck. The Corpsetaker, other than being a cool Game of Thrones reference with her summoning quote, is herself an insane minion. She's a 4-mana 3/3... which honestly is insane for a card that can potentially become a life-stealing mini Al'Akir. Like, what the fuck! She copies the following four keywords if there's a card with them in your deck: Lifesteal, Taunt, Windfury and Divine Shield. So in paladins, all you need is Wickerflame Burnbristle in your deck and a single Windfury minion to get her full value. Even then, if it's only Wickerflame, you get a bigger Wickerflame himself! Shamans straight-up get a mini Al'Akir for the simple cost of putting an Al'Akir in your deck, which, chances are you're already doing anyway. If she gets her full value, if unanswered the Corpsetaker is going to just deal 6 damage while heal you for 6, and she has Divine Shield and Taunt to deal with! She's probably not going to be consistent all the time, but if you get three out of four of her keywords she's already pretty badass.

Bonemare
What the hell, this card! It's an insane heap of value. For the simple disadvantage of 'you need another minion in play' -- something that isn't that hard to actually do, especially for Paladins and Shamans -- you roll in together a 5/5 body, a Blessing of Kings and Taunt. It definitely costs a lot more than a total of 7 mana. And yes, if you're forced to play Bonemare alone you get a 7-mana 5/5 which is horrifyingly bad, but the upside is so good that I actually can see this thing run in an actual constructed deck. You basically get a 5/5 body, and a maximal of a charging 4/4 and a sudden taunt. Bonemare's going to be a nightmare (see what I did there) in Arena, and honestly I can see some Constructed lists fitting Bonemare in. Cool card, definitely.

Animated Berserker
This card's a bit weird. He's a Warrior one-drop with a 1/3 stat-line, with the continuous effect of dealing a damage to any minion you play while he's active. Which is insanely weak outside of a proper Enrage/Patron style deck. It's another Whirlwind-style activator similar to Whirlwing, Ravaging Ghoul, Death's Bite and Blood Razor, but at the same time there's not a lot of cards in Standard that really work well with the Enrage mechanic, what with Patron hanging out in wild (with no way to give them charge, too). Like, there's the obvious Bloodhoof Brave, Grommash Hellscream or Frothing Berserker synergies, but are those enough to justify putting the relatively weak Animated Berserker into your deck? It's a cool concept that I'm happy to be included as a card design, don't get me wrong, and I think it's cheap and harmless enough to be included in some lists. Has potential, I think? Certainly him + Grommash Hellscream's a pretty good play, and far more viable than, say, Grommash and then possibly wasting a Whirlwind to do nothing but enrage the Hellscream patriarch. Hey, Frozen Throne! Bring me more Enrage cards!

Sanguine Reveler
It's a pretty interesting card. A 1-mana 1/1 that becomes a 3/3 if you destroy a friendly minion? Obviously you want to play it in a Deathrattle deck. A zoo-y deathrattle deck. In wild I can easily see him being dropped next to Nerubian Eggs and Haunted Creepers and just getting value upon value, but in standard? Obviously we haven't seen all the Warlock cards yet, but for now he does kind of look unspectacular in standard. He could be an easy Devilsaur Egg activator, which is cool, but he's definitely going to need a fair bit more cheap early-game deathrattle minions to really work properly. The thing to probably watch out is that if you topdeck this while you don't have a target, you can't actually play him without sacrificing one of your minions, and if you drop him on an empty board he's just going to be a lowly 1/1... neither of which are very great at all. Still, in a proper deathrattle/zoo deck the Sanguine Reveler's definitely going to find a home. Is this time for Zoolock's return? We've been saying that since forever. Overall, a cool and interesting card. See, Blizzard, you don't actually have to lead with crap like Lana'thel and Ticking Abomination.

Howling Commander
FUS RO DAH! Come on, I'm not the only one thinking it, right? This little Dovahkiin cosplayer isn't the best card out there, but she's a tutor card and tutor cards have been historically played pretty well in other TCGs. In Hearthstone, the Curator is the most effective and honestly a bit of a sleeper hit. But is Howling Commander good? Obviously a 3-mana 2/2 is horrid, horrid stats, and drawing a Divine Shield card... isn't the best thing ever, especially since the Commander herself doesn't actually have Divine Shield himself so she doesn't actually try and work with the new Bolvar or whatever. She does allow you to draw Tirion Fordring (no, Wickerflame isn't good enough to warrant this, and definitely not New!Bolvar) on demand. Is that good enough to warrant a deck spot? Probably not. We'll need to see all the Divine Shield minions in this expansion, of course. Paladins do kind of need card draw, which is okay, so I guess?

Venomstrike Trap
Oh, hey, another new secret for Hunter! Putricide loves secrets, right? This one's actually great,  a combination of the Bear and Snake Traps. It gets activated similar to the Snake Trap, after a minion is attacked, but it summons a minion from the game itself, the 2/3 Emperor Cobra with Poisonous. Is it particularly good? Not really, since unlike the Ironfur Grizzly from the Bear Trap, Poisonous isn't super-relevant on your opponent's turn since they still control what trades into what, but at the same time it could completely screw up your opponent's turn. It looks okay, and certainly won't be bad if you get it free from a Putricide. The mere existence of Putricide means that this card's going to see play through him even if it's not in actual decks. Though honestly, why not? Free snakes!