Introduction
Well this weekend was crazy. We had so many cards and a lot of them were awesome ones.
At the same time Ben Brode did some nice twitch chat and talked to us about a pair of cards that are to get nerfed and why.
Before we start, the most important news:
- big-game-hunter and ironbeak-owl are getting nerfed.
These cards aren’t so powerful, why are they getting nerfed anyway? Well, both BGH as well as the Owl are very limiting when it comes to card design. Sure, the cards can come back in their original form in rotating sets, but having them in Classic set as they are right now limits a lot the card design, and because of this these cards should get nerfed, not because they are OP or anything.
These changes alone are likely to be more important than the whole expansion that is before us, given the impact of both cards in the game right now and how deck building will change drastically just because of this.
Now, to the cards themselves, let’s just start talking about them since we main point of this article isn’t Ban analysis (not this one article).
Forlorn Stalker
So this guy is… not interesting.
Hunter’s curve 3 is already too good, classic curve 3! We just have too many classic and basic 3-drops that are better than this little one in every single game plan this game can present us, which leads me to believe this will not see any play at all.
Sure, buffing a minion or two in your hand with +1/+1 could be decent, but is it really better than immediate effects like animal-companion’s beasts effects (which are all better than this guy’s) or unleash-the-hounds’ effect or even eaglehorn-bow that allows you to deal with the board the turn you play it??? I don’t think so.
This guy is also too situational, the body isn’t enough to justify a 3 drop just by itself (4/2 isn’t very good and dies to most 1-drop in the game) while the effect is subpar at best.
Demented Frostcaller
Alright, this kid.this guy has some pretty cool interactions but chances are it is going to be too bad to be played because of it’s mana cost.
The obvious comparison is flamewaker, which costs 1 less but has a worse effect. In truth, 3 mana is normally the limit we’ll want for cards that need others to have a decent effect, at least in decks like Tempo Mage, since we wouldn’t want to run this on any other deck because we would be lacking 1-cost (or less) spells.
The Freezing effect is obviously better than the 2 pings you get from Flamewaker, but also a lot more situational. You could be freezing your opponent’s face instead of a minion, you could be freezing a Taunt from a Control deck, so there are options where this card stops looking good. Also, this guy’s body is exactly the same as the Flamewaker, which is pretty horrible for a 4-drop (while being decent for a 3-drop, for example).
At 3 mana this card would’ve been broken, but at 4 it gets close to the unplayable lot. I didn’t like this card, but I believe that, different from most of the cards in this expansion so far, this one has some slight chances of seeing play as a 3rd Flamewaker.
Shifting Shade
Before I tell you if this card sucks or not, let us talk a little about how this guy should be seen:
4/3 for 4 is obviously not good, and it needs some pretty amazing ability to be playable, we all know that, but what is this guy’s ability in mana cost?
We have a card draw, a completely random one (pretending we’re playing against multiple opponents playing multiple decks, this becomes completely random) amongst the playable card base. But then that is a Deathrattle, which is terribly slower than a battlecry, was that really necessary? Making it a Deathrattle instead of a Battlecry means this card’s able to have a better body, so this becomes a 4/3 instead of the 2/4 of gnomish-inventor.
But then, you realize this is a class card, so it should’ve been much better than a Neutral, which (in stats and ability) it isn’t: it’s equal value!
That plus Priests never want to run minions that they won’t be able to heal, since Priests Healing when targeting a minion becomes much powerful than when targeting self, and a 4/3 for 4 mana is usually meant to die the turn it was played.
All this made me believe this card is terrible, not unplayable since you could run this if you want without making your deck extremely worse, but terrible enough that this is likely to never see competitive play.
Twilight Flamecaller
Cute.
This is obviously a Tech Card, meant to be played on metagame with a lot of 1-Health minions.
This card is obviously better than arcane-explosion in most situations but likely to be as unplayable as its comparison.
Dark Arakkoa
Very powerful Taunt for C’Thun Druid.
I believe the sole reveal of this card should be enough to make C’Thun Midrange Druid viable, regardless of Druid Nerf (as long as the Combo gets nerfed), since this is likely to be playable – unless Combo Druid survives the nerf (which, I hope, won’t happen).
The biggest discussion about this card is probably going to be jumping around which Druid cards are going to be nerfed, since Druid’s Combo base is overpowered enough that it can outshadow any possible Druid deck in the game in case it survives the nerf wave.
But in case there is no more Midrange Combo Druid, this card is extremely likely to make C’Thun Druids viable, as it is a powerful servant with a relevant ability.
Princess Huhuran
Situational? Sure. Amazing? Even more.
What makes me like this card is that is it a beast, worth the 5 mana cost on the Vanilla test, and with a possible relevant ability.
The only thing that can make this card not playable in Standard is the lack of relevant Deathrattle that hunter should have access to. But Ben Brode told us that there are still a lot of Deathrattle cards to be spoiled in this expansion. So, in case a batch of good Deathrattles is presented to us, this is most likely seeing play.
In Wild this is an obvious addition to Midrange Hunter as the deck already runs a lot of Deathrattle minions.
Closing
And this is it for now with the Latest Spoiled cards. We are very close to the leaked release date, so starting this week we’ll start our brewing streak. Expect to start seeing a lot of Deck brews all over this website, with lots and lots of awesome ideas for your first week of WOG!
Hope you guys are enjoying my reviews, love you!
Cuddles,
Nuba
