Introduction
Aaaand the batch of good cards is finally here!
To counteract the huge pile of crap Blizzard has been throwing at us with Whispers of the Old Gods in the last month, we are finally starting to see the good side of the expansion, and it looks amazing!
This was predicted, but I can’t stop feeling good about it – The possibilities!
In case you are wondering, the spoilers prior to this one have been filled with bad cards, a huge number of them on the unplayable side and while we only got about 3 playable Legendaries, everything else was just horrible. So I ended up commenting that Blizzard was probably doing that on purpose – showing us the worst side of the expansion first, so then we would get hyped in the last days of spoilers – and it seems that I was right.
Today we only get to see playable cards, so let us start this analysis because we have a lot to say!
Master of Evolution
This dude is pretty nuts. Not only you get full vanilla stats on a card, you also get an amazing ability. This is recombobulator in steroids, and while you can’t steal stuff as Priests do with shadow-madness, there are a lot of things you can do with this guy that are amazing.
Firstly, let me tell you that simply playing this on an empty board is already decent – No one would feel bad for playing a chillwind-yeti on turn 4. Then, on turn 6 onwards you won’t even need some other card to buff because your hero power is already a 1 mana minion!
There are so many things about this card that makes it amazing:
- You can trade and then Morph your damaged minion into something better and fully healed;
- This is good regardless of turn you play;
- Makes better use of those silenced minions or those Battlecry minions!
- Your Hero Power is totally in line with this guy’s ability;
This is an amazing card and the only reason this would not see play is if the only playable Shaman lists post-rotation are the most aggressive ones.
Thing From Below
Woaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Shaman is coming! And here we go, another card that not only is amazing on its own, this also has abilities that makes it strong while, mind I notice that, has an amazing interaction with our just spoiled friend master-of-evolution.
This guy is powerful, your hero power makes it better, tuskarr-totemic makes it better, totem-golem makes it better, how on earth can this be bad?
Once again, this is a Shaman card meant to be played in Control and Midrange type of Shaman Decks, and it will only see play in case Midrange or Control does too, but in case it does I highly doubt this card won’t be an all-star inclusion on such decks.
Just to make it clear on how absurd this card is: stat wise, it is a 5-drop, so if you played a single totem before turn 5 and play this on curve, it is already a good card. Sure, but then what? This card’s cost gets diminished more and more, and if you draw it later in the game the cost will be diminished (confirmed on a blue post that I won’t be linking here) – and that is where it gets absurd. Playing this on 4 is already nuts, playing this for 2-3 mana on 6 together with, let’s say, a board sweeper is game breaking, and let’s not forget how powerful mana-reducing effects are in Hearthstone, and how much more powerful they’ll be on the Standard format.
Ravaging Ghoul
Now, this is the type of card I like seeing. This isn’t an overpowered card, but also not a weak one, this is a card made to support already existing archetypes and nothing else.
Plain and simple good card design. Sure, a lot of people love seeing cards that can create whole archetypes around them, but sometimes seeing a card like this get created is a lot more heartwarming than another Mysterious Challenger.
First things first: this card won’t make Patron Warrior more powerful, because different from deaths-bite, that is rotating out, it can’t be played before turn 5 and still combo with your Patron streak. No, this card needs to be played at least on turn 8 so that you can generate value out of your Grim Patron.
This is a support type of card, sure it can – and, in case the deck is still playable, will – help Patron Warrior, but overall this is a card made so that you can have a better board attrition against other opponents while generating value from your Warrior cards.
This card is good with armorsmith, acolyte-of-pain and frothing-berserker, while being good on its own against Rush decks, which makes me believe people will try to find the perfect slot to fit this one in a lot in the first month or so of expansion, but we’ll only be able to tell if this card will or will not make the cut into the top competitive decks later on.
Mire Keeper
Another card that I loved. This is keeper-of-the-grove level of good, which is quite strong. This card’s abilities aren’t that good on its own and it wouldn’t be big if you had only one option, but since you have the ability to choose what is going to happen this will fit into a lot of different scenarios, making this card a powerhouse.
Ramping is no bad thing, and when the rotation comes most of Druid’s core is going to get nerfed, meaning Druid is likely to be playing the late-game Ramp strategy post-rotation, leading me to believe the number of 6-drops in Druid decks are going to be quite high.
Going from 4 mana to 6 (the following turn) is quite the jump, and 6 is likely to be where you’ll be dropping your big minions to take over the board, so the ramp part is already good enough – Getting a 3/3 and a wild-growth into a single card is powerful, very powerful.
Then you have the attrition part of the card, which is adding a 2/2 body to the board. While this ability doesn’t seem to be as powerful as the Ramp one, it will help in a lot of cases – mostly the ones where you won’t want the ramp, obviously, but this will also help you when fighting for Board Control against faster decks.
I could be going on and on in finding situations where this card is beyond powerful, but i’ll just leave this to your mind, because I would probably be writing a book about it.
The number of situations this card fits is just absurd, and that makes me believe we’re seeing yet another Druid staple being revealed.
Hammer of Twilight
And the last card reveal of the day is Shaman’s Control version of doomhammer!
This card fits in a lot more situations – at least when playing a Control Deck – Than Doomhammer does, which leads me to believe that you are likely to run this in your Control deck but not likely to choose this over Doomhammer in Midrange or Aggro decks, because the pressure you’re able to apply with Doomhammer is just too superior to this one’s.
This doesn’t kill most drop-5s, or even 4s, but overall this is much better at dealing with the board than Doomhammer, meanwhile it has no Overload (meaning you can drop fire-elemental the following turn) and also the 4/2 Elemental is a direct threat to harrison-jones‘ 5/4 body.
This isn’t a bad card, but it has a direct competitor, so we won’t be able to tell if this will – or will not – be seeing play until we are actually able to playtest this.
So far, the information I got is that the 4/2 has no abilities.
Closing
What a lovely evening I had here!
Writing about these cards even made me notice things I didn’t have before, and that was good!
I hope you guys have been enjoying the series! We’re finally seeing the good cards, let us just hope that there won’t be any more bad cards being revealed and that we have a Control-based format coming the rotation!
I hope to see you guys soon with more good cards to talk about!
Much loves,
Nuba
