Introduction
Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to another installment of ”Running Wild”, the article series where I cover just about everything related to the wild format. Yesterday I took a look at some of the new cards for druid, hunter and mage and their impact on the wild format. As promised, today I will take a look at paladin, priest and rogue. Next week, after the launch of the set, I will publish my final card review and then we can start looking at some crazy wild decks. To be honest with you, I’m quite shocked at the insane amount of wild support in this set :O When it was announced I thought ”eh, whatever set” but boy was I wrong. This is probably my second favorite set, power wise, after Goblins vs Gnomes.
Before we jump into this, because there are so many cards, I’m not going to talk about all of them. Some cards are just so bad that there aren’t even worth talking about. Those cards that aren’t on this list are rated 0/5
With all that out of the way, sit back, relax and let’s just jump into this 🙂
Paladin
I am as happy as a fat kid in a chocolate factory! Paladin has finally been given some cards to make the silver hand recruit deck more viable and I can’t wait to start dominating the ladder with it 😀 Oh, and it also got some other cools stuff, I guess…
Bolvar Fordragon
So, bolvar-fordragon just came out in the newest set, Goblins vs Gnomes, and it is a pretty weird card. Fun fact, this was the first golden legendary card that I have ever opened and I don’t think that I have it anymore (for obvious reasons). It is a 5 mana 1/7 minion with a newer seen before mechanic. It gets bigger, while you hold it in your han…ok, let’s try this again. If this card is in your hand, whenever a friendly minion dies, it gets +1 attack. This is a permanent buff to the card. There are two major problems that make this card the worst class legendary ever and those are: it has to be in your hand and if it is silenced you lose the buff so you’ve just played a 5 mana 1/7 minion. Honestly, I’m quite sure that this is the worst class legendary minion ever and that nothing will ever be worse than it. I can’t see paladin getting a worse card than 5 mana 1/7. I will rate this card 1/5 just because it was the first card that introduced the buffing while not in play mechanic, but 1/5 is already waaay too much for it.
Rate: 1/5
Val’anyr
valanyr is a cool weapon. I mean, it is a bit better than all other legendary weapons because when it gets instantly removed, like all legendary weapons will, which makes them useless, it at least gives you something and you get to re equip it for free. When it comes to all these legendary weapons, to be perfectly honest, most of them are trash. Please do yourself a favor and don’t waste dust on them. The only good ones are the ones that do stuff on the same turn that you’ve played them or when they are destroyed, like valanyr. How good is this card? It costs too much for a 4/2 weapon but the +4/+2 buff that it gives to one of your minions is pretty significant. It can also re equip itself once the minion dies which is a huge plus. If you play a minion heavy deck then there is a very good chance that you will never lose your valanyr, and since it cost you only 6 mana, that is a very nice deal. In control vs control matchups this card is absolutely amazing.
Rate: 4/5
Call To Arms
I would like to compare this card to a Magic: The Gathering card called Collected Company. Collected Company is an instant card, which means that you can play it at any point in the game, that costs 4 mana, 3 generic and 1 green, and allows you to look at the top six cards of your deck and put up to two creatures from them with a cost of 3 or less into play. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of your deck in any order. Now, this is no Collected Company in terms of power, but it is very close to it from an effect standpoint. For the same mana cost you get to put three random creatures from your deck that cost 2 or less into play. To lose value you would literally have to pull three 1 cost minions from your deck. Anything other than that is fair game. After inspecting this card I believe that there is some hidden potential to it, but unfortunately I can’t pinpoint it right now. I will need to see the rest of the set and when I do you better be sure that I will make a deck that is surrounding this card. Overall, I think that this card has both some great value and huge potential to be very, very good and I advise you not to disenchant it if you pull it from a pack.
Rate: 4/5
Level up!
I love this card! I’ve always been pondering on the idea of a silver hand recruit deck but we’ve never really had enough pieces to make the deck into something that is completely functional. The developers used to toss us a bone every now and then but nothing huge. We were given minions that were buffing our recruits, weapons that gave us recruits, spells that summoned recruits but it was never enough. Now, level-up comes along and wow…just wow. I can’t express enough how much I absolutely love this card. If you’ve been playing paladin in the wild format then you know how easy it is to get multiple silver hand recruits onto the board. Now we have a massive buff for our 1/1 dudes and another step into the right direction with making this deck viable. Thank you Blizzard for giving us this amazing card! We forgive you for bolvar-fordragon.
Rate: 5/5
Unidentified Maul
Wait…wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me that level-up wasn’t the only silver hand recruit deck card that we got in this expansion?! unidentified-maul is an amazing card on its own, it really is, all the effects that you can get from it are just great, but it is an absolute beast in a silver hand recruit deck. In order for this card to really shine you absolutely must have a board filled with minions and there is nothing easier than to fill your board with the recruits. Afterwards you are greatly rewarded. There are four options that you can get when you draw unidentified-maul and three of them are amazing if you have a board filled with minions. You can either give them all taunt or give them divine shield or give them +1 attack. Any, literally any of these three options, works great in a silver hand recruit deck. What about the last option? It summons two silver hand recruits! What more could you possibly ask for?!
Rate: 5/5
Drygulch Jailor
Even more silver hand recruit goodness! What is happening!? Christmas came early this year?! On the surface, drygulch-jailor is a whatever card. A 2 mane 1/1 minion is pretty bad because it dies to anything but that is the point. You want it to die because afterwards you get three silver hand recruits in your hand. In a deck that is looking to get as many recruits as fast as possible this effect is absolutely amazing! Do not underestimate the value of getting these guys. Worst case scenario when playing a paladin is having no minions so you just summon a 1/1 with your hero power. Now, for one mana more, you get to play 3 of the from your hand, and in a deck that looks to profit from these guys, that is great value. Outside of this one deck the card is bad so I’m not going to rate it highly.
Rate: 3/5
Lesser Pearl Spellstone
I’ve already made a habit of reviewing all spellstones so why not, let’s review this one as well. lesser-pearl-spellstone is not as good as the other spellstones that I have already cowered but it is not bad either. For 2 mana you get to summon a 2/2 minion with taunt which is whatever, but the first upgrade summons a 4/4 minion with taunt which is amazing, and the last upgrade summons a 6/6 minion with taunt which is just mindblowing. Just like the hunter spellstone, this one has a lot of value behind it. The problem, however, is that it is not easy to upgrade it. You need to heal yourself for 3. Now, luckily for us, upgrade progress carries over from one turn to the next so upgrading this spellstone shouldn’t be that hard, although I can’t imagine running enough heal cards to fully upgrade it. The problem is that, even when you do upgrade it, the process of doing that is really slow. On one hand this is good because it is balanced, but on the other hand it is bad because it takes too long. Regardless, if you manage to fully upgrade it the reward will be absolutely amazing.
Rate: 4/5
Priest
Priest has been dominating the standard ladder for quite some time now. I wonder will the developers do something about it by reducing the power level on new priest cards or will they just make it more powerful. Oh, look, they made priest even more powerful 😛
Temporus
Originally I didn’t even want to write about this card. If you ask me, this card is a straight up 0/5, but I feel compelled to talk about it even a little bit because there have been two very polarizing opinions on it. Some players say that this card is amazing while others say that it is utter garbage. Both sides have some valid arguments which all boil down to is it smart to give your opponent an extra turn in return for an extra turn. Now, as someone with a huge card game background, I will tell you some words of wisdom *khm*Â it is never good to give your opponent extra turns! No matter the situation, no matter the card game, it is never, ever a good idea to give your opponent extra turns. Even if you get extra turns afterwards, the tempo loss that you’re going to experience is huge. First off, you can easily die during those two turns. Second, even if you have some sort of board clear, you will spend your first turn removing your opponents board and recovering from all the damage that you’ve just received from their extra turn and you will spend your next turn playing your cards. So, I ask you, isn’t it just better to skip the whole recovering from the damage part and to straight to playing your cards as you normally would? Yes, yes it is.
Rate: 1/5
Dragon Soul
Long story short, you spend way too much mana than you should for a 5/5 dragon minion before giving your opponent 3 cards. This legendary weapon suffers the same issue when it comes to all legendary weapons and that is that it gets removed way too easily. Besides, it gives you little to no value in return for playing it. First you need to spend 3 mana to play it, then you’re going to spend the rest of your mana to cast 3 spells and then you will get a 5/5 dragon. Look, if you’ve wanted a 5/5 dragons, then why didn’t you just play one immediately?!?!?! This weapon is bad, just like almost all the others, and the best thing that ti gives you is 400 dust.
Rate: 1/5
Psychic Scream
Ok, now we’re getting into the domain of those very, very good cards. psychic-scream is probably the best removal spell in the game, or one of the best. This card is just insane. For 7 mana you get to not only remove everything from the board put also put it all into your opponenet’s deck!? Wow. Now, I know that some of you might be sceptical about putting minions into your opponent’s deck so I will quickly explain why is this so great. You’re filling their deck. You’re making it more difficult for them to dig for cards that they absolutely need and that makes this card so much better than other board clears. Imagine playing this against a reno deck that is desperately struggling to draw their reno-jackosn. At that point there is no greater pain, no greater punishment, that you could inflict onto them. Better yet, imagine having two copies of the same minion on your board and shuffling them into your opponenet’s deck. Congratulations, you’ve just shut down a reno deck.
Rate: 5/5
Lesser Diamond Spellstone
Another spellstone, yay, and this is a very good one. Just like the paladin one, lesser-diamond-spellstone is harder to upgrade as in it takes a while to do so but once you upgrade it the reward is insane. For 7 mana you get to ressurect 2 random friendly minions. Ok, that is bad, but when you upgrade it the first time it ressurects 3 friendly minions which is better and when you fully upgrade it it ressurects 4 friendly minions. FOUR FRIENDLY MINIONS!!! Wow…just….wow. This card is really, really insane once you get to that final upgrade. I really like it a lot but I’m going to rate it as same as the paladin one simply because it takes time for it to be good.
Rate: 4/5
Duskbreaker
duskbreaker is one of the best dragons in the entire game. There, I’ve said it. This card…oh man, this card is brutal. I can’t believe how good this card is! So, in short, if you’re playing a dragon priest you get to hellfire the entire field, if you’re holding a dragon, when you play duskbreaker and you still get a 3/3 dragon. That is a very great value, especially when you take into consideration that hellfire costs only 1 mana less and it doesn’t give you a minion. Sure, you’ll damage your own board but as far as anti aggro tools go this is actually pretty amazing. I can see this card seeing play in every dragon priest out there forever and ever, unless it gets nerfed which it won’t because it is not that powerful. If you’re a dragon priest player, like I am, then you’re going to love this card 🙂
Rate: 5/5
Twilight’s Call
Quest priest gets a great buff with twilights-call. I’ve been playing this deck for a while now and I must say that, unfortunately, I haven’t been having as much success as I wanted to. When the priest quest was first shown I was absolutely sure that it was going to be beyond busted in the wild format but it ended up being too slow, too clunky to use in a reno deck that already ran dragons, and it was a bit harder to find enough good deathrattle minions to justify running it. Now, however, you get to summon two deathrattle minions, in the form of 1/1 minions, but that still applies for the quest so we are getting a huge buff here. You just need to modify your deck a little bit, as in get rid of deathlords because if you summon one of those with twilights-call it is going to hurt a lot.
Rate: 4/5
Unidentified Elixir
We’ve reached the last of the unidentified cards in this review and that is the unidentified-elixir. Ok, in order to properly judge this card we’re going to compare it to another, very ancient, card called velens-chosen. velens-chosen is a strictly better card, in every way, and it sees no play at all anymore, therefor unidentified-elixir won’t be seeing any play at all. However, what about the standard format? Well, I’m sure that my colleagues have already given their thoughts on this card so you can check their articles if you want a more in depth analysis but as someone who doesn’t play standard I can at least say that this card might be decent. It might be but don’t hold me to that.
Rate: 1/5
Rogue
I hate rogue. I hate it to the point of rather waiting a day to reroll my quest than to be forced to play it. As a result of that, I will be getting through this section a lot faster because of my personal bias. To me all rogue cards are bad and they shouldn’t exist but hey, I will give it my best to fairly judge at least some of them.
Sonya Shadowdancer
Ugh…a rogue card. sonya-shadowdacer is a very unique legendary minion. For starters, it is a rogue legendary minion that doesn’t suck, so that is something that we haven’t seen in a while, and it appears to have a rather high minion combo potential. Because I thankfully don’t play rogue I can’t see the combo potential on my own but I am sure that those of you who enjoy playing this dreaded class have already came up with various ways of abusing this cards so please, let me know what you came up with in the comment section below. So far I’m going to rate this card 3/5 because I am sure that there are combo potentials and that I just don’t see them.
Rate: 3/5
Evasion
This is not ice-block. If the developers have decided to not rotate ice-block into the Hall of Fame with the next set rotation and to nerf it instead they would have made evasion. Yes, it is that bad. If you’re playing this to survive, your opponent sees that you’ve played a secret, they will automatically going to assume that it is evasion and just hit you with lethal right away. I really don’t see this card working out in your favor anywhere else but on ranks 20-15. Then again, just like with the previous card, I hate rogue, I don’t play it, I really don’t know if this will be any good.
Rate: 2/5
Lesser Onyx Spellstone
lesser-onyx-spellstone is like if you take that high potential value that paladin and priest spellstones have and just threw it away. For 5 mana you get to destroy 1 random minion. Ok, that is bad. After the first upgrade you get to destroy up to 2 random minions and then, finally, you get to destroy up to 3 random minions. Ok, two problem. First, you need to play deathrattle rogue which is not a good by itself. I’ve seen some of it last year and then it went away after 4 months, never to be seen again. Second, even after you fully upgrade this, you destroy random minions, meaning if your opponent has more than three minions you’re risking not destroying the ones that you want to destroy. Hey, I mean, not all spellstones can be good and I guess that this is just one of those that are horrible.
Rate: 1/5
Elven Minstrel
elven-minstrel is the best card that rogue got this entire expansion. For starters, since rogue has access to 0 mana spells, it is not hard to get the combo trigger. Next, you play a one mana more expensive arcane-intellect but you also get a 3/2 body to go with it. This is great. The value here is huge. Oh, wait, did I say two cards? You get to draw two minions, which is even better, because you know what type of card will you be drawing with this and if you’re playing a really low minion count deck then now it is even easier to dig for the minions that you want in your hand. This card is absolutely amazing!
Rate: 5/5
Cheat Death
cheat-death seems like a bad card. You can basically try to trick your opponent into shadowstepping your minion. However, there is a problem. It is really, really, easy to play around this. Think about it. Rogue has only three secrets and out of those three this is the only one that requires your opponent to kill your minion, so all that your opponent needs to do is to attack you, figure out that the secret is cheat-death and then proceed to punish you by slamming you in the face with his minions while your poor minion sits in the corner crying because no other minion wants to interact with him. This is a very, very bad card.
Rate: 1/5
Sudden Betrayal
I’m finally done with this class! sudden-betrayal is an interesting card. It has a cool interaction with evasion because if your opponent thinks that you have evasion that he or she is going to attack you with his or her most powerful minion, but if you have sudden-betrayal instead, they are going to find themselves in a very awkward situation where they have just wasted an attack and lost a minion. Overall, the card seems to be decent enough. It is not as bad as the secret above it and I think that it will see play, at least to some small extend.
Rate: 2/5
Conclusion
This is it for today. Remember to join us at the 8th when I am going to review everything that is left from this set and then we can start brewing awesome wild decks! As always  if you’ve liked this article do consider following me on twitter https://twitter.com/Eternal_HS. There you can ask me all sorts of Hearthstone questions (unrelated to this article) and I’ll gladly answer them as best as I can!
