The Boomsday Project Card Review #3 – Kangor’s Endless Army, Lab Recruiter, Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, Giggling Inventor, Zerek’s Cloning Gallery and More!

If you’re anything like me, then reveal season is your favorite time of the year (alongside the first days of a new expansion). With nothing figured out, new cards coming every day, wild theories and early deck builds (which most likely won’t work) popping up everywhere, and that surprise when you look at some card and think to yourself – “what were they thinking when they’ve designed it?”

I’ll take a closer look at each one of them, review it and rate it from 1 to 10. The scale itself should be quite obvious, but just to quickly explain how I see it: A card rated 5 is average – it might be playable in some decks, but it’s nothing special. Cards rated 3-4 might see some play in off-meta decks, or as obscure techs, but the closer we get to 1, the lower that chance is. When I rate card 1 or 2, I don’t believe that it will see any Constructed, non-meme play at all.  On the other hand, going above 5 means that I see this card as something with a lot of potential. While I can’t guarantee that it will work out in the end, I believe that the cards with 6-8 are likely to see at least some Constructed play, while cards rated 9 or 10 are, in my mind, nearly sure hits – even if not right after the expansion’s release. 1 and 10 are reserved to the worst or best cards I can imagine, meaning that they won’t be used very often.

Remember that with only a handful of cards seen, it’s incredibly hard to review them accurately, since we have no clue what synergies will be printed or which themes will be pushed. I advise you to pay more attention to the description than the rating itself – I will try to explore some of the potential synergies and reasons why a given card might or might not work. I also encourage you to share your own predictions and reviews in the comment section. Even if you aren’t sure, don’t worry, no one is! There is nothing wrong about being wrong, I have never seen anyone who nailed most of the card ratings before the release. But, without further ado, let’s proceed with the reviews!

PREVIOUS CARD REVIEWS

• #1 – Spider Bomb, Biology Project, Omega Defender, Electra Stormsurge, Myra’s Unstable Element and Stargazer Luna
• #2 – Upgradeable Framebot, Zilliax, Flobbidinous Floop, Whizbang the Wonderful, Mulchmuncher and More!

Autodefense Matrix

I’m always curious to see more Paladin Secrets. They’re the hardest ones to balance. On the one hand, they need to be pretty powerful for a 1 mana card to be viable. On the other hand, it seems like they want to keep their power level toned down after Avenge was a staple in multiple Paladin decks for a long while.

If I had to compare Autodefense Matrix to something, it would probably be Noble Sacrifice or Redemption. Similarly to Noble Sacrifice, when one of the minions is attacked, the attack is basically blocked – by a 2/1 minion or in this case by an extra Divine Shield. Unlike Noble Sacrifice, though, your opponent has the ability to choose the target, and face hits don’t get blocked. If he attacks a 1/1, that’s like having a 1/1 version of Noble Sacrifice. But if he attacks a 5/5, well, now his minion probably dies and your lives. On the other hand, it’s similar to Redemption in a way that it protects the chosen minion. When you have something that your opponent really wants to kill on the board, then Autodefense Matrix will make it way more durable.

In the right scenario, this Secret can be really powerful. You just buffed your minion with Blessing of Kings and you don’t want it to die? Well, giving it a Divine Shield when it’s attacked might be great.

On the other hand, Autodefense Matrix has a few downsides too. It’s bad in any deck that wants to summon a lot of 1/1’s, such as Odd Paladin. Giving your 1/1 a Divine Shield for a cost of 1 mana AND a card is just bad. You’d rather just drop a 1-drop like Argent Squire or Righteous Protector. Another downside is that it only stops ATTACKS, not spells. If your opponent Fireballs your 5/5, then it won’t get a Divine Shield. It can also be played around quite easily if you identify that it’s THE Secret your opponent runs – so it’s really a bad Secret to put into your deck alone. Oh, and it’s really bad when you play lots of minions with Divine Shield. If your opponent attacks one with this Secret in play, it basically does nothing – it gives DS to a minion, which already has one.

I mean, you can already give Divine Shield for 1 mana. Reliably, to the target you want. On your turn, so you can trade with it immediately and get the value. Yet Hand of Protection sees no play at all. I know that they’re different, but both have their upsides and downsides. Noble Sacrifice also sees no play, so why would this card be different?

The only deck I could see this working in right now is Secret Paladin. It has got some support last expansion with Bellringer Sentry, but that card alone wasn’t enough. Adding Autodefense Matrix might make Secrets harder to play around – when you run 3-4 different Secrets, they can get much more value when your opponent simply plays around the wrong one. But right now, the deck still doesn’t look very promising. The card is probably a bit better than Noble Sac, but Noble Sac isn’t great to begin with, so in the end its quite average. Pretty easy to play around and has no synergy with lots of Paladin stuff (Hero Power, Righteous Protector and other DS minions etc.).

Card rating: 4/10

Kangor’s Endless Army

Legendary spells sure do have some powerful effects, it seems. This card could be somewhat compared to Diamond Spellstone – it has similar upsides and downsides. But here is the most important thing – in both cases, you need to build your deck around it.

This does not look like a card that you can throw into your Mech Paladin deck and it will work perfectly. If you play a regular Mech deck, you most likely play a bunch of smaller Mechs too, for the sake of synergies and bodies to put Magnetize minions onto. And those minions will often die without getting buffed by another Mech first, flooding the pool of potential resurrect targets with weak targets. In the worst case scenario, it will be similar to the 7 mana Call to Arms – bad.

However, resurrecting 3 big minions, especially ones with immediate effects, or Taunt, can be insanely powerful. Just hitting one minion buffed by Zilliax and one buffed by Annoy-o-Module would be really sweet – two Taunts with Divine Shield, one with extra Rush & Lifesteal. Big board, immediate impact, all-around powerful card.

But the problem is that there is no way for you to guarantee hitting those in a deck full of Mechs. That’s why I think that this card would fit into something more like a Recruit Hunter. You CAN play Kathrena Winterwisp in a deck with lots of Beasts, small and big, but it’s not very consistent. You want to play her with only bigger Beasts in your deck, so you always pull something good. Or the Priest’s Spellstone example I gave earlier – sure, it’s very powerful if you build the right deck (and revive a few big minions or your combo cards), but you don’t slam it into your random deck with lots of small bodies. And I think that this card might be a similar case.

To be completely fair, it MIGHT be played in a regular Mech Paladin too, especially if you make it Magnetize-heavy. Just reviving one of those big Magnetize minions and maybe 2 smaller ones could be good enough. However, I think that the best way to approach this card is playing basically no early game Mechs, and starting with the Midrange ones (like 4 mana or more). Then even a low-roll on this card would mean reviving let’s say 12 mana worth of minions for 7 mana. Maybe Odd Paladin? The deck has a solid early game thanks to the Hero Power anyway, and then if you slam some mid game Mechs, this card can be a massive win condition. Or even a Spiteful Paladin? This is an amazing card to get from Grand Archivist, and 7-drops aren’t that bad to get from Spiteful. It will definitely be an interesting deck building challenge, and I’d imagine that it should see lots of play.

Card rating: 9/10

Dead Ringer

When you look at this card, the most obvious comparison would be Loot Hoarder. 2 mana 2/1, draws a card on Deathrattle. However, generally speaking, drawing SPECIFIC cards tends to be stronger than drawing cards in general, for a few reasons. It’s more consistent, you can guess what you will draw more consistently, it helps with the synergies etc.

So the first and most obvious candidate for this card is any kind of Deathrattle Priest. If you play a Deathrattle build, no matter if it’s a Quest Priest or maybe some Midrange deck with Coffin Crasher, you want to have your Deathrattle minions. And unlike Loot Hoarder, this will always draw them.

However, a more specific scenario that a lot of people seem to be missing is tutoring a specific card in your deck. When you play a deck with lots of Deathrattles, this isn’t that much different from a Loot Hoarder. But if you play only a few given Deathrattle minions, then it’s a whole another story. It’s similar to how Sandbinder works in Shudderwock Shaman – the deck wants to draw Grumble, Worldshaker for the combo, and this card helps with that. If you play the deck, it probably saved your neck many times, when Grumble was stuck at the bottom of your library.

It’s not on a level of a tutor card like Town Crier (which is honestly one of the best cards in the game right now, it’s just that Rush decks don’t really work), but it’s still solid. It will most likely see play in a deck like Quest Priest, where it won’t be amazing, but will be solid enough – probably a slightly better version of Loot Hoarder. And might see play in decks that want to tutor a specific Deathrattle card, like, I don’t know, Obsidian Statue or Carnivorous Cube.

P.S. It’s also a Mech, but Priest isn’t among the classes that are supposed to get Mech focus this expansion, so it might not matter.

Card rating: 6/10

Reckless Experimenter

This is a really interesting card. It’s like a Corpse Widow for Priest, with a twist. Same mana cost, same stats, both discount Deathrattle minions. In case of Experimenter, you get 1 mana of extra discount, but the minions die at the end of the turn. Sounds horrible, right? And well, in some cases it really is. Like, you don’t want to play an Obsidian Statue for it to die at the end of the turn. You basically play a 6 mana delayed Deadly Shot then. But some of the Deathrattle cards are played basically for their Deathrattle effects, and in those cases this card can make sense.

The most obvious examples are cheap Deathrattle cards. 0 mana effects can be really powerful. And so, for example, you can drop a 0 mana Loot Hoarder to basically cycle a card for free. Generally a positive thing. You can also drop a Devilsaur Egg – a 0 mana 5/5 is not too shabby. It would probably need some more activators in your deck (such as Void Ripper), though, because you won’t always draw them together. But the one I particularly like is Voodoo Doll – you get a 0 mana removal for any minion, the only downside is that it happens at the end of the turn, meaning that if it’s a big Taunt, you can’t get through it immediately to deal damage to the opponent. You can play both on Turn 5 – a 4/6 minion and clearing whatever biggest minions your opponent has on the board is a massive tempo play.

And of course, one of the most powerful cards from Kobolds & Catacombs – Carnivorous Cube. You get a 2 mana Cube that destroys itself at the end of the turn. While you lose on a 4/6 body, you can get the two minions inside immediately. Popping your own Cube is something you want to do anyway to play around Silence and transform effects. If you have something on the board, you can play the combo on Turn 7 – this + Cube will result in an extra copy of whatever minion you had, while healing it etc.

I’m not sure whether this card fits into Quest Priest. It just seems too… combo-oriented. Yes, Quest Priest runs a bunch of small Deathrattle minions, but nothing that would really benefit from this effect. And then again, it doesn’t work too well with cards such as Plated Beetle, Rotten Applebaum or Bone Drake, which are present in the current builds. I would see it in a more of a Tempo/Midrange Deathrattle Priest thing, when you can actually play a bunch of cards that will synergize with it better. It might also pair well with Spiritsinger Umbra to get two triggers of the small Deathrattle minions. Like, This + Umbra + Egg is 2x 5/5 instead of one, Loot Hoarder are 2 cards etc.

All in all, really interesting card. It has some cool synergies, but it’s really difficult to say how good it will be in the end. Cheap Deathrattle minions with weak bodies and strong effects will make it much, much better in particular. Maybe one or two more cards like that and an entire archetype will be created around it, who knows? Right now it looks okay, but not amazing – it might change with more cards being revealed, though.

Card rating: 6/10

Faithful Lumi

“Cute card” of the set. Those usually cost nothing, but well, this one would be pretty broken at 0 mana. At 1 mana, however, it’s certainly below average. In theory, it’s a 1 mana 2/2 if you add Battlecry to the stats. But in order to get advantage of the Battlecry, you first need ot have another Mech on the board. Which makes it a terrible T1 play. Even 1 mana 2/1’s are bad right now, and 1/1 does basically nothing.

It’s a bit like a Rockpool Hunter for Mechs, but much weaker. 2/3 for 2 is playable on the curve, while 1/1 for 1 really isn’t. On top of that, if you add the stats, a 2 mana 3/4 would be broken – a 1 mana 2/2 is good, but not overpowered.

1-drops that you can’t really play on T1 aren’t usually best ones to put into your deck, especially if the deck is aggressive. In case of this one, the only real synergy I can see is the one with Upgradeable Framebot. 1/5 stat line is defensive, but not exactly threatening. If you make it a 2/6, or even 3/7 with two of those, now it can put much more pressure. In the mid game, however, you can just buff your stuff with Magnetize, which means that this card is useful only during a very small time frame, probably around Turn 2-4, assuming that you are able to stick a small Mech to the board. Both the 1/1 body and a +1/+1 buff gets irrelevant quite quickly.

Not the worst card ever, but doesn’t look very strong. It’s a bit like Shattered Sun Cleric – weak on-curve stats, okay early game Battlecry, but only if you have a Mech on the board (and you can’t really have one in case of Lumi, unless you Coin another 1-drop out).

Card rating: 3/10

Omega Agent

It’s the most polarizing Omega card revealed so far. On the one hand, it has the best Turn 10 effect – summoning two extra 4/5’s is better than gaining +10 Attack on a single minion or healing for 10 in Priest (which already has access to lots of healing cards). On the other hand, it has the weakest on curve stats so far. 4 mana 2/6 Taunt is passable – it’s passes the vanilla test, it’s Stegodon power level. 3 mana 3/4 is also okay play on Turn 3 – obviously you would never play a vanilla 3/4 with no synergies in Constructed, but it’s still something you CAN drop on T3 and not be sad about it. But this one is different. 5 mana 4/5 with no text or keywords is just terrible. It would have to cost 1 less mana to be in line with the other two cards and be a vanilla card.

Unlike the other two, you pretty much never want to drop this one before you hit 10 mana. That’s why even though in theory an effect like that would fit a Zoo Warlock, in reality it’s a very bad Zoo card. Unless you go for a slower, Midrange build (and Zoo haven’t been built that since Demon Zoo a few years back), most of your games end by the time you hit Turn 7-8. 10 mana is a lot. It’s so much that Zoo builds have even cut the Bloodreaver Gul'dan, and I’d play the DK Hero over this card any time – you will revive a solid board anyway, but you will also get 5 Armor and upgrade your Hero Power. Not to mention Discard effects such as Soulfire or Doomguard. This card will get discarded before you even get to play it most of the time, since it’s really clunky.

So maybe in slower builds? Well, on the one hand, this makes more sense. A slower Warlock deck can afford a few dead cards, it’s not that big of a deal. And Turn 10 mark is much more realistic for that build. In slow Warlock, it can work a bit like an easier to activate Dragoncaller Alanna. 3x 4/5 minion for 5 mana is amazing in the late game, it puts lots of pressure and is pretty difficult to remove. But the problem here is – what deck would you want to play it in? Even Warlock is not an option, because this card is Odd-costed. Cube Warlock, maybe? But then again, Cube Warlock is also more aggressive, often wants to finish the Control games faster and is a pretty tight deck – I don’t think that it could cut anything to play those.

That’s why ultimately, while it might work in theory in some slow Warlock builds, I don’t really see it being good in an actual, realistic scenario. Most of the builds either don’t want to play it or can’t. It might fit into some slow Midrange or Control build we don’t have in the game yet, since it has some potential, but it just seems difficult to put into any deck right now.

Card rating: 4/10

Lab Recruiter

Gang Up on a stick? And not just any stick, on a 3/2 minion. For the same mana cost. Given that Gang Up was already a solid card in Mill strategy, at the first glance this just screams broken. However, we need to remember that Coldlight Oracle is no longer available in Standard, and it was the only reason why Gang Up was ever good, so a card like Lab Recruiter MIGHT exist and not break the game… or it might do it anyway. We’ve just got a Baleful Banker last expansion, but it appears that it wasn’t strong enough. Weaker stats, shuffles one instead of 3. It’s actually pretty funny that a card so much stronger than the Banker was printed right away.

In Standard, the best use of this card will be to shuffle more copies of your win condition back into your deck. What you want to shuffle probably depends on the deck itself. For example, in Miracle Rogue, you might want to shuffle three more Fal'dorei Striders or maybe even 3x Leeroy Jenkins – because why not.

In Burgle Rogue, it can be played on Tess Greymane – you can combo those two on Turn 10. Since Tess is the best card in your deck and basically your main win condition (other than the weapon), having 3 more copies in your deck definitely won’t hurt.

Another interesting use for this card is to simply go infinite. Play Lab Recruiter on your Lab Recruiter – shuffle 3 more into the deck, repeat. This is nowhere near on the level of Jade Idol, of course, but it might still come handy sometimes. You actually don’t even have to go infintie – just adding three strong minions into your deck will prevent fatigue for 3 extra turns and give you more fuel to finish the game (like after playing Myra's Unstable Element).

I disagree with a common voice that this is going to matter in Quest Rogue. I mean, sure, it MIGHT see play in Quest Rogue, but it’s not going to matter that much. Even if you shuffle 3 more copies of a card you’re bouncing into your deck, you might not even draw them by the time you finish the Quest. Remember that your goal is to get the Quest done by turn 6-8 depending on the matchup. Not to mention that it might be a bit clunky to play without Shadowstep – like, you can’t just play a minion you bounce + this on Turn 3-4, because then your opponent will kill that minion and you might not draw the extra copies in time, leaving you with nothing to bounce (you would have to switch to something else, most likely). Now, in the best case scenario, this can finish the Quest really quickly, but it will heavily depend on the luck, which is not really something Quest Rogue wants. It wants consistency.

It’s a really interesting card, and one with lots of potential. I’m 99% sure that it will see play in the Wild. When it comes to the Standard, however, it’s more difficult to rate. Right now there are no obvious, obnoxious combos you can pull off, but I’m sure that players will find something. This card has a massive potential and even if it won’t be played in The Boomsday Project, it most likely will a few expansions from now.

Card rating: 9/10

Weaponized Pinata

I love this card’s theme, name, art etc. I really do. It’s really cool to get a card like that, you just know that you’re playing Hearthstone. But I don’t think this card is any powerful, to be honest.

First of all, people are ALWAYS overvaluing the random Legendary thing. It might have been better in the past, when there were only a few low-rolls and most of the Legendaries were big and well-rounded. Right now, we have lots and lots of small, often weak Legendaries, or Legendaries requiring a specific synergy to work. Most of the time, I’d rather draw a card from my deck than get a random Legendary.

This card is probably similar to Shifting Shade. Possibly even worse, because even though you might miss with the synergies, at least you’re sure that you won’t get an outright terrible card, unless your opponent deliberately have put that into his deck. With this card, you indeed can.

Despite it being a 4/3 Mech for 4, it’s not a new Piloted Shredder. Shredder’s strength came from the fact that a Deathrattle gave you extra tempo – in most of the mid game scenarios, a random 2-drop on the board is simply better than a random Legendary in your hand. Shredder was hard to play against, because even if you could kill the first body efficiently (and you often could), you still had to deal with the 2-drop. In this case, you don’t. You just deal 3 damage and you win the tempo war. Given that Mech decks are usually more Midrange/Tempo-oriented, the Mech tag probably won’t matter, since Mech decks won’t want to play this anyway.

Maybe something like Quest Priest might want to play this card, because it’s both Deathrattle and another value generator, just like some builds have played Shifting Shade before it rotated out. But it doesn’t seen very powerful, just okay-ish.

Card rating: 3/10

Demonic Project

This is a pure tech card, and people saying that it will surely see play are just wrong. In the average scenario, this card is bad. The effect is mirrored, but you have to pay 2 extra mana and a card for it. There is a significant chance that you will play this, spend a card, 2 mana and upgrade your opponent’s minion. Which is obviously something you never want to do.

The only situation in which this card is good is when you hit one of the vital cards in your opponent’s hand, especially a combo minion. If you hit Shudderwock, Malygos, Prophet Velen etc. you basically increase your chance to win the game by a huge margin.

It’s a bit like Dirty Rat, but even more situational. Dirty Rat had another upside – you could play it against Aggro and pull a small minion out, which wouldn’t trade well against a 2/6 Taunt. And a 2 mana 2/6 Taunt was good in general when your opponent had no minions. This is never good if you don’t hit the right target. Even if your opponent has no minions in the hand, paying 2 mana to transform a random card in your hand into a Demon is not really exciting… unlike 2/6 Taunt.

As much as I like anti-combo tech cards to exist (I think that every strategy should have some sort of counter-play), I don’t particularly like this card. It has very narrow uses, and even if you play against the right deck, it’s often still a 50/50 or 33/66 to hit the right target. Sure, Dirty Rat was the same, but Dirty Rat had some other uses like I’ve mentioned. I believe that if combo builds will dominate the ladder, this will be a common tech. But it won’t see any play at all if they won’t.

Card rating: 2/10 in general, 7/10 as a tech in case combo decks get popular on the ladder

Unexpected Results

I just love new mechanics. Who doesn’t? This is the first time a non-damage spell gets affected by Spell Damage.

As a base cards, this is just weak. Paying 4 mana to summon two random 2-drops is underwhelming. Not only the bodies will, on average, be pretty weak, but since you summon, not play them, all of the Battlecries will be irrelevant. You don’t want to play a card like that.

However, it being improved by Spell Damage makes it a more interesting choice. With just +1 Spell Damage on the board, it now summons two 3-drops, which would be well worth paying 4 mana for. So just curving with a Black Cat into this one, you will have a really nice tempo play. That said, sticking a Spell Damage minion is not necessarily easy, those will die most of the time. You can play it with Bloodmage Thalnos on the same turn, and it’s okay, but not amazing. You could also experiment with Tainted Zealot and… that’s it. Yeah. That’s the problem – there aren’t enough good sources of Spell Damage in Constructed, which this card desperately needs. Of course, if you manage to stick a Malygos onto the board, then this will summon two 7-drops. Amazing, but if you stick Malygos to the board, you’d rather just throw a bunch of spells at your opponent and win the game…

This might be a fun/solid option in a Spell Damage Mage deck. Right now we’re still far from creating one, but if Blizzard will push that theme this expansion, this card might be much better than it seems right now.

Edit: A new Mage minion was just revealed (Celestial Emissary) and, exactly, it seems like Spell Damage will be pushed in Mage this expansion. While we’ll need to see more cards to really tell whether it will be worth it or not, with a few more good Spell Damage minions, I wouldn’t be surprised if this would play. With just +1 Spell Damage, this is already good enough – with +2 it’s great, and with +3 or more it’s nuts. We’ll see how it works, but we still need to remember the fact that it sucks without any Spell Damage on the board. But it seems like something fun to experiment with.

Card rating: 4/10 right now, but it can be better if more Spell Damage synergy gets revealed

Dr. Boom, Mad Genius

Hero cards are probably my favorite type of cards, so I’m always glad to see more getting printed. However, this is the first time that Hero card has pretty much no immediate effect. While their Battlecries were always weak related to the mana cost, they DID something, so you didn’t only lose tempo. The only card that doesn’t do anything immediately is Valeera the Hollow, but it gives you Stealth, which means that the opponent can’t just rush you down as an answer. If you play this one on the curve, it’s just a 7 mana to gain 7 Armor, absolutely underwhelming (that kind of effect would cost roughly 2 mana).

However, the ongoing effect is absolutely nuts. If you play a Mech deck, most of your minions are Mechs. And giving all of them Rush is massive tempo gain. Being able to attack immediately with whatever you play is a very powerful effect, already proven by Houndmaster Shaw. I won most of the games in which it was on the board for a few turns, because you could do lots of power plays each turn. That’s why, despite the initial tempo loss, you might be able to come back just after one of two turns. This is especially powerful with any kind of Deathrattle Mech – being able to run it into something and proc the Deathrattle immediately is a big deal.

Power level of Hero Powers is quite high, to be honest. Of course, some are more flexible (like 3 damage – it’s going to be good in all matchups), some are less flexible (Armor is good vs Aggro, discovering a Mech is good vs Control). Generally, random Hero Power is pretty bad to have, because you can’t control it. If you know that your Hero Power always deals 3 damage, then you can plan around it. If it deals 1 AoE damage, same thing. On the other hand, since it switches at the END of your turn, not at the beginning, your opponent knows exactly which one he has to play around, but you don’t know which one you will have next turn. That’s a major downside.

The thing here is that we’d need a more Midrange-Control oriented Mech deck in order for this stuff to work. A more Aggro/Tempo based Mech Warrior deck would not want to spend his entire Turn 7 doing nothing, especially since it’s around time he wants to be finishing the game. Rush is also not THAT good in late game in faster builds, because it can’t go face (it’s still better to have Rush than to not have it, of course, but it’s not your favorite keyword).

Overall, I’m on the edge about this card. I think that it has some potential, but a good, probably slow Midrange or Control Warrior deck built around Mechs needs to be made for this to be good. On top of that, more good mid/late game Mech options need to be printed, because rushing that Upgradeable Framebot ain’t going to do much work. I still think that it should see some play, just because giving Rush to all of your minions is very, very powerful in the long run.

Card rating: 8/10

Omega Medic

I feel like this is the strongest of the Omega cards so far. Even though its effect is moderate compared to the other two, the on-curve 3/4 body is more meaningful than a 4 mana 2/6 and especially a 5 mana 4/5. Still, you wouldn’t really want to put a 3 mana 3/4 without effect into your deck, so the 10 mana upside needs to make a difference.

Just like any other Omega card, this fits into a slow, Control Priest build. Both Combo Priest (Divine Spirit + Inner Fire) and Spiteful Priest want to close out the games sooner than Turn 10, so the Battlecry won’t be useful very often. On the other hand, Quest Priest, already has enough healing with Amara, Warden of Hope, which most often comes sooner than Turn 10 anyway. So Control Priest is just about the only deck that wants to play it.

The main issue I have with this card is that the healing is way, way more useful in the mid game than in the late game. When you play against Aggro, you often need to heal up to stabilize way earlier than Turn 10. Most of the games are over before that point, and this card won’t really help with swinging them back in the Priest’s favor. Sure, sometimes, in a longer game against Aggro it will come handy, but that’s not your usual anti-Aggro card.

The card would shine mostly in games vs Midrange decks, where Turn 10 is much more common, as well as against other slow decks with damage win conditions. For example, in the mirror matchups, to off-set the damage dealt by Shadowreaper Anduin or get out of range of Mind Blasts. It would also be good against more classic Combo decks like Freeze Mage, but those aren’t really a thing right now.

Whether the card will see play or not heavily depends on the meta, but I could see it being teched in case the kinds of matchups I’ve listed above get popular again. If they won’t – I don’t really see it being played.

Card rating: 5/10

Astromancer

While the effect is not as restrictive as Spiteful Summoner‘s (which warranted a nerf because of how powerful it was in some builds anyway), you also need a right deck to play it. The one you’re looking for with this card is most likely a Midrange style of deck with lots of cards in the hand at the same time (duh). Which means that the most obvious deck choice for this card is Elemental Mage. This minion-based build generates A LOT of cards. Full hand is not uncommon in the mid/late game at all. Right now it’s not a great build, but it can potentially get better in the future. In that kind of deck, it would be a 7 mana 5/5, summoning a random 7, 8 or 9-drop most of the time (summoning 10-drop is not really possible, since you will only have 9 left in your hand when you drop it).

It could potentially be viable in Big Spells Mage too – a deck that tends to have a high hand sizes in the mid/late game. However, it just seems unnecessary. It just doesn’t go alongside the deck’s game plan. Like, you already CAN put more big threats into the deck, but it’s not the best way to go – Frost Lich Jaina is enough to outvalue most of the opponents. Since you can’t really remove any of your already weak early game, nor the removal spells, you would probably have to get rid of something like The Lich King or Sindragosa to fit this one, which I don’t believe is correct.

So while the theoretical power level of this card is pretty high, the main problem might be finding the right deck to play it in. I mean, we already have a perfect one – Elemental Mage – but unless it gets more support, it won’t likely jump from Tier 4 up to Tier 1/2 just because of this one card. But I’m pretty sure that even if not now, the card will be played at some point, because it can be a good late game threat.

Card rating: 7/10

Celestial Emissary

While it’s too early to tell yet, Mage might be getting a Spell Damage support this expansion. With this card and Unexpected Results, it certainly seems that it’s one of the themes they’re pushing. So while I can only talk about the current synergies, and it’s still too early to make a full Spell Mage deck, that might be something Blizzard is aiming for this expansion. Those two cards already work quite well together – for 6 mana, you get a 2/1 body and two random 4-drops. Not bad at all.

It’s a very interesting card, and I absolutely love it. 2 mana for a 2/1 minion is weak, but you don’t play it for the body. This card is a bit like Bloodmage Thalnos – disposable card that boosts your spell. While Thalnos could theoretically survive, and you could use it with many spells, the idea is similar – you pay a small minion to boost your spells. Thalnos cycles, but this gets a bigger body and one extra spell damage. That +1 Spell Damage is very, very important. Having a cheap source of +2 Spell Damage, even if for one spell only, can turn even the smallest AoE cards into serious board clears. It’s probably not worth to use it with single target spells, although it might come handy if you’re 2 damage off lethal.

It works pretty well with any kind of AoE. Boosting Flamestrike from 4 to 6 damage or Blizzard from 2 to 4 damage is pretty big. But it works best with small AoEs, such as Arcane Explosion. This + AE is 4 mana for a 2/1 body and 3 AoE damage. That can really shut down some Aggro decks’ early development. I believe that if the archetype based around Spell Damage will pop out, it will mostly play those cheaper spells that benefit from Spell Damage most. Because in case of Flamestrike, +2 Spell Damage gives you +50% damage. In case of Blizzard, +100%. But in case of Arcane Explosion, it’s a massive +200%.

Outside of the Spell Damage Mage that doesn’t exist yet, another deck that could potentially utilize this is Big Spell Mage. The deck runs 8 AoE clears in total, making extra Spell Damage very useful in certain situations. Outside of the Dragon's Fury 7 damage high-rolls, its AoEs are often too small to clear some board. For example, opponent flooding the entire board with 5-6 health minions. Flamestrike is not enough, and you have to either count on a lucky Dragon’s Fury roll or play Blizzard first and then Flamestrike next turn (which is obviously not the most optimal play). With this card, you could just clear the entire board with a single spell. Will it be useful? Well, that mostly depends on the meta – if people will run lots of cards that are just out of range of the AoEs, then it might be. Additional upside is that the 2/1 body can sometimes be pinged in the late game (e.g. Celestial Emissary + Blizzard + ping), producing a Water Elemental with Frost Lich Jaina.

I like this card, it doesn’t seem over the top, but probably good enough to warrant some play. Right now it’s like a 6/10 in Big Spell Mage, but it would obviously be higher in Spell Damage Mage.

Card rating: 6/10, but probably 8/10 if Spell Damage Mage gets more cards

Cloning Device

This card seems very underwhelming, to be honest. If it discovered a copy of a minion in YOUR deck, it would make much more sense for its combo potential, but from the opponent’s? Not really, no.

Starting with the upsides – you get extra information. You can know what deck your opponent plays as soon as Turn 2. To counter that, though, you usually know what deck your opponent plays after he plays first card or two. Sometimes even right after the mulligan (Odd/Even decks). This could still be useful to peak at what tech cards he might be running, or to identify decks that are harder to tell apart (like Druid archetypes right now). Another upside is that you can snatch some late game minion from your opponent’s deck, potentially something that combos with your build too. Like, stealing Hadronox from Druid after you’ve already played The Lich King and Obsidian Statue might be really powerful.

And now onto the downsides, and this list will be much longer. It has no immediate effect. Yes, you can say the same thing about Shadow Visions, but with Shadow Visions you ALWAYS get a card you want, since you pick from the spells you put into your deck (and again, the card has a much higher combo potential because of that). The options you will be presented with will often be bad. For example, playing against an Aggro deck, you will very likely just get an aggressive minion, and that’s not very good. You can even not get anything when you play against Spell Hunter, or get this card in the late game. Even if you play against a slower deck, unless you snatch an universally good card like The Lich King, most of the minions in their deck will have synergy with THEIR deck, not with yours. You have to add +2 to the mana cost of the minion you steal. And so, let’s say that stealing an Elven Minstrel seems alright, but you need to remember that you’ve paid a total of 6 mana for it, not 4. It does not give you any card advantage, it’s a 1 for 1 card.

I’d rather play a Thoughtsteal to get an actual card advantage (despite not being able to pick cards), or Curious Glimmerroot for the 3/3 extra body on top of a random card from the opponent’s deck. Not to mention that if Chameleos doesn’t see play, despite giving you MUCH more information and options over a few turns, as well as not costing any extra mana to play, then I don’t see how this card will see any play.

The card is a classic Loatheb vs Rebuke. People overvalue this effect, because it was amazing on Drakonid Operative. However, Operative was so good BECAUSE it had amazing stats on top of the effect. Rebuke was also overvalued for a similar reason. Both of those might make more sense at 1 mana, but not really at two.

However, one more thing to consider is that “cloning” seems to be the Priest’s theme this expansion, so there might be some synergies. For example, a card that gets cheaper for every “copied” minion you’ve played, or a card that resummons the copied minions… if that’s the case, this might be better, so we’ll have to see.

Card rating: 2/10, possibly more in case a card that synergize with “cloned” minions get revealed

Giggling Inventor

Great, we’ve got a Neutral Call to Arms! Luckily the post-nerf version, because it would be absolutely broken at 4 mana. However, even at 5 it’s an interesting option in some builds and I actually quite like it. Remember how frustrating was when your opponent pulled 2x Righteous Protector from Call to Arms? You sometimes had to spend like two turns just clearing those Taunts with Divine Shield. This is very similar. Funnily enough, Odd Paladin would actually prefer this card over Call to Arms, since it only runs 1-drops. This card is better than the best case scenario Odd Paladin currently has, and it’s consistent (it won’t pull 1/2 Fire Flies).

It’s a single card that creates a decent board, and that board is an absolute nightmare to deal with. Two Taunts, both with Divine Shield, means that you either need LOTS of attacks (5 at the very least) to clear everything, or you need two AoE spells.

If you run a Mech deck, you get two Mechs on the board, which is good, since you can Magnetize onto them next turn. Buffs will also work pretty well if at least one of those keeps his Divine Shield. But this is one of those cards that might see play even outside of the Mech decks. Decks that want to go wide, Token decks that can take advantage of big boards, would probably welcome this card. For example, Token Druid kind of deck (less combo-oriented, more aggressive version) with Savage Roar or maybe Token Shaman with Bloodlust.

Even if you play a slower deck, you might potentially use it as a defensive option. It’s a bit like Sludge Belcher but spread over more bodies. At the very least, if you count Divine Shields as 1 health, it will stop 6 damage. However, Divine Shields are often worth more than 1 health, if your opponent can’t ping them efficiently. Then, the 2 health bodies might also take more damage than necessary quite often. Realistically, I’d say that this card will often block 8-9 damage, which is great against Aggro.

I feel like this card has so many uses that it will certainly find home in at least one deck, probably even a few of them. I might be overvaluing it a bit, but it seems like one of the best cards from the set so far. I would be astonished if it didn’t see any play at all.

Card rating: 9/10

Zerek’s Cloning Gallery

Legendary Spells sure do seem crazy so far, and I like it. If you can put only one into your deck and have to pay 9 mana for it, you absolutely want the effect to be nuts.

This is a very interesting case, because I really have no clue how to rate it. The first deck that comes to mind is some kind of Combo Priest. But, the thing is, you can’t really guarantee that you won’t draw the combo minions before playing this card. Theoretically, if 2x Radiant Elemental, Prophet Velen and Malygos are still in your deck, you can do some absolutely crazy plays, like 20 damage Mind Blasts and 14 damage Holy Smites, all for 0 mana. But this is something to pull off once for the Trolden video, not a consistent combo. However, the card might STILL see play in that kind of deck for one obvious reason – in order to play your combo (with Greater Diamond Spellstone), you NEED to play all of your minions anyway. The deck already runs Shadow Essence for that, but it often misses. This card will 100% pull every single minion you have left in your deck onto the board, meaning that if you get absolutely lucky, you might just kill your opponent, and if you don’t, those minions still die and you have all of the minions ready to get revived with Spellstone. So while building a combo deck AROUND it is silly, it can go into existing Resurrect Priest decks and work there very well. Only Wild Pyromancer is out of question, as it will clear your entire board as soon as you play the first spell.

It would be pretty good in the Wild version of Big Priest too, but there are few issues. First of all – the deck doesn’t play many minions. Second – by the time it draws / can play this card, it also most likely draws a part of them. So if you could ALWAYS hit the 1/1 copies of your The Lich King, Obsidian Statue, Ragnaros the Firelord and Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound, it would be great, but realistically, you will maybe get 2 or 3 minions on average. And that’s probably not good enough.

Maybe play it as an extra win condition in a deck with lots of Deathrattles? For example, if you play some kind of Midrange Deathrattle deck, you will most likely have cards like Devilsaur Egg, Coffin Crasher, maybe even Cairne Bloodhoof (and more stuff like that) left in your deck, and flooding the board with 1/1 copies of those would be massive just for their effects.

Like I’ve said, the effect is so crazy that it’s hard to rate. However, I don’t see a world in which summoning a full board of 1/1 copies of minions in your deck wouldn’t be good in some deck. Because of its very high cost, I don’t believe that it will be broken, but this kind of effect is just MASSIVE in the right deck, like the Deathrattle one I’ve mentioned. And maybe, just maybe we get more “clone” synergy later down the road? After all, that’s the Priest’s main theme this expansion.

Card rating: 8/10

Blightnozzle Crawler

The stats on this card are… underwhelming. 4 mana for a 2/4 minion is just so, so slow. I don’t believe that Rogue is getting lots of Mech synergies this expansion, so the Mech tag might not matter too. The only interesting part of this card is Deathrattle, basically.

Summoning a 1/1 with Poisonous and Rush is really strong. It basically kills any minion you choose, unless it’s hidden behind a Taunt. That’s powerful, but only on your own turn. That’s the main problem. If it dies on your turn, you immediately clear something with the 1/1. But if it dies on the opponent’s turn, he most likely just pings the 1/1 or throws in some small minion to trade it, leaving his big guys unharmed. And let’s be honest, starting from Turn 4, a 2/4 minion is not very hard to clear.

The only way for this card to see more play would be if Rogue got more Deathrattle synergies, especially some easier ways to trigger them. Like, imagine if it was a Hunter card and you could trigger it more reliably with Play Dead and Terrorscale Stalker. It would look much better. Maybe if you Carnivorous Cube it, but then again, you don’t want to run Cube in a deck that doesn’t have lots of synergies (you definitely DON’T want Cube just for this card). Right now, it’s just much better to run a Vilespine Slayer. Sure, it’s a combo card, but it’s a) more consistent and b) instant.

Maybe in Wild there will eventually be enough Deathrattle synergies for Rogue to make one viable deck, who knows.

Card rating: 3/10, possibly more if some Deathrattle synergies get printed

Star Aligner

If all stars align, this card might actually be powerful. Which is basically the entire concept of this card. It’s a joke card, a pack filler that was made more interesting by the design team than just another variation of vanilla stats on a minion with no effect. It’s will work just as well as another 8 mana 5/11 or 4 mana 7/2, but unlike those, it will actually be interesting. And some folks will do everything to try and make it work just for the sake of it. Which is fun!

If you haven’t realized that yet, I hate to break it to you, but this card just sucks. 99% of the time it’s a War Golem, and it will work roughly 1% of the time. If you needed to have 3 minions with 7 OR MORE health, then it might make a tiny bit of sense. But it’s exactly 7. You basically need to build your entire deck around its effect, and then it’s still incredibly hard to stick THREE of those minions onto the board at the same time. Is it possible? Yes. Is it viable? No.

Not to mention that 7 health minions usually have a solid amount of attack too. If you have three of those on the board, the chances are that you’re winning the game anyway and you don’t really need to deal 7 to all enemies. So not only it’s incredibly hard to pull off, but it’s also a win more card on top of that.

Still, I’m looking forward to seeing people experiment with this card. When it finally works, it will surely feel great.

Card rating: 7/10*

*(It’s really 1/10, but I gave it +6 for a fun design/flavor)