Descent of Dragons Card Review #8 (Final) – Violet Spellwing, Elemental Allies, Skybarge, Aeroponics, Skyfin, Squallhunter, Tasty Flyfish and more!

We now know all 140 cards from Descent of Dragons. The upcoming expansion launches December 10, but there’s still some time to theorycraft and talk about all of the new cards!

In this article, I’ll take a closer look at the newly revealed cards, reviewing them and rating from 1 to 10. The scale itself should be quite obvious, but just to quickly explain how do I see it: A card rated 5 is average – it might be playable in some decks, but it’s nothing special. Cards below 5 might see some play in off-meta decks, or as obscure techs, but the closer we get to 1, the lower chance it is that they will see play. 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 the card as something with more 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. 1 and 10 are reserved to the worst or best cards I can imagine, meaning that they won’t be used often.

Remember that with without seeing all the cards, 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!

Check out our other card reviews:

• Descent of Dragons Card Review #1 – Galakrond Hero Cards, Invoke Cards, Malygos, Nozdormu, Ysera, Deathwing, Waxadred and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #2 – Breath Cards, Dragon Explorers, Dragonbane, Phase Stalker, Learn Draconic, Toxic Reinforcements and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #3 – Talritha, Shu’ma, Galakrond, the Unbreakable, Nether Breath, Amber Watcher, Kronx Dragonhoof, Veranus, and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #4 – Sanctuary, Flik Skyshiv, Valdris Felgorge, Chromatic Egg, Chenvaala, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #5 – Ancharr, Kobold Stickyfinger, Cumulo-Maximus, Zzeraku, Nithogg, Bandersmosh, Frizz Kindleroost and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #6 – Stormhammer, Kaahrj, Chronobreaker, Platebreaker, Embiggen, Goru, Dragonmaw Poacher, Murozond and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #7 – Wing Commander, Storm’s Wrath, Sky Claw, Galakrond the Tempest, Rolling Fireball, Mana Giant and more!

Violet Spellwing

1 mana 1/1’s that give you something are generally good. While Battlecries are better, Deathrattles ain’t that bad either. And instead of a random card, you get something that you might actually want to put into your deck – Arcane Missiles. On the one hand, it’s not a high impact card, but on the other, it’s super consistent. You know what you can expect and you can plan around getting it. Well, on the other hand, your opponent knows what you get too… but the thing about consistency is that you know what deck to put it into.

And in case of Violet Spellwing, it’s not that hard to figure out that deck – Cyclone Mage. It’s something you can drop on T1 that cycles into Arcane Missiles, a card that you actually want for the sake of all kinds of cheap spells shenanigans. Also discounts Mana Giant. It’s a really solid card in that build.

Other than that, a deck like Tempo Mage would also like it. Having something proactive to drop on T1 and then a cheap spell for some shenanigans or just straight up burn damage if opponent has no board. But Tempo Mage is not a thing that will happen this expansion.

Card rating: 8/10

Elemental Allies

Soooo… you can draw 3 spells from your deck for 1 mana. Alright then. Normally this kind of card would cost 4 mana (strong) or 5 mana (weaker, but still balanced). Sure, not being able to complete it immediately is a problem. You need two turns at the very least – you play this + Elemental one turn and another Elemental next turn.

This card is like an auto include in any deck that runs enough Elementals… Because the effect is incredibly strong, and the Quest is not very hard to complete. But the question is, does a deck like that exist right now? Again, Cyclone Mage seems to be the closest one. We’ve got Violet Spellwing, Mana Cyclone, Chenvaala, Mana Giant… but other than Violet Spellwing, those aren’t Elementals you can just drop at any time, so it might be a bit difficult. Then again, drawing 3 spells would go a long way in the deck.

Some kind of Elemental Mage deck would want to play it, but I don’t believe that such a deck will be played. Mage has almost no Elemental synergies right now (sure, there’s Bonfire Elemental and Arcanosaur but honestly they seem really week compared to cards from Descent of Dragons – in DoD they would be printed without Elemental requirements, lol), the amount of amazing Elementals is also limited, there’s just no point of building a deck like that.

So while I think that the card is really solid in theory, I don’t think that it will be good enough to see play right now because we would need a deck wanting to play more Elementals on curve. Might be tried out in Cyclone build, but it will be difficult to fit. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has seen play next year.

Card rating: 8/10, but probably won’t see play yet

Whispers of EVIL

On the one hand, getting a Lackey for 0 mana is strong, without a doubt. Compare it to something like EVIL Cable Rat and you will get the point. You pay 2 extra mana for a 1/1 body in case of Rat.

On the other hand, this kind of effect is only useful in Priest decks that would actually WANT getting a Lackey for cheap, not to mention that the fact that it’s random makes it a bit more questionable too. Any slower deck wouldn’t want to play it, because it’s just not impactful enough. Now with Draconic Lackey being added to the pool, the fact that you can’t pick means that you will have an even lower chance to get what you need. While you have to PAY 1 mana for Sinister Deal, Lackeys both fit more into Zoo’s playstyle and being able to Discover means that you can pick whatever’s good in a given s And I pretty much gave up on the concept of Tempo Priest working out well in this set.

On the other hand, I COULD see this card being played in something like Miracle Priest – a deck running Gadgetzan Auctioneer. The point would be to simply cycle through the deck to then drop 0 mana Grave Horrors and finish up with Chef Nomi. You could also use it as another cheap spell to combo with Wild Pyromancer to get some cheap AoE. The deck already runs a bunch of 0-1 mana spells and it might fit right in. And I think that it has more chance of seeing play in Miracle build than in Tempo Priest.

Card rating: 6/10, but actually in Miracle Priest and not a Tempo deck

Skybarge

Pirate Warrior is back?! If they want to bring it back, that’s a card they want to print. Remember Ship's Cannon? Even right now it’s one of the most crucial cards in Wild Pirate Warrior deck. And this is basically it, at 3 mana. While Ship’s cannon is still slightly better, because you’d rather have that effect on a 2 mana 2/3 than a 3 mana 2/5 (easier to combo with some Pirates immediately), this card is just insane. It turns every Pirate you drop into something really powerful, and with a low curve of Pirate decks you can be dropping a lot of them. If it sticks – and let’s be honest, it often will – you can absolutely dominate the match. In faster matchups, it will clear minions, giving you the necessary tempo advantage. And in slower matchups, it’s sweet, sweet face damage, oh so important in this build.

It also has a Mech tag for good measure, in case you want to run some Magnetic cards in your build… although I think that you will focus on Pirates, weapons and burn cards, so it’s not really relevant.

After seeing Ancharrr, I thought that they will keep Pirates for the next year and focus on something else (like Dragons) this time, but they proved me wrong. I think that Pirate Warrior shapes up to be pretty scary, and definitely a solid contender for one of the best aggressive decks in the meta.

Card rating: 10/10 (although Pirate Warrior is still a bit low on amazing cards so the deck probably won’t be 10/10)

Parachute Brigand

I’m getting some Patches the Pirate vibes, but praise Galakrond that it drops from your hand, not from the deck. But it’s still incredibly powerful in any aggressive Pirate deck. Think about it this way – since you run other Pirates, meeting this condition won’t be hard. And once you do it, it’s a 0 mana 2/2 minion. Even 1 mana 2/2 minion is playable in more aggressive strategies, 0 mana 2/2 would be auto-include into virtually every Aggro deck that ever existed. And later in the game, if you topdeck it with no other Pirates in hand… it could as well be 0 mana 2/2, because it doesn’t matter if you can’t utilize the rest of your mana anyway.

This really boosts Aggro Pirate strats like Pirate Warrior I’ve talked about. It adds a lot of tempo onto the board, kind of reminding me of Happy Ghoul. 2/2 ain’t a 3/3, but the condition is probably easier to meet in a Pirate deck than Happy Ghoul was in Zoo (because you still run more Pirates than Zoo ran healing cards).

It’s weaker than Patches, but come on… Patches was one of the strongest cards ever printed, so that’s a high bar. It’s still a strong card, cheating something out for free is always good, especially in Aggro, so I expect it to see play.

Card rating: 8/10

Hoard Pillager

Hmm, it reminds me a bit of Warrior’s Arathi Weaponsmith… but better. 4/2 and 3/3 are comparable, I’d say that 3/3 is still a bit better, but 4/2 might work in aggressive decks too. And then equipping a weapon you’ve lost is a very, very strong effect – much better than getting a 2/2. The only real downside is that if you haven’t lost any weapon until that point, the card is pretty weak. Well, another weak point, but it’s only about Rogue, is that your Hero Power is also a weapon, and you’re going to get it destroyed most commonly, so you shouldn’t expect to get something else.

I just remembered – another card it reminds me of is Rummaging Kobold. And I have to say that it compares super favorably. Not only you get better stats for the mana cost (3 mana 1/3 vs 4 mana 4/2), but you also EQUIP the weapon immediately. Unless you run a Battlecry weapon, this is way better, because it adds extra  tempo.

So, in a deck like Pirate Warrior, in the best case scenario you’re getting another Ancharrr… so probably winning the game straight up. But getting other weapons such as Livewire Lance or Arcanite Reaper isn’t half bad. The latter even costs more than Hoard Pillager – so you’re getting a 1 mana discount and a 4/2 body on top of that. It’s crazy powerful.

But I see another use for the card – even if you don’t run an aggressive Pirate deck, but you play a build which relies on a certain weapon… you can always play Hoard Pillagers to either restore it after you use it, or after it gets destroyed. So in a way it might be anti-anti weapon tech. I’m not sure if a deck like that exists right now, but this card has potential to do some crazy stuff.

P.S. If you play it in Paladin after you already used your Truesilver Champion… it’s a Lightforged Zealot without any deck building restrictions!

Card rating: 9/10

Aeroponics

It’s pretty simple – if you run Treant Druid, you play two copies of this. There’s really nothing to think about. Even with just a single Treant on the board, this is an Arcane Intellect, which we all know is a solid card. Two Treants and it’s 1 mana draw 2. Three more and you draw for free. They seem to be pushing Treants theme once again, and as much as I didn’t believe that it will work… with enough support anything goes. I’ll be honest that between Treenforcements, Goru the Mightree, but also Shrubadier, Landscaping, Garden Gnome, The Forest's Aid… and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting about now. So yeah, between all of those cards, maybe making a full Treant Druid instead of regular Token version

Like I’ve already said, Aeroponics is broken in Treant Druid. Having 2-3 Treants at the time is not a problem at all. Two questions, though – first of all, will Treant Druid be good enough? And second – if it own’t, will regular Token Druid run enough Treants to play this? I think that there’s a chance, e.g. it’s really amazing with Forest’s Aid. Or maybe there will be some kind of mix between those two, running some Treants / Treant synergies, but not all of them? Well, it’s hard to say, but if anything, this card makes me a bit more hopeful about Treant/Token Druid builds.

Card rating: 10/10 in Treant Druid… but it’s hard to say whether it will work (I still say no, but I’m more hopeful than I was before seeing it)

Shrubadier

Shrubadier is another Treant Druid synergy. For 2 mana, you get a 1/1 + 2/2, the latter being a Treant, which is apparently a pretty big deal when it comes to synergies. 3/3 in total for 2 mana is pretty good, but being spread between two bodies is good and bad at the same time. It’s good, because as a Token Druid you want to flood the board, but it’s bad, because it trades worse before it gets buffed and such.

Again, because it’s a Treant, it seems like a no-brainer to me in a Treant Druid deck. It’s similar to Dreamway Guardians, same amount of stats in total, spread between 2 bodies. While it doesn’t have Lifesteal, to be completely honest Lifesteal wasn’t that useful most of the time anyway. And here you get Treant synergy.

Other Druid decks, including regular Token Druid deck, might not want it. But for Treant version, it’s a solid card. Not impressive like previous synergies, but still.

Card rating: 6/10

Sky Raider

1/2 are premium stats for a 1-drop that gives you another card – most of them are 1/1. Not only that, but it gives you a Pirate. Pirate pool is rather small, but most of them are good in a deck you would play Sky Raider in, so you have a very high chance of getting a premium card. And it’s on Battlecry, not Deathrattle. And Sky Raider is also a Pirate… This is amazing. One of the best 1-drops currently available in Hearthstone without a doubt. It’s like Pharaoh Cat, but better, because Reborn cards don’t have much synergy in Tempo Rogue, while Pirates obviously do in Pirate Warrior. It’s comparable to Fire Fly, and even better in a Pirate build.

It will be an auto-include in Pirate Warrior, and one of the reasons why the deck looks pretty strong in the upcoming expansion. To be honest, I could even see it in a non-Pirate Warrior just because it’s a good 1-drop that cycles into something potentially useful. Something like Tempo Warrior might still want it, especially since it runs some weapons too for the sake of Pirate synergies. This is just an amazing card.

Card rating: 9/10

Blazing Battlemage

A generic, solid 1-drop. 1/3 and 2/2 are premium stats for 1-drops, and we’ve already seen that 1/3’s without any kind of effects might see play in Aggro builds. I think that same goes for 2/2’s – Druid had Enchanted Raven, which was a vanilla 2/2 and it has seen play in faster strats. Of course, Druid also had Mark of Y'Shaarj to combo with it at the time, but it was decent even without it.

On the other hand, the power level of this expansion is so sick that a vanilla 2/2 for 1 mana might not be good enough. Still, if you run a class that hasn’t got amazing 1-drops, you might use this Neutral option instead. It’s not game-changer, but definitely a good one to have if you like faster builds.

Card rating: 7/10

Awaken!

3 mana Swipe! Kind of… In some cases it is, but it also damages your minions (which MIGHT be an advantage in certain builds, but probably not most of the time in a Galakrond Warrior deck, which is pretty aggressive), you can’t hit through Taunts, you’re missing one face damage, you have to take damage yourself to kill something… Yeah. So a worse Swipe I’m afraid.

But it’s still a solid card at 3 mana, and the fact that it Invokes Galakrond means that you can get it upgraded faster. And let’s be honest – Warrior’s Galakrond really benefits from getting upgraded (each of them does, of course, but you really want to get that weapon out as a Warrior + you have more opportunities to draw some buffed Charge minions to finish the game). So it’s simple – if you run Galakrond Warrior, you run this. At least one copy, but two might also be good, especially if aggressive / token decks will become popular.

Card rating: 6/10

Evasive Chimaera

Hmm… 2 mana 2/1 is weak. Poisonous is nice, Elusive is also nice, but does it really matter? Sure, it can’t get pinged by Mage, and that’s nice, but it can still get removed by Druid and Rogue’s Hero Powers. And by basically any 1-drop or 2-drop. Since it’s 1 health minion, you wouldn’t likely blow single target removal on it anyway, so Elusive in that case is a bit pointless. At 1 health, it just dies to anything. Any kind of AoE will just clear it, any small weapon will too.

Like… we have Patient Assassin, which has Stealth, and it still hasn’t seen any play. This is just all around terrible card.

Card rating: 1/10

Fire Hawk

Having a card which strength depends on the number of cards in your opponent’s hand, or other stuff that you basically can’t control, is just no good. Remember Clockwork Giant? It never worked out, because while you sometimes high roll into Handlock and it will be amazing, most of the time you will play against some Aggro or Midrange builds that keep a low hand count and it will be a terrible 3-drop.

This card gets vanilla stats when your opponent is holding 3 cards. But a 3 mana 4/3 without any effect would see absolutely no play. I honestly think that neither would 5/3. 6/3 is… questionable, but possibly would be good enough. So let’s say that your opponent needs to have 5 or more cards in his hand for this to be good. How often will that happen? Not often enough IMO. Even on curve, assuming your opponent plays some stuff, it will usually be like 4/3 or 5/3 tops. Later in the game it might be bigger against Control, but later in the game it won’t be that impactful, since they will have no problem removing an 8/3 for example. Then, against faster decks, it will often be a 2/3 or 3/3 later in the game.

It’s not the worst 3-drop, and maybe the fact that it’s an Elemental matters, but I just don’t see it working. If you’re running an aggressive strategy, you want your cards to be consistent.

Card rating: 3/10

Goboglide Tech

Hmm, this actually seems decent. Reminds me of Tinkertown Technician – both are 4/4 if you control a Mech. Technician gave you a Spare Part, this one gains Rush. Gaining Rush is better in an Aggro/Tempo deck, since you don’t have to spend any extra resources on it. Of course, you need a Mech deck for it to work.

Right now, the only viable Aggro/Tempo Mech deck seems to be Bomb/Mech Hunter, depending on how you call it. But that deck really cares about Mechs / Magnetize synergies, most of the time it would rather Magnetize into another Mech instead of dropping something like that, because Magnetize = immediate damage.

Some decks ran Mech package with SN1P-SN4P, but I don’t think that just this package is enough – you really want your deck to be based on Mechs in order for this to activate consistently. Because if it doesn’t, it’s a 3 mana 3/3 with no tribe or other effect = terrible.

It’s definitely not a bad card in a faster, Mech deck, but I’m not sure if such decks will be a part of the upcoming meta. And the card has a very short expiration date – after Boomsday Project rotates out next year, unless we get another Mech-based expansion, it will be pretty difficult to build a Mech deck.

Card rating: 6/10

Grizzled Wizard

2 mana 3/2 are solid stats, and it has an extra effect… but that effect seems really pointless, doesn’t it? If you drop it on curve, it really does nothing – the best thing that can happen is that your opponent might skip his Hero Power because he won’t want to use yours… but it’s not like he wants to use his on curve either, so it won’t come up often. Later in the game, against regular Hero Powers, it’s again a bit pointless – why would you want random opponent’s Hero Power? Sure, maybe if he transforms into a Hero card… But Galakrond Hero Powers aren’t that strong (because you get them every time you Invoke – making them stronger would make Invoke cards broken), neither is Zul'jin‘s. The only reason to use it is to maybe steal one Hero Power from Dr. Boom, Mad Genius – but does it really matter? Would you really run a terrible 2-drop just to do that?

I just don’t see any real world use for this card, it’s basically a 2 mana 3/2 with no effect most of the time. Because swapping base Hero Powers for a turn is no effect.

Card rating: 1/10

Gyrocopter

Hmm, pretty interesting Mech – Windfury Harpy with Mech tag and Rush. That Rush makes it much more interesting – Windfury is a strong effect, but unless a minon has Charge or Rush, it’s painfully slow and usually dies before you can take any advantage of it. In this case, you can use it to clear 2 minions, or clear 1 minion and still have a minion on the board, for example. However, 4/5 for 6 are still weak stats, and you aren’t going to do a lot with it immediately. Sure, if it somehow sticks to the board, Windfury gives you A LOT of potential on a Mech. Just drop Wargear and you’ve got yourself 18 damage. But most of the time I just don’t see it sticking.

Maybe if you run some Midrange Mech build (because I think that it’s too slow for Aggro)… maybe something like Mech Paladin? Buffing it with Glowstone Technician makes it a 6/7 – much easier to remove stuff and still survive. Then if you manage to Magnetize something onto it, it’s a great thing to revive from Kangor's Endless Army.

It’s not a bad card, but even with Rush it seems a bit too slow.

Card rating: 5/10

Hippogryph

Even pack fillers are power creeped in this expansion, I kid you not. Remember Stegodon? This is exactly the same card – 2/6, Taunt, Beast tag, but with extra Rush. And honestly, that Rush makes it significantly better. I mean, add Rush to any minion without changing its stats and it will be better…

Honestly, in a normal expansion I might even say that it’s playable. In Descent of Dragons, nah. It’s not a terrible card, don’t get me wrong – you can use it to snipe some small minion and then still have a Taunt up. Any Rush synergy makes it better, like you can draw it with Town Crier in Warrior and so on, it also completes Hunter’s Sidequest (Clear the Way).

But like I’ve said, the power level of this expansion is so crazy that I just don’t see it happening. It’s good for a pack filler, but that’s about it.

Card rating: 3/10

Living Dragonbreath

It’s a… cool card I guess? Or should I say warm? (*ba dum tss*) I honestly like the mechanic – it’s not only about THIS minion, but your entire board can’t be frozen. And it comes with a premium 3/4 stats, and an Elemental tag… But I don’t think that it will be played, unless Freeze Mage gets really strong and you will need a specific tech against it. Because that’s the thing – freezing is not common. Only Mages can realistically do it on a bigger scale. This makes Frost Nova absolutely useless, turns Blizzard into a weaker Consecration and so on.

But I really don’t feel like Mage decks running multiple Freeze effects will be popular enough to warrant running this card. If they would, I could see it being played in board-based Aggro decks that really want to get that damage in, but normally get stopped by freeze effects. Still, that’s a very specific scenario – you would need to run against Freeze Mages all the time, the way you did into Evolve Shamans for the last month.

I like the design, but it feels way too specific to be usable. Maybe at one point in the Wild? Either way, it’s good to have such an effect in game just in case.

Card rating: 2/10

Rain of Fire

It’s a Whirlwind that deals damage to both heroes too. Given that it’s 1 damage, that’s basically irrelevant most of the time. Unlike Warriors, Warlocks don’t really have minion damage synergies, such as minions getting attack after getting damaged, or cards that can only target damaged minions. The only reason I could see for running this is face damage – e.g. Diseased Vulture would spawn a random 3-drop after you cast this. But Vulture (and other similar cards) are played in Zoo, while this doesn’t fit into Zoo at all – you don’t want to AoE your part of the board in a deck that is built around flooding the board.

Well, and of course AoE damage is useful, but 1 AoE damage is not that much and is pretty pointless in most of metas. Maybe it might come handy, assuming that we end up in a very fast meta with lots of aggressive, 1 health minions. But overall the card just doesn’t seem to be that strong.

Card rating: 3/10

Ramming Speed

I mean… why would you use this when Supercollider exists? Sure, you pay 2 more mana, and you have to use your face to hit stuff, but you get this effect 3 times. That’s a huge difference – you would need to spend 9 mana and three cards to play Ramming Speed thrice.

Of course, the effect itself is pretty strong, which has been proven by Supercollider. It’s really great when having exactly two mid-sized or big minions on the board – it can clear both. Even with one bigger and one smaller, you can kill the smaller one and damage the bigger one, which is not that bad.

Maybe after Collider rotates out, running this will make some sense. But even then, we would need to have a specific meta. Because it’s not good against board floods, and it’s not good against single big minions. It works best against Midrange strategies.

Card rating: 3/10

Ritual Chopper

Given that Warrior’s Invoke gives you +3 Attack, this is basically a 2 mana for a 4 attack weapon that then turns into a 1 attack weapon on second hit. To be honest, it’s pretty good and it will definitely be played in Galakrond Warrior. The main issue I have is that you can’t really pre-equip it, because you need to do your first attack immediately, otherwise you’ll lose 3 damage.

But since I still think that Aggro/Tempo will be the bets way to run Galakrond Warrior, it’s not that big of a deal. If you have no good minion target, then you just go face for 4. After all, it’s a 5 damage for 2 mana, not that bad at all. Almost as good as pre-nerf Fiery War Axe if you just go face. For minion removal, the damage split is a bit awkward, especially early in the game. 4 health minions aren’t that common, 3 is usually enough, and then you won’t always be able to clear something off with the second hit (although having a ping ready is not really bad).

Just like with other Invoke cards – if you run Galakrond deck, you just run them. This one ain’t bad, because it fits right into the deck’s play style very well.

Card rating: 7/10

Skyfin

Well, that’s a pretty weird card. First of all, it would obviously be the best fit into some kind of Dragon/Murloc hybrid… but I’m not seeing it. Dragons and Murlocs are two different strategies – Murlocs are aggressive, Dragons are more Midrange. And in both cases, you want to focus on one tribe to really take advantage of the synergies. Better to have one strong than two weak ones. Yes, there’s another Dragon/Murloc synergy (Tasty Flyfish) but I’m STILL not seeing it.

And since it NEEDS Dragons to be playable, Dragon deck it is. If you run it in a Dragon deck, the effect is not difficult to trigger, that’s for sure. But how good is a 5 mana 3/3 that summons two Murlocs, exactly? I can say one thing for sure – it’s really random. Murlocs range from 1/1’s or  1/2’s with no effect to 3/4’s or 4/4’s. High-rolling and getting 3/3, 3/4 and 4/4 for 5 mana, for example, is insane. But low-rolling a 3/3, 1/2 and 2/1 is not great, especially since it’s a “Holding a Dragon” effect which are supposed to be stronger because you’re forced into that tribe and it’s a bad topdeck if you don’t hold any.

Given that there are more small Murlocs than big Murlocs, I just don’t feel like it’s worth it in your average deck. Maybe if you run a more board-flood strategy in Dragon Build (but at this point I can’t think of any Dragon deck that would want that). Dragon decks seem to have better Dragon synergies than this, but I’m not completely dismissing it yet. I don’t think that a full Dragon/Murloc hybrid will work, though.

P.S. I really dig the artwork, though!

Card rating: 3/10

Squallhunter

4 mana 7/7 memes will turn into 4 mana 5/7 memes now? Well, I need to start this review by saying that 4 mana 7/7 was overrated. It has only seen brief play, and it was pretty quickly cut from most of the best builds. It wasn’t a BAD card, but if your opponent had a way to remove it, 2 points of Overload really set you back. This is similar in that way – if you drop it on curve and your opponent can remove it, then it’s pretty bad.

+2 Spell Damage, in theory, is better than 2 extra attack… but is it, actually? Keep in mind what type of deck you would play it in. Spell Damage works really well with AoE clears, for example, such as Lightning Storm. But Squallhunter is something you’d probably run in a faster build to drop a big body on curve if anything. But Aggro Shaman also runs burn spells, you might say! That’s true – they do. But -2 attack means that even if you throw a single burn spell at your opponent, then it’s the same as attacking for 2 more. It might make a difference later in the game, but honestly it’s still hard to combine 4 mana card with a few burn spells later in the game as Aggro deck.

It’s a Dragon for what it’s worth, but does it really matter? Shaman doesn’t really have Dragon synergies. Admittedly, Lightning Breath is a solid one, but also the only one. I don’t think that Shaman has what it takes to run a Dragon deck.

So all in all, I think that it’s a bit better than 4 mana 7/7, but that card was NOT broken in the first place despite all the memes. It was an average card. So this is better than average, but definitely not overpowered.

Card rating: 7/10

Tasty Flyfish

Like I’ve already said when reviewing Skyfin, I don’t think that Dragon/Murloc Hybrid makes any real sense… so I’ll rate it for its own merits. Murloc tag can be mostly ignored, so it’s a 2 mana 2/2 with a Dragon handbuff on Deathrattle. It’s… not terrible, but I feel like it’s way too slow. 2 mana 2/2 is slow, the buff happens on Deathrattle, handbuff is also a pretty slow effect, it might land on something big that you wouldn’t play for a few more turns… I don’t really think that’s what Dragon decks need. Too slow against Aggro and not impactful enough vs slower decks.

If you want to build that Dragon/Murloc hybrid deck, then yeah, you play it. But I don’t see that much of a reason why it should work. I’d like it to work, but it just seems like a meme.

Card rating: 3/10