Bwonsamdi, the Dead

Bwonsamdi, the Dead Card

Bwonsamdi, the Dead is a 7 Mana Cost Legendary Priest Minion card from the Rastakhan's Rumble set!

Card Text

Battlecry: Draw 1-Cost minions from your deck until your hand is full.

Flavor Text

Everyone's dying to meet him.

Bwonsamdi, the Dead Additional Information

Bwonsamdi, the Dead Card Review

If I have seen this card in vacuum, I wouldn’t like it at all. However, after seeing it together with Spirit of the Dead, I enjoy the flavor, as well as the card’s potential. So, here’s the thing – if you play a deck that runs Spirit of the Dead, you most likely also want to run Bwonsamdi (the only exception is Combo Priest, which would play the card for a 0/3 Stealth body, not for the effect). Those two just belong together.

In a deck without Spirit of the Dead? Hmm, very hard to say. Let’s start analyzing it by looking at the stats. 7 mana 7/7 is War Golem, which is obviously something you would never put into your deck, but it if gets a nice effect, the stats are good. It’s not a huge tempo loss, since you actually develop a meaningful body. That’s good. But a regular Priest deck won’t use this effect very well, since it does not run 1-drops. Northshire Cleric is the only common Priest 1-drop, and given that you mulligan for it, by the time you play Bwomsandi, you will probably have only one or maybe even none left in your deck. That’s not a great use.

Do you want to put more 1-drops into Priest? Maybe, if you’re playing a sort of Tempo / Aggro Priest. But I just don’t see it. Even in a deck like that, you still don’t want to put THAT many 1-drops. Just think about Quest Hunter and why the deck is bad. Playing a lot of 1-drops is not a good idea – they are impactful on Turn 1, but get much worse in the mid game and are nearly useless in the late game. If we’re talking about regular 1-drops without late game scalling, the only thing that Bwomsandi would do in such a deck would be increasing the quality of further draws. But that’s not very important in a deck that wants to finish the game just around the time it drops this Legendary. So no.

The only application outside of the Spirit of the Dead synergy I see right now is in APM Priest. Your combo pieces – Stonetusk Boar and Test Subject – are 1 mana minions. But then again, I think that Witchwood Piper is just better – while it draws only one, playing him on T4 is much easier. On T7 most of the time you will be looking at Psychic Scream, playing a 7 mana 7/7 is waaay too slow when you’re staring at lethal or nearly lethal on the board (which is basically nearly every game).

P.S. I’m not even discussing Surrender to Madness synergy, because Surrender to Madness is one of the worst cards in Hearthstone ever.

Card rating: 5/10… basically, it solely depends on Spirit of the Dead now – a deck that runs Spirit of the Dead to shuffle a bunch of 1 mana copies of minions MIGHT (and probably will) include Bwomsandi as its card draw, but doesn’t have to. It needs more synergies to be seen as something more than a card complementary to Spirit of the Dead.

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47 Comments

  1. Sharklar
    December 3, 2018 at 7:43 AM

    I don’t know if it’ll be any good or not, but the art is so good. Also, Surrender to Madness might be pretty good. I would play it in a totally different deck style far away from Bwonsandi. Maybe in something with card draw and lots of minions. Someone will figure it out.

  2. PandaWolf525
    November 23, 2018 at 2:21 AM

    Not to powerful but not weak ether. Combos well with the spirit card and with the proper set up can become very powerful late game. need to wait for the rest of the set to release to see if they keep the 1-mana trick a thing for Priest.

  3. GraVity
    November 18, 2018 at 4:07 PM

    From the comments I’ve seen, others are very decesive about this card. It’s either a strong combo enabler or it’s another 400 dust. The way I see it, this card is fantastically designed with the spirit card, really capturing the connection between the Loa and Spirit that the dev team is going for. As for gameplay, the card is fair, nothing completely game breaking (yet) since the ideal combo takes a little bit of set up (i.e. getting your Velen or other big minion to low health) and unless you combo this with other spells like Cloning Gallery, you’re getting a moderate payoff. I’m gonna say 3/5 currently, though if 1 cost minions is a priest thing this expansion, 4/5 at least.

  4. Alglyphic
    November 18, 2018 at 4:27 AM

    What about a lategame combo deck in Wild? Drop Spirit of the Dead, Zerek’s Cloning Gallery on the next turn to bring out a 1/1 Radiant Elemental, then Spirit Lash… then this guy.

    • Warptens
      November 18, 2018 at 12:09 PM

      And then you get the minions for 1mana and play them? How is it better than just playing a couple dmg spell after cloning gallery?

  5. Swordigal
    November 17, 2018 at 6:48 PM

    It’s actually draw minions from your deck until your hand is full; the minions drawn by this card cost 1. Well think about resurrect priest, this card is very powerful in later game, and also good for otk priest.

    • Jonnymeerkat
      November 19, 2018 at 8:21 AM

      I’m not sure if you are being serious or not, but that is absolutely not how this card works. It doesn’t not change the cost of cards. It draws only minions that already cost 1 mana.

      • For the Alliance and the Light
        November 28, 2018 at 6:06 PM

        Yes, but the spirit does shuffle 1-cost minions in there

  6. Xalik
    November 16, 2018 at 10:04 PM

    All of the combos with other cards have been mentioned, but what about the potential of this card just as a deck thinner for some type of OTK combo? It could be like Hemet Nessingwary with +1 cost, for the extra stats, and a bunch of 1 cost minions (which could be of the card draw variety to pull even harder on your deck) for after Hemet rotates out in the Spring.

    If priest becomes viable again I see this finding niches in a bunch of decks.
    5/5

  7. Eh
    November 16, 2018 at 9:07 PM

    Bwonsamdi, the dead could make weasel priest go off hard on people in wild. Probably won’t win too many games, but may make people get so tilted with weasels they just concerned.

    • MrPoison
      November 17, 2018 at 5:10 PM

      I will craft a weasel deck even if it isn’t viable just for the memes.

  8. Umbreomancer
    November 16, 2018 at 3:18 PM

    So since its supposed to have synergy with Spirit of the Dead, will playing this in Tess draw the other Espionage cards?

    • Eh
      November 16, 2018 at 6:16 PM

      Yes, but only the minions

  9. Mugendramon
    November 16, 2018 at 12:39 PM

    Has anybody else noticed he is called “have a nice saturday” in french?

    • Xalik
      November 16, 2018 at 9:55 PM

      In this case it is actually “Baron Saturday,” It’s based on the Loa of the underworld from Haitian vodou, where it is often written as Bawon samndi in the Creole French they speak in Haiti (and also Louisiana vodou)

  10. Arachnofiend
    November 16, 2018 at 12:52 AM

    Pretty sure this is supposed to be played with Surrender to Madness. Which means it is… probably not great.

    • For the Alliance and the Light
      November 16, 2018 at 7:07 AM

      Not necessarily, bwonsamdi’s most obvious combo is his spirit, which puts 1- cost, full stats minions into the deck, for example, it can put a 1 mana, 8/8 lich king into the deck, then we can use Bwonsanmdi to draw and play them, which will result in three big minions in the field and a 7/7

      3.5/5 if alone
      5/5 if comboed with the spirit

  11. Ben Hudnut
    November 15, 2018 at 9:18 PM

    is this considered the loa or the troll champion?

  12. Ur mom
    November 15, 2018 at 6:52 PM

    1 ) zereks cloning gallery
    2 ) drop spirit(or both spirits to fill your deck even more) and send lots of 1 cost fully statted minions (2nd cloning gallery from Lyra now viable)
    3) play the totally fucking insane 3 mana +2/+2 deck buff
    4) play this guy as an insane hand fill\board flood with double keleseth-d fully statted 9-10 drops.
    5) win.

    • jimmy3000@gmx.de
      November 17, 2018 at 7:05 AM

      while zereks cloning gallery is only playble on turn 9 (if you draw it)…i assume you mean Turn 10…Turn 11…Turn 12…Turn 14…with your “Priest Win Guide”

      correct ?

      OK.

    • JasonTouch
      November 17, 2018 at 7:10 AM

      if you’re playing priest and your opponent (except Warlock and Druid) doesnt kill you until turn 14 – he has a big problem anyway and you rly dont need your “special combo” to win the game at that state of the game

  13. Piterno
    November 15, 2018 at 5:39 PM

    immediately overshadows both loa that already exist, both cheaper, better statted, and with a powerful effect when combined with the spirit of the dead.

  14. UnkarsThug
    November 15, 2018 at 4:46 PM

    I can see star aligner becoming a thing in priest with this card, prophet velen, and the spirit.

    • CD001
      November 16, 2018 at 6:01 AM

      Ideally you’d even want the Star Aligners killed off with Spirit of the Dead on the board so you can pull 1-cost copies of them when you drop Bwonsamdi… and Priest could have possibly generated extra Aligner copies as well.

      It’s a long shot but it’s theoretically possible you could drop Bwonsamdi and 3 Star Aligners (or Velen and 2 Star Aligners) in a turn… it’s a good job Velen (being 7/7 as well) only doubles hero power and spells not *all* effects!

  15. Soup And Salad
    November 15, 2018 at 3:49 PM

    As it seems with all of the Loa, this will require quite a bit of set up to make really playable, but they will all be a massive power play the stage is set.

    This and its spirit seem to want to create a Tempo Priest of some sort. I don’t quite have the imagination to see what that deck might look like though.

    Generally so far, Loas appear to be the sort of cards that happen to be played in a deck that can enable them rather than build a deck around them that will enable them.

  16. deepfearrrr
    November 15, 2018 at 2:31 PM

    here is the synergy which comes into my mind.
    Augmented elek + spirit of the death and this one.
    let it be true or not ? we will see.

    • WreckItTim
      November 17, 2018 at 2:41 PM

      with a Velen this could blow up

  17. Nickname23
    November 15, 2018 at 1:57 PM

    Bwonsamdi + Spirit of the Dead could be a good package for Reckless Experimenter/Deathrattle priest. Spirit of the Dead for huge Value and Bwonsamdi for Refill. Avalanche incoming.
    The card itself is nice utility for War Golem stats and not the worst thing to add to the class pool for 1 1/4 years in standard.

    3,5/5

  18. Phoesias
    November 15, 2018 at 12:46 PM

    i want to make it as clear as i can, the direction blizzard choose for the priest class in whole 2018 ist the biggest nonsense the class has ever received.

    I can not stop facepalm aout blizzard these days

    Loved my Priest since closed beta and it breaks my heart to see what a copy-clown-fiesta-swarm-clone-shit the class became more and more with every expansion

    • TardisGreen
      November 15, 2018 at 2:57 PM

      I think it is clear you are not a very good judge of the strength of the card, and that you have some other issues as well.

      • SwoleLord
        November 16, 2018 at 12:39 AM

        Priest is my least favorite class. Only class I don’t have golden and I must say yes priest has declined rapidly since Raza nerf

    • MrPoison
      November 15, 2018 at 10:40 PM

      SO, you want more cards that support mindblast priest? because that has been the best archetype for priest for the Since MSoG, and it’s just so boring to play mindblast or combo again and again, im glad blizzard trying to push another archetype for this class.

    • GraVity
      November 18, 2018 at 4:01 PM

      I do think the Zombies fit priest’s theme a whole lot more than cloning did in Boomsday. Resurrection and dealing with the dead makes a whole lot more sense since priests heal and revive, which has been consistent with their older cards. I think the direction they’re taking priests in Rastakhan’s is a good choice thematically. Just hope that Big Priest doesn’t become a thing again, worst part about playing KoTFT.

  19. minti
    November 15, 2018 at 12:31 PM

    ok. Nice card. Considering the last priest cards :D. It could be something vol’jin power leveled :D.
    For all those aggro supporters, just NO. The real value comes from the reduced mana cost not from the card draw. If you have plenty of tempo its just a 10 mana 7/7 that will summon you 3 low cost minnions that is totally crap. On the other hand priest does not have tembo becouse its a class with VERY BAD CARD DRAW and extremely USELESS HEROPOWER for aggro decks.
    On top of it all its just another card that does not support any of the class archetypes. Which were tier trash anyway exept for the ressurect crap, that we see in wild anyway. And since the standart revive deck is just another form of OTK. You can run the 4 mind blast shadowreaper anduin with kind of the same % winrates.
    The topsy turvy deck will not see this as usefull. But its a good core for some midrange priest. That will ultimately fail againts the current OTK decks.
    It is another one of those cards ( ex awaken the makers, lady in white, zerek ) that will stay in your collection for 6 expansion in hopes that it will be viable some day when it rotates out of standart and since its not a ressurect priest card for wild its basicly free dust (ex: vol’jin, dragon soul, awaken the makers, Herold volashj, chameleos, The new and improved raza the chained, lady in white, Shadow reaper anduin ( after it lost every card that could support his archetype) / I am kinda hoping for dragon priest and temporus to become viable, thats not a bad deck where Blonsamdi would be amazing card 7/7 stats that summons 3 dragons from your deck would be nice but they kidna need to get 1 mana cost so thats insanely imposible so its not working anyway/ )
    So we have seen worse legendary cards for priest for shure. Its for now another priest legendary card that does not have any support for its archetype. Overall priest cards are still free dust bags for the other viable champs. Unless the card says revive a minion that died this game. Just DUST IT 😀
    This card would just be the right replacement for tess in rogue though. But again this is priest.
    Who on earth kills a 4/12 ysera before killing a 0/3 totem like creature?

    • Phoesias
      November 15, 2018 at 12:49 PM

      dude, as a priest main since beta

      you’r right, 110%

    • For the Alliance and the Light
      November 16, 2018 at 7:15 AM

      How about: Which priest won’t trade its damaged Ysera/Lich King/Ragnaros/Big minions if they can get 1 mana, full stated copies shuffled into their decks for them to draw them later with bwonsamdi?

  20. Jirwin
    November 15, 2018 at 12:23 PM

    0 out of 5 every time

  21. tedisdabest
    November 15, 2018 at 12:09 PM

    Synergy with Spirit of the Dead – Possible combo activator? (kill off Velen and draw for one mana etc). Could be good but I imagine it would need more support to be viable. Another War Golem for Arena

  22. YellowDude
    November 15, 2018 at 12:04 PM

    Everyone’s saying “Aggro Priest” but this seems like it could potentially fit into a Midrange Priest if given the right tools

    • Alex
      November 16, 2018 at 1:06 PM

      Yea this seems like a slam-dunk for spiteful priest. No Spirit of the Dead bullshit, just a 7/7 for 7 that draws 5 or 6 cards seems nuts.

  23. Guido Mista
    November 15, 2018 at 11:52 AM

    Nice that they trying to push aggro Priest into life. Make this class death another expansion 0/10

  24. Jed
    November 15, 2018 at 11:46 AM

    I don’t see any synergy

    0/5
    0/5
    0/5

  25. SimEgg
    November 15, 2018 at 11:42 AM

    So you can combo this with the spirit or maybe play aggro or zoo Priest? Even as a 7 mana 7/7 draw one or two 1-drops it is fine and that feesl like worst case scenario most of the time so I think this card is rather good :3

  26. Sm1ng
    November 15, 2018 at 11:10 AM

    is there a big handbuff card coming?