Gurubashi Hypemon
Gurubashi Hypemon is a 7 Mana Cost Epic Rogue Minion card from the Rastakhan's Rumble set!
Card Text
Battlecry: Discover a 1/1 copy of a Battlecry minion. It costs (1).
Flavor Text
Throw your hands in the air!They cost (1).
Gurubashi Hypemon Card Review
But why Battlecry? Why not Combo? It’s been almost 5 years since the game was released and they still can’t seem to settle on the Rogue’s main theme, class identity.
By itself, the card is pretty bad. 7 mana 5/7 is very slow, especially in Rogue. And the effect is very mediocre. You see, on the one hand, having a 1 mana 1/1 version of some Battlecry minions would be straight up amazing. For example – Onyxia, The Black Knight, Faceless Manipulator, Alexstrasza, Master Oakheart, Bonemare etc. Situationally, cards like Mossy Horror or Deathwing might also come super handy. But for every good Battlecry, there are 3-4 bad or clunky ones that you wouldn’t really want to get. The chance to snatch one of the good ones, especially the ones you want, is incredibly small with the amount of Battlecry cards in general.
However, keep in mind that Discover favors class cards over Neutrals. So what kind of Battlecries Rogue has access to? Honestly, they’re just okay, some are good and some are bad. We have cards like Myra Rotspring, the new Gral, the Shark or Fal'dorei Strider, which work well in any deck – that’s the good part. Blink Fox and Lab Recruiter are also okay-ish, but not amazing. Then, we have cards that require specific synergies, which you might not have at all in your deck – Tess Greymane, Pogo-Hopper or Cavern Shinyfinder.
The only this this card has going for it is the synergy with Spirit of the Shark. You can play both on T10, this minion’s Battlecry triggers twice. Now assuming that Spirit stays on the board thanks to the Stealth, you can play the two Battlecry minions you’ve discovered and double them too. It’s a nice value play in the late game, but let’s be real here – it’s not the Rogue’s play style. It’s not a value class that wants to go for those slow turns. Rogue’s card shell is built around tempo and combos, not around value.
But man, it would be better and more interesting if it gave you a Combo card instead of a Battlecry card. But even then, I don’t think it would be playable. Unless they push a completely different, slow, value-oriented Rogue archetype over the next few expansions, I don’t think that this is going to work.
Card rating: 2/10
Gurubashi Hypemon Full Card Art
anyone noticed how this card got removed from the official site and is still showing up as not yet revealed? monkaHmm
Why in the world is this not a pirate. I doubt it would be played in pirate rouge, but it would help. He even has a peg leg!
Yeah this sucks. I miss shadowcaster. She was my bae.
come on, this card is not a pirate? xD
Yeah, thats what I was thinking too
Come on, Doomgard stats for this thin boy ??
No pirate tag?
If that was “Discover a 1/1 copy of a Battlecry minion in your deck. It costs (1).” That’ll be good but like this that’s too much random.
So, I just counted, and being really generous, there are around 25-30 battlecries you might want a 1/1 copy of in standard that this guy can find. That’s out of roughly 150-160 battlecries that exist (it was a quick count).
In other words, card seems like garbage.
Gurubashi Hypemon can definitely get a big battlecry for next to nothing, but the discover pool is so large and varied in quality that complete dud picks are going to be rather common. Of the twelve Rogue battlecry minions currently in Standard, maybe five of them would be something someone would really want to choose. The Loa is one of them though, and it becomes much better at one mana rather than five.
Combine that with the high cost and low stats of the card, and the odds really aren’t in favor of it. Sure, the one mana copy of a card can activate combo cards, but it seems like Fire Fly will always be better in that regard since it can do it reasonably twice.
It won’t end up being good.
This is the very good analysis I can always count on from you, and I think you are right.
Let me say this, though. I think there’s a chance you are underestimating the value of discover here. If variance is the biggest problem with battlecries, discovering should help you pick the better one, especially with the increased bonus to discovery class battlecries. That should be enough to land you on the right side of high-rolling, or at least to get an average battlecry.
I know you’ve taken discovery into account already, but I think you might be undervaluing it a bit.
In the end, though, I think you are right, because of its high cost. If you lower its cost and stats by, say, 3, I think you’ve got a pretty great minion.
Imagine getting a 1/1 the darkness
Yeah, you’ll be able to pick the best of the three options placed in front of you, but there’s a hundred-sixty-plus options. Rogue’s selection of Battlecry minions is also not like Paladin’s selection of Taunt minions.
Combo this with the spirit and you can pull some nasty stuff from it like Myra or the Loa, Faldorei. reminds me of shadow sticher but better in a way. The stats are pretty alright and help the Loa in terms of usage.
Are you serious? To waste the combo and a Rouge as a class to get something random and inconsistent post turn 7. Are you aware it discovers a battlecry minion among more than 160 of them? Stats are alright? 7 mana 12 of stats.
The Ceiling may be high, but it’s floor is also really low. With there being so many battlecry minions, it won’t be uncommon for all three choices being duds. Even Rogue’s battlecry minions, outside of maybe four, aren’t going to be great things to pick.