Kathrena Winterwisp
Kathrena Winterwisp is a 8 Mana Cost Legendary Hunter Minion card from the Kobolds and Catacombs set!
Card Text
Battlecry and Deathrattle: Recruit a Beast.
Flavor Text
She’s not one of those treehugger elves – but she does like the occasional cuddle.- Mana Cost: 8
- Attack: 6
- Health: 6
- Crafting Cost: 1600 / 3200 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 400 / 1600 (Golden)
- Rarity: Legendary
- Class: Hunter
- Card Type: Minion
- Set: Kobolds and Catacombs
- Mechanics: Battlecry, Deathrattle, Recruit
Kathrena Winterwisp Card Review
Finally, a great Hunter legendary! What makes her great, you ask? The value. Recruit is a really powerful and dangerous mechanic and this is one of the cards where we can see why. Because of her text, Kathrena is never an 8-cost 6/6, because she is ready to bring her pets along for the ride, which can be anything from Savannah Highmane to Swamp King Dred. The potential value is absolutely insane and this should take one of spots for “most scary card of the set”. Tutoring things for free is extremely powerful and she even gets to do it twice! All that’s required is that what you want to get is a beast.
So, naturally, Hunters are known for playing beasts. Especially in Standard, Hunters actually play lots and lots of beasts, most of them considerably smaller than what’s necessary to make Kathrena Winterwisp live up to her potential. When you’re tutoring up a Kindly Grandmother or Alleycat, you’re suddenly not very excited to pay all of that extra mana. However, when she puts a charging King Krush into play alongside a 6/6, suddenly she feels a lot more broken. The big question here is this – can Hunter guarantee good pulls by only playing big beasts? It is certainly a theme in the most recent expansions, a value-oriented Hunter who generates and restocks on big threats with lots of Deathrattle and Beast synergy – from Abominable Bowman to Kathrena, there are plenty of ways to exploit those Highmanes, including curving all the way into N'Zoth, The Corruptor. What remains to be answered is whether or not this deck can exist or not.
Giving up the good early plays for Hunter will be a tall order to achieve. Keep in mind we’re not talking about the mythical unicorn that is the Control Hunter dream, rather about a top end-heavy midrange deck that can get through the early game with non-beast minions and spell support. We will have to evaluate that in the context of the full expansion, if there are enough non-beasts to make it happen, however right now it’s looking decently plausible and if the metagame manages to slow down by a turn or two, however unlikely that might be, this style of Hunter deck will be laying in wait to feed on its prey. Either through big, value-oriented beasts or charging monsters such as King Krush and Charged Devilsaur, Kathrena will provide a big pile of stats and get a lot of mileage out of just about any hunter deck. Outside of the worst cases, even smaller minions can be decent pulls and Hunters are never sad whenever they can put up a bunch of stats on the board.
Card Review by Chimbarozo
Kathrena Winterwisp Full Card Art
I dont see anything worthy of a beast in the set so far.So the options seem really poor.
Highmanes , King Krush and maybe Tundra Rhyno.? Other options are Devilsaur , Ultrasaur , Mastodon and Hydra.
All seem really late game and not worth packing a deck with big minions just relying on a single card.You will probably draw some of the big guys early game and hunter has no board clear or heal to stay alive.
Once you lose board control most of the times is GG.Hero power doesnt help stabilizing board.
I dont think control hunter can be a thing.Relies on so much draw rng and beast combos.
Sure having Hydra on 5 , Highmane on 6 , Bowman on 7 and Kathrena on 8 seems OP.But i dont think that is consistent enough.
But we need to see more cards.The card has tremendous potential.You can use it even in aggro hunter if you have 2 highmanes and 2 tundras/hydras.
You’ve also got greater sand worm and swamp king dred, which are both very strong cards. Hunter has been seeing a lot of control oriented cards recently, and this card might just be the one we need to make it a viable deck. Getting this off of tracker can make for some insane value in the late game. In the early game, just use secrets or tar creepers and stuff to hold off your opponent. I think this card will take a little to be figured out but once it is it will make for a strong tier 2 deck
Maybe.I still dont think tar creepers are enough.There are decks with far better defense options than hunter that still got destroyed from aggro or trmpo decks.
But yeah tha card has potential and it would have more if they introduced a more early game value beast.
You can build a deck where your only beast are 7/7 and 8/8 charges, run maybe the secretpackage for early game and minions that aren’t beasts. Then there is the 3 mana 2/2 guy that could search fpr more Kathrenas and now your 8 drop gives u always a big charger and has impact on the board. Another charger after she dies, might work.
Charge 7/7 8/8 ? i can only think of Devilsaur and King Crush and thats 3 cards.
What happens if you draw 2 of these before you are able to draw or play kathrena? also these cards are understated and only good with Kathrena..And what would that deck do if it lost board in early game ? No board clears or heal.
Just hope it wins with Kathrena , understated Devilsaur and King Crush ?
Most good card hunter has is either beast or beast synergy.
Anyway i dont see at least on paper how would that deck work.Just hoping for kathrena doesnt seem reasonable for me to build around.
Ive tried all versions of control hunters , Nzoth , Dragons , Mediv Call of the wild , Secret variants. None is consistent or better than aggro beast version.
I dont see how a deck with minimal removal will last up to turn 8 with hopes of having 1 card that to me at least doesnt seem to do anything special.
I got her in a pack and I can’t decide whether to dust her or not. I’m just not seeing value in her yet.
Everyone just use example king krush and other big minions for this. What a crazy idea 😀 What u gone do if u gone draw this big minions early game u gone wait till turn 9 😀 This card is inconsistent thats the problem. Why not simply play lich king u dont have to worry what u gone draw its taunt and card draw. And its never gone be 6/6 and alley cat 😀
Im having a hard time understanding you, not sure exactly why but probably because of all the ?. Either way from my understanding you are saying that this minion is bad if you draw it early game? Well the same aplies to litch king, both are high cost minions and no matter how good their effects are BOTH wont be playable untill 7 turns or less later from the draw.
You also mentioned alley cat but the problem here is that this legendary card isnt meant to be in a deck that just fills itself with alot of beasts specially cards like alley cat, you are suposed to play this in a deck where the only beasts ARE king crush and savannah highmane (and maybe stubborn gastropod because I find it valauble from this while also being a good early game minion) or any other cards that has high value when pulled out of your deck for free while also filling your deck with strong spells and valuable non beast minions.
what strong spells? With this way o thinking dragonhatchling 9 mana 2/4 is op because there could be a card for one mana draw your 9 mana minion and stealth it 🙂 Every card with logic like this can be op.
dragonhatchling? do you mean a different card because no such card exists, never heard of a 9 mana 2/4, and ofcourse getting alone 2 savannah highmanes out on the board wouldnt be op (sadly), there are far more Op shit in ladder but if anything its a strong outcome
when I say strong spells I mean stuff like animal companion, explosive shot, hunter dk (not really a spell but its a board clear that also gives you a strong hero power but with the weakness of how slot it is), deadly shot, etc…
Explosive shot card which never see any play and u gone lose game if u gone try to play against heroes with control hero power and control type of minions like rogue or jade druid. Also aggro decks will just destroy your mid/late game deck because your aoe are horrible and your hero power just make it even harder to play that kind of deck. I will explain it like that turn 6 shaman can evolve and get value 3×5/5 and what u gone do? Druid can ramp and draw a cards and simply dont bother about this card with ui and he still gone get better value with his deck, priest with one dk anduin is gone destroy your board, rogue is gone kill u with his minion removals, aggro druid living mana and +1/+1 and u are dead. Its simple hunter hasnt got any tools to play control/late type of game or its much worse than other control deck than whats the point of playing this?
Ok I agree that this deck will struggle against all these decks you mentioned except for rougue, I think explosive trap and hunter dk is enough to deal with it. Still that isnt to strange since these decks you mention are all high tier decks and alot of other decks already struggle against these (mainly jade druid and highlander priest) and I don’t think priests dk is enough to counter this card. It could basicly become a 6/6 deathrattle: summon a highmane + a highmane that summons 2 2/2’s, using alone priest dk alone would leave who ever had this card with the 2/2’s and another highmane. Now lets say priest did kill this card some how before playing the priest dk, now you still got 4 2/2’s on the board so priest has to play MORE CARDS (value because this card basicly absorbs more then 1 card) to either remove it by these cards alone or by refreshing the hero power to machine gun each of these and thats 8 damage prevented from machine gun + 4 of your opponents priest cards played.
Now what I fail to see is mainly how this card is worse then litch king, the only thing that makes litch king better is the taunt wich absorbs aggro, this card can summon an 8/8 or 7/7 with charge or get yourself highmanes on the board wich is insane value and both this and litch king are slow cards.
U know why highlander priest works? Because he has A LOT of removals, aoe, healing cards, control cards and other supporting cards. And u just want to build a deck with huge overstated minions if highlander priest is slow this is extremly slow. Why u dont want play better deck with big minions?
Oh that? Thats because I dont play what everyone else plays lol. Not because its wrong to do so but because I like experimenting trying different decks out. Its clear that you and me have different ways to look at cards and this comment thread has been dragging on for to long but let me atleast explain another reason as to why I don’t play highlander priest. It simply isnt a deck that has alot of big minions, it only has removals, razakus, dk and ways to refresh hero power. Same goes for most tier 1 or 2 decks. Aside from jade druid there isnt really much and jade druid isnt fun when you play the same minion over and over again easily and when your opponent is fearing it even before you play it.
Either way what im trying to say is this card is defenitely not going to be put in a tier 1 deck but I feel like it shouldn’t be overlooked either.
today hunter get a new control epic To my side! U were right control hunter is a thing now. This expansion is gone be hunter expansion i was wrong sorry 🙂 Now i am just buidling control hunter with all this new great cards its hard to decide one card is better than card before. New meta crushing walls To my side ketherena control hunter.
turn 5 corpse widow
turn 6 kathrena recruiting… king dred?
idk. you might just kill a priest before he shadow word megadeaths you turn 8.
recruit alley cat? nope
recruit king krush?.. YEP
Why are they wasting their time creating control hunter cards ? hunter is a class where if you dont have turn 2-3 you have nothing to do at all because of a useless hero power.
You cant control with that hero power.
Even broken control cards have no value with that hero power.
No board clear , no heal. Just blant brutal strength and hopes you never get behind on board.
5/5 as an individual card
3/5 as a hunter card
Ok, This is not a control hunter card first off. This is a finisher for midrange hunter. Worst case you pull a fiery bat You force an oppenent board clear and the you pull another fiery bat. Best case you get and incredibily sticky Highmane and when Oppenet board clear You pull another Highmane . Cards that are just extremely good value work in midrange decks. See the reign kf terror of Call of the win
Nothing to compare there.Call of the wild buffed everything you already had by on board by +1 for the final swing.Gave you 5 damage on charge and taunt for defense next turn(if there was one)
This gives you nothing and it is understated for 8 mana.I dont think hunter has the luxury to do nothing at 8 mana.Playing this and not being guaranteed Charge or Taunt is probably game over.
Hunter needs cards that do something at that mana cost.
The only big minion they played at this huge cost was Ragnaros,and Rag had a chance to go face and it was a must remove next turn.
With this you need to build deck around it and the only aggresive beast out there is Devilsaur while the best Taunt being Mastodon.Just bringing Highmanes is too slow unless you have the opponent at 10 health.But if the opponent is that low you would probably win anyway.
Anyway just having to build a deck around 1 card that is 8 mana doesnt seem really good.
An interesting idea I have seen tossed around is you play this and like 3-4 big beasts in a secret hunter deck. The problem with secret hunter is that while it’s good at keeping you alive in the early game, it has no good win condition. Deathstalker Rexxar helped in that regard, but it was not enough. This however might be enough (along with Deathstalker) to have the big swing late game to win after using secrets to survive the early.
Basically, you use Cloaked Huntress + Secrets + Eaglehorn Bow to contest the early game, using the insane defensive tempo of the free secrets to buy time to use stitched tracker and track to dig for this card and Deathstalker. The only beasts you run would be two highmanes, king crush, and charged devilsaur, so Winterwisp always pulls something big.
Honestly all this deck needs it blizzard to add some big beast to replace the devilsaur and king crush in this scenario.
This card has absolutely ridiculous value, but the problem in control hunter is draw and heals, wich this does not fix. Control hunter will either be unplayable or OP as hell, depending on the cards that have not yet been announced.
Love the art on this one!
nice animation too she looks fun to play
I did not see any one bring up Hemet , he would make you pool to recruit from much more consistent .
Your not you lol
The problem with Hunter and Legendaries traditionally is Hunter’s poor card draw – most games you’ll not actually get to play the Legendary as the game is over before you draw it. Hunter’s consistency comes mostly from having 2 of everything.
However – this is almost like card draw x2 in a Beast deck so it sort of addresses one of Hunter’s biggest weaknesses … but it doesn’t do it until turn 8 so it’ll not fit well into any current Hunter archetype; this will live or die depending on the cards released alongside it I guess.
Another good deathrattle card that hunter can make use of. I think that some kind of midrange deathrattle hunter is in the making. this card and carnivorous cube are both deathrattles and work together pretty damn well with other deathrattles. Im definately going to try out a midrange deathrattle hunter deck when the expension lauches. (good deathrattles: savanna hymane, carnivorous cube, kindly grand mother, kathrena, corpse widow, feiry bat, terrorscale stalker, forlorn stalker, infested wolf —- ect.) a lot of deathrattle synergy and i think hunter has enough tools now to make one work!
It’s a good card because u can pull out big beasts from ur deck lik Highmane or King krush… I don’t think it will see pro play tho’
It can work in the recent Spellhunter deck. I think it has some potential, and a more controllish hunter can also make use of the new secret (Wondering Monster, I belive it’s called)
Trash card in competitive scene!!! Absolutely trash!
There are a lot of fun cards in Hearthstone and we don’t need more such cards like this…
We need cards that can actually play and be useful and competitive!
You don’t know what you are talking about. If hunter decks with only a few key expensive beasts are viable, this card may be quite OP. Even King Krush may finally see some play!
You know, I could actually see this potentially working in a sort of Big Hunter list. You run Barnes, Kathrena, Swamp King Dred, King Krush, Savannah Highmane, Bittertide Hydra, maybe even cards like Charged Devilsaur, Giant Mastodon, or Ultrasaur. It could also work in a more neutral version of Midrange Hunter, where instead of your Alleycatd and Crackling Razormaws, you run cards like Fire Fly, Knife Juggler, hell, maybe even Flesheating Ghoul.
This has a lot of potential to be absolutely goddamn terrifying. 4 Stars from me.
Mechanics: Battlecry, Deathrattle, Recruit
Nuff said.
That moment when you glimpse into the future and realize that the inevitable is slowly marching toward you. There can be no escape. There will be no cave, no barren wasteland, no crevice where you can hide. The doom of all of Hearthstone has finally arrived. Death and destruction will reign throughout the land. And in your last moments, you will acknowledge the bone-chilling, horrifying truth:
Ultrasaur is meta.
Oh no…. the apocalypse is upon us! I can already picture it…
For a mere 8 mana, a total of 33 stats! And that’s just the battlecry of this nightmarish beast… just when you think you’ve won it will return with a other 21 stats to add to the fight!
Not even the greatest warriors of hearthstone will be strong enough to defend against its wrath…
Hearthstone has truly fallen!
8 mana 7/7
why did i put snowflipper penguin in my big hunter deck?
Woah, the first hunter legendary that is actually playable?! PogChamp
The most interesting thing about it to me is that even if you put it in a deck that is not purely built around it, and it low rolls a golakka, alleycat or something like that, there’s still the silver lining that you won’t top deck that early game minion anymore either (which at that point in the game it’s a good thing most of the time).
8 mana is a lot for hunters though.
Possible fodder for the fabled “Kazakus Hunter”. Run Highmanes, Charged Devilsaur/King Crush, Swamp King Dredd or even just Bittertide Hyrda and fill the low end with more token-y, non-beast zoo stuff, likely the pirate and elemental package.
Whoop, meant Keleseth. Lol.
Well or spels like animal companion
Good card
Has anyone even tried control hunter? It actually works. This card would be good even if it was just battlecry. This will make control hunter great unless people don’t try it
Lets try it!
Seems like this could be fun with charge minions like King Krush and Tundra Rhino combined with cards like Play Dead, Terrorscale Stalker, and Princess Huhuran to get more big beasts (Giant Sand Worm?)
Charge beasts also include Charged Devilsaur since its battlecry doesn’t take effect
Good thinking!
Very fun card, might make an experimental big hunter work, but only in wild (hello gazh’rilla). Insanely strong when in a deck that’s built around it. But the question is if that deck can afford to suffer such great inconsistency (not playing small hunter minions) and try to survive early with the weak spells it has. Add up to that, that hunter has no healing (except for antique healbot in wild) and you’re stuck with a deck that will just straight up lose every aggro match-up. Whichever deck you put this in will most likely have a deathstalker rexxar, so value-wise it will be a strong deck, the question is again, will it survive?
3/5 (has potential, but leans closer to 2/5, i’ll give it the benefit of doubt)
Also barnes is very good in such a deck since it’s not a beast and can’t get pulled from this. (also you will most likely draw barnes before this since you mulligan for it)
No need to build an entire deck around this card, even if pulling 2 kindly grandmothers with this card you get value, and that is like one of the worst case scenarios, there is that 4/3 bearshark, or even savannah highmane, no need to destroy your deck with lots of expensive beasts that don’t see play just to maximize the value of one card IMO.
I think a midrange hunter wouldn’t include this since it’s to slow and it generally tops the curve at 6 with highmane/deathstalker or 7 with a bonemare. But you are right that it is very strong without build around allready and might even be strong enough to become an include in midrange.
I think it might be able to make the cut. This card can be sth like dr boom in midrange hunter in the past. A bit weaker tho.
Stitched tracker is a small hunter minion, and you have good removal spells like unleash the hounds, multi shot, and explosive shot. This would be good to use in a deck that uses secrets with cloaked huntress and putricide and then stitched tracker, barnes, maybe yshaarj, big beasts, and Kathrena.
you are still allowed to run small minions with this, just not small beasts. can still run things like flame elemental and even doomsayer. pirate package even. just no cats or wolfs for this deck. think it has some major payoff late game, just need to see if there’s a bit more support in early game removal and such for the deck.
You are 100% right, seems i severely underestimated this card.
True, but you still need to play ENOUGH beasts so that you don’t whiff in the late game when you top deck this lady. Plan on playing at least five beasts, if not a few more, just to ensure you get maximum benefit from her.
How does the recruit mechanic work if triggered on the opponents turn via deathrattle?
Do you get to wait to make your choice, that way your opponent has to use up all their turn’s time?
Recruit just pulls a minion fitting the requirement at random from your deck, you don’t get to choose. It’s basically Barnes but instead of making a copy it actually takes the card out of the deck.
Recruit: put a random minion from your deck into play.
Do you not know how recruit works? No choice involved.
Better than the warlock legendary at least…