Phantom Militia

Phantom Militia Card

Phantom Militia is a 3 Mana Cost Rare Neutral Minion card from the The Witchwood set!

Card Text

Echo Taunt

Flavor Text

Recruited from the Gilnean opera house.

Phantom Militia Card Review

First card featuring the new mechanic – Echo. Or well, not exactly “first” – it was already present on Unstable Evolution. I like the fact that they print mechanics like that on a single card to test out the waters before going all in on adding multiple similar cards.

Echo is a very interesting mechanic. Echo cards are generally bad for their mana cost, that should always be the case. 2/4 Taunt for 3 is not playable in Constructed, just like a 1 mana Evolve for a single minion. Their power lies in the fact that they have great late game scaling, as they can be replayed as many times as you want.

Phantom Militia is… by itself it’s pretty mediocre. Right now, I don’t see a deck that would want to play it without any extra synergies. I mean, 3 mana 2/4 Taunt is bad, 6 mana 2x 2/4 Taunt is also bad, and 9 mana 3x 2/4 Taunt is also… yeah, bad. Of course, the flexibility adds a few points – having a Turn 3 play that can be played on Turn 9 if you top deck it. But that’s the thing, this specific card would probably see play in a slower deck, if anything. 2/4 for 3 is too slow for Aggro. And slow decks have plenty of things to do in the late game, they are never really in “top deck mode” so desperate that they need to squeeze as much value as they can from every 3-drop. It might be a solid discover choice from something like Stonehill Defender, but I just don’t feel like it’s good enough.

However, where this and potentially other Echo cards really shine are mana discounts. It was already confirmed that discounts from cards like Shadowstep or Emperor Thaurissan don’t apply to the other copies. But, the permanent discounts do. That’s why Shaman rolling a Radiant Elemental or Sorcerer's Apprentice with Unstable Evolution in hand means that he’s in for a ride. Discounts get MASSIVE advantage with Echo cards, since they apply to every copy. And so, any Echo spell will have amazing synergy with the minions I’ve mentioned.

What about Echo minions, though? Well, they also have their own, cool synergy. Summoning Portal is a Warlock card pretty much no one remembers, because well, it’s not a great one. Paying 4 mana for a 0/4 that you need to combo with something to even get value is not great. But the card might work really well with the Echo mechanic. Let’s take the Phantom Militia example. Normally, on Turn 10, you could play 3 copies. With Summoning Portal, you can play 6 copies. Summoning Portal + 6x 2/4 Taunt on the board sounds much better. You know how powerful can Spreading Plague vs a full board be, and this doesn’t even require any board from your opponent. Of course, you would never run both in a deck JUST to get that combo, as it would be a bit unreliable. But I think that in case other Echo minions that are either Neutral or available to Warlock get printed, it might be a thing. For example, with a 4 mana Echo card, you could drop 3 copies instead of normal 2, and then still have a Summoning Portal up – something your opponent absolutely needs to answer.

I also believe that we might see some Echo synergies, or other things that might make Echo cards more juicy. Right now, I don’t think that this card will see much play, if anything. But it might change when we see more cards.

P.S. Good Arena pick. A 2/4 Taunt for 3 is already playable and just about average (Squirming Tentacle). Adding the ability to play it 2 or 3 times in mid/late game is never a bad thing – top deck mode in Arena is much more common than in Constructed, and this is definitely one of the best 3-drop to top deck when you’re out of cards.

Card rating: 4/10

Leave a Reply

40 Comments

  1. eTTo
    March 23, 2018 at 11:14 AM

    They missed a pun here. Phantom Menace?

  2. Threather
    March 20, 2018 at 6:05 PM

    Seems like a decent card, will see play in some decks.

    Okayish at lategame, bad at early but has some synergy with some combo cards such as summoning portal.

  3. Some guy
    March 17, 2018 at 2:00 PM

    Reached Rank 5 with taunt/control warrior with the quest. Should make that gameplan even more viable.

    • ShoM
      March 18, 2018 at 11:43 AM

      Stonehill defender outclasses this card pretty hard. I dont think Taunt warrior is the place for it

      • roblad
        March 29, 2018 at 5:52 AM

        pleese explane, this card has one more attack (which is important) and consistently goves you cards to play, stone hill defender is verry good, but this card is way more efficient. i think the comparison isnt as good as it seems there for different decks.

  4. KLGamet
    March 15, 2018 at 12:58 PM

    I will play Quest Warrior once more!

  5. hordidor
    March 14, 2018 at 5:33 AM

    will make it into my druid deck with my twig of the world tree 🙂

    spam as much as i can, destroy twig, spam 2 more and buff the heck out of them with Strongshell Scavenger

  6. Radank
    March 13, 2018 at 6:33 PM

    This card is great in Warlock with summoning portal or whatever the 4 mana 0/4 your minions cost 2 less card is. For two cards and ten mana you get the 0/4 and 6 2/4 taunts

    • Nope
      March 17, 2018 at 7:42 AM

      Sounds worse than spreading plague to me. I think the card is more comparable to sleepy dragon.

  7. Coud
    March 13, 2018 at 2:13 PM

    I can see your point. But i see this card with a very good potential.
    Is a single card 3 minions. It may not be the best value for 9 mana. But it gives 3 creatures with taunt your opponent needs to deal with with a single card.
    I see with the potential of forcing your opponent to waste at least 2 or 3 cards among minions and spells to deal with this single card.

  8. PrepaidAtom
    March 13, 2018 at 9:04 AM

    Farsight potential for shaman ? 😛

    • Doesn’t work
      March 14, 2018 at 2:14 AM

      It does not work with farsight, when this card is reduced it’s copies don’t get reduced. Except by board minions that reduce the mana cost like summoning portal

  9. DukeStarswisher
    March 13, 2018 at 6:52 AM

    I feel some miracle rogue Sonya potential with this card… especially it being a taunt minion.

  10. TheBootyLord
    March 13, 2018 at 2:30 AM

    I feel like this is just going to end up being a worse version of Saronite Chain Gang. Only really see this card having more value than Chain Gang at 9 mana, and I’d hope to have better cards I could play than this at 9 mana.

    • DukeStarswisher
      March 13, 2018 at 6:49 AM

      You’re right. However, I think the real value of this card will be its synergy with cards that decrease value of cards in your hand. Summoning Portal and Barnabus are the cards that come to mind. But you’re right, 9 cost for 18 stats plus taunt doesn’t seem completely worth it, and that’s in the late game.

      • TheBootyLord
        April 6, 2018 at 2:12 AM

        How often is a Summoning Portal gonna stick on board though? Hardly ever. To make this combo any useful you’d have to play them on the same turn with 8 + mana and almost an empty board. Still just not a good value play. Barnabus is a little interesting, but it usually takes like half the game to complete that quest and if you draw phantom militia before you complete the quest and play Barnabus it’s essentially a dead card imo, because you’d want to play it after Barnabus for the value. This card won’t go in any competitive decks, though I’m sure it will find it’s home in a meme deck, that I of course will play.

  11. Spyder9899
    March 12, 2018 at 10:11 PM

    I think this card is being over rated. I don’t see it being ran anywhere. Espesally quest rogue.

  12. POIIUYYT
    March 12, 2018 at 8:51 PM

    I really want to see an echo card with a decent battlecry

    • Keks
      March 14, 2018 at 2:20 AM

      THIS CARD HAS TAUNT WHIC PROTECTS THE PORTAL SO THAT YOU CAN GET MORE VALUE OF THE PORTAL BY PLAYING OTHER ECHO CARDS ALL THANKS TO THIS CARD PROTECTING THE PORTAL.

  13. BEN
    March 12, 2018 at 7:24 PM

    WOuld be cool to get this with farsight turn three lol

    • JWNSJ
      March 14, 2018 at 2:21 AM

      FARSIGHTED DOES NOT WORK WITH THIS CARD.

      • NRMLPGR
        March 15, 2018 at 7:17 AM

        Farsight doesn’t effect the copies, but it still reduces the cost of the first play. So on turn four you get 2 2/4 with taunt, strictly better than the chain gang, plus you technically have an extra mana to work with

  14. Andy
    March 12, 2018 at 3:59 PM

    As a non-class card it can see play, maybe even in some constructed controll decks.

    • IMDMD
      March 14, 2018 at 2:22 AM

      Maybe see PLAY? MAYBE SEE PLAY? IT WILL SEE PLAY

  15. Piggy
    March 12, 2018 at 2:42 PM

    NEVER FORGET SILVERBACK PATRIARCH!

  16. GlosuuLang
    March 12, 2018 at 1:42 PM

    The Echo mechanic can be quite valuable in the end game when you have an empty hand. If you top deck this, at least you can play three minions, instead of just one and have 7 mana left. However, having Echo will have to be paid somehow, which means that as normal drops, Echo cards will be outclassed by other stuff. In this case, for example, we could have a Fierce Monkey with an extra attack in turn 3. Echo cards can also be good combo enablers in the late game if they’re cheap enough, we will see what other cards get printed out. As for this card, I’m giving it 3/5 stars. Solid, but I would be surprised if it sees a lot of constructed play. It doesn’t even have an Elemental tag…

    • JENE
      March 14, 2018 at 2:23 AM

      CAN BE VALUABLE? IT IS VALUABLE

  17. SimEgg
    March 12, 2018 at 1:09 PM

    So… should be good for Quest rouge and Quest warrior… aaaand Summoning Portal in Warlock can give you 6 of these when you’re at 10 mana…. I like it! I don’t know if it is op enough but still really cool card.

  18. -Bandit-
    March 12, 2018 at 12:42 PM

    Echo mechanic could be abused by Quest Rogue and Quest Warrior…

    • Joopiter
      March 12, 2018 at 1:11 PM

      You’re right but I don’t think so this particular card will do this. Quest Rogue usually wants to complete quest as fast as possible and you can get this on board double time at 6 turn the earliest. And it is quite hard to bounce 3 mana card a lot of time.
      Quite similar with Warrior – I think it needs to complete quest earlier than at turn 9 or so.

      But this is a good point – I hope Blizz thought about it and other Echo cards will not be too cheap.

      • Piterno
        March 12, 2018 at 2:01 PM

        Yes, an Echo card that costs 6 mana lol
        It’ll pretty much be a normal card if it costs any more than this 3 mana one

    • Brenden
      March 15, 2018 at 6:29 AM

      YO, you forgot about summoning portal in warlock

  19. Abollo
    March 12, 2018 at 12:42 PM

    If i play this in my Val’anyr Paladin deck and the buff goes to it… will the echo copy have the buff? It would be awesome.

    • Mattias Kollnitz
      March 12, 2018 at 1:21 PM

      No unfortunately not, when minions go back to your hand buffs are removed :/

      • Jmartin1289
        March 12, 2018 at 2:05 PM

        but what about shadowstep? it sounds like if its copying the original card played then wouldn’t it keep its cost reduction? it would be broken if so but could this be possible? i think its possible but not likely.

    • POIIUYYT
      March 12, 2018 at 8:49 PM

      Echo cards can be played multiple times on the turn you play them. Each time, it’ll add a ghostly copy of the card back to your hand that disappears at the end of your turn. -(https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/expansions-adventures/the-witchwood/)
      Note: It says each time you play this card add a copy of the card back to your hand so ya I would think so

  20. YellowDude
    March 12, 2018 at 10:47 AM

    Solid card in Arena overall. Won’t really touch on Standard prediction until the rest of the set releases I guess.

  21. Crapcrack
    March 12, 2018 at 10:30 AM

    Great in arena.
    In constructive? MAYBE