Scaleworm
Scaleworm is a 4 Mana Cost Rare Neutral Minion Beast card from the The Witchwood set!
Card Text
Battlecry: If you're holding a Dragon, gain +1 Attack and Rush.
Flavor Text
A popular local alternative to bananas.- Mana Cost: 4
- Attack: 4
- Health: 4
- Crafting Cost: 100 / 800 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 20 / 100 (Golden)
- Rarity: Rare
- Class: Neutral
- Card Type: Minion
- Minion Type: Beast
- Set: The Witchwood
- Mechanics: Battlecry, Holding Dragon, Rush
Scaleworm Card Review
Strong card to put into a Dragon deck. Since “holding a Dragon” condition is nearly always met by Turn 4, this card can be seen like a 4 mana 5/4 with Rush, and that’s good. Yes, it’s not Duskbreaker level good, but it should be enough to see Constructed play. Most of the time, you will be able to charge into your opponent’s 2-drop or 3-drop and this will still survive. Great example is Tar Creeper – you can trade into it and still have a 5/1 body leftover. That’s great, because now your opponent has to spend extra resources to clear that – even if it’s a Mage pinging it with Hero Power, you still make his turn worse. Other classes might actually need to trade minion, spell, or maybe even not have a way to clear it, and it will deal 5 damage or give you another good trade.
Now, the problem is that lots of good Dragons and Dragon synergies are rotating out. Most importantly, Priest is losing Drakonid Operative, which was one of the most broken cards ever printed. But on top of that, Netherspite Historian and Book Wyrm are also rotating out, which is a big deal.
I think that this card would be a perfect fit into Spiteful Dragon Priest. It’s a Midrange deck, which can’t play removal spells, because they would ruin the Spiteful Summoner and Grand Archivist effects. But, just like Duskbreaker, this can be played – and probably will if the deck is still a thing after the rotation.
It would also fit into any other Midrange/Tempo-oriented Dragon deck, but other classes would need more synergies. Priest can still be carried on the back of Duskbreaker, but other classes just don’t have a reason to play Dragons.
Another thing that might be interesting is a multi-tribe deck. Remember what I’ve said about Nightmare Amalgam? The card would most likely shine in a deck taking advantage of multiple synergies. This is a bit similar – it’s a Beast, but it synergizes with Dragons, so if you put more than one tribe in your deck, you can take advantage of both synergies.
All in all, if Dragon decks will still be a thing (like we get more Dragon synergies), this card should see play. I’d say that the most likely deck you’d put it into is Spiteful Dragon Priest, but any Midrange/Tempo Dragon build would like that.
Card rating: 7/10
Scaleworm Full Card Art
This is a really good card, but not strong enough for top-tier decks. It would be hard to put this in a dragon deck when we are losing so many dragons. But, it’s too early to tell.
WOW this card is amazing, too bad we’re losing so many dragons
If this were a dragon itself, it obviously would be better, but the idea of a crossover deck between dragons and beasts won’t really translate well into reality. The only class that could happen in would be Hunter, and there aren’t that many good neutral dragons for that class to use unless control Beast Hunter becomes a thing.
I do hope this is all the Dragon package gets given how annoying the package has proven to be playing against it lately.
Well, just because it’s a Beast doesn’t mean it needs to be in a “crossover” deck. Wyrmrest Agent, Blackwing Corruptor, Blackwing Technician, Netherspite Historian, and Twilight Acolyte are all non-dragons, and yet they see/saw substantial play in Dragon Priest currently or in the past.
And honestly, this won’t do much for the Dragon package as it stands, seeing as how Book Wyrm, Netherspite Historian, and Drakonid Operative are all rotating into Wild once this expansion drops. I doubt it’ll be that much of a pain.
You are right, and I was talking about that idea more so than the card itself.
The card itself if alright, but I would’ve preferred it to be a sort of proactive version of Twilight Gaurdian with that same 2/6 base stat line. It would’ve at least made it last on the board.
The neutral dragons are great with hunter! They offer board clears which the class clearly lacks and from experimenting with dragons a lot in hunter, I can say that it is a viable card and will help the deck make it through the midgame seeing as they will be losing bookwyrm.
Primordial Drake is only ever going to be 2 cards in your deck. After they you’ll only have Cobalt Scalebane, Twilight Drake, the overpriced Hunter Dragon, and then the big classic dragons. None of which really meld well into the general Hunter play styles other than Scalebane.
Generally, if you find yourself saying X goes great with Y class and your the first person to claim as much, it probably won’t work outside of your own experiences. There are people who play Control Warrior at high legend ranks season after season after season, but that doesn’t mean the deck will work for the normal pleb. Maybe you have been successful with a Dragon Hunter, and that’s good you’ve found your own success in the game, but not very many people would be able to replicate that success.
All these worms and wasps getting the rush mechanic
Yes yes YES, I dont care how good this card alone is going to be, this alone gives dragon suport to every other class and removes priests monopoly on taking advantage over dragons again and that to me is a good sign!! <3 This also makes the all tribe spidertank more usefull, love this new archtype they are pushing.
As for this card itself, the 4/4 stats when not holding a dragon isnt to much of a drawback but most of the times you will have a dragon in your hand so a 4 mana 5/4 with rush is really good, its like a less op more expensive Alexstrasza's Champion but that card was insane and this is a neutral so every class will be able to use it.
Tar creeper counter
Lol yeah
Dual tribe Beast-Dragon incoming. Amalgam Nightmare Dragon Hunter anyone?
Joking aside, I see this being decent. Duskbreaker is much better and is a dragon, but this is a fair neutral minion. Duskbreaker is just busted. Should see some play. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Definitely dont think this will see any play in a priest deck as you said, they already have so many better dragon related cards but thats why im happy this is neutral, allows other classes to start experimenting with dragon decks again.
Actually I didn’t say it would see play in Priest, quite the contrary, I said that Priest already has an OP 4-drop named Duskbreaker, so it can’t compete with it. As I said it’s a fair neutral minion, but so far its best use seems to be a menagerie deck in Wild. It should see some play outside of Priest. We’ll see what other Dragons the other classes get.
good for Menagerie deck in wild I guess
too bad menagerie is going to wild