Swift Messenger
Swift Messenger is a 4 Mana Cost Common Neutral Minion card from the The Witchwood set!
Card Text
Rush Each turn this is in your hand, swap its Attack and Health.
Flavor Text
Same turn delivery - guaranteed!- Mana Cost: 4
- Attack: 2
- Health: 6
- Crafting Cost: 40 / 400 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 5 / 50 (Golden)
- Rarity: Common
- Class: Neutral
- Card Type: Minion
- Set: The Witchwood
- Mechanics: Rush
Swift Messenger Card Review
It’s true that those “swap stats in hand” are better with Rush, because now both stat-lines make more sense depending on the matchup and the board state, but it’s probably still not enough. In this case, the 2/6 form is better for dealing with multiple small minions, and the 6/2 form is like a 6 damage minion removal for 4 mana, because you aren’t likely to clear something and still have this on the board (technically you will sometimes run it into some 1/2 minion etc. but that will rarely be the case).
But just like any other “swap” minion, the thing I dislike most about this one is the fact that you can’t choose the form on the fly. You might need 6 damage when this is 2/6, or you might need the 2/6 when your opponent has some 2/2 minion on the board and this turns into a 6/2.
Overall, the card is not terrible, it’s more than a pack filler, but it doesn’t look good enough to see any serious ladder play. Great in Arena, though!
A common comment is that this, and the other similar cards might be good in Lady in White decks, but I beg to differ. It will still be bad until you draw and play the Lady, and that might not happen until the very late game. Lady in White is a supplementary card, not “build your deck around” card. You want to play minions that are already good by themselves and only get better with Lady in play – this is not one of them.
Card rating: 3/10
This might go into quest druid, looks bad but so did cursed disciple and that literally only goes in quest druid #MakeQuestDruidGreatAgain .. even though was never great LUL
It’s a good versatile neutral card that can be a fireball to a minion or a pre-nerf Keeper of the Grove if it kills a Knife Juggler or Dire Wolf Alpha. While Getawat Kodo never saw play in Hunter, the class never really needed such a tool and that doesn’t stop it from being one of the better choices when making a Zombeast.
Not being able to choose the mode it exists in on any particular turn suck, but the individual modes themselves are pretty strong in spite of the versatility. Granted, the lack in active choice in what the card looks like when played will probably be the downfall of this mechanic in general, but if one of the unidentified cards from K&C is able to see play, at least one Worgan card should be able to claw its way into a competitive deck.
Getaway Kodo in Hunter? Wut?
I meant Dispatch Kodo.
Still though, Dispatch Kodo saw some play. Kibler used it in his Midrange after FrozenThrone, and so did I.
The play it saw in that case was not really extensive then. I don’t remember it being too popular of a choice.
All these beautiful artworks on these cards that are never going to see play..
Most card games have a many beautiful pieces of artwork used on weak cards. Would you rather the commissioned artists put in less effort into the obviously weaker cards or put their all into everything they’re asked to create?
Granted, that does assume the cards have been finalized and the artists are fully aware of the quality of the card before the artists put pencil to paper.
The Worgen mechanic of swapping Attack and Health each turn is NOT good. 50% of the time you have to wait for a whole turn to drop a minion with the desired stats, and that is too inconsistent. That said, these are not bad minions in Arena, when you can usually play other minions until you wait for the desired form, and the stat-distribution is pretty vanilla. The only way we are going to see these in constructed is in a Lady in White deck (which highly boosts these minions, not just by stats but also they become consistent minions that always have the same attack and health), or when summoned by random minion generators. Many of these rotate out (Portals from Karazhan), so we may not see this minions practically at all in Constructed.
This minion in particular seems to work best as the 4-mana Fireball to a minion, with the downside of not always having it with the desired attack and not going through Taunt. It can also clean up a 2-health-left minion and leave a body on the board for 4 mana, which is not too bad, but again, you need to have the desired form in hand for this. Inconsistent mechanic, so it gets 2.5/5 stars.
TRASH MECHANIC blizz plz remove
Would you rather Hearthstone never experimented with anything and kept to the same 7 or 8 general mechanic on every card?
Probably the best of the swap cards tbh.
another pair for lady in white love u blizz.
pretty good card. you can use it as a 6 damage fireball to a minion or to remove some small minions with 6 health.
Great card for arena, but I think will definitely see play in constructed, too.
4/5
Leerooooooyyyyyy JENK- oh.
It has pretty okay stats. Its slightly better than stormwind knight that saw some play at some point.
Just you will get outvalued/taunted in competitive if you put in this deck so doubt it will see much play. Guess you would put it in for Master Oakheart synergy, there isn’t that many great 2 attack minions.
stormwind knight sees play in inner fire priest for OTK purposes.
Kinda like Fireball? (obviously worse, but kinda)
Thought the same. 4 mana 6 dmg to a minion is really good. the swap stats make it worse but i would say 4/5 cause FIREBALL is op and ist a small FIREBALL for everyone
flame lance was 5mana deal 8 to a minion, and it was really bad
so i’d say that no, 4mana deal 6 to a minion isn’t particularly good
Flame Lance didn’t come with a body that could potentially survive running into a minion, plus Mage had better, cheaper options to work with especially once Flamewaker was released in BRM.
Fireball doesn’t come with a body either. What makes fireball good is that it can go face. 4mana deal 6 to a minion is not good. Now, shadow bolt saw play in control warlock, so 4mana deal 6 to a minion should still be playable.
Except here, it’s worse because of the worgen effect, and it can’t hit a minion protected by a taunt minion.
Still might see play, in some control deck that lack removal, or possibly in warrior, because they need rush minions to support the new weapon, which looks very strong. Also the 2/6 form isn’t bad against a token deck.
But really it’s not a great card. More like the 30th worst card of a constructed deck.
To Warptens
Fireball’s power does come in part from how it can strike a hero directly, but Fireball is a mage exclusive card and the Worgan effect can be a boon just as much as a bust for this effect since it can make this card into a neutral pre-nerf Keeper of the Grove.
The lack of choice to what mode the card exists in at any one time is unfortunate, but at least in theory it would let R&D create cards stronger than Druid’s Choose One cards.
I do agree with how this will see play primarily in midrange or control decks if it does see play, but I do not think it will end up being the worse card in those decks. That’ll usually be Spellbreaker if the statistics on it are anything to go by.
A good pick in arena.
2/6 for value or you can take it as a 4 mana removal, love the versatility!