Descent of Dragons Card Review #2 – Breath Cards, Dragon Explorers, Dragonbane, Phase Stalker, Learn Draconic, Toxic Reinforcements and more!

Descent of Dragons was just announced at BlizzCon, and we’ve got a HUGE batch of new cards! Usually, we get 10-15 cards whenever a new expansion is revealed, but this time we’ve got 36. We also have some new mechanics, Invoke / Galakrond combo in particular, something that is pretty complex for Hearthstone and requires a lot of analysis (Neutral Invoke cards, for example, will work completely different depending on which class you run them in). That’s why it took me a bit longer to finish the first review, but it’s here now!

In this article, I’ll take a closer look at the newly revealed cards, reviewing them and rating from 1 to 10. The scale itself should be quite obvious, but just to quickly explain how do I see it: A card rated 5 is average – it might be playable in some decks, but it’s nothing special. Cards below 5 might see some play in off-meta decks, or as obscure techs, but the closer we get to 1, the lower chance it is that they will see play. When I rate card 1 or 2, I don’t believe that it will see any Constructed, non-meme play at all. On the other hand, going above 5 means that I see the card as something with more potential. While I can’t guarantee that it will work out in the end, I believe that the cards with 6-8 are likely to see at least some Constructed play, while cards rated 9 or 10 are, in my mind, nearly sure hits. 1 and 10 are reserved to the worst or best cards I can imagine, meaning that they won’t be used often.

Remember that with only a handful of cards seen, it’s incredibly hard to review them accurately, since we have no clue what synergies will be printed or which themes will be pushed. I advise you to pay more attention to the description than the rating itself – I will try to explore some of the potential synergies and reasons why a given card might or might not work. I also encourage you to share your own predictions and reviews in the comment section. Even if you aren’t sure, don’t worry, no one is! There is nothing wrong about being wrong, I have never seen anyone who nailed most of the card ratings before the release. But, without further ado, let’s proceed with the reviews!

Check out our other card reviews:

• Descent of Dragons Card Review #1 – Galakrond Hero Cards, Invoke Cards, Malygos, Nozdormu, Ysera, Deathwing, Waxadred and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #3 – Talritha, Shu’ma, Galakrond, the Unbreakable, Nether Breath, Amber Watcher, Kronx Dragonhoof, Veranus, and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #4 – Sanctuary, Flik Skyshiv, Valdris Felgorge, Chromatic Egg, Chenvaala, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #5 – Ancharr, Kobold Stickyfinger, Cumulo-Maximus, Zzeraku, Nithogg, Bandersmosh, Frizz Kindleroost and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #6 – Stormhammer, Kaahrj, Chronobreaker, Platebreaker, Embiggen, Goru, Dragonmaw Poacher, Murozond and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #7 – Wing Commander, Storm’s Wrath, Sky Claw, Galakrond the Tempest, Rolling Fireball, Mana Giant and more!
• Descent of Dragons Card Review #8 (Final) – Violet Spellwing, Elemental Allies, Skybarge, Aeroponics, Skyfin, Squallhunter, Tasty Flyfish and more!

Lightning Breath

If you’re running a Dragon deck, it’s obviously an amazing card. At the very base level, it’s a Shadow Bolt, which is not the best card ever, but it’s playable. But once you’re holding a Dragon, it’s a solid, semi-AoE removal. Lots of the time, this is going to work like a 3 mana Flamestrike – if your opponent has 3 or less minions on the board, that is. But even with more than that, it’s still a great card for its mana cost.

So, again, IF you’re running a Dragon Shaman, then you would absolutely want to play it. However, right now I just don’t see a Dragon Shaman deck. It never existed, the class never got any synergies, but it’s an expansion based around Dragons, so anything can happen.

Of course, we don’t know any other Shaman cards yet. We don’t know how the Legendary Dragon will look like. We don’t know if the class will get any other synergies. Since Dragons were always Battlecry-based, maybe it will be worth to build a Quest Dragon Shaman to double those? (although Dragons seem a bit too slow to finish it) Or, at the very least, a powerful class Legendary Dragon might work really well with Shudderwock. Twin Tyrant, for example, is also amazing to play in Shudderwock deck. So is Twilight Drake, to be honest.

Right now it’s a complete guess, but based on the history of the class, I don’t think that Dragon Shaman is going to be a thing. But if it is, then this is going to be an auto-include (obviously).

Card rating: 8/10 if Dragon Shaman is a thing, useless if it isn’t

Breath of Dreams

My my. That’s a better Wild Growth. Admittedly, it has a requirement, but still. Having a pre-nerf Wild Growth WITHOUT losing a card advantage (which was basically the main downside of the old Wild Growth) is insane. Well, technically once you hit the late game those are essentially the same (because you’re just drawing card in both cases), but having this active early is really good. And in the worst case scenario, if you don’t have a Dragon, you can just cycle it. Of course, the best way to use it would be to fit it into a Quest Druid… but that’s probably not going to happen. You would need a bunch of Dragons to make it consistent. This card is most powerful on T2 (or T3 in case of Quest Druid) and then falls off quite quickly, so realistically you need to run at least ~8-10 Dragons to be able to consistently play it on curve while getting the Ramp effect.

Seeing the cards we have so far, I THINK that Ramp Druid might be playable. Of course, a Ramp Druid focused around Dragons. Because this is insane, Emerald Explorer is really strong, Ysera, Unleashed is also good in a Ramp deck. Neutral Dragon options look decent too. And I’m quite sure that we’ll be getting some more Dragons / Dragon synergies (either for Druid or Neutral). Right now it looks like one of the most promising Dragon decks, and a way to make a non-Quest Druid playable. Notably, Overflow from last expansion is also big in Ramp style of deck, since it gives you lots of value and some healing (including minion healing, which might be relevant in the deck).

I have a sweet spot for Ramp Druid (the first Hearthstone guide I ever wrote was for Ramp Druid), so I really hope that it will end up working 🙂

Card rating: 10/10 in Dragon Ramp Druid (and obviously useless if a deck like that won’t be viable)

Sand Breath

Looking at the Breath cards, it’s probably the worst one so far, but still very good in the right deck. I mean – even at the very base it’s just a Divine Strength, a card that was never really great, but it wasn’t terrible. So in some cases, even if you aren’t holding a Dragon, you can just play it for the buff. And then, giving Divine Shield on top of it is a great tempo move. It’s going to lead to many great trades. Not only you might be buffing a minion into range to clear something, but you’re also protecting it twofold (first Divine Shield and then extra health after it’s down).

This card fits into a very specific kind of deck – an Aggro or Midrange Dragon Paladin builds. And if you ask me, I think that Paladin has a very high chance to be able to build a viable Dragon deck. Remember that the class already has a bunch of Dragon synergies and a Dragon deck was nearly viable this Standard year. Between Cathedral Gargoyle, Bronze Herald and Dragon Speaker, we just need 1-2 more synergy cards (on top of this Breath), maybe 2-3 more solid Dragons… and we’re home.

So while it’s not the best Breath card, it goes into a class that already has some other solid Dragon synergies, so I think that it has a pretty high chance to see play.

Card rating: 7/10 (yeah, again, useless if Dragon Paladin won’t see play)

Candle Breath

Again, rating is right now is super awkward. We don’t know what Dragons / Dragon synergies Rogue will get. The only one we have right now is Waxadred, which is pretty good, but alone it’s obviously not enough for this. Drawing 3 for 3 is amazing, it’s Arcane Intellect +1 (or 2 mana discount, given that the baseline on 3 cards draw is 5 mana). However, in order to run a Dragon synergy card and to trigger it consistently, you need at least like 7-8 Dragons. You could trim it down to 4-5, but it would mean that the extra effect won’t be active very often. That’s the theory, and here’s how it translated to practice:

Tempo Rogue would love a 3 mana 3 card draw. But given that it’s a fast deck, you a) can’t really use it without a Dragon (3 cards for 6 mana is super slow, you’re basically skipping your entire turn doing nothing), so you would need to run a Dragon build. Is it worth it? I can’t tell without knowing all the cards, but I honestly don’t think so.

However, slower Rogue decks would love it even more. It’s a great cycle tool, and if they are slower they could also play it with less Dragons. The games are longer, they aren’t usually hard-pressed to draw cards since they have a lower curve and don’t run out of cards that quickly etc. But here’s another problem – slower Rogue decks kind of suck. Maybe we’ll get Dragons that fix it, but right now – again – it’s hard to say.

I imagine that if Rogue get some good, “slow” Dragon synergies, maybe going for it in Malygos build would be the way to play it. Malygos is a Dragon, if you add 2-3 more Dragons and maybe some synergy, you should be able to play it for 3 most of the time. But… Maly Rogue would probably want to play Galakrond and Umbral Skulker to get Coins… so it would be hard to fit both Galakrond and Dragon synergies.

That’s why, while I think that 3 mana to draw 3 is great (obviously), it might be very hard to fit in Rogue

Card rating: 8/10 in Dragon builds (but I don’t think that we’ll get a Dragon Rogue build, so probably pretty bad)

Corrosive Breath

When you’re holding a Dragon, this is a 2 mana Cobra Shot. 3 mana discount seems nice… but then again, Cobra Shot was never really a good card. Realistically, it should have costed 4 mana and it still wouldn’t be amazing. Probably at 3 mana it would be good, but it just shows how bad Cobra Shot was. The best thing about it is that you don’t have to choose between removing a minion and saving it for face – you can do both. That often an issue with Hunter removals, since they double up as your burn spells (like Kill Command, or Quick Shot in the past).

This card is okay, but it’s not really impressive. Of course, if you would go for a hyper Aggro deck, then having a removal bundled with burn would be AMAZING. Some kind of Face Hunter would love this. But… I don’t really see Aggro decks and Dragons mixed together. Dragons tend to be slower – Midrange / Control. So far this expansion is similar. Even Hunter’s Explorer card – Primordial Explorer – is slow. Sure, it costs 3 mana, but it has weak stats and is a value card. The only aggressive Dragon in Hearthstone is Faerie Dragon and it’s been this way for ages. Well, you could also run Nightmare Amalgam as a vanilla 3/4… but that’s about it. Things MIGHT change this set, but it’s not looking like that so far.

Of course, even if you play a Midrange Dragon Hunter for some reason, you want this. It’s a good card. But it’s not a card you build your deck around. You won’t go and say “Oh, I NEED to build Dragon Hunter just to play Corrosive Breath!” – nope. It might be an addition if Hunter will have some other strong Dragon synergies. But will it happen? It’s hard to say.

Card rating: 7/10 in Dragon Hunter (but again, I don’t think that Dragon Hunter will be a thing, so realistically it’s pretty bad)

Molten Breath

Okay, at least we’re sure about one thing – if anything, there’s a very high chance that Dragon Warrior WILL be a thing. That’s because the class already has some good synergies. And that’s why I think they’ve decided to make Warrior’s Breath underpowered compared to other cards. Actually, I think that this could be a regular card, without Dragon requirements, and it wouldn’t be broken (while some other Breath cards – like Shamans or Druid’s – would be absolutely BROKEN without Dragon requirement).

Sure, it’s still a good card if you meet the requirement. Especially in a faster meta – combining removal with Armor is solid. Bash has already proven it. The downside here is that you can’t hit face, but realistically you weren’t playing Bash to hit face anyway (although sometimes it could give you a surprise lethal). 5 damage can remove most of things on T4, and then extra Armor is always welcome. Later in the game you can combo it with Shield Slam. It seems to be solid in both Midrange and Control builds, but mostly in an aggressive meta. +5 Armor part is often useless against slower decks, and 5 damage won’t remove a lot of their stuff mid-late game stuff (which you would expect from your 4 mana removal).

So here’s the thing – if you run Dragon Warrior, the card is solid and you want to play it. But it won’t make you play Dragon Warrior. It seems even worse than Hunter’s 2 mana Cobra Shot. So in the end, I think that Blizzard anticipates players to run Dragon Warrior, which means that the deck doesn’t need a very strong incentive. On the other hand, we currently have zero Dragon synergies for Druid or Shaman, so those do need really powerful synergies to work.

Card rating: 6/10 in Dragon Warrior deck… useless in anything else.

Emerald Explorer

Now that’s some solid incentive to play Dragon Druid. I feel like this card is really, really strong. 4/8 Taunt for 6 mana are basically just vanilla stats, THEN it has an effect, AND a Dragon tag on top of that. It’s really strong in the Dragon Druid build – probably not good enough in other decks, though. What’s very important is that it’s a Dragon that discovers another Dragon. It means that even if it’s the only Dragon in your hand, you can play it without making your “Holding a Dragon” cards useless. Taunt also fits perfectly into what seems to be a Dragon Druid strategy – Midrange Ramp deck. Ramp decks tend to have a slow start, so you might be overrun by Aggro early. But Taunts let you come back onto the board. Even if you’re just one mana ahead of your opponent, dropping this on T5 will often make it difficult for them to go through.

Between this and Breath, I’m really hopeful for Dragon Druid. But like I’ve said when reviewing Breath, we still need something more. But both of those can carry the deck enough that we might not need THAT much more.

Card rating: 9/10 in Dragon Druid (4/10 in other Druid decks)

Azure Explorer

I’m not really sure about Azure Explorer. On the one hand, if we built a Highlander Dragon deck, it would probably find a place there… but I’m not a big fan of how slow it is. I would love to see it cost 1 less and give +1 Spell Damage instead (maybe even make it a 2/2 then if it’s too strong). At 4 mana, it’s just pretty awkward. On the one hand, it’s really slow for its stats – 4 mana for a 2/3 minion is nearly unplayable vs faster decks unless you have some board clear to follow up. On the other hand, at 4 mana it’s pretty difficult to combo with some spells. Like, you can’t play it with Flamestrike. You can’t play it with Blizzard until T10. You CAN play it with smaller removals, but you don’t really run those in Highlander Mage. Yeah, you can play it with Frostbolt to deal 5… or 2x Ray of Frost to deal 4… but those are not that great because you need to play 4 mana minion first.

So here’s the deal – Spell Damage Mage? I’ve tried the deck a few times now, because the synergy between e.g. Cosmic Anomaly and Shooting Star is really great. This would add more consistency to Spell Damage sources… but the deck just isn’t good enough. It’s in this awkward spot between Tempo Mage and Control Mage. You can’t really kill your opponents fast enough, because you’re running a lot of small combos and slow Spell Damage cards, but on the other hand you can’t go for a long, control game. And Azure Explorer is similar – awkward combination between Spell Damage synergies and value (and value that you don’t really need at that – a random Dragon isn’t doing that much for a Spell Damage Mage deck).

So overall, I think that IF you run a Highlander Secret Mage, it will take one slot – at least with the Dragons we have right now – because we really need cards to activate Malygos, Aspect of Magic. But it’s going to be one of the first cards to replace if we get some better Dragons this set.

Card rating: 6/10 in Dragon Mage, 3/10 outside of it

Primordial Explorer

Dragon Hunter! Well, yeah. Once again, the issue I have with this concept is that Corrosive Breath seems to fit into a much faster build, while this is… not really aggressive. Okay, it’s not a very slow card, but 3 mana 2/3 is not something you want in Aggro. In theory, it has Poisonous, so it can trade up very well – that’s true, but in Aggro you really want that extra attack over Poisonous, because you go face with your minions. What I like about it is that it can answer some mid game Taunts. E.g. when Tar Creeper was still in Standard, it would be a much better card – playing it on T3 meant that your opponent either had to skip playing a Taunt and remove it or lose his Tar Creeper 1 for 1 (not to mention that you’ve got an extra Dragon out of it).

As it currently stands, it wouldn’t be a bad card in Midrange Dragon Hunter. It’s a decent 3-drop, it can trade up because of Poisonous (normally 2/3 on a 3-drop SUCKS because it just dies to 3/3’s etc.) and it gives you an extra Dragon to work with. If the deck gets more synergies, I COULD see it happening. Right now it’s a bit too early to tell.

Outside of Dragon decks? I don’t really think. 3 mana 2/3 is essentially an Emperor Cobra, a card that has never seen any Constructed play. Cobra was even better, because it was a Beast – this is a Dragon, a tribe that’s useless outside of Dragon decks (heck, it might even be a downside, because I assume that we’ll get some anti-Dragon synergy too). Sure, this gives you an extra card, but it’s also a Dragon, so you have no extra synergies for it, not to mention that other Hunter decks like Highlander don’t really want slow, value cards – they want high tempo ones. So in the end, if Dragon Hunter won’t be a thing, I’m just not seeing it.

Card rating: 7/10 in Dragon Hunter, 3/10 outside of Dragon Hunter

Dragonbane

Dragonbane seems like a very solid Legendary. While its stats are slightly under vanilla, 3/5 for 4 is still not bad at all. But it’s not really a card you want to drop on T4 – most of the time you prefer to hold it until T6 and play alongside Hero Power. And oh boy, that will be one strong Hero Power.

Dealing 5 damage to a random enemy on each Hero Power is a very, very good effect. At this stage in the game, it should kill most of the minions it hits. And if it hits face, well… You’ve just dealt 7 damage and you still have a 3/5 on the board. This card is a bit like a mini-Ragnaros. Your opponent will want to remove it right away, or else it will snowball the game for Hunter. But at the same time, even if removed immediately, it still did a solid job.

The thing I dislike about it, just like I disliked about Ragnaros, is randomness. You will end up in a lot of 50/50 situations – e.g. your opponent is at 7 health and has one minion on the board. Hitting the wrong target (minion) will feel bad for you. Hitting the right target (face) will feel bad for your opponent. Those kinds of 50/50 rolls just always feel bad for one player. On the other hand, you often end up in scenarios in which no matter what it hits is good. Your opponent has a 5/5 minion and is pretty low on health? Well, no matter if it kills the minion or goes face, you’re pretty happy with the outcome, because you either cleared a threat or almost killed your opponent.

Talking about face damage, however – I feel like it will be a great reason to play this card. Hunter really cares about damage. And playing it on an empty board is a guaranteed 7 damage this turn with a 3/5 body that your opponent just HAS to kill. It’s a better Leeroy Jenkins, but of course – Leeroy is still a more consistent finisher given that you can actually target what it hits, but I can imagine that there will be many scenarios in which Dragonbane will deal the final blow.

And last, but not least – it has a Mech tag. Whether it will be relevant or not, it’s hard to say, but it’s definitely not a downside. Bomb / Mech Hunter might like to play it – even though it’s a bit slow at 4 mana, the deck also runs Galvanizers – and discounting that to 3 already makes it insane. And funnily enough, if you play it in the late game, then magnetize Zilliax onto it, the extra 5 damage will also have a Lifesteal. A very niche effect, but might come handy once per 100 games or something!

Overall, I think that it’s a strong card. Not insanely powerful, but I feel like it should see a decent amount of play.

Card rating: 8/10

Dwarven Sharpshooter

Veteran players most likely remember that we already had a very similar card – Steamwheedle Sniper was introduced back in Goblins vs Gnomes. It didn’t really see much play at the time, mostly in Arena (where it was pretty good), but I think that Dwarven Sharpshooter is stronger for two reasons. First one is simple – because Hunter was playing different back then. Of course, it’s still a faster and more aggressive class, but it was even more so apparent in the past. We had Face Hunter, Midrange Hunter (which was also pretty aggressive) and that’s about it. Right now, even Highlander Hunter is significantly slower than those builds, not to mention that running singletons means that it has to pick more cards anyway.

The second reason is that 1 mana 1/3 is just better than a 2 mana 2/3, especially given that they have the same effect. 1/3 stat-line is so good that many decks were playing vanilla 1/3’s – Dire Mole or Crystallizer – just to have a solid 1-drop. Of course, Dire Mole was even stronger in Hunter because of Beast tag, but most of the decks played it without any extra synergies. So given that it has a special effect, I’d say that it’s comparable to Dire Mole, maybe SLIGHTLY weaker.

A great thing a bout this card is that you can easily drop it on T1 and just use it as a vanilla 1/3 even if you won’t ever press your Hero Power button… but it also has a solid late game scaling, much better than most of the 1-drops. That’s because you can use it to deal 2 damage to something immediately on top of putting that 1/3 body. Hunters often have a problem when it comes to finishing low health targets off, so this will definitely come handy. Of course, the effect is useless once again after you drop Zul'jin, but to be honest, expecting a 1-drop to work well even after Turn 10 is probably too much.

And of course, we have some Hero Power synergy cards, so maybe it will be possible to build a deck around them (probably not, but who knows) and this would fit right in. You could use your Hero Power to control the board while getting those extra effects – that’s a really nice deal.

Highlander Hunter will probably want it. Midrange build – not so much until rotation, because it runs a Beast-only build with Master's Call. But once it rotates out, Midrange Hunter will be forced into a more oldschool deck. Maybe Dragon Hunter, if that will be a thing, will also play it. All in all, I expect this card to see quite a lot of play by the time it rotates out.

Card rating: 8/10

Evasive Drakonid

Faerie Dragon‘s bigger cousin! First thing that came to my mind is that it’s going to be INSANE in Arena. Remember that Arena is a format where War Golem is already passable. But the main issue of such “big body with no effect” cards is that a) they’re slow and b) they’re susceptible to single target removals. This is neither. It’s not slow, because it has Taunt – opponent can’t just ignore it and go face. And he also can’t remove it with spells, because it’s Elusive. I mean, come on, Soggoth the Slitherer wasn’t the worst card in Arena and it costed 2 mana more…

But what about Constructed? I honestly think that it might be playable. Like I’ve said above, it’s like a Soggoth for 2 mana less (okay, 5/9 stats are probably slightly better on a Taunt, but still) AND with a Dragon tag. In the end, Dragon decks will have to run some Dragons to activate synergies, that’s certain. So obviously, they will pick like ~10 or so strongest card sand put them into their decks. Right now this would PROBABLY fit into that top 10, but it’s hard to say what other Dragon cards we see. In the end, it might depend on the class, because some will have better synergies with it. Like, I could see it being played in Druid, because the class will ramp so will be able to play it earlier, and will probably need a big Taunt to stabilize after slow start. It could also fit into Paladin thanks to the handbuffs – between Glowstone Technician and Dragon Speaker, well… just play each one of those once before dropping this and you got a whooping 12/12 Taunt with Elusive. It’s monstrous and can definitely help you catch up after spending two slow turns handbuffing.

So it’s not a bad Cosntructed card – in fact, it’s solid. Not amazing, but do not underestimate Elusive in Constructed. It will be a nightmare for some classes to remove without wasting a lot of resources. I give it 6/10 because I assume that we will still get a few better Dragon options. But if we don’t get any better Dragons, then I think that it might be a 7/10.

Card rating: 6/10

Twin Tyrant

Another insane Arena card – it will be a premium late game pick. Stats are on the weak side, but dealing 2x 4 damage is great. You will often be able to clear 2 minions with it, especially if you have some minions of your own to first set it up. I think like it’s going to be on a North Sea Kraken power level, and that was one of the best late game Arena cards at the time.

In Constructed, however… I’m not that sure about it. I mean, it’s still not a terrible card, but it feels like a worse Primordial Drake. Drake was insane tech card against Aggro / board flood decks for two reasons – not only it dealt AoE damage, but also had a Taunt. This is better against a bit slower decks, playing less, but higher health (3-4) minions. It has a bit better stats, but it really lacks Taunt. One of the best things about Primordial Drake was that even if you didn’t kill everything, you still had a Taunt so your opponent couldn’t just ignore it and kill you. With this one, he can.

But like I’ve said above, it really depends on the other Dragon cards we get. If there are literally no other Dragons to pick from, even Twin Tyrant might find its niche – especially if you would want to build a Highlander Dragon deck (then you would pick any Dragon that’s even slightly viable). But, again, I’m assuming that we will still get a few good Dragons, and I think that it won’t be good enough to include. That’s why I’m giving it 4/10, but it could be a solid 5/10 or maybe even 6/10 if we didn’t get any better Dragons (doubtful).

Card rating: 4/10

Phase Stalker

Let me tell you that, Hunter is getting some really solid stuff this expansion… Phase Stalker in particular will be an auto-include into any Hunter deck running lots of Secrets / Secret synergies. It will 100% be played in Highlander Hunter, I can’t imagine any other scenario. Same goes for regular Secret Hunter. Those decks are already solid, and they’re heavily based around Secret synergies – Secretkeeper, Hyena Alpha, Subject 9, sometimes Sunreaver Spy or Masked Contender… and Phase Stalker will definitely fit right in. It’s on a similar level to Hyena Alpha, IMO. Which is one of the better cards in Secret Hunter builds.

Okay, so first things first. What’s amazing about it is that it has a vanilla, 2/3 stats for 2 mana AND a Beast tag. So even it it dies before you take advantage of its effect, it’s not a bad card to play on Turn 2, not at all. Then if it survives, you can start pressing Hero Power and casting random Secrets. Sure, playing Hero Power on T3 is a bit awkward if you don’t have a 1-drop alongside… but in this case, it’s still good. As long as it’s on the board, your Hero Power is “2 mana: Deal 2 damage to the opponent, draw a Secret from your deck and play it”. Yes, it’s INSANE tempo. So good that even one activation will easily make this minion worth it. And the thing is that if your opponent can’t remove it (not saying that it will happen often, but it CAN happen – especially in the early game), then you will keep doing that. The card is obviously a solid T4 play too – for 4 mana you get a 2/3 minion, deal 2 damage to the opponent, draw a Secret and play it. Like I’ve said – a single activation already makes it worth it.

It should definitely replace Masked Contender in any deck that still played it – simply because it’s a better card to pull out Secrets from your deck, but you don’t want too many of those, because you still want your Subject 9 to be useful + if you run out of Secrets, those cards get much weaker. Notably, this has much better vanilla stats, so even if you can no longer pull anything, you’d rather have a 2 mana 2/3 Beast than a 3 mana 2/4 without any tribe. Like I’ve said at the beginning, it will 100% fit into Highlander Hunter as long as the deck still play Secrets (and it probably will thanks to Phase Stalker), and it might even be enough to bring Secret Hunter back into spotlight.

Card rating: 9/10

Learn Draconic

I’m honestly not sure how to feel about new Sidequests. If you don’t know how they work – they’re basically same as regular Quests, but don’t start in your hand. You just draw them like normal cards, and you can (obviously) put two into your deck. There’s still a limit and you can have only one Quest active at the time, so you can’t play both and finish them at the same time. You need to play one, finish it, get the reward, then play second. It might make things a bit awkward sometimes, but it’s not the main problem.

The main problem is that Sidequests are pretty awkward to play. Quests always started in your deck – they were consistent, and you could build your entire deck around them. In case of Sidequests, it’s not that easy. You can’t really build a deck around them, because you might not even draw them (unless we get some card that lets you tutor them).

Then, let’s say that you draw it in the mid game. It has no immediate effect – you spend 1 mana and a card to do nothing (1 mana is not much at this point, but a card is quite important – it could have been something you can use immediately to give you advantage). Then whether you finish it or not depends on the rest of your hand. Since you can’t go all-in and build your entire deck around them, they’re just an addition to other main strategy. But spending 8 mana on spells is not that easy. It will probably take you 2-3 turns, assuming you will actually have something to play those spells on. Let’s say that you have some expensive AoEs, but your opponent doesn’t flood the board… you won’t drop those spells just to finish the Quest. It’s also a very bad topdeck when your hand is nearly empty or empty – not only you basically skip your turn, but then you need to draw some spells to make this card useful.

Of course – the pay-off is good. 1 mana for a 6/6 minion is very solid, and the fact that you can frontload it to then have a massive tempo swing (most likely a big AoE spell + a 6/6) is not a bad idea. Another thing is that decks that you would likely play it in, like some sort of Control Mage or Highlander Mage, rarely have issues with empty hand. They usually have multiple cards in hand already, so having one “dead” card that will only pay off after 2-3 turns is not that terrible. It’s a bit like Rat Trap, in a way that you invest some mana immediately and then have a bigger pay-off later, usually when you need it and your opponent doesn’t want to see it. But a good thing about Rat Trap is that it has Secret synergies. Quests don’t really have any synergies except Questing Explorer, and I’m not sure if you would want to run it in a deck with Sidequests (you usually finish those fast, and you can’t guarantee that you will draw them in the first place, so you would need to play it as a vanilla 2/3 or wait for many turns quite often).

Because of all of that, I think that Sidequests are very, very difficult to rate. I don’t think that it would fit into current Mage builds. Maybe something akin to Big Spell Mage would want to play it. You definitely need to run a deck with lots of expensive spells to make a use of it. So right now, I don’t think that it will see play. But if some sort of Big Spell or Control Mage take off, there’s a chance that it will.

Card rating: 4/10

Toxic Reinforcements

I’ve talked about Sidequests in general above, so I will just focus on this specific one. I, for one, am happy that Baku the Mooneater has rotated out, because it would be insane in Odd Hunter. Sure, the deck wasn’t the best, but this card might have changed it. Since you basically wanted to Hero Power ever since T2-T3 anyway, this is a bit like AT LEAST 6 damage for 1 mana, but delayed. It would be so, so difficult to deal with. Given that even the regular 1-drops were sometimes hard to keep up with for certain decks, spawning three extra Leper Gnomes out of nowhere would be great. I mean, 3x Hero Power + this = 15 damage. But yes, Odd Hunter is no longer in Standard, and the deck is not really viable in Wild, so…

In Standard, this doesn’t seem great. The only deck it could possibly fit into is Face Hunter, but it still doesn’t feel good. Unlike in Odd Hunter, 3x Hero Power in regular build is 6 damage. 6 vs 9 is a HUGE difference, given that Aggro Hunter builds usually have just enough damage to kill the opponent. Face Hunter obviously does want to play Hero Power, but only in the mid game, mostly to close out the game. Since it can play 2-drops etc. it usually wants to curve out with minions instead of Hero Powering in the early game. Another thing is that it’s a TERRIBLE card to get on like Turn 5 or 6, when you need your finishers – weapons, Charge minions, burn spells… not a literally useless card that you won’t be able to take advantage with by the time the game is over. Because let’s face it – even if you play it on T5, you finish it on T7, and you can only attack with Leper Gnomes on T8. At this point most opponents have already stabilized, and they’re often killing YOU and not vice versa. Especially if you basically skip T5 doing nothing except Hero Powering.

A slower Hunter build could definitely run it and just finish it over multiple turns… but why? At the very least, it takes 3 turns (3x Hero Power) to finish it, and let’s be honest, you don’t always want to Hero Power. Realistically it will often take 4-5 turns to finish… for an okay, but not impressive reward. Most of the time you’d rather play something with immediate pay-off.

Right now I really don’t feel like it’s going to see any play. I don’t feel like current Hunter decks would want to play it, and it most likely won’t bring Face Hunter back. We still have a big part of the expansion, but I’m not too hyped about this card.

Card rating: 2/10

Dragon’s Hoard

Well, one thing is sure – this card is better than Pilfer. And Pilfer already sees play in Bazaar Burglary Rogue, so if the deck will still be around, it will 100% see play. Not only Legendaries are, on average, higher quality, but the fact that you can Discover makes it so much better. Pilfer often gave you a terrible choice. This one will usually have at least one decent pick, and often some great picks. The fact that you can choose whatever you need at a given time is very strong. Depending on the rest of your hand, matchup, board state etc. you might go for a synergistic Legendary, high tempo Legendary, a more greedy/value Legendary and so on. There are also some really nuts high rolls – like imagine getting Archmage Antonidas with Backstab, 0 mana Vendetta, Eviscerate… You can easily get 2-3 Fireballs without even trying hard.

Of course, it’s still not an amazing card, but given that Pilfer is one of the worst cards in the list and it’s played only because you NEED to have cards that generate stuff from another class, well… bye bye Pilfer.

So yeah, this will be an auto-include in Thief Rogue. Other decks? Well, I’m not sure. You see, the card is not bad, but I just can’t think of a deck that would want it. Tempo Rogue is too fast right now, while it could be used as a combo activator, Legendaries tend to be on the slower side, so I don’t think that Tempo Rogue would want it. Miracle? Hmm, maybe, but if Miracle will see play, it will probably go for Galakrond & Umbral Skulker synergies instead, and it will already be packed so it would be too hard to fit it.

Card rating: 5/10