Descent of Dragons Card Review #3 – Talritha, Shu’ma, Galakrond, the Unbreakable, Nether Breath, Amber Watcher, Kronx Dragonhoof, Veranus, and more!

Descent of Dragons is the upcoming Hearthstone expansion! Reveal season has just started after over 3 weeks of not seeing any new cards, so it’s time to get back to reviews!

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 #2 – Breath Cards, Dragon Explorers, Dragonbane, Phase Stalker, Learn Draconic, Toxic Reinforcements 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!

Envoy of Lazul

Envoy of Lazul is kind of like a mix between Madame Lazul and Curious Glimmerroot. On the one hand, you get some hand information and potentially a card from your opponent’s hand (like Lazul), but on the other it involves the Glimmerroot-like guessing game. I don’t really mind cards like that, they’re definitely skill-testing. Envoy of Lazul even more so than Glimmerroot. 3-drop from Un’Goro required players to have a solid meta knowledge, but the choice was often very obvious. Like, when you faced Control Warrior and you’ve seen Arcanite Reaper, you were sure that it’s not in their deck. In case of Envoy of Lazul, however, it was confirmed that it only shows you cards that are in your opponent’s deck. To put things simple – it will always show 2 cards from your opponent’s deck that are NOT in his hand and one that is in his hand. It means that meta knowledge will not be enough – after all, all of the cards you see could potentially be in your opponent’s hand. So it will be about hand reading more than meta knowledge.

However, that’s also what makes it much worse. Glimmerrot gave you the card like 90% of time once the meta was settles. This, even with the best hand reading skills, will probably be around 60-70%. If your hand reading skills are bad, you will have to just guess and take a 1/3. While the advantage here is that you learn more about your opponent’s hand, effects like that were overvalued in the past multiple times. To not go too far back – Madame Lazul was praised for being able to provide lots of information about your opponent’s hand, yet it didn’t see ani meaningful play. Of course, there’s the fact that we didn’t have many decks that would want to play her (I still think she’s much better than her play rate would suggest), because most of Priest builds revolved either around combos or around revives, and she didn’t fit into either of those.

But given that the averagely skilled player will probably hit the right card ~50% of time, the chance that it will be just a vanilla 2/2 (which are bad stats) is just too high. I’d much rather play Madame Lazul, which has slightly worse stats for the effect, but is consistent AND gives you an actual choice. Something that people forget is that Envoy of Lazul has no choice – only one card is correct and that’s what you get. With Lazul, you can get what you need, because all three cards are pickable.

So to sum things up – it’s not a bad card, but it will favor the best players heavily. You will need insane hand reading skills to get as much as you can out of it, and it still will be roughly 2/3 to get a card IMO (and, of course, 1/3 for bad players). Because of all of that, while I like the concept, I don’t think that it’s a very good card. Unless I got wrong information and it does not work like I’ve described above (although it was confirmed by a dev on Twitter), it’s significantly worse than Curious Glimmerroot, which was already only slightly above average. I’d put Madame Lazul before this into my deck 100% of time. And that’s only assuming that we’ll get a Priest deck that wants to play either. E.g. Dragon decks would much rather play Firetree Witchdoctor, which will be much more consistent and actually give you a choice.

Card rating: 3/10

Dragonrider Talritha

If Dragon Paladin takes off, this will be an obvious auto-include. The card’s effect is slow, but really powerful. It’s a bit like Val'anyr, a card that has actually seen a decent amount of play… but I’d say that it’s better thanks to the tempo. 6 mana 4/2 weapon was painfully slow. Sure, it got better once it started rolling, but at the start you had to pay 6 mana for a weapon that’s worth ~3.5 mana. In case of Dragonrider, 3 mana 3/3 aren’t the best vanilla stats you can get, but it’s rarely a big tempo loss – you pay 3 mana for ~2.5 mana worth of stats. As you can see, it’s much better.

Then, once it dies, when the buffs start rolling, it only gets better and better. The first +3/+3 already makes it worth. Hitting any small / midrange Dragon with it (so you can play it right away or at least soon, not wait until late game) and dropping it already makes the card very strong, and that’s not a very high bar. It lands on Faerie Dragon? 6/5 with Elusive for 2 mana. Twilight Drake? Instead of 4/6 it will drop as a 7/9. And so on, and so on. The effect will be less impactful on late game Dragons, but I don’t think that Dragon Paladin will be a very slow deck – I would rather say that it will play Midrange strategy.

Of course, your opponent can stop it with Silence and/or Transform effects, but that doesn’t really stop it. In the worst case scenario, you played a 3 mana 3/3 with no effect. Is it bad? Sure. Is it game losing? Of course not. Rogues don’t immediately lose the game after they drop Blink Fox and it gives them a useless card, for example. And the upside in case your opponent can’t do it is crazy. Imagine playing against Control Warrior with no Silence/Transform and dropping this on T3. They would have to deal with let’s say 21/21 extra stats over the course of entire game just because of that 3-drop.

But of course, for the card to work you need to play a Dragon deck. You need lots of Dragons to guarantee that there will be something to take the buff. So if Dragon Paladin doesn’t take off after all (but I think that it might, honestly), it won’t be playable. It’s a strong card, but as a support, not as a card to build your deck around, so it won’t make Dragon Paladin viable by itself.

Card rating: 8/10 in Dragon Paladin, useless in other builds

Shu’ma

I’m getting some Old Gods vibes from this card, and I like the flavor. I think that it’s an interesting card, but I’m afraid that it might be too expensive. In a regular deck, with no way to buff the board, this is straight up useless. You’re, at best, putting 7 attack on the board for 7 mana, and the Shu’ma itself is pretty easy to kill without losing much at 1/7. 1/1’s are also wiped easily. No, to even consider this card you need some way to take advantage of that wide board. A few things that come to mind are Druid (Power of the Wild, Savage Roar) or Shaman (Bloodlust, The Storm Bringer). Those cards make it pretty awkward for your opponent – he can’t just clear 1/7 and ignore 1/1’s, because you can punish him too easily. He has to clear both, which might be difficult to do. If he clears 1/1’s, but not 1/7, then you can just end turn and he will have to do the same next turn. I think that Token Druid or Token Shaman might want to use this card, because in the worst case scenario it’s an AoE bait, and in the best case scenario when your opponent has no AoE, it can close out the game.

Another deck that might find this card interesting might be Quest (Unseal the Vault) Hunter. Before Quest is done, it would progress it by up to 7, which is a lot, at this stage often enough to just finish it. However, the issue is that Tentacles are summoned at the END of turn, so they can’t be immediately buffed with Hero Power. Still, your opponent would have to kill them anyway, because you would threaten 21 damage next turn. That said, both Unleash the Hounds and Swarm of Locusts seem better.

All in all, the card has some uses. I think it’s better than Onyxia – even though Onyxia has a big 8/8 body, she comes down 2 turns later (which is a big difference in Token decks, which lean towards Aggro / Midrange) and won’t ever re-summon 1/1’s. But, of course, being better than a card that doesn’t see play is not a great way to rate the card. In my opinion, Shu’ma has some potential, it’s a decent card in some decks, but it most likely won’t change the meta dynamics that much. Whether it’s good also heavily depends on the meta itself and available removals. For example, Quest Druid can easily deal with it thanks to Starfall, Warriors also have a bunch of ways to clear it, and so on. But if the meta won’t be that AoE-heavy, it can catch some people off-guard.

Card rating: 5/10

Clear the Way

I think that Clear the Way is the best Sidequest revealed so far, but I’m still not 100% sold on them. On the one hand, I really see how strong can this be. Summoning 3 minions with Rush is not THAT hard for Hunter – you can do it with Desert Spear alone. Springpaw, Vicious Scalehide or Unleash the Beast are some other Rush cards Hunter commonly plays. If things line up well, this is just insane. Coin out Desert Spear on T2, then play this + swing with weapon + drop Springpaw and the token… now you have 3x 1/1 with Rush and a 4/4 with Rush on T3. You’re probably clearing anything your opponent has on the board and coming ahead heavily, then you might be able to snowball game from there.

Yep, the best case scenario is amazing. But the problem is that it won’t always work out like that. If you draw your Sidequest, but don’t draw your Rush minions, it’s a dead card. Sidequests in general are also terrible top decks, since it has no immediate effect. You might need to wait a few more turns to actually draw a way to finish it and get a 4/4, which by the way will no longer be that impactful later in the game.

Another thing we have to think about is what Hunter deck will want to run this, where it will fit. I don’t think that Highlander will want it – you need to run 2 copies of your Rush cards if you want to finish it consistently. Beast Midrange Hunter (with Master's Call) is the best option right now, but the deck is nearly non-existent right now and I’m not sure if something will change that. But even if this card finds a home, I feel like it will be a huge hit or miss. It would win some games if you get it early alongside your Desert Spear / Springpaw, and then be useless in many mid/late game scenarios.

Card rating: 5/10

Secure the Deck

Umm, by itself, the card doesn’t make that much sense to me. Attacking twice with your Hero in Druid usually means using your Hero Power twice. So you need to spend 5 mana and a card in order to add 3x Claw to your hand. Now when you use it and you combine it with the effect of your Hero Power, you spend 8 mana to get 8 damage and 8 Armor in total. However, given that it takes at least 3 turns to get it all, it’s just bad.

In order for this card to be good, you need to have an actual reason to add Claws to your hand. So what deck would want that? Well, Quest Druid is out for obvious reasons. So I really see two potential ways to approach it. One is to treat it as a card that gives you three cheap spells, which is great for the sake of any Druid build running Gadgetzan Auctioneer. 3 draws + removal + Armor in one. But I dislike it for two reasons – first is that those decks are usually combo builds that want to cycle through entire deck ASAP and rarely have time to press Hero Power past the first few turns, since they want to utilize all of their mana as well as they can. And second reason is that Druid doesn’t really have a great Auctioneer combo deck to build towards. There are no King Togwaggle combos, Mecha'thun builds are no longer viable and so on.

Another deck might be Gonk, the Raptor build? Gonk combos revolve around playing multiple copies of Gonk on the same turn, then gaining a lot of attack, killing a few minions and getting extra face hits (because multiple Gonks stack and give you extra attack each). However, without Twig of the World Tree in Standard, it’s much more difficult to drop a few Gonks on the same turn. You can still easily go for two thanks to Dreampetal Florist, but more than that can be hard. It would be a very awkward deck, and I don’t think that Secure the Deck is good enough to make it viable.

So overall, unless we get some crazy synergies, I don’t think that this Sidequest is going to work well.

Card rating: 2/10

Galakrond, the Unbreakable

That looks really nice. And not even because the Galakrond itself is particularly strong (sure, it is, but I’ll talk about it later), but because of the Hero Power. Remember that each time you Invoke, you gain the Hero Power’s effect… which is +3 Attack in this case. So every time you drop an Invoke minion, it’s like throwing a burn spell at your opponent’s face. Unless they have Taunt, you will be able to wear them down really quickly. Which means that you might be able to build an Aggro/Tempo deck around Galakrond and Invoke cards, then smack the hell out of your opponent. Of course, you can also use it to control the board, which  makes it even better – against faster decks, you won’t really want to race them, but rather kill their minions. Using your face to do it is not the best way, but it’s good that the deck will not be pure Aggro like let’s say Odd Hunter.

And the Galakrond himself is also pretty impressive. Fully upgraded, it draws 4 minions and gives them all +4/+4. Sure, it’s slow, because it does nothing immediately other than equipping a 5/2 weapon (Arcanite Reaper costs 5 and it MIGHT be played in a deck like that, so you could say that you’re paying 2 extra mana), but keep in mind that this kind of Warrior runs multiple Charge/Rush minions, so the tempo loss would only last for a single turn. Next turn you should be able to catch up. And Charge minions like Kor'kron Elite or Leeroy Jenkins obviously benefit from it even more than Rush ones, since you can threaten more face damage from hand. When you add 5/2 weapon to all of that… Yeah, it all looks very good.

This is the fastest Galakrond, and a really solid one at that. Now that a new Neutral support Legendary was revealed (Kronx Dragonhoof) I’m even more hyped for Galakrond decks than I was before.

Now, all the deck needs to be viable is some solid Warrior Invoke cards. We have a Neutral package right now, we know some Invoke cards from other classes, but we don’t know how Warrior options will look like yet. Some good, cheap, aggressive Invoke card can really make this entire deck really, really scary.

Card rating: 9/10

Nether Breath & Crazed Netherwing

Gonna review those two together, because they basically go hand in hand and are at a very similar power level.

I’ll be honest – they nailed both Dragon-related Warlock cards revealed so far. Assuming you play it in a Dragon build, it will be active most of the time. Especially in Warlock – the class is really good for Dragon synergies for one simple reason – Life Tap. Since it usually keeps a solid hand size, the chance to have some Dragons in there is relatively high.

Starting with Nether Breath. Most of the time, this is 4 damage removal / burn spell with Lifesteal for 2 mana. Drain Life cries somewhere in the corner right now, and so does Shadow Bolt. This is just crazy and flexible spell – 4 damage for 2 mana is very powerful removal, you can clear nearly every low cost minion and even some midrange ones. The fact that it can target face means that you can use it as a burn spell to finish the game. And Lifesteal is probably the most valuable keyword in Warlock, a class that commonly has to take lots of self-damage during the game. It just checks all the boxes.

Now onto the second one – Crazed Netherwing. I have two points of comparison and both make it look amazing. First one is Abyssal Enforcer. It was a decent card, a Hellfire on stick with a 6/6 body. It has seen some play back when it was in Standard, a solid card overall. Crazed Netherwing is similar, but… way better. It has the same effect, only -1/-1 in stats and it costs 2 mana less. That’s a massive, massive difference. Take nearly any solid card, make it cost 2 less and it will be completely broken. Like, it costs only 1 more mana than Hellfire, so it essentially gives a 5/5 body for 1 mana. And a Dragon body at that – that’s super important if you’re building a Dragon deck, because as long as it stays in your hand, it activates any other synergies. The second comparison is obviously a Duskbreaker. For 1 more mana, you get +2/+2 in stats with a similar effect. Duskbreaker didn’t hit face, which can be both an upside and a downside depending on situation, so let’s say that it’s neutral. And Duskbreaker was one of the best Dragon synergies ever released, it carried Dragon-based Priest builds for a long time.

But is that enough? Will those two carry the deck? Hard to say. I honestly think that Warlock might need something more to build a really viable Dragon deck. Those two are a great start, but the class has zero other Dragon synergies. I think that one more great Dragon or Dragon synergy might be enough to build Dragon Warlock. If not, you will have to rely on Neutral synergies, which are not bad, but are available to all classes, and you would need an advantage over something like Dragon Paladin or Dragon Warrior, which already have synergies some solid from the previous sets. That said, those two are so good that I could honestly see them alone making Dragon Warlock a decent build.

Card rating: 10/10 in Dragon Warlock, but it’s really hard to say whether the deck takes off yet

Necrium Apothecary

If it wasn’t a combo card, it would be straight up insane. But even as a combo one, given how many ways Rogue has to activate combos, I still think that it’s good. 4 mana 2/5 that draws a card AND gets an extra effect based on what card it draws. Of course, it works best in a dedicated Deathrattle build, but I think that you can make it work even in something like Tempo Rogue as long as Rogue gets a some decent Deathrattle cards.

Let’s give a basic example, shall we. You run Cairne Bloodhoof in your deck. Then this is a 4 mana 2/5 that draws Cairne and Deathrattles into a 4/5. That’s really, really good. Or maybe you run Waxadred? While Deathrattle won’t do anything immediately, you will shuffle an extra Candle. Now you play the regular one next turn, shuffle another one, and you have two Candles that will keep reviving Waxadreds. If you wan to be even more greedy, drawing Anubisath Warbringer will give your entire hand +3/+3 once it dies. Neat, but Anubisath itself will probably sit dead in your hand for a while…

The main issue is that those are slow. Probably too slow for Tempo Rogue. Being more realistic, the deck would probably want some faster Deathrattle cards. But right now there aren’t many good, fast Deathrattle cards in Standard. There are things like Mecharoo, SN1P-SN4P or Loot Hoarder, but honestly their Deathrattles aren’t impressive. There’s also Kobold Sandtrooper, but that one might be a little bit too aggressive (Tempo Rogue, despite being quite fast, is still a very board-oriented deck and not a pure face deck). From my experience, if you try to make Tempo Rogue too greedy, you end up making it worse. And currently best Deathrattle cards are a bit too greedy.

That said, given that Deathrattle synergies – Necrium Blade and Necrium Vial – are still in Standard, I think that players will attempt a Deathrattle Rogue once again. This will be an amazing support card in such a deck. And even if it won’t work, and we don’t get any good, faster Deathrattle cards this set, the card will be in Standard for another year. I would imagine that we should get at least a few interesting Deathrattle cards that Tempo Rogue wouldn’t mind putting in over the next few sets. And that’s why I have to rate it quite highly – because it has a powerful effect, just needs the right cards to synergize with it.

Card rating: 8/10, but might not see play until we see some cheaper, solid Deathrattles

Amber Watcher

Antique Healbot who? Guardian of Kings who? Darkshire Alchemist who? (I know, different class, but still) Kobolds & Catacombs the best expansion in Hearthstone’s history? Not if Descent of Dragons has something to say about that.

Okay, so let’s get this straight. This card is a 5-drop that heals for 8 – like Healbot, which was widely used across many builds and classes. Then, the effect can be targeted – you can also heal minions if you are at full health, gaining extra tempo. Then it has a Dragon tag, which is way better than Healbot’s Mech tag was back in the day (because it was nearly irrelevant in the type of decks it was played in). Oh, and it has way better stats – 4/6 instead of 3/3. Those are nearly vanilla stats (5/6)

Yeah, this card is absolutely nuts and I don’t think that I have to explain it anymore. It will be an obvious auto-include in Dragon Paladin, even if you won’t need a lot of face heal, it’s still a decent minion, a Dragon and – like I’ve mentioned – you can use it to heal minions. Then it will be played in any slow Paladin build, where it provides a decent body AND is nuts against Aggro, because it heals you for 8, letting you stabilize, escape burn range and so on.

Even in Wild you will probably want to play it. The only reason why you MIGHT want to play Healbot over this in Wild is the fact that you would most likely also run Zilliax in the same deck, but I still think that it’s not worth it for an off-chance that Healbot will stick and you happen to have Zilliax ready in hand. So this should replace Healbot in every slower Paladin deck in Wild IMO, especially because of the targeted heal. I think that part is underrated –

Still, despite this card being obviously incredible, it might not make that big of an impact in Standard in case Dragon Paladin doesn’t take off. We haven’t seen a real Control Paladin deck (which would absolutely run it) in a long while, and I’m not certain if Holy Wrath Paladin can fit it. Maybe we will be able to build a CONTROL Dragon Paladin? In that case, the card will be double nuts in that build. However, I think that Control Paladin would need some unfair late game win condition in order to stand a chance against other slow decks in the meta. Remember that Warrior still has Dr. Boom, Mad Genius and Priest just got his own infinite value Hero card now (Galakrond, the Unspeakable). And given that both of Paladin’s Legendaries are already known, I doubt that Uther will get something similar. At least not yet.

Card rating: 10/10

Kronx Dragonhoof

Oh yeah. I already had some hope for Galakrond decks and now I’m nearly sure that they will see play. Because Kronx is nuts, and I mean NUTS card. It will be a 100% include in any Galakrond deck, because it has basically no downsides in those builds. It’s not like Questing Explorer, which is an amazing card in Quest decks, but it falls off after you finish it. No, Kronx is great both before you draw Galakrond and after you play it. The only time when it’s bad is when Galakrond is in your hand, and honestly, even then it’s still a 6/6 for 6, which you can drop in the worst case scenario (but you’d rather not).

The first part is simple – tutoring Galakrond. If you run a Galakrond deck, you want to draw it, and Kronx will draw it. 6 mana 6/6 that tutors one of the most important cards in your deck is welcome. But the card gets even better after you’re already a Galakrond. Devastations are, just like their name suggests, devastating. The options you have are all strong: Summon a 8/8 Dragon with Taunt, deal 5 damage to enemy hero and restore 5 health to your own, deal 5 damage to all other minions, or give all your other minions +2/+2. The card covers all the bases really. You’ve just turned into Galakrond, had a slow turn and opponent developed? You drop Kronx and deal 5 AoE damage while leaving a 6/6 body. You need burn damage and/or healing? You deal 5 and heal for 5. You’re ahead on the board and have a few minions? You buff them, pushing lots of damage immediately and making your board harder to clear (this options will be insane in Warlock’s Galakrond deck, which is based around tokens). You have empty board, your opponent doesn’t have a scary board and you don’t need burn/heal? You just summon an 8/8 Taunt on top of a 6/6 body and develop this way. I can hardly think of a situation in which one of the Devastation effects won’t be useful.

The only reason why I won’t give it 10/10 is because it has a brief downtime between drawing Galakrond and playing it. Sometimes you might not want to turn into Galakrond right away, because it’s not upgraded yet, so Kronx might be slightly awkward for a few turns. Like I’ve said before, I already thought that Galakrond builds might see some play, but now I’m nearly sure that this card will push them into viable territory.

Card rating: 9/10

Veranus

So, let’s get this straight. You play a 6 mana 7/6, which already are vanilla stats that casts Equality on your opponent’s board only (or, alternatively, casts Hunter's Mark on every opponent’s minion). Have I missed something? Oh yeah, it’s a Dragon too for good measure. Damn…

Your opponent has a big minion on the board and you have a small one? Veranus & trade. You don’t have any minions? Well, you can still drop Springpaw, have Desert Spear equipped and so on. Your opponent has a big board later in the game? Veranus + Unleash the Hounds (or Explosive Trap, but then the 7/6 will die, but it’s still better than just dying yourself) Or heck, you can just play it to get some better trades… Even if it just deals a few points of damage and doesn’t take down a 12 health minion it’s still solid. In the worst case scenario you just drop it as a 6 mana 7/6 even if it doesn’t hit anything with the Battlecry – it’s scary enough.

The card is clearly powerful and it would be completely broken in some other classes. In Hunter, however, it’s a bit more awkward. The thing is that it will be hard to find a deck to run it in. Over the years we’ve already established that Control Hunter doesn’t work. I guess that Highlander Hunter might want to play it. Midrange Hunter? Probably not yet, because it ruins Master's Call. And it still might be too slow for Midrange builds. More aggressive decks like Face Hunter or Bomb/Mech Hunter definitely don’t want to play it. I would guess that a Dragon Hunter would want to run it, but I’m still not convinced that Dragon Hunter will be a thing (need to see more synergies first). So all in all, I do think that the card is very strong, but it might end up seeing no play simply because Hunter is not the best class for it. And that’s probably the reason why they printed it in Hunter – so it wouldn’t be broken.

Card rating: 8/10, but might be hard to find a deck for it

Camouflaged Dirigible

So, the most common thing I’ve read about it is that it will break Wild SN1P-SN4P Warlock even more… but I think that those comments mostly come from people who never played the deck. Or at least don’t know how it’s played correctly. No, it won’t break it, because a) it’s already broken (lol) and b) you absolutely don’t need it. Warlock could already run Coppertail Imposter, but it’s not played simply because it’s not necessary. The deck is already streamlined and you definitely don’t need a 6 mana 6/6 that might often do nothing (you often combo earlier, you might not have a Mech on board to put into Stealth etc.)

If anything, I would say that it has a higher chance of seeing play in Standard than in Wild. In some Mech builds – if you have some board you can attack, then play this, then you’re guaranteed another wave of attacks as well as some Mechs that will stick so you can Magnetize onto them. 6 mana for 6/6 is also decent and it has a Mech tag so you can do some magic like give it Rush with Skaterbot. That said, I don’t really see a deck that could fit it in right now. It seems too slow for Bomb/Mech Hunter, and Mech Paladin operates a bit differently. However, unless it slots into something right now, it most likely won’t be played next year, because Boomsday Project rotates out in April, and all of the best Mech synergies rotate out with it.

Card rating: 3/10

Hot Air Balloon

It’s a pretty cool card for Mech decks. When you drop it on T1, it will USUALLY be a 1 mana 1/3 Mech, which is already solid. Sure, there are some ways to kill it (your opponent opening with a 2/1, Backstab), but it won’t be an end of the world. Lots of time it will stick and it will grow a bit.

Overall, it’s a good Mech 1-drop, but it’s not crazy. It can “snowball”, but +1 Health per turn at the START of your turn is not that much. Realistically it will probably gain between 0 and 2 health, so I would say that it’s a 1/3 on average. Which is not bad – Dire Mole has seen play, so I would say that this should be played in Mech decks too. Mech tag makes it even better because of Magnetize – having a Mech stick early can give you some solid plays. For example, I would imagine that Bomb/Mech Hunter would prefer it over Mecharoo. Maybe Mech Paladin would also play it. It’s a nice Magnetize target – e.g. Hunter can play it on T1, then Magnetize Venomizer on T2, then you drop SN1P-SN4P and it would be a 5/9 minion that will grow further if it didn’t die by then. Not that bad.

The question is how good will the Mech decks be after this expansion. They were already pretty mediocre later in Saviors of Uldum, and Descent of Dragons will mostly focus on, well, Dragons, so I don’t think that we’ll see lots of Mech synergies to push those builds. MAYBE it will be played outside of Mech decks, e.g. in something like Zoo Warlock or maybe other decks that can also run SN1P-SN4P.

Card rating: 7/10