Descent of Dragons Card Review #7 – Wing Commander, Storm’s Wrath, Sky Claw, Galakrond the Tempest, Rolling Fireball, Mana Giant and more!

We now know all 140 cards from Descent of Dragons. The upcoming expansion launches December 10, but there’s still some time to theorycraft and talk about  all of the new cards!

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 without being able to test those cards in game, it’s incredibly hard to review them accurately, since we have no clue how the meta will look like. 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 #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 #8 (Final) – Violet Spellwing, Elemental Allies, Skybarge, Aeroponics, Skyfin, Squallhunter, Tasty Flyfish and more!

Evasive Feywing

Faerie Dragon‘s bigger brother (sister?). Despite looking mostly like a pack filler, it’s honestly not a terrible card. 4 mana 5/4 Dragon is solid, and the fact that it can’t be targeted means that you can drop it without worrying about removals. The downside is that you can’t buff it either, but there is one type of buffs that dodge this kind of restriction – handbuffs. Given that Dragon Paladin might be about handbuffs, this is not the worst Dragon to put into that deck. On the other hand, I think that Faerie Dragon is even better. Assuming +3/+3 handbuff, you’d have a 2 mana 6/5 with Elusive vs a 4 mana 8/7 with Elusive. The first one just seems much better tempo-wise, and tempo is exactly what you need after having slow, handbuff turns.

If it was a 4/5, I would say that it might see some niche play. As a 5/4, I don’t think so, despite being Elusive, smaller minions should have a pretty easy time trading it up. Maybe, just maybe in Highlander Dragon Paladin, but I still think that the deck will have better options.

Card rating: 3/10

Utgarde Grapplesniper

An interesting concept – the effect is mirrored in theory, but it will benefit you much more assuming that you play the correct deck. Your opponent will still get a card, you will get a 5/5 + a huge Dragon on the board. But here’s the thing – even in a heavy Dragon deck, running 15 Dragons seems unlikely. So that alone means that it has a high chance to just be a 6 mana 5/5 that draws for both players (which is terrible – you can play Big Ol' Whelp for 1 mana cheaper and skip the draw for your opponent). Another thing is that not every Dragon you will run will have a big body. Lots of them rely on Battlecries (like Explorers or Twilight Drake), or are just smaller. The dream of getting massive tempo swing by summoning a 12/12 is just too rare, while the baseline for this card is very weak. Oh, and talk about low-rolls – if you don’t hit anything and your opponent hits a big Dragon, you just summon a big body for them! Sure, you might disrupt some Battlecries, but he will most likely gladly take that free 8/8 body on the board.

Maybe, just maybe if you build a “Big Dragons” deck, where you run 10+ highly statted Dragons that you don’t mind summoning. Even then I feel like there are simply better cards to run.

Card rating: 2/10

Big Ol’ Whelp

Remember when Azure Drake was considered so strong that Blizzard decided to rotate him out to Hall of Fame? Now it’s printed with +1/+1 stats as a pack filler. That just kind of shows how good this expansion is. On average, I’d say that +1/+1 in stats is BETTER than Spell Damage +1. While some decks benefited from Spell Damage nicely, lots of times, especially when dropped on curve, it was useless.

But you know what? While Azure Drake was indeed a problematic card back in the day, I doubt that it would see too much play in the last few metas. Especially not in the decks that have no real Dragon synergies, nor benefit heavily from Spell Damage. That’s why I don’t believe that it will be anywhere near close to the popularity level of what Azure Drake was in the past, but it’s not a card that we should ignore.

My best guess is that it should see some play in Dragon decks, especially in Midrange builds, because it has an okay body, draws a card and comes with a Dragon tag. Maybe even in some non-Dragon Midrange decks just for the fact that it’s a solid body that cycles itself? Shouldn’t be spectacular, but it’s good enough.

Oh, and it’s an insane Arena card – but this is also a common theme for this set.

Card rating: 6/10

Scalerider

Well, that’s SI:7 Agent for Dragon decks. Easier to activate because it’s Battlecry, but on the other hand sometimes it won’t be active if you don’t happen to have a Dragon in your hand. However, the decks you put it into usually have one, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Another comparison would be Blackwing Corruptor – this is a cheaper version of it. You get -1 damage and -2/-1 in stats, but it costs 2 less mana. Is it worth it? I would say yes.

3 mana 3/3 that deals 2 is a very good tempo card. You can kill lots of 1-drops, some 2-drops or at least guarantee a better trade against bigger minion. That 2 damage can also go face, something you will appreciate when looking for a way to close out the game.

Now, the main issue is that Dragon decks in this expansion will be PACKED with strong cards. Normally they would love a card like that, but it might be a bit hard to find space to run it this time around. It will also heavily depend on the meta – 3 damage is always great, but 2 depends on what minions your opponents play. If they mostly run 1/3’s, 2/3’s and 3/4’s (1, 2, 3-drops) for example, then 2 damage is just pretty bad, since it can’t even cleanly kill anything. On the other hand, if let’s say faster Dragon decks become popular and people start running Faerie Dragon, then this is perfect. You can just straight up kill it and put a 3/3 on the board, which is a massive tempo win.

Scalerider is a good card and I think that it will see at least some play. How much mostly depends on other low cost minions your opponents will run.

Card rating: 7/10

Evasive Wyrm

Evasive Wyrm is actually pretty cool. The way you should look at it is not necessarily a minion, but a removal that leaves some body behind. It’s a bit like 6 mana “Deal 5 damage to a minion, summon a 5/3 with Elusive”, which is not bad at all. Of course, it has some limitations, because it can’t pass through Taunts, it might trigger some Secrets like Freezing Trap and so on. But most of the time it’s going to work like that.

Elusive bit is… an upside, but maybe not as big as it seems. It protects it from small removals, like Frostbolt and such. But realistically, it will die to most of minions, weapons and AoE effects anyway. It will come handy sometimes, but it’s not that big of a deal.

In general, it kind of reminds me of Siamat. As we all know, Siamat turned out to be one of the better cards from Saviors of Uldum, and from my experience, Rush + Divine Shield is the most common combination. You pay 1 mana less, get a Dragon tag and Elusive… but at the cost of quite a lot of stats. That, plus the flexibility make Siamat a better choice, but the Dragon tag means that it might see some play in Dragon builds, especially Highlander version which will have to pick more individual cards to form a solid Dragon package. Midrange/Tempo Dragon builds might want this.

Card rating: 6/10

Strength in Numbers

Doesn’t seem that good. Spending 10 mana on minions means that it will take a while to do it – it’s more of a late game Sidequest. Given the reward, you want to put it into a deck that only, or at least mostly, runs big minions (especially those with lots of stats or Deathrattles, not good Battlecry effects). It means that you won’t be able to play it on T1 and slowly but surely finish it with a 2-drop, 3-drop etc. because you don’t run those. If you do, then you might get one as a reward, which is not really great.

Big Druid is the deck that might want to play it, simply because ultimately it’s a great tempo tool. You pay 1 mana for get some big minion from your deck… but I don’t think that’s what the deck needs. You won’t likely finish it before the late game, and once you’re in the late game, then you’re drawing enough and playing enough big minions that summoning one at a discount doesn’t matter that much.

I think that it might warrant some experimentation in case Big Druid comes back, but I’m holding my breath for it being great.

Card rating: 3/10

Wing Commander

It’s… okay I guess? If you’re not holding any Dragons at all, it’s a 4 mana 2/5 – terrible. If you’re holding one – it’s 4 mana 4/5. That’s Chillwind Yeti, right? So good enough? Nope, not really. You don’t see people putting Chillwind Yeti into their decks. Only when you’re holding 2 Dragons it starts to become worth it. A 4 mana 6/5 are some solid stats… but still stats. How many decks would actually play a vanilla 4 mana 6/5? I honestly don’t think that lots of them would. 8/5… now we’re entering that dangerous territory – 5 health is still not that hard to get rid of, but at 8 attack it can not only trade into the biggest minions. However, in order to get 8 attack, you need to be holding three Dragons at once. Even in a Dragon deck, that’s not always the case. Heck, often you won’t even hold two.

You need to have at least 2 Dragons in your hand on average for this to be above vanilla stats, and this kind of condition is not as easy to meet as it might seem. Especially if you want to drop it on curve, it might be very difficult to get it up that high. And playing Yetis in what’s probably the strongest expansion in the history of Hearthstone is not what you want to be doing.

I could maybe see it being tried out in Midrange builds that run A LOT of Dragons, but only if they really don’t have better 4-drops. It’s not bad, but I’m not really hyped for it.

Card rating: 4/10

Bloodsail Flybooter

Bloodsail Flybooter is the new auto-include 1-drop for Rogue. Even though it’s Pirate and it gives you extra Pirates, you don’t need to be running a Pirate deck to take advantage of it. In fact, it’s a bit similar to Fire Fly. While the stats are weaker, it gives you two extra 1-drops instead of one. It’s particularly useful in Rogue because those 1 mana cards can be used as cheap Combo activators. I’d say that because of 1 extra health Fire Fly was still better, but honestly, Fire Fly was one of the best 1-drops in the history of 1-drops, especially for Rogue, so saying that it’s almost as good is a praise.

Tempo Rogue needs 1-drops. Right now it doesn’t really have amazing 1-drop options. While a 1 mana 1/1 is not that great, it’s better than nothing – and honestly, lots of the time 2x 1 mana 1/1 is better than a random card Swashburglar gives you. The other 1/1’s can be used to fill the curve, trigger combos (including giving Edwin +2/+2) or even buff Questing Adventurer. Overall it’s a solid card and I expect it to see a lot of play.

Card rating: 8/10

Corrupt Elementalist

Just as a reminder – Galakrond, the Tempest‘s Hero Power is summons a 2/1 with Rush. Since this Invokes twice, it will trigger the Hero Power twice. So ultimately, this is a 5 mana 3/3 that summon 2x 2/1 with Rush. That alone is… okay. Not amazing, but I could see it as a regular card and wouldn’t be surprised about it. But the most important thing is that it Invokes Galakrond twice. Yep, it means that playing it alone upgrades. You just play two and you’ve got yourself a fully upgraded Galakrond. That’s great. I also assume that you will run Galakrond in a deck that can take advantage of those small Rush minions (since that’s what every Invoke card and later your Hero Power will do), so that’s even better.

This card is simple – if Shaman’s Galakrond will be playable, this will be a staple. If it won’t, it won’t see play. Duh, I know. But I do think that just like other Galakrond decks (maybe besides Priest’s), Shaman’s Galakrond has a lot of potential and it should see at least some play.

Card rating: 7/10 (but depends on Galakrond Shaman to be playable)

Surging Tempest

What’s there to not like about this minion? At the very base, it’s a premium 1-drop with 1/3 stats. That alone puts it into “playable” territory. It has an Elemental tag (although it doesn’t matter that much right now) AND an extra effect. When Overloaded, it becomes a 2/3. Sure, it’s not Tunnel Trogg, but it’s nearly as good. Heck, even better in some scenarios (if you’re already overloaded and drop this, it’s still a 2/3, while Trogg would be a 1/3).

I suspect that it will be an auto-include in Shaman, given that most builds have an easy time overloading, and even if they won’t, it’s still a 1 mana 1/3 AT WORST. Just a good card no matter how you look at it.

Card rating: 9/10

Storm’s Wrath

It just shows how overpowered was Mark of the Lotus. This has the same effect, for the same mana cost, but with Overload: (1). Of course, you can say that Overload is sometimes an advantage. And that’s true, but if you could have the same card with or without Overload, you would always pick the latter.

But even with Overload, this card is still scary. Shaman class is well known for Token decks with Bloodlust finisher. Heck, that particular deck even runs some Overload synergies – Thunderhead or Vessina will gladly take that Overload: (1) lots of time. And buffing a wide board of token is not bad at all.

Overload Token Shaman might be one of the decks. Maybe even with Galakrond – Invoke cards fit very well into this kind of playstyle. Storm’s Wrath is a pretty good card, and Token Shaman has proven itself many times lately, so I think that it should see some play – even if not now, then next year.

Card rating: 7/10

Righteous Cause

Another card that shows how broken Mark of the Lotus was. It’s a +1/+1 board-wide buff again… but after you finish a Sidequest. At least in this case, the condition directly synergizes with the reward, which is good. What is not good is that you can’t really control the timing. Let’s say that you get it up to 4/5 and then your opponent AoE clears your board. The next minion you play will finish the Quest and give your entire board +1/+1, so essentially… +1/+1 in total. Normally you could play a few more minions before dropping you buff, but no, in this case you can’t control it. Sometimes you will get it on a full board, but often it will land only on 1 or 2 minions.

Competitive Spirit was kind of similar, but a) it was a Secret so your opponent didn’t always knew what you’re doing and b) if he cleared your board, then it didn’t trigger. You can’t stop this from triggering.

I don’t like this, even in Paladin decks that flood the board. It’s just not consistent enough and unless you finish the entire Quest during your turn, you give your opponent time to play around it.

Card rating: 2/10

Sky Claw

It’s a cool card, but might be a bit hard to find the right deck for it. It doesn’t fit into any slower Paladin deck, because it’s an aggressive card. You want to run it in a Mech deck, but it doesn’t fit into an actual Mech Paladin, since it really messes up with Kangor's Endless Army. So something like Highlander Paladin is probably the deck you might want to put it into.

In theory, 3 mana for a 1/2 + 2x 2/1 is insanely powerful. However, if your opponent can take down the 1/2, then those 2/1’s turn into 1/1’s. Still not terrible – after all, Microtech Controller is a playable card and then it’s basically it. The +1 Attack to Mechs Aura can also come handy at times when you drop it onto the board that already has some Mechs on it. Then you can use the extra attack to push more damage or maybe trade up.

Good card, might fit into some more aggressive Paladin builds, especially one running some other Mechs too.

Card rating: 7/10

Invocation of Frost

That’s amazing. While some Invoke cards are slow, weaker than regular cards and so on – this isn’t. Remember Glacial Shard? It used to be a solid 1-drop, found its way to multiple decks… and this is the same thing, but with Rush. Yep, Invoking Shaman’s Galakrond summons a 2/1 with Rush AND you Freeze something when the spell resolves. Not only it’s a good card, but it also Invokes Galakrond, so you end up upgrading it faster.

It’s really simple – if you play Galakrond Shaman, you put two of those into the deck. Will Galakrond Shaman be good? Hard to say, but its Invoke cards definitely help, they’re strong. You might honestly want to run this in a regular deck without Galakrond – but you can’t. And that’s good, because it can’t be said about every Invoke card.

Card rating: 8/10 (but depends on Galakrond Shaman to be playable)

Galakrond, the Tempest

Just in case you don’t know – 2/2 Storms grow in size to 4/4 and then 8/8. Just like every Galakrond, it starts pretty weak, but it gets very powerful once it grows. Summoning 2x 8/8 with Rush is simply amazing. Not only it’s a massive swing, but also immediate tempo gain. You can easily clear two minions and still have two bodies left on the board. Maybe even 3 minions thanks to the 5/2 weapon. Hero Power is pretty okay – it matters more for Invoke cards, but summoning a 2/1 with Rush for 2 mana every turn is not bad.

However, Galakrond is only as strong as its Invoke cards. Galakrond itself is not a win condition – it’s a big swing, strong card, but you don’t just win once you play it. But I really see that Shaman could build a pretty solid Token build around Galakrond. Those 2/1’s with Rush are nice, they leave multiple bodies on the board, they can be buffed quite nicely and so on. “If you’ve Invoked twice” card also look strong, summons 2x 5/6 Taunt for mana.

Of course, the power level of this expansion is so crazy that it’s hard to tell whether any deck will see play in the end. Out of Galakrond decks, Shaman probably won’t be the strongest one (I think that Warrior might be), but it certainly won’t be the weakest (that’s probably Priest, unless the meta gets really greedy).

Card rating: 7/10

Lightforged Crusader & Zealot

I’ll rate those two together, since otherwise I would just need to repeat myself. This is another deck building condition akin to Highlander or Prince Keleseth. And it’s interesting. To be honest I have absolutely no clue whether it will work or not, but it will be cool to build decks around those.

First of all – what I like about them is that they aren’t Legendary. You can put two copies of Crusader and two copies of Zealot into your deck, which means that you’re going to draw them quite consistently. Deck building restriction is, on the other hand… pretty harsh. There are LOTS of good Neutral cards. It pretty much eliminates the entire Highlander archetype, for example, since you can’t put Zephrys the Great or Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. Mechs are also nearly impossible. Dragons… mmmm, also not really.

So in the end, you would need to go for a generic Midrange Paladin approach if you want to play those cards. Of course, the pay-off is amazing. Having a 4 mana 4/2 that equips Truesilver Champion is amazing tempo, while having a 7 mana 7/7 that adds 5 cards to your hand sick value. With the right curve, you might not even feel like you’re lacking Neutral cards, but it will still hurt your theme.

If I had to guess, I’d say that those won’t be good enough to build a viable, meta deck around them, but it’s just a guess really. If anything, now might be the time, because we have 6 expansions in Standard at the same time, so the card pool is pretty vast. I’ll definitely try them out, but I suspect that they won’t work out better than regular decks with Neutrals in the end.

P.S. You could, in theory, use Wyrmrest Purifier… but no, it’s not a good strat. By the time you get your Purifier, your Lightforged cards would be completely useless. It’s not worth the risk.

Card rating: 4/10

Troll Batrider

It’s like a Bomb Lobber! Even better, to be honest. You pay 1 mana less for 1 damage less on Battlecry. Certainly worth it, and Bomb Lobber was already a great Arena card. This will be even better. As for Constructed, not really. 4 mana 3/3 is weak, and the fact that you can’t target damage makes it questionable at best. Sure, if your opponent has specifically a single 2-3 health minion on the board, this is really good. But how often will that happen? If he has a few minions, you can’t target which one it hits, it will often fail. Against bigger minions this is also weak. And it can’t hit face in case you need burn damage.

When it comes to Constructed, it’s simply a pack filler. Or well, okay, it’s better than pack filler, but the fact that you can’t control where the damage goes makes it pretty bad.

Card rating: 3/10

Dragon’s Pack

Talking about packs… (smooth segue) Dragon’s Pack is Galakrond’s Shaman pay-off cards. We’ve already established that Shaman’s Invoke cards are solid, especially since Corrupt Elementalist just activates this card by itself.

At the base level, it’s like Feral Spirit with all of the mana paid upfront, without any Overload. 5 mana for 2x 2/3 Taunt is… bad. The only reason why Spirit Wolves have seen play is because you could tempo out earlier at the cost of weaker Turn 4. But, of course, you will never play it without Invoking twice first unless you absolutely need to.

Once it’s upgraded, though… it’s really, and I mean really powerful tempo move. A single 5/6 with Taunt for 5 mana is fair. Two of them are nuts. Honestly, most of the “if you’ve Invoked twice” cards are good, but this is just sooo much tempo. The only card with more tempo is Warrior’s Scion of Ruin, but on the other hand this is a better threat to just drop on the board.

Of course, the card is just as good as Galakrond deck in general, because it would make zero sense to not include it. So as long as Shaman’s Galakrond sees play, this will too. And I think that it might.

Card rating: 8/10 (but depends on Galakrond Shaman to be playable)

Disciple of Galakrond

It’s pretty simple. A 1 mana 1/2, so not the best stat-line, but not the worst either, that gives you a random Priest minion. At least when played in Galakrond deck, otherwise useless. Because I could honestly see it as a regular card, akin to Babbling Book, Pharaoh Cat etc. And not a bad card at all – 1-drops that cycle themselves into a random card aren’t bad, because they have a solid mid-late game scaling. You can drop them on T1 and be quite happy about it (better than nothing), and you can also drop them later and possibly get something bigger and more useful.

If you play a Galakrond deck, then you run it 100% of time. It’s a good Galakrond Invoker. But of course, whether it sees play 100% depends on whether Galakrond Priest sees play, because you can’t put it into a regular deck. Like I’ve already said, I think that Priest is the weakest Galakrond unless we have a particularly slow meta. Because unlike other Invoke cards & Hero Powers, Priest is pure value and no tempo. T

Card rating: 8/10 (but depends on Galakrond Priest to be playable)

Rolling Fireball

That’s a really cool idea, I like it! In general, I like the cards that make you think about positioning more. Mage’s other AoE removal – Meteor – is a good example. Rolling Fireball is, honestly, quite weaker than Meteor was, but Rolling Fireball is also strong. Well, it’s a strictly better Flame Lance, but it doesn’t really say much, given that Flame Lance was mostly an Arena card (it has actually seen some play in Highlander Mage, but the power level was much lower at that point and the deck really needed some mid-game removal).

We can assume that 8 damage is enough to clear basically anything throughout the early and mid game. Even an early Giant would get removed. Only in the late game, it might not be enough (especially against those chunky, 12 health Legendary Dragons). I really like the fact that it’s flexible – you can use it as a bigger, single target removal, or as a semi-AoE removal. Yep, it can handle a Giant, but it can also handle a bunch of 1-2 health minions. While it’s a little random if you pick something in the middle (well, you have 50/50 for it to go the right way), if you target minions on the side you can guarantee the way it goes.

The design is really sweet, it might be one of my favorite cards from the expansion. But is it strong enough? Well, that’s hard to say. Mage decks will be PACKED in this set, even Highlander builds. I think that Rolling Fireball is a solid removal, but I’m not sure if the deck will be able to fit it in. I will definitely test it out, and I hope that it makes it to the final lists!

Card rating: 7/10

Grave Rune

Well, that’s Ancestral Spirit x2. In Priest. I’m honestly not sure if it’s better than the regular one. On the one hand, sure, gluing two cards together without increasing their mana cost is great. The value on this one is insane, tempo is also good as long as you can kill off the minion. It’s a bit like Carnivorous Cube… without Cube. On the other hand, at 4 mana it might be pretty hard to combo it with something immediately. If you want to play it on a really big minion, you need it to stick to the board first. On the other hand, if you played it on some great minion, then passed turn… it’s really vulnerable to Silence or transform effects, you can easily get 2 for 1’d. Cube was mostly played in decks that could trigger it immediately – without that, it was too risky.

I guess that the card activates some combos. Like you could probably run it with Leeroy Jenkins. Play Leeroy, this, Holy Smite it and get 18 damage into face. But that doesn’t really seem that powerful, there are way better combos. 10 mana and 3 cards for 18 damage is only okay-ish, especially in Priest who can just go for Divine Spirit shenanigans instead.

Maybe it will activate some better combos thanks to the mana discount from Fate Weaver? With all the discounts, I could see some really crazy stuff that my mind is currently too tired to figure out.

Overall, since Priest can’t trigger it on demand, it mostly depends on the meta. If we’ll see lots of Silence and transform effects, I guess that it would be too slow. If we won’t – I think it has a chance to see play.

Card rating: 5/10

Mana Giant

In my earlier reviews, I was repeating time and time again than Cyclone Mage won’t be a thing, it won’t come back, but as it appears they kept printing new cards that support this archetype. And Mana Giant is one of those cards. So maybe, just maybe after all it will be playable again? Especially in a Dragon version. But well, let’s talk about Mana Giant.

It follows the usual Giant formula of “start expensive, get cheaper over time”. In this case, you need to play cards that didn’t start in your deck. That’s… in lots of decks, that’s a very difficult condition. But honestly, not in Cyclone Mage. Let’s look at the potential new Dragon version. Second cast of Ray of Frost, Arcane Breath, Magic Trick, Violet Spellwing, Mana Cyclone, Cobalt Spellkin, maybe Azure Explorer or Malygos, Aspect of Magic… yeah. The classic Banana Buffoon and Conjurer's Calling combo is also good in this case, but I’m not sure if you will be able to fit it into the Dragon build.

It’s also a very cheap Giant – unlike most of the Giants, you can actually drop it without even discounting it by one and it won’t be the end of the world (8 mana 8/8 is not great, but hey). Even just after 4-5 discounts, it will already be great. But given the number of cards you can use to do it, getting it down to 0 shouldn’t be a big problem. In other words – Mountain Giant who?

If Cyclone Mage ends up seeing play again, this will nearly surely make it. And I honestly have much more faith in the deck than I did even a few days ago. It got more support than any other Mage build this expansion.

Card rating: 3/10