Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #2 – Highlander Explorers, Making Mummies, Hidden Oasis, Expired Merchant, Wild Bloodstinger And More!

Welcome to the second part of Saviors of Uldum card reviews! After skipping them for Rise of Shadows, I’ve decided (thanks to you) to pick them back up for Saviors of Uldum. I might not review every single card, because we’ll get lots of them once reveal season starts in full force, but while it’s still manageable I’ll try to give you my thoughts about every Saviors of Uldum card!

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 this card as something with a lot of 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!

Other reviews:

• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #1 – Plague of Death, Puzzle Box, Corrupt the Waters, BEEEES!!!, Armagedillo And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #3 – Riftcleaver, Hunter’s Pack, Tip the Scales, Anka, Arcane Flakmage, Hooked Scimitar, Tortollan Pilgrim, Mogu Cultist And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #4 – Diseased Vulture, Into the Fray, Pressure Plate, Frightened Flunky, High Priest Amet, Generous Mummy, Grandmummy And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #5 – Plague of Wrath, Colossus of the Moon, Hack the System, Overflow, Plague of Flames, Dark Pharaoh Tekahn And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #6 – Embalming Ritual, Shadow of Death, Siamat, King Phaoris, Wretched Reclaimer, Activate the Obelisk, Bazaar Burglary and More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #7 – Ancient Mysteries, Crystal Merchant, Dune Sculptor, Garden Gnome, Hyena Alpha, Injured Tol’vir, Mischief Maker And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #8 (Final) – Naga Sand Witch, Oasis Surger, Octosari, Quicksand Elemental, Unseal the Vault, Vessina, Zephrys the Great

Reno the Relicologist

Since we have 4 new Highlander cards and I don’t want to repeat myself each time, I’ll talk about the general concept here. I’m pretty happy that we’re getting those back – old Reno decks were some of my favorite in the entire game. While the increased draw variance is not nice (you rely heavily on drawing your Highlander cards – if you don’t, then you just play a weaker version of a regular deck), I love the fact that they allow so many interesting deck building choices. In a regular deck, you always run duplicates of your best non-Legendary cards – you can’t do that in Highlander decks, so you need to improvise. Adding less played cards, substituting certain effects with something else etc. is a really fun part of both building and playing Highlander decks.

However, one needs to remember that Highlander is a MASSIVE restriction. I can’t stress enough how not running two copies of your best cards hinders your deck’s strength. So in order to off-set those downsides, Highlander cards need to be really powerful. Like Reno Jackson or Kazakus powerful. And in general, I don’t think that the Saviors of Uldum Highlander cards are on that level. Good news is that we’ll be getting another Highlander synergy card, presumably Neutral, which can change things. If it will be as powerful as the previous Neutral Highlander stuff, then I believe that we might reach power level that’s high enough to offset the downsides and see Highlander decks once again. If not, though, I don’t think that they’re enough. Maybe Elise, but only because of her combo potential.

And now, onto Reno the Relicologist in particular. From what I see, it’s the lowest rated Highlander card out of the bunch, but I really don’t know why. I think that people are heavily underestimating the effect. I’ve seen people comparing it to Meteorologist or Dyn-o-matic and they couldn’t be more wrong. It’s way, way more powerful than those. Meteorologist has 3/3 body (this is 4/6) and can deal up to 9 damage, but only under perfect circumstances (you playing it with full hand – which doesn’t happen often). On average, it deals probably 5-6. And it can also hit face, which might be upside in some decks, but not in the ones that want to play it. Now Dyn-o-matic. The card is obviously very powerful, but again, Reno is way stronger. Better body for the cost, deals TWICE as much damage, doesn’t hit friendly minions and Mechs (which are VERY popular now) don’t dodge the effect.

But the idea and the reason why it’s so strong is close to that of Dyn-o-matic – flexible removal with a body (but turned up to 11). Opponent has one 8/8? You kill it. Two 5/5’s? You kill them. Three 3/3’s? You kill them. A board flooded with 1/2 health minions? You also kill them. And always leave a 4/6 behind, so you’re not behind on tempo, like you are in case of regular removal spells. But, of course, in order to play it – you need to build a Highlander deck. Which is the real issue.

If anything, it will 100% slot into Wild Reno Mage. The deck is not amazing, but it will gladly take such a strong card since it runs Highlander anyway.

Card rating: 6/10, but I’ll have to wait until we see the last Highlander synergy card before giving a final rating

Dinotamer Brann

7 mana for a 2/4 + King Krush sounds like a nice deal… You get King Krush for 2 mana cheaper and another, small body on top of that. If you play it on T10 it means that, unlike playing King Krush, you can combo it with Hero Power, Kill Command or possibly another card (like Deadly Shot to get through a Taunt). But again it doesn’t seem nearly powerful enough to build an entire singleton deck around it. In fact, I like it even less than Reno.

Hunter can usually be built as either Aggro or Midrange, and both of those archetypes need as much consistency as possible. You really want to run 2-ofs of your best cards, especially early game minions, since there aren’t even that many replacements. So what that you can summon a King Krush on Turn 7 if you fall off early? By Turn 7 you will be completely overwhelmed by another Aggro/Tempo deck, or Control deck will take over the game and 8/8 with Charge won’t be enough to come back. If you run Highlander Hunter, you also can’t run what is basically your best card in Standard right now – Master's Call. Building a Highlander deck and restricting to Beasts only would be a nightmare (Brann is also not a Beast, but he is sort of an exception, because it’s not the worst thing ever to get just him from your Discover). Running Dire Frenzy is also out of question for obvious reasons.

Overall, I don’t see it happening, unless the supporting Highlander card will be very, very powerful. While this card is strong, Highlander in Hunter does not seem like a good idea right now in Standard. And while, again, it’s strong, it doesn’t seem insane. King Krush is not a card you put into your regular Hunter deck. So getting 2 mana discount on a card you don’t even normally play… I mean, compare it to Kathrena Winterwisp. You also had to build a deck with some restrictions (although not as big as Highlander IMO), she was a 6/6 that also pulled one of your big Beasts (such as Krush)… on both Battlecry and Deathrattle.

P.S. Unless someone figures out a way to play this card multiple times quite consistently. For example, in Wild Brann Bronzebeard + Dinotamer Brann is a cute combo, but probably just that (I don’t believe it will be competitive in Wild either).

Card rating: 4/10, unless last Highlander synergy card will be insane

Elise the Enlightened

When the card was revealed, I was thinking to myself that there HAS to be some way to break it. I don’t know what it is yet, but especially in Wild, there are definitely some insane infinite combos this card creates thanks to stuff like Flobbidinous Floop, Floop's Glorious Gloop, Twig of the World Tree etc. But even in Standard, there are some cute stuff you can do with it thanks to Floop.

I don’t think that this card will be played just for the value, even though you can get some great value with it. In the best case scenario, you get 5 extra cards in your hand, but it’s really hard to control your hand size in a way that will let you do it. If you have too little cards – you don’t have enough stuff to copy (e.g. if you have 3 cards in hand, one of which is Elise, she only gives you +2 cards). If you have too many – you don’t have enough space (e.g. if you have 8 cards in hand and play her, you end up only getting extra 3 – not to mention that you need to play something so you won’t burn your next draw). Still, getting 2-5 extra cards on a 5 mana 5/5 is good, but… Slower Druid decks are already pretty inconsistent and value is not their issue, so I don’t think making them even more inconsistent by going Highlander just to have another value card is a good idea. Extra value doesn’t matter in fast matchups, and you won’t outvalue Warrior anyway.

That said, Elise has massive combo potential. I still don’t know what you can do with her, but you can get duplicates of your important combo pieces – including Legendaries, which normally you can’t put 2-of into your decks. One of the ways to use her is getting extra Moonfires. You play 2 of them in your deck, and after you draw them, drop her and get up to 4. Now play Malygos + 4x Moonfire = 24 damage combo. Not too shabby. Throw some Floop + Swipe next turn for a finisher if that’s not enough.

The main issue with running her in combo decks is hand limitation. Combo decks tend to have big hands, and you CAN’T have more than 6 cards in hand (including her) to get full advantage of the effect. And you still need to go Highlander, unless you plan to play her after drawing the entire deck (which is not a great idea, since Druid decks don’t have a great way to cycle through entire deck right now, especially not when going Highlander). I think that Combo Druid will still need a lot more than that after getting gutted, but the card really has potential.

Card rating: 7/10 – at the very least, someone will surely find a way to abuse her in Combo deck in Standard – and an extra Neutral Highlander synergy card might help too

Sir Finley of the Sands

I think that Sir Finley is the strongest one out of all Highlander cards ASSUMING you play each on curve. Getting him down on Turn 2 is going to win you a lot of games. The problem is, however, consistency. The later you get it, the worse it becomes. If you get him on Turn 10, then not only it has a weak body, but the effect is no longer as spectacular (because you already played most of the game with regular Hero Power). Unlike something like Brann or Reno, which has a solid mid-late game effect. It’s a bit like Prince Keleseth in that matter (which was drawn on curve roughly 1/3 of time) – but I’d say that Highlander is a bigger deck restriction than no 2-drops.

That’s also because I don’t really see him being played in Aggro deck. Sure, Aggro Highlander Paladin would be great if you got him on curve every time, but if not, it would suffer from major consistency issues. Control decks can often compensate for the lack of consistency with more card draw, tutor cards (like Finley – it can potentially be tutored by e.g. Witchwood Piper) etc. Plus, since they plan to go for a longer game and being capable of playing from behind, they don’t need a strong early curve, unlike Aggro. We hardly have enough good cards to build a regular Aggro Pally, let alone Highlander.

So if anything, it might slot into a slower Paladin deck. You’d gladly replace your regular 2 mana 1/1 Hero Power with something more powerful. Deal 2 damage on demand? Draw cards for 2 mana? Heal for 4 / stack 4 Armor per turn vs Aggro? Heck, even pick Hunter’s 3 damage to face against Warlock or Rogue and just put them on a clock. So the decks I could see Finley in are Midrange / Control Paladin. But again, you can barely build those decks WITH duplicates in the current meta. So will you be able to do a Highlander style Paladin deck at all?

Card rating: 10/10 if you get it on curve every game, but the problem is that you won’t… so realistically 6/10 (can be more if final Highlander synergy card turns out to be great)

Expired Merchant

That’s a really clever design, I like it. It’s a discard card that doesn’t really feel like one – you play it more like a card draw than actual discard! When you drop it on Turn 2 and let’s say discard a 5 mana cost card, by the time you get to Turn 5, the 2/1 will nearly always die. So the effect would basically be “add an extra copy of the highest cost card in your hand”. Funnily enough, you can easily create an “infinite value” loop with Soulwarden – get 6 mana 6/6’s for days! Sure, it’s slow, but might come handy in some matchups where value is everything.

Cool thing is that you can somewhat control your discard, just like in case of Shriek. One of the main issues I always had with Discard is that it was completely random. With this, you usually know what you’ll discard – and even better, if you play Expired Merchant early, you probably won’t even need it yet!

Still, even though I like the design, I’m not sure if it will be too useful in Warlock right now. It’s too slow for Zoo Warlock, and slower Warlock decks are absolutely terrible right now. This is not a strong card that creates an archetype or anything like that. It’s a solid support card that slots into an already existing, good deck with some high cost cards you want to copy. And the problem is that such a deck doesn’t exist. The closest one right now would be Handlock (you could duplicate Mountain Giants, for example, which is nice), but it’s still far from being good enough.

Oh, and it gets ABSOLUTELY destroyed by Silence. It’s much worse than opponent Silencing something like Loot Hoarder. In this case, you only lose card you would draw. In this case, not only you lose the “extra” copy, but also the one you initially discarded. If Silenced, this card is “2 mana 2/1, discard a card” with no upside at all. Silence is pretty popular right now, because of the Mech decks – and if they will still be common in the upcoming expansion, then this card can coincidentally be hurt too.

Card rating: 8/10, but it needs a good, slower Warlock deck to put into first…

Making Mummies

(Quest Reward: Emperor Wraps)

When it comes to new Paladin’s Quest, just like many, I’m wondering why exactly it belongs in Paladin class? I think that it would fit Priest more, given that the upgraded Hero Power is very similar to Shadowy Figure – but works on all kinds of minions, not only Deathrattles. But given that for the most part the Hero Power is a better version of Shadowy Figure (the only downside is that you can’t play it on empty board – you need a minion first), it’s good. And honestly, playing 5 Reborn minions also doesn’t seem like a big requirement. So I like it and I think that it’s pretty strong.

Not only you get an extra 2/2 per turn (which is already an upgrade over 1/1), it also copies entire minion’s text. Which means that you want to play it with cards that have ongoing effects, Deathrattles and – of course – Reborn. And since you play in a deck full of Reborn minions. What’s interesting is that Reborn stuff won’t Reborn as 2/1, but will have the original minion’s attack. So if you copy a 4/4 with Reborn, for example, the first one will be 2/2 and the second one will be 4/1. Ideally, it would work best with minions that have BOTH Reborn and Deathrattle – but I’m not sure if we’ll get cards like that at all. The upgraded Hero Power is a nice mix of value and tempo, which would probably fit best into some sort of Midrange Paladin.

Now, the main question that can’t be answered yet is – how many Reborn minions will we get (Neutral + Paladin) and how good will they be? Strength of Quests that force you to play a certain type of cards REALLY depends on whether those cards are good in the first place. You can have an amazing reward, but if Reborn cards will be bad, the deck will still not be viable. So far, there’s only one Reborn minion available to Paladin – Murmy – and it’s a solid one (read its review below). And a small issue is that it’s a 1-drop, and 1-drops don’t necessarily fit into a Quest deck. If you play Quest on Turn 1, then you don’t want to play 1-drop on Turn 2 (maybe two of them if you can, but generally you’d prefer to curve out with a 2-drop). In order to really make the deck work, we’ll need AT LEAST 5-6 good Reborn cards (you’ll probably want to have 10+ minions that you can trigger it with), and given that we know only one right now, it might be difficult. But we’ll see.

Card rating: Quest is 7/10, but quality of the Quest Paladin deck will HEAVILY rely on the quality of Reborn cards (that we just don’t know yet).

Murmy

It’s a pretty standard sticky 1/1 1-drop. Since it’s a 1/1, it will Reborn as a 1/1, so it works exactly like Mecharoo (or if you want to get back to the cards that started it – Possessed Villager). In Standard, we also have Argent Squire, which is a bit different, but also similar. Those 1-drops are… okay. They are never spectacular, but can find their way into common meta decks quite often. In case of Mecharoo, Mech tag helped. And in case of Murmy, Murloc tag will also play a big role.

Unlike other sticky 1-drops, this card fits into Murloc decks very, very well. In general, Murloc decks are pretty low on 1-drops right now. The only Neutral one that you want to play T1 is Murloc Tidecaller – there’s also Grimscale Oracle and Toxfin, but they are better when you already have something on board + Shaman has Sludge Slurper, but that’s only available to that class. So it’s a nice 1-drop, and it’s also sticky, which is great. It survives AoEs, it can buff Tidecaller twice (once when you drop it and second one when it dies and revives), it’s a great Toxfin target, it can “double dip” in some buffs (like when you have Warleader on the board, you can run him into a 3 health minion and you will still have a 3/1 on board). It’s just solid.

And on top of Murloc synergies, it will also have Reborn synergies, whatever they decide to print (we don’t know that yet). Right now it only synergizes with Paladin’s Quest, but it’s not the best thing to put in there. I mean, if you will be low on Reborn cards, it will still be a decent addition, but 1-drops aren’t amazing in Quest decks, because they are best when played on T1 and you can’t do it.

Overall, it’s a good card without many downsides, but it’s also not a card that will make or break decks.

Card rating: 8/10

Hidden Oasis

When talking about Druid’s Quest, I’ve mentioned that the deck needs more Choose One cards, especially more expensive ones (because getting both effects of Wrath is okay, but not going to win you the game). And I see that we’re finally getting some.

Let’s explain something first – the card is terrible in any deck other than Quest deck. 6 mana 6/6 Taunt is just bad, but at least has vanilla stats. The other option is even worse. 12 healing for 6 mana? That effect is costed at 4 mana (Greater Healing Potion) – you would never want to play 6 for it. I know that flexibility is always good, but normally both options should be at least passable. In this case, one option is passable and other one is very bad. So if you don’t play a Quest deck, you probably want to ignore it completely.

In a Quest deck, however, it’s pretty good. At 6 mana, you will often have your Quest finished before you play it (or at least be close to finishing it). And a 6 mana 6/6 Taunt that heals any target for 12 is insane. Against Aggro, it can straight up win you the game by getting out of range AND putting a big obstacle on their way. And then you still have second copy. But even in slower matchups it can be useful. For example, it can keep you alive against Bomb Warrior. Or possibly against some combos that are spread over multiple turns. And since the healing is targeted, you can always use it to heal some other minion you have. I still think that we need another good Choose One card to really take advantage of the Quest, but this is a good start.

I’ve seen some opinions that Lucentbark Druid might want to play it, but I disagree – unless the deck will run BOTH Quest and Lucentbark. 6 mana 6/6 doesn’t really accomplish much in the deck, and for healing you already have a few options – especially since they heal for less. Those who played Lucentbark Druid should realize that healing for too much is not good either. If you heal yourself to full and your Lucentbark(s) die, then you have no way to revive them again. That’s why healing for 5-8 (with Crystal Power, Ancient of Lore or Healing Touch) is generally better. Maybe, just maybe as an 1-of.

Card rating: 7/10 in Quest Druid, 4/10 in Lucentbark Druid, 2/10 in everything else

Scarlet Webweaver

If you get a full mana discount (5), it effectively becomes a 1 mana 5/5 Beast. Let’s say that your hand is Tundra Rhino and this card. You play both on Turn 6 – you get 2/5 + 5/5, both with Charge, and hit opponent for 7 immediately. And it’s not even some outlandish turn. Or you could save the 0 mana Rhino and do something even more crazy – you don’t have to drop it immediately. While 6 mana 5/5 is a tempo loss, it makes up for itself after you drop the discounted Beast. Discounting any bigger Beast – Savannah Highmane, Amani War Bear, King Krush, Oondasta – can be very powerful. Just imagine dropping King Krush and playing Dire Frenzy on it in slower matchup. Now you have a bunch of 11/11’s with Charge in your deck.

Of course, the card is not perfect. Most notably, it doesn’t work well with cheap Beasts. While hitting 3 mana one wouldn’t be the end of the world, you really don’t want to hit 1-2 mana ones, and Hunter has a plenty of those. However, it’s not THAT big of an issue, since you can a) drop them first before playing it or b) just not run them.

To expand on the second point, most of players see it in some sort of Midrange Hunter, but it might not necessarily be the best deck to run it in. I can totally imagine some sort of Combo Hunter being built around it. I still don’t know what combo can it be in Standard, but in Wild, for example, you can discount King Krush twice with Brann Bronzebeard, then drop it, Cube it and 2x Play Dead for 4x King Krush = 32 damage and a huge board. Might not be the best thing ever in Wild given the power level of the format, but if a some strong combo would be discovered in Standard, that’s another story. Keep in mind that the card will be in Standard until 2021, so they will need to be really careful with printing any bigger Beasts.

The card has a lot of potential, and even if not now, I’m absolutely sure that we’ll have a deck that can abuse this effect by the time it rotates out.

Card rating: 9/10

Wild Bloodstinger

It feels a bit weird that they’ve decided to print a class version of Dirty Rat and Hunter is the one getting it out of all classes. But anyone who was playing in Standard around the time of Dirty Rat knows how powerful this effect can be. The card is VERY well statted to take advantage of this effect – 6 mana 6/9 is great. Which means that even if your opponent has no minions in his hand, you’re getting extra information + overstatted body with Beast tag, which you absolutely don’t mind.

Then, this is obviously an amazing tech card in LOTS of matchups. The best case scenario is pulling out opponent’s combo piece and killing it after. While we don’t have many minion-oriented Combo decks now, it can – for example – ruin Paladin’s combo by pulling out Shirvallah, the Tiger (it will hit into Divine Shield, but you wouldn’t play it until you can kill it so Paladin can’t shuffle), it can straight up kill Shudderwock, or almost kill Archmage Antonidas and Prophet Velen. But you don’t have to hit a combo piece for it to be good. Just getting out high value cards out of your opponent’s hand and killing them on “your terms” is great. Warrior? Archivist Elysiana, Omega Devastator or Dyn-o-matic. Shaman? Thunderhead. Mage? Mana Cyclone, Stargazer Luna etc.

If you play against Warrior, just play it + Dire Frenzy. You end up with three more copies and they’re all 9/12. It will kill anything you pull out, and you can easily gain control of the game by not giving Warrior access to their strong minion Battlecries.

The thing is, though, that this doesn’t fit into Hunter’s usual play style. The card would be absolutely insane in some other classes, but Hunter tends to play faster, more aggressively. I could see it being a tech card in the usual Midrange Hunter if the meta demands it – e.g. if some combo decks will be popular and you’ll want to disrupt them (although usually the best way to disrupt combo decks is to kill them before they can pull off the combo). But to be honest, the card really screams slow Midrange/Control Hunter. Will it still be just a dream, or will it finally come together?

Card rating: 8/10, but I’m afraid that it won’t fit into the current Hunter decks besides being a fringe tech card – we might need a slower Hunter build to take full advantage of it.