Scholomance Academy Card Review #9 – Robes of Protection, Mindrender Illucia, Twilight Runner, Commencement, Blessing of Authority, Cutting Class and more!

Now that Scholomace Academy’s reveal season is over, it’s time to talk about and rate the rest of cards! Scholomance Academy is the second expansion of Year of the Phoenix. It brings back the multi-class cards idea from Gadgetzan, but builds upon it and makes the design much more interesting. The new dual class cards will come in 10 different combinations (40 cards in total) and share unique mechanics between each pairing. On top of that, we’re getting a new mechanic – Spellburst – which activates after you cast a spell, but only once (which means that any subsequent spell won’t trigger the effect again).

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 – but average does not mean bad. It might be playable in some decks, but in my mind 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 seeing all the cards, it’s incredibly hard to review them accurately, since we have no clue what synergies will be printed or which themes will be pushed. Even after knowing all of them, theory is very different from practice, and it’s hard to predict how the meta will look like. A card that’s great in theory might end up seeing no play whatsoever, because the most popular meta deck simply counters it. 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 reviews:

• Scholomance Academy Card Review #1 – Devolving Missiles, Lightning Bloom, Rattlegore, Shan’do Wildwalker, Troublemaker and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #2 – Headmaster Kel’Thuzad, Combustion, Infiltrator Lilian, Brittlebone Destroyer, Disciplinarian Gandling and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #3 – Flesh Giant, Ace Hunter Kreen, Mozaki, Master Duelist, Totem Goliath, Glide, Felosophy and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #4 – Archwitch Willow, Doctor Krastinov, Star Student Stelina, Lorekeeper Polkelt, Sphere of Sapience, Vectus and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #5 – Ras Frostwhisper, Groundskeeper, Turalyon, Adorable Infestation, Secret Passage, Jandice Barov, Keymaster Alabaster and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #6 – Soul Fragment Cards, Instructor Fireheart, Professor Slate, Speaker Gidra, Forest Warden Amu and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #7 – Ancient Void Hound, Trueaim Crescent, Wyrm Weaver, Demon Companion, Double Jump, Voracious Reader and more!
• Scholomance Academy Card Review #8 – Bloated Python, Teacher’s Pet, Overwhelm, Reaper’s Scythe, Coerce, Wolpertinger, Tour Guide, Raise Dead and more!

Robes of Protection

Huuuuh. If you played during Goblins vs Gnomes, you might remember Wee Spellstopper. And now look at this. For 1 mana less, it only has 1 less health, but stops spells from targeting the entire board.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they released a 3 mana 2/4 or 2/5 “Can’t be targeted” pack filler, but this ain’t one. Since it also has targeting protection, it means that you can’t just single target remove it to get rid of the whole thing. You need to either AoE the board, clear it with Rush or a weapon. But it might not be that simple. At 4 health, it dodges a lot of AoE and weapons (which are often 2-3 damage).

Of course, the card isn’t really great against minion-based decks or even heavy tempo decks that will fight for your board using their own drops – if they don’t want to play single target removal on your minions, then it doesn’t matter.

However, since it’s more of a tech card, it’s not really something you want to put into every deck in every meta. You might play it if you run a minion-heavy deck in a meta heavy with slower decks that want to remove those minions. But I believe that in the right metas, it will be a strong card and it should be played in some Aggro/Midrange builds.

Card Rating: 7/10

Demonic Studies

Meh. Looking at the list of Demons available to Warlock in Standard at the time, it doesn’t look very exciting. Most of them are weak, only a few are ones you would actually want to put into your deck. The chances of getting something you actually want at the time are not very high.

Another reason why I don’t like it is – why Demons? Warlock doesn’t have any good Demon synergies right now. I would understand if we had some super powerful Demons and deck built around them, but this is not the case at all.

The only cool thing about this card is that you can play Lord Jaraxxus for 8 mana, which means that you can Hero Power on the same turn. That’s the biggest issue of Jaraxxus – it’s super slow, you skip your entire turn. When you at least put a 6/6, it’s much better. But still super slow, so I’m not sure if Warlock decks will want to run it.

Maybe in the future, if Demon Warlock will be a thing. But right now it looks bad. Not BAD BAD, because Studies card always give you some card and a Discount, so they’re never useless, but I don’t think it will be played.

Card Rating: 3/10

Mindrender Illucia

This card is so crazy that I don’t even know where to start. And, to be perfectly honest, I have no clue how to rate it. It’s one of the weirdest effects we’ve ever got in Hearthstone.

So let’s start with the obvious – why would you want to swap hands and decks with your opponent? Well, there might be a few reasons. The most obvious one is playing against Combo deck – you can play this, then play their important combo piece and… you won the game. Unless they have some backup plan, they can’t do anything anymore. But there are a few other things you can do with this card.

Against faster deck, you can play this on Turn 2 if you have no Turn 3 play. It means that they are very likely to just skip their turn, just Hero Powering, while you developed a 1/3 minion. Not great, but since they don’t do anything, it gives you more time. Interestingly, a value play like drawing cards also counts as no play, because if they do it, you will just get those cards back when you swap hands again. If you go first and they go second, you can also waste their Coin and maybe even play a 1-drop.

Against Control decks, in case you run out of things to do, you can technically swap with them and play a threat from their hand. If you aren’t holding any key cards, you can also play it and try to snatch some important card from them, like Galakrond Hero. But it will be pretty awkward, because as a Priest you also have lots of resources – when you swap, they will just likely play the best card from your hand too and it will be pretty even exchange.

If you run a faster deck like Tempo Priest, you can technically use it similarly to how Secret Passage is used – one-turn card boost. Play this, play whatever you can from their hand, get your old (probably empty) hand back again. Not as good as Secret Passage, but you can also waste some of your opponent’s resources. I’m not totally sold on that, though, since in a faster deck you’d rather pull cards from your deck that fit your aggressive playstyle – if you swap with a Control deck that has a hand of full of removals, it won’t really matter.

Ultimately, it’s one of those cards that you have to play before giving a verdict. Right now I would say that while it works insanely well in certain scenarios, it’s very clunky and nearly useless in the others, and that’s not something you want. Ultimately, I have a feeling that it will be more of a tech card against Combo decks than a card you put into every Priest deck from now on. It’s game-winning in certain matchups, but it might be played only when those matchups are popular.

Card Rating: 4/10 now, but 10/10 tech card in some matchups.

Draconic Studies

Draconic Studies is a solid card, but I’m not sure if any deck can justify playing it right now. What I like about it most compared to some other Studies is a really solid pool of cards. I’m not sure why Blizzard has this thing for Dragons, but they are strong. Even the ones that have seemingly simple effects or are “pack fillers” are stronger than you would expect. Almost no Dragon is unplayable, so the chances of you low-rolling three terrible ones are impossibly low. You’re going to get something average or even good basically every time you play this. Then, having a mana discount on a Dragon can help you ramp up into its effect quite nicely. Especially in a Highlander build – being able to drop Dragonqueen Alexstrasza a turn earlier AND having a chance to Discover another copy is just very good. And Discovering a Dragon means that any other “holding a Dragon” effects in your hand activate too.

Now, the question is – what deck would want to play it? I don’t think that Galakrond Priest would, I believe that you need more Dragons or “holding a Dragon” effects. Highlander Priest – possibly, since the lists aren’t as tight, and a chance to get another DQA is tempting (it’s not super high, but here we are, with Galakrond Rogues winning decks by getting her from Draconic Lackey). Some Tempo Priest? Well, if it’s not Dragon-based, then I don’t think so… And that’s the thing – the card is solid, but we probably need a Dragon Priest to make a comeback before we see it. Not only Dragons are better if you run a deck built around them, but being able to play some of them one turn earlier would make this card a great curve filler.

So while I don’t think that it will see tons of play right now (maybe some, but not much), if Dragon Priest makes a comeback (let’s say next expansion), then I think that it will be really good.

Card Rating: 6/10 now, but would be much better in Dragon Priest.

Plagued Protodrake

Like I’ve said before, they’re really pushing the power level of those pack fillers. Even the “worst” cards of the set make you think – “hey, maybe this is actually playable”. Same thing goes for Plagued Protodrake. Any regular deck wouldn’t want it – 8 mana for an 8/8 with a Deathrattle effect is just way too slow. Yes, Deathrattle summons a 7-drop, making it really sticky, but with no immediate impact it can get ignored quite often, and slower decks won’t likely have a huge problem dealing with a random 7-drop afterwards.

However, strong Deathrattle effects historically have some extra playability when you can cheat them out. For example – Mechanical Whelp was super slow, 6 mana 2/2 with no other immediate effect, but the 7/7 Deathrattle proved to be quite powerful if you could cheat it out. For example, Deathrattle Rogue played it with Necrium Apothecary. And similarly, Plagued Protodrake would be a pretty good pick in Deathrattle / Anka Rogue deck. The problem is that Rogue no longer has a way to trigger Deathrattles (like Necrium Blade / Necrium Vial) so it doesn’t look great. It has great synergy with Vectus, but you first need to play it and it needs to die, so it’s suuuper slow.

I think that at one point the card might surprise us and see some play, when we get a way to cheat out or duplicate strong Deathrattles. But I don’t believe that moment is now.

Card Rating: 2/10

Crimson Hothead

It’s a pretty solid card, but only in a rather specific deck.

First, you want a deck that can trigger Spellburst quite easily. At the base level, it’s a 3/6 Dragon with no effects, so it’s definitely not a card you want in your deck. The Taunt part is most important, making it quite similar to Twilight Guardian (but instead of holding a Dragon, you need to play a spell). 4 attack instead of 3 is also a nice bonus, because it can trade into higher health minions (although 4 is not a very important cut-off point, 3 and 5 are usually more important).

But at the same time, you don’t really want a 4 mana 4/6 Taunt that you need to activate first in your deck, it’s not strong enough. So you also want to be able to take advantage of Dragon tag – if you play other cards that require you to hold a Dragon.

So the only kind of deck I would see it in is, I don’t know, a Dragon build that can trigger Spellburst quite easily? Neither of the card parts is really good by itself, so I feel like you need to combine two. Overall, it seems below average.

Card Rating: 4/10

Desk Imp

Well, I for one like those unique 0 mana 1/1 minions. Wisp isn’t really played anyway outside of some super rare cases, so printing 0 mana 1/1’s with some tags is not a big deal. In this case, being a Demon could have been a downside in the past, but not really anymore now that Sacrificial Pact can only target friendly minions.

Will this card see play? Well, judging by the presence of other 0 mana 1/1’s… I would say that not really. But still, let’s explore some potential uses for it. They are mostly limited to Warlock and – to some extent – Demon Hunter, since those are the only two classes with Demon synergies. The main reason to use it I see is Felosophy – on T1 you can drop 2x 2/2, which is a really nice opener. However, since it takes 2 cards and it’s only really good in the early game, I don’t think that it will be a popular combo. In Warlock or Priest, you can also use Desk Imp with the new Legendary – Disciplinarian Gandling. However, in this case, it’s just as good as Wisp would be. I mean, if you want to run four 0 mana 1/1’s then you play both, I guess.

Overall I think that it being a Demon might matter and might push it into playable range. For example, Snowflipper Penguin has seen SOME play because it was a Beast – e.g. I remember it being played in Druid with Mark of Y'Shaarj. But right now I don’t think we’ve got enough Demon synergies to make it worth it.

Card Rating: 3/10

Lake Thresher

As a standalone card, it’s meh. While the cleave effect is pretty strong, it would realistically need rush to make the most impact. If you play vs a slower deck, they usually won’t have multiple minions for you to take advantage of this effect. And if you play vs a faster deck, if you just drop it on the board, they will trade into it before you can attack, making it basically a 5 mana 4/6 Beast most of the time. And, as we all know, that would see no play.

And here comes Guardian Animals. Like I’ve said before, without Rush the card is pretty bad, but with Rush it suddenly gets much more interesting. If your opponent doesn’t have time to answer it, you can make some really cool plays. Against a faster deck, you can often clear 3 minions, and that goes a long way in classes like Druid or Hunter, which have pretty weak comeback mechanics. If it’s buffed, then you can make trade into even bigger minions.

Technically you can also play it e.g. with Rocket Augmerchant and make it 6 mana 4/5 with Rush and Cleave + 2/1, but that seems pretty bad in most of the decks. Because you need to spend 2 cards and the 4/5 is not likely to stick after attacking ones (even assuming the first attack doesn’t kill it), it’s usually just better to drop some AoE.

So I don’t know, if Guardian Animals deck will be a thing, then I’m pretty sure that Lake Thresher will be included (but it’s not going to be the star of the deck, to be honest). If not – I don’t really see it. Because of that, it’s slightly above average, but not crazy good, because even in a supposed Guardian Animals deck it would be meh if you draw it and not pull it out.

Card Rating: 6/10

Twilight Runner

Now this is something that’s absolutely insane with Guardian Animals, but still good as a standalone card. A 5/4 with Stealth for 5 is just health below the “vanilla” (Stranglethorn Tiger), and Tiger is not the worst card ever. One of the main upsides of Stealth is that it’s very likely to survive a turn. Unless it gets cleared by a random effect (such as Rotnest Drake) or a pretty big AoE, it’s safe and it will attack at least once. And once attack = 2 cards drawn. So, to make it simple, we can say that it’s a 5 mana 5/4 with Stealth that draws 2 card next turn. That is… actually playable. Now if we add the fact it might draw another 2 cards in case it survives (won’t happen often, but getting 2 extra cards from time to time ain’t bad).

I think that the card would already see play by itself, even with no other synergies, in some kind of Midrange Druid, maybe Ramp Druid. But it will be the base of Guardian Animals deck assuming that it will be played. Pulling two of those would result in 2x 5/4 with Rush that draw 4 cards in total (they have Stealth too, but it’s kind of pointless UNLESS you have no minions to run them into). And that’s an insane power play, even ignoring the fact that you could hand/deckbuff them with Survival of the Fittest.

Honestly the only downside is that it might be hard to fit. Yes, Guardian Animals deck will 100% play it, BUT the most popular decks over the last two expansions were Spell Druid & Quest Druid and neither of them would want it. Embiggen Druid, on the other hand, would probably love to run it, so I still have a lot of hope for it even if Guardian Animals will turn out to be bad.

Card Rating: 9/10

Wave of Apathy

Remembern Pint-Size Potion? Yeah. The only upside of Pint-Size is that it could reduce the minions Attack to 0, but a) it was much worse against big minions and b) it didn’t last into your opponent’s turn. On the other hand, at the time Pint-Size Potion was played Shadow Word: Horror was also in the meta, and it was a pretty solid combo, clearing every 5 or less attack minion. If Horror was in Standard.. oh man, it would be a really juicy combo. But since it’s not, we have to look for some other uses.

The first and most obvious one that applies to both classes is stalling. If you face a 5/5, 4/4 and 3/3 on the board, you would normally take 12 damage. Wave of Apathy means that instead of take only 3 damage. It’s a bit similar to Frost Nova. It’s cheaper, but you still take some damage. It also works better against a few big minions than multiple small minions. And just like with Frost Nova, you can TRY to combo it with Doomsayer. In the best case scenario, it goes off and you have a 3 mana board clear + you gain initiative. If it doesn’t take off, they had to clear Doomsayer, so it’s not like you didn’t gain anything (they didn’t damage you, or had to use Silence for example). Another use for both classes would be in faster decks, as a way to trade against opponent’s minions easily. But this kind of effect seems too situational – in the same vein Quicksand Elemental wasn’t really played in faster decks (even though I thought that it will see at least some play).

In Priest in particular, it has another use – as a combo with Cabal Shadow Priest or the new Cabal Acolyte. You can steal any minion from your opponent, and that’s a pretty solid play. It’s much better than other “attack reduction + Cabal” combos we had over the years, because the other cards usually only reduced the minion’s attack by X, not to 1. This one is a guaranteed steal on any minion.

Overall, I can see two realistic uses for it. As a stall tool for both Paladin in Priest, but mostly for some sort of Combo decks, since they don’t necessarily care about clearing the board, but rather surviving until they draw the right cards. I feel like in the right meta, it might also see play in Priest with stealing minions. But either class will be quite happy to e.g. pick it from Discover or randomly generate it at times.

Card Rating: 6/10

Commencement

Huh, it’s a “Big” support for both Warrior and Paladin. And interestingly enough, both classes don’t mind it. Paladin has a Duel! deck, but obviously it’s not strong enough when Duel is the only way to cheat out big minions. In a similar vein, Warrior has Big/Recruit deck (with Dimensional Ripper), but it’s hard to make it work ever since Gather Your Party and Woecleaver have rotated out (gosh… that was over a year ago). This is a support card for both of those decks.

But let’s be honest – neither of the decks seem strong right now. Is this enough to make them work? Well, it’s hard to say. Even though 7 mana might seem too expensive, I actually don’t mind the mana cost that much. For Paladin, it can be dropped after Duel for more steam, and for Warrior it can be used to cheat out something earlier before you can use Ripper. In both cases, adding Taunt & Divine Shield to a minion is also good. Most of those big minions are rather slow, so Taunt is key for making this card playable. The fact that your opponent can’t just ignore the minion and he also tanks the first hit for free because of Divine Shield is pretty strong.

On the other hand, 7 mana to cheat out cards that cost 7-10 mana is not that much of a “cheat”. It feels less like mana cheating and more like making your slow, big minion more “playable”. But you still need to run only big minions (or well, Archmage Vargoth I guess would also work). Warrior in particular will love it with Rattlegore, a very strong, but painfully slow card. Paladin got Turalyon, the Tenured but I don’t think it’s that strong (still a good minion to cheat out this way, though).

Overall, I feel like this card is a good fit into those archetypes, but… I don’t believe that those decks have still reached the critical mass of playable cards. It feels like both, or at least one of them, might be a T3 deck or something, but I feel like they need a bit more to be competitively viable.

Card Rating: 5/10

Athletic Studies

In general, Rush has started to become a slightly problematic mechanic. It’s difficult to fight for the board “fairly” when so many minions have Rush, often with little to no downside. Rush cards are played in most of the decks, and most of the Rush minions are at least sort of playable, so yeah, it’s no wonder why Athletic Studies looks pretty solid. The pool of Rush cards available to Warrior is quite small (16 after the expansion to be precise), and half of them are really solid – Kargath Bladefist, Restless Mummy, Faceless Corruptor, Ruststeed Raider, Evasive Wyrm, Bloodboil Brute, even the new Doctor Krastinov. The “worst” Rush minions are stuff like Hench-Clan Hogsteed or Hippogryph, which, like I’ve said, are playable at times. It means that you will low roll very rarely and you will get a solid Rush card nearly every time.

With such a consistent pool, there’s almost no downside of playing this Study card instead of some actual Rush minions. Since you will get something good anyway, but you can control e.g. what mana cost Rush minion would you want at the moment + you can “bank” one mana during an earlier turn and then “claim” it when playing a Rush minion anyway (and it doesn’t even have to be the one you’ve discovered).

The problem is – like always – finding the right deck to fit it in. In this case, I think that it would be really good in some Rush-based Warrior deck, but those obviously don’t exist now. So a Control Warrior is the most likely candidate to run this. I don’t think that faster decks might necessarily want to discover Rush minions, because even if they play some, they play them for specific effects – they can’t just replace them with “any” Rush minion (e.g. Bloodboil Brute is played because of mana discounts from damaged minions, another Rush minion wouldn’t be that good in this slot). Still, seems like a solid card.

Card Rating: 7/10

Blessing of Authority

Interesting. +8/+8 buff is MASSIVE, and it’s only for 5 mana. Blessing of Kings costs 1 mana less, but is half the buff. +8/+8 can turn literally any minion into a huge threat – even a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit. If the minion has some extra effect, like Divine Shield or Lifesteal – even better. You can also turn some small Taunt into one that your opponent will have a hard time getting through. I know that Righteous Protector is no longer in Standard, but imagine that on Turn 6 – 9/9 Taunt with Divine Shield.

Of course, the card has a serious downside – the minion can’t go face. Luckily, it lasts for only a single turn. It’s still significant, because you can no longer use it as 8 face damage on top of a buff, but the truth is that in some situations it doesn’t matter. If you just played a minion this turn, it wouldn’t be able to attack anyway. If you buff a Rush minion, it will be able to attack minions like it normally would be able to. And if you wanted to trade anyway, then not being able to hit face didn’t matter a lot.

Now, just like with any expensive buff, there’s an issue of “putting too many eggs into one basket”. If you buff an already solid minion, then your opponent clearing it with a single removal spell will get 2 for 1. Just like any buffs, it’s also vulnerable vs Silence, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Silence isn’t very popular anyway, so that shouldn’t be a big deal.

I feel like it should see play in Pure Paladin. Probably Highlander Paladin too. Overall, it seems solid in any Midrange-style Paladin deck. I don’t think it’s as good as Spikeridged Steed was (which was the last time an expensive Paladin buff card was so widespread), because despite giving comparable amount of stats in total for one less mana, it has no Taunt, which was a big reason why Steed was played.

Card Rating: 7/10

Cutting Class

If you run a weapon-heavy deck, especially one with high attack weapons, you will at least consider adding Cutting Class. You need only a 2 attack weapon equipped to make it a baseline Arcane Intellect, a solid (but not insanely powerful) card. Just a 3 attack weapon and it’s 2 mana to draw 2. Anything more than that and it’s just great.

Overall, feels stronger in Warrior, because the class is better known for high attack weapons. I think that the new Reaper's Scythe is very strong, and it will work really well with Cutting Class – 1 mana to draw 2 is super powerful. Warrior in particular can also tutor one of their weapons with Corsair Cache, which is a nice touch. In Rogue, it pretty much costs 4 and not 5 because of the Hero Power, but it’s less likely that you run a weapon deck. However, with the new Self-Sharpening Sword and Vulpera Toxinblade you could also play it for 0 quite easily. At the same time, Rogue has Secret Passage, so I’m not sure if you really need another draw card.

The card is good enough that if you want to play multiple weapons in your deck, you probably also want to add it. On the other hand, you won’t likely add more weapons to an already existing deck just to fit this in. No, you realistically need a pretty high weapon uptime, because you don’t want a card that’s 5 mana draw 2 for most of the game and only gets better at times. And since you rarely want to put THAT many weapons into your deck, even though it’s really good in theory, I don’t think that it will see that much play.

Card Rating: 8/10 if you play a weapon-heavy deck, but probably closer to 6/10 on average

Divine Rager

Another Rager, this time it costs 4 mana, but comes with Divine Shield. I honestly think that they could have printed it as 3 and it would be strong, but wouldn’t be too strong. At 4 mana, I don’t expect it to see any play at all. Even with DS, it’s still pretty easy to kill. Some of the “remove” cards clear it straight up despite the shield. Against slower decks, the DS or minion itself can get pinged quite easily. Against faster deck, they run so many small minions and 2x 1/1 trading into a 4-drop feels really bad.

I mean, we had a very similar card – Cursed Disciple – and it was just bad. Or well, it has seen some play, in Jungle Giants deck, but only because it summoned 2x 5/1 in total, but even that deck wouldn’t play it if not for that fact. Also more recently – in Ashes of Outland – we have I feel what is a better version of this card – Disguised Wanderer. The first body is comparable – 3/3 vs 5/1. 3/3 is less aggressive, but 5/1 is easier to kill. And Disguised Wanderer summons a 9/1 minion, much better than the 5/1 after DS gets cleared from Divine Rager.

Overall, it’s a terrible card and a pack filler. But I honestly don’t mind, I’m waiting for the day when you can build an entire deck full of Ragers.

Card Rating: 1/10

Enchanted Cauldron

Huh… I don’t know what to think about this effect. The stats on the minion are pretty awkward, so it’s clearly played for the Spellburst. And the Spellburst is quite weird. You definitely don’t want to combo it with some cheap spell like most Spellburst – it’s just not worth it to play a 3 mana 1/6 that will cast you a random 1 or 2 mana spell.

I think the goal is to find a spell cost where the most spells are beneficial for the caster. Like, if you play it on Turn 10 with a 7-Cost spell, you cast another good 7-Cost spell for a massive swing. But I honestly don’t have enough time to go and look through every spell and determine which mana cost this might be most useful with. One thing is sure – there is no guaranteed high roll at any mana cost. There’s no mana cost where every card is e.g. something that summons minions or clears only the opponent’s board. There are all kinds of cards – including burn damage (which can go in any direction) or mirrored AoE spells, which will also clear your board. Plus, holding this card until late game to make use of it seems pretty far-fetched.

Maybe there will be some combo that I’m not seeing now, but I think that this card is really, really bad.

Card Rating: 2/10