If you’re anything like me, then reveal season is your favorite time of the year (alongside the first days of a new expansion). With nothing figured out, new cards coming every day, wild theories and early deck builds (which most likely won’t work) popping up everywhere, and that surprise when you look at some card and think to yourself – “what were they thinking when they’ve designed it?”
I’ll take a closer look at each one of them, review it and rate it from 1 to 10. The scale itself should be quite obvious, but just to quickly explain how I see it: A card rated 5 is average – it might be playable in some decks, but it’s nothing special. Cards rated 3-4 might see some play in off-meta decks, or as obscure techs, but the closer we get to 1, the lower that chance is. 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 – even if not right after the expansion’s release. 1 and 10 are reserved to the worst or best cards I can imagine, meaning that they won’t be used very often.
Remember that without knowing how the post-expansion meta is going to look like, it’s very hard to rate the cards correctly. 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!
PREVIOUS CARD REVIEWS
- #1 – Spider Bomb, Biology Project, Omega Defender, Electra Stormsurge, Myra’s Unstable Element and Stargazer Luna
- #2 – Upgradeable Framebot, Zilliax, Flobbidinous Floop, Whizbang the Wonderful, Mulchmuncher and More!
- #3 – Kangor’s Endless Army, Lab Recruiter, Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, Giggling Inventor, Zerek’s Cloning Gallery and More!
- #4 – Boommaster Flark, The Boomship, Academic Espionage, Crystalsmith Kangor, Zerek, Master Cloner and More!
- #5 – Myra Rotspring, Mecha’thun, The Soularium, Luna’s Pocket Galaxy, Subject 9 and More!
Thank you all for staying with me through all of those reviews – it was a very busy season. I hope that you liked them and that you will stick with us until the next reveal season!
Floop’s Glorious Gloop
What lots of folks seem to be missing is that this card gives you +1 mana for each MINION that dies, not every FRIENDLY MINION. It basically means that clearing opponent’s stuff also makes you gain extra mana. Because of that, I believe that this card can be insanely powerful in Token Druid deck, because you end up trading stuff very often. We all know that pre-nerf Innervate was a really good card, and it takes 3 minions dying for this to become one (more or less).
Just for example, if you have some minions on the board, your opponent has some, and you end up trading 2 of yours into 2 of the opponent’s, that gives you 4 mana for 1 mana = +3 mana. That’s crazy good, and it’s not some outlandish scenario.
You COULD also play it in Malygos deck to gain lots of extra mana. For example, you might drop Malygos one turn, then drop Flobbidinous Floop next turn, play this card, Swipe face destroying an entire board, get some extra mana and either play 2nd Swipe or Faceless and Moonfires. But I don’t think that Malygos deck will have space for this card.
This card will be pretty situational, so it definitely won’t be as widespread as the old Innervate, but it has a lot of potential to be broken in the right deck and in the right meta.
Card rating: 9/10
Bronze Gatekeeper
Another Silverback Patriarch powercreep… Honestly, this would be terrible if not for the Magnetic thing, but with Magnetic, it actually might make some sense to run it. Playing 3 mana 1/5 Taunt isn’t good, but adding +1/5 and Taunt to an existing minion can be really solid. Even playing it on Upgradeable Framebot creates a 2/10 Taunt on Turn 3, something that Aggro decks definitely don’t want to see.
Not the most exciting cards, but I could see it being played in slower Mech decks, like Mech Control Warrior. If Mech Paladins end up playing their Egg, it might also be another way to activate it. We have so many low attack / high health Mechs that we might be back to slower board battles! Overall, okay card.
Card rating: 6/10
Skaterbot
If his flavor text won’t be “He was a skaterbot, she said see you later bot”, then my life doesn’t make sense anymore.
But as for he card, it looks quite strong. While a 1/1 for 1 with Rush is not particularly powerful, it’s like a worse Stonetusk Boar, it’s more like a 1 mana spell “Give Rush and +1/+1 to a friendly Mech”, and that’s some powerful stuff. It’s solid value and can make Mech decks much faster – you no longer have to worry that your big Mech will be killed without you getting any value out of it. You can Rush him, trade into something and then even when it dies, at least you didn’t lost lots of tempo. I think that it should see play in Tempo/Midrange kind of Mech decks.
That said, it seems like another broken addition to the Glinda Crowskin + Mechwarper Combo in the Wild. Sure, Zilliax is still better, but this adds redundancy. On Turn 8, you can play Glinda + Mechwarper + start spamming those, clear the entire board and end up with a big board yourself. It will be a serious APM test, but you should end up with a pretty broken board. I feel like Magnetic cards shouldn’t be able to work with Glinda for that reason.
Overall, good in Standard, potentially broken in Wild.
Card rating: 7/10
Tending Tauren
Good card in Token Druid, and if you’re specifically running the Treant strategy, you DEFINITELY want to play it. It’s like a miniature version of Cenarius. While the effects are weaker, it’s much better in a deck like that, simply because it comes 3 turns earlier.
What I like about it is flexibility. If you don’t have a board, you can create one. 3/4 + 2/2 + 2/2 for 6 mana might not seem scary, but remember what deck you put it in. Your opponent will absolutely have to clear it, because otherwise you drop 2x Savage Roar and deal 23 damage. More ways to create boards is always good in that deck, because right now you simply can re-flood it only a few times.
And if you already have a board, you can use it as a wide buff and a small body on top of that. This option seems a bit weaker, but it’s not a dead card even if you don’t need more minions.
Solid card, will definitely see play in Treant version, and possibly even in the regular version of Token Druid.
Card rating: 7/10
Coppertail Imposter
Cool concept. 4 mana 4/4 with Stealth, but Stealth disappears after a turn. I guess that they didn’t want to have a Mech with perma-stealth because you could just stack and stack Magnetic buffs to it and then throw one huge hit in. Might not be the best strategy, but they want to make it more interactive. For all of the normal uses, one turn of Stealth on this guy is pretty much as good as perma-stealth, as you will want to attack right away anyway.
The idea behind it is to have a Mech that sticks onto Turn 5, so then you can buff it with e.g. Wargear (9/9) or Zilliax (7/5 with Taunt and Divine Shield). But besides the fact that it will stick, it’s still a 4 mana 4/4 minion with no other effect, making it… good, but not amazing. However, if you play a bunch of Magnetize cards, it might still make a cut just for the fact that it will make Magnetize mechanic more consistent. Stealth is also good, because even if you don’t Magnetize onto it, you can dictate where the trade goes most of the time.
It’s a bit like Stranglethorn Tiger, but for Mech decks. Might see some play.
Card rating: 7/10
Mechano-Egg
Eggs, eggs everywhere! This doesn’t look particularly tasy, but an 8/8 coming out of it is no joke. It’s slower than Devilsaur Egg, even more vulnerable to Silence (because you prefer opponent to Silence your 3 mana minion, not 5 mana minion), but the main problem is activating it. I mean, it won’t be a problem in Paladin, but I’m talking about efficient way to do it. Hunter plays Eggs now, because it can Play Dead it, or Terrorscale Stalker it. Often even on the same turn, leaving opponent with no time to answer. This is different. You can only activate it with a bunch of buffs, and given that it has a high health already, adding another buff or Magnetic Mech onto it means that you probably can’t even sacrifice it immediately. So ultimately, it will be really, and I mean REALLY weak to Silence. Like, imagine you spend 5 mana on it, then spend some more mana on the buff and it gets Silenced, leaving you with basically nothing. I know that’s looking at the worst case scenario, but still.
The only cool point is that if you run Meat Wagon (which you can draw with Crystology, by the way), this card gets pulled out 100% of the time. That’s actually quite good – you can pull it for 0 mana or buff Meatwagon so it will pull out something bigger too.
So in the end, I’d say that it will be a meta call. It will REALLY depend on how common Silence is, since Paladin’s only way to activate it is buffing it. Alternatively, we might see some Crazed Alchemist shenanigans, but I’m not sure if a vanilla 8/8 is really worth that much hassle.
Card rating: 5/10
Glow-Tron
Amazing card. If Dire Mole has taught us anything, it’s that 1 mana 1/3 are solid. Even if vanilla 1 mana 1/3 is not gamebreaking, it’s already good enough to put into some decks. Now, this has some more advantages. First of all – a Mech tag, for the sake of all synergies. And then, if you don’t want it as a 1/3 1-drop, you can use it to give minion +1/+3. The buff part will be amazing later down the road. 1/3 on Turn 1 is solid, but it would rarely make any impact in the late game, while +1/+3 immediate buff can make your trade better, keep some bigger Mech alive or just be used to make your board more AoE-resistant.
Heck, you might even run it in Odd Paladin without other Mech synergies. Depending on the meta, 1 mana 1/3 might be your best 1-drop, often better than something like Argent Squire (against other fast decks, at least).
Lots of people don’t realize, but usually it isn’t a flashy, high cost Legendary that makes the deck – it’s a basic, small card like that that is often way more important. And this will be auto-include into any Mech Paladin build.
Card rating: 9/10
Weapons Project
Very interesting design, probably my favorite “Project” card of the set. While it seems weird, it has so many applications if you play it in the right deck and use at the right time. Despite the effect being mirrored, it really isn’t – majority of the time you’re going to take advantage of it more than your opponent will.
First, against Aggro. While you give your opponent a 2/3 weapon, you also gain 6 Armor, so those effects will usually negate each other (as your opponent will likely use that weapon to hit you anyway). Since he will be the one playing multiple small minions, you will utilize that weapon better. And his Armor is basically useless most of the time. Honestly, against a deck like the current Heal Zoo, giving them Armor before they take damage might even be a way to disrupt their game plan. Neat! Plus if you face a weapon deck, you might actually be able to replace their current weapon. Let’s say that Hunter plays an Eaglehorn Bow, by giving them a 2/3 weapon you will destroy it.
Against Control, on the other hand, this can be a tech card vs Legendary Weapons. Druid playing Twig of the World Tree for the combo? Warlock running Skull of the Man'ari? Mage with Aluneth? You can get rid of those. Plus, if you play some sort of weapon removal, especially Harrison Jones, you can combo those two cards really nicely. You will end up with 6 extra Armor, 2/3 weapon, 5/4 on the board and +1 card advantage for 7 mana, while your opponent ends up with 6 mana. Really solid move.
Plus, sometimes the extra Armor might come handy if you need a cheap way of activating Shield Slam or Reckless Flurry.
Very interesting card, not straightforward and has some downsides (it’s mirorred, after all), but I feel like it should see a decent amounts of play in Control builds.
Card rating: 8/10
Spirit Bomb
Compared to Darkbomb, it looks really, really poorly. Dealing 3 damage to everything vs dealing 4 damage to a minion is comparable, but taking 4 extra damage… oh my. In some cases it could be seen as an upside, but most of the time it will be a massive downside.
If you pay one more mana, you get Shadow Bolt without a downside. Is 1 mana worth taking 4 damage? Well, to be fair, some of the decks have no choice. If you want to play an early single target removal in Even Warlock, you can’t put the 3 mana spell in. So this might be played there. It buffs Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, and it brings you closer to a buffed Hooked Reaver. But it will probably be meta-dependent. If Aggro decks will play single, stronger early game minions – stuff like Hench-Clan Thug or Vicious Fledgling – then it’s solid. You take damage once, but you prevent them from hitting you multiple times. On the other hand, it’s really bad against Aggro decks going wide, such as Odd Paladin, and to a certain extent Zoo Warlock too (I mean, you will be able to answer one minion, but AoE is what you really need).
Maybe playable in non-Prince Keleseth Zoo Warlock? The deck doesn’t really care about damage right now, especially the healing build. But I’m not sure if it would want a reactive card like that, it prefers a proactive play style.
All in all, Even Warlock looks like the most likely candidate, but it will be a meta call. Right now, it might seem that the deck doesn’t need more healing, but the meta is incredibly slow and doesn’t have lots of burst. Try playing Even Warlock against decks like Tempo Mage or Odd Paladin all the time and you will notice that every bit of life helps, taking 4 damage just like that is often going to lose you the game. That said, if the meta will demand it, and people will drop high priority 3-4 health targets in the early game, it might see play.
Card rating: 5/10
Crystallizer
I think this might be one of my favorite cards of the set. While it appears really pointless when you first look at it, the more you think the better it becomes. There are lots of builds that could utilize trading health for Armor.
First of all, it has solid stats. Of course, 1 mana 1/3 is better in a fast deck, but you wouldn’t be very sad dropping it on Turn 1 in a slower deck too. And it has quite a lot of synergies:
In decks that run healing, you can’t really heal yourself over 30, but with this you “technically” can. For example, one of the issues with a Paladin deck running healing is when you are at full health and some of your cards are useless. You can’t even activate Lesser Pearl Spellstone (had to google the name right now, I haven’t seen it in Constructed even once).
In Warlock, there are some ways to use it. First, in Heal Zoo, you need to be damaged to heal yourself and play free Happy Ghoul. You already have some better ways to do it on Turn 1, but still. Then, in slower Warlock, this can get you in the Hooked Reaver range or activate the Spellstone while not actually dealing any damage to you (win-win!). Also, it synergizes with the new Nethersoul Buster. A single copy of this guy turns it into a 6/5 minion for 3 mana. Indeed busted!
In Warrior, you nearly always prefer Armor over Health. Not only Armor does synergize with your cards (e.g. Shield Slam), but dealing damage to yourself early might activate Battle Rage. When Warrior is running that card, people often skip attacking his face early to not activate it!
The main downside of this card is that you can’t play it when you’re at 5 health or lower, since you will just kill yourself. But then again, if you’re that close to dying, I don’t think that a 1 mana 1/3 would save you anyway most of the time, so losing BECAUSE of this card would be a niche situation.
All in all, interesting card with lots of applications. The ones I listed are just examples, I bet there are more ways to utilize it. So while I don’t think that it will be broken in any deck, it can be slotted into some of them for an cool upside over other 1-drops.
Card rating: 8/10
Nethersoul Buster
It reminds me a bit of the Darkshire Councilman back from Whispers of the Old Gods, but instead of gaining the attack slowly, it gets everything immediately. All or nothing. That’s why it’s not really a 3-drop – if you play it on Turn 3, you will just play a vanilla 1/5, and that’s terrible in Zoo (or in any other deck, to be fair). In order to make him work, you need to play him with another card. Luckily for Warlock, the cards that synergize with him cost 1 mana – Kobold Librarian, Flame Imp and the new Crystallizer. To be honest, the card is good enough even with just Librarian – you get a 3 mana 3/5, which is fine. Then, in case of Flame Imp, the stats jump up to 4/5, and with Crystallizer – 6/5. The last one is especially powerful, as a 6/5 minion can wreck havoc on the opponent in an aggressive deck like that.
Does it mean that it’s useless if you can’t combo it? Well, not exactly – you can still play it on Turn 5 with Life Tap. It will make it a 3/5, so the play will be a bit slow, but it’s by no means a dead card in the mid/late game even if you can’t combo it. I feel like Zoo puts more and more focus on self-damage, and that’s a really interesting approach to the deck – if they release a few more synergies, it will definitely be THE way to play it. As for right now, it already starts to look promising.
The main issue was the same that Duskbat had – if you have a 3-drop, you usually want to play it on Turn 3, not wait an extra turn or two to pump up his effect. But it might be worth in this case. Duskbat, while it was really good if it triggered the effect, could never reach the crazy good levels of this card. Crystallizer alone is insane with this, and if you can let’s say Crystallizer + Flame Imp + this one in the mid game, your opponent absolutely needs to clear it right away or he takes 9 damage. So I wouldn’t overhype the card, but it looks pretty decent.
Card rating: 7/10
Harbinger Celestia
This is a weird one, not sure what to think about it. While I applaud Team 5 for a cool design, it seems to be incredibly weak. Or rather, incredibly meta-dependent. If everyone would be playing either no-minion decks or decks with only big minions, then it would be amazing. But that won’t happen.
So, for 4 mana you get a 5/6 with Stealth. That’s massive, but don’t be too happy yet, because you most likely won’t be able to use it as a 5/6. This is like a Mirror Entity, which costs 1 mana more, you can’t cheat out with Kirin Tor Mage and is not really a Secret, because your opponent knows what it is. Basically, if your opponent has any small minion in your hand, you just spent 4 mana to get it. If your opponent drops some 1-drop, or 2-drop, then you get a copy of it and that’s it.
The thing is, even most of the slow decks actually run small minions. Control Priest would be able to counter it with let’s say Wild Pyromancer, Big Spell Mage with Raven Familiar, Even Warlock with… a bunch of stuff, including Doomsayer if you have anything else on the board.
It only punishes your opponent if a) they don’t have any minions at all (rarely happens) and b) they have only big minions and can’t deal with your copy immediately. But those two scenarios don’t come up that often. In most of the matchups, and throughout most of the matches this card will be weak. Completely dead against most of the Aggro decks, unless you enjoy playing 4 mana 1/2’s.
A very specific tech card, might see play in some weird meta a while for now, but I don’t see it being usable in Boomsday. At all. Still, I give Team 5 A for the design, I wouldn’t come up with that one.
Card rating: 2/10, but it technically MIGHT be strong in certain specific matchups, so if they dominate the meta… yeah.
Soul Infusion
First of all, I appreciate that it’s actually a left-most minion, not a random minion like Smuggler's Crate (well “Beast” is not completely random, but still more random than this one, since you would run it in a deck with lots of Beasts). An effect like that is much better if it’s controllable, even if only to a certain extent. Left-most minion is always the “oldest” minion in your hand (outside of the starting hand), so that’s actually a bit of a downside, since if you will be stuck with an early Doomguard on the left side of your hand, then you won’t be able to use it on the cards you actually want. I mean, technically it’s not that bad on Doomguard either, just not perfect.
Ideally, you want to hit cards that multiply, those on which you will get it multiple times. So Saronite Chain Gang or the new Doubling Imp make perfect targets for it. Hitting those basically makes it 1 mana for a +4/+4, which is insane in Zoo Warlock. But just a regular +2/+2 for 1 mana is not that bad. For example, Demonfire was a semi-common card in Warlock and it was solid. The downside of a handbuff is that you’re never able to use it as a “Charge”, extra stats are always applied with summoning sickness (or however it’s called in HS). But the 1 mana difference, and the fact that you can play it on anything and not only Demons makes it interesting. Hitting any minion in the early game might make it quite good. For example, a 3/5 Voidwalker or a 5/5 Vicious Fledgling (it can get really messy if your opponent can’t answer it immediately, and answering a 5/5 minion on T3 might be hard).
The problem is that it might be a bit hard to fit, especially in the current Heal Zoo list. The deck is already packed because of the Heal package, and you would want 2 copies of those and 2 copies of Doubling Imp too… But it might still be worth.
Technically you could also bring the Leeroy Jenkins + Power Overwhelming + Faceless Manipulator combo back. Just hit Leeroy twice with it, play it and Faceless it. The problem is that if you draw Faceless first, the whole combo is bad, making it completely useless (not to mention that it requires more setup).
I think that it’s an interesting card with some potential, getting 2x 4/4 on T3 or 2x 4/5 Taunt on T4 can be potentially game-winning as Zoo Warlock, the deck that cares so much about early game tempo.
Card rating: 7/10
Doubling Imp
This card is definitely going to see play in Zoo. Even at the base level – 3 mana for 2x 2/2 is pretty solid. It’s not amazing or anything, but that would already be played, most likely. And now the fact that it comes with an upside makes it even better.
If you play it in Prince Keleseth deck, it will often be 2x 3/3 for 3, which is pretty broken already. It’s like Saronite Chain Gang, which combos very well with Keleseth. Besides Keleseth, you could also combo it with the new Soul Infusion – 2x 4/4 for 3 mana (well, technically for 4, but you can pay the 1 mana earlier – e.g. 1-drop + Soul Infusion on T2) is insane and can win you lots of games, because your opponent will have a hard time taking the board control from you.
I like this card, Zoo Warlock doesn’t have a particularly amazing 3 mana slot anyway, so it shouldn’t really be hard to add those in.
Card rating: 8/10
Explodinator
Okay card, actually. At first it seems pretty bad – paying 4 mana for a 3/2 is not really good. However, if you realize that the 3/2 summons two 1-drops (Goblin Bomb), then it becomes much better. Like I’ve said many times, I don’t think that Goblin Bombs are worth 1 mana, it’s more like 0.5, but the fact that it combines two of those into one card and adds a body is worth something.
I disagree with calling it a 4 mana 3/6 like some people do. Adding stats of the cards like that is pointless, especially since in this case the 0/2’s can attack by themselves. The two 0/2’s, however, make nice Magnetic targets for the future turns. It’s basically like a miniature Boommaster Flark. Your opponent doesn’t really want to spend damage to kill Bombs and take damage himself, so he will often leave them, and then you can buff them or trigger their Deathrattles etc.
What I dislike about it is that it’s really slow immediately. While it’s good against slower decks, Aggro deck can easily clear the 3/2 body and possibly even the 0/2’s – he doesn’t care about damage anyway, and won’t spend many resources to do it (0 attack minions won’t hit back).
Another potential use for this is in some kind of Token deck, like Token Druid or Token Shaman. Summoning three bodies is quite alright. But I think that Giggling Inventor might just be better for that.
So overall I’d say that it’s about average.
Card rating: 5/10
Test Subject
It looks like Silence will be more and more desirable this expansion, with effects like that. Test Subject is pretty bad at the beginning, but he can get out of control really quickly. Despite being a 1-drop, you can’t really look at him as one. Most of the time, you want to throw him on the board with some small buff first – e.g. Power Word: Shield. Now if your opponent answers it, you still get another shield to cycle, so it’s not that bad. If he Silences it, that’s also not bad in the kind of deck you’re playing. But if he sticks onto the board, you can start throwing extra buffs – Divine Spirit, Inner Fire and such. You probably won’t kill your opponent right away, but you should put a massive target on the board and if it gets killed, repeat.
So that’s the kind of deck it might fit into. Other than that, maybe Quest Priest, but I don’t think it runs enough buffs to justify this guy.
The card is pretty powerful in vacuum, but the problem is that the meta MIGHT be full of Silence cards, rendering it rather weak. It’s the Primalfin Champion problem – when it works, it’s really good, but then it gets Silenced/Transformed and suddenly it’s bad for you.
Interesting option in Inner Fire Priest, probably not much anywhere else.
P.S. I’ve read about some interesting combo that might basically break the game… With Radiant Elementals and those guys, thanks to Vivid Nightmare, you might be cloning your spells. The combo is pretty slow and awkward, but I think it’s the first time we’re getting something like that. We will have a theorycraft on that deck soon, so stay tuned!
Card rating: 6/10
Extra Arms
Cool card, I love the flavor. Sadly, it doesn’t look too strong. You’re paying 6 mana for what is basically a Blessing of Kings – overpaying 2 mana is not great. Of course, you can argue that you can spread it among two targets, it synergizes with Test Subject, you can play it for cheaper with Radiant Elemental and those are all true, but I still don’t think those make it good enough.
I feel like Unidentified Elixir might be a better option for one simple reason – it’s a higher tempo play. Besides the +2/+2 buff, you’re also getting an extra, immediate effect, as opposed to another 3 mana +2/+2 buff. A slow card that gives you another slow card isn’t great if it doesn’t impact the game significantly. And this one doesn’t.
So, again, I like the flavor, but I doubt that it will see play, because it seems underwhelming.
Card rating: 3/10
Astral Rift
In general, getting 2 cards for 2 mana is a very powerful effect. But you really, really want those cards to be at least playable. But in this case, you can’t. Random minion means that you can get absolutely anything. And if you look at the list of minions, you will notice that only a portion of them actually sees play, and only a portion of that portion would be good in the deck you play it in. So there is a significant chance that you will end up with 2 bad minions, or a bad and a mediocre minion. To get two good minions, you would need to be incredibly lucky. There’s no way that it’s worth 1 mana discount over Arcane Intellect, which always gets you 2 good cards (because you put them into your deck).
Now, this might be okay to get from a random source, like if you’re looking for more value, see this in Primordial Glyph, you can pick it. But that’s basically it. You don’t want ot put it into your deck. The only situation in which this might be good is if you follow it up with Leyline Manipulator and discount those two minions by 2. But same thing can be said about lots of other cards, and I don’t see them being played.
Card rating: 2/10
Bomb Toss
Important to mention first that this card can go face. Lately they’ve been cutting down on those and most of the early removals work only on the minions. Normally, you expect 3 damage for 2 mana. This deals 2, but also summons a 1-drop. Which would generally be an amazing thing, but that 1-drop isn’t very exciting. Goblin Bomb, I’ve mentioned it many times already, is not really worth 1 mana, because it’s pretty bad.
That said, even if you count Gobiln Bomb at 0.5 mana, this is already a pretty solid card. You can use it for the early board control and summon a bomb, or later in the game to deal face damage and possibly finish your opponent off with the bomb too. If anything, this might go into an aggressive Hunter deck with lots of bombs and ways to trigger them, plus lots of Magnetize minions to take advantage of them. In that kind of deck, it should be a good card. In others, hard to say, I don’t see it outside of a deck that can reliably trigger the Bombs and runs Magnetize. But it can be powerful in that kind of deck.
Card rating: 8/10
Secret Plan
On the one hand, putting this into the deck means that you have to pay 3 mana for your Secret. On the other hand, you get much more flexibility. Depending on the matchup, board state etc. you can just pick the best Secret possible. For example, people have been putting Rat Trap into some builds a while ago and it was very mediocre. It was amazing in some matchups, but in others it nearly never (or really NEVER) triggered. To be honest, I would gladly put this instead of Rat Trap in that deck – I could still pick Rat Trap in the matchups where it matters, and I could have an extra Explosive Trap against Aggro etc.
If you play a Hunter deck with Secrets (like Spell Hunter) + Lesser Emerald Spellstone package, you will probably want to take out the more situational Secrets and replace them with this. Paying 1 extra so you can make a choice each game is worth it.
Heck, you might even want to play it in Prince Keleseth version of Recruit Hunter just to have access to Secrets. It might fix some of the deck’s weaknesses, like lack of AoE.
Overall, I like this card, it’s really solid.
Card rating: 8/10
Necromechanic
This card has a lot of potential, but it feels a bit too slow for the current Deathrattle Hunter decks. Because of the rather weak stats (3/6 for 5 is not good), you don’t really want to drop it on the curve. You want to drop it on the same turn you’re triggering a Deathrattle, but it means that a Deathrattle minion had to stick to the board, which isn’t a given in Deathrattle Hunter. It shares the same problems Baron Rivendare did – a good effect, but rather weak stats and hard to get value of.
In most of the decks, Carnivorous Cube seems better, and you can’t really run both. I mean, technically you can, but Deathrattle Hunter decks already have strong mid-late game shenanigans so it just feels unnecessary. Maybe as an one-of, to make those shenanigans even better. Like if you stick a Cube, then play this + Play Dead, basically no matter what you’ve eaten, this play is going to be massive.
But maybe it has a place in something like Bomb Hunter? There are lots of ways to summon and activate Goblin Bombs, so if you stick a few on the board, this can be a massive burst card. Hard to say, the card has some potential, but might end up like Corpse Widow, good on paper but too slow in reality.
Card rating: 6/10
Research Project
Coldlight Oracle for Mage, in a form of a spell. 1 mana cheaper, but without a 2/2 body. However, the body part can basically be ignored – Coldlight was never played for the body in Mage. The card has seen play in slow, combo decks such as Freeze Mage and Exodia Mage simply to cycle more. Those kind of uninteractive decks didn’t really care about opponent drawing cards most of the time, because their cards were much more important. Getting to the stalls, freezes, and finally the win condition – that’s what this kind of card is good for.
As much as I’d call it really strong last year, it’s really hard to say right now. With Ice Block rotating out, those kind of uninteractive shenanigans are significantly weaker right now. Maybe if Exodia is still played, it will be used to cycle faster. But in a regular Mage deck, you don’t really want to give your opponents more draw. Even in the Tempo Mage, more draws for the opponent means that they will more likely have a way to heal up etc. And while you value your draws more than your opponent’s, you get only +1 card advantage and have to spend mana, they get those 2 cards absolutely for free.
Might see play in Wild, where Ice Block still exists. Or maybe in some combo deck that wants to cycle as quickly as possible. But overall I don’t think that it’s a good card since Ice Block is out of the Standard.
Card rating: 3/10
Flark’s Boom-Zooka
When it comes to the flavor, this might be my favorite expansion so far. The card’s design is just so cool! Like this one. You’re a Hunter, so what are you doing with your minons? Shoot them on the rockets straight from your deck, so they can attack the opponent’s minions and explode. Exactly.
This seems like a fit into a kind of Big/Recruit Hunter deck, but not just any. For example, you would really want to cut most of the low cost stuff, such as Fire Fly or Stitched Tracker. You basically don’t want to summon 1/2’s or 2/2’s with this. You want bigger minions, with Deathrattles. That’s the best way to utilize this card – stuff like Savannah Highmane and Abominable Bowman, for example. Cards that will probably clear something and then stick another minion to the board. This card is bad as a removal only, and bad as a board fill only (I mean, pulling out Devilsaur Egg gives you 5/5, but it costs 8 mana, so not amazing) – you really need a mix of both.
Making this card work might be a huge deck building challenge, not the first time in this expansion. It will require lots and lots of theorycrating, and it might not even work in the end. Having to cut absolutely every single small-midrange minion, as well as minion such as Carnivorous Cube and Witchwood Grizzly (because that’s not something you want to pull out with this) might make the deck bad. Maybe something like an early-mid game shell of Spell Hunter, with a late game huge Deathrattle finisher? Yeah… this is one of the cards that can really go either way, and will need to playtest it first before really saying.
Card rating: Honestly, either 1/10 or 10/10. I’m leaning towards it not working, but I might be absolutely surprised.
Beakered Lightning
An early AoE removal for Shaman! But it ain’t Maelstrom Portal. While I’d say that 0+2 overload cost is generally better than 2 mana, not summoning a random 1-drop makes a huge difference. Not to mention that this hits ALL minions, not only your opponent’s minions, which is another reason why it’s worse (technically it can be upside sometimes, but later about that).
First of all, we can’t underestimate 0 mana spells. They can be really powerful in the right scenario. I just can’t stop wondering why does this Overload for 2. If it was like Zap! and Overloaded for 1, it would make much more sense to run it. In your usual Shaman deck, this is mostly going to be a meta call. If Odd Paladin or any other deck flooding the board with 1 health minions runs rampant, then there’s no reason to not run it. It can also combo well with Bloodmage Thalnos or another source of Spell Damage. I don’t like the fact that it hits EVERYTHING on the board, not just opponent’s minions, though. While it’s often an upside in Warrior (they have lots of Whirlwind synergies), it’s not really in Shaman. The only case in which this is an upside is Acolyte of Pain on the board, basically. The downside seems especially big when you roll a Spell Damage Totem – sure, dealing 2 is better, but the Totem (and your other Totems, for that matter) just dies.
It can be a nice addition to Malygos Shaman. In aggressive matchups, if you’re holding Malygos in your hand, sometimes a Turn 6 Eureka! + this can be a full board clear, and it still leaves a 4/6 Maly on the board. Later in the game you can also combo it with Omega Mind and Maly for a board clear + massive heal.
It has some nice synergy with Thunderhead – 0 mana Overload spell, and Thunderhead summons the 1/1’s AFTER you play a spell, so they won’t die. At the same time, Thunderhead is a good fit into Token Shaman, while this has an anti-synergy with Token Shaman.
So my guess is that it will be a meta call. If Odd Paladin will run rampant, having a way to clear the 1/1’s and outtempo them outweighs the fact that you will be overloaded for 2 next turn. Like, if they go for Lost in the Jungle T1, then Hero Power T2, this + a 2-drop will be a great answer, even if you will only have 1 mana to work with on T3.
Card rating: Meta call, but my guess would be 6/10
Whirliglider
It has incredibly weak stats, but it summons a Goblin Bomb, so I guess it makes it fair. Definitely bad in a deck that can’t take advantage of the Bomb. But it might be playable in a deck that wants to summon as many Bombs as possible and utilize them. That said, I feel like “Bomb Hunter” has enough ways to summon them already so it looks unnecessary.
Like, it’s similar to Bomb Toss, but it gives you a 2/1 body instead of dealing 2 damage. Deal 2 damage is definitely stronger, because it scales better into the late game, but it’s not the worst thing ever in a deck like that. Overall, okay card in a Bomb deck and bad outside.
Card rating: 5/10
Violet Haze
Really bad card. Not only it costs like a Standard card draw (2 for 3), but it also adds random cards. It’s even worse than something like Thoughtsteal, which at least most likely gives you some playable cards, becasue your opponent put them in their deck in the first place. Like, I’d play Mimic Pod over this any day. Getting a card and its copy from your deck is way better, and Mimic Pod still doesn’t see play.
The fact that those cards are Deathrattles helps A BIT for the sake of synergies, but random Deathrattles aren’t that exciting at all. There are lots of bad Deathrattle cards you might get from this. I’d say that it’s one of the worst class cards in the set, to be honest. Even a full Deathrattle deck wouldn’t want to play it. It might make sense if you could DISCOVER them, but getting 2 completely random cards for 3 mana is just terrible.
Card rating: 2/10
Brainstormer
Well, the card would be interesting if it started at 2 health. At 1 health, it just seems too hard to make it work. You need to have 3 spells in your hand for it to be a vanilla 3/4, with a downside of being vulnerable to Silence. You need to get it to AT LEAST 3/5 for it to be worth (given the Silence downside), but realistically it would be great only past that – at 3/6 and bigger. This way you get a 4-drop’s stats for 3 mana, which is great. So you need 3 spells in your hand for it to hit vanilla stats, 4 to be okay and 5 to be good.
It will never be big when played on the curve, even in the most spell-heavy decks. It might be pretty big later in the game, in something like Big Spell Mage for example, but a 3/6 for 3 would be strong if you could drop it on T3. It’s not really that strong later in the game.
Like I’ve said, if it started at 2 health, it would be easier to make it work. But in the current state, it’s pretty bad. Maybe if you build a really spell-heavy deck with lots of card draw, but it’s unlikely. Twilight Drake seems just better, because it gains health for each CARD in your hand, and it still doesn’t see play in most of the decks. Very meh card.
Card rating: 3/10
Bull Dozer
It’s clearly a filler card. Remember that Force-Tank MAX from GvG? It wasn’t played in any Meta deck ever, and this is pretty much on the same power level. It has 2 more Attack, but you pay 1 more mana. Huge pile of stats like that are never good, they’re just too slow. You can’t be spending 9 mana on a minion that doesn’t really do anything special, and doesn’t even have Taunt.
It will be an okay Arena card, but that’s basically it. Sometimes you will also Discover it from Omega Assembly or Dr. Boom’s Hero Power if you need a big minion. It might be cool with Skaterbot, but again, only if you Discover it, because you really don’t want to put it into your deck.
I really like the art, though! There’s something uncanny about it.
Card rating: 2/10
Venomizer
They always drop some really good cards in the final dump, and here’s one. I expected a 2/2 Mech with Magnetize, but it also gives Poisonous? Well, that’s absolutely crazy. To be honest, now all of those Goblin Bombs got much, much better. If you can Magnetize onto them, clear something with Poisonous and then deal 2 damage to your opponent’s face, now that’s really worth it.
This card is just solid. Dropping it as a 2/2 for 2 with Poisonous can be good sometimes, it can be used to change your opponent’s plans of dropping a big minion and forcing him to remove this instead. Or it can get a nice trade up in some cases.
Magnetize it onto the Upgradeable Framebot and you get an early 3/7 with Poisonous – solid stats and it clear absolutely everything. Lots of Mechs have high health, so it can be a great counter.
It also has synergy with Missile Launcher, but I’m not so sure about that combo anyway. Definitely better than using Toxic Arrow, but it’s 2 cards combo that costs 8 mana still. Not sure if that combo will see play, but it doesn’t matter – this card is just good. It looks like one of the best Mechs in the set.
Card rating: 9/10
Cloakscale Chemist
Mediocre card. If you try to pack too many keywords into a 2-drop, it’s going to be severely understatted. Stealth on this card seems a bit unnecessary – it has Divine Shield so it’s usually going to survive anyway, and it’s not like Stealthing a 1 Attack minion is going to matter. There are lots of better 2-drops to play, especially since this doesn’t have any tribe tags.
It reminds me of Silent Knight a bit. Silent Knight has actually seen a bit of play in Water Rogue, but that was only because the deck used Shadow Sensei, which could buff it on the curve. This doesn’t have this kind of synergy right now. Maybe in future, but I have no clue whether they will release synergies later down the road, so I have to rate it like it is right now – which is not the worst minion ever, but below average.
It makes sense to put into your deck only if you REALLY want it to survive on the board. Maybe you play some buffs, maybe some combo that requires a minion. But I can’t think of a deck like that right now, to be honest (2 attack is too low for Combo Priest).
Card rating: 4/10
Unpowered Mauler
Really bad. It reminds me of the Argent Watchman from TGT, which was completely unplayable in Constructed. You see, 2/4 stats on a 2-drop aren’t even that impressive in Constructed. Like, Vulgar Homunculus has a Taunt on top of them, a Demon tag and the damage it deals is often an upside (Spellstone), and yet it’s not a broken card that has to be immediately nerfed.
This is a 2/4 with a massive downside. You need to do something extra (cast a spell in this case) to even attack with it. Definitely not worth it. It would need to be like a 4/4 to make sense with this kind of effect. Terrible card.
Card rating: 1/10
Crazed Chemist
This is like a 5 mana 4/4 with Cold Blood effect. Since it’s Combo not a Battlecry, it’s a bit harder to make it work, but it’s still really big. I could totally see Odd Rogue wanting to run it. A permanent +4 Attack buff is very powerful, especially if you add a body. I feel like this might replace Cobalt Scalebane. While Scalebane has a better body, this being an immediate effect makes it significantly better. Scalebane has a high chance to buff a minion you will never get to attack with, and in case of this, you will very often buff something to trade up or just push for immediate extra 4 face damage.
You can play it with Southsea Deckhand on Turn 6 to get a 6/1 with Charge and a 4/4, really solid play. On top of that, Odd Rogue sticking any minion on the board will be even more deadly. I think that this card will see a bit of play. I feel like it’s still worse than Fungalmancer, because it doesn’t buff health, but Scalebane is often too slow in that deck, unlike this card. The only issue is that activating combo on a 5 mana card is not always easy, but Odd Rogue can already make it work on Vilespine Slayer.
Card rating: 7/10
Toxicologist
Well, right now I see a single deck that would want to play this card – Kingsbane Rogue. The deck is depserately looking for more ways to buff the weapon, since lots of them have rotated out. It has got a Cutthroat Buccaneer last expansion, but it wasn’t enough. This card is better, to be honest – while it has weaker stats, Kingsbane cares more about the buff than the minion’s stats. And this adds the same amount of Attack, for 1 mana less and on a Battlecry instead of Deathrattle.
Long story short, it will definitely see play in Kingsbane Rogue, but that’s probably it. Other than that, we don’t really have other decks that would want to play 2 mana 2/2 that buffs weapon.
Card rating: 8/10 in Kingsbane Rogue, but the deck will still most likely be bad in Standard
Damaged Stegotron
Another one of those cards that are mostly meant to be cheated out somehow, not played from the hand. If you play it from the hand, you end up with a 5/6 Mech Taunt for 6 mana, which is really mediocre, pretty much vanilla stuff you would never want to play. But if you somehow manage to get it out of your hand, then it’s a 5/12 Taunt for 6, WAY better. Like, Sleepy Dragon with an extra point of Attack.
Which means that you can utilize it in let’s say Paladin deck with Kangor's Endless Army. While at first it will be a 5/6, if you end up reviving it, it will be a full 5/12 Taunt.
It can be used instead of Sleepy Dragon in Big/Recruit Warrior. If you Recruit it, it’s 5/12. If you draw it, you can summon it with The Boomship. Or in the worst case scenario, just drop it as a 6 mana 5/6 Taunt.
It also makes some sense in Priest deck – it still has 12 max health, so you can heal it up like Injured Blademaster.
Overall, I believe that this minion should see some play. Not for its vanilla stats, but for the fact that you can do much more with it in the right deck. It’s not exciting to play by itself, but if you revive it/cheat it out, then it’s amazing.
Card rating: 7/10
Ectomancy
The card has a very high potential, but it’s also difficult to make it work. It’s a 6 mana spell, which does nothing by itself. If you play a deck like Cube Warlock, which this might fit into best, most of the time your opponent tries to deal with your big Demons anyway, so you won’t Carnivorous Cube them. Or well, Faceless Manipulator them. If one Demons sticks, then Faceless is just better – it does the same for 1 mana and is more flexible, because it can copy non-Demon cards too.
On the other hand, if you get a board with a few Demons sticking, then the only thing that can save your opponent is a massive AoE clear anyway, so this might not be that good. Like, if you play Gul’dan and your opponent doesn’t clear, then you a) probably don’t need more damage and b) probably don’t have space on your board anyway. Remember that it can’t summon more than 3 Demons anyway, because you’re limited by board space.
The best case scenario is having something like two Doomguards sticking and then playing this for 2 more… but that would rarely be relevant. So I don’t believe that it will be played in something like Cube Warlock. Maybe as a Bloodbloom combo? Like, you drop Doomguard from Skull, Faceless it, then play Bloodbloom + this… 20 damage in total. But pretty situational.
Maybe in a Demon Zoo Warlock kind of thing? If you would consistently have a few Demons on your board, having a way to duplicate all of them could be nice. Again, especially with Bloodbloom. You don’t care that much about damage anyway, and if you could let’s say copy a Flame Imp, Vulgar Homunculus and Despicable Dreadlord for 2 mana, then it would be pretty nuts.
The card has some potential, but at 6 mana it seems expensive, and the Bloodbloom would most likely need more targets for it to be worth it. So it might be difficult to make it work.
Card rating: 6/10
Electrowright
In some of the decks, the condition is not that hard to meet, actually. For example, Big Spell Mage – the deck packs so many 5+ mana spells that it will activate lots of times. But even then, would a Big Spell Mage want this? I would honestly prefer Tar Creeper most of the time, you don’t really care about lots of stats in the early game, you prefer surviving, and Tar is technically a 3/5 Taunt from your opponent’s perspective. And it never fails, unlike this one. Because even in a deck like Big Spell Mage, you MIGHT end up with no 5+ mana spells on Turn 3.
But in most of the decks, even those who run lots of high cost spells, it might not be consistent enough. And even then, those decks are usually slow, and you’d prefer a 3 mana 4/4 in some sort of aggressive/tempo deck. And those don’t play enough big spells…
So all in all, in the decks in which it’s relatively easy to activate, you might not want to play it. And in the decks that you might want to play it, it would be hard to activate.
Card rating: 4/10
Elementary Reaction
If you don’t meet the condition, it’s a 2 mana cycle, which is really bad, but usable if you really need it. If you meet the condition, however, it’s a 2 mana Mimic Pod, which is really powerful.
The problem is always – is there actually a deck you’d want to play it in? Elemental Shaman is obvious answer, but the deck is non-existent and it won’t likely change. Pure Elemental deck simply doesn’t work, because it’s too fair. Most of the time, you have to play pretty slow minions on the curve, while your opponents are flooding the board, cheating mana or doing crazy combos all the time.
But it would absolutely fit into Shaman decks running a bunch of Elementals. How many of them? Well, that’s a bit hard to say. For example, Shudderwock Shaman might not run enough, with 2x Glacial Shard and Grumble, Worldshaker, that’s only 3 in total. However, maybe in a more Token-oriented deck, which runs Fire Fly, the new Thunderhead etc.? That said, in that kind of deck, Earthen Might seems better, because it also adds value, but also some on-board tempo.
Really hard to say, this card seems really good in theory, but it might be hard to actually fit somewhere. I still have to rate it highly, because let’s be honest, playing an Elemental isn’t a huge requirement in Shaman, and 2 mana Mimic Pod would be pretty nuts.
Card rating: 8/10
Glowstone Technician
Handbuffs have already mostly rotated out from Standard. Doppelgangster is also no longer there. So would you really want to play this card?
Well, the main issue I have with it is that it simply comes out too late. Smuggler's Run was better, because you could e.g. play it on T2 or T3 and then flood the board with buffed minions. This comes down on Turn 6, so you need to keep all of your tokens and stuff until then, which doesn’t seem like a great strategy. Not to mention that a 6 mana 3/4 body is very, very slow. It’s even slower than the 5 mana Grimestreet Enforcer, which was already too slow most of the time. You pay one extra mana and get an even smaller body here…
I just don’t see enough synergies to make it work in Standard. Drygulch Jailor and Saronite Chain Gang are probably the only ones. But again, you would need to be holding onto lots of cards until Turn 6, which means that you wouldn’t be doing anything, and then dropping a super slow tempo play, so most of the time you would just lose the game by that point. It’s cool to see more handbuff cards, but it doesn’t look good.
Maybe, just maybe in some Even Paladin deck that wants to keep a high hand size and generate lots of small tokens from Drygulch Jailor.. but I’m not sure if it will be good enough.
Card rating: 3/10
Goblin Prank
It ain’t no Power Overwhelming, but PO was one of the stronger cards in Warlock, so it would be a huge mistake to reprint it in a class that would take almost as much advantage of it as Warlock.
This one costs 1 more mana and has a weaker buff, but it adds Rush to a minion. If you have something on the board already and just want to trade up, the Rush part might be pointless. But it has some nice combo with Deathrattle minions you’re playing from your hand. For example, you can drop Devilsaur Egg + this on T5. Not only you pop it immediately, but you also probably clear some 3-drop. It also works really well with Carnivorous Cube. If you Cube something and play this, you can clear a big minion with Cube immediately (up to 7 health) and then the Cube pops, which is ultimately what you want. You can also Play Dead it immediately if you want more.
Looks really interesting in Deathrattle Hunter, but it means that you have to drop Keleseth… which might make it hard to fit. But it’s definitely powerful and it should find a way into the meta somehow.
Card rating: 8/10
Holomancer
5 mana 3/3 with mediocre effect, it’s a really bad card. If you drop it against Aggro, they will probably have something on the board / weapon / etc. to clear it. If you can drop it in the first place without dying, because that’s a massive tempo sacrifice. Even if you get an extra 1/1 or two, that’s not enough.
It seems like another anti-Big decks tech, which prevents people from playing huge minions like Harbinger Celestia, but this is even worse. Those Big decks can clear a 5 mana 3/3 without any problem, and then they will just drop their minions like they wanted to. It’s just too easy to play around. If it had more health or something, then maybe, but with those stats it’s horrible.
Card rating: 1/10
Kaboom Bot
It’s a bit like a bigger, Mech version of Volatile Elemental, a card that has seen zero play. And this will also see no play, most likely. I know that it’s Neutral, but just compare it to Spider Bomb… while Spider Bomb has insane late game scaling, this will stop killing minions with 5 or more health, which is basically most of the mid/late game minions. And it can’t even Magnetize onto something to trigger the effect immediately.
A pretty bad card. Would be really good if it was a Battlecry, but not really as a Deathrattle. Hunter is basically the only Mech deck that has Deathrattle synergies like that, and Hunter has a better option anyway.
Card rating: 2/10
Loose Specimen
If you drop it on the empty board, it’s a 5 mana 6/6. But would any deck actually want a vanilla 5 mana 6/6? Exactly, I don’t think so.
If you have actual minions on the board, then this absolutely sucks, it’s unplayable.
So in order for this to work, you need minions that actually benefit from getting damaged. For example, if you have Acolyte of Pain on the board, then this might make sense. Or, I don’t know, Warrior minions such as Armorsmith or Frothing Berserker, but assuming that you have enough other minions so they won’t likely die. Maybe you can use it to activate Blackhowl Gunspire? But the thing is, the card usually dies right after it’s played, because if you play it, your opponent knows that you have lots of ways to activate it.
Maybe use it in Egg/Bomb deck to sort of activate the Deathrattles while putting a big body on the board?
It might not be AS bad as it first seems, but it still doesn’t seem good. You would need a really specific deck that wants to damage/kill own minions for it to be good, but even then the 5 mana cost makes it hard to combo with stuff immediately.
Card rating: 4/10
Mecharoo
This. This should see play. Remember Possessed Villager? It was a Zoo staple for a long time, and it didn’t even have any kind of tribe tag! Of course, the meta was different back then, right now 1 mana 1/3’s are much more common, so it might not get that many great trades. But it just show that a card like that has potential – after all, the meta will change a bunch of times before it rotates out. Still, it’s comparable to let’s say Argent Squire, which also sees play right now. In this case, both parts are Mechs, so they can be Magnetized onto, so it can obviously slot into Mech decks.
It’s a really solid, sticky 1-drop. That’s one thing aggressive Mech decks might have needed – we’ve seen some 1-drop Mechs, but only like 2 or 3 of them were good (mostly class cards). I like it much more than Faithful Lumi – both cards have 2/2 stats in total, but unlike Lumi, this makes a good Turn 1 play most of the time.
This is not as crazy as some other 1-drops (like Paladin’s Glow-Tron for example) but if you build a more aggressive Mech deck, this will likely be a part of it.
Card rating: 8/10
Microtech Controller
While 3 mana for a 2/1 + 1/1 + 1/1 doesn’t seem great (Eggnapper, while not summoning immediately, had more Attack and was more sticky, which were good things), they make some sense in Token-oriented decks. If you run lots of buffs, stuff like Flametongue Totem etc. then this card might be useful. Still, we’ve got SO MANY new cards that might fit those kind of decks and I simply don’t think that this is one of the better cards for that strategy.
Might find some niche use, but in general I don’t believe that it will be that good. On the one hand, spreading stats between 3 bodies seems nice, on the other hand, if your opponent also has a few minions on the board, they will be easier to trade. Like, if he has Fire Fly + the token, he clears the 1/1’s and you end up with a 2/1 vs 2x 1/1, while also behind on mana. Not great.
Card rating: 2/10
Piloted Reaper
New, more fair version of Piloted Shredder. It has the same stats, the same “sticky” nature, and is even easier to control. So it’s better, right? Well, not exactly. What made Piloted Shredder really good is that it generated an EXTRA random 2-drop. This one pulls it from your hand, meaning that despite you getting an extra tempo, you end up with a card disadvantage. Also, you usually want to play your 1 mana card on T1, then 2 mana card on T2. So by the time you play this, you might not have anything to pull out of your hand. Same goes for the late game scenarios – especially in a top-deck mode, you won’t keep your 2-drop just because you might draw this next turn.
That said, Mechs have some good 2-drops. For example, pulling out Upgradeable Framebot is a really solid tempo play. But that’s like the best case scenario. Lots of time it will be just a vanilla 4 mana 4/3. And later in the game, when you have enough mana, you could just play that 2-drop besides it, you don’t need to cheat it out on the board.
Might still be played in some Zoo-style decks, but it’s far from the power level of Piloted Shredder. But funnily, it being more controllable makes it a nice trolling material. For example, you run it in a Doomsayer deck. Your opponent trades into it, not expecting Doomsayer, but rather some small minion he can kill… and boom. Mind games! Most likely not a great strategy, but hey, at least my reaction would be priceless.
Card rating: 7/10
Rocket Boots
When playing WoW, I ALWAYS picked Engineering because I loved how fun it was, and Rocket Boots were one of my favorite items (and well, later enchantment). Super fun to play in PvP, could do some crazy stuff with them.
As for the card. Giving minion Rush is theoretically worth 1 mana (Charge, which should just be renamed to Rush probably), but the card doesn’t see play. However, adding a cycle might make it actually worth it. It’s like Paladins never played Hand of Protection, but Potion of Heroism is played in slower builds just because of the cycle.
However, the thing is that Warrior doesn’t really struggle when it comes to cycling. It’s the best class to put Acolyte of Pain into and it has a lot of extra ways to draw cards, including Battle Rage.
That said, it would make sense in some kind of Combo Warrior deck, which wants to cycle as quickly as possible. 2 mana cycle with a minor effect would fit right into that kind of build. For example, you could play it with Wild Pyromancer for what is basically a Swipe, or with Acolyte of Pain I’ve mentioned already to cycle 2 cards and activate Execute on some bigger minion. But I don’t think that any deck right now would really want to play this card, it’s average.
Card rating: 5/10
Rusty Recycler
Between its name and its looks, there’s no doubt that it’s a WALL-E reference. But as a card, it’s mostly a pack filler. Paying 5 mana for a 2/6 Taunt is really weak, even if it has Lifesteal. We had a 4 mana 1/6 Taunt with Lifesteal and it was horrible (although it has some amazing art – Felsoul Inquisitor). 1 mana for +1 Attack doesn’t seem very exciting.
If anything, this card’s only hope is the Mech tag. Magnatize has some nice synergy with Lifesteal, if you can buff it easily with another Mech, then it might be worth it. But realistically, this is not going to survive a turn most of the time. 2 attack also means that most of the decks will be able to trade into it without killing their own minions… which means that it’s still bad.
Rotten Applebaum turned out to be a pretty average card, and it seems much better than this guy, mostly because it actually kills lots of stuff that attack it.
Card rating: 3/10
Spark Drill
Honestly, it just looks terrible. You pay 5 mana to deal 5 damage to a minion… Or drop it as a 5/1 minion, but that’s even worse. 5 damage to a minion that can’t even go through a Taunt would need to be priced at like 3 mana to see play, I wouldn’t pay more for that kind of effect. So why do you pay so much more here? Well, so you can get two 1/1 Sparks with Rush. They cost 1 mana each too, which is important to mention.
While the sparks have some versatility – you can save them for later, use them on different targets etc. it’s still 8 mana in total for 7 damage. There’s basically no way this is playable in Constructed.
Card rating: 1/10
Spark Engine
This card would actually be balanced, and probably not even too strong if it SUMMONED the 1/1 Spark with Rush immediately. It would either be a 2/1 + 1/1 or a 2/1 with 1 immediate damage to a minion, neither of which is too strong. But you pay 2 mana to get a 2/1 with no immediate effect on the board. And then you need to spend ANOTHER 1 mana for 1/1 with Rush. So the entire card, which probably wouldn’t even see play at 2 mana, is priced at 3. The Spark would need to cost 0 mana for this card to see play, but since it’s not the case, it’s way too slow. Still better than the Spark Drill, but not by much.
Card rating: 2/10
Spring Rocket
Mecha’thun, Mecha’thun, MECHA’THUN! Of course, it’s a new version of Disciple of C'Thun. Same stats, same effect. But instead of buffing C’Thun, this one has a Mech tag. Honestly, Disciple of C’Thun has seen play mostly BECAUSE it buffed C’Thun. It was only okay by itself, and okay cards generally don’t make cut.
Like, you could somewhat compare it to Kobold Apprentice. Both are 3 mana 2/1’s that cast a 1 mana spell (Arcane Missiles vs Arcane Shot), and Kobold Apprentice doesn’t really see play. This has a slight advantage of having a Mech tag, but honestly, it’s not that big. It’s not like it’s a body that will stick to the board, it will die the moment you drop it most of the time, so Magnetize shenanigans will be difficult. It can theoretically be discounted by Galvanizer, and that’s probably it.
It’s an okay card, and it might see some play, especially if meta will demand early game 2 mana removals. If everyone will play 3+ health minions, though, it doesn’t make much sense. Average card, but average cards can also see some play if the time is right.
Card rating: 5/10
Steel Rager
I really enjoy seeing more Ragers, but the flavor is slightly ruined – it costs 4 and not 3. Honestly, it might have been too good at 3 mana, and ragers always have 5 in their stat-line, so if it was 3 mana, it would probably need to be a 4/1 or something…
Still, it’s probably the best Rager we had so far…. buuut it’s still bad. Just compare it to Swift Messenger, a card that notably sees zero Constructed play. Messenger is either a 2/6 or a 6/2 with Rush, both are generally better than this one. 6/2 is just straight up an upgrade, and 2/6 is often a better stat-line to trade into early game minions.
It has a Mech tag, but I don’t believe that it will matter. It’s hard to Magnetize something onto it, because it will never stick – you always want to run him into something right away, or else it dies to a ping. Since it has Rush, you can Magnetize something onto it in the late game immediately, but given it’s low health, it’s not the best play anyway – it will probably die when trading into a bigger minion anyway.
So yeah, best of the Ragers, but still a bad card. So at least that flavor is kept intact.
Card rating: 2/10
Topsy Turvy
Given that some Divine Spirit + Inner Fire Priest builds have used Crazed Alchemist, despite not caring about his body at all, makes me think that they would definitely prefer this spell instead. Not only it’s easier to fit into your turn, but also has extra synergy with Lyra the Sunshard. In a meta where you want to run Inner Fire Priest, but people are playing Skulking Geist, this card is definitely a solid option.
Besides that, it also has the same extra tech uses as Crazed Alchemist – clearing any low attack/high health minion, especially 0 attack minions – Totems, Doomsayers etc. But even when let’s say Big Druid drops a 4/12 Taunt, flipping it around means that you might be able to get through it way, way easier.
You can theoretically play it on Zerek, Master Cloner to get an extra 5/5 when it does. Well, but I’m not sure if it’s worth a card, and if this card would even fit into a Zerek deck.
I suspect that if Divine Spirit + Inner Fire Priest will be played, this card will be at least an one-of tech, just like Alchemist was. In the right meta, it might even be worth to put 2 copies in. I like this card, it’s not overpowered or anything, but supplements the build nicely.
Card rating: 7/10
