MockRock's Comments
Hack the System
Everyone’s saying “Dr. Boom,” but there IS a world where you build a deck that uses this instead, Tempo/Aggro Warrior would generally only run Boom as a backup plan. I don’t think we live in that world right now, though, unless the few remaining cards are insanely tuned in that direction.
Desert Obelisk
It’s not impossible to imagine a world where this is viable, but it would take many, many strong synergy cards which we obviously don’t have right now. Clearly a mad science card at the moment.
Murmy
I don’t know the first thing about Wild balance, so can’t comment there, sorry. Also really don’t feel comfortable telling a stranger online how to spend their money, try asking on the Hearthstone reddit.
Murmy
It also seems like Blizzard is aware of the power of Reborn and other sticky effects and they’re giving the other obvious control classes board clears that can deal with them. At this point we just cross our fingers that they’ve gotten the balance right.
Reno the Relicologist
This is a powerful card. Like, a REALLY powerful card. It’s not single-handedly worth trying to to build a deck around like the original Reno was, though. You can actually say that about most/all of the new singleton Legendaries, makes me wonder if we might be getting a neutral or two to complement them.
Dalaran Crusader
Blizzard thankfully stopped printing pure vanilla minions, so this is as close as we get. Arena pack filler.
Burly Shovelfist
This may as well be a Warrior card, it could find a home either in Rush Warrior or Big Warrior. “Could” and “will” are two different things, though, Rush Warrior will likely be a thing but this thing making the cut seems VERY questionable, and Big Warrior doesn’t quite seem like it’s there yet.
Whirlwind Tempest
This + Windfury (the Shaman spell) is 10 mana. You do need to make it to turn 10 and have a large minion stick around a turn, which isn’t outrageous but is definitely too niche to build a dedicated combo deck around. So is there some deck that could go about a different game plan and slot those two cards in as well? Seems unlikely to be honest, but IF this card sees play I’d imagine it’s most likely in that context.
Safeguard
Wow…seems like an absolute staple card. A brick wall Taunt like this seems good enough to see play on its own, but they went ahead and threw in Mech synergy just for the hell of it. I’d honestly be shocked if this doesn’t show up everywhere for the next several expansions.
Mysterious Blade
The curve is incredibly obvious for Secret Paladin: secret that can’t trigger turn 1 into this or Sunreaver Spy. It’s looking pretty damn solid, honestly.
Archivist Elysiana
Hard to imagine this NOT seeing play in some kind of late game control deck, it extends your fatigue by 10 turns if you play it right after you draw your last card. Only question is if it’ll be made obsolete by the anti-fatigue mechanics Warlock and Rogue are getting, really can’t be predicted right now.
Dimensional Ripper
Big Warrior was never that great and is losing the vast majority of the tools it did have, we’re going to need to see a LOT more tools for the deck to survive in any way. And this is too expensive and RNG-reliant to be used in a combo role. Not seeing it, maybe if the rest of the Warrior cards are all mind-blowingly powerful Big Warrior support we may see Dimensional Ripper this expansion, but I highly doubt it. It’s a strong effect in the right context, but that’s a very specific context that I don’t think will exist anytime soon.
Call to Adventure
This is basically just performing the same role as Witchwood Piper, except for 1 more mana you get a 3/3 body instead of +2/+2 to a card in your hand. Seems like a bad deal. The only possible scenario I can think of is some kind of combo deck where the lowest minion in your deck is a combo piece and benefits from being larger in your hand…
I mean, it’s certainly POSSIBLE to print that specific set of cards, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet.
Plot Twist
Yeah, I’m aware, but this is the exact argument that people use (to choose one example) for Magical Mallet in Yugioh, and it’s generally accepted as a bit of a “noob trap” argument. And that’s in a game where you’re only losing the resource from your hand, come back to Hearthstone and you’re also losing mana. Now, obviously, Hearthstone isn’t Yugioh, or Magic, or anything but Hearthstone, but the overall precedent in card games is that this effect gets mistaken for good by inexperienced players but isn’t actually very good. Could Hearthstone be the exception? It’s possible, but I think it’s VERY reasonable to be suspicious of this card, and I don’t think for a second it deserves to be rated as highly as it is.
Plot Twist
Eh…this is kind of a classic trap, other card games have similar mechanics and you can basically read this as “spend 2 mana, discard a card except with none of the fun discard synergy.” Don’t see why this is getting so much praise, and no, putting it in your deck to work with Betrug isn’t good.
Nozari
Sure, I agree you’d put Ysera in your deck first, the question is whether you add Nozari as well. So far a lot of the cards we’ve seen are pushing really heavy late game value strategies, the meta will need to be quite greedy for this to find a home but I’d be surprised if it goes through its full cycle without seeing serious play, the card is extremely powerful in the right environment. Straight-up Control Paladin did used to be a thing and could be again.
Nozari
Thekal didn’t make waves because a huge chunk of the meta for the past cycle has consisted of combo decks and decks full of overwhelming threats (Cube in particular), which makes traditional late-game control really difficult to actually make work. Those are all going away.
Nozari
A lot of the most notorious combo decks are leaving Standard, and there are at least two new anti-combo cards being printed this expansion, which means we may well be moving towards an era of traditional control decks where health matters. Also has fantastic synergy with Thekal. I don’t know if a late game Control Paladin will exist in the new meta, we’ll need to see, but if it does, I’d bank on this being in it.
Muckmorpher
I can only really see this working in some kind of combo deck right now, Shudderwock is likely going to be in every midrange/control Shaman for the next year, which also means including additional battlecry cards. It’s obviously good with Walking Fountain, Al’Akir, Ziliax, Ysera…but I can’t see that being SO good that it ousts Shudderwock and the new Hagatha. We’ll either need some new cards that are so incredibly appealing with this that it makes taking your battlecry cards out worth it, or as I said, it may end up being used in a combo. Lots of possibilities though, this is a mad scientist card for sure and I love it.
This is a control card that synergizes exclusively with Imps. Bizarre. Not even gonna bother trying to guess its power level, we need to see the set in context.