Getting this from omega assembly or Dr bloom’s hero power sounds juicy.

What is an upgrade. In case of this card? Number of imps or their stats? In case everything is upgraded it could be solid for zoo. Doubling imp is already 3 mana 2* 2/2.

I would like to add that those 2 card minion kill combos don’t leave you with a body, hence potentially even bigger tempo gain at the cost of 2 resources.
Not to mention shadow madness exists, which means that playing any high health minion against priest is potential immediate loss: 2 divine spirits and inner fire can turn an 8 health minion into deadly force. It is true though that with shadow visions gone divine spirit is much less efficient.

I see a lot of potential in this card, mainly due to its flexibility. First of all, as others are saying, it can combo with cabal shadow priest, sometimes even more mana efficient than twilight acolyte.
Secondly, it’s 0 mana cost is highly flexible. Those kind of cards are always hard to rate. It has potential in various miracle scenarios.
This card supplement forbbiden words nicely. In case one wants to remove bigger minion, but don’t want to spend that much mana using forbidden words, one can easily reduce the minions attack first.
Last but not least, this card is yet another way for priest to remove 4 attack minion in combination with PW: pain.

Do we know when is the first reveal stream going to be? Usually the reveal season lasts for at least 2 weeks, followed by a week until release. Since the release is in 3 weeks, the stream should be soon-ish.

Seems like auto include in control or dragon mage.. However, we will have to see what lack of Jaina will mean for this kind of archetypes.

The advantage I see about this card is its flexibility. Sure, it’s way worse than PW: death, however PW: death is usually useless against aggro decks. Similar goes for PW: pain of course. Also, this can destroy a 4 attack minion, like Ysera or Malygos for instance. That is something priest always had trouble with.

Shadow visions is from Un’Goro so is rotating anyway. Same as their ressurect tools.

Not to mention that genn and baku are legendaries themself and thus they on their own give you enough dust to craft 2 legendaries of your choice. If you have 2 copies of gloomstag and 2 copies of glitter moth, those are worth another legendary, 3 in total. That’s massive for any budget player.

All of the updates seem really interesting. Introduction of arena seasons can make more players play that mode. Another plus is of course that arena games will also progress win count towards the golden heroes.
Based on your writing, you seem to be really excited for the new solo content to come out. I have to admit, I am now as well. Getting some sort of adventure mode back is highly welcome to spice things up a bit.

Christmas came really early this year. I have to say I won’t be missing neither genn nor baku. Together with sinergistic cards, their HoF rotation will definitely bring a lot of dust to the players.
As for other HoF cards, I am not surprised to see doomguard, naturalize and divine favor on the list. They are all very powerfull cards, limiting the design space. However, I have to admit I was also hoping some other cards would be HoF, like auctioneer, preparation, any of priest combo packages (mind blast, divine spirit, inner fire), perhaps even leeroy. Overall, I feel like they did the right job here.
As for the other news, I am really looking forward to this years expansions and how they are going to connect them all in a single story. It could be really fun experience.

I am still into hearthstone, however as many others, I am slowly losing interest. The last few meta’s got stale quite quickly, not to mention how uninteractive and not fun to play some matchups are. I am speaking of both OTK combo decks, where you basically wait to get killed or ultra aggresive ones where you are dead turn 5, 6, because opposing player just rushes you down with “all face” and you didn’t manage to draw an answer. Neither is not fun nor interactive. In my opinion, the best meta is midrange/tempo and control oriented where fight over the board and managing resources is what wins you the game. As dog said, I want my decisions to matter and at least have options to improve specific matchups. I understand that RNG is necessary evil of every TCG, however at least draw rng should be containted so that decision and strategy are not ignored.

Another bigger issue I have with current state of the game is the lack of deck building incentive. As firebat said, pretty much everybody just netdecks some tier 1/2 decks, with minority trying to be creative and experiment a bit. Deck building and experimenting is one of my favourite things in every TCG. However playing against the same tier 1/2 decks becomes stale. No matter how well designed some cards are or how much fun you are trying to have, you will often get butchered playing against meta decks. Casual mode was supposed to be exactly for that, but it is flooded with tier 1/2 decks just the same. I used to go to casual mode just to have fun with some goofy decks, however I am really getting tired of seeing midrange hunter, odd paladin, secret paladin, resurrect priest and odd aggro mage all over again. They could implement a casual mode sistem with a list of banned cards, similar to what is done for arena where most oppresive cards are not offered in draft.

In regards to content, I will pretty much summarize what others are saying already:
1. More formats: like pauper or sealed that don’t have to be competitive
2. More frequent meta refreshes: extra expansions, changed rotation cycles, patches, perhaps included monthly rules/bans. Something that would give players some incentive for deck building and keep the game fresh at least on mothly basis.
3. Reworked classic and basic set: perhaps introduce yearly rotating core set
4. More achievements and challenges: new card arts, new skins, perheaps added in game portrait with additional accessories that can be obtainted if certain conditions are met, etc.

I have to admit I am guilty of underrating 4 of those 7 cards. I never imagined Hakkar being enything but a meme, which I guess was the same with togwaggle in KaC. Baited arrow seemed like worse flanking strike, but it shows the power of 5/5 minions in the game. Mosh’Ogg and ancklebiter look like perfect arena cards, without much prospect in constructed. What we learned from those two is that big health minions and lifesteal are not to be underestimated.
As for shirvallah, springpaw and amani warbear, I am surprised the community rated them so poorly. Especially the first 2. Springpaw seemed perfect 1 drop for hunter and it might just be the best card in the set. Shirvallah on the other hand, provides huge tempo swing and life stabilization for control paladins. We all learned how powerful 0 mana minions can be (shaman’s totem one, corridor creeper). Warbear doesn’t seem like much, but I believe rush is quite a powerful mechanic useful for board control.