Do you mean Tortollan Primalist or Stonehill Defender? I assume you meant the Stonehill, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
The two cards set out to do very different things. Stonehill Defender is a cheap anti-aggro card that gives you a great advantage against the many aggressive decks that dominate the meta right now. It’s great for taking trades against the N’Zoth’s First Mate/Bloodsail Corsair + Patches start for Pirate Warrior AND Token Druid AND Aggro Shaman, or it can possibly hit things like a Grimscale Chum if the opponent didn’t manage to get a health buff off. It’s great for slowing more aggressive opponents down and forcing them to spend buffs earlier than they might otherwise like to. It has a slightly awkward statline that easily punishes many of their early plays. Of course, each deck does have a multitude of ways to deal with it (War Axe, Kor’Kron Elite, Mark of Y’Shaarj, etc), but it can still slow them down enough to pull out a win if they get bad draws.
The ability to Discover the minion is also essential to the card’s success. It allows you to choose the best minion for the situation, meaning you can choose another cheap, efficient taunt against aggro, or a big minion that can force a Control Deck to burn some removal allowing you to set up an even larger threat. Obviously you won’t always get what you want, but it’s so versatile that it can contribute to practically any match. Traditionally, these types of cards that aim to generate a card advantage for you have always been far more favoured towards helping you to out-do a control opponent simply by having more resources than them. Stonehill Defender avoid this by having a favourable statline against aggression whilst also being able to pick up a big card to threaten Control.
The Gravedigger misses all of these aspects, and this leaves a card that is quite frankly underwhelming and downright dead in a lot of matchups. Firstly, the statline. This card’s stats are atrocious and are proably the most limiting factor. The fact is it dies to far too much to ever see play in a competetive deck. Remeber when I talked about all the things the Stonehill is great against earlier? This card is extremely vunerable to all of them, and considering they were all 1-mana plays it leads to a massive mana advantage. It cannot possibly be used against aggro as wasting your turn 3 is practically signign your death warrant. Against control, the body won’t make a difference. AoE, pings, trades with other early minions (think Babbling Book) – all will leave the minion dead without ever contributing anything. Besides, even if it does live to hit face or even to deal its damage to a 4/5-drop, you won’t get any advantage off it. Control decks aren’t bothered about their health total particularly (except Handlock), and they pack so many ways to stabilise that attacking a minion of a higher cost will rarely result in any discernable difference to the state of the game.
The deathrattle also leaves much to be desired. A random minion with Deathrattle could be the best card for the situation, but just as often it will give you a minion that won’t have an effect. For every time it gives you a Bog Creeper against a control deck, you’ll get the same minion against an aggro deck and you’ll be dead before you even have the chance to play it. It’s far too inconsistent to ever be considered a good card at higher levels.
Finally, we come to the issue of actually playing it. Control decks can’t afford to sacrifice their turn 3 against aggro playing this, whilst playing it in a control VS control means 1 or 2 slots of your deck can’t be used for removal or threatening minions that might actually influence the result of the game. Aggressive decks will always have a far better play on turn 3, and so the card can’t be used there either.
Overall, the card is too weak and lacking in impact to be played in control, and too outclassed to ever see play in an aggressive deck. It lacks all the tools that Stonehill Defender benefitted from to make it see play.
Do you mean Tortollan Primalist or Stonehill Defender? I assume you meant the Stonehill, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
The two cards set out to do very different things. Stonehill Defender is a cheap anti-aggro card that gives you a great advantage against the many aggressive decks that dominate the meta right now. It’s great for taking trades against the N’Zoth’s First Mate/Bloodsail Corsair + Patches start for Pirate Warrior AND Token Druid AND Aggro Shaman, or it can possibly hit things like a Grimscale Chum if the opponent didn’t manage to get a health buff off. It’s great for slowing more aggressive opponents down and forcing them to spend buffs earlier than they might otherwise like to. It has a slightly awkward statline that easily punishes many of their early plays. Of course, each deck does have a multitude of ways to deal with it (War Axe, Kor’Kron Elite, Mark of Y’Shaarj, etc), but it can still slow them down enough to pull out a win if they get bad draws.
The ability to Discover the minion is also essential to the card’s success. It allows you to choose the best minion for the situation, meaning you can choose another cheap, efficient taunt against aggro, or a big minion that can force a Control Deck to burn some removal allowing you to set up an even larger threat. Obviously you won’t always get what you want, but it’s so versatile that it can contribute to practically any match. Traditionally, these types of cards that aim to generate a card advantage for you have always been far more favoured towards helping you to out-do a control opponent simply by having more resources than them. Stonehill Defender avoid this by having a favourable statline against aggression whilst also being able to pick up a big card to threaten Control.
The Gravedigger misses all of these aspects, and this leaves a card that is quite frankly underwhelming and downright dead in a lot of matchups. Firstly, the statline. This card’s stats are atrocious and are proably the most limiting factor. The fact is it dies to far too much to ever see play in a competetive deck. Remeber when I talked about all the things the Stonehill is great against earlier? This card is extremely vunerable to all of them, and considering they were all 1-mana plays it leads to a massive mana advantage. It cannot possibly be used against aggro as wasting your turn 3 is practically signign your death warrant. Against control, the body won’t make a difference. AoE, pings, trades with other early minions (think Babbling Book) – all will leave the minion dead without ever contributing anything. Besides, even if it does live to hit face or even to deal its damage to a 4/5-drop, you won’t get any advantage off it. Control decks aren’t bothered about their health total particularly (except Handlock), and they pack so many ways to stabilise that attacking a minion of a higher cost will rarely result in any discernable difference to the state of the game.
The deathrattle also leaves much to be desired. A random minion with Deathrattle could be the best card for the situation, but just as often it will give you a minion that won’t have an effect. For every time it gives you a Bog Creeper against a control deck, you’ll get the same minion against an aggro deck and you’ll be dead before you even have the chance to play it. It’s far too inconsistent to ever be considered a good card at higher levels.
Finally, we come to the issue of actually playing it. Control decks can’t afford to sacrifice their turn 3 against aggro playing this, whilst playing it in a control VS control means 1 or 2 slots of your deck can’t be used for removal or threatening minions that might actually influence the result of the game. Aggressive decks will always have a far better play on turn 3, and so the card can’t be used there either.
Overall, the card is too weak and lacking in impact to be played in control, and too outclassed to ever see play in an aggressive deck. It lacks all the tools that Stonehill Defender benefitted from to make it see play.