To Nickname.

Tempo Mage usually struggles against decks that are faster than it, especially ones that can clear Mana Wyrm before it does anything. Playing a card that will usually summon a pair of about 2/2s for four mana is not really going to help with that weakness.

I am aware Lifedrinker is one of the weakest cards played in Tempo mage, but it at least is more than a just a body right as it is played and that reason is why it is the only four drop being played in Tempo Mage at this moment other than fireball.

This card needs to be enhanced by spell damage to be playable in a tempo based deck and given how dangerous giving efficient spell damage minions like Cult Sorcerer to mage has been in the past, I doubt such a tempo tool will be made available to the class any time soon.

Probably not. Even if there were to be one, it would be useless against Druid, Priest, Mage, Warlock, and Shaman a lot of the time.

Well, unlike Dirty Rat, this doesn’t come with a body and you’re spending two mana to hope you do something. At least with Rat you instantly knew if you did.

If you remember Rebuke from the Witchwood, it not hard to see that this will probably follow a similar path unless combo decks remain popular. Even then such a tool is restricted to Warlock.

Dirty Rat at least came with a body on the board and like Loatheb, that body was at least half of the reason the card saw any play.

The hype cycle surrounding this card will very much resemble Rebuke’s from Witchwood. Granted, this does have a higher chance of seeing play, but only is Combo decks continue to see success in the format. But against a aggro or tempo deck, you could very easily give them a better card for the latter game.

Yes. I really want a Twilight Drake in my hand to be replaced with a Witchwood or Blood Imp while also costing me two mana and a card in hand.

The only minion in that deck I would want to replace with a random demon would be Genn and even then, it is rarely worth two mana to hope a worthless card is turned into a one that could be decent.

Or as a priest I could play Twilight Summoner, something that is useful on both turn three and ten or Acolyte of Pain since that’ll probably get a couple cards in hand.

Playing both seems like it would cause issues. Playing Sourgelord before this for the weapon would require playing cards out of order of mana costs. I’m not aware of if that’s ever happened before.

But playing this before Sourgelord specifically for the Rush battlecry would mean you’d be giving up the generally superior hero power.

Perhaps whatever Mech Warrior ends up looking like will want to play both, but I am pretty sure the deck will prefer Dr. Boom over Sourgelord.

I think it’s better to say Scourgelord is good against aggressive token deck more so than specifically Paladin and Rogue and while Scourgelord can be a great control Warrior tool, it obviously hasn’t been enough to bring Control Warrior or at least non-quest warrior decks into competitive relevance.

You are right about how this card is lacking in any tempo, but generally, the hero powers and tempo gained progressively for a mech deck will outpace the tempo gained via Scourgelord’s weapon.

Without the spell damage improvements, this is something Tempo mage as we currently know it does not need. The deck rarely has an issue making a turn four play, and on average without enhancements you will only summon about 3.54/4.67 in stats that will usually do nothing for you the turn it is played. As the current tempo mage deck does not play any Spell Damage + cards, you will usually be better off just playing Lifedrinker. At least that heals and hits for 3 when it is played.

This is not assuming the other support yet to be revealed synergies with the card so well, it shifts the nature of Tempo mage what was largely established with Un’Goro and the addition of Arcanologist. It very well could. I am not hopeful for it though.

Playing a vanilla three mana 3/4 is rarely something to be happy about given the sort of three cost cards there are in the game at the moment.

The ten healing will hardly matter come turn ten. Ten healing is worth around three mana, but Twilight Darkmender wasn’t very good either.

There does seem to be hype around this card and it might be good if there’s a lot of aggressive decks on ladder, but that does assume the aggro deck doesn’t kill you before turn ten.

It’s still a three mana 3/4, so it isn’t god awful, but it’ll probably end up being just below playable.

Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is clearly better than Scourgelord Garrosh. It’s cheaper, comes with more armor, and the hero powers are all better, but it doesn’t come with the weapon. The weapon was a pretty good control option, but without the armor gain hero power, it was difficult to work with. Granted, giving all mechs Rush for the rest of the game can functionally be the same thing.

I can’t say what is the best hero power option, but I do think the KABOOM! is the weakest against many deck. There is an RNG element to the card, but assuming the rest of the mech support in the set is useful, Mech Warrior seems to be going in a decent direction.

Spell Damage Mage maybe…
There would have to be some cheap, efficiently stated Spelldamge minion like Cult Sorcerer or Soot Spewer to make this worth playing in Tempo mage.
This spell is a little small in both cost and effect for Big Spell mage to want to play.
And the default mode of the card isn’t particularly inspiring to begin with.

I believe Improved by Spell Damage means having Spell Damage +1 when you play this will create two three mana minions.

I’d rather play Vex crow since that can spawn a ton of minion. I don’t see this being a card Tempo mages would want to play over the other four drops it currently does.

Plus, faster mages wouldn’t really play Spell Damage cards unless they’re cheap with a good statline like Soot Spewer and the C’thun card, so you would rarely get more value out of it than what it already written on the card.

This is a really weird tech option against combo decks. Other than that, it’s next to useless. A two mana do nothing card is not good.

This is largely fine. Cheap, well-stated minions are always welcome in rogue. However, outside of Wild applications with Coldlight oracle, I can’t see what a rogue would really want to hit with this card. Whatever it does hit would be easy to find with Elven Minstrel, but it’s still a functional vanilla 3/2 for all of the effect on the board it has when played.

The themeing on this card is a bit off, but the theme for warlock in this expansion is rather nebulous as it is.”Science of the Soul” is what I believe it is.

I don’t think Zoo would want to play this since it is a five mana yeti until turn 10. Most of the time, Zoolock can or at least wants to win before then. Even Warlock can’t play it (although if it could it probably would) and Odd Warlock has never been a thing, especially with Possessed Lackey now being a six cost card.

This card is probably good. It just doesn’t have a home to go to as of yet.

If you’re playing an aggro deck, you wouldn’t really want to play a card that only good after turn 10.

Well, if you’re playing this in Zoo, you would probably have already wanted to win.
Playing this in Even Warlock is impossible for obvious reasons and Odd Warlock hasn’t really been a thing and probably won’t with Possessed Lackey getting bumped up to six mana.
Even then three 4/5s on turn ten might not be enough to hold the board assuming you’re in a losing or even boardstate.