The first hearthstone expansion comes out tomorrow, heres what we know about it right now and my initial thoughts on it
It adds a full single player campaign that allows you to unlock 30 new cards, including new legendaries, the first part of the campaign is free, the other 4 parts cost either 700 gold each or $20 for all 4
Its theme is deathrattles and it will have boss fights with bosses that have unique (unobtainable) cards and mechanics that will make you play in a different way, completing the campaign parts will unlock new neutral cards for your collection, there will also be class challenges for each class which unlocks a class card once you complete it
The Naxxramas cardsNeutral:
I dont see this card being used all that much, a 2/2 for 2 is meh and people rarely use secret decks, it can be fun in a secret deck though
In arena it would be the best of a bad batch, maybe
This is pretty good, its like a super cobra, at 8 hp is should be able to live too, its a bit expensive at 6 mana though, but i think its worth using in decks that have no instant removal like pally and druid
I think it would be amazing in arena
I could see this replacing shiledmasta as the go to taunt, maybe even used with shieldmasta
In arena this would be a good pick
Thaddius is really good, almost matches deathwing but has none of the downside, feugen is worth it, stalagg sucks
And i wonder if the enemies Fuegen/Stalagg dies then 1 of yours dies, will that summon a thaddius for both of you, or is it limited to just your fuegen/stalagg, it seems to imply its anyones fuegen/stalagg
I really like the idea of this though
In arena feugen would be a fine pick, stalagg no, although if i already picked feugen and had the option to pick stalagg id probably take him just to get thaddius
Omg this is brokenly powerful, imagine blessing of might on this thing, or blessing of kings, holy shit
In arena it might be the best of a mediocre batch
This copies buffs that you play during the turn, so you can blessing of kings it and have 2 5/6s at the end of the turn for example (with coin and faceless you can make 4 5/6s), i could see some good combos with this
Echo + 2x power word shield + innerfire + faceless = 4 6/6s for 10 mana
This plus the gargoyle might actually make a divine spirit/innerfire priest viable
In arena it would be decent, id rather have a 3/2 though, but since its an epic id probably end up picking it, the only epics i would pick over it are sea giant, pyro, ancient of war, faceless, gorehowl, blood knight, shade and maybe bgh, probably shadowform too
This is an interesting 1, honestly i dont know if its good or bad, it will shut decks like aggro mage, shockadin and zoo down hard since pulling a minion from their deck doesnt really matter since all their stuff is crap but against control its really bad
Its something id have to use or see in action before i could say 1 way or the other, im glad it exists though as it may reduce the number of aggro decks just by existing in the game
In arena this could be disastrous or amazing depending on the RNG result, id pick it against garbage cards though
Omg, another OP card, 4/6 for 5 is good and its ability makes it a super fairy dragon, you can give this guy taunt with argus/sunfury and be immune to all burst combos if youve been holding board control, great addition to the game
In arena id probably pick this any time it was offered, unless i already had 2 (id be willing to go to 3 depedning on the rest of the deck) or if the other choices were amazing, or way too many 5 cost cards
This card seems counter productive to me, maybe it will work as an aggro card but i dont think it will, i think this would be better in a midrange control deck instead of argent squire that people have been using, the health they gain doesnt really matter there, probably only 1 in the deck though (1 of these and 1 squire for example)
In arena id pick it over other 2/3s and over other 1 cost minions (except maybe worgen infiltrator and depending on how the deck is at the time abusive sergeant), but not over any 3/2 (except maybe raptor) or any other card, but id only ever put 1 in an arena deck in all circumstances
I have to wonder if they were trying to design a card to directly counter miracle rogue and freeze mage style play, cause thats what this does, and i guess its not bad, id rather have instants, but this is a good compromise, this with spectral knight means that miracle rogue will disappear from the meta for a while, freeze mage will probably stick around
In arena there are better legendaries that you could pick, but if its against crap legendaries, or meh legendaries then its a fine pick
I dont know if "spectral" is a thing now, like are the 1/1 immune to spells/hero power like spectral knight is, or is it just part of their name
If they arent immune then its a pretty good card, if they are then its an amazing card, like a mini harvest golem, and it counts as a beast for hunters too
Id pick it in arena over 2/1s, 1/1s, river croc and raptor
Holy fucking shit wtf, this is an amazing card and i love this kind of mechanic but, first of all, his effect is not a battle cry, its on going, which means every turn its up you get your guys back including the turn that you play him
and your enemy's turns, thats ridiculous, second, hes a 6/8 so hes immune to bgh, basically if your opponent cant remove/silence him within a turn or 2 you win the game, so pally is screwed
Im certain he will be nerfed asap
In arena... do i even need to say it, you pick this no matter what
A very strange idea, it feels like it counters zoo and only zoo, being a 1/4 and effecting battle cry minions is very anti zoo, i dont see it being used that much after the initial release, zoo should be out of the meta with this release because of this and the 2/8 taunt
In arena its a meh card, there are better 2s to pick
Much like the weblord this card seem to counter shockadin, and only shockadin, i guess they both counter aggro in general but i feel like they had those specific counters in mind when these 2 cards
In arena, again its meh, not good not bad, there are better 2s
This card lets you pull off some cool combos with the other new cards, i could see it being used in new decks that center around that idea, but it doesnt fit in the old decks, i see it being used in a new aggro deck, maybe, the card art is way cooler then what he can do though
In arena i cant really say if id pick it, while a 3/5 for 4 mana is good the silence thing can screw you so its highly dependent on the rest of the deck, if theres not alot that will get negatively effected by the silence id take it
This is basically the same as a secret keeper, but with deathrattle cards instead
I probably wouldnt pick it in arena, my choices would have to be pretty crap for me to pick it
Its like a smaller version of gruul, i could see this being amazing in a priest deck where you buff its hp so it cant die to aoe (not counting equality), but i dont think it will be in many normal decks
In arena id probably pick it since its an epic and there arent many good epics for arena and this one looks pretty good in arena, the only epics i would pick over it are sea giant , pyro, ancient of war, gorehowl and faceless
Having to pick between this and bloodknight would be a very very tough choice, i would need experience with shade before i could make that call, but right now id say bloodknight over shade
This is a weird one, youd have to buff it to get it too attack so it dies, or give it taunt, i guess you could use a 2 dmg battle cry to kill it too, like on turn 5 with rogue, play this then SI-7 agent to kill it and have a 4/4 and a 3/3, you could also backstab it on turn 2 for a really early 4/4, you could even coin egg, backstab on turn 1 for a turn 1 4/4
I dont think it will be used in normal decks though, maybe in zoolock since they can buff it to attack but even then its not great since it messes with the tempo of that deck
In arena, the rest of the deck would need to have a good amount of buffs to make me consider picking this but even then the other choices would have to be pretty bad to make me pick this
I could see this in aggro decks, but its stopped fairly easily so idk if people will actaully use it
In arena id pick it if my early game was crap, and id take it over garbage cards
I want this card, i want to make a shaman deck that uses cairne and ancestral spirit with this card, play cairne in 1 turn, then when there is something on the board that can kill cairne, play this card and put ancestral spirit on cairne then send carine into that minion to kill him to get a fresh cairne and 2 banes, its probably really impractical but i dont care, im doing it
I probably would never pick this in arena, there are better legendaries
Paladin:
The minion that receives the buff is random, it caused some confusion and the someone from blizz said that it is random, they shouldve put that in the text cause i assumed you could target it
And its a pretty crappy card, +3/+2 is powerful, but the concept of the card conflicts with the pallies hero ability, since its likely to give +3/+2 to one of your 1/1s, so its like summoning a 4/3 on your enemies turn which is fairly easy for most classes to deal with, i guess it is annoying though especially since theres no way to remove secrets unless you play hunter and use flare (im hoping this expansion adds a neutral way to remove secrets without triggering them)
I think it would be better to just deal 3 dmg to the character that killed the minion that caused this secret to trigger (the hero would take 3 damage if the secret was triggered by a spell or hero power)
In arena i probably wouldnt pick it unless my choices sucked
Druid:
This has some crazy synergy with the new deathrattle stuff but i dont see it being used at high ranks like that, i would actually want to use it as single target removal, like a worse version of polymoph, only because druid removal kindve sucks, use it on a rag after it clears your last minion for example, or as a massive insta board clear with thalnos and swipe to the face, i will definitely try it out in my druid deck
This doesnt fit in my deck but something like violet teacher, innervate, innervate, coin, claw, claw, wrath, wrath, poison seeds, power of the wild would be fun for a token druid, fill the board with 3/3s (and then cry when your awesome 10 card combo is burned by a single flamestrike)
If the treants from this had charge it would be useful in any druid deck imo (you could deal 20 dmg in 1 turn with force of nature, savage roar, innervate, coin (or your other innervate if you didnt go second), poison seeds, which sounds OP but it does take 5 cards to pull off and is actually the same as doing force of nature, innervate, innervate, druid of the claw (charge form), savage roar)
In arena i might pick it if the rest of the deck was pretty good and the other choices were meh
Warrior:
This card may replace 1 fiery war axe in warrior control (i would use this in place of 1 of them) since dealing 1 dmg to your own stuff is great for that deck, im pretty sure the 1 dmg would go off when the opponent plays ooze too, im not sure what would happen if they use harrison though, i guess it would still trigger since the card text says "destroy"
Id pick it in arena, it looks great for arena
Rogue:
A 5/5 for 4 mana is ridiculous, i know a light spawn is a 5/5 for 4 but it can be silenced/dmged to be made weaker so its not that bad, but a 5/5 thats just a 5/5 is really strong, it can kill a yeti in 1 shot and stay alive, its only downside is its death rattle, which isnt even really a downside, this card could be amazing in tempo rogue (im assuming you can pick the minion that gets returned, if its random then maybe not so much, it also needs to live for a turn or it could slow your tempo, but it has 5hp so it will probably live)
Easy pick in arena, though id still pick yeti over this, probably
Shaman:
Ok this card is just OP, i was just talking about Ancestral Spirit, which does something similar (Rebirth was announced after my post about Ancestral Spirit
For comparison heres spirit:
- Spoiler:
The new card does the same thing for the same mana cost but gets results instantly while you have to kill the guy with spirit manually, so rebirth is just flat out better
The worst part is you can combo them together to legitimately make 3 rags without needing to be against a priest with thoughtsteal or any other random set of circumstances
Imagine it on sylvanas, turn 10 you can do sylvanas, spirit, rebirth for a 10 mana mind control and 2 5/5s that will steal more minions when they die
I dont think i would ever pick this in arena, maybe if i ended up with spirit, but even then, probably not
Warlock:
3/4 for 4 mana is pretty bad, and pulling a demon from your hand isnt that great, the best thing it could pull is doomguard, i could see it being used in zoo, maybe, the main problem is that it doesnt really fit the mana curve for zoo, other than zoo though i dont see any potential use for it, its not like it makes a demon warlock viable, i mean sure you can do cute things like power over whelming on the void caller attack with it then play void terror to absorb it and get another demon out, but i dont think thats a viable combo, maybe shadowflame instead of void terror, but still the demon cards are just so bad that a demon deck is probably still not going to be viable
Id pick it over garbage in arena
Mage:
This is the kind of card that looks amazing on paper, but i dont think it is, you cant control which minion dies since it happens on the enemy turn, so its too inconsistent, it might have a place in some decks though so i wont say its useless, and those times where it works out like you want would be amazing (like if it gives you 2 sylvanas's or something and steals a minion when the first sylvanas dies)
Would never pick it in arena
Priest:
This card might be amazing, a 3/4 for 3 mana is good, and its ability is decent enough, the minion it gives hp to is random even though it doesnt say its random (all deathrattle effects are random when targeting is involved), but even then its still not bad, i think this could help priest a lot
Easy pick in arena, would take it in most cases
Hunter:
At first i thought this just drew a random beast from your deck and was like, well thats crap, maybe the worst card in the expansion so far
But then i found out that its ANY random beast in the game, not from your deck, it works like ysera where it gives you a card from no where, any beast includes king krush and highmane
So its much better than i first thought, i could see it being used in beast synergy decks, though i dont think it will be consistent enough to be used in high level decks, you could get king krush or you could get captain's parrot, random is random
In arena i would take this over worgen inf or leper gnome, cause the RNG is worth it, its like a crappy harvest golem with the potential to be amazing, but against other cards i wouldnt take it
Conclusion on the new cardsIm glad to see they are trying to stop burst and aggro with these new cards, but i feel like its just going to create an entirely new and worse aggro
Ive already made a new fun deck:
http://www.hearthhead.com/deckbuilder#cMoN7zs07MaA7Mrf7MAm7Mj57MyJ7Mxr7Mxw7zxL7zxT7zxj7MxB7Mty7Mtg7MgN7Mgp8VAnd an actual attempt at a real deck:
http://www.hearthhead.com/deckbuilder#cMm27MRm7zs07MbY7Md67MrI7zfV7Mf67Miu7Mho7Mnk7MyJ7zxI7zxL7Mty7Mtg7Mgp8M