Azalina Soulthief

Azalina Soulthief Card

Azalina Soulthief is a 7 Mana Cost Legendary Neutral Minion card from the The Witchwood set!

Card Text

Battlecry: Replace your hand with a copy of your opponent's.

Flavor Text

The cards are always golden on the other side.

Azalina Soulthief Card Review

Funnily enough, this is a card that you would want to play in an Aggro deck, if anything. It’s a bit like a neutral Divine Favor. The idea behind this card is that you run a fast deck and play versus a slower one. You run out of cards. while your opponent clears everything you play with all the AoEs and single target removals. Since you’re Aggro, they most likely could not drop all of their big minions etc. as they’re pretty slow. So you play this card on T7, copy your opponent’s hand, most likely with a few big threats, but now you have a huge health advantage. They still have to play defensively and you can go all in. Not to mention that it stalls for time until you draw more cards from your deck – potentially some burn etc. that will let you finish the game.

That’s the best case scenario. And in that scenario, this card would actually be solid. Yes, you have to pay 7 mana to drop a 3/3, but that 3/3 is giving you a MASSIVE refill. And as an Aggro deck, you might still be ahead on the board, so it might not be that bad in terms of the tempo.

However, as much as the best case scenario is quite appealing, an average case scenario really isn’t. This card is completely useless against Aggro, and most likely bad against Midrange. This alone makes it a questionable choice. But Divine Favor sees play, right? Well, yeah, but Divine Favor costs 3 mana, and that’s a huge difference. Even in slow matchups, this card is not guaranteed to get value. Best Divine Favors come around Turn 5, when your opponent didn’t have enough mana to dump their hand yet, and you’re already running out of steam. Sometimes even playing DF on Turn 3 is not terrible, this one would sit dead in your hand until Turn 7. It’s just super slow and super clunky. In general, you also prefer drawing cards from your deck. When you copy your opponent’s hand, you risk having some cards that require synergies, or Control cards that won’t help you a lot (like copying Psychic Scream and Greater Healing Potion against Priest – well, you can clear your own board and heal yourself, great).

I don’t think that this card is AS bad as some people think, but it’s definitely not good. It would be pretty insane at something like 5 mana, maybe even 6, but at 7 it’s just too slow. Cool card, but if anything, will most likely see play in meme decks.

Card rating: 3/10

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56 Comments

  1. Tolbby
    April 12, 2018 at 6:39 am

    Wow, Lorewalker Cho is getting buffed!

  2. Xix
    April 10, 2018 at 2:03 am

    If Burgle Rogue will become a thing, this will be in the deck. Because at turn 7 your probably allready holding some cards you NEVER want to play. This card cleans up your hand of that garbage.

  3. Will
    March 29, 2018 at 11:26 pm

    Mêmes

  4. John Hare
    March 20, 2018 at 4:43 pm

    10/10 card. This is a neutral divine favor that does not drain your deck and gives you critical information about what your opponent is holding. Aggro Paladin will run this and everyone will cry.

  5. wutwut
    March 17, 2018 at 10:32 am

    Its a 3/3 for 7 mana that might draw you cards. =/
    Would not be happy drawing this. Archbishop Benedictus is more lols for me than this card.

  6. sina
    March 16, 2018 at 9:33 pm

    well as i see and i expected u called this card bad again.
    im sure this card has a super potential vs warlock or mage .u said this is a aggro cards while its more good for tempo and control decks.mehh i dont expect more from u.just call every card bad .

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      March 19, 2018 at 3:34 am

      I don’t call every card bad. I call cards that I think will be bad “bad”

      How in the world is this card good for Tempo and Control decks? Tempo decks, like their name suggests, want to play a tempo game. 7 mana 3/3 that is useless in some matchups is not a tempo game.

      And when you play Control, you have a big hand of your own… You don’t want to REPLACE it with your opponent’s hand almost ever. You prefer your cards, because they fit your deck better and you have synergies of your own. Even if you end up with 2 or 3 more cards than you had, you still would rarely want to do that. Like, stealing Possessed Lackey or Skull or Prince Taldaram etc. from Warlock – opposing Control deck will always run a bunch of cards that are useless in your deck.

      And you’re completely ignoring the fact that this card is 100% dead in case your opponent has less cards than you do. I don’t know if you noticed, but it does not COPY your opponent’s hand and adds to yours. It replaces your hand with your opponent’s one.

      Even if this card has potential in one matchup (Warlock), you don’t put a card that is good against let’s say 15% of the ladder and sucks against everything else into your deck.

      Thus, this card is bad. It has some potential, but only in Aggro vs Control. Which I don’t believe is enough for it to see play. But you don’t have to take my word for it, just play around with it once it comes out and see for yourself.

      • Lucasato
        March 31, 2018 at 6:54 pm

        Well,i have noticed that expansion have so much cards based on the information importance:”schrondinger emeriss” can preparing a Leroy lethal or not,”poisonous worgem”can bait a boar to your opponent,chameleos let you to know what your opponent have,and azalina not just put a lot of cards in your hand,her humbly guarantee you will be in the same situation of your opponent when both player know what each other have,and you can use that to guarantee some peacefull turns If you get remotions from that…against a aggro would a unseless card but against controls, midrange or even quest decks It would pretty good too you guarantee peacefull turns if you have Win conditions in your deck

  7. MorbidArtist
    March 16, 2018 at 5:35 am

    Well, if you don’t play a deck that’s perfectly calibrated to reach its win condition by turn X and then use it effectively more than 75% of the time to win the game on the spot….
    It’s a pretty cool card, not for every deck, but for fast decks with little card draw, you effectively refill your hand and reveal your opponents current hand. Can’t come up with any examples yet and it seems quite unreliable, but it has potential to create some fun scenarios.

  8. Man with evil plans
    March 14, 2018 at 8:27 am

    Moahaha I have a very evil plan for this with my druid (in wild).
    My opponents will cry and then they will die. 😀

  9. billius
    March 13, 2018 at 11:30 pm

    7 mana, 3/3 body and only works only against control

    this has baaaaad written all over it

  10. Zed
    March 13, 2018 at 10:31 am

    Does this interact with the warlock quest?
    Do the cards count as discarded?

    • No
      April 2, 2018 at 5:27 pm

      I’m guessing it won’t count as discarded the cards will probably turn blue then change they won’t turn orange and disappear

  11. Joeydungee
    March 13, 2018 at 7:07 am

    I wonder how this works with cards that alter the enemies hand, like Bring It On! and buffing cards like in Paladin. I’m assuming you would receive the cards unaltered, but it would be cool if otherwise. Also sapping and vanishing before this could be neat!

    • CD001
      March 14, 2018 at 5:46 am

      I think Vanish is the only genuinely good scenario… and at 7 cost you can just manage it in one turn with Preparation.

  12. CD001
    March 13, 2018 at 6:02 am

    Sneak it into some kind of Discolock maybe? Play it with Murmuring Elemental just for giggles?

    … oh I dunno, this falls into the Gnomefratu school of irritating cards that aren’t *that* great but make me just want to concede whenever they’re played – Skulking Geist is the other one unless I’m running no 1-cost spells.

  13. Davidian
    March 13, 2018 at 2:22 am

    This fits pretty well into aggro decks that spit out cards as fast they can on early game. Then with luck you get this and voila. You dont need full OTK combos but even a part from is better than nothing. Since single fireball might be enough for the aggro deck to push harder. Specially dude paladin would gain alot from this.

    • DukeStarswisher
      March 13, 2018 at 7:47 am

      You think a 7 cost minion is worth taking cards from an opponents hand that has no synergy with the aggro deck you are playing? Try again. I play Dude pally and this would be awful for it. Doesn’t mean it would by useless elsewhere though.

      • Matt
        March 14, 2018 at 11:49 pm

        but you could pay 7 mana to get your own defiles in dude pally!

        • DukeStarswisher
          March 15, 2018 at 2:42 pm

          … Why would you sabotage your own board? Defile is mainly used against aggro decks, not the other way around. Example: Zoo Warlock does not run defile for that reason.

      • Auræ
        March 19, 2018 at 9:30 am

        Dude pally players opinion must not be taken in consideration.

        • DukeStarswisher
          March 19, 2018 at 10:21 am

          ^^^Haters gonna hate. Probably super triggered after a lost streak to all the dude pallys. lol

        • CostaPoli
          March 31, 2018 at 6:54 am

          true that, it takes no brains to SMOrc

  14. Helioshadow
    March 12, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    Looks like a fun Mill tool… Oh wait, Coldlight’s gone from standard…

    Jokes aside, this looks like one of those cards which I should purely fun-based (unless you somehow pull off some Cho-Curse of Rafaam shenanigans or for whatever reason your opponent doesn’t play their Togwaggle Ransom right away). Meh, looks fun, and you could potentially copy a combo off your opponent, but I doubt this’ll be competitively viable *unless* cards come out to help it out.

    It should also be of note that it copies quest rewards should your opponent complete their quest and save it (say, for an Exodia Mage combo or huge life gain w/ Amara), so it could be a great tech card if Exodia Mage gets a few new trinkets and such.

  15. BadBoomBoom
    March 12, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    See me N00bs
    Wild mode > Druid > Combo deck 😉 (Use kripps Kun-Malygos as a good reference of a powerfull deck) > Combo: Mill urself(Yep, draw a sh1t ton of cards, accumulate armor)… 0 cards??? Aviana+Kun (classic), KING TOGWAGGLE MY FRIENDS, empty ur hand, Azalina, If ur a cunt play Loatheb before her… well, if they swap it, u swap it back thats what i say… might be less consistent then MalyKun, BUT it is waaaay more meme and rage-inducing.
    Ps: MalyKun (ideal list) runs Aviana, Kun, Ixlid, Malygos, Faceless and 1,2 damage spells (6-7 cards, a sh1t ton of damage, can be countered by Ice Block, minor downside)
    TrollFurion would play Aviana+Kun, King T. and Azalina, only 4 cards… heck, u not even need a win condition, because ur opponent gonna be dependant only at his hand to win. Adding the fact that Druid is now the best Tank class… IT WORKS!!!
    Might be Crap, Might be Great… surelly will be LOTS OF FUN
    AZALINA 5/5.

    • Sainagh
      March 27, 2018 at 6:16 am

      You are my hero!

    • Nidnam1252
      April 6, 2018 at 10:29 am

      Turn 9: Hemet, Jungle Hunter
      Turn 10: Aviana + Kun + King Tog + Azalina

      • BadBoomBoom
        April 9, 2018 at 1:24 pm

        Think Hemet makes the deck worst… Im my mind, it should be a really armor centered deck, but that could dump cards somewhat easily, so it can take advantage of x2 U.I . And druid got support for health gain this expansion, so… Ill repeat, AZALINA 5/5 hihi

  16. Jaych
    March 12, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    I feel like some people are overestimating Azalina. Sure, it can refill your hand instantly, but there’s many things that are wrong with that.

    1) It costs 7 Mana to play, meaning that it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to do much else that same turn. A 7 Mana 3-3 is not a good card in an Aggro deck. Divine Favor is good because it’s cheap. Azalina is far from cheap.

    2) It’s only playable against Control, Combo, and heavily-weighted Midrange decks. Against another Aggro deck that’s also trying to kill you, playing Azalina is essentially a 7 Mana do nothing. And if the meta ends up being Aggro-centered at all, then the card becomes useless in 70% of your games. Not to mention that while it’s technically playable against Combo, the odds of you getting to use their combo against them is very slim, and you’ll probably just end up overall worse cards. Speaking of which…

    3) They’re not your cards. Using a card like this means that there’s a > 50% chance that the cards you get are going to be useless to you. “Oh, gee, thanks for the Possessed Lackey. With all 0 Demons in my deck. Oh, a Dark Pact too? AND a Twisting Nether? Oh, you’re too kind.” which brings me to my last point…

    4) The cards in most Control and Midrange decks are pretty expensive. Considering the fact that very aggressive decks are likely to be the only ones who want to play Azalina, I don’t see a reason for them to want to play Blizzard, Cabal Shadow Priest, Valeera the Hollow, etc.

    It’s an interesting effect. But I don’t think it’ll make much of an impact in the meta.

    2/5 Stars from me.

    • Lowkey
      March 12, 2018 at 9:58 pm

      Some kinda control priest sqwad?

  17. bob
    March 12, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    bruh this is a midrange/ aggro bomb

  18. Nightfall
    March 12, 2018 at 4:00 pm

    way understatted, but if your hand’s empty you might as well refill it with your opponents cards, amirite? 4/5 stars

  19. Andy
    March 12, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    Why is this better than Divine Fav.?
    Well, you do not draw a “Hand full of Cards”, you generate them!

    This is something you have to consider playing against aggro decks, when they can generate cards and won’t go into fatigue that fast.
    In other decks it seems pretty useless, we will see this in aggro pala, i feel, it can get kodo’d back (Is kodo still in the game?)

  20. joseph
    March 12, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    potentially a neutral divine favor?

  21. Piterno
    March 12, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    Could fit into aggro, when they run out of cards steal their enemy control deck’s combo

  22. GlosuuLang
    March 12, 2018 at 1:50 pm

    When this was revealed I only thought I would only play it consistently if a Control Warlock used the Final Seal and I knew he had Azari in his hand. That way I get to nuke his deck too. HOWEVER it would probably still be GG since the Warlock DK would bring back demons for my oponent but not for me, and the Fatigue war would still be on his side… Then I read the comments here and realised it would be interesting to fill your hand after vomiting it with Aggro à-la-Divine Favor. However, I’m not so sure how having a hand of control AOE damage could help me if I’m aggro… Looks like a meme-y legendary, but it’s difficult to predict. 3/5 stars just for the cool effect, but it’s difficult to see how it could fit anywhere effectively right now…

  23. Birdmammal
    March 12, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    New card for my Thief priest.

    “I like your hand, I think I will TAKE IT!”

    • GlosuuLang
      March 12, 2018 at 1:45 pm

      I’m glad to see Archthief Rafaam memes still popular to this day. I admit he also destroyed me with my OP deck on my first attempt. One of the best moments while playing Hearthstone to this day.

  24. Elzein
    March 12, 2018 at 1:07 pm

    Play King Togwaggle. If you opponent doesn’t ransom his deck back immediately, play this. Now you can steal his deck permanently. Or reduce card costs somehow and do everything in a single turn. Meme play, but gold.

    • Dick Kickem
      March 12, 2018 at 1:39 pm

      that wouldnt work. you don’t swap hands, you get a copy of your opponents hand

      • Elzein
        March 12, 2018 at 1:58 pm

        Yes. So you get a copy of Kings Ransom. So if your oppenent plays it to get his deck back, you play it too and swap decks again, only this time permanently.

    • Birdmammal
      March 12, 2018 at 9:22 pm

      A good way to pull off the combo is with Quest druid

  25. einar thor thrastarson
    March 12, 2018 at 12:31 pm

    Maybe good in some kind of a aggro deck honestly. Emptying your hand and then filling it with control cards from your opponent. It might be sick!

  26. Bridgeburner
    March 12, 2018 at 10:53 am

    Its great as a hand filler.

    Play it when your hand is empty, Like Divine Favor, but you potentially get better cards and a body.

    could be good.

  27. YellowDude
    March 12, 2018 at 10:48 am

    I see we have already gotten the meme legendary of the set

    • Anon
      March 12, 2018 at 2:37 pm

      Neutral divine favor with 3/3 body, seems OK for aggro

      • YellowDude
        March 13, 2018 at 4:26 am

        Notably a lot worse than Divine Favor for a lot of reasons, and aggro won’t usually be running a 7 mana 3/3 just to refill their hand (if the opponent even has cards at that point)

  28. Kalo
    March 12, 2018 at 10:44 am

    First of all, why would this be an exodia counter?
    Second of all, this card sucks. Finally an interesting effect that’s not just extra stats, cost reduction, or that kind of bullshit. Better make that a 7 mana 3/3 so no one plays it.

    • Xix
      March 12, 2018 at 11:48 am

      It can give you 10 cards….

  29. Crapcrack
    March 12, 2018 at 10:28 am

    Well u don’t really see Exodia mage often.
    Wow all Legendaries so far SUCKS !

    • MrMeme
      March 12, 2018 at 11:32 am

      Wait until we see the rest of the set, it could happen what happened with Keleseth, dark pact and possesed lackey

  30. Vjater
    March 12, 2018 at 10:21 am

    Exodia Mage Counter

    • Eric
      March 12, 2018 at 11:22 am

      Also, with Ice Block getting HoF’d, unless a replacement for it shows up here, exodia mage is pretty well borked for the foreseeable future anyway.

    • davidus.j33@gmail.com
      March 12, 2018 at 1:52 pm

      I dont get the point. If the mage have the combo they will use it, if they dont you would steal and incomplete combo and cant draw cards you miss