Blackhowl Gunspire
Blackhowl Gunspire is a 7 Mana Cost Legendary Warrior Minion card from The Witchwood set!
Card Text
Can't attack. Whenever
this minion takes damage,
deal 3 damage to a
random enemy.
Flavor Text
The upper windows used to be for aiming. Then we thought: "Hey! MORE cannons!"
- Type
- Minion
- Rarity
- Legendary
- Set
- The Witchwood
- Class
- Warrior
- Cost
- 7
- Attack
- 3
- Health
- 8
- Minion Type
- Mechanics
- Can't Attack, Damage
- Artist
- Jason Kang
- Collectible
- Yes
- Rating
- 2.2/5 (3278 votes)
Card Review & Interactions
Even though I don’t think this card is particularly powerful, I like it. The flavor is really nice – you have a huge tower that can’t attack itself, but fires back every time it gets damaged.
Even though the 3/8 stat-line is not huge, you COULD say that it has 6 attack, just the 3 of it has a random target. 6/8 for 7 is still not that good, but the strong part about this minion is that it heavily benefits from every Whirlwind effect you play. It basically turns every Whirlwind into a sort of Swipe on a random enemy, which is cool.
Random enemy means that you could potentially use it as a combo piece, e.g. with Bouncing Blade in Wild, but it might be harder to pull off in Standard.
However, the card has lots of flaws. First of all, the stats aren’t that exciting. Even if we think of it as of a 6/8, it’s still not great. Then, the mana cost means that it’s hard to combo immediately – just think about how hard it is to get multiple Legendaries from the Rotface. And finally – yeah, Rotface. While it’s 1 mana more expensive, its effect is much more powerful. Summoning a random Legendary is way, way better than dealing 3 damage to a random target (unless you specifically build a combo around dealing damage). And, to be honest, I don’t see Rotface being overpowered, it doesn’t even get much play.
Plus, it’s difficult to just “drop it” like that without immediately comboing it, because if it gets destroyed by Siphon Soul, Polymorph, even Shadow Word: Pain, you get no value at all. Even if it gets cleared by a single hit or spell (e.g. Meteor), then it’s meh, but at least you dealt 3 damage.
This card would be significantly better with one simple change – Taunt. Right now, playing it against a faster deck can be pretty risky, because you don’t get any immediate value and you open yourself to just… dying to the board.
This card is pretty cool and I like the design, but I don’t think it will see much play. When it comes to power level, it’s probably below average. I’m not completely dismissing it, because Warrior might get more synergies, and building a deck oriented around Whirlwind effects might be a thing (Scourgelord Garrosh approves). Right now it’s only like a 3/10 though.
P.S. They should have called it "Blackhowl Moving Turret"! (reference if someone doesn't get it)
Card rating: 3/10
82 Comments
Holcrol
I suppose we've gotta keep running shadow word pain amirite?
HS
so with this + warpath warrior can almost kill a voidlord with only 2 cards and 15 mana, warrior is back
Xix
It can send the damage to the face....
Crxne
I really like the idea around this card, I like it because it reminds me of Blackguard which is not played but sometimes can snowball and becomes very strong when you have the follow-up, but my fear is : will it be worth setting it up just like Rotface ? (Rotface can make great stuff but can also be absolutely inefficient).
Warrior lacks of good turn 7 so that's very interesting, we must see now if tempo warrior will be strong enough. I think this could see play in control as well but tempo seems to be its place to be.
Crxne
the most interesting thing is that you can play this on turn 7 then, on turn 8, play 4 times Warpath for 12 damage + 3 if it attacks
Crxne
My bad I didn't see "Can't attack" (so this looks honestly like another bad legendary now I saw that)
TardisGreen
It can’t attack.
Tor
I would've like it with taunt, would be a great defensive type and fuel it in Taunt Warrior
TardisGreen
Axe Flinger’s daddy.
Random Dude
+ DK Garrosh + Razor + Unstable Ghoul, +... +... +...
Late, but if cheated out earlier, could really disrupt people's stuff.
4/5
lanakias
Really?really blizzard?what a troll..These guys are crazy there...
Sharelwine
This is the worst card revealed so far.
StarPlatnum
I personally don't think every legendary has to be good. sometimes a card is just fun
Rotface isn't good, but at least it's fun. maybe there's a combo somewhere that i'm missing, but this card doesn't seem fun or good.
ShoM
If you play this on an empty board in wild and drop a bouncing blade on it, thats 24 dmg to the face. If you can bring its health up by +2 with handbuffs or thaurissan trickery, its flat 30. In constructed you can play the echo whirlwind card 5 times for 15 dmg if this lives a turn, 18 with blood razor. Other than that I dunno, makes an okay turn 9 with the death knight hero power.
Epoch
Because its trash. 😎
Vjater
There's some serious potential for a new otk deck in wild with Bouncing Blade and Don Han'Cho
or maybe Inner Rage and Rampage with some help from Emperor Thaurissan.
Doomsayer to guarantee an empty board and then Gun Turret and Bouncing Blade.
Stonekeep
1. Doomsayer doesn't guarantee empty board. It can, and often will, get removed/Silenced.
2. You can't guarantee that Han'Cho will hit this card.
3. If you need Emperor and a few more combo pieces on top of that, then it's going to be even harder to pull off.
There are hundreds of obscure OTK possibilities in Wild. 99% of them don't see play for one simple reason - they are not consistent enough, good enough or there are just better ways to combo down the opponent. This feels like one of those cases.
sober667
As long as your combo dont consist of any other minions you acualy CAN guarantee for don too hit that card just cut as much minions as you can for wapons and controll spells
BUT if board is clean and that one got hit from hancho you have 39 damage in hand with only bouncing blade and that problem is only that those are 3 very specyfic card wich you have one of in deck but in havy controll deck or maby even with new ODD cost card deck it can work
Stonekeep
But if you play that combo in Control deck, you WILL play other minions too. It means that they could potentially screw with that combo.
I'm not saying that the card is unplayable, it's just that this combo is a bit unreliable. I mean, Han'Cho activated multiple different combos and yet it never seen play, because it's so hard to set-up. You need to absolutely isolate the combo minion in your hand, but that's difficult. Combo decks tend to run lots of cycle like Acolyte of Pain, Novice Engineer etc. and Control decks just run lots of other minions.
Not to mention that opponent HAS to have an empty board for this combo to work. Remember that Bouncing Blade stops once it kills something, meaning that if it kills one of the opponent's minions first (which will be easier since this will shoot them too), it just stops and the combo is done.
So you need to hit it with Han'Cho, ensure that opponent has an empty board somehow, but without using any mana (you CAN play Doomsayer after a board clear, like the guy above said, but Doomsayer can be cleared AND Han'Cho can hit it), then play this combo. It's just so unreliable and hard to pull off.
StanWithMe
I guess its to vulnerable for the effect
Felixhana
Team5 just want to make sure we never have to face a warrior on ladder again at least for the next 4 months
MiPo
Looking at both Warrior legendaries, I presume there will be an OP card, which restores the health of your minions - I can't see any other reason for printing them.
palkaanalka
why not mech?
WaqTheWalker
A really good card in Kripp's 'Recruit Warrior'. Good wombo combo card.
Slaxer
It would be a much better card if it had 4 attack. This needs to survive one turn to be a good card and it is too easy to kill it for priest especially in turn 7-8. I don't think it's gonna see any play.
crapcrack
Yo this card is trash
Guldan’
Why do they even bother designing something like this garbage...
Grumpy Old Man
Can't Attack. Whenever this takes damage, deal 3 damage to a random enemy.
Change to
"Can't Attack. Whenever any friendly taunt minion or this takes damage, deal 3 damage to a random enemy."
OR
"Can't Attack. Whenever any friendly minion takes damage, deal 2 damage to a random enemy."
and it might be worth the 7
Thraben
With razorblade this can deal 24 damage in total but reality is that you put this on the field and it gets removed and you'll just be wasting a whole turn... Not like this Blizzard..
wow
This is 10x worse than 5 mana 4/4 guy. Unplayable.
Jorgelenny47
The dream would be to play this on an empty board and then bouncing blade. But realisticly that's not happening
HotCola
sad that blood warriors is rotating out. That would be interesting
PandaWolf525
Come to Wild. We have cookies and our main decks only change a little bit with each set and the memes are real.
Haha
This!! I replace max 4 cards in renolock each set :)
WolfieBane
cool card as a concept not quite what i was hoping for when i wanted the second warrior legendary to be a 7 drop but certainly interesting
That one Guy
Counter Defile?
skystrife89
If you could play this safe on turn 7 you could on 8 bonemare it? But then again the amount of removal hearth stone has is hard for it to stick. Hopefully blizzard gave warrior a spell card that gives a minion taunt this expansion. But from what I can see so far warrior will still be a tier3 class in standard it's sad that the past several expansions blizzard has slowly started to forget warrior and just give it card pack filler cards 😔
Sweak
Blizzard forgot the keyword "taunt" 😑
Soup And Salad
I agree that or perhaps a clause of "This minion can only take up to 2 damage at a time" or something would've push the card over the edge of playability.
skystrife89
If this was played on tempo on 7 and some how it made it to turn 8 it would
Soup And Salad
Expecting a minion to last more than a turn is usually asking a lot of a card, especially on that is a bit understated.
NIGHTxBLADE
What are they doing? They are DESTROYING whole respect of players !
After watching trailer of hots that scene which lich king was as weak as a footman i saw this will coming they are just focusing on their OTHER game maybe this is the resaon
DukeStarswisher
You know that's not how that works right?.... Hearthstone is its own Blizzard team.
Soup And Salad
How exactly is creating a slightly weak legendary minion for Warrior disrespecting Hearthstone's player base?
Also, how is the Lich King only as strong as Goldshire Footman?
You last point makes no sens too. Blizzard doesn't constantly shift their people around to their various games depending on what each of those games apparently need.
NIGHTxBLADE
They DID you dont remember what happend to warcraft iii series?
And its not about the warrior legendery card just check whole expansion
And yes they do they are focusing too much on overwatch
Soup And Salad
I don't really think you can point at a card and say that is a result of Blizzard management choosing to focus on certain things at the expense of others. They may be doing so, but even for as large as Activision-Blizzard is, they still have finite resources, and the upper management has ultimate say on what gets made. However, I would at least hope the upper management is smart enough to not shift people around their various games constantly. Those who design cards for Hearthstone are probably not exactly adept at working out balancing in Overwatch.
I only play Hearthstone as far as Blizzard's games go, so if they cancelled a Warcraft III remake, I know that sucks, but that has very little if anything to do with the quality of this card. In fact, blatantly more powerful cards would be designed if the card designers are being lazy or overworked or whatever you think they're doing. It is far easier for HS R&D to create a 5 mana 5/5 with battlecry: Gain 55 armor than it is to create a more thoughtful design than this card.
Granted, you could think Team 5 is full of people who think their playerbase is full of the mentally disabled and will take anything they give them, but even in that case it would be easier to create a set full of nothing but vanilla minions.
Alex
Man, Hearthstone team and Overwatch team are 2 different things!
NIGHTxBLADE
Check the trsiler of heroes of the storm
KumoMek
So, they want to combo this card with warpath the next turn?
Piterno
Why is this a legendary? It's epic at best...
kingmhd
Even if “can attack”, not an amazing value for a legendary!!!
Greg
Ideally you drop this when you already have control. Warrior still has a few triggers for it immediately and I think it's not as bad as it looks. Could be fun to mess around with it. Other classes have got some more powerful legends but this will fight against the defiles and godfreys we'll be seeing a lot of.
Soup And Salad
This can be decent given the right circumstances. Any whirlwind effect played with this on board can be really powerful. I can see some form of Control Warrior using this, but its stats are what kill it. 7 mana for a card that can't attack should have more than 8 health.
Perhaps if this had taunt, it would be good enough to throw out on turn 7, but as is, its rather niche.
Bo
The design is fine, but the cost is too high for dmg output. If it did 5 or 6 dmg instead of 3 it would be playable.
GlosuuLang
I like the flavor of this card, but as others say, it's too understated for its cost. It should be a 3/10, maybe, or cost one less mana. Don't forget it CAN'T attack. Ideally you would drop this in the lategame at an empty board, have it survive one turn, then Warpath 5 times to deal 15 damage to enemies. An alternative is recruiting it with Woecleaver and then Warpathing. A bit unreliable, but it could work... 2.5 out of 5 stars, don't think it will see much play...
Aljosaking
It's not unreliable to use Woecleaver if you run Dead Man's Hand. If you build a whole deck around it, it could work. Don't forget that when Grim Patron was revealed, everyone thought it was terrible because it didn't fit into any existing meta decks. But, right now, there are no warrior meta decks. So, if this card is to work, it will work in an entirely new deck. I think it's ridiculous to judge it before the whole set has been revealed, and people have a chance to experiment and see in which direction the meta is heading.
GlosuuLang
Yes, a Dead Man's Hand could make this work better, for sure. I do hope Control Warrior, in one form or another, is a Tier 1 or Tier 2 deck this expansion, I've missed it. And yes, there will always be cards which have a power level that slips the vast majority of players, whether under- or over-performing. We've seen the Marsh Queen and Voidlord, for example. Now, it's also true that the community guesses the power level right I'd say 60% of the time. And we're also a bit upset when a forced archetype is really bad. I'm thinking Discolock, Freeze Shaman, etc. Spell Hunter was also previewed as a bad idea after cards like To My Side! and Rhok'delar were revealed, and it took a few months until it was revealed to be powerful - and thanks to things like Barnes + Y'Shaarj and Emerald Spellstone. I'm not liking the new Handdruid archetype they seem to be pushing, or this card, right now; but if they print something in the power level of Emerald Spellstone, then yeah, the archetype could see play. Just don't print more Cryostasis, Moorabis or Zavas.
Rookskull
I love the flavor but its a miss. Its close to being okay, if it was cheaper, had taunt, more damage, could attack or any number of other things/combination of things. I cant see it being played in any format. Most cards are at least okay in arena but not this one. Funny for meme OTKs and YouTube highlight videos though.
Chocobo
1 star card.Only good possible combi i see is playing this on 9 , somehow survive and then Warpath 5 times.That will surely clear the board and deal some damage to face.But thats wasting 2 turns just to board clear + some damage.
Really terrible card.
Joost
How does this card qualify as legendary though?
Should at least have 4 attack and double health or something or taunt.
Compare this to the priest legendary and then balance??
Nero
So many fkin cannons firing and ,,can ´t attack”. Also no taunt...
Anton Wilzewski
I think it is fine, it has decent stats, because when it is attacked it deals 3 damage twice and you want to kill it, before it is facelessed and you probably die.
Blorp
This card sure seems bad, but let's wait for the rest of the set before marching to Blizz HQ with torches and pitchforks.
Who knows, maybe Warrior is getting a spell to enable cool combos with this... maybe.
Matt
This is like "impractical as rin" bad and most of the time the meta doesn't shift enough to change that.
Storta
Boi in wild this guy is gonna have a super combo with bouncing blade 24 face dmg on a empty board
MattH
It could do 33 dmg with rampage.
lolol
Garrosh after seeing 2nd warrior legendary be like, “I CHOOSE DEATH!”
EnergieMoule
LOL
Nomad
Why tf are both warrior legendaries Odd cost?? :o Seriously, Blizz? Is this just because Geomancer and Grom are both 8?
Aaron Slack
I think the biggest problem is destroy cards like the aforementioned shadow word pain or siphon soul. It should really have can't be targeted by spells or hero powers, which would make sense with a gun turret anyway.
extremelyhonestjoe
This is a bad card, but it's at least interesting. But damn why would you make this a legendary? Is Blizzard secretly trying to weaken random legendary summoning effect rng?
KaihatsuJai
Why hello, Rotface for control warrior. Aren't you expensive to play.
I really want to like this card, but it will take some time before it sees play.
Mugendramon
Zarogg's crown fun ensues, though.
Aaron Slack
Haha yeah, crown followed by three uses of warpath could sure be fun.
mrB
Why cant this be a mech? With Mechboostingcards for statboosting and the tauntgiving cards this would be great. I think this card is very nice for an OTK combo. With bouncing blade playable in wild, so no problem to support with nzoth for the lategame.
Pita
If you are building a warrior deck around this card with the Rush mechanic, think what Sudden Genesis could do. Turn 7 you play Gunspire with minions ready to trade and clear the board. Turn 8 you Warpath, Sudden Genesis, another 3 Warpath equals 21 dmg + 4 AOE. Most minions will die and a chunk of that dmg will go face, not to mention any of your surviving minions, and the opponent still has to deal with Gunspire, leading to more procs.
Without Sudden Genesis, most removal will proc the effect and there are few cards that could do it in one fell swoop, so Blackhowl continues to proc. Minion trades take 3 attack damage and activate the proc.
Blackhowl Gunspire probably wont make tier 1, but it puts opponents in an uncomfortable position because left unchecked it could snowball. I think Blackhowl's upside is tremendous and could be viable for control/aggro warrior.
Pita
Realized how off my math was. Still a lot of potential if you consider all the whirlwind effects and awkwardness this card puts a your opponent in.
Adam
turn 6 and full board control turn 7 this crap card :D Wow huge imagination And opponent just sleep :)
Holcrol2
There are some fun things in this set. This card is one of them. Its funny! But it needs Oakheart to be somewhat reasonable. Not worth the $70/3200 dust to join this new expansion. Guess I'll find something else to do. :(
Blorp
Great tech card against Avenging Wrath. You know, that card in every paladin decks?
Andy
will someone find a way to cheat this our for cheap and break it?
Daha
You can't do this to a Tier 4 class Blizzard.
Comments are closed.