Genn Greymane

Genn Greymane Card

Genn Greymane is a 6 Mana Cost Legendary Neutral Minion card from the The Witchwood set!

Card Text

Start of Game: If your deck has only even-Cost cards, your starting Hero Power costs (1).

Flavor Text

Ever since Sylvanas killed his son, he's dreamed of getting… even.

Genn Greymane Additional Information

  1. 0-cost cards count as even and can be used with Genn. – Source
  2. Shifting Scroll counts as 0-cost and will work in a Genn deck. – Source
  3. Quests are odd cost and will not work with this card. – Source

Genn Greymane Card Review

Both Genn and Baku are the definition of build around cards, even more than Prince cards (e.g. Prince Keleseth) or Highlander cards (e.g. Reno Jackson). It’s the biggest restriction we’ve seen so far. For example, with Prince you couldn’t run 2-drops – with this one you can’t run any card that costs 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9. That’s a huge difference. Even Highlander cards were easier to build around – you sometimes had to fill your curve with sub-optimal cards, and had to drop some good ones, but at least you had a curve.

However, the huge advantage of those two is that you get the effect activated as soon as the game starts. It’s not like the other two restrictions, where you first had to draw the card and play it. Actually, you don’t even want to draw those cards, as they’re pretty poor stat-wise.

Having the effect up from Turn 1 MIGHT be a reason to play those two. Another thing is that while you are often forced to play off-curve, you can actually fill your turns with Hero Powers. For example, with Genn, you can HP on T1, play 2 mana card on T2, play a 2 mana card + HP on T3 etc. On the other hand, with Baku, two odd cost cards make an even cost play. On Turn 2 you can just Hero Power, and then on Turn 4, for example, play a 3 mana card and a 1 mana card. So while you are more likely to go off-curve with those cards, it’s not like you will float mana every turn.

But let’s look at Genn in particular. To be honest, I think that upgrading a Hero Power is a stronger effect than making it cost 1 in most of the cases, but the 1 mana Hero Power has some upsides. One of the biggest upsides is the fact that you can Hero Power on Turn 1, so you ALWAYS have a Turn 1 play, even if it’s not amazing. So, this card would work best in decks that a) want to Hero Power often and b) don’t mind Hero Powering on Turn 1. I’ve heard some voices that it might be good in Warlock or something, but I really don’t see it – as a Warlock you REALLY don’t want to drop odd-cost cards like, you know, all the good Demons (DoomguardVoidlord), Skull of the Man'ariPossessed Lackey etc. It just makes no sense at all.

The class I think this would fit into most is actually Paladin. The most powerful Paladin cards are even cost – powerhouses like Call to Arms or Sunkeeper Tarim could still be played. Paladin doesn’t have a lot of great 3-drops (Rallying Blade is rotating out) or 5-drops (current Dude Paladin plays Stand Against Darkness, which also rotates out). Given how well Paladin synergizes with its Hero Power, I actually think that we might see a deck like that. No 1-drops might be a slight problem, but would it really? You still have a 1/1 on Turn 1, every single game. It’s not amazing, but it’s not bad. Then, no 1-drops means that your Call to Arms gets better on average, as you’re always going to pull out three 2-drops from it (you’d want to add some 2 mana Taunt, though, because pulling a Taunt from Call to Arms was pretty good). Given that a Paladin deck like that would be quite heavily reliant on tokens, filling the odd turns with Hero Power doesn’t sound that bad. Like, on Turn 3, playing Knife Juggler + Hero Power can sometimes be really good, especially if you snipe something. If we get some even-cost Silver Hand Recruit synergies, then I really think that it might be a thing.

The other deck I could see doing this is Shaman, especially if the class gets some more even-cost Totem synergies. The reason is that Hero Powering on Turn 1 is still solid as a Shaman, as it gives you a body on the board. And then, in the right deck, Shaman’s Hero Power can be really synergistic. It looks like the new Shaman Hero also costs 8 mana, so if it’s powerful, you could potentially see them both in a single deck. As much as I’m quite sure that it might work in the case of Paladin, when it comes to Shaman it really depends on the cards they get this expansion. Shaman is in a bad spot right now, and if they print some great, odd-cost cards, then running this would not work most likely, as you’d prefer to get your strong cards over cheaper Totems.

All in all, those effects are incredibly interesting. Right now it’s absolutely impossible to say whether they will see play, but I can see that they have some potential. We’ll have to see the new cards first, and even then we’ll most likely have to test those out extensively before giving out a final verdict. But if I had to give my rating out right now, it would probably be…

P.S. One thing I forgot to mention is that it only reduces the cost of BASIC Hero Powers. So you can’t go for any crazy shenanigans with Hero cards or maybe other ways to change your Hero Power. Obviously, it doesn’t mean that you can’t play it in the same card as a Hero – once you get to the point when you want to play the Hero, you can probably afford to pay 2 mana for the Hero Powers. But it would most likely work best in the decks that don’t want to play Hero cards at all.

Card rating: 7/10

Genn Greymane Full Card Art

Genn Greymane Full Art

Leave a Reply

59 Comments

  1. Tricklas
    March 29, 2018 at 4:35 am

    Except in aggro very bad Card. The heropower’s cost only matters in turn 1,3,5,7,9 thats 5 mana u save therefore u can’t Play the half of the Cards. No value except maybe aggro pali

  2. Red
    March 21, 2018 at 4:14 am

    I really hope there are cards like Frost Giant in this new expansion.

  3. ShoM
    March 18, 2018 at 11:29 am

    Yes, we all see that the 1 cost Hero power in an Even deck gives better mana efficiency than an all evens deck without it. The reason people don’t like it is because deck with card pool limitations is inherently less efficient than deck that doesn’t have card limitations. There is exactly 3 reasons card like Genn with huge restrictions might see play:

    1) The card’s effect is so powerful it outdoes restriction. For example Reno Jackson who is so strong you would drop like 10 good cards for it. Genn’s restriction is arguably bigger than Reno’s and the effect is much weaker. it simply does not stand on it’s own 2 feet
    2) The card’s restriction is so small you might as well put it in. For example Prince Valanar in a rogue deck as you wouldn’t want to play much of the rogue 4 mana options anyway. Genn’s restriction is obviously huge for every singe deck type so there’s little hope here
    3) The deck so inherently inclined to play the card that not playing it would be just plain stupid. For Example Patches. Of course you’re gonna put Patches in your Pirate Warrior, you’d be stupid not to. At the moment there isn’t enough cards seen that push player towards Even deck to justify inclusion that way and likely wont because Genn itself is suppose to be the card to justify the other Even synergies.

    TLDR; Genn is bad Because it’s like Reno Jackson if Reno healed for 10 rather than full. The effect nis strong but not strong enough for the restriction to be excused

    • Xix
      March 28, 2018 at 11:30 pm

      I think your forgetting control paladin. All the good control paladin cards are even cost. Only Uther, lynessa, the sunkeeper and stonehill are the powerfull losses. In addition using call to arms to only pull out 2 drops is really strong. (to bad no more dirty rat)
      A paladin hero power for 1 mana is as good as playing a bad 1 drop. If the meta allows control decks, this deck has high chance to see play.

      • Fun Of
        April 8, 2018 at 7:19 pm

        Umm..Sunkeeper is 6, even not odd, check your cards before making statements.

        • Xix
          April 10, 2018 at 1:50 am

          Oops, well that makes sunkeeper even better. It would be a great turn 7 play XD

  4. Nilez
    March 15, 2018 at 10:24 pm

    I can see this being more valuable than a lot of people give it credit. Making your hero power cost 1 mana in an all-evens deck basically means you use your hero power EVERY ODD TURN. The fact that you will always have efficient use of mana should mean something.

    Couple classes I can see this working with: mage / warlock / paladin / hunter / maybe priest?

    Compared to the odd card, I favor this one because you won’t use the one mana on even turns for the odds card. Your hero power basically tells you to use a cheaper card on odd turns and an even cheaper one on even turns if you want to HP every turn (which is probably the intent if you invest so heavily into it).

    Probably won’t be a very popular card, but I can imagine instances in which it could work very well.

  5. ShoM
    March 15, 2018 at 8:13 am

    Card’s pretty trash. Obviously the effect is strong, but the restriction is much too huge to be worth it. Only hero powers that MIGHT be good enough to excuse only evens are Paladin, Warlock and MAYBE Hunter.

    Warlock gets to have their Handlock stuff and most of the good spells but they lose the incredibly powerful Recruit/Voidlord interaction which is likely just more consistently good than getting cheap taps. Also cheap taps are much worse when you realize the only even heal worth a damn is the spellstone. And spellstone “needs” Kobolt Libarian to properly function.

    Paladin gets to keep the 2 drop call to arms goodness, Tarim buffs and tirion which is honestly pretty good, but playing aggro sounds super iffy without one drops (even with 1 mana guys) and control paladin has historically always had plenty of mana to waste around anyway. Getting to play stonehill defender might honestly be just plain better in control pally than 1 mana guys.

    Hunter might finally catch a break and be the scary aggro class it was meant to be, but you cant play a 1 drop on turn 1 if you literally cant run 1 drops. We already have an incredibly frightening hunter aggro tool that makes you unable to play 1 drop on turn 1. It is the hunter quest and it is fucking terrible in practice BECAUSE (like this new card) you cant play a 1 cost on turn 1

    • Dudewazzap
      March 16, 2018 at 9:05 pm

      In wild you can do some fun stuff. For example, make a hero power mage deck with coldarra drake, fallen hero, justicar trueheart, garrison commander, Frost giant and some other stuff to create a sick combo deck where you just chain gun the hero power button each turn.

      • ShoM
        March 18, 2018 at 11:38 am

        Well firstly I wrote from purely competetive point of view. Card can be fun to tinker with but that is for highlight reels, not laddering. Also what makes a deck fun is very subjective and as such not as easy to comment on.

        And your combo doesnt work. Justicar replaces your hero power, removing the genn effect, you can already get a MUCH easier way to reduce Hero power cost in Maiden of the Lake.

  6. Helioshadow
    March 14, 2018 at 6:13 am

    Don’t see how this wouldn’t work with Quests; Reno and the Princes check the CURRENT deck as opposed to the original deck, and Malchezaar’s effect happens AFTER mulligan, so assuming mirrored mechanics, you’d have the card in hand, so when the card checks your deck, it wouldn’t be in there…?

    I mean, I guess it’s up to whoever wants to be in charge of that mechanic, but really it wouldn’t make an extremely overpowered deck besides MAYBE Kaleidosaur Pally having a guaranteed minion to play with the spells, one turn later (i.e. Spikeridge Steed t7) or Cataclysm Discolock having more cards earlier and more of a chance to draw into Cataclysm earlier…? They’d still need the rest of their deck restricted to the quest as well as the mana cost anyways, so it’d be pretty difficult to make a meta-breaking Quest deck utilizing this card… Idunno, maybe they’ll release a broken quest-hero power synergy card which would make decks with 1-mana hero powers as well as quests broken… meh, idk, still think Quests should be able to be used with Greymane.

  7. Grighten
    March 13, 2018 at 3:59 pm

    This is going to be OP AF in Hunter mark my words..

    • CD001
      March 14, 2018 at 5:37 am

      Not sure – for secret/spell hunter you get to keep all the secrets but lose all the synergy (Eaglehorn Bow – all current weapons in fact – and the Emerald Spellstone) except Prof. Putricide. Cloaked Huntress rotates out anyway.

      You also can’t use Kill Command, Animal Companion, Tundra Rhino or Tracking.

      It’s probably Face Hunter that most wants to ping the hero power every turn but whether that will be viable with only evenly costed minions remains to be seen – especially with no weapons, or spells that can go face.

  8. Matt
    March 13, 2018 at 12:31 am

    Definitely seems like something you would have to play around with. If someone finds a refined deck that doesn’t mind the drawback much I could see it taking off.

  9. aaron
    March 12, 2018 at 9:39 pm

    any confirmation on sylvanas and genn interactions? i dont think it is a coincidence they kill each other, battle for azeroth spoiler.

    • royalaardvark
      March 13, 2018 at 7:01 am

      Maybe lead the comment with a spoiler warning?

  10. POIIUYYT
    March 12, 2018 at 9:02 pm

    Play with moon eater will work out great!

    • Birdmammal
      March 13, 2018 at 9:05 am

      Ya just have to add ONLY ODD COST CARD’S, and ONLY EVEN COST CARD’S. Put it together and you a deck with ONLY ODD COST CARDS AND ONLY EVEN COST CARD’S. WOW getting both the upgrade and cost reduction of your hero power.

      I Wish 🙁

  11. Slippers
    March 12, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    this card’s use all depends on weather it works with death knights or not, If it does then otk priest is back, and may be played is druid (may not due to lose of wild growth, however may make the weapon useful for ramp as a replacement), most likely wont be played in warrior due to lose of whirlwind and shield slam, wont be played in warlock due to lose of many common powerful cards (doomguard, cube, pact, voidlord, skull) plus 1 mana take 2 draw 1 isn’t that much better and you don’t generally need the mana for the first turns where it would matter most because all you do is tap, won’t be played in hunter due to lose of spellstone, eagle horn bow, and basicly any removal cards they have besides secrets, it may be used in paladin due to not losing too much important, they still have board clears, still have call, still have jugglers, ect. Honestly I think that paladin will benefit the most from this card of all classes, at least in it’s current state. If it doesn’t apply to DK then it will be useless in other classes because of how powerful their DK’s are for them and that if they don’t have that buff then it’s just a below average 6 drop and a deck restriction for half the game. However until we know how this interaction works, we won’t know how good this is.

    • Elzein
      March 12, 2018 at 5:29 pm

      Doesn’t work with DK Anduin’s HP, but wouldn’t bring otk priest back anyway. The deck mostly died after Raza got nerfed, and not using Velen and Lyra is a big drawback.

      • Birdmammal
        March 13, 2018 at 9:37 pm

        I think its just the COAST of the card. I DON’T think it matters what it says in its text box ( like gaining armor and dealing damage)

  12. daawsomeone
    March 12, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    in wild this could allow a turn 6, 1 mana upgraded hero power
    likely won’t be seen in many meta decks but it will be fun for screwing around

    • ShoM
      March 15, 2018 at 7:57 am

      Starting Hero power costs 0. Not Upgraded hero power costs 0. You play justicar and you will just have a 2 mana upgraded

  13. Bridgeburner
    March 12, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    hmmm, after this activates, if you play justicar does the updated hero power stay at 1 mana cost? or does it revert back to 2?

    Could be interesting in Inspire decks in wild. Like someone else said, you will always have 1 extra mana on your odd turns so a lot of hero powering will be happening.

  14. GlosuuLang
    March 12, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    Question: would Quests still be a viable play here? You ALWAYS get them in your initial hand, so your deck wouldn’t have them at the START of the game. I remember that Malchezaar added the legendaries after you mulliganed, and that was considered “start” of the game (you couldn’t get his legendaries in your initial hand precisely because of this).

    • Elzein
      March 12, 2018 at 2:03 pm

      Now that is a good question

    • MrStealYoDeck
      March 12, 2018 at 2:53 pm

      Indeed an intersting question

    • Tenbatsu
      March 12, 2018 at 3:10 pm

      Starting deck means whatever existed in your deck before u start the game (see ciri nova or supe in gwent)

      • GlosuuLang
        March 12, 2018 at 4:00 pm

        It doesn’t say starting deck though. It simply says deck. We know that you could put two Renos in your deck (for example, in Dungeon Run) and still their effects would activate after drawn because the duplicate is no longer in your deck. The game effectively starts after the mulligans, and the Quest is no longer in your deck, so I’m inclined to think that you can indeed play Quests with this minion. Which would be great, since you can also play the Quest in Turn 1, and you’re not only restricted to Hero Powering or coining a 2-drop in Turn 1.

        • All0is0Dust
          March 12, 2018 at 4:21 pm

          I think the best way to think of this effect is Prince Malchezar, his effect happens before you even draw your opening hand. So I believe quests won’t work with this card.

          • GlosuuLang
            March 12, 2018 at 4:31 pm

            Wrong. Prince Malchezaar’s effect happens AFTER you mulligan. You can’t get his legendaries in your starting hand. Check it out yourself.

          • All0is0Dust
            March 12, 2018 at 6:20 pm

            Wow… shows how often I play the card. Then unless they change that mechanic it will work exactly as you said.

    • Evident - Author
      March 12, 2018 at 5:08 pm

      Quests are odd cost, so they won’t work with Genn. Confirmation here: https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/83wi2w/it_is_here/dvl46aq/

      • GlosuuLang
        March 13, 2018 at 2:43 am

        Thanks for the info. That is a shame, since you will always have a weak turn 1 (only Hero Power or having to coin out a 2-mana card). It would have been nice to toy around with Quests too, I hope they change their mind on the subject. With Prince Malchezaar’s mechanics it would make sense to have Quests be playable here.

      • Piterno
        March 16, 2018 at 9:47 am

        How does baku work with coin then?

        • Nidnam
          March 27, 2018 at 2:58 pm

          Coin doesn’t ever go in your deck…. it’s added to your hand after initial draw

          • Xix
            March 27, 2018 at 11:21 pm

            But the quest is in your opening hand aswell…. And prince Malchezar allways happends after the muligan.

  15. GlosuuLang
    March 12, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Blizzard does it again and reinvents itself. When you thought everything was done already… I hope I open this guy (or the other one) in a pack and can start experimenting. 4/5 stars – can’t say if it will be good competitively, but using your brains to deck build is always welcome.

  16. SimEgg
    March 12, 2018 at 1:05 pm

    Return of Raza Priest? XD Honestly pretty good with shadow reaper in Priest.

    • Joopiter
      March 12, 2018 at 1:19 pm

      It doesn’t work with Reaper’s hero power.

      • SimEgg
        March 12, 2018 at 1:50 pm

        Why not? Reaper of 8-mana (even) and Raza make you keep the (1) cost after you play Reaper. So if you make a priest deck with this you only need to draw Reaper to have a (1) cost Hero Power that deal 2 damage and refresh! That is pretty good if you only need 1 card and if control preist with only even cards is a good deck.

        • SimEgg
          March 12, 2018 at 1:52 pm

          Reaper cost 8-mana* sorry

        • GlosuuLang
          March 12, 2018 at 1:57 pm

          Read the card. Your STARTING hero power costs (1)…

        • Piterno
          March 12, 2018 at 1:57 pm

          Only works with starting hero power, so DK HP doesn’t work with it.

          • SimEgg
            March 12, 2018 at 2:07 pm

            Oh that is sad… Feels weak then. Maybe I’m wrong…

  17. Xix
    March 12, 2018 at 11:46 am

    Could work for control paladin maybe? That deck has alot of even cards. They often use call to arms to only pull out 2-drops.
    Turn 1 make a dude is not the worst and overall control paladins skip turn 1. After that making dudes for 1 mana is pretty mana-efficient.
    A good thing Beardo is odd-cost card or wild would be broken.

    0 mana cost spells is even aswell, so maybe a revival of the Anduin-machine-gun deck? No need to keep raza in your opening hand….

    Anway I like these type of cards, gives new ways of thinking for decks. It’s only a pity alot of classes dont benefit enough from.

    • Elzein
      March 12, 2018 at 1:17 pm

      This card won’t affect Uther of the Ebon Blade’s hp, since it’s not your “starting” hero power, so no overpowered exodia Paladin

    • Joopiter
      March 12, 2018 at 1:18 pm

      Beardo would not be broken because it reduces the cost of only STARTING hero power. So doesn’t work with DKs.

    • Piterno
      March 12, 2018 at 2:24 pm

      Not to mention that Uther costs 9 and couldn’t be played consistently in a deck with this card

  18. Eric
    March 12, 2018 at 11:27 am

    1) This works with Keleseth. That could be interesting.
    2) 0 is an even number.
    3) I think this is less of a downside than the odd number guy, as you can hero power with the 1 mana from your odd turns.

  19. Tau
    March 12, 2018 at 11:22 am

    This is what they said about Reno. We just can´t know yet.

  20. YellowDude
    March 12, 2018 at 10:56 am

    These Start of Game cards are interesting, really want to see what the rest of the set looks like because through theorycrafting these legendaries could work somehow.

  21. MrMeme
    March 12, 2018 at 10:47 am

    On turn 1 you hero power or coin something, weak turn 1 but might be good long term

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

    Not even the same lul, and i like Keleseth

  23. Crapcrack
    March 12, 2018 at 10:26 am

    The downside is waaaay too much, will NEVER see play

    • Alsozatch
      March 12, 2018 at 10:27 am

      This is what people said about keleseth.

      • FrozenMoose
        March 12, 2018 at 1:08 pm

        That’s true. People poured so much dirt on the princes, but all of them saw some play in constructed, Keleseth more than others

    • Grighten
      March 13, 2018 at 4:00 pm

      Hunter will use this really well.

    • Pindead
      April 28, 2018 at 7:29 pm

      noob