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Phantom Militia

Phantom Militia

Phantom Militia is a 3 Mana Cost Rare Neutral Minion card from The Witchwood set!

Card Text

Echo
Taunt

Flavor Text

Recruited from the Gilnean opera house.

Type
Minion
Rarity
Rare
Set
The Witchwood
Class
Neutral
Cost
3
Attack
2
Health
4
Minion Type
Mechanics
Echo, Taunt
Artist
Dai Yang
Collectible
Yes

Card Review & Interactions

First card featuring the new mechanic - Echo. Or well, not exactly "first" - it was already present on Unstable Evolution. I like the fact that they print mechanics like that on a single card to test out the waters before going all in on adding multiple similar cards.

Echo is a very interesting mechanic. Echo cards are generally bad for their mana cost, that should always be the case. 2/4 Taunt for 3 is not playable in Constructed, just like a 1 mana Evolve for a single minion. Their power lies in the fact that they have great late game scaling, as they can be replayed as many times as you want.

Phantom Militia is... by itself it's pretty mediocre. Right now, I don't see a deck that would want to play it without any extra synergies. I mean, 3 mana 2/4 Taunt is bad, 6 mana 2x 2/4 Taunt is also bad, and 9 mana 3x 2/4 Taunt is also... yeah, bad. Of course, the flexibility adds a few points - having a Turn 3 play that can be played on Turn 9 if you top deck it. But that's the thing, this specific card would probably see play in a slower deck, if anything. 2/4 for 3 is too slow for Aggro. And slow decks have plenty of things to do in the late game, they are never really in "top deck mode" so desperate that they need to squeeze as much value as they can from every 3-drop. It might be a solid discover choice from something like Stonehill Defender, but I just don't feel like it's good enough.

However, where this and potentially other Echo cards really shine are mana discounts. It was already confirmed that discounts from cards like Shadowstep or Emperor Thaurissan don't apply to the other copies. But, the permanent discounts do. That's why Shaman rolling a Radiant Elemental or Sorcerer's Apprentice with Unstable Evolution in hand means that he's in for a ride. Discounts get MASSIVE advantage with Echo cards, since they apply to every copy. And so, any Echo spell will have amazing synergy with the minions I've mentioned.

What about Echo minions, though? Well, they also have their own, cool synergy. Summoning Portal is a Warlock card pretty much no one remembers, because well, it's not a great one. Paying 4 mana for a 0/4 that you need to combo with something to even get value is not great. But the card might work really well with the Echo mechanic. Let's take the Phantom Militia example. Normally, on Turn 10, you could play 3 copies. With Summoning Portal, you can play 6 copies. Summoning Portal + 6x 2/4 Taunt on the board sounds much better. You know how powerful can Spreading Plague vs a full board be, and this doesn't even require any board from your opponent. Of course, you would never run both in a deck JUST to get that combo, as it would be a bit unreliable. But I think that in case other Echo minions that are either Neutral or available to Warlock get printed, it might be a thing. For example, with a 4 mana Echo card, you could drop 3 copies instead of normal 2, and then still have a Summoning Portal up - something your opponent absolutely needs to answer.

I also believe that we might see some Echo synergies, or other things that might make Echo cards more juicy. Right now, I don't think that this card will see much play, if anything. But it might change when we see more cards.

P.S. Good Arena pick. A 2/4 Taunt for 3 is already playable and just about average (Squirming Tentacle). Adding the ability to play it 2 or 3 times in mid/late game is never a bad thing - top deck mode in Arena is much more common than in Constructed, and this is definitely one of the best 3-drop to top deck when you're out of cards.

Card rating: 4/10

40 Comments

  1. crapcrack

    Great in arena.
    In constructive? MAYBE

  2. YellowDude

    Solid card in Arena overall. Won't really touch on Standard prediction until the rest of the set releases I guess.

  3. Abollo

    If i play this in my Val'anyr Paladin deck and the buff goes to it... will the echo copy have the buff? It would be awesome.

    1. Mattias Kollnitz

      No unfortunately not, when minions go back to your hand buffs are removed :/

      1. Jmartin1289

        but what about shadowstep? it sounds like if its copying the original card played then wouldn't it keep its cost reduction? it would be broken if so but could this be possible? i think its possible but not likely.

    2. POIIUYYT

      Echo cards can be played multiple times on the turn you play them. Each time, it’ll add a ghostly copy of the card back to your hand that disappears at the end of your turn. -(https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/expansions-adventures/the-witchwood/)
      Note: It says each time you play this card add a copy of the card back to your hand so ya I would think so

  4. -Bandit-

    Echo mechanic could be abused by Quest Rogue and Quest Warrior...

    1. Joopiter

      You're right but I don't think so this particular card will do this. Quest Rogue usually wants to complete quest as fast as possible and you can get this on board double time at 6 turn the earliest. And it is quite hard to bounce 3 mana card a lot of time.
      Quite similar with Warrior - I think it needs to complete quest earlier than at turn 9 or so.

      But this is a good point - I hope Blizz thought about it and other Echo cards will not be too cheap.

      1. Piterno

        Yes, an Echo card that costs 6 mana lol
        It'll pretty much be a normal card if it costs any more than this 3 mana one

    2. Brenden

      YO, you forgot about summoning portal in warlock

  5. SimEgg

    So... should be good for Quest rouge and Quest warrior... aaaand Summoning Portal in Warlock can give you 6 of these when you're at 10 mana.... I like it! I don't know if it is op enough but still really cool card.

  6. GlosuuLang

    The Echo mechanic can be quite valuable in the end game when you have an empty hand. If you top deck this, at least you can play three minions, instead of just one and have 7 mana left. However, having Echo will have to be paid somehow, which means that as normal drops, Echo cards will be outclassed by other stuff. In this case, for example, we could have a Fierce Monkey with an extra attack in turn 3. Echo cards can also be good combo enablers in the late game if they're cheap enough, we will see what other cards get printed out. As for this card, I'm giving it 3/5 stars. Solid, but I would be surprised if it sees a lot of constructed play. It doesn't even have an Elemental tag...

    1. JENE

      CAN BE VALUABLE? IT IS VALUABLE

  7. Piggy

    NEVER FORGET SILVERBACK PATRIARCH!

    1. maelstrom

      Silverback Patriarch already forgot himself

    2. Moltar

      He is a beast! :O

  8. Andy

    As a non-class card it can see play, maybe even in some constructed controll decks.

    1. IMDMD

      Maybe see PLAY? MAYBE SEE PLAY? IT WILL SEE PLAY

  9. BEN

    WOuld be cool to get this with farsight turn three lol

    1. JWNSJ

      FARSIGHTED DOES NOT WORK WITH THIS CARD.

      1. NRMLPGR

        Farsight doesn’t effect the copies, but it still reduces the cost of the first play. So on turn four you get 2 2/4 with taunt, strictly better than the chain gang, plus you technically have an extra mana to work with

  10. POIIUYYT

    I really want to see an echo card with a decent battlecry

    1. Keks

      THIS CARD HAS TAUNT WHIC PROTECTS THE PORTAL SO THAT YOU CAN GET MORE VALUE OF THE PORTAL BY PLAYING OTHER ECHO CARDS ALL THANKS TO THIS CARD PROTECTING THE PORTAL.

  11. Spyder9899

    I think this card is being over rated. I don't see it being ran anywhere. Espesally quest rogue.

  12. TheBootyLord

    I feel like this is just going to end up being a worse version of Saronite Chain Gang. Only really see this card having more value than Chain Gang at 9 mana, and I'd hope to have better cards I could play than this at 9 mana.

    1. DukeStarswisher

      You're right. However, I think the real value of this card will be its synergy with cards that decrease value of cards in your hand. Summoning Portal and Barnabus are the cards that come to mind. But you're right, 9 cost for 18 stats plus taunt doesn't seem completely worth it, and that's in the late game.

      1. TheBootyLord

        How often is a Summoning Portal gonna stick on board though? Hardly ever. To make this combo any useful you'd have to play them on the same turn with 8 + mana and almost an empty board. Still just not a good value play. Barnabus is a little interesting, but it usually takes like half the game to complete that quest and if you draw phantom militia before you complete the quest and play Barnabus it's essentially a dead card imo, because you'd want to play it after Barnabus for the value. This card won't go in any competitive decks, though I'm sure it will find it's home in a meme deck, that I of course will play.

  13. DukeStarswisher

    I feel some miracle rogue Sonya potential with this card... especially it being a taunt minion.

  14. PrepaidAtom

    Farsight potential for shaman ? :P

    1. Doesn’t work

      It does not work with farsight, when this card is reduced it’s copies don’t get reduced. Except by board minions that reduce the mana cost like summoning portal

  15. Coud

    I can see your point. But i see this card with a very good potential.
    Is a single card 3 minions. It may not be the best value for 9 mana. But it gives 3 creatures with taunt your opponent needs to deal with with a single card.
    I see with the potential of forcing your opponent to waste at least 2 or 3 cards among minions and spells to deal with this single card.

  16. Radank

    This card is great in Warlock with summoning portal or whatever the 4 mana 0/4 your minions cost 2 less card is. For two cards and ten mana you get the 0/4 and 6 2/4 taunts

    1. Nope

      Sounds worse than spreading plague to me. I think the card is more comparable to sleepy dragon.

  17. hordidor

    will make it into my druid deck with my twig of the world tree :)

    spam as much as i can, destroy twig, spam 2 more and buff the heck out of them with Strongshell Scavenger

  18. KLGamet

    I will play Quest Warrior once more!

  19. Some guy

    Reached Rank 5 with taunt/control warrior with the quest. Should make that gameplan even more viable.

    1. ShoM

      Stonehill defender outclasses this card pretty hard. I dont think Taunt warrior is the place for it

      1. roblad

        pleese explane, this card has one more attack (which is important) and consistently goves you cards to play, stone hill defender is verry good, but this card is way more efficient. i think the comparison isnt as good as it seems there for different decks.

  20. Threather

    Seems like a decent card, will see play in some decks.

    Okayish at lategame, bad at early but has some synergy with some combo cards such as summoning portal.

  21. eTTo

    They missed a pun here. Phantom Menace?

Comments are closed.