Rafaam’s Scheme

Rafaam’s Scheme Card

Rafaam’s Scheme is a 3 Mana Cost Common Warlock Spell card from the Rise of Shadows set!

Card Text

Summon 1 1/1 Imp. (Upgrades each turn!)

Flavor Text

"When your first plan fails... imp-rovise."

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45 Comments

  1. Minti
    March 26, 2019 at 4:27 pm

    you know what just make it turn 2 summon a 2/2 turn 3 summon a 3/3 turn 4 summon a 4/4 and its all fixed. In wild you can get a descent stated deadom from ghoul Dan it will have synergy with the voidcallers. since it is a spell. And even the imp deck is finally getting its imp giant.
    The the card is all fixed and it can see play.

  2. Mdjgcks
    March 23, 2019 at 7:11 pm

    Some people are saying it’s good because it fills your board for 3 mana, but the problem is if you draw this on turn one, by the time you’ll be filling your board it’ll be turn four or five. On turn five, would you rather get some 1/1s or would you rather play something like a doomguard, or despicable dreadlord. Speaking of despicable dreadlord, cards like that just destroy all the imps. The point is, by the time it’s good it won’t actually be good because you’ll lose a huge amount of tempo. This is a solid 0 stars.

  3. Unknown User
    March 23, 2019 at 6:28 pm

    Rafaam in 2015 : Summons a board of 3/3 Zombies

    Rafaam in 2019 : Summons a board of 1/1 Imps

    Wtf?

  4. LuKeAA
    March 23, 2019 at 12:49 am

    Go home, Rafaam, you’re drunk.

  5. EVX
    March 22, 2019 at 10:34 am

    EXPENSIVE
    lost in the jungle – 2 x 1/1 for 1 mana
    doubling imp – 2x 2/2 for 3 mana
    unleash the hounds – up to 7 1/1 with charge for 3 mana

    at turn 7, lots of 1/1 are not very usefull

    Might be good if there is another card to buff all the board/imps,

    At the mment 2/5 stars

    • Minti
      March 26, 2019 at 4:35 pm

      muster for battle. 3x 1/1 boddyes that have some sort of a tribe and synergy. and a 1/4 weapon for some immediate board prescence for 3 mana. so basicly you get to attack 4 times with your hero thus removing 4 x 1/1s and you get to trade in 3 more. whitch is a total of 7/7 woth of stats for 4 turns without having to let it sit in your hand.

  6. JustYourAveragePayToWin
    March 22, 2019 at 10:05 am

    With the amount of board clears that exist right now, this is penalized too heavily. 2/5

  7. ChillaryClinton
    March 22, 2019 at 6:17 am

    This is a 3 mana summon a full board.
    Not a 2/5. This is going to win games.

    • KingKalevi
      March 23, 2019 at 5:57 am

      A board full of 1/1s is not going to win games 99/100 times. 2/5 is being generous.

    • Yosh12
      March 31, 2019 at 2:40 am

      No it isnt. You have to wait 7 turns to make it fill the board. You know which other card filled the board that late? Hireek the bat. This is worse than hireek the bat because at least hireek can be board buffed. Zoo doesnt want this as zoo doesnt want to wait on cards control doesnt want this cuz it doesnt give any value midrange probably doesnt want this either because its weak. Plus its an awful topdeck. 2/5

  8. EksSkellybur
    March 22, 2019 at 12:44 am

    Eeeeeehhh… as of right now, I don’t know if there are any actual combos you can make out of the imps, so I think I can safe to say this is the first bad card that blizzard made for Rise of Shadows. Maybe in the future it’ll get better.

  9. Smagel
    March 21, 2019 at 10:03 pm

    looks like blizzard’s pushing token warlock now with grim rally and blood troll sapper.

  10. TimeVolt
    March 21, 2019 at 7:40 pm

    To be honest, i was expecting something more grand for Rafaam’s Scheme, but oh well. Anyway, it seems pretty bad given that the deck that would most likely play it wouldn’t want to wait to play it or would probably already have a wide board

  11. Taznak
    March 21, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    This looks like it could be decent. It’s not, for the same reason you won’t see straight aggro decks with Dragon synergy. Dragon synergy requires you to have another dragon in hand. Which decks hold a lot of cards in hand and are likely to have another dragon? Control decks.

    Same logic for schemes. They upgrade every turn you hold them; which decks hold cards in hand for many turns? Control decks. Leeroy and other finishers have permission to stay in hand for some turns in aggro decks, but otherwise you want bodies on the board ASAP. 1/5

  12. Minti
    March 21, 2019 at 6:02 pm

    I loke lock getting bad cards. They deserve to get unplayable, despite the fact that they will always be tier 1 for Wild. I am not shure if that will please the people playing lock. If no new cards get released for their wild decks they will probably not spen money on the expansion. It is as simple as that.
    I played hireek in wild with forbidden ritual and northshire councilmen, imp gang boss and implosion, and it did not made hireek good. And forbidden ritual is a much better version than this.
    I have seen lock having those really cool imps but not a good archetype for them. Maybe in few years we could have a usefull deck for them. Although fiendish circle will never be a usefull card.
    If it was upgrading the stats and the numbers that would have been very powerfull. And it will basicly be the better version of hireek. And if it was upgrading the power it will not fit the imp archetype that much.
    I must point out that the sneaky devil and raid leader really shine in those kinds of decks but the face dmg the lack of good board clears ( since lock likes to hit not only his minions with his aoe but his face as well) And the deck kind of failed either with the card draws, the tempo or your hp.
    Another thing i found out is that C’thun and usher of souls is much more reliable OTK in this deck than just hoping for hireek :D. And you do have a way to draw c’thun with harbender of doom but that is waaay later on turn 6. And you can lose the board very fast. My advice is to just bring c’thun in this deck. Usher of souls gives you instant value even if c’thun is not in your hand. and the spirit of the bat is simply a bad card. Its a low cost boddy though so you can fit it in there. I guess you rename it as spirit of the BAD :D. But still it can squeeze you some value.
    And i am quite shure that people want instant value from their 6+ cost cards. Even if you had a consistent way to instantly play hireek on turn 8 as a full board of 8/8s on curve. It will still be not enough for your deck.
    Ok that was all about the archetype as for the card its amazingly bad but i kind of like it becouse of the archetype. Imps are not a working archtype i nany way in HS and it could become.
    Compared to the pther schemes, the rogue one is OP as hell considering ther eare 45 turns limit you can go over it easy as pie. Hagatha’s scheme is usefull. Board clears have the bad habbit of getting stuck in your hand and this gets better, they also are very annoying for your oponent if you top deck them. They can insta win you the game and hagatha’s scheme won’t . Lazul;s scheme is bad cancer card, made with no imagination whatsover and we should pretend it does not exist. While this is just bad. It is an excuse to make 2 good legendaryes for 10 classes, now we know its hard to design 5 above average level cards that will not break the game. Lets hope boom’s scheme is at least great card that can fit into any deck, despite the fact that warrior is control oriented.
    0/5 for this at least its not a dust donor card since you don’t get that much dust from it :D.

  13. Jed
    March 21, 2019 at 2:22 pm

    I think the main problem is that it’s not really usable in the early game, and the 1/1s are too weak later
    2/5

  14. Trollguy119
    March 21, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    One problem I have with the design of this card it that Rafaam’s Scheme cannot scale infinitely as we’ve seen in the other schemes so far. It essentially stops upgrading after 7 turns when it reads “Summon 7 1/1 Imps”. Obviously summoning 8 or more imps is impossible.

  15. Jkrist3
    March 21, 2019 at 1:13 pm

    If they dont come out with a finisher for token warlock synergies then these cards are all going to be useless. Blood Troll Sapper and grim rally are average but they are nothing compared to bloodlust or savage roar. Demonbolt and spirit of the bat are okay with this but not finishers.

  16. Lluadian
    March 21, 2019 at 12:04 pm

    Better version of fiendish circle you wouldn’t want to spend 4 Mana for 4 1/1 since you’d likely want to keep presence however this is a much better option with grim rally allowing possibly 6 2/2 for 4 Mana drop a spirit of the bat and can boost up your hand. As far as I’ve seen you’d want to have at least 1 scheme in your opening hand.

  17. Soup And Salad
    March 21, 2019 at 11:51 am

    While the damage aspect of Implosion was a big part as to why is saw play, but cheap, efficient minions are always welcome in more aggressive Warlock decks. This does cost less than Implosion AND can consistently generate four or more 1/1s.

    Fiendish Circle may not have ever seen play, but recent iterations of Zoo Warlock really haven’t been oriented towards tokens like it was when Imp Gang Boss and the aforementioned Implosion were Standard legal. Without Keleseth and the Heal package though, there might be room for this and Knife Juggler in the deck.

    While 1/1s are obviously very weak to board sweeper effects, it will at least force the opponent to use a board sweeper at the cost of only one card on the Zoo Warlock’s part. Plus, half of the useful board clearing effects in Standard right now (Duskbreaker, Defile, Dragon’s Fury, Spirit Lash, Reckless Flurry, Psychic Scream, etc.) are rotating out of the format.

    There might be hope for this card.

  18. SInjin
    March 21, 2019 at 11:33 am

    The only synergy is grim rally really or a machine gun knife juggler but hellfire is gg.

    • Soup And Salad
      March 21, 2019 at 11:52 am

      If the Zoo Warlock got their opponent to use one of their limited board sweeping effects for the cost of one card, they’re quite happy.

  19. Nidnam1252
    March 21, 2019 at 11:14 am

    Every Scheme revealed so far has been very underwhelming… Hopefully Dr. Boom can deliver on his

    • Nidnam1252
      March 21, 2019 at 11:17 am

      Dr. Boom’s Scheme – 7 Mana
      Summon 1 Boom Bot (Upgrades each turn!)

    • Soup And Salad
      March 21, 2019 at 11:53 am

      How exactly is Hagatha’s Scheme underwhelming?

      • Nidnam1252
        March 21, 2019 at 2:21 pm

        The problem with Hagatha’s Scheme is it’s lack of consistency…

        Cards like Elemental Destruction and Volcano were good because it didn’t matter when you drew them.

        Hagatha’s Scheme is only good if you draw it within first 2-3 turns…. if you draw it on turn 6 or 7, it’ll sit in your hand til turn 9 or 10 before you play it… by that time aggro decks have killed you and control decks are playing 8+ health minions so the 4-5 damage from Scheme is irrelevant.

        the only saving grace for Hagatha’s Scheme is that it’s the first Shaman AoE spell to NOT overload your mana

        • Soup And Salad
          March 21, 2019 at 3:38 pm

          It reads like you dislike the Scheme mechanic in general over being let down by the reveals thus far. Schemes almost by definition cannot be good top decks, much like Spellstones.

          • Nidnam1252
            March 21, 2019 at 6:02 pm

            I actually like the Scheme mechanic… I just think they were all overcosted (except Togwaggle’s)

          • Nidnam1252
            March 21, 2019 at 6:04 pm

            and Lazul’s

          • Tuscarora87
            March 21, 2019 at 6:17 pm

            Players have a control over upgrading Spellstones, but not over Schemes. It’s like you aren’t playing the card, rather opposite – the card is playing (with) you! Additionally, presented schemes, unlike Spellstones, start much, much weaker and you must prey to RNG just to bring them back to normal. They can see play mostly out of despair; but they are worse versions of Spellstones.

          • Soup And Salad
            March 21, 2019 at 7:23 pm

            To Tuscarora87

            I’d argue scheme are an alternative version of spell stones that require no thoughts in deck building rather than being strictly worse. As such, part of the trade off is they start off weaker than the average spellstone while also potentially being much stronger.

            While the player has control over when Spellstones upgrade, they do not do so automatically and are reliant on other cards to do so, and it is and was quite possible when playing with say Emerald Spellstone in Spell Hunter to draw it early but see no secrets until after it usefulness has passed.

            It is ultimately a trade-off, but both Spellstones and Schemes suck when drawn late, especially the ones with high upgrade costs like Diamond and Ruby Spellstones or involve the use of cards best played as soon as possible like Emerald or to some extent Amethyst Spellstone.

          • JoyDivision
            March 22, 2019 at 2:58 am

            I think that the concept of schemes is fundamentaly flawed (regarding competitive play) due to the ‘topdeck problematic’.

            Just look at Hagatha’s Scheme … I can’t imagine any competitive control deck that can afford to run an aoe card that might not clear the board AND is a terrible topdeck.

          • JoyDivision
            March 22, 2019 at 3:02 am

            Maybe schemes should have been made the other way round … start very strong but downgrade each turn. Of course they all had to cost a decent amount of mana, no cheap schemes possible …

            Didn’t think about that for longer than 3 seconds, though. Might be as flawed as the actual concept is. 😉

    • Yosh12
      March 31, 2019 at 2:42 am

      Hagathas scheme is basically replacement volcano but aside from that yea

  20. Freedon
    March 21, 2019 at 10:44 am

    Damn Rafaam is one crazy guy. A scheme could have had great potential with Handlock, but this? Can’t see it being useful in any decks. 1/5

  21. TonySenpai
    March 21, 2019 at 10:40 am

    Maybe if there’s neutral support in the form
    “At the end of your turn, upgrade a scheme in your hand.”
    or something similar, it could improve the chances of playing this card.

  22. GlosuuLang
    March 21, 2019 at 10:34 am

    So we already have Fiendisch Circle (4 mana for 4 x 1/1 Imps). That card has seen zero play until now, although it might get into Zoo now that the power level is reduced drastically. So this has to be 3 (THREE!!) turns in your hand until it gets better than Fiendish Circle, and everything after that is a bonus. I don’t think I would run this instead of Fiendish Circle in Zoo, since having consistency is better (top-decking into this feels awful, and Zoo has to draw heavily in the mid-to-late game). Would I run it TOGETHER with Circle? Hard to say, maybe Warlock gets some token synergies, then yes. Otherwise it looks like a poor card. It might combo well in a Control-like Warlock shell with Spirit of the Bat: you drop the Spirit, then this, then clear your whole board, you get 6 +1/+1 buffs in the cards in your hand. Looks clunky, but definitely worth to experiment. I will give this a preventive 1.5/5 stars though.

    • Zapher12
      March 22, 2019 at 3:58 am

      You are right. And the point is you can’t clear your imps on the same turn you summon them and the spirit. We should keep in mind that defile is rotating out and hellfire kills the spirit. For me it is a 1 star card until it is supported by juicy synergies or combos. Hir’eek the Bat somehow could be the future buff target for this card.

      • GlosuuLang
        March 22, 2019 at 5:11 am

        Defile rotates out but we do have Shriek from Rastakhan’s Rumble at the very least. That would combo with Spirit of the Bat + charged-up Rafaam’s Scheme + Shriek = get 6 +1/+1 buffs, do 2-damage to enemy minions, waste 4 cards. As I say, looks way too clunky, but the combo is there…

        • Zapher12
          March 22, 2019 at 7:41 am

          That would be two failed mechanics (hand buff and discard) in same deck. Warlock has been annihilated in the year of Raven. Zoo is the only archetype.

  23. CrazyCameron127
    March 21, 2019 at 10:31 am

    Considering that fiendish circle (4 mana summon 4 1/1s) didn’t see play, I’m not too sure this will. It has the obvious upside that it can summon 7/7 worth of stats for 3 mana, but that has to happen turn 7 or later if the card doesn’t start in your hand. That is WAY too slow for zoo, not to mention that there are many board clears (mossy horror, hagitha’s scheme, dragonmaw schorcher) for this to be used. Also, filling your board with 1/1s provides zero defense against anything that wants to go face.

  24. Nickus89
    March 21, 2019 at 10:20 am

    What is an upgrade. In case of this card? Number of imps or their stats? In case everything is upgraded it could be solid for zoo. Doubling imp is already 3 mana 2* 2/2.