Madness at the Darkmoon Faire’s reveal season has started. The expansion is actually releasing quite sooner than we have all expected. Usually, the third expansion of a year launches early in December, but this time it will be November 17. Frankly I’m really happy about that, because despite it being the busiest time for me, I just LOVE reveal seasons and expansion launches, the hype around everything, rating cards, theorycrafting, then testing all the new decks on Day 1 (well… I usually get maybe 1 or 2 hours of play on Day 1, but at least I watch the streamers all the time while I add new decks).
Darkmoon Faire’s new mechanic is Corrupt. Corrupt cards start really weak, but they get upgraded after you play a card that’s more expensive. For example, if you have a 3 mana Corrupt card, playing a 4+ mana card will upgrade it to its Corrupted version. While the Corrupted ones are incredibly powerful, the fact that you can’t play them on the curve is a big downside.
In this article, I’ll take a closer look at the newly revealed cards, reviewing them and rating from 1 to 10. The scale itself should be quite obvious, but just to quickly explain how do I see it: A card rated 5 is average – but average does not mean bad. It might be playable in some decks, especially as a filler, but in my mind it’s nothing special. Cards below 5 might see some play in off-meta decks, or as obscure techs, but the closer we get to 1, the lower chance it is that they will see play. When I rate card 1 or 2, I don’t believe that it will see any Constructed, non-meme play at all. On the other hand, going above 5 means that I see the card as something with more potential. While I can’t guarantee that it will work out in the end, I believe that the cards with 6-8 are likely to see at least some Constructed play, while cards rated 9 or 10 are, in my mind, nearly sure hits. 1 and 10 are reserved to the worst or best cards I can imagine, meaning that they won’t be used often.
Remember that without seeing all the cards, it’s incredibly hard to review them accurately, since we have no clue what synergies will be printed or which themes will be pushed. Even after knowing all of them, theory is very different from practice, and it’s hard to predict how the meta will look like. A card that’s great in theory might end up seeing no play whatsoever, because the most popular meta deck simply counters it. It might also be useless because it doesn’t have enough support, but once it gets it, it suddenly becomes overpowered. I advise you to pay more attention to the description than the rating itself – I will try to explore some of the potential synergies and reasons why a given card might or might not work. I also encourage you to share your own predictions and reviews in the comment section. Even if you aren’t sure, don’t worry, no one is! There is nothing wrong about being wrong, I have never seen anyone who nailed most of the card ratings before the release. But, without further ado, let’s proceed with the reviews!
Other card reviews:
- Darkmoon Faire Card Review #1 – Old Gods, Silas, Darkmoon Rabbit, Day at the Faire, Dunk Tank, Fleethoof Pearltusk, Fortune Teller, Kiri, Eclipses, Guess the Weight!
- Darkmoon Faire Card Review #2 – Maxima Blastenheimer, Hammer of the Naaru, Il’gynoth, Ring Toss, Petting Zoo, Revenant Rascal, Ticket Master, The Nameless One and more!
- Darkmoon Faire Card Review #3 – E.T.C., God of Metal, Ringmaster Whatley, Yrel, Occult Conjurer, Grand Empress Shek’zara, Bladed Lady, Fire Breather and more!
- Darkmoon Faire Card Review #4 – Zai, Lothraxion, Deck of Chaos, Rinling’s Rifle, Tengu, Deck of Lunacy, Eys’or, Shadow Clone, Jewel of N’Zoth, Tickatus, Strongman and more!
- Darkmoon Faire Card Review #5 – Palm Reading, Inara Stormcrash, Nazmani Bloodweaver, Inconspicuous Rider, Acrobatics, Swindle, Foxy Fraud and more!
Magicfin
Uhm… No. Why? Like, really, why? Not only Murloc Shaman isn’t really a thing for a while now, but even if it was, this is not a card it would want to run. Generating random Legendaries is not what a heavily synergistic, board-oriented Aggro deck needs. It would be so much better if it generated other Murlocs instead, or honestly even spells – at least you could find some burn etc.
Murloc decks are all about Murlocs and the way they work so well with each other. The reason why Underbelly Angler is great is because it generates cards that you actually want to play – cheap, synergizing with your deck. Random pool of Legendaries is so huge that the chance you will find something you need or that works well with your deck… slim. Like okay, it’s always better to have some extra cards in your hand, but random Legendaries aren’t going to win you the game as an Aggro.
But okay, time for some positive sides of the card. 3 mana 3/4 Murloc is a really good stat-line. There’s a deficit of good Murlocs. Like, some Murloc decks used to play Nightmare Amalgam just because it was a 3/4 Murloc. Murloc Paladin played Sir Finley of the Sands in a non-Highlander deck, without nearly ever activating it, just because it was a 2/3 Murloc for 2. And then, while generating random Legendaries is not a good effect like I’ve explained above, it’s always a slight upside. You won’t go out of your way to trigger it as many times as possible, but it might force your opponent to remove it first over something else, because they won’t want to put more cards into your hand. But the card would be SO MUCH better if it generated something else – like spells. Even its name would make so much sense then.
Still, because of lack of better Murlocs, IF Murloc Shaman ends up seeing play (although it would need to get some really good cards first), this card might also see play.
Card Rating: 5/10
Oh My Yogg!
Ok, I love the flavor of this card. And it can be some serious disruption. Like I mean, SERIOUS disruption. Given that an average random spell benefits caster more often than it harms them, it’s not going to be always positive for Paladin, but at least it will mess up with your opponent’s play. And in rare cases, it might serve as a better Counterspell for just 1 mana – in cases when the spell turns against its caster and.
Let me give you an example. You play vs a Mage, who just casted Rolling Fireball. But wait, instead of clearing your board, it turns into Blessing of Authority and gives one of your minions +8/+8. Yep – that’s an absolute high roll, but that’s my point – stuff like that will happen with this card.
The biggest problem is that other Paladin Secrets don’t really see play, nor there is a Paladin deck built around Secrets. So the issue is that if it’s the only Secret you run, that’s not really a Secret – your opponent will know very well what it is and might try to play around it. Of course, there’s not always a way to do it, but they will try to play some cheap spell that they don’t mind wasting that much – similarly to how you play around Counterspell. Luckily, it’s a tempo win for Paladin most of the time, because paying 1 mana to waste let’s say 2-3 mana spell and mess up with your opponent’s plan is worth it – paying 3 mana for doing the same is much less effective. Still, your opponent knowing what Secret you have is never a good thing.
Honestly, it might be the best Paladin Secret in Standard right now – yes, it’s random, so you might not like to play it, but it seems only slightly worse than Counterspell for 2 less mana. But being the best Paladin Secret doesn’t tell much since no Paladin Secret sees play… If we got some new Secret synergies that might have encouraged players to run them, it would be great. Without it? Hard to say. I like the card, but it might be too weak by itself.
Card Rating: 6/10
Palm Reading
I assume that it discounts the spells you Discover too, right? If that’s the case, you need only two other spells in hand for this card to essentially cost 0 mana. And let’s just say that Priest hands are usually full of spells, often 1 mana spells. So yeah – it does nothing for 3 mana, but if you have some cheap spells in your hand already, this “does nothing” can easily turn into a tempo GAIN.
Renew has proven that Discovering spells in Priest is pretty strong. Technically it’s easier to play the spell you get from Renew on the same turn, but not by so much. Since the spell gets -1 to mana cost, it only costs 1 more mana in total to play Renew into a spell than Palm Reading into a spell. Yes, Renew also heals – which is why I don’t think the card will go anywhere. But Palm Reading gets added value of Priest being able to drop some cards a turn earlier, which might be a massive difference. For example, getting Soul Mirror down to 6 might be a difference between winning and losing a game vs Aggro.
Of course, hand-wide mana discounts might also activate some combos. In the days of old, it would be AMAZING with Prophet Velen and Holy Smite / Mind Blast. Right now Priest doesn’t really have burn combos (at least not in Standard – Wild is another story), but there’s no telling what cards will be released until this rotates out.
I think it’s a good card and has a solid chance of seeing play. I’m not calling it OP, because it’s pretty clunky at times and it doesn’t work very well if you don’t have at least a few other spells in your hand… But it has a lot of potential.
Card Rating: 8/10
Claw Machine
Honestly, it’s not so bad. While you can’t clear anything really big with it, very often it’s 6 mana to kill a minion, draw a card and buff it. +3/+3 is quite a lot, especially if it lands on a card with keywords like Taunt, Lifesteal or (especially) Rush.
That said, you do need some extra synergies for it. The most obvious one seems to be Deathrattle Hunter with big Mechs. The card works great with Oblivitron, it’s a really solid target for Maxima Blastenheimer to pull and so on. At the same time, I still have no faith in the Deathrattle Hunter – while it has some amazing late game, there’s no real comeback mechanic for the deck and its early game looks pretty weak. Like, the only reason why the previous Deathrattle Hunter build worked were Devilsaur Eggs that you could trigger early for extra board presence.
Another option would be running it as a Mech in N'Zoth, God of the Deep build. Maybe in Menagerie Warrior? You can draw it with Ringmaster Whatley and then revive with N’Zoth for a late game push.
Overall, looks slightly above average. Might see some play, but I don’t think that it will be a powerful part of any deck.
Card Rating: 6/10
Cloak of Shadows
It’s Time Out!, but worse. Why worse? For at least two reasons. One is that you aren’t Immune when attacking, so you can’t e.g. play it and swing a weapon at a minion without taking damage (which would be useful in Rogue). The second one is that it doesn’t protect you from any random or non-targeted damage, such as Arcane Missiles – let’s say that you face a new C'thun, the Shattered deck – it won’t work against it. Or even Face Hunter who dropped Dragonbane – welp, you just took 7 damage anyway.
Of course, Time Out was an amazing card, but only in a very specific deck – Shirvallah OTK Paladin. The deck wanted to stall for as long as possible as it cycled and gathered combo pieces, to finally unleash the combo. So it was a perfect card, as it could buy two extra turns with opponent not being able to do anything. But it wouldn’t be nearly as good as Stealth.
You see, Rogue has its share of bad combo decks. I’ll go even further – Rogue is probably THE class you play if you have some terrible combo idea and want to try it out (then give up after pulling it once after 10 games). And I have to say that despite it not being as good as Time Out, it will give Rogue some breathing room. If you build a Combo Rogue deck, you probably want to play it to stall for some time. Will it be enough? I honestly don’t think so. Rogue still can’t easily clear big boards or gain life. Stalling for an extra turn often won’t matter if you can’t follow it up with a board clear, for example.
The card has SOME potential (although I honestly think it should cost 2 not 3, as it’s weak compared to Time Out and even weaker compared to the classic Ice Block), but Rogue needs more than that to seriously consider building those greedy combo decks.
Card Rating: 6/10
Cagematch Custodian
Straight up 2 mana 2/2, tutor a card. If you play any Shaman deck running weapons, you WILL play it, because it’s really strong. As Wandmaker has proven, a 2/2 body that adds a card to your hand isn’t bad at all. Yes, it’s not the best tempo play, but given that it cycles itself into something else, 2/2 are basically premium stats.
Totem Shaman? Sure, Splitting Axe. Aggro Shaamn? Yeah, Doomhammer. It also curves out straight into the new Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer, which isn’t a bad weapon, if you have anything on the board you can swing right away and get +1/+1 on top of clearing something with the weapon – solid stuff. I could see a Highlander Shaman build running the new weapon and Fist of Ra-Den with this card to tutor either of them. I hoped, I REALLY hoped that with the new synergies, Shaman will get a 1 mana weapon this expansion, but as we all know it didn’t happen. I’m still on the fence about the new Enhancement Shaman build, but this card will definitely support it. And not just it – like I’ve said, any Shaman running weapons will play it. It’s a great card. The only downside is that Shaman is in a really bad spot right now, but what can you do?
Card Rating: 9/10
Inara Stormcrash
This looks like a really good card even without any other synergies. Yeah, 4/5 for 5 mana isn’t great, but it’s basically a Doomhammer with a body. As long as it stays on the board – you have Doomhammer equipped. Which means that it’s a way better tempo play than Doomhammer. Like, I don’t even think that you need any synergies to run it in something like Aggro Shaman. You straight up deal 4 damage (which you can also use to e.g. remove two small minions if you prefer), and then deal 4 extra every turn it stays on the board. Granted, it usually won’t stay for long, but it’s a win for you – you played a minion, burned opponent for 4, and they have to remove it right away, often using their turn and giving you back the initiative. If you equipped Doomhammer instead, they a) could often remove it for cheaper (Ooze) and b) they could just counter-develop the board and basically stop any extra minion damage you deal until the rest of the game.
And now we get to the synergies. Just like Doomhammer, it has a lot of burst potential. This + Rockbiter Weapon is a 7 mana Pyroblast. It also combos well with the new Stormstrike. 8 mana and two cards to deal 3 damage to a minion and 12 to the face. But in both of those cases, you also put a must-remove body on the board.
I think that Inara should see quite a lot of play, it’s a very good card and it will be really menacing in lots of matchups.
Card Rating: 8/10
Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer
I’ll be honest that I have expected a better weapon for the so-called Enhancement Shaman. Like, this is not BAD. In fact, it’s pretty okay. But it’s quite boring, generic, and I thought that they will push the archetype with a better weapon.
This is the standard Fiery War Axe with an upside kind of card. The upside isn’t massive, but it can be quite impactful at times. Getting an immediate +1/+1 buff when attacking means that on top of removing something, you can make your board stronger.
T2 Cagematch Custodian into this on T3 is also a nice curve if Custodian survived (because you buff it to 3/3 and then possibly even 4/4 the turn after). Sadly it gets worse if it died, because you might not have any other minion on the board and nothing to buff. But you will often still be forced to swing. Yeah, even if you miss one +1/+1, that’s not the end of the world, but the weapon becomes much more clunky then. Luckily, later in the game, even if you don’t have any minions on the board and don’t want to / can’t play anything from hand, you can – in the worst case scenario – Hero Power before swinging.
The card is just about average. 3 mana 3/2 is just not a card you would play, obviously, and the upside pushes it into playable territory, but only playable. On the other hand, Custodian is so good that you will probably still run it just so you have something to draw. Drawing an okay card with a 2/2 body is still a good T2 play.
Card Rating: 5/10
Fizzy Elemental
Fizzy Elemental has powercrept a bunch of useless, high cost minions. Which is good, because they were useless – if it didn’t powercreep them, it definitely wouldn’t see any play whatsoever. Even in the current form, it’s hard to say whether it’s good enough, but now it has a fighting chance.
Even with better than average stats, Rush AND Taunt, it’s just not good to play from your hand without any synergies. Like, there are much better things Druid can do in the late game than this. In order for this to see play, one of two things needs to happen. You either need a good way to cheat it out or have some extra incentive to run it. Preferably both.
The first one can be accomplished by Strength in Numbers. And that’s actually really nice – it’s one of the best targets you can pull with the card. Winged Guardian is better in some scenarios, but I’d say that Rush gives this one an edge. And then N'Zoth, God of the Deep can help with the second reason. While Paladin and Warrior seem to be mostly pushed towards N’Zoth builds, Druid is also not a bad idea, especially since this slow Midrange play style is natural for Druid class, and Ramps really helps up with getting out different minions quickly and then possibly even dropping N’Zoth on curve for a massive swing.
I think that it might see SOME play, but because it’s a big Taunt and a big Elemental, not because it’s a good card by itself. But even then, I’m not sure how good the Ramp / N’Zoth Druid will turn out to be, I don’t think it will take over the meta or anything, so I can’t really rate it too highly. But I actually hope to be wrong about it, because I LOVE those Big/Ramp Druid playstyle decks.
Card Rating: 3/10
Carnival Barker
Carnival Barker kind of reminds me of Steward of Darkshire. I’d say that +1/+2 is comparable to Divine Shield, possibly even a bit stronger on average given that you’re buffing small minions. Like, I’d rather have a 2/3 than a 1/1 with Divine Shield most of the time. Barker itself has one less health, which is kind of a big deal, because the difference between 2 and 3 is quite massive (2 is way easier to get rid of). At the same time, something a lot of people seem to be missing, it doesn’t only affect Recruits. It works on any 1-Health minion. Loot Hoarder? Animated Broomstick? Random 1-drops from First Day of School? Not sure if Dude Paladin will play those, but the point is that there are other possibilities to synergize with it too.
Of course, the best combo is by far Day at the Faire. This + upgraded Day at the Faire is a 6 mana play that summons 3/2 + 5x 2/3. That’s a MASSIVE board fill for only two cards. And you know what? Imagine playing Lothraxion the Redeemed on Turn 5 now and then dropping this combo on 6. Oh. My. God. 5x 2/3 with Divine Shield. That’s just game over for many decks, and it’s not like the combo will be that uncommon.
Honestly, Dude Paladin looks to be quite scary. It has ways to summon Recruits, good pay-off cards, really nice long game scaling with Lothraxon… To be honest, the only thing I’m really missing is some solid card draw. Like damn, Paladin really doesn’t have great ways to draw in Standard. Hand of A'dal is good, but it only cycles. Something like Lay on Hands is way too expensive. Salhet's Pride is solid, but you need to run 1 Attack minions to make it work. If Dude Paladin doesn’t see play, I would say that that’s the reason. The deck will be heavily synergistic, so it will want to find those cards as quickly as possible. And without solid card draw, you might run into situations where you have ways to summon Recruits but no pay-offs or vice-versa. But I’m digressing. Carnival Barker seems like a really good card for this kind of archetype, maybe even good enough to see play in Wild Odd Paladin (which is a lot for a deck that’s already so packed).
Card Rating: 8/10
Nazmani Bloodweaver
I think that people are kind of overestimating this card. Okay, it’s good, but I don’t think that it’s broken or anything. Since it only discounts something after playing a spell, and only discounts by (1) each time you do it, you only get any serious value when you chain multiple spells. Like 3-4 of them at least. Even assuming that you want to play two spells with it – 1 mana and 2 mana. It takes 6 mana in total to do it, just for 2 mana of discount that land on random cards. And that accomplished… what? In many scenarios, nothing. Against Aggro you will probably want to drop it earlier, so it will often be a vanilla 2/5 for 3. Against Control, you’d rather play Sethekk Veilweaver instead and generate value instead of generating tempo – something that’s often irrelevant. Of course, you can play both and go for a total blow-out turn, but that requires very specific hand adn scenario. After all, just dropping those two together is 5 mana – you don’t have that much left for spells.
Random is a pretty key word here too. Discounts might land on cards you don’t need while ignoring the ones that you do. And let’s be honest, late game mana discounts aren’t that scary in Priest. When the class played Galakrond, discounting the entire hand with Fate Weaver didn’t break anything. Okay, it was a good play, and it helped quite often, but it wasn’t good enough – people even dropped Invoke cards because it just wasn’t necessary.
The only major synergy I see is that if you play Palm Reading first with a bunch of cheap spells in your hand, then you can kind of take off with it. Especially if you also drop Sethekk on the same turn like I’ve mentioned earlier – then you can possibly take off with both crazy tempo moves and spell generation. Yes, that’s a good scenario, but it’s not as easy as it seems to set up. Nazmani will also work best when you have a bunch of Corrupt cards in your hand. Corrupt cards get WAY more from discounts than regular cards, because they are now easier to activate. That might be a strategy. So again, I think that it’s a good card and it will have some uses, but I don’t see it being anywhere near as overpowered as some people suggest (maybe it’s just me, but right after the reveal I’ve seen many opinions that it’s the strongest card in the game).
Card Rating: 7/10
CARDS UNTIL THIS POINT WERE REVIEWED BEFORE FINAL REVEAL STREAM, SO I DIDN’T HAVE FULL INFO ABOUT SYNERGIES ETC. YET!
Idol of Y’Shaarj
I’m not a big fan of this card for two reasons. On the one hand – it would theoretically work best in a deck with cards like Palm Reading and Nazmani Bloodweaver, where you can land a few discounts on it. But on the other hand, you don’t want to play it in a deck like that, because it has no synergies there. You’d much rather play it in a deck built around it – with minions that have some extra effects. Like… Shadow Essence in Big Priest. But then you most likely don’t run discounts (or at least not many), so 8 mana is a bit prohibitive.
Still, I think that if anything, this will be a new Big / Resurrect Priest card. When revealed, I kind of ignored it, because Priest didn’t have many good synergies. But not with Blood of G'huun, I start to think that it might make sense. With double Blood and Archmage Vargoth, that’s 3 high roll targets you have. And I mean really high roll – the first one is a 10/10 Taunt that summons another 5/5 version of a minion in your deck. Vargoth just re-casts it, so you get 2x 10/10 minion, possibly both must-kill ones. If you slam a few other cards like Khartut Defender (which is also a pretty solid pull from it) or Convincing Infiltrator, then add in Mass Resurrection, the deck might work once again. Heck, you might even think about running Reliquary of Souls – it’s solid small minion vs Aggro, 10/10 Lifesteal with this and reviving it multiple times gives you a great win condition against slow decks.
So while we will need to do some playtesting, I feel that this might be an actual, okay archetype. I don’t think it has what it takes to dominate the meta, but a T2-T3 deck – I can absolutely envision it. And oh my god, for the sake of community, I hope it won’t be dominating. While I don’t particularly mind playing against Resurrect Priest, I know that most of players HATE this deck. Still, just saying that you might need to prepare for it…
Oh, and one more thing. Even if Big / Resurrect Priest won’t see play, this card existing is quite a big deal. That’s because in slower matchup, Priest ends up generating A LOT of resources. Renew, Sethekk Veilweaver, maybe the new Palm Reading. This card will show up often, and even without any synergies, it’s a really solid one to pick in slow matchups. Just straight up 8 mana 10/10 without any synergies will often come handy. You often win those matchups simply by putting constant pressure on the opponent and eventually running them out of removals. And 10/10 on the board that your opponent absolutely needs to kill is like an epitome of putting pressure.
Card Rating: 6/10
Inconspicuous Rider
Might be the best card of the expansion, or at least Top 3. The card is INSANE! Mad Scientist is still a Wild staple, being played in any Mage and Hunter deck running Secrets. Because it’s a crazy powerful tempo card. But it’s not only tempo – putting Secret into play from your DECK, as opposed to your HAND, is also value, because you technically have to “draw” it too. So let’s say in Mage – this card is a 3 mana 2/2 “draw a 3 mana card, play it immediately”.
To be fair, it’s one mana more expensive than Mad Scientist, but I think that the cards are roughly on the same power level. The reason is that Battlecry vs Deathrattle makes a big difference. Mad Scientist very likely won’t get the Secret in play until it can trade into something, and sometimes even never – because it might get Silenced etc. This is guaranteed, you just drop it and the Secret lands on the board. It’s a random, so you can’t fit one for your situation… but it being random has a slight upside too – your opponent also doesn’t know. Normally they would first play around what you would play in that scenario, with Rider they have no idea what to play around. Of course, you’d still prefer to be able to choose, but it’s not the end of the world.
Secret decks have just got a massive support card. This will be a staple in Mage, Hunter AND Rogue. I’m not sure about Paladin, because 1 mana Secrets are much less valuable and Paladin doesn’t commonly run Secrets anyway… Keep all the extra copies of this card, because it might get nerfed before you know it.
Card Rating: 10/10
Relentless Pursuit
Meh. It’s not the best card ever, and not the worst either. Getting immune heavily incentivizes you to trade into minions, but the problem is that it’s very often not what you want to be doing. Most of DH decks would rather get the damage upstairs and then possibly clear the board with something else, like Blade Dance. From pure damage perspective, 4 damage for 3 mana is mediocre, for 1 less mana you have Twin Slice, which is much more flexible, and for 1 more mana you get Marrowslicer, which offers twice the damage over two turns as well as Soul Fragment synergy. This card doesn’t look great in comparison.
The card has obviously amazing synergy with Warglaives of Azzinoth, you can buff them to 7 attack and swing at 4 minions without taking any damage. But again, Blade Dance seems more effective, and Glaives are a bit too clunky after the nerf.
Maybe DH needs even more direct damage? I’m not sure, I don’t think so. The card is not terrible, but it don’t think it’s good enough.
Card Rating: 5/10
Open the Cages
Summoning Animal Companion for 2 mana seems quite powerful, but the requirement feels a bit too high for a pay-off that’s not even THAT big. Like, it’s not Rat Trap, which summons a 6/6. Having 2 minions on the board at the start of your turn might seem like an easy task, and often it is, but the are matchups where it will be very hard to accomplish. No matter whether you play vs Aggro or Control, your opponent will very likely try to clear your board, and many of them will do just that. If played on curve, this will nearly never trigger on T3 – you need to play 2x 1/1 on T1 (or two 1-drops with Coin), then this on T2, so your opponent needs to not kill anything for the first two turns. Yeah, it happens, but how often? The longer it stays up, the worse it gets, beucase you spent 2 mana and a card and got nothing in return. It’s not something Hunter can do, to be frank.
To be fair, the advantage it has is that when it stays up, it activates some Secret synergies like Petting Zoo. Many other Secrets will get triggered more quickly, and this will be there for many turns in some cases. It’s a good way to turn a downside into an upside, but I don’t feel like it’s enough. I think that it might still see some play, but probably in Highlander, which needs more Secrets. And the fact is that current set of Secrets is quite weak, so that might push it into viable range.
Card Rating: 6/10
Redeemed Pariah
2 mana 2/3’s with an upside aren’t really the worst cards you can get, but the upside needs to be substantial enough to be worth running. Is it in this case? Well, probably yes, but only if you do run enough Outcast cards to make it worth.
Snowballing cards like that can be really strong. Even a single +1/+1 can actually turn it into a more serious threat, make it trade better and dodge a lot of AoEs. I think that the deck that is most likely to run it is Aggro Demon Hunter. Soul DH doesn’t run enough Outcast cards and it doesn’t need a card like that anyway. But Aggro has been struggling in terms of 2-drops, to the point where Amani Berserker seemed like a good deal. And in the right build, if you run cards like Eye Beam, the new Dreadlord's Bite and – of course – Skull of Gul'dan, this can be a really nice fit. On the other hand, if you just drop it on 2, prepare that it will be a simple 2 mana 2/3 lots of time. But honestly – that’s what Aggro DH is already used to.
I don’t think that the card will be really strong or anything, at least not now, but keep in mind that only Demon Hunter Initiate cards rotate out next year. So DH will have three more full expansions to possibly find enough good Outcast cards to build a deck around them. In the right deck, you could easily snowball it, give it something like +3/+3 while doing your Outcast effects at the same time – that would be amazing. I think that it’s already good enough to at least consider it, and it might become better in the future.
Card Rating: 5/10
Throw Glaive
Ha, imagine this card in Mage with Sorcerer's Apprentice… that would be a nice ride. But in Demon Hunter? I’ll be honest – I don’t think it’s necessary. Like, it could come handy in certain cases, like removing two 2-health minions in the early game… Or maybe finishing off a few smaller minions later when you have enough mana. But frankly, the card is quite expensive for what is virtually 2 AoE damage. Yes, it gains some flexibility, because technically you can use it as a 1 mana 2 damage removal and call it a day, but it also has some nice scaling. But let’s look at your other options. Even starting with a simple Immolation Aura, which is already 2 AoE damage for 2 mana. So if you would want to kill 3-4 minions with Glaive, Aura is already better. And you know what? Even if your opponent has higher health minions, it won’t stop the chain. Like, if your opponent has 2x 3/2 and 3x 3/3… just an example, stay with me. If you play Glaive, you will only be able to kill 2/2’s
And then, if you look at other AoE options DH has… Blade Dance, Shardshatter Mystic, Chaos Nova, Altruis the Outcast, even Cycle of Hatred… There’s just so much to pick from, and Throw Glaive doesn’t look like a premium option.
The only advantage of Glaive is that it doesn’t hit your own board like most of the other DH AoEs, but frankly, when you want to play AoE, you’re often in scenario where hitting your own board doesn’t really matter. And the extra flexibility just isn’t worth the fact that the card does a pretty lousy job as AoE vs more minions.
Card Rating: 3/10
Trampling Rhino
So, we’ve got a 5 mana 5/5 with Rush that also deals some face damage – at least when you trade it into something smaller. Realistically, I’d say that on average you’d be running it into a 3 health minion, so it would add 2 extra damage. Is that good enough? No, not really, but it’s always something extra.
Of course, the card has good synergy with Don't Feed the Animals. But like I’ve said in my review, I don’t like the card, I think that it’s too slow and greedy, and I didn’t change my opinion. However, IF you want to run a Handbuff Hunter deck, then you should probably consider this card as a good buff target. The extra +2/+2 would go a long way, letting you trade into bigger minions and deal more incidental face damage. Oh, and of course, if you ever want to run Guardian Animals in Hunter, this ain’t a bad target… but GA wasn’t playable in Hunter even at 7, let alone 8.
The card looks average, maybe a little bit above average, but I’m not very excited about it. 5/5/5 Rush is only okay, and the extra face damage will only come handy at times. A good thing is that you can intentionally run into 1 health minion to maximize damage in case you can finish your opponent, but in most of the cases you will just use it as a regular Rush minion and damage will simply be a small bonus.
Card Rating: 6/10
Line Hopper
Line Hopper goes hand in hand with Redeemed Pariah – both cards would fit into a very similar kind of deck. A pretty aggressive one, with lots of Outcast cards to play. Discounting them by (1) is quite strong in some cases, but only as long as it sticks to the board. Luckily, it has premium 3-drop stats – 3/4 are just about the best ones you can get. For that reason, the Pariah-Hopper combo MIGHT see play together, in some Outcast-heavy Aggro Demon Hunter build. But just like in case of Pariah, I feel like there might not be enough good Outcast cards to build a deck like that. So again, those cards are “good enough” to be tried out right now, but I feel like their power lies in their future potential in the right deck.
Technically, Hopper MIGHT also be a part of some combo that requires playing multiple Outcast cards during a turn. If you play more than 3, then you’re getting some free mana. I find it rather unlikely, but who knows what Wild might bring in the distant future?
Card Rating: 5/10
Acrobatics
Who knew that this time will come – an Arcane Intellect with a clear upside and no downsides whatsoever. My my. But again, when rating DH cards, I’m always caustions about two things that usually work well in other classes – card draw and AoE. Why? Because DH is already great a both. And it’s the same thing here.
A card like Acrobatics doesn’t really accomplish anything that DH already can’t do. In the early-mid game, it’s a simple 3 mana draw 2. DH would never want to put it into their deck given that they can draw 2 quite easily with Spectral Sight. And in the late game, where you can realistically play both of the cards you draw on the same turn. Still, I feel like it has the same problem that Stiltstepper has – playing the drawn cards immediately is NOT easy. Even the fastest DH decks run some higher cost cards. Since you need to play BOTH in this case, realistically you won’t activate its extra effect until Turn 5, and that’s a high-roll. If you draw a 2 mana card and a 3 mana card, so still a pretty solid outcome, it takes 8 mana in total to play them all. That’s way past what Aggro DH wants to play, and for a slower deck you have a much higher chance of drawing expensive cards that will brick the extra effect.
Then there’s another issue that you have to play those cards no matter what, even if you don’t want it. Let’s say that you already have a weapon equipped and you draw another one – do you play it and waste one durability? Or maybe you draw a removal and you have no good target for it – do you waste it just to draw more? You will run into this type of dillema very often, and many times it won’t be worth to play the cards even if you could technically do it.
Will DH want to play an Arcane Intellect that in rare, late game cases draws more? I honestly don’t think so. That’s why I’m not a big fan of this card, just like I’m not a big fan of Stilstepper.
Card Rating: 3/10
Knife Vendor
Uhhh.. no. I don’t like it, I don’t think it’s good. Or let me rephrase it – it’s quite good in Aggro vs Control matchups, those where you absolutely don’t care about your own health. Because that’s the thing – you can often drop down to 10 and your opponent still can’t do anything about it. But now, the situation gets much different in faster matchups. If you’re losing, if you’re behind, this is a dead card. Straight up dead card. Not only it has very weak stats, but you can’t afford to take 4 damage when you’re behind, because your opponent will just kill you faster. In many scenarios, this card will actively help your opponent kill you.
Yeah… Lifedrinker made much more sense, because while it was slightly worse against Control, it was WAY, WAY better vs Aggro. In a matchup that was going back and forth, Lifedrinker was a 6 health swing – this is 0 health swing. And if you were losing, the 3 extra health could save you many times.
The card might see some super rare play as a tech in burn / Aggro builds vs Control / Combo, but I’m not seeing it having any common ladder presence.
Card Rating: 2/10
Dreadlord’s Bite
Will Soul DH play it? Most likely not, Aldrachi Warblades and Marrowslicer are better. But there’s another DH deck that some people are still forgetting about – Aggro. Aggro currently runs Marrowslicer, and at the very least, I think that it’s better than Marrowslicer in the deck. In the best case scenario, this will be 7 damage vs 8 from Marrowslicer, but it costs 1 less… and the damage is AoE. That’s a BIG deal, especially in Aggro matchups. Dropping a Swipe on your opponent for just 3 mana and then still having 1 more swing of the weapon is huge. In Control, that won’t be as powerful, but 1 extra damage and possibly some damage that goes into a Taunt minion etc. is still okay.
Of course, it’s an Outcast card… so it won’t always be active. But it’s not like you always have to play it on T3. Or heck, in the worst case scenario, in a very aggressive deck, 6 damage for 3 mana isn’t that bad either. Plus, since it’s an Outcast card, it can be used after Redeemed Pariah. Keep in mind that you don’t need to ACTIVATE Outcast to buff Pariah. So it’s just a good 2 -> 3 curve for Aggro DH.
While I’m not sure whether Pariah sees play, I’m pretty confident that this card will.
Card Rating: 7/10
Dancing Cobra
If it had Poisonous from the get-go, I would really like it. But you need to Corrupt it for Poisonous? Meh, I don’t really like it. 1/5 for 2 is just too slow. Even a few expansions ago it was too slow, and right now 1 attack can’t really kill stuff in the early game. I mean it – almost no one runs 1 health minions. You need at least 2 damage to do anything, and 3 to trade vs most of the early game stuff. 1/5 will just get killed pretty easily without it getting much value.
Corrupt part is… eh, honestly, if it gained some extra stats like +1/+1, I might like it. But having a 2 mana 1/5 with Poisonous in the mid game isn’t that great either. Like sure, against the right board it can get 2 for 1, and that’s nice for a 2-drop. But again, you first need to Corrupt it, and Corrupted cards are supposed to be amazing to make up for the fact that they suck at first. This isn’t “amazing” enough. And as a Hunter, you don’t really need value trades, you want to deal damage to your opponent. 1/5 doesn’t really put any real pressure.
Just like in case of Rhino, if we see the Beast Handbuff decks, then Cobra will probably be played simply because it a) Corrupts at the same time as Don't Feed the Animals (so you can play a 3-drop, then play Corrupted Animals + Cobra) and b) 1/5 stats are good for buffing. Like, 3/7 with Poisonous is legit scary on T4, unlike 1/5. But since I don’t have much faith in Handbuff Hunter, I don’t have much faith in Cobra either. It’s not a bad card per se, but it’s too slow for the class.
Card Rating: 4/10
Safety Inspector
…but why? Okay, so here’s the thing. You put 1-drops into your deck so you can ideally play them in the early game and have a good curve. Curve is THE reason you put 1-drops most of the time. And this card actually destroys your curve. Like, if you have a 1-2-3-4 hand, this throws away the 2-drop, so it’s most likely unplayable all the way until mid-game. Even a vanilla 1 mana 1/3 wouldn’t see much play these days (most of the classes have better options), and this is – for the most part – a 1/3 with a downside.
Sure, the card has SOME advantages in the mid/late game. If you draw it, it can throw away your small card and potentially get something better instead. But if you play it for the mid/late game, you’d rather just play a straight up card draw. That’s why I don’t give it 1/10 – but because you put 1-drops into your deck first and foremost to be useful in the early game, I can’t rate it higher than 2/10. 1-drops that have good mid/late game scaling are always appreciated, but they need to be good on T1 in the first place.
The only chance for it to see play is in decks that actually WANT to shuffle a low cost card into the deck. Like, back when Shirvallah OTK Paladin was a thing, it would be a good way to combo – shuffle Shirvallah, play Holy Wrath, deal 25. But right now I’m not seeing any decks like that.
Card Rating: 2/10
Swindle
Okay, Rogue is getting some sweet cards this expansion. I think that Swindle + Foxy Fraud (which I’ll review below) might be a staple Rogue combo put into basically every deck. “Situational” 2 mana 2 card draw is okay, but when the “situational” part is a simple combo it gets even better. Like, we all know how easy it is to activate Combo in Rogue. Especially in a card like that, which does NOT need to be played on curve. Most of the time you’ll be happy to play it on T3, T4 etc. – the turns where you can actually play it quite easily.
The fact that you draw a minion and a spell is also good. Why? Because you get more options. Minions are usually good when you want to put more pressure on the board, play on the curve etc. Spells are often more reactive or let you do some interesting combos. Drawing two of either of them might not be optimal if you want to do the opposite – getting one of each opens up more possibilities. And given that every Rogue deck plays a both a lot of minions and a lot of spells, it’s not like you won’t get one or the other because of this restriction (basically until late game, where you don’t want to draw many cards anyway).
Rogue really loves some good card draw, and this is definitely good card draw. I like it, it’s a really strong card.
Card Rating: 9/10
Foxy Fraud
Ladies and gentlemen, Foxy Fraud is another rare 10/10 I give, because the card is SICK. In a lot of situations, it’s a 2 mana 3/2 with “Gain 2 mana this turn” Battlecry. Or, alternatively, 0 mana 3/2 on the turn you wanted to play a combo card anyway (AND a Combo activator at the same time!). And let’s just say that Rogue decks do play quite a lot of combo cards.
On top of the Swindle I’ve reviewed above, EVIL Miscreant, Eviscerate, Edwin VanCleef, Hooked Scimitar and Wand Thief are other options. Yeah, Wand Thief won’t get the full value, but it’s still not a bad combo. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the card was nerfed to reduce the cost of Combo card by (1) after a while. And given that Combo is a staple Rogue mechanic, the class will get more Combo cards over the next few sets, which should keep Foxy Fraud relevant all the time. Rogue class is all about tempo, and this is one of the best tempo cards in the game right now.
One of the best cards of the expansion, and one of the best Rogue cards EVER.
P.S. Oh, and I forgot about Shadowstep synergy. How about Turn 1 Coin + This + Shadowstep + This + Edwin? T1 3/2 + 10/10 anyone? I honestly think that it will happen and I’m already scared.
Card Rating: 10/10
Thank you for all the work. I really enjoy reading your articles. Fantastic.
And agree on your post about the new progression system. But when i go to that article, i’m logged out…