Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #8 (Final) – Naga Sand Witch, Oasis Surger, Octosari, Quicksand Elemental, Unseal the Vault, Vessina, Zephrys the Great

Welcome to the eight (and final) part of Saviors of Uldum card reviews! After skipping them for Rise of Shadows, I’ve decided (thanks to you) to pick them back up for Saviors of Uldum. I’ll try to share my thoughts about as many Saviors of Uldum cards as possible. I’ve decided to split the final one into two, because there was A LOT of cards to talk about at the same time.

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 – it might be playable in some decks, but 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 this card as something with a lot of 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.

Even though we’ve seen all of the cards (and I have more knowledge about what synergies we’re getting etc.), a lot of the ratings will still most likely be wrong, because we have no clue how the upcoming meta will look like. 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 reviews:

• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #1 – Plague of Death, Puzzle Box, Corrupt the Waters, BEEEES!!!, Armagedillo And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #2 – Highlander Explorers, Making Mummies, Hidden Oasis, Expired Merchant, Wild Bloodstinger And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #3 – Riftcleaver, Hunter’s Pack, Tip the Scales, Anka, Arcane Flakmage, Hooked Scimitar, Tortollan Pilgrim, Mogu Cultist And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #4 – Diseased Vulture, Into the Fray, Pressure Plate, Frightened Flunky, High Priest Amet, Generous Mummy, Grandmummy And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #5 – Plague of Wrath, Colossus of the Moon, Hack the System, Overflow, Plague of Flames, Dark Pharaoh Tekahn And More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #6 – Embalming Ritual, Shadow of Death, Siamat, King Phaoris, Wretched Reclaimer, Activate the Obelisk, Bazaar Burglary and More!
• Saviors of Uldum Card Reviews #7 – Ancient Mysteries, Crystal Merchant, Dune Sculptor, Garden Gnome, Hyena Alpha, Injured Tol’vir, Mischief Maker And More!

Naga Sand Witch

It’s an interesting play on the Naga Sea Witch effect, and one that has A LOT of potential. Expensive spells are expensive for a reason. If you can make them 2, 3, or even 5 mana cheaper, they can be really and I mean really powerful. The point is to run it in a “Big Spell” Mage deck and get only discounts. You obviously won’t put it into a deck that runs cheap spells, because it would be counterproductive. The dream is to discount Flamestrike, Power of Creation, Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron or Pyroblast all to 5 mana, which makes those cards incredibly powerful. Like the Puzzle – I didn’t think think that the card will be problematic, because it was so expensive. But if you can make it so cheap that you can play it on T6 (or T5 if you Coin out Witch), then it’s a whole other story and I’m genuinely scared of the RNG that might happen on the ladder. I don’t even think that it will be THAT strong (because RNG can work both ways), just really, really annoying.

I can also totally see some kind of Burn/Combo Mage running 2x Pyro now. You rarely play more than 1, because it’s just so slow. You spend your whole turn doing nothing but damaging your opponent, so you better just kill them. But with Naga Sand Witch you can play TWO of them in a single turn – 20 damage with 2 cards. That’s very, very powerful. But I’m not sure if there’s a room for this kind of archetype right now.

Honestly, like I’ve said at the beginning, the card has a lot of potential as a big spells discounter, but right now in Standard I’m not sure if there’s enough pay-off from doing so. 2x Pyro combo is cute, but you also need to remember that you can’t realistically put THAT many big spells into your deck, because what happens if you draw them but not Naga? It will be way, way, waaaay too slow.

But I’m pretty sure that at one point people will build some crazy, overpowered combo around it. Mana discounts are something you should never underestimate.

Card rating: 5/10 right now, but I think that it has 9/10 potential in the right combo deck (but probably in Wild at one point).

Neferset Thrasher

Damn, a 3 mana 4/5 is strong. Getting out Yeti a turn earlier is huge. It’s VERY hard to answer it on curve and it can easily get 2 for 1 or just push a lot of damage. Of course – it comes with a big downside. Or does it?

Dealing 3 damage to your Hero on each attack can be seen as a downside, unless you start adding self-damage synergies to your deck. For example, if you drop this on T3, it survives, then you curve out into Diseased Vulture, it’s just game over against many decks. You end up with 4/5 + 3/5 + a random 3-drop on the board, and if not answered, it will grow again next turn.

The biggest issue here is that dealing 3 to yourself once is okay (see Flame Imp), but dealing 3 to yourself with every attack can be too much. You can probably still afford that against a slower deck which can’t put pressure, but if the meta will be more aggressive, it can be a suicide. I remember playing old matchups of Zoo Warlock vs Tempo Mage – even though I didn’t run as much self-damage, I was so scared of their burn to the point that I had to think every press of Hero Power through. Playing Thrasher would be really scary in that matchup, because they could easily pull out 15+ damage over 2 turns out of nowhere, so getting them closer to that wouldn’t be the best idea.

However, we don’t really have a deck like that right now. Even the aggressive decks are board-oriented, and losing health is not as scary against them, because you get a lot of tempo on board in return (so you can control the board, so they won’t hit you in the face with their minions, so you get ahead). I’m not sure whether “self-damage” Zoo will be better than “1-drops Zoo” with Carpet, because I’m not sure if you will be able to mix both, but it looks quite scary to be honest.

Card rating: 7/10 (but gets MUCH weaker in a meta with face/burn decks)

Oasis Surger

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s EXACTLY the pay-off card that Quest Druid needed. But even without Quest, the card looks honestly strong. At the base level, it’s either 2x 3/3 with Rush or 1x 5/5 with Rush. Which one is better obviously depends on the situation. If you have two targets you need to hit, or you need specifically 6 damage, then 2x 3/3 is better. If your opponent has only one target that you can clear and survive, then 5/5 is most likely better. 5/5 Rush is similar to Militia Commander, which an upside of not losing extra attack after your turn is over. So between the fact that it stays as a bigger threat (so you can even just drop it on empty board without taking advantage of Rush if you have to – something that is pretty bad with Commander) and that it’s more flexible, I’d say that it’s comparable to Militia Commander in terms of power level. Which is good! Especially given that Druid’s cards are now really, really bad compared to Warrior’s. Even without any extra synergies, it already fits into some sort of Midrange Druid.

But then comes Quest Druid. After you’re done with your Quest, this is just insane. For 5 mana, you get 2x 5/5 with Rush. You can remove one HUGE minion, two mid-sized minions, two smaller minions (and 5/5’s still survive), or just drop them on the empty board, because 2x 5/5 for 5 is amazing. The deck really needed some strong, reactive cards, because you’re losing quite a lot of tempo by floating mana for the Quest. This might be a great comeback card. It will be an auto-include into the Quest deck, and it might be the card that was necessary to push the Quest into “playable” territory. We’ll see, but I think that it’s one of the stronger cards in the set and definitely something that Druid needed to make a comeback into the meta (or at least a step towards it).

Card rating: 9/10

Octosari

Ooooh. I love this card. It already spawned a bunch of memes, and it’s just so crazy that I want to play around with it. At first, it might see absolutely powerful. Drawing 8 cards is an insane effect, it’s a full hand refill. But then you realize that it’s strapped into 8 mana 8/8, which makes it much more prohibitive. It’s would be absolutely insane as a refill in Aggro, but 8 mana is a lot and getting it early is probably going to lose you more games (because you will play with a dead card) than getting it when you need will win. Or will it? That’s the beautiful thing about it, I’m not really sure. That’s how powerful drawing 8 is.

Slower decks would have a much easier time getting it out.. but in slower decks drawing 8 cards is often a downside. You see, not only they are holding a lot more cards in hand at the same time (so they would most likely overdraw at least a few), but they also care more about fatigue. Control decks definitely don’t want to play this.

I think that some kind of Midrange is the best shot for Octosari. They are slow enough that they can afford 8 mana card, but running out of cards quickly enough that drawing 8 is not going to be an issue (neither will overdrawing, because Midrange decks generally don’t run cards they absolutely can’t burn). And ideally, you’d want to cheat it out somehow. One big upside is that it’s a Beast, so it can be cheated out with Oondasta. Druid can also do it with Stampeding Roar and give it Rush. Big Beast Druid is a bad deck, but this might actually fit in, because the deck was really low on card draw now that UI was gone. But then again, it also means that it will be in your Witching Hour pool, which is scary. Getting it second time probably means that you get to fatigue. Third time – you just lose.

And then we also have some kind of combos. I’ve already seen Dog building a crazy Deathrattle Rogue deck with this card (and Anka, the Buried.

Overall, I like this card a lot, you really need to find the right deck to make drawing 8 cards on a slow minion like that an upside. But I think it’s possible, and I believe that the card might see some play at one point. Maybe, just maybe (but it will really need a lot of testing), some slower Aggro decks will want to run this to top their curve – it’s a game-changer vs Control. Instead of being in top deck mode and losing basically every game from that point, they have 2-3 more board refills and Control decks just needs to answer them. Or leave the 8/8 be and still probably lose to a huge minion. Silence + removal is the only option to be honest.

Card rating: I have absolutely no clue, but I believe that it has some potential SOMEWHERE. I mean, come on, it’s draw 8 cards!

Penance

Oh look, it’s Warlock’s Drain Soul, but deal/heal 3 instead of 2. That’s obviously a HUGE upside, but before calling it powercreep we need to remember that those are two completely different classes. For Warlock, lack of healing is supposed to be a weakness to off-set the fact that they can do such powerful things when sacrificing their health (otherwise they could do it without any risk, which kind of happened last Standard year), while Priest is a class based around healing. That said, it’s hard to deny that Penance is so much better than Drain Soul was.

Penance is a solid removal spell with an upside. The fact that you can’t go face with it is a downside, but not as big in a Priest as in some other classes. Especially now that combo decks built around Prophet Velen are no longer a thing. Oh, talking about Velen, it still has a nice combo with this card. You deal 6 damage and then heal not for 6, but for 12, because that effect is also doubled again. While it might not be very relevant in many matchups, you can really stabilize vs Aggro or get out of burn range vs some combo decks.

Penance is simply a solid, well-rounded early game removal. Probably every Control Priest deck will want to include it assuming faster decks will be present in the meta. Normally Shadow Word: Pain might be stronger in lots of cases, but it has some downsides too. E.g. this can finish off a big minion, Pain can’t. This can clear a 4/3, Pain can’t. This heals you, Pain doesn’t. So overall I think that it might be more flexible than Pain and that’s why it should see play over it. It might also see play in Quest Priest, because assuming they have some health lost, it adds progress to the Quest (which is very important). Just a good card.

Card rating: 7/10

Phalanx Commander

Well, the only deck I could realistically see this being played in was the old Taunt Druid which was quickly pushed out of the meta in KFT by better decks (and Spreading Plague nerf). In order for this card to be any good, you’d need to consistently be able to put many Taunts on the board. Probably 2-3 is the minimum at which this card gets enough value for you to play it. But I don’t think that we recently had, have and I don’t believe that we’ll have a deck like that any time soon. Plus, given that it’s an ongoing Aura, once this minion leaves the board, it disappears. Compare it to the Druid’s Strongshell Scavenger which gave them a permanent +2/+2 on Battlecry (most definitely a better effect)… and has seen play only because Druid could easily summon a board full of Taunts with Plague. Even in that deck (which is like the best case scenario for this card), I’m not sure if I would want it.

I really like artwork on this card, but I sadly don’t think that it’s good enough to see play.

Card rating: 2/10

Pit Crocolisk

I’m not really sure if they should be printing a card like that. It most likely won’t have an impact Constructed anyway (outside of random Discovers etc.) but it’s insane in Arena. It’s on a similar power level to North Sea Kraken, which ruled the format for a long time, arguably even better, because it comes down one turn earlier which means that there’s a higher chance that the game will last long enough for you to play it. I know that there are buckets and stuff, but if a card most likely won’t be played in Constructed anyway, and it might break Arena because it’s a incredibly powerful Neutral Common, why not just print something else in its place? Or just balance it around Arena?

But talking about Constructed – I think that it’s simply the case of a card being 1 mana too expensive to see play. At 7 mana, I think that it would be playable in many decks across the board as a flexible removal / body in one card (would be kind of comparable to Fire Elemental – same stats with a different distribution, but +2 damage for +1 mana). But one mana makes difference.

Maybe, just maybe, if we’re grasping at straws. Quest Shaman might want to play it, because after you finish a Quest it’s a Pyroblast with a 5/6 body. But then again, A LOT of the cards are great when you double their Battlecries – the Hero Power is crazy good, but the issue is actually finishing the Quest, surviving and making up for the card lost. I think that Quest Shaman might have enough late game value with all of the doubled Battlecries, and I think that it would also prefer Fire Elemental over this (you get -4 damage, but for -2 mana + without Quest activation Fire Elemental is much better).

Then, again, MAYBE Highlander decks might want to run it if they won’t have enough good removal to put into their decks. Highlander decks were known for running some “Arena” cards in the past – e.g. Reno Mage playing Flame Lance, simply because it didn’t have enough singleton removals. But still, even if that will be the case, it won’t be played because it’s a good card, but because there are simply no better options.

Card rating: 3/10

Quicksand Elemental

I feel like this card is seriously not discussed enough. In the right circumstances, this kind of effect is absolutely nuts! Removing 2 attack from the opponent’s board means that your trades are going to be so much more favorable. This is a game-changer in Aggro/Tempo mirrors. Let’s say that if Zoo faces Zoo, a single Quicksand can turn the entire game around and break an even position in favor of the player who used it.

Let’s be clear, this is definitely not a card that you would want to use in every single meta. Against Control, for example, this is not terrible, but not good – mostly played for a 3/2 body, maybe sometimes to reduce the damage of a Taunt or something for better trades. But if a decent part of meta would revolve around minion combat, then I could totally see running two of those in lots of decks.

Heck, but let’s just forget about Aggro/Tempo decks for a while. Remember Shrinkmeister? This is Shrinkmeister on steroids (and Shrinkmeister was already a solid card). The only downside compared to Shrinkmeister is that if you steal a card temporarily you will have a harder time killing it off (but without Potion of Madness in Standard, it’s no longer that relevant). You can use this + Cabal Shadow Priest to steal some 3-4 Attack minion, or Shadow Madness to get 4-5 attack ones. Or not necessarily in Priest, you can combo it with Mossy Horror for a nice board clear. Instead of clearing only 2 or less attack minions, you would clear 4 or less attack minions. Big difference.

I’m really, really surprised that this card is kind of flying under the radar. And I don’t even mean that no one recognizes it’s strength – I didn’t really see many people discussing it. Maybe because it was dropped in the final dump? But I feel like it has a serious chance of being in top 10 cards of the set.

Card rating: 9/10

Ramkahen Wildtamer

3 mana 4/3 that “draws” you a card. That’s really good, but not perfect. In order for you to get +1 card you need to have a Beast in your hand, you copy a random one so if you have multiple Beasts in your hand you can get the one you don’t necessarily want to copy, and it’s not a Beast itself, so you can’t put it into Master's Call deck. But those are more “small downsides” of a very strong card and not any real flaws. Given the premium stats and a solid effect, I do think that the card will see play. First of all – in Highlander Hunter. The deck is not restricted by Master's Call‘s requirement to run only Beasts, and getting a second copy of some of the Beasts might be useful. Good T3 play, good play later in the game when you want to copy something specific etc. Right now it will probably be played only in Highlander builds, but I do think that Midrange Hunter will want this after Master’s Call rotates out. The class will be struggling to get some more value then and this is a good way to do it without losing tempo.

Talking about copying something specific, though. I believe that the card might be a part of some combo at one point. If I’m not mistaken, the copied card should also keep any mana discounts present, and you can discount Beasts with Scarlet Webweaver now. To be honest, I don’t feel like I have enough time to think about all the possible combos, but it’s something that the card might be used for. Even if not for combo, copying a discounted big Beast is still great. Getting a second 0 mana Tundra Rhino or 1 mana Savannah Highmane turns this effect from “solid” to “nuts” (of course, it’s more of a high roll and won’t be relevant in most of the games, but it WILL happen sometimes).

Card rating: 8/10

Sandhoof Waterbearer

Sandhoof “What if Lightwell was an actually good card” Waterbearer. Or even a better comparison – this is a smaller Ragnaros, Lightlord, and anyone who played slower Paladin decks at the time knew how good the card could be. Emergency face healing that repeats every turn, getting more value out of your trades by healing your minions back up after they got damaged etc. This is exactly the same effect, but on a 5/5/5 instead of 8/8/8. And I, for one, think that’s an upgrade. It comes down earlier, it has a lower chance of “overhealing” (because especially when healing minions, 3-5 is often enough and you didn’t need 8), and it’s Common, so you can run two for the consistency sake.

Decent stats for the mana cost (not premium – it would be pretty broken at 5/6, but at 5/5 it should still be good), very strong effect that repeats every turn. Amazing vs Aggro, because it heals you for 5 and basically has a Taunt – opponent needs to deal with it somehow or he loses. Synergizes with Activate the Obelisk Quest – it gets 1/3 of the progress done by itself! It also synergizes with “Injured” minions. Later in the game you can drop e.g. Injured Blademaster and this one a single turn and you’ll have 5/5 + 4/7 assuming no other healing targets. It doesn’t specify ANOTHER friendly character, so it can also heal up itself after trading. Great resurrect target from Psychopomp, especially since once it ides and gets up at 1 health, if it’s your turn, he might just heal back up to 5.

The card just fits Priest very well, not much more to say!

Card rating: 7/10

Sandstorm Elemental

Sandstorm Elemental is a Maelstrom Portal 2.0. Guaranteed 2/2 stats are significantly better than a random 1-drop (where you could often roll a 1/1, and rarely something better than 2/2), but unlike Maelstrom Portal, this comes with 1 point of Overload. Which, obviously is not great on curve, but funnily enough might sometimes be an upside. Thunderhead + this can make some great turns in the mid/late game, because you first deal 1 AoE damage and then kill of survivors with 1/1’s. Maelstrom Portal was still probably better because you’d rather not Overload if you don’t have to (despite it being an upside sometimes), and it was affected by Spell Damage, while this isn’t. But it’s pretty close, and Maelstrom Portal was one of the better cards Shaman ever got.

The card is a walking synergy for Shaman too. It’s an Elemental, and even though Elemental synergies have MOSTLY rotated out, we still do have Earthen Might. Then it’s an Overload card for the sake of Likkim, Thunderhead and such. And finally, it’s a Battlecry card for the Quest – you can progress the Quest early with it or drop it later in the game for 2 AoE damage with the reward. Heck, even Control build might want this as a tech card.

I’m nearly sure that Sandstorm Elemental will be played. Especially if the meta demands it – if aggressive, board flood strategies would be popular, it would also be popular. It’s amazing vs Zoo and it single-handedly destroys Aggro Paladin. Also good against any Reborn minions, since it clears the second part (and Shamans don’t always have an easy time pinging stuff off).

Card rating: 8/10

Serpent Egg

Serpent Egg is the closest thing that we’ve got to the very first Egg in Hearthstone – Nerubian Egg. Instead of a 4/4, it summons a 3/4, which is sadly quite a lot worse (the extra point of attack makes a lot of difference), but it’s still pretty solid. Funnily enough, in case of Egg, 2 Health was also better than 3 Health, because it was easier to trigger. It died to 2 damage AoEs (which is what you wanted, because you came back with some board presence) and to 2 attack minions after you buffed and ran it into something.

However, after Devilsaur Egg has rotated out, we no longer did have a similar card in Standard. Yes, there’s a Scarab Egg, but it goes wide instead of tall. While I do think that Devilsaur Egg was better for the Deathrattle shenanigans (like triggering it multiple times), because 5/5 is much scarier than a 3/4, Serpent Egg has a higher chance to see play in faster decks. Both of those cards have no immediate impact, but “2 mana do nothing” is much more bearable than “3 mana do nothing” for an Aggro deck. Like, Scarab Egg already sees play in Zoo, so it’s basically whether 3x 1/1 or 1x 3/4 is better. Theoretically you could run both, but I don’t think that you have enough sacrifice effects. Or maybe you do? We’ll see.

Deathrattle decks like Deathrattle Rogue STILL might want to run this, simply because they have no better early game options. While they would prefer Devilsaur Eggs for the most part, like they say, beggars can’t be choosers. If you happen to run Anka, the Buried, it’s also not the worst target to hit. While you only get 1 mana point of discount, it becomes a 1/1 so you can activate it by running it into something (it basically turns into a broken 1-drop).

Card rating: 6/10

Sinister Deal

This might not seem too strong at the first sight. I mean, wouldn’t you rather discover another card than a Lackey? Are they even that impactful? Well, you could ask the same question about EVIL Cable Rat vs Novice Engineer. Wouldn’t you rather draw a good card from your deck rather than get a random Lackey? The answer is simply – if you play a Tempo deck, Lackeys are just very good. If you would pay +1 mana for an extra 1/1 body that doesn’t even let you DISCOVER a Lackey but rather give you a random one, you definitely might play this. And the Discover part is very important. The pool of Lackeys is small – after Titanic Lackey is added, there will be only six of them in the game. So you have exactly 50% chance to get the Lackey you want. Which means that you can somewhat reasonably get the best Lackey for your situation.

Sinister Deal is a pretty good Lackey generator, and if Lackey Zoo takes off, it will 100% be included – there is no doubt about it. Both EVIL Recruiter and Dark Pharaoh Tekahn are amazing pay-off cards for Lackeys, but is only 8 Lackeys in total good enough? Will this kind of Zoo be better than your regular one? And finally – will Sinister Deal see play in the current Carpet version or is it too weak? I think it has a serious chance of seeing play even in the current deck, even if they don’t run any extra Lackey synergies. Just being able to pick the Lackey you need is well worth it lots of the time. It’s a bit like 2 mana 1/1 with “pick whatever effect you need for situation”. 2 damage? Fine. +2 Health and Taunt? Why not. Evolve your damaged minion? Sure thing!

If it was “get a random Lackey”, I wouldn’t rate it highly. But since you can Discover, it’s much better. And Zoo might just play it even without Lackey synergies (and will 100% play if it Lackey synergies will be good enough).

Card rating: 7/10

Spitting Camel

You trade 1 extra point of stat for a negative effect. Dealing damage to your own minions is not something you want to do in general. Of course, sometimes you end up with a deck that can take advantage of those silly effects. In this case, the deck that has the highest chance of turning it into an upside is some kind of Tempo/Enrage Warrior. If you play minions that you want to damage (e.g. Acolyte of Pain) and damage synergies (Battle Rage, Bloodsworn Mercenary), then it might work out.

But realistically, I’m not seeing it. The fact that it deals damage to a RANDOM minion means that you can’t control it unless you have literally only a single other minion on the board. Then, since it happens at the end of your turn, it means that you can’t immediately take advantage of your Battle Rage etc. And by the time your next turn comes, the minion might be dead. Warrior already had a 1-drop that dealt damage to every minion you played and, from my experience, even though it was useful sometimes, very often that kind of effect was a downside, as it made your minions easier to kill. And while 2 mana 2/4 is nice, the effect is questionable even in synergistic decks.

Card rating: 3/10

Subdue

Pseudo single target removal for 2 mana. On the one hand, it doesn’t actually kill the minion, but on the other, it often deals with a big threat for just 2 mana, while you’d have to pay at least twice as much for a regular “hard removal”. Of course, not killing the minion has a lot of downsides. The debuff can be Silenced. If you play against Mage, they can still Conjurer's Calling the minion. If the minion has some kind of ongoing effect, it will still be there. That’s why ideally you still want to clear off the 1/1. Luckily for Paladin, Silver Hand Recruits are often there to do just that. I do think that Control Paladin will want to run this. Neutralizing a big threat and making it easy to clear off afterwards is great. Can also be combo’d with Wild Pyro for 1 damage AoE (as well as instant kill on whatever you’ve debuffed). The card is great in many matchups, but especially against Mech decks. Your opponent stacking Mechs into one and you playing this? Well, that’s great. Even if they want to Silence it off, they also get rid of all their Mechanic buffs at the same time, so it’s still a win for you. But if opponent can’t realistically do anything with the 1/1 you’ve just created (Silence etc.), you’ve just played a 2 mana Polymorph. If you clear the target immediately – same thing, 2 mana Polymorph. How great is that?

On the other hand, the card is not very good against wide boards. Unlike Equality, it only targets one minion, but if your opponent has 3-4 of them, dealing with one is often not good enough. However, Paladin also has aforementioned Equality, as well as Shrink Ray to deal with wider boards, so I guess that should be okay.

However, there’s still one more use that I’m not seeing a lot of people talking. I think that the card is nuts in Aggro Paladin. Why run Ironbeak Owl and just remove Taunt from a minion if you can just turn it into a 1/1 and kill with basically anything? A Silenced Taunt can still trade with your minions, a dead one can’t. Plus any kind of big minion your opponent plans to stick that can be removed with this. Sometimes not even fully removed – just turning it into a 1/1 is often good enough. The card is a MASSIVE tempo play against anything bigger than 3/3. I guess that it still might be a meta call, because like I’ve said above, it’s still bad vs small minions. But honestly, I could see it getting some value even in Aggro/Tempo mirrors. Like if Zoo turns their Lackey into a 5/5. Or Paladin buffs something. Or Shaman drops Thunderhead. Very good card, I like it.

Card rating: 8/10

Swarm of Locusts

The card seems pretty interesting, but I find it too slow. 6 mana is a lot, and while flooding the entire board with 1/1’s is okay, especially since they have Rush, the card has one massive downside – Zul'jin antisynergy. You see, Hunters can already commonly summon three or four 1/1’s with CHARGE thanks to Unleash the Hounds. And while this CAN be dropped even on the empty board, realistically opponent is just going to AoE them and that’s it. It seems too slow/reactive for Midrange Hunter, and slower Hunter decks (if they will even exist in the first place) hate it because of Zul’jin. While getting 7x 1/1 with Rush is not the worst outcome ever, you’d much rather get back your 5/5’s from Unleash the Beast or Animal Companions. But if Locusts get cast first, before those, then all you end up with is “7 damage”. Not terrible, but most of the time you expect your 10 mana Hero card to do more.

The only deck I would realistically play it in is Quest Hunter. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Quest still seems VERY difficult to complete. To give it some credit, after you finish the Quest, this will turn into 7x 3/1 with Rush, and that’s way, way better. If not answered, next turn you just press Hero Power again and hit them with 5/1’s, probably winning the game. But in my opinion, Hunter’s Quest is still to awkward to work.

It’s not bad, but I don’t think it will see play until Zul’jin rotates out, unless Quest Hunter will actually turn out to be viable.

Card rating: 4/10

Temple Berserker

Always good to see some Enrage cards, because I like them in general. And I like them even more if they’re designed well, like this one! This is a nice play with Mechanics. Since it has both Enrage and Reborn, it means that Enrage will automatically activate when the first body dies. So it, outside of some rare cases, can be compared to a 1/2 that Deathrattles into a 3/1. Kindly Grandmother anyone? I think that Grandmother was still better because a) I’d rather have 1 extra health on the better body and b) it was a Beast, so had extra Hunter synergies. Still, even though it doesn’t compare that favorably to Grandmother, it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad card.

If you run a Reborn deck, this is a solid choice. If you run an aggressive, board-oriented deck that likes to have an extra, sticky body, this is also a solid choice. While I don’t think that it will be good enough to get into the main Zoo lists, it might at least be considered. I don’t think that it will become a common meta cad, but I believe that it might see a bit of play.

Card rating: 5/10

Totemic Surge

To be fair, this certainly looks better than Totemic Might. If you have a bunch of Basic Totems on your board, this can turn them into something you can trade with, or at least push some damage. While Totemic Might is pretty useless, since it just makes them slightly harder to kill. I think that Totemic Surge has some chance of seeing play in Wild Even Shaman – you DO summon a lot of Totems, and you also run Totem Golem, and giving let’s say +6 attack to your board (with 3 totems on the board, which should happen pretty often) for 0 mana is seriously scary.

As for the Standard, however, I don’t think that aggressive decks (one that might consider it) run enough Totems (because I don’t think that just Hero Power is enough), and dedicated Totem decks don’t look promising at all yet. I can’t dismiss the card completely, because a permanent Savage Roar for Totems for 0 mana is very powerful. We just need a good enough deck to run it in. But I’m curious if we’ll see a deck like that after all. It’s really weird, but they seem to be pushing just enough Totem synergies to keep players interested in a potential of such deck, but not enough to actually make the deck viable. I would prefer if they just went ahead and printed some more synergies at the same time.

Card rating: 2/10 right now, but has A LOT of potential in case of more Totem synergies

Unseal the Vault

Uhhh… On the one hand, the reward is very powerful. I think that a lot of people read it like Savage Roar, a temporary buff, while this if a permanent buff. It’s like having access to Branching Paths‘ +2 Attack option on Hero Power, for 2 mana, every turn, in a deck that can take advantage of that. It’s very, very powerful. However, with a powerful reward also comes a rather difficult to complete Quest – summoning 20 minions.

Okay, to be fair, this is LESS than it might sound like, given that it requires you to summon them, not play them. So if you get 3 minion from Unleash the Hounds, that’s +3 for the Quest. You drop Microtech Controller, Explodinator or something else that summons multiple bodies – also more than +1 progress. Swarm of Locusts in particular will be the game-changer with +7 progress to the Quest. I think that, realistically, Hunter should be able to finish the Quest around T7-T8. Probably a bit earlier sometimes with the right draws, and a bit later if you don’t get Swarm of Locusts. But that’s still slow, very slow. Many games won’t even last that long!

But how is Token Hunter doing in general? Well, we don’t know! That’s because Token Hunter has never existed. It’s not a deck that got any real support in the past, and Hunter has basically no Token synergies right now. Timber Wolf is something we do have, but it only works with Beasts, and in order to play this Quest, you will realistically need more than just Beasts (most likely you’ll want to branch onto the Mechs), and it only buffs Attack, so doesn’t make your board more sticky. And that’s the main issue I have. If Hunter had the Druid’s toolkit of AoE buffs, Soul of the Forest and stuff, the deck would be absolutely broken with that reward. But right now, in order to play the Quest deck, you’re forced not only to skip T1, start with 1 less card, but also play a BAD DECK until you finish the Quest. You’re forced to play a bunch of token-generating cards with no pay-off. After the Quest is done, the pay-off will be massive. Imagine summoning a board full of 3/1’s with Rush. You clear everything AND still have something to spare (then if they survive you buff them again to 5 attack next turn). Then your opponent could never flood the board, because Unleash the Hounds + Hero Power would be up to 21 damage out of nowhere. All of the cards that generate harmless 1/1’s would now generate 3/1’s, and opponent would always be forced to clear the board or you would keep buffing them.

Yes, that’s a good pay-off. Amazing one even. But it not only comes too late (in most of the games you’d be forced into a losing position because you’re playing a bad deck for the first 7-8 or so turns AND you’re starting 1 card down unless you draw Questing Explorer), but by the time you get your new Hero Power, you might not have too many cards in your hand to take advantage of it. If you go all in on the Quest and try to finish it as quickly as possible, your value will suffer and you might not have enough cards to leverage the Quest reward. And then if you try to go slower with more value/card draw, you will probably delay your Quest finish by another turn or two.

So, overall, I’m not seeing this card at all unless Hunter gets more Token strategy synergies in the future. The class has some ways to flood the board, but not enough pay-off for doing that BEFORE the Quest is done. But I have to recognize the potential in the reward, which is insanely powerful in a Token deck.

Card rating: 3/10

Vessina

Definitely a solid card, probably auto-include in some kind of Token/Overload/Murloc Shaman. When playing those decks, you’ve overloaded basically every turn, even even when you aren’t you usually CAN be but just saving your Overload cards for synergies. So most of time this would just read “4 mana 2/6, your other minions have +2 Attack” and that’s a very good effect. We all know how good Murloc Warleader is in Murloc builds and this is not limited to that tribe. I would absolutely replace one Bloodlust in those kind of strategy to put in this Legendary. While this is only +2 and not +3, it’s 1 mana cheaper, it comes with a 2/6 body, and it lasts until Vessina is dead or Silenced. So you can immediately take advantage of it and then if opponent can’t kill Vessina do the same thing next turn. Importantly, it also lasts through your opponent’s turn, so if he will want to make any other trades than killing Vessina (like let’s say getting through a Taunt Totem, or killing Underbelly Angler), he will have to take extra damage.

The card has amazing synergy with the other premium Overload card too – Thunderhead. If you manage to get both on the board, oh well, that’s basically a full clear without trying hard. You summon 3/1’s with Overload instead of 1/1’s and that’s great. Even Vessina + Voltaic Burst is pretty cute play, since you can deal 6 Rush damage immediately and still have Vessina up on the board (and other potential minions buffed).

Might not slot that well into your standard Aggro Shaman, because the deck is a bit heavy on the spell side of things. It runs more burn spells and less minions, so +2 Attack to minions might get wasted sometimes. But in any kind of Token-oriented Shaman strategy (which has gotten way better with Thunderhead and The Storm Bringer buffs), I do think that it will be a staple. Heck, it might even see play in Even Wild Shaman, since the deck already runs Thunderhead with some Overload stuff and it can flood the board so easily.

Card rating: 8/10

Vulpera Scoundrel

Let’s start off with explaining what “Mystery Choice” is. It’s an EXTRA (fourth) Discover choice that appears on top of 3 random class spells you can pick from. It gives you a random spell, but still only from YOUR CLASS, so you can’t e.g. put it in Thief Rogue and get extra synergies. Basically, if the 3 spells you got offered don’t fit your situation, are weak or you simply want a little bit of extra randomness, then you can pick it.

But the Mystery Choice is just an addition and something that seems to distract people from the fact that this is a damn solid card even without Mystery Choice. It’s a NEUTRAL 3 mana 2/3 that lets you Discover a spell. Which means that it will have a completely different effect and power level depending on which class you put it into. Most of the “3 mana discover” cards have 2/2 statline, while this is a 2/3, and that’s a significant difference. Any class with solid spells will at least consider running it, mostly because it’s very flexible. It’s a bit like Stonehill Defender, but it can’t low-roll into 3 random Neutral Taunts that you don’t want to get. In both cases, you play 1 extra mana for the discover option (because they both come with 2-drop bodies), and I’d argue that getting to pick a spell is even better than getting to pick a Taunt minion. The Taunt on Stonehill probably made his body a bit better (because it could tank some damage vs Aggro, while this can often be ignored later in the game), but a better effect on this one balanced things again.

The extra “Mystery Choice” is just a cherry on the top. You generally do not want to pick that option unless you really have to. Let’s say that you play Mage and you face a big board, need an AoE spell to survive. If you didn’t get any from the 3 regular options, you can STILL get an extra roll on top of that. The fact that it’s a 4th option means that there are no downsides whatsoever, and you can still use it sometimes.

The card will most likely see some play. I’m nearly sure that Highlander Mage will want this, maybe other Highlander decks too, because Discover cards are generally good in singleton decks (since they’re less consistent, and Discover adds a little bit of consistency, since it’s flexible and you can pick a card according to matchup/situation), but I would also imagine some of the regular builds wanting to play it.

Card rating: 7/10

Wasteland Scorpid

Meh. It’s Maexxna with +1/+1. I mean, it just shows that Maexxna wasn’t much of a Legendary and that it was pretty bad that they can easily print her as a common for just 1 more mana with better stats. I remember back in the day, when Maexxna was first announced, people overhyping it saying that “Poisonous is basically like infinite attack”. Sure, against minions. Again, back then, minion combat was overrated by many, while people undervalued attacking the opponent and bringing their health down. This card follows a similar style. For 7 mana, you get a 9 health minion (which is quite a lot) that can trade into ANYTHING and probably still survive. But so what if it can only go face for 3 so it’s not a big threat anyway, plus it’s pretty slow and easily dies to a single removal.

There are many, many 7 mana cards that I would rather put into my deck than this. Realistically, this will only see play when given randomly from different effects. I think that it’s a solid contender for the worst card of the set. In other words, pack filler.

Card rating: 1/10

Worthy Expedition

Oh my, Worthy Expedition is one of the more flexible cards we’ve ever got in Hearthstone. Not only you get to pick from 3 options, but each of those options has TWO effects, making it similar to picking one of the six options. In general, Choose One cards are pretty solid and you have a lot of good options. There are big minions, midrange minions, small minions, healing, AoE damage, single target damage, Silence, AoE buffs… No matter when you play it, you should find at least one option that is good for your matchup / current situation. Of course, you always have to pay 1 more mana for it, and some of the Choose One cards are already slightly overpriced because of the flexibility, so that’s a downside.

100% staple in Quest Druid, no doubt about it. The fact that you can snatch extra copies of your best Choose One cards and reap the value of both effects is great. After your Quest is done, it basically reads “1 mana, Discover an overpowered card”.

As for the non-Quest Druid builds. Highlander Druid will still probably play it because it’s a solid and consistent card. Token Druid definitely won’t play it, it’s too slow. Lucentbark Druid? Maybe, since it has a solid chance to discover more healing and it can also give you removal or another minion when you need it. In general, I’d say that it might see some play in any slower Druid deck, but probably won’t see play in faster builds.

Card rating: 7/10

Zephrys the Great

Just like Omega Devastator says, “save the best for last”! If I had to pick my favorite card from Saviors of Uldum set, it will 100% be Zephrys. It’s the card I’m most excited to test by far. Not only I like Highlander decks, but I’m genuinely curious about how the card works, what it will give me in a specific situation etc. I think that Zephrys is the single strongest card in the entire game right now because it can be anything you need it to be. We never and I mean never had a card that was AoE removal, single target removal, solid minion, healing, Silence, burn damage and so on and so on depending on what you need in the specific case. It can really match Reno Jackson‘s effect, which was technically WAY more powerful, but also WAY less flexible. I think that it might be a worthy pay-off for building a Highlander deck.

What I love about Zephrys is that you can use it as a 2-drop, 5-drop or 10-drop, when you’re ahead or behind, when you have low or high health etc. And it will always feel good and always be good. It will save you from many clutch situations, it will win you the game on the spot many times by giving you lethal, but most importantly, it will be just fun to play. Even if Highlander decks don’t take off in the end, I might still play them just for the sake of playing around with Zephrys.

However, the fact that you need to sacrifice A LOT of consistency and remove A LOT of powerful cards from your deck and build a singleton really, and I mean really hurts. I’ve seen many people theorycrafting Highlander decks from classes with no other support, and I don’t think that’s the way to go. I don’t think we’ll see Highlander Shaman or Highlander Priest. Zephrys alone is amazing, but it’s still just one card. You might not even get it, but you will definitely feel the toll of running only singleton cards. That’s why I believe that Highlander Mage or Highlander Hunter do make some sense and might even become viable, because they have a second, powerful pay-off card to be more consistent.

Card rating: Like I’ve said, it might be the best card in the game, so individually I’d give it a 10/10. But realistically, if we take the power of decks it will be played into account, I’d say 6/10. Despite this card being GREAT, Highlander decks just don’t look like Tier 1 material.