Well – I wasn’t *that* far off with my Crystal Ball prediction! 🙂
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http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/the-witchwood-card-reveal-schedule-card-reveal-stream-march-26th/

*Gazes into crystal ball … Totem Cruncher*

Hmmm… 4 mana 5/6 that destroys all totems and gains +1/+1 for each one “eaten”? I suspect making a Genn Shaman deck will be reliant on Totem synergy.

I can kinda see this in a more midrange sort of Paladin deck; you’ve got some solid picks then with Chillblade Champion (Lifesteal keyword means it gets pulled but it’s also got charge) and obviously Tirion – Gilnean Royal Guard might not be good enough for the mana cost but if there’s a class that might make use of a Rush/Divine Shield minion it’s Paladin.

Aggro Paladin decks are so strong currently though – would it be worth playing a slower deck?

* Warrior has some solid Rush and Deathrattle picks

* Hunter has some good Deathrattles (including Kathrena Winterwisp) and Hunting Mastiff so there could be something there

* Deathrattle Priest has already been mentioned

* Rogue gets another option to pull Kingsbane and I’ve seen Bone Baron used occasionally, Cursed Castaway, perhaps… but I don’t think Rogue is really the ideal class for this.

* Warlock gets another way to pull Voidlord or Rin … or Possessed Lackey. So it might be worth ditching one Lackey for Ashmore in control/cube decks – especially since she can also pull an Amethyst Spellstone.

So that’s 2/3 of all classes that might be able to fit Ashmore in… I’d be amazed if she doesn’t see play somewhere.

Quest Hunter does have card draw in the form of Carnassa’s Brood… if you put Hemet Jungle Hunter into the deck (and play him when you’ve got Carnassa in-hand – NOT AFTER YOU’VE PLAYED HER!) you can ensure you get rid of all the trash cards in the deck leaving nothing but Broods and (maybe) Tundra Rhino.

This _could_ work in Quest Hunter … it’s just that Quest Hunter has never really been viable.

Probably the best thing will be “the Fandral effect”… playing against it, it’s a decent enough 4-drop being 3/5 and it’s kinda risky to leave on the board. Whereas Fandral curves into Nourish nicely, this being Rogue, is going to require the Coin, then 3x Cheap Shot meaning you’ve now had your board splattered and have to deal with a 6/8 minion which could potentially become 9/11 next turn.

However – there are already better cards that perform a similar role in Rogue AND better 4-drops.

First glance “Whoaaaah! The hell!”

Then I realised it cost 8 mana – meh.

She’s also kinda pricey – drop a Bog Shaman on 7, Hagatha on 8 and you won’t see the benefit of either until turn 9 – assuming the Bog Shaman survives that long – which is unlikely (especially since Hagatha is going to blast it for 3). Though you could squeeze a couple of Ancestral Healings into the deck I guess.

Otherwise you’ll not be looking to drop Bog Shaman before turn 9 at the earliest. The synergy is there, sure, and it’s theoretically awesome… but it’s really, really slow.

Elemental Shaman also runs a lot of minions – it has to – but when you play Hagatha you’re going to deal 3 damage to all of them, so I’m not 100% convinced that Hagatha is that great a fit in an Elemental Shaman deck **yet**.

The ideal would be to play Grumble with a Bog Shaman on the board just before Hagatha – all your minions get returned to your hand and have their cost reduced to 1. Playing Hagatha is going to blast everything for 3, but hey, Grumble will probably be dead now anyway… and THEN you can drop Bog Shaman for 1 and hope for a cheap/useful spell from Hagatha.

To be honest, I suspect it’ll be better to skip Hagatha and just put a couple of Unstable Evolutions in your deck – you *know* you’re going to have a repeatable 1-cost spell then, rather than whatever random, overload-laden, situational spell you could get from Hagatha.

I could be wrong of course 🙂

With Quest Druid you can already get free minions for the rest of the game by turn 6… and it’s not *that* uncommon with Cursed Disciple, Oaken Summons, King Mukla (actually good in Quest Druid if you can Summon him), Stranglethorn Tiger and Menagerie Warden (rotating out though).

This however doesn’t even have 5 attack to help with the quest and gives your opponent a free card to drop first.

In Wild, Aviana/Kun you’d be relying on dropping Duskfallen Aviana on turn 5 (or earlier) *and* having it survive, unsilenced to your next turn (after giving your opponent a 100% cost reduction on any card their holding) to be able to drop (good) Aviana and Kun and all other giant minions in your hand on your next turn… that’s a *lot* of ifs in a very small window; by turn 8 your opponent could well have the perfect counter in a single card like Twisting Nether or Shadowreaper Anduin – let you flood the board with your giant minions then just kill the lot.

I suspect playing this will lose you far more games than it wins.

It’s no Imp Gang Boss … but it’ll be alright in Zoolock; it would be better if Darkshire Councilman wasn’t rotating out (play the Councilman on 3 and Kobold Librarian + Duskbat on 4).

The problem, I think, is that you’re unlikely to see the benefit from the battlecry unless you’re playing it on turn 4 or 5 – at which point is a 2/4 + 2x 1/1 really that impactful? If you’re playing it on turn 3, then it’s just a bog standard 2/4 which is pretty weak.

Like come Rogue Combo cards though, it’ll be better on the coin.

It’s got twice the health of an Auctioneer and you can reduce the cost with Fire Plume Harbingers… either way Shaman has a 1 mana spell with Echo in the form of Unstable Evolution to power the card draw.

Hell, if you can bounce Bogshaper back to your hand with Grumble it becomes a 1 cost minion. Drop it again with a Fire Fly (or token) and Unstable Evolution on that and you’ve got a 4/8 plus an up-to-9 cost minion and as much card draw as you like.

In the right deck this is better than Auctioneer.

Nice in theory with Elemental Shaman … but to make the deck work you’re probably not going to be running that many spells; the powerful battlecry effects take the place of most spells – especially if you’ve got Grumble and Murmuring Ellies in the deck.

… and with Devolve and Maelstrom Portal rotating out …

Wild, Bright-eyed Scout and Giants… if you get lucky and pull this with the scout so it’s 5 mana, you could be dropping a couple of 16/16 minions on the board on turn 6. After that I’m out of ideas unless there’s some new Dragon synergy incoming.

No the Chillwind survives – it’s 4/5. Crowley just dies; it would be a terrible play.

Crypt Lord > Coin > Onyxia … ggwp

Basically it’s a solid 3/4 body to drop on turn 3 – but the battlecry means that, in the right deck, it might not be a terrible top-deck in the late game; but there’s a fair bit of competition in the 3-drop slot.

Remember, if you drop Blackwald Pixie on turn 3, it’s just a 3/4 body.

Spider Tank is a Mech though and about the only time you’d use Spider Tank would be in a Mech deck with cards like Cogmaster or Tinkertown Technician – so I’d say it was about on a par.

It’s not a 6/6 body though is it… slam it into a Chillwind Yeti for example, a 4 mana Basic card, and it’s just deal 4 damage to a minion for 5 mana – making it a *really* expensive Shadow Bolt. Granted that would be a silly thing to do but the point is the requirement to kill a minion *is* important.

It’s not terrible and being an odd-costed card it could sit in a Baku deck which is otherwise going to be somewhat lacking in removal; could do with a point more health though.

Standard Mill Druid is about the only thing I can think of – it’s totally outclassed in Wild for Mill – but even in Wild, Mill Druid isn’t particularly strong.

This *might* just see play in Miracle Rogue but only because Counterfeit Coin is rotating out – I guess, with Preparation, it gives you the opportunity to remove an opponent’s minion on turn 4 and drop EVC at either 6/6 or 8/8 depending on whether you use that coin or not… but that’s a 3-card combo that you need really early on.

So I feel that it’s over-priced, especially with the “kill” requirement. At 3 mana this would have been pretty sweet, at 4 it’s borderline unplayable.

So… this is essentially an 8 mana Force of Nature that you can theoretically get out 1 turn earlier if you’re prepared to blow turns 2, 3 and 4 on it?

I suppose you could chuck it in a Genn deck with Whispering Woods and Power of the Wild – but I dunno, it seems to be a card looking for a deck at the moment; it’ll depend on what support there is for a slower token Druid (with most of the mass-buffs rotating out) I guess.