This is singularly the most dangerous card to yourself – never, ever cast it with a 7 cost minion on the board. You *will* get Anomalous and the opponent will kill it for an instant board wipe.

With Shaman cards being quite cheap for their stats (with overload) you’ll often end up with a worse card when you evolve it.

Just stick with Master of Evolution, the ability to target a single minion makes it far less risky.

3/6 for 4 mana makes it a good value proposition anyway; especially since 6 health on turn 4 means it’s likely to survive a turn or two. However, the freeze effect can really hinder weapon-wielding classes if you keep going face with it or it can buy you a turn from having to eat Sea Giant…

I wouldn’t say it’s a “must add” in *all* mage decks – but it’s strong enough to be worth it most of the time.

… and that’s pretty much why my first 2 actions in any game are “Hello” > “Squelch” 😛

Yes it’s kinda cool – but I think the loss of Muster for Battle and Quartermaster in Standard is going to pretty much kill the Silver Hand Paladin … it’ll be Murlocs, Murlocs Everywhere!

Especially with the Vilefin Inquisitor.

Nerfing it to 2/3 would have been enough I reckon – there are plenty of things that deal 3 damage to remove it from the board without bringing it down to something that can be mopped up with a defunct Abusive Sergeant.

Basically brings it in-line with Shadowflame then?

The problem with Leper Gnome at 2/1 is that for a 1 cost card it can kill virtually every other 1 cost card and a good chunk of 2 cost cards as well… and it’s a deathrattle you want to trigger. Removing it with a hero power would mean taking between 2 and 4 damage (including the deathrattle damage and depending on the hero) and you’d have to use the coin to do it on your first turn if your opponent dropped it on turn 1.

In short – it’s basically just too efficient… but everybody knows that judging by the number of decks it appears in.

Can’t argue with that 😉

Underrated card IMO, especially against aggro – it’s the perfect answer to the inevitable turn 1 Leper Gnome.

Except in Standard you’ve lost Webspinner, Mad Scientist and Piloted Shredder.

Might also see some use in a Zoo-type deck with Spawn of N’Zoth maybe…

You’d lose the battlecry with Ram Wrangler though.

With Anu’barak you’d get a 1/1 version of Anu’barak with “Deathrattle: Return this to your hand and summon a 4/4 Nerubian” … in that case would “this” become a 1/1, 1 mana cost version of Anu’barak?

Every other turn that would be a 4/4 drop for 1 mana (assuming you plow it into an enemy minion as soon as summoning sickness wears off)… until it’s silenced .

Of course, Anu’barak is a 9 cost drop in the first place – by which time virtually infinite cheap 4/4s is probably not going to make any great difference.

As long as the spells cast obey the targeting rules written on the cards I think, overall, the odds on something good happening are better than something bad; a lot of the cards specify that the effect applies only to an enemy or enemies for instance (Consecration, Mass Dispel, etc…).

And <4 mana covers all the secrets and a couple of decent card draws (Arcane Intellect, Ancestral Knowledge) but *who* actually counts as the caster, the player or the Servant of Yogg-Saron? If it's the servant that could mean overload-free Shaman spells?

Of course, with my luck, it would end up just casting Naturalize on itself or Mark of Nature (with +4 health/taunt effect) on the opponent's Lightspawn … 😐

He means *against* an aggro deck I think…

It’s one of those cards I’d be tempted to play on turn 6 or 7 vs a Mage (depending on who went first); go on Flamestrike – I dare you. Might be a pretty humorous card to drop after the Flamewaker comes out as well…

Could also be a useful thing to drop on the board against Warriors (Whirlwind > Execute won’t work as the Destroyer will be unharmed) or Druids (Swipe) … or you could put it in a Warlock deck with Power Overwhelming.

I think this has possibilities but it’ll depend on how much the meta swings towards the control game; vs aggro this isn’t going to be worth it I don’t think – too slow.

That would actually buff this card to being the same as the 10 cost “Mirror of Doom” you can get from Rafaam… that might actually make it playable 🙂

… and like the other giants should have a mechanic for lowering the summoning cost even if only by a bit (-1 for each other Taunt Minion in play maybe).

It is a good card but not perhaps amazing… though I can imagine that, paired with Anubisath Sentinel, this may cause a moment or two of pause.

Actually – how would this work with Mal’Ganis (in wild) since Mal’Ganis makes your hero invulnerable? Then again, there aren’t really any 4+ cost Warlock spells that you’d want to immediately follow this up with.

Cho’Gall to Shadowflame maybe to instantly splat all enemies for 7 damage from as early as turn 7?

Or perhaps Dark Bargain instead with Fist of Jaraxxus…

Cho’Gall to Syphon Soul?

If it’s in standard play you’ll not even get a benefit to Floating Watcher (GvG). Seems a bit of a gimmick card really which may, at best, only find some kind of situational niche use – depending on what other cards are released with Whispers of the Old Gods of course.

Unless I’m playing as a Face Hunter … then it’s always Leokk – always.