The fact that this can’t go face and has to kill the minion to combo out is definitely limiting, but it doesn’t mean that the card won’t see play. The miracle Rogue archetype is being pushed a lot right now and I think this card might fit right in; however, miracle rogue is not the kind of deck which does well when it’s explicitly pushed by the devs, it’s more the kind of deck which just kind of pops out in existence when the cards happen to fit right into it. Removal has never been a big part of miracle rogues, but it’s also something that they have to fit into their decks because they lack any kind of protection, so if a miracle deck does end up existing, I see this being a part of it.

Average. Doesn’t strike me as a stable of the class going forward because of the downside, but it might get played in a large spectrum of decks. I do feel like right now this card might get overshadowed by the 1 mana 2/2 which discounts a spell in your hand by 1: it’s a way better 1 drop in my opinion, and Mages don’t really need more of the same.

Hot garbage. Unless there’s a way to redraw your hand right after you play it, but even then it’s still shit.

Feels like we have gone over this already, doesn’t it? However, Kael’Thas is not half as good as the original was: for once, low cost spells are way better than low cost minions, enabling the original Kael Thas to be good in decks where you wouldn’t put stuff like 0 mana 1/1s but where you would put stuff like Innervation. That being said, it doesn’t mean that this Kael Thas won’t be able to find any kind of play whatsoever: chaining up a string of low cost and high cost minions might end up being more powerful than one might expect, but there definitely needs to be a deck made to accommodate Kael Thas rather than just include it in its decklist.

Control Decks don’t rely as much on Taunt minions anymore: while Aggro decks may have ways to go past them and not trade, removals are more secure, because they always do work when it comes to wiping ass. That being said, this would be pretty powerful if Prince Renathal wasn’t a card, making it so it’s way harder to bring any control deck under the 20 health cap early on. I don’t really think this is something Control Warrior needs.

If there aren’t any other supporting cards for this archetype, I predict this is going to be pretty awful. First of all, a 4 mana 7/7 with no other effect is not what aggro decks are about anymore: it’s just plain stats and a downside. And btw, control decks can freeze it, transform it, silence it….do a bunch of other stuff which negates its deathrattle. I get that the combo they want you to do is to play the new 2/2 weapon right before this card so that you can refill your hand immediately, but do you achieve by doing that? Dropping 7/7 stats which can’t attack until turn 5 and having a mediocre 2/2 weapon which just kind of replaces a hand of cards you already had before. Not to mention that the cards you had before were the result of a mulligan, and therefore better on average than just a random set of cards. I don’t know, I simply don’t see this card being useful in the slightest, at least if that’s it for discard synergies.

What I don’t like about this card is that it’s a weapon for aggro decks which you can’t swing every turn you want to because you would miss out on the value you would get if you were to wait for a turn where you have three cards or less. I wonder if it’s not just better to run Aldrachi or some other weapon to quickly kill off the opponent and call it a day.

Imagine a Ramp deck playing this against you when you have like 4 mana and then never having to care about losing tempo again. However, it does feel like it’s too slow for token decks, and it’s a huge investment for a deck which doesn’t run Guff or other tools to ramp. Anyway, it shouldn’t be underestimated: it’s very powerful if it does get going.

Nature Studies was good, and this is better in some circumstances and worse in others. Overall, seems average, probably going to be carried by the new Druid legendary which interacts with Nature spells.

Powercreep of Landscaping, but you won’t be able to trigger its Infuse effect by turn 3, when you would normally play this card if you had it in hand. And if you topdeck it, I don’t think you would wait to trigger its Infuse effect because you’re playing an aggro deck anyway. However, it is true that Infuse effects are more likely to be good in a token deck than in any other, so I wouldn’t dismiss it before seeing it in action.

You can either play this for 8 mana or the minion you actually want to play that this would draw. And if you want to draw it so badly, it’s probably better than a 8/8 with taunt.

Everytime there are minions like this, I always make the same kind of thought process you are currently doing in order to convince myself that they’re not going to be broken. Then, it turns out 0 mana 8/8 are just good, no questions asked. And if they don’t fit a certain kind of deck, they’re going to make a new one which does fit them. Yet again, for them to be worse than the Arcane Giants, each spell you cast would have to cost an average of 1,6 mana or less, which is insane. In a meta where the 6 mana 5/5 which give windfury exist, I just can’t see these boys not being broken as whole hell. However, yet again, if you end up being right, I’d love that: I’d love for these Giants to just be useless garbage, but i find that unlikely.

I remember how busted the Arcane Giant was, and it was 12 mana. The only way for this Giant to come out later than him is by having your spells cost less than 1,6 mana on average, and I’d say that’s not a whole lot, is it? If your deck is entriely made out of spells, and many decks are right now, you can get this Giant out on turn 6 for 0 mana, without making the commitment of having to play something that costs more than 7 mana first, like you do with the Strong Man. Sure, it doesn’t have Rush not Taunt, but nor does the Flesh Giant, and that didn’t stop him from being ridicolously op. By all means, I hope I’m wrong: I don’t enjoy this kind of mana cheating cards, if it ends up being shit, then that’s a win in my book. But I don’t find that likely, that’s all.

I am fucking done with these damn Giants. They are always broken, they always have to get nerfed. C’mon, this shit needs to end.

Loving this series! Can’t wait for the next one.

Props to Regis and Kripp, two of the best HS streamers out there. Not satisfied with Blizzard’s hipocrisy though: they tried to count this as a collective win, but nothing stopped them from inviting more women in the first place, it’s not like they couldn’t have switched some of the lesser known streamers in the list in favour of more female ones. It’s not their win at all, but it’s also not that big of a win in the first place: this kind of representation is something is you can feel good about only when it’s not done by the same company who tried to pander to the Chinese government over and over again. I don’t know about you, but I feel like the whole Honk Hong scandal speaks volumes on what Blizzard values more, and until it doesn’t come clean from that garbage, having two more female streamers in the Innvitational won’t make me revaluate the company as a whole, even more so because it wasn’t even their initiative in the first place.

Eviscerate is going to the wild format, so there’s no competition for this card.

I swear to God if they put Defile in Standard once again I am leaving this hellhole of a game.

Preety nice and strong, but I don’t think that the soul fragment archetype will exist in a vacuum. I think of it more as a supporting package, like Galakrond is for many control archetypes or tempo ones. At the same time, this card doesn’t seem nowhere near as good as a payoff as Galakrond is for most classes. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad, though: I think that it’s hard to rate the card if you don’t play a bit with the deck to find out how many soul fragments you have in the deck at turn 7.
4 Stars.

Preety interesting card, but I don’t think that that’s the card that will help Control Shaman, which does not lack removals nor spells, it lacks wincons. I find it a nice addition to an archetype that needs something else to really take off, but I think that it is preety overrated.
3 Stars.