Now you’re thinking with portals! Bluffing FTW.

I ran the numbers (based on the numbers of minions of each cost) and basically there’s a 1 in 6 chance on any given turn that it will become an on-curve minion (lower than that once you hit turn 6 and above). If you started with it in your opening hand, on turn 6 there is a 44% chance that it was never an on-curve minion.

This becomes less of a problem in the late game. On any given turn, the chance of it transforming into a minion that costs 6 or more is about 25%. So over the course of 4 turns, there is a 70% chance that it will become a high-cost minion at least once.

These numbers were using the Wild card pool, as the card database I was using didn’t have a filter for format. They probably won’t be that different in Standard, but just sayin’.

That could be a bit of a wait. As I mentioned below, I ran the numbers and in early- and mid-game turns, the chances that it will be something useful on your curve are not great.

It might actually be stronger if it didn’t, since you could leave people thinking you still have a wild card in your hand.

I think most of the time it would be better to just pick the minion you want and put it in your deck. That being said, the benefit of this card is it could potentially be a wide range of things, meaning it could be useful in a wider range of situations than any one minion could. You would be trading consistency for versatility (albeit random).

Cool, Blizzard answered that question. Got added to the page as I was writing my thoughts.

I assume it keeps that ability even after it transforms? Because otherwise it would be much worse, basically an Unstable Portal that you don’t have to cast but also doesn’t give you a discount. I guess even that isn’t horrible.

Assuming it DOES keep its ability and will continue transforming on every turn to a new minion:

In constructed I think this will see some play in control decks. On any given turn, the chances of it transforming into something that is exactly right for your curve are on the low side. So I doubt it will be worth including for aggro or midrange. But once you hit the late game, you might have some room to wait until it transforms into something powerful and then craft a turn around it.

In arena, I think this would be a risky thing to draft but could outright win you some games. It’s risky because playing on curve is super important, but on the other hand you have a better chance of it becoming something very strong relative to other arena minions, because the quality of minions in arena is lower. Again, probably more of a late-game card that will occasionally transform into something you can use on curve.

I voted 3/5. Probably not a super strong card, but very fun and might find a niche in some late-game decks.

Gonna agree with Bling here–getting a 2-drop for free without having to play it is much better than drawing a card that you then have to play. But the comparison to Polluted Hoarder is very apt. I think this is a card with some merit.

True. It seems like Blizzard likes to do this–give borderline-OP cards to classes that don’t have existing archetypes for them. 🙂

You say that like there are no neutral deathrattle minions…

Also, Herald Volazj doesn’t trigger battlecries. That’s a really awesome thing about Shadowcaster!

I wasn’t talking about the benefit of stacking Brann’s effect, which as you point out you can’t do. Rather, the benefit is that Brann is a combo enabler and also a high-priority target, so it would be pretty amazing to have (1)-cost Branns, allowing you to guarantee double battlecries on at least two more turns.

So this is a Faceless Manipulator that just copies minions’ effects, including their battlecries, which is amazing!

Actually, a great use would be to target Brann. You get TWO copies of him that you can play for (1).

This could give Raptor Rogue some nasty combo/finisher potential, if the deck can survive the loss of all the deathrattle minions in Standard.

Seems to occupy kind of the same space as Spellslinger, in that it has on-curve stats and an unpredictable effect that could either help you or hurt you. If this functions as Yoggy does, then it doesn’t synergize with Flamewaker, Mana Wyrm, etc. because “you” are not casting the spell. So this would not seem to fit into any particular combo or “package,” it would just be an aggressive 4-drop with an element of chaos.

I know that based on an analysis of the spell pool that Yogg draws from (mentioned by Trump in his analysis of Yogg), roughly 65% of spells will be more likely to help you than hurt you, 30% are just the opposite, and 5% will probably do nothing. If that’s true for 5-or-lower-cost spells as well, then the randomness may not be as bad as you might think.

Overall I would say 3/5, not great but not horrible.

This is interesting–it’s a huge pile of stats (on average) in a class that can’t take the best advantage of it. Is it strong enough to justify reducing overall spell synergy in your mage deck? My guess would be “definitely.” This gives mages an option if they want to fight for the late-game board. Even with an average result of 3/3 stats from the battlecry, this 6-drop can contest most 7- and 8-drops, meaning mage could have huge tempo turns in the late game where they suddenly develop a board and also play a spell.

I’m also pretty concerned that it’s a common. It’s an insanely strong Arena card and you’ll see it in a LOT of mage decks, which is something I don’t look forward to.

Also true! Sometimes your Soulpriest hangs around in a really inconvenient way.

Yes, please.

Another thought is that this kind of comes down to tempo vs. value–Soulpriest is better value because you also get a body out of it that the opponent will scramble to remove, and Embrace is better tempo because it costs less and makes it more likely you can do other things on the turn you cast it.

It’s easy to make an unfavorable comparison to Auchenai Soulpriest, but you have to take a few critical things into account:

1. Auchenai Soulpriest rarely survives your opponent’s turn. In my experience it usually eats a removal or gets traded into. (And if you Circle’d, it only has 1 HP–easy pickings.) If you’re lucky, you MIGHT get two turns out of it, or once in a blue moon more than that. So a lot of the time, Soulpriest might as well be a spell.

2. Embrace the Shadow costs (2) less than Soulpriest. If you’re running a OTK deck, that is an enormous advantage. I run a Burst Priest deck sometimes and I cannot tell you how many times I’m just short of lethal because Soulpriest is kind of expensive.

3. You could run this AND Soulpriest in the same deck. I could see running 2x Embrace and 1x Soulpriest to help with consistency, or vice versa.

All in all, I see this as a solid alternative to or addition to Soulpriest. OTK decks would probably favor Emrace, and other decks would probably lean toward the Soulpriest.

It’s slower, but it also doesn’t need to be activated or combo’d in any way.