I don’t disagree with you, I think there’s a place for this format now and then, it is quite cool to be able to test standard ladder decks in an arena context.

However, getting 7 wins is tough, and if you haven’t got a decent tier 1 or 2 deck it’s going to be even harder.

In terms of building up packs at a discount/free, this is no different a format to Arena, which you can do all year long. The only advantage is probably the consistency if you’ve got a top meta deck, but that’s exactly what the majority of people who don’t are put off by. I’d be curious to know if it gets harder to get wins as the week goes on as people with weaker decks simply stop playing it.

If this is the only way they can create this format now and then fine, but why they did it the week of the expansion I don’t know, surely a whizbang style tavern brawl would be better to enable everyone to play the new decks casually?

I wouldn’t bother with this format beyond your 1st free go unless you have a decent enough deck to get at least 3 wins and want another format to do the same ladder grinding, with small rewards.

Having gone 4-3 on my first run I went in again and got a bit of luck to bag a 12-2 run with a mid-budget Even Shaman deck that I haven’t changed since September. Great, you think, except that even having done that the reward feels so bad.

250 Gold.
1 Golden Common
1 Rumble Pack
1 Witchwood Pack

Like wow, that’s 500 worth of Gold for maxing out the competition and grinding past standard ladder decks for several hours. 500 Gold is better than none, but take away the 150 entry fee and 100 gold value of the classic card pack generated from a normal tavern brawl, and the grand reward for going 12-2, and risking 150 gold, is 250 gold.

I hate the gambling house that Blizzard is. The range of rewards for 12 wins is between 470g and 5060g. The extent to which you are better off being lucky than good is amazing, in what world should someone getting 8 wins be able to get 4x more reward value (approx. 1960g) then someone getting 12? Like, imagine at the HS world championships the reward for coming first was: ‘Being given the greatest chance of getting the top prize money in a lottery’, but in the end, some guy who got knocked out in the quarter-finals wins it. A degree of RNG in the game itself keeps it fresh, but the degree of RNG in the rewards structure, (including to an extent card packs) is seriously aggravating.

I’m so salty it hurts. Normal tavern brawl is better.

Well ok, this card is fairly mad take on brawl… but I really like the flavour.

As a straight up 5 mana board clear it’s clearly weaker than a lot of comparable cards. But it will also have some decent advantages in certain situations, such as where only two cards are in play you can be certain of the outcome. Also against swarm decks that have equally statted minions, e.g. paladin, this will be effective.

Standalone then its power is far from OP and nothing like the old dragon potion, however giving priest another form of board clear/management between duskbreaker and psychic scream will probably be great for control or combo priest decks. The effect also requires players to think, which is great, and occasionally just pray to the RNG. A bit of a downside that it doesn’t synergise with the loa in play, but it does synergise with the slower value style of play of the loa deck which is good.

Probably a 3/5 card if not 2/5 card, but one which could see a lot of play by better enabling slower priest decks.

Strong addition to the mage secret repertoire, as like all half-decent secrets it forces people to play around it just because it exists, whether or not its actually being played.

Focusing on the effect itself, its a decent one. If you drop a big minion, especially a hard or soft taunt, and your opponent has an efficient removal spell or effect, they would be likely to use it anyway rather than trade in a minion or several. If they don’t however, they going to struggle, and will seriously consider not trading at all. If the big minion you were looking to copy gets removed, you can still gain plenty of decent value by gaining a copy of anything worth 4+ mana with decent stats, on-board effect, or deathrattle, which you should have some control over.

Needless to say it could find a place in any deck with at least a few medium-large minions included, so I think it will see play at some point, not to mention just generally increasing opponent’s anxiety levels and misplays.

Unfortunately it can’t be as it only gains deathrattle as a result of its battlecry effect.

Initial thought is too slow for constructed, however, the stat line is so strong for T7, with the effect on top its a big threat in a slower deck, so could see some fringe play. Probably 2.5/5

In arena though this card is really strong, probably verging on 4.5/5

Nice potential for thief, combo, or control. Strong 4/5

2.5/5

Not as weak as people are making out, but not anywhere near the strength of card needed to make a ‘chomp druid’ viable without some serious support from remaining card reveals.

It’s a decent effect, and a good stat line for sticking around turn 7, but the fact that the cheapest activation would currently be an 8 mana 2 card combo for a hero attack of 2 is so weak. Sure if it survives a turn and you have 8+ mana to play with a few bites or gnashes it could create a strong effect with a hero attack of 4+, but that still requires it to survive and is a pretty health intensive medium board clear with one additional shot at face. Cycling a few cards with the spirit in play would be decent, but fairly uncommon, and not a particularly big pay off for the investment. There is also some synergy with twig of the world tree, but nothing remarkable. Finally the beast synergy from the new cards doesn’t feel applicable to this style of card or deck.

It’s frustrating that this could so easily be improved by adding an effect such as the hero power costs 0 while in play, whilst still being far from overpowered, which would give it immediate impact and far greater value as a stand-alone card if it sticks for a few turns, particularly in an odd Druid deck.

Sure druid don’t need any more support right now, but this feels like a missed opportunity to create a relatively viable alternative druid deck without strengthening the existing ones, which would be refreshing. This could change with strong enough support from the last card reveals, but I won’t hold my breath.

Easy 4/5 in the right deck

Very nice card for a Big Beast Druid deck, you couldn’t complain about summoning any 8, 9 or 10 mana neutral beasts for 6 mana, let alone with rush, which grants great value even if they get cleared next turn. The sheer ability to get large beasts out early could also make the new 4 cost predatory instincts more viable, given dropping enough big beasts on curve will make most classes run out of hard removal. Throw in witching hour and you might just have a competitive deck depending on if you need spreading plague. Tyrantus might even see a bit of play.

Not to mention Hadronix synergy if you’ve got that deck on the go.

Haters gonna hate, but personally 4/5 for Princess Talanji’s deck (even if not meta) defining potential. I’d definitely think about crafting it.

Talanji single-handedly gives a great focus to a thief priest style deck, or indeed any deck that might end up with a couple of new minions in the first 10 or so turns, which there’s plenty of support for on curve. Just looking at existing cards, in priest there’s 6 unique cards at 5 mana or less that support it well, and neutrals such as shallow gravedigger, stonehill defender, weaponized pinata, and bone drake.

The issue with all these value cards is they sacrifice tempo and on-board presence, and you still have to play the new cards themselves. Talanji allows you to realise the value and counteract the tempo you might have lost in a big turn 8 swing play. All you need is just a couple of semi-decent new minions in hand, let alone anything like obsidian statue, which is a common draw for stonehill in priest.

Talanji is then far better then Tess in the first half of a game given your not restricted to opposing class cards, but can include neutrals, and you don’t need to have actually played the new cards first. Talanji clearly becomes weaker in the later game, particularly if your hand starts to empty, however the card generating value of many of the cards in this deck is such that this wouldn’t actually be that big an issue.

This card is then a pretty powerful and fun top off for a midrange-control thief/value priest deck, which is even better for being composed of primarily common and rare cards, after all you can borrow your opponent’s legendaries if you need to.

Y’all suckers haven’t seen the potential this has for Big Quest Star Aligner Druid

5+ attack? CHECK
Rush + Taunt for adapting vs. inevitable board pressure? CHECK
And more importantly 7 health?! CHECK CHECK CHECK

Would be nicer at 6 mana, but it’s going to be pushing tier 2 just wait…

Meh, might boost the tempo of secret hunter if Subject 9 wasn’t doing it enough for you already.

2/5

Maaaad

If Heal Pally becomes a thing 4/5, if not 3/5.

This could help enable the Heal Pally dream as a mid-range/control deck, which has actually got a load of support in the existing card base and some of the new cards revealed so far. Think Kangor, Lesser Pearl Spellstone, Benevolent Djinn, The Glass Knight, Blackguard, and the DK, alongside some regular neutrals.

For the deck to work the first step to gaining value is to take damage in a controlled way. With the paladin board clears and damage limitation options that’s fairly achievable, as you can afford to wait for the best time to clear, and/or turn a giant into a 1/8 and leave it for a bit.

Then you can generate value through the heal synergy cards, but so far this has been where the limitation to the deck is though, as 1. there haven’t been enough cards that draw on this effect, those that do are far from game-winning, and they are situational, i.e. they need to be in your hand or on the board, which kills of consistency. And 2. once you have fully healed your hero and/or minions you can’t generate more value until you take more damage, which ruins your tempo swing. Zandalari Templar is a strong addition to this and addresses the consistency issue. I can’t see it being enough to make it truly competitive though without the Legendary troll champion having really powerful synergy and another card or two that gain value from healing.

Outside of a Heal Pally deck it could realise its value in a deck with a couple of Benevolent Djinn’s, Fungal Enchanters, or shroom brewers but I wouldn’t say its that powerful a buff to justify including those cards. Maybe it supports the DK OTK deck, but I haven’t played that.

LOVE the Sharknado meets Jonah and the Whale concept.

BUT has really negative synergy with the existing deathrattle rogue set up, as most good deathrattles are small bodies that trigger bigger ones. So are you going to have a big deathrattle deck where this is your only target? Not sure how much additional support this will get with the pirate package either.

Concept 5/5, Card 2/5

I’d say this a far better effect then the Dragon Soul legendary weapon for priest, which didn’t see much play, but was fun, and could lead to some effective mid-range victories by snowballing if the spells you are playing are also having a positive impact on the board.

The downside is that this is clearly more vulnerable to removal than a weapon, and so you can’t just play it on any free turn and reasonably expect it to last until you can trigger decent value from it. Therefore I think its main value will come in a slower big-spell mid-range paladin deck if that were to be a semi-viable thing.

To make matters worse I can see mossy horror having a bit of a revival, with the spirit cards in every class being additional prime targets. Spirit of the Tiger would be particularly vulnerable given its later game value and as one of the only mossy horror targets in a mid-range paladin deck.

Overall big fan of the effect, but think its held back by the current weakness of paladin in a mid-range or control set up. 6/10

Correct.

Having said what I said, Blizzard have made some serious moves on discolock, and I hadn’t realised how well the lowest cost card discard mechanic buffs the existing discard cards, priming Clutchmother Zavas (which I’d forgotten was 2 mana), and avoiding Blood-Queen Lana’thel, and Cruel Dinomancer.

In the new Discard Warlock this could shine then as a card that can stall vs. aggro whilst also building your discard momentum. I’d rate it 4/5.

BUT I still think there are still going to be issues mainly based around reliability.

1. The ideal card to discard, Clutchmother Zavas, isn’t going to be in your hand that consistently in the early game. High Priestess Jecklick would be another great target, but having no other cards below 4 mana might also be quite unreliable.
2. It will also probably stall you quite a bit if you discard the other copy of this or a Reckless Diretroll.
3. If there aren’t enough cards with the lowest card discard mechanic then this deck might not take off, as even bringing in a couple of random discard mechanic cards would throw off the consistency of your game plan a fair bit, as is the biggest issue with discard warlock to date.
4. Lowest cost Discard Warlock will require a fair few legendaries, and epics. And…
5. Half of those cards will be rotating out at the 1st expansion of next year, so unless there is a lot of ongoing support this deck’s time to shine might be brief, so I wouldn’t be wanting to craft anything valuable for such a short potential lifespan…

Ultimately if you have the full discard decklist, and the stars align, discard warlock and this card could be incredible and pretty fun, but I think it will still be too inconsistent to achieve its full potential.

Initial thought is 2/5.

Really not sure what deck will want to play this, in control you probably don’t want to be discarding, in zoo you obviously don’t want to take out your own board.

It could have a place in zoo vs zoo/aggro matchups in case you get behind on board and need a quick and cheap reset before building up your board again. However this just seems like a worse defile, and that isn’t used in zoo as is.

Having some control on what is discarded is a neat addition to the discard mechanic, so although at the moment it isn’t a huge bonus in standard it could be something to keep an eye on if a 1 or 2 mana discard synergy card comes about. And after defile is rotated out this will become more relevant, but I still can’t see it fitting in.

Lastly it seems a bit odd to be promoting hand buff at the same time as discard. Theoretically you could use it as a way to get rid of a cheap minion from your hand to focus spirit of the bat buffs onto Hir’eek… and you could play this before Hir’eek on the same turn, given you’ll want your board to be largely empty anyway, so who knows, there might be some logic to it once all is revealed.

Even Frog Shamen Meta

5/5