There are more beast synergies than Houndmaster. There’s Crackling Razermaw, Scavenging Hyena, Kill Command, and Tundra Rhino, and it will matter more than 1 in 100 games with all of those synergy cards.

This is not a bad card by any stretch of the imagination. If it were in Druid, Shaman, or Warrior instead, it would likely see competitive play. However, there are too many other good 3 drops in Hunter for this to definitely see play. If it does as a Hunter card, it will push out Bearshark or maybe Unleash the Hounds in Midrange decks.

I wouldn’t go that far. 2/5s have seen play in Hunter before.

A 3 mana 2/5 has seen play in Hunter before, Carrion Grub, but that was in part because it was a beast and flowed nicely into Houndmaster. The stealth might be able to make up for that during the turns it’s a 2/5.

2/5 for 3 is a pretty decent statline in general since it can trade nicely into 3/2s, but there aren’t as many 3/2s anymore. 2/3 has become the default statline for 2 drops.

Putting an extra stat on Shadow Rager doesn’t make it seem any better, but Jungle Panther has probably come and gone in Hunter now and again, probably because it was a beast though.

With all that, it probably won’t see too much play just because Hunter’s 3 drop slot is packed with good cards. If this were a beast in at least on of its forms, it could’ve seen play, likely replacing Bearshark. It is an above average card pushed out by all of the good 3 drops Hunter has gotten over the last year and in the classic set.

On a lighter note, I am surprised it took about 40 cards before we saw another Worgen card. I hope this mechanic won’t be as underwhelming as the unidentified mechanic from K&C. I see a lot of design space that can be experimented with it like swapping Taunt with Divine Shield along with the stats.

Expecting a minion to last more than a turn is usually asking a lot of a card, especially on that is a bit understated.

It seems like in the case you mentioned playing another boardwipe (Dragonfire Potion is leaving standard by the way) would be more effective more often than hoping your opponent is holding onto one and getting a copy of it when it is one of at least 5 other card right as you need it. It’s flexibility is all up to RNGesus.

Yes. This is for the control match-up, but I would rather play another high power card rather than something that can potentially be anything. It’s similar to how discovering a card in your opponent’s deck will often be better than adding two random cards from their deck to your hand.

There is power in information, but this is a really slow acquisition of information. This card can make or break a game, yes, but it is extremely time sensitive.

This will be a tech card for control match-ups at best and a Hail Mary throw more often. Curious Glimmerroot will often end up being better in part because of its body, and a skilled player with a deck tracker can usually make an educated guess as to what is in their opponent’s hand based on what has been played and how their opponent is acting.

Yeah knowing what’s in your opponent’s hand can be extremely powerful, but this is a legendary that won’t show up in your hand most of the time.
Plus, unlike cards like Duress and Thoughtseive from Magic The Gathering and Confiscation and the Forceful Sentry from Yugioh, this does not reveal the opponent’s entire hand nor allow you to choose a card to discard from it.
A more skillful player will get more out of this card, but knowing a Warlock is holding onto a Voidlord and Skull of the Man’ari on turns 3 & 4 or a Paladin holding Call to Arms on turn 3, doesn’t do you a whole lot. There will be times it does matter like when it copies a card you’d rather clear with that board-wipe in your hand next turn rather than doing it to the board this turn, but Dirty Rat forcing a minion onto the board will be more effective more often.
It’s still a good card, and in a control base format, it will likely see quite a bit of play to get like two copies of The Lich King or Ysera or something similar.

Duress and Thoughtseize reveal the opponent’s entire hand. This only reveals one card at a time and there is no guarantee for it to reveal a different one each turn.

Plus those two cards allow you to discard a card from their hand not just look at it.

Famous Jake did a custom card review of basically this card. Here’s a link if you want his thoughts: https://youtu.be/Eqf4ctrkdss?t=3m22s

It’s a cool card to have around. The information it provides will usually only be situational, and most of the time you’ll already know what your opponent is playing by just their class, outside of a situation where there are like 17 different and distinct decks in a class. If this were around right now, all the good the information would do you is tell you if you’re playing against a Murloc Paladin or a Dude Paladin. Even then you won’t know for sure right away since there is a lot of overlap between the two decks.

It can be cool to see your Cubelock opponent has the Skull in their hand, but knowing that won’t do much for you. It’s not like Warlock plays any other weapons to use their removal on. And it’s not a like setting up a Counterspell or a Potion of Polymorph at just the right time to take care of a threat instantly. There’s usually not a whole lot you can do about a cards like that in a class without secrets. Maybe you’ll know when to use that Shadow Word better or to wait on using that boardwipe since they have another token spawner in hand, but giving up a card in your opening hand or a top deck in a class without that much draw power doesn’t seem worth it.

The card you get can be useful, but really useful cards in your opponent’s hand will usually be played as soon as they are able, often before you’re able to. I am sure there will be rather funny situations where you can get a meme out of it.

The stats on this don’t really matter. It’s like Emperor Thaurissan in that regard. Both could be 1/1s and still see play because of the massive upside the card has when you play it.

And the cost, given that it is already a slow card, also don’t matter unless you take it to the extreme like 8 mana. Slow, control oriented cards like this and Spreading Plaque can easily get bumped up a mana cost or two and still see regular play.

In the last set, they got Elvish Minstrel, Corridor Creeper, and Sonya Shadowdancer. Those were at least before the nerfs pretty fast paced cards.
The class as a whole is about having cheap, efficient answers to whatever is thrown on the board, and yes some of their recent support has been more control oriented. The removal aspects of tempo decks are only a couple steps removed from getting that deck to a full blown control deck. It’s just a control deck also needs to heal themselves decently enough, and Rogue doesn’t have that at the moment.

That is true right now. However, all three Priest archetypes Cube Warlock has an unfavorable match-up against, Combo (44% win rate), Spiteful (47%), and Big (48%) will be losing critical cards for their deck as we know them now. The win rate of Cubelock is also not so low as to discount the possibility of a Warlock win unless the Priest is teched out for that particular match-up as it is.

Combo loses some of the best parts of the dragon Package, Talonpriest, and Potion of Madness, making it more difficult to pull off the combo early on before they start spitting out Voidlords
Spiteful also loses that same dragon package and Talonpriest, but also loses Kabal Songstealer, the deck’s preferred silence card.
Big loses Barns, Y’Sharrj, a ton of early game AOE removal, Potion of Madness, and Greater Healing Potion.
The only cards Cubelock really loses are Mistress of Mixtures, which could be replaced by armored beetle or something, and N’Zoth, which not every Cube Warlock deck ran and can win without in non-control mirrors. Priest will be in a much worse shape after the rotation than Warlock will be.

Going into the long game with a Control Warlock is usually a bad idea, and only Big Priest is able to do so consistently even if they were prone to getting killed by early game Cubes and Doomgaurds or a poor opening hand. Even summoning Lich King or Ysera instead of Statue or Y’Shaarj early on could be enough to get them killed in that match-up. Spiteful Priest can do it, but half of the reason why is Drakonid Operative stealing a copy of Bloodreaver Gul’dan to revive the Voidlord(s) they took with Mind Control, another Operative, or Glimeroot.

To Ab00000

Yes. The buff this provides can be more powerful, but it comes out at the very earliest 4 turns after Keleseth can. The value created by this card does not allow your minions to live longer either, and in a Big Minion Control Priest, drawing your Ysera, Obsidian Statues, Sleepy Dragons, or whatever else you’d play in that deck before you play this would be devastating. Even after you play it, you might not draw them.

If this card were in Warlock or Rogue, classes with ample amounts of card draw, it would be a format warping nightmare, but in a class that favors semi-random card generation over pure card draw, it might be a general include like Ragnoros or Sylvanas was in all midrange and control decks, but it won’t be something you build decks around.

Well, Priest legendary cards have been rather hit or miss. This is probably going to be a hit, but it won’t be format warping like Shadowreaper Anduin was.

If Priest had any draw power that extended past Cleric and PW: Shield or this affected the minions in your hand too, I would be inclined to agree with you, but it doesn’t. This card suffers from the same problem Barnabus, the Druid quest reward. It’s nice to have these high value buffs applied to the minions in my deck, but I have to draw them first.
You don’t have to build a deck around it, but it isn’t something you can rely on to win you games.

You have to draw this first and then those cards in a class with almost no draw power. The buffed minions will probably come out one at a time, slow enough that any control deck worth its salt can deal with them relatively efficiently.

This can be thrown into any priest deck and do something beneficial, but you will often draw at least some of the big cards you want to buff with this card before you can play it. Hard Mulliganing for a 6 mana card in a deck that would probably have at least 5 other high cost minions leaves you almost completely open to aggressive and midrange decks up until turn 6. It’s the same issue with Big Priest.

This card is almost impossible to nerf. The stats on the card ultimately don’t matter, the battlecry can’t be changes without adding about six words, and it is already a control oriented card. If it is bumped up to 7 or 8 cost and used to buffed primarily 8 or higher cost minions, it’ll just come out later and pretty much do the same thing.

I don’t really think you can point at a card and say that is a result of Blizzard management choosing to focus on certain things at the expense of others. They may be doing so, but even for as large as Activision-Blizzard is, they still have finite resources, and the upper management has ultimate say on what gets made. However, I would at least hope the upper management is smart enough to not shift people around their various games constantly. Those who design cards for Hearthstone are probably not exactly adept at working out balancing in Overwatch.

I only play Hearthstone as far as Blizzard’s games go, so if they cancelled a Warcraft III remake, I know that sucks, but that has very little if anything to do with the quality of this card. In fact, blatantly more powerful cards would be designed if the card designers are being lazy or overworked or whatever you think they’re doing. It is far easier for HS R&D to create a 5 mana 5/5 with battlecry: Gain 55 armor than it is to create a more thoughtful design than this card.

Granted, you could think Team 5 is full of people who think their playerbase is full of the mentally disabled and will take anything they give them, but even in that case it would be easier to create a set full of nothing but vanilla minions.

If Priest had late game draw power, I would agree with you, but it doesn’t. The cards buffed with Lady in White will usually end up coming out one at a time perhaps every other turn given how spell heavy Priest decks tend to be. There is Spiteful Summoner Priest, but most of the minions that currently plays have an equal amount of attack and health, so you won’t benifit too much from playing it in that as we currently know it.

We haven’t see the second Rogue Legendary minion yet.

This doesn’t really look like a midrange card. This seems more like an answer card to efficiently kill a threat while replacing itself more than being a threat in it of itself. You wouldn’t want to play this in a midrange rogue deck unless it had like 3 extra health.