Hearthstone 23: The Evil League of EVIL

[The Glyphstone]

It worked for the first 24 hours or so.

[Resileaf]

If I don't play the brawl anymore, my non-Mercenary 208 deck is safe.

[Zevox]

I'd be more on board with the theme if the decks they gave you were actually good. If it was throwing actual Constructed decks into the brawl and seeing how Pirate Warrior stacks up against Beast Hunter or Mech Paladin or Rush Warrior, like a Wizbang Thunderdome sort of thing, it'd be cool. But when you're handed a "Silver Hand Paladin" that is actually a mutant mashup of Murlocs, Mechs, and Silver Hand synergies, plus random neutral fillers, it just becomes an RNGfest of who draws into actual synergy first.

Completely agreed. It feels like the way it actually works is that the decks are mostly randomized, just with some amount of the cards guaranteed to come from a pool appropriate to the theme assigned to the deck. Which means you wind up with a bunch of decks with little synergy, such as the random Crowd Scorcher I had in one deck that had no other dragons, or the Resurrect Priest I had that also ran a bunch of cheap minions that weren't good to resurrect, but not so many removal spells. It just makes it a matter of seeing which deck ends up with the stupidest high-roll - and it turns out that's our four Patches plus enough Pirates to get them consistently Warrior deck. So, I'm done with the Brawl at this point, because that is a deck I neither want to use nor play against. It would be much more interesting with carefully curated decks that actually worked in some way or another than this mish-mash of trash.

Anyway, daily new cards:

Pressure Plate: Hunter spell, 2 mana secret. After you opponent casts a spell, destroy a random enemy minion.
- Deadly shot at a discount, but the opponent controls when it goes off. Usually not very good, but maybe good enough to find some play in Secret Hunter type decks. Some Hunters do still like to use Subject 9 after all.
High Priest Amet: Priest Legendary 4 mana 2/7. Whenever you summon a minion, set its health equal to this minion's.
- Interesting card, but I'm not sure what deck really wants it. Some kind of Divine Spirit + Inner Fire deck, perhaps, if one of those gets anywhere, but they've declined sharply since Shadow Visions rotated.
Generous Mummy: Neutral 3 mana 5/4. Reborn. Your opponent's cards cost 1 less.
- That drawback is seriously scary. Playing this against a Tempo Rogue or Cyclone Mage can be a very, very bad play, which makes it feels like a very bad card despite the hefty upside.
Grandmummy: Priest 2 mana 1/2. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give a random friendly minion +1/+1.
- Strong card, would be great in almost any other class... but this is Priest, and this clearly wants to go in some kind of midrangey, Zoo-ish deck, which has never worked in Priest, despite them occasionally trying to push such things with cards like the old 2/2 that passed out buffs at the end of the turn. Probably sees little if any play just because of that, I think.
Colossus of the Moon: Neutral Legendary 10 mana 10/10. Divine Shield, Reborn.
- Wow. On the one hand, that is a huge Divine Shield minion, and Reborn is particularly strong with Divine Shield. On the other, it's a 10 mana minion that does nothing the turn it's played, so it's sadly probably pack filler. Scary in arena, though. Edit: And I did not realize when I first looked at this that it's a legendary. What the heck? This could be a common and I wouldn't bat an eye.
Plague of Wrath: Warrior 5 mana spell. Destroy all damaged minions.
- Mass Execute at 5, not a bad card in and of itself, but I don't think it can replace either Brawl or Warpath, and likely Warrior doesn't need a third AoE in addition to those (especially since it also requires an activator like Whirlwind or Warpath). Might see play after Warpath rotates, though.
Sunstruck Henchman: Neutral 4 mana 6/5. At the start of your turn, this has a 50% chance to fall asleep.
- So, it's a Yeti at +2 attack, but freezes itself half the time? Crappy pack filler, and sadly a rare instead of a common.
Hack the System: Warrior 1 mana spell. Quest: Attack 5 times with your hero. Reward: Anraphet's Core (2 mana hero power, summon a 4/3 Golem. After your hero attacks, refresh this.)
- Given they're pushing Taunt Warrior again, I'm actually surprised this isn't another "play taunt minions" quest. As-is, it's not bad by any means, but probably doesn't compete with Doctor Boom, Mad Genius. I don't know, maybe a more aggressive version of Bomb Warrior would consider it over Boom, but those also don't even run enough weapons to activate it at the moment, just Wrenchcaliburs, so they'd also need to slip in a couple more weapons to activate it consistently. Another one that I think we won't see much of until rotation.

Have to say, I'm getting more worried about the Paladin quest. These neutral Reborn minions aren't looking so great. The class ones are though, so maybe one or two of those remaining Paladin cards is a Reborn minion? Surely there has to be at least one if that's their quest theme, right?

[Seerow]

So basically, the concept of the brawl is interesting, but the execution is a bit lacking.

I feel like the brawl would have been great if it reset the decks each day, and got rid of the winning deck (and anything within say 80% same cards as it). Bonus points if on day 7 everyone gets assigned one of the 6 winning decks randomly each game.

Edit: on the new cards I really can't help but feel both of the new Priest minions should have been paladin.

The 7 health minion that sets minions you summon to have its health would be awesome with the one health minion package. The 1/2 reborn deathrattle might have actually been pretty good with the paladin quest.

[Zevox]

Edit: on the new cards I really can't help but feel both of the new Priest minions should have been paladin.

The 7 health minion that sets minions you summon to have its health would be awesome with the one health minion package. The 1/2 reborn deathrattle might have actually been pretty good with the paladin quest.

I don't know about the legendary, it feels very much like it belongs in Priest, but I agree about Grandmummy for sure. Paladin, maybe Warlock, or even neutral maybe. It's pretty much wasted potential in Priest, most likely.

[Tvtyrant]

I switched over to lackey rogue, it is easily my favorite deck. There are some games where the opponent ignores the Spirit of the Shark and I just roll them over as a result.

The weakest part is the poggo hoppers, I think they could be ditched and the deck would actually improve.

[Rynjin]

Sunstruck Henchman: Neutral 4 mana 6/5. At the start of your turn, this has a 50% chance to fall asleep.
- So, it's a Yeti at +2 attack, but freezes itself half the time? Crappy pack filler, and sadly a rare instead of a common.

Silence Priest is still a thing, yo.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I feel like the brawl would have been great if it reset the decks each day, and got rid of the winning deck (and anything within say 80% same cards as it). Bonus points if on day 7 everyone gets assigned one of the 6 winning decks randomly each game.

Yeah, this would be awesome. Basically set up a "Hall of Fame" and each day's winner goes into the Hall of Fame. Love the idea of a day 7 showdown.

[Zevox]

Silence Priest is still a thing, yo.

Honestly, I don't think that even Silence Priest would want that thing. It's not that much stronger than a normal 4-drop, they already have a better 4-drop in the form of Hench-Clan Shadequill, and they actively don't want too many minions that need silencing, or else they get screwed if they don't draw any/enough silence for them. Plus it would need to be silenced on the turn you play it, since silencing it wouldn't let it attack if its effect has already gone off.

[Rynjin]

It's the kind of minion that's borderline good already, so good to play and then if you get a Silence, good, if not, well it's still a 4 mana 6/5.

[Zevox]

It's the kind of minion that's borderline good already, so good to play and then if you get a Silence, good, if not, well it's still a 4 mana 6/5.

It's really not. A 4 drop that is a coinflip to do anything at all is nowhere near borderline good, it's just bad, and really needs that silence, and immediately.

Anyway though, more new cards before I go off to play Fire Emblem:

Plague of Flames: Warlock 1 mana spell. Destroy all your minions. For each one, destroy a random enemy minion.
- Huh, this feels like a card that is awkward to use in any deck. On the surface it looks best with tokeny decks, but those really don't like the "destroy all your minions" part, and while Control decks are not so fond of needing to have a ton of minions to sacrifice for it in the first place. I don't know, the card being that cheap makes it hard for me to feel like it has no hope, but it is hard for me to see what deck would use this. I mean, I guess you could do something like Rafaam's Scheme plus this for a 4 mana board wipe, but then you have to run Rafaam's Scheme...
Anubisath Defender: Druid 5 mana 3/5. Taunt. Costs 0 if you've cast a spell that costs 5 or more this turn.
- A new Arcane Tyrant for Druid, except with taunt and more defensive stats? I'll take two, thanks. Any controlling Druid will likely want this for the next year and a half.
Overflow: Druid 7 mana spell. Restore 5 health to all characters. Draw 5 cards.
- Oh, hello better Sprint, why do you exist? Geez, if Druid wants card draw, they're all set with this thing. The healing is just gravy at that point.
Micro Mummy: Paladin 2 mana 1/2. Reborn. At the end of your turn, give another random friendly minion +1 attack.
- And my hopes for Quest Paladin just shrunk a great deal. This is probably the worst Reborn minion we've seen, and for the class whose quest revolves around playing those, that is deeply disappointing. Warrior gets a flexible removal rush mummy, Priest gets a card that Zoo decks everywhere wish they could have... Paladin gets slightly better Swordsmith. Damn, it is not looking good for Paladin, unless a Finley deck comes through, or the remaining three cards from the class are amazing...
Livewire Lance: Warrior 3 mana 2/2 weapon. After your hero attacks, add a Lackey to your hand.
- That's probably pretty solid, actually. If Warrior had a tempo deck, this would see play in it I think. Good support for the Quest, too. I don't know, I don't necessarily think a Tempo Warrior is quite to viability yet with what we've seen, but there's some definite potential there now.
Desert Spear: Hunter 3 mana 1/3 weapon. After your hero attacks, summon a 1/1 Locust with Rush.
- Seems reasonable, perhaps even good. Not sure what Hunter deck exactly would run it, but it might get run.
Dark Pharoh Tekahn: Warlock Legendary 5 mana 4/4. Battlecry: For the rest of the game, your Lackeys are 4/4.
- *Spit take* Goddamn, that is a big effect right there. The thing is though, this lives or dies on how many Lackey generators the class has. At the moment, it's just EVIL Cable Rat and EVIL Genius - which can get you up to six Lackeys in theory, but you're likely to use some before this guy comes down in a typical Zoo deck, and then maybe you don't draw the rest... so I'm presently thinking it really wants one of the remaining Warlock cards to be a new Lackey generator. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's good even with just those two, but that's my initial reaction.
Vilefiend: Neutral 2 mana 2/2 Demon. Lifesteal.
- Meh. It's like Scraphound, except not a mech, doesn't give you health if your at full, and you can't discover it off Doctor Boom or Omega Assembly. So, probably not going to see much play I think.

[Rynjin]

It's really not. A 4 drop that is a coinflip to do anything at all is nowhere near borderline good, it's just bad, and really needs that silence, and immediately.

It's still a 6/5 your opponent needs to take into account every turn, and can't afford to leave up a lot of the time. It's a 50% chance to kill their best guy or set up your lethal. You either get a high stat minion, high face damage, or make the opponent use their removal to get rid of it. In any case you win. It's just like the Ogre cards that have a 50% chance to whiff their attack. The statlines being better than vanilla carries them hard even with that 50% chance to fail.

Trump's analysis sounds spot on to me: it's basically Frozen Crusher, and Frozen Crusher was nuts.

If there ends up being a deck that wants just raw good stats on a minion, this will be in it.

[Zevox]

It's still a 6/5 your opponent needs to take into account every turn, and can't afford to leave up a lot of the time. It's a 50% chance to kill their best guy or set up your lethal. You either get a high stat minion, high face damage, or make the opponent use their removal to get rid of it. In any case you win. It's just like the Ogre cards that have a 50% chance to whiff their attack. The statlines being better than vanilla carries them hard even with that 50% chance to fail.

Trump's analysis sounds spot on to me: it's basically Frozen Crusher, and Frozen Crusher was nuts.

If there ends up being a deck that wants just raw good stats on a minion, this will be in it.

It's worse than either the Ogres or Frozen Crusher, easily. Those always got to attack if not removed - this does not. Hell, as I pointed out earlier, even silence won't always enable it to attack if it fails its coin flip, since the "sleep" effect of a just-played minion is only overridden by rush and charge, not silence. And it's not as overstatted as Frozen Crusher, either.

Also, you'll notice than neither the Ogres nor Frozen Crusher ever saw real constructed play, they were just good-ish in arena.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Yeah, the comparison to Frozen Crusher seems odd on two fronts. Like Zevox said, the stat bonus is not nearly as overwhelming. The bigger problem is that it's a lot harder to plan around this card: while you knew that Frozen Crusher would be active every other turn, you can't rely on that here.

[Rynjin]

It's also not up one turn, then always down the next, there's a chance it stays up for multiple turns and then zonks. And you really only need it to attack and remove a big minion once over its lifespan for the cost:stat ratio to be worth it.

[Spore]

When I see legendaries like Colossus of the Moon, I am damn glad I don't spend real money on HS anymore. Imagine how ticked off you must be if this is your free legendary/one of your few legs.

Yes it is decent if cheated in properly but 10 mana cost minions are rarely powerful enough to be included in most decks (without discover stuff or win cons like the Old Gods).

[Zevox]

It's also not up one turn, then always down the next, there's a chance it stays up for multiple turns and then zonks. And you really only need it to attack and remove a big minion once over its lifespan for the cost:stat ratio to be worth it.

All it takes is it being down the turn after you play it for it to be a major liability. A 4 mana investment that does nothing for an extra turn is extremely slow and cedes a lot of tempo to your opponent. And for Silence Priest in particular, that's quite bad. It is, fundamentally, a tempo deck, trying to play over-statted minions early and win before other decks can effectively handle them. Giving other tempo or aggressive decks the chance to catch up or get out ahead of you, or giving more control-oriented decks an extra turn of reprieve to get closer to the late-game and a point where they can stabilize, is a good way to lose the game with such a deck. So that card really needs to be silenced the turn that you play it, or else you're making a pretty dang important coin-flip next turn.

When I see legendaries like Colossus of the Moon, I am damn glad I don't spend real money on HS anymore. Imagine how ticked off you must be if this is your free legendary/one of your few legs.

Yes it is decent if cheated in properly but 10 mana cost minions are rarely powerful enough to be included in most decks (without discover stuff or win cons like the Old Gods).

It's not so much that being 10 mana is the problem as it is that being an expensive card that doesn't have immediate impact is the problem. If you spend 7+ mana on something and all it does is force your opponent to spend a hard removal card, it was kind of a waste, and probably lost you tempo - and since you're probably not running many cards that expensive in your deck, it's a pretty significant loss to your late-game effectiveness. You really want a guarantee of some kind of effect to be worth paying that kind of cost for it.

To be fair though, there shouldn't be any danger of getting it as your free legendary, since they always seem to give out class legendaries for those. Though I guess last time they did Vargoth instead, but he's good. This time around I'd wager we get handed a random Quest, since the return of those is a big deal, but they haven't said yet, so it remains to be seen.

[ranagrande]

Sunstruck Henchman will probably not see much if any play in constructed but will be a decent arena card.

Colossus of the Moon will be good for Mages who can get it by Conjurer's Calling Sea Giants. Because that deck obviously needed a buff...

[Mando Knight]

Sunstruck Henchman will probably not see much if any play in constructed but will be a decent arena card.

I don't think it would be. Being over-statted by only +1/+1 isn't good enough if your effect is essentially "50% chance to do nothing at all". You might catch out some players who spend too much to counter it, but otherwise the best strategy is to ignore it and go for the face instead.

[The Glyphstone]

Technically a new card I haven't seen mentioned:

Titanic Lackey: Uncollectible 1-mana 1/1. Battlecry: Give a friendly minion +2 health and Taunt.

[Tvtyrant]

Technically a new card I haven't seen mentioned:

Titanic Lackey: Uncollectible 1-mana 1/1. Battlecry: Give a friendly minion +2 health and Taunt.

This is exactly what I didn't want. The more lackeys there are the more randumb, and the less useful they become. It isn't the worst lackey, but since I nearly always want faceless or kobold lackey this waters down every lackey card.

[Rynjin]

They did say from day 1 that more Lackeys would be printed.

I like this one since it helps enable Lackey decks that aren't extreme aggro.

[The Glyphstone]

Have we seen any new Lackey generators aside from the Shaman totem, though?

[ranagrande]

I don't think it would be. Being over-statted by only +1/+1 isn't good enough if your effect is essentially "50% chance to do nothing at all". You might catch out some players who spend too much to counter it, but otherwise the best strategy is to ignore it and go for the face instead.

Perhaps, but 50% of the time that strategy will backfire. Anyway, even with its huge drawback, it's still a big minion that can be played fairly early. Good enough for Arena.

[Zevox]

Have we seen any new Lackey generators aside from the Shaman totem, though?

Livewire Lance, the Warrior weapon. Remains to be seen if a Warrior deck that wants Lackeys will be a thing though.

I won't be surprised if each of the villain classes gets a new lackey generator though.

[Seerow]

Livewire Lance, the Warrior weapon. Remains to be seen if a Warrior deck that wants Lackeys will be a thing though.

I won't be surprised if each of the villain classes gets a new lackey generator though.

They seem to be trying to push tempo warrior again, between the Quest, new weapon, and the rush mummy. But I've been on that bull several times the last few years, basically since Rush was created in Witchwood, and keep getting let down, so I'm going to wait and see.

[Zevox]

They seem to be trying to push tempo warrior again, between the Quest, new weapon, and the rush mummy. But I've been on that bull several times the last few years, basically since Rush was created in Witchwood, and keep getting let down, so I'm going to wait and see.

Reckless Mummy I don't think is for a tempo deck, it's flexible removal wants to be in a Control deck more than a tempo one, I think. I'd point more to Bloodsworn Mercenary, the 3/3 that copies a damaged minion, as another Tempo Warrior card, myself. But yeah, it's been some time since the days when Tempo Warrior was a real thing, and I'm not confident that those cards alone will get it there again. Especially since, if memory serves, the last time we saw a Tempo Warrior that worked was before the Firey War Axe nerf.

[Seerow]

Reckless Mummy I don't think is for a tempo deck, it's flexible removal wants to be in a Control deck more than a tempo one, I think. I'd point more to Bloodsworn Mercenary, the 3/3 that copies a damaged minion, as another Tempo Warrior card, myself. But yeah, it's been some time since the days when Tempo Warrior was a real thing, and I'm not confident that those cards alone will get it there again. Especially since, if memory serves, the last time we saw a Tempo Warrior that worked was before the Firey War Axe nerf.

The last tempo warrior I remember actually working was Dragon Warrior before BRM rotated out. So it's been a good while. Though there was Pirate Warrior, which the recent brawl is a good reminder of as being a powerful aggro deck in the day.

You're right that Reckless Mummy fits itself into a Control Warrior, however depending on how Reborn works, it could synergize really well the the Mercenary. If you can send mummy into something, then when it spawns as a 3/1 copy it and get a new 3/1 that has an active reborn, those two will be really powerful together. I know they've specified if bouncing a reborn minion that's used its reborn, it gets the effect again when played, but not sure how that works when copying.

[The Glyphstone]

My gut feeling is that Reborn will be a status effect placed on the minion when it respawns. So if you duplicate it before it Reborns, you'll get a functional copy, but copying it after rebirth will mean the duplicate's Reborn is also expended.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

It's also not up one turn, then always down the next, there's a chance it stays up for multiple turns and then zonks. And you really only need it to attack and remove a big minion once over its lifespan for the cost:stat ratio to be worth it.

"If you highroll, it's great" isn't really a good argument, especially since the payoff of a highroll is that it's a low-health 5-drop for 4 mana.

Because the counter-argument is "if you lowroll, you wasted 4 mana on nothing".