Hearthstone 23: The Evil League of EVIL

[Divayth Fyr]

By 5 free legendaries, do you mean we're getting all five versions of Galakrond as freebies? Because that's awesome if so. Though I have to wonder, are the five Galakronds the only Hero cards we're getting, or do the good classes get ones too?

Good classes get Sidequests, EVIL gets Galakronds (and yes, we're getting all 5 as freebies).

[otakuryoga]

Mind elaborating? I haven't been terribly impressed with most of the cards revealed so far. Not that they're particularly bad or anything, just that I haven't seen any spectacularly powerful ones so far.

druid one: 6 mana..4/8 taunt..battlecry discover a dragon
vs sunwalker 4/5 taunt/shield which was cream of the crop at 6 mana once upon a time
or bonedrake 6/5 deathrattle add a random dragon to your hand

hunter one
4 mana 3/5 inspire(though they do not use the keyword) deal 5 damage to a random enemy minion
remember when best there was at 4 was 3/5 taunt or vanilla 4/5?

[Zevox]

Good classes get Sidequests, EVIL gets Galakronds .

That is quite disappointing then. Sidequests are no substitute for hero cards, not even close.

druid one: 6 mana..4/8 taunt..battlecry discover a dragon
vs sunwalker 4/5 taunt/shield which was cream of the crop at 6 mana once upon a time
or bonedrake 6/5 deathrattle add a random dragon to your hand

hunter one
4 mana 3/5 inspire(though they do not use the keyword) deal 5 damage to a random enemy minion
remember when best there was at 4 was 3/5 taunt or vanilla 4/5?

Even back in the Classic-only days Sunwalker didn't see much play outside of arena, nor did Bonedrake when it was printed. And Sen'jin and Yeti haven't been good enough for constructed for a very long time now either. These days we have a Yeti that is a mech and also deals 10 to a minion from turn 10 and onward, and the deck that runs that isn't even top of the meta anymore.

[Resileaf]

Class cards are almost always better statted than neutral cards.

[Stevesciguy]

Yeah, really excited for the new hero cards, but also slightly disappointed that neither of my favorite classes got one(Druid & Paladin)

Really excited for the free neutral legendary, though. I bet it'll be awesome in Shirvallah Paladin

[Zevox]

Yeah, really excited for the new hero cards, but also slightly disappointed that neither of my favorite classes got one(Druid & Paladin)

Really excited for the free neutral legendary, though. I bet it'll be awesome in Shirvallah Paladin

What free neutral legendary? No neutral legendaries have been revealed in the gallery, and if we're getting the five Galakronds for free, I wouldn't expect any other freebie legendaries.

[otakuryoga]

But, most importantly, new cards to talk about! Spoilering for length.

Spoiler: New Cards

Show

Galakrond, the Nightmare: Rogue 7 mana Hero. Battlecry: Draw 1 card, it costs 0 (Invoke twice to upgrade). New hero power: 2 mana, put a Lackey in your hand.
- Definitely has potential. That battlecry is strong, especially when fully upgraded (and incidentally, it sucks that the card gallery can't display what the upgrades are - I only know that the final version is Draw 4 and equip a 5/2 weapon because of Trump's video on the first few cards revealed). My question is whether the upgrade effect only triggers if you're holding Galakrond in your hand when you Invoke, though - that's how upgrades of the past worked, and makes this substantially harder to upgrade since, well, legendary, there will only be one in your deck. If that's so, I'm a bit iffier on these cards' overall power level, but they're definitely worth a shot, I think.



Emerald Explorer: Druid 6 mana 4/8 Dragon. Taunt. Battlecry: Discover a Dragon.
- Holy smokes, is that good. Good stat distribution for a taunt minion at that price, plus a solid Discover battlecry? That is a serious push to a value-oriented, non-Quest Druid. Ysera may be less convincing, but this looks like it gives Dragon/Control Druid more potential.




Dwarven Sharpshooter: Hunter 1 mana 1/3. Your Hero Power can target minions.
- Hey, it's that one old card whose name I've forgotten and can't be bothered to look up, but dropped to 1 mana and losing only 1 attack for it. That's a definite improvement, to be sure, but I don't know whether it's enough of one to make it see play. Wait and see mode here.

Dragonbane: Hunter 4 mana 3/5 Mech. After you use your Hero Power, deal 5 damage to a random enemy minion.
- Pretty darn strong Inspire effect on a reasonable body for the cost - they're definitely pushing this. Still, same comments as Phase Stalker, I am skeptical and unsure of how this experiment will turn out just at the moment.



Waxadred: Rogue 5 mana 7/5 Dragon. Deathrattle: Shuffle a Candle into your deck that resummons Waxadred when drawn.
- Value Rogue card, very slow, probably not great as such.


Even back in the Classic-only days Sunwalker didn't see much play outside of arena, nor did Bonedrake when it was printed. And Sen'jin and Yeti haven't been good enough for constructed for a very long time now either. These days we have a Yeti that is a mech and also deals 10 to a minion from turn 10 and onward, and the deck that runs that isn't even top of the meta anymore.

Spoiler: replies

Show

Galakrond(all varieties)
i thought he said it was like C`Thun and happened wherever your Galakrand was?
--just went and watched(a different video) but the lady talking said Galakrond gets to upgrade whether or not he is in your hand

--edit-- fully upgraded battlecry is "destroy 4 random enemy minions. equip a 5/2 claw." --edit--
so seems like all of them are "lvl 1..doubled..doubled again + equip a 5/2 weapon"
and yes..any card like Galakrond (or quests) SHOULD show you in the gallery just what the bleep they give you

emerald explorer
agreed

sharpshooter/dragonbane
the thought of these 2 together vs an empty board is scary
insta kill anything up to 7health w/o divine or up to 5 health with divine
thankfully that should be pretty rare

waxadred
meh..we have already seen recycle rogue be pretty popular..this may bring it back

other comment
you agreed with my point(certainly regarding the 4 cost) and then offered an example that power creep wasnt really that bad

and that example was from 2 expansions ago..out of, what..20?

[Stevesciguy]

What free neutral legendary? No neutral legendaries have been revealed in the gallery, and if we're getting the five Galakronds for free, I wouldn't expect any other freebie legendaries.

Sathrovarr, the neutral legendary everyone gets for free, and that blizzcon attendees will get in golden

9 Mana 5/5 demon, Battlecry: choose a friendly minion, add a copy to your board, deck, and hand.

[Rynjin]

For those evaluating Invoke, it's worth noting that not only makes Galakrond stronger it activates his Hero Power for free too.

1 Mana give a minion +1 attack sucks...but it ALSO draws a card that costs 0.

[Stevesciguy]

For those evaluating Invoke, it's worth noting that not only makes Galakrond stronger it activates his Hero Power for free too.

1 Mana give a minion +1 attack sucks...but it ALSO draws a card that costs 0.

Rogue's hero power is add a lackey to your hand, not draw a card and change its cost to 0. That's the battlecry you're thinking of

[The Glyphstone]

Can you trigger the battle cry via invoke if you haven't played him yet?

[Stevesciguy]

Can you trigger the battle cry via invoke if you haven't played him yet?

Yeah, Invoke will always trigger the hero power no matter where he is, as long as you actually have one somewhere

[Zevox]

Galakrond(all varieties)
i thought he said it was like C`Thun and happened wherever your Galakrand was?
--just went and watched(a different video) but the lady talking said Galakrond gets to upgrade whether or not he is in your hand

Don't know what video you're talking about or who you're referring to. I've only looked at the set's announcement article on their website, the card gallery, and a couple of Trump's videos.

--edit-- fully upgraded battlecry is "destroy 4 random enemy minions. equip a 5/2 claw." --edit--
so seems like all of them are "lvl 1..doubled..doubled again + equip a 5/2 weapon"
and yes..any card like Galakrond (or quests) SHOULD show you in the gallery just what the bleep they give you

The Quests do show what they give you in the gallery. It's only the Galakrond upgrades and the "upgraded Mage spell" from the new Malygos that are missing.

But okay, if they all quadruple and get that weapon fully upgraded, that is pretty potent. The Priest one becomes a board wipe against most boards plus a weapon, the Warlock one builds a probably-strong board plus gets the weapon, and the Rogue one is a sprint worth of 0-mana cards plus the weapon. All very strong, and if they upgrade in your deck, seems good to me.

sharpshooter/dragonbane
the thought of these 2 together vs an empty board is scary
insta kill anything up to 7health w/o divine or up to 5 health with divine
thankfully that should be pretty rare

If you're a deck that isn't token-based and can't remove them, sure. Most Control decks can probably do the latter, though, and more aggressive decks are more tokeny and less good for Dragonbane, however.

waxadred
meh..we have already seen recycle rogue be pretty popular..this may bring it back

"Recycle Rogue?" What are you talking about?

other comment
you agreed with my point(certainly regarding the 4 cost) and then offered an example that power creep wasnt really that bad

and that example was from 2 expansions ago..out of, what..20?

I did not agree with your point, I was pointing out that the things you're comparing them for some kind of power level baseline have not been what we need to compare cards to for that for a very long time now, and in the case of the 6 drops never were.

Sathrovarr, the neutral legendary everyone gets for free, and that blizzcon attendees will get in golden

9 Mana 5/5 demon, Battlecry: choose a friendly minion, add a copy to your board, deck, and hand.

Huh. Seems... odd and iffy to me. Not even sure Holy Wrath Paladin wants it, honestly, seems like it would just dilute the deck, being neither draw, removal, nor part of their combo. To them it would be just what, a way to use Shirvalla before the combo while still putting him back in your deck? I get why they might want that, but this would only work on turn 9+, and after he's already been reduced to cost 0 (or 1 at most), so you're already in the very late game by then. I don't know, it's certainly a big value card, but feels too conditional to me.

For those evaluating Invoke, it's worth noting that not only makes Galakrond stronger it activates his Hero Power for free too.

1 Mana give a minion +1 attack sucks...but it ALSO draws a card that costs 0.

Can you trigger the battle cry via invoke if you haven't played him yet?

As Stevesciguy pointed out, it triggers the hero power, not the battlecry. So far, those are:

Rogue: Add a lackey to your hand.
Warlock: Summon two 1/1 Imps.
Priest: Add a random Priest minion to your hand.

[Rynjin]

Ah right, got the Hero Power mixed up with the Battlecry.

Still, 1 mana buff a minion and generate a Lackey is not too bad. Not AMAZING, but given it also sets up for a huge play later, I don't think it's a bad use of your mana.

[Hamste]

I'm pretty excited for hearthstone auto chess. Been watching kripp and Trump play it and it seems good. Maybe not long lasting but still interesting.

[Geno9999]

For everyone interested in what exactly the new Malygos gives, Reddit posted a picture of all the spells he gives (all of which of course say Malygos's in the name, but I'll list them as they were originally):

Arcane Explosion: Damage increased to 2 damage to all enemy minions.

Fireball: Damage increased to 8.

Flamestrike: Damage increased to 8 to all enemy minions.

Frostbolt: Costs 0 Mana.

Arcane Intellect: Draws 4 cards.

Arcane Missiles: 6 missiles.

Frost Nova: Costs 1 Mana.

Polymorph: Costs 1 Mana.

Tome of Intellect: Gives you 3 random Mage spells.

Interesting is that Tome of Intellect is the only Non-Basic spell that's upgraded. Probably because 1) it's easy to upgrade and 2) Mirror Image would arguably be worse if it summoned too many Mirror Images and thus feel like a bad pull in such a limited spell pool.

Overall, I'm not entirely sold on new Malygos. Needing a Dragon in hand probably isn't that bad of a requirement this expansion, with every class getting dragon support, and I think Azure Explorer is pretty adorable just look at him- wait, what's in your mouth- OH MY GOD SPIT THAT TOME OUT THIS good card. However, the stat line isn't that great, and while the discover helps, the randomness of your options makes this a bit difficult to use in a control deck. Or maybe I'm wrong and this card is consistent enough for me to punch my monitor when my 16/16 Edwin gets polymorphed every single game.

[Rynjin]

Tome IS a Basic spell isn't it? It replaced Ice Block.

[Geno9999]

Tome IS a Basic spell isn't it? It replaced Ice Block.

Tome is a Classic spell and it replaced Ice Lance. Ice Block however has not seen any replacement whatsoever *resumes stomping Icicle into the curb*

[Zevox]

For everyone interested in what exactly the new Malygos gives, Reddit posted a picture of all the spells he gives (all of which of course say Malygos's in the name, but I'll list them as they were originally):

Arcane Explosion: Damage increased to 2 damage to all enemy minions.

Fireball: Damage increased to 8.

Flamestrike: Damage increased to 8 to all enemy minions.

Frostbolt: Costs 0 Mana.

Arcane Intellect: Draws 4 cards.

Arcane Missiles: 6 missiles.

Frost Nova: Costs 1 Mana.

Polymorph: Costs 1 Mana.

Tome of Intellect: Gives you 3 random Mage spells.

Interesting is that Tome of Intellect is the only Non-Basic spell that's upgraded. Probably because 1) it's easy to upgrade and 2) Mirror Image would arguably be worse if it summoned too many Mirror Images and thus feel like a bad pull in such a limited spell pool.

Overall, I'm not entirely sold on new Malygos. Needing a Dragon in hand probably isn't that bad of a requirement this expansion, with every class getting dragon support, and I think Azure Explorer is pretty adorable just look at him- wait, what's in your mouth- OH MY GOD SPIT THAT TOME OUT THIS good card. However, the stat line isn't that great, and while the discover helps, the randomness of your options makes this a bit difficult to use in a control deck. Or maybe I'm wrong and this card is consistent enough for me to punch my monitor when my 16/16 Edwin gets polymorphed every single game.

Hm, yeah, I'm not terribly sold on that either. Those are all good, obviously, but good enough to run a 5 mana 2/8 just to get one of them? I don't know about that.

[zlefin]

Finally beat all the plaguelords with each hero on heroic mode. Some of the later stuff you unlock wiht that is fun, they're such bonkers abilities. Made lots of crazy crazy decks.
It's neat how the Jr guys upgrade to Sr guys.

[Seerow]

Huh. Seems... odd and iffy to me. Not even sure Holy Wrath Paladin wants it, honestly, seems like it would just dilute the deck, being neither draw, removal, nor part of their combo. To them it would be just what, a way to use Shirvalla before the combo while still putting him back in your deck? I get why they might want that, but this would only work on turn 9+, and after he's already been reduced to cost 0 (or 1 at most), so you're already in the very late game by then. I don't know, it's certainly a big value card, but feels too conditional to me.

Just want to argue this point. When combod with Shirvallah this card is absurd. it's basically a cardthat reads: 9 mana. If you have a 0 cost Shirvallah in your hand, 19/15, heal for 14, destroy 2 minions, shuffle an extra Shirvalla into your deck. That is the kind of play that takes a game from about to lose and flips it on its head. If Shirvallah Paladin makes it to the next xpac and this isn't in it, I will be shocked.

That said, outside of that specific combo... the card is pretty awkward. It basically needs a heavily discounted card to play, and wants to be in a value focused deck in most cases. Best bets on it seeing play will be Druid (is the card that reduces something by 7 at the end of turn still in standard?), and Duel Paladin (currently a fringe deck but the legendary 4 mana 8/8 we saw it going to potentially give that archetype more support). Maybe Big Warrior if that becomes a thing, but I feel like they may have finally stopped trying to push that archetype.

[Joran]

I'm pretty excited for hearthstone auto chess. Been watching kripp and Trump play it and it seems good. Maybe not long lasting but still interesting.

I like how Hearthstone mechanics really inform the gameplay. All those keywords that I've learned from playing the game the last 5? years will give me an advantage and lower the learning curve. It looked like fun the few games I watched.

I'm just not sure how deep it is, given the random minions your dudes attack and the inability to econ/save gold between rounds.

It feels a bit like a really good Tavern Brawl, not a whole new game.

I'm playing a lot of TFT at the moment (both because I'm getting better at it and also I spent some random RP I had around for a Worlds pass), so not sure if Battlegrounds will induce me to switch. I'll give it a shot and hope the P2W aspects will take into account packs bought by gold too.

[Zevox]

Just want to argue this point. When combod with Shirvallah this card is absurd. it's basically a cardthat reads: 9 mana. If you have a 0 cost Shirvallah in your hand, 19/15, heal for 14, destroy 2 minions, shuffle an extra Shirvalla into your deck. That is the kind of play that takes a game from about to lose and flips it on its head. If Shirvallah Paladin makes it to the next xpac and this isn't in it, I will be shocked.

Certainly - if it's turn 9 or later, and you have already reduced Shirvalla to cost 0. Will that condition be easy enough to meet to make the card worth running when it's dead under all other conditions? That's the big question there. Now, I don't play Holy Wrath Paladin, so I'm certainly not the best guy to answer that, but given what I've seen in videos of other people playing it, I have at least a little skepticism. Getting Shirvallah to 0 happens quite late from what I've seen, which makes it look questionable to me. It may just be too slow to run over other cards that draw or defend you all of the time rather than just in the endgame period.

[Stevesciguy]

Just want to argue this point. When combod with Shirvallah this card is absurd. it's basically a cardthat reads: 9 mana. If you have a 0 cost Shirvallah in your hand, 19/15, heal for 14, destroy 2 minions, shuffle an extra Shirvalla into your deck. That is the kind of play that takes a game from about to lose and flips it on its head. If Shirvallah Paladin makes it to the next xpac and this isn't in it, I will be shocked.

That said, outside of that specific combo... the card is pretty awkward. It basically needs a heavily discounted card to play, and wants to be in a value focused deck in most cases. Best bets on it seeing play will be Druid (is the card that reduces something by 7 at the end of turn still in standard?), and Duel Paladin (currently a fringe deck but the legendary 4 mana 8/8 we saw it going to potentially give that archetype more support). Maybe Big Warrior if that becomes a thing, but I feel like they may have finally stopped trying to push that archetype.

You're also forgetting about the Shirvallah it adds to your hand, so it's actually a 26/20, heal for 21, kill 3 minions. Or just leave that Shirvallah in your hand for later use.

Yeah, Dreampetal Florist(the 7 mana cost reduction card) is Boomsday, so it's still in Standard, but it's not that great unless you have a combo to pull off, so I'm not sure it'll work. As far as Druid is concerned, I think it'll see play in wild in Malygos Druid as a way to get more Maly's, but I don't think there's really anything in standard that could benefit much from it right now.

[Geno9999]

Just want to argue this point. When combod with Shirvallah this card is absurd. it's basically a cardthat reads: 9 mana. If you have a 0 cost Shirvallah in your hand, 19/15, heal for 14, destroy 2 minions, shuffle an extra Shirvalla into your deck. That is the kind of play that takes a game from about to lose and flips it on its head. If Shirvallah Paladin makes it to the next xpac and this isn't in it, I will be shocked.

That said, outside of that specific combo... the card is pretty awkward. It basically needs a heavily discounted card to play, and wants to be in a value focused deck in most cases. Best bets on it seeing play will be Druid (is the card that reduces something by 7 at the end of turn still in standard?), and Duel Paladin (currently a fringe deck but the legendary 4 mana 8/8 we saw it going to potentially give that archetype more support). Maybe Big Warrior if that becomes a thing, but I feel like they may have finally stopped trying to push that archetype.

My question is would you still run Sathrovarr with Prismatic Lens? It feels super risky if you do, because you're already having to pilot around hitting Shirvallah and a control tool like Equality or Shrink Ray, or the disaster draw by swapping costs of Shirvallah and Holy Wrath in a two-Holy Wrath match up like Warrior or Quest Druid. Now there's an 9 mana Minion that, while technically doesn't make any card unplayable, practically does, and would ruin the combo if you hit Sathrovarr and Holy Wrath because now you can't shuffle Shirvallah back into the deck with Baleful Banker and then Holy Wrath in the same turn.

I'm also having a hard time seeing this in any Malygos Druid, because even with one Dreampetal Florist reduction on either one, you can't play both Maly and Sath in the same turn without any further cost reduction. If you can't play both in the same turn, Maly has to last through your opponent's turn, and if your opponent can't kill Maly they're usually dead anyway, Sath or no Sath. He feels like a worse Floop in this deck.

[Joran]

I'm also having a hard time seeing this in any Malygos Druid, because even with one Dreampetal Florist reduction on either one, you can't play both Maly and Sath in the same turn without any further cost reduction. If you can't play both in the same turn, Maly has to last through your opponent's turn, and if your opponent can't kill Maly they're usually dead anyway, Sath or no Sath. He feels like a worse Floop in this deck.

I'd think it'd be used in Druid. There's a lot that Druid would like for it to land on, not necessarily Malygos (something like Oasis Surger, Kun, Loti)

Some versions of Druid are already running Geppeto, so you could hit a good Geppeto minion, then do it in one turn (1 mana minion + Sath).

That said, my initial feelings is that it feels like a Win-More card.

[Geno9999]

Some versions of Druid are already running Geppeto, so you could hit a good Geppeto minion, then do it in one turn (1 mana minion + Sath).

That said, my initial feelings is that it feels like a Win-More card.

I had honestly forgotten about Geppeto, that actually opens up a lot for Sathrovarr, since he himself is a good Geppeto target with the massive value battlecry.

[Stevesciguy]

Hearthstone subreddit is running a giveaway for 4 $50 pre-orders. You just have to comment on the thread.

Also, they're doing some kind of tournament thing with some of the more popular streamers with the new game mode. You get a DoD pack just for picking a team, so make sure you at least do that.

Edit: apparently the patch is uber-****ed. Sathrovarr can apparently target enemy minions, the squelch button is supposedly broken, and some people are even reporting that the Overkill mechanic has stopped working on some cards.

Oh, and make sure to finish your quests before you update, if possible, since some people are reporting their quests disappearing.

Edit 2: built a wild Shirvallah OTK paladin to try out Sathrovarr. Queued into an odd paladin. Got through my deck and played Sathrovarr on Shirvallah. He instantly conceded. Felt awesome

[otakuryoga]

so first battleground(after the annoyingly MANDATORY training run) finished 2nd with Akazamzarak
but it is either broke or was changed after the streamer runs at blizzcon
was still getting offered mostly 1 and 2 star minions at tavern tier 5 and 6 as opposed to streamer runs where you rarely saw anything under your tavern tier

[Zevox]

Oh, and make sure to finish your quests before you update, if possible, since some people are reporting their quests disappearing.

Yeah, I didn't have any remaining quests, but I didn't get a new one for the day. (Though how is it possible to finish before you update? It won't let you start the game without the update once it's out.)

Also, the client was loading ridiculously slowly. Maybe that's a traffic issue, but yeesh, it was bad.