The second half of the Neutral Commons! What do we have to look forward to at higher mana costs?

Look, if you haven't figured out how fantastic these reviews are by this point, I don't know what to say. So I won't. Enjoy the review!


Fishy Flyer Card Image

He got a little too excited when he was told he might sleep with the fishes.

Quote From FearGralex

New Murlocs oftentimes go under the rader, but as one of the strongest decks in the current Standard is Murloc Paladin, I feel this card warrants another look. 4 mana for a 4/3 Rush is not a terrible deal, although it's slightly below the curve for other Rush minions that have seen Standard play. Getting to do it twice as well as also being a part of a relevant tribe is pretty different, though. On 8 mana you can drop two 4/3 Rushers in the same turn if you trade the first one off, and it also helps you curve out if you're running this in Murloc Paladin since that deck doesn't really have too many 4-drops. Even if you're not running it, though, this card is stronger than the average Murloc and will be quite nice to randomly generate off of cards like Fishflinger and Murgurgle Prime.

Wretched Tutor Card Image

She really is wretched, she doesn't draw any cards!

Quote From Avalon

One of the neutrals I'm the most interested in: Volcanic Potion strapped on a 2/5 seems good, especially when you're playing a deck you're mostly behind with. This card will have success depending on how well Spellburst will be accepted in the meta. Obviously, all the Studies spell help this new mechanic, and therefore WT, a lot, but we'll just have to see. In the meantime, this plus Apotheosis or (less likely but still) Lightforged Blessing is a pocket Reno Jackson.

Lake Thresher Card Image

Scholomance like to provide its swim team with a bit of extra motivation.

Quote From FearGralex

As I discussed in a previous review, Lake Thresher is one of the best options to get off Guardian Animals, as it allows you to immediately cleave swaths out of your opponent's board. Although it is a neutral card, I predict that is where this will get the vast majority of its constructed play. That said, this should be a very powerful pick in Arena and I could see this showing up in some wacky Paladin deck that runs a lot of buffs and ways to keep its minions alive.

Ogremancer Card Image

Don't taunt them about their spelling, they get very defensive.

Quote From Noxious

Ogremancer is the first card we've seen in a while with a "Trogg-type" effect (like Burly Rockjaw Trogg). This oger, however, combines the condition of the Troggs with the effect of the Hoggers (Hogger, Hogger, Doom of Elwynn), resulting in a minion with beefy stats and the potential to summon quite a few minions before it's turned to dust. It's been a while since we've seen a card like this, one which makes you think twice about casting spells. If anything, I'm most surprised by the fact that it's an oger and not a Trogg or another Hogger.

Oger drama aside, the stats, coupled with its cost, are very good for a minion whose purpose isn't necessarily to attack and kill things, but to spawn a constant line of defense and protect your face. Its Mana cost in fact makes this oger quite attractive for players that wish to encumber their opponent and is a direct counter to spell-based builds. Aggro decks sporting a bunch of low-cost draw spells could be completely robbed of their tempo. It's a bit tech-y, but it's all oger.

Steward of Scrolls Card Image

The variety of students at Scholomance is just inkredible.

Quote From FearGralex

Remember Azure Drake? Well we've got Azure Drake 2.0 right here, baby! The two main differences are obviously the Elemental tag instead of the Dragon tag and the Discover instead of the draw. Let's talk about each of those differences:

In the current Standard environment, the Dragon tag is clearly preferable to Elemental- the only class that has cards that care about Elementals is Mage. Animated Avalanche and Elemental Allies are both solid cards, however, and Steward of Scrolls could slot into that style of deck very well.

As for the other difference, Discover is worse than drawing a card in a vacuum, since a random choice of three cards is usually going to be worse than a random card you chose to put in your deck. However, with the added context of the fact that you just played a Spell Damage minion, the Discover makes you much more likely to be able to generate a spell that can utilize that Spell Damage right away. Imagine playing this in Rogue on turn 5 and immediately Discovering a Backstab. That's a great tempo play!

All in all, I think this card is comparable to Azure Drake in terms of power level, and that's not even getting into all the incentives to be running Spell Damage minions in this set. I predict this card to be an absolute slam-dunk in Arena and a key role player in many different Standard strategies.

Onyx Magescribe Card Image

1 spell, 2 spell, red spell, blue spell!

Quote From Avalon

Dragon tag which is always good, resilient statline and a hand refilling effect. This minion kinda reminds of Cobalt Spellkin, but the limitation is different: while Spellkin always gives you 1-mana spells from your class (and you can somehow predict what you'll get based on the card pool), Onyx Magescribe will give you spells with any cost from any class, an effect that makes it quite unreliable but, at the same time extremely fun. My guess is that we'll rarely include it in our decks, but we'd be more than welcome to Discover it from Draconic Lackey or Draconic Studies.

Smug Senior Card Image

"So why is this corridor forbidden anyway?" - Last Words

Quote From linkblade91

Fair warning: this will be about Taunt Warrior yet-again. The card is too slow for the deck, despite the fact that adding the Taunt to your hand can help you trigger the Quest. It provides almost nothing additional we can work with.

That's it.

…no really: it's a Neutral Common; what more do you want? A 5/7 Taunt for 6 is just not enough these days, especially in Wild. Generating another one is okay, but what am I honestly going to cut from my deck to slot this in? The answer is "nothing", because of course it is. Perhaps it'll be generated from In Formation!, Frightened Flunky, or Stonehill Defender, but ultimately I don't see myself picking it very much.

Sorcerous Substitute Card Image

If you can't find a regular substitute, ghost-bought is fine.

Quote From Noxious

Really solid card. Mages will certainly have an edge over the other classes with their even further boosted collection of Spell Damage minions, courtesy of Scholomance Academy with making this card easy to fully exploit. Shamans will also have a quarter of an edge over the rest with their 25% chance of summoning the [Hearthstone Card (Wrath of Air Totem, but the beauty of this card comes from the fact that any class can easily trigger its effect, and two 6/6 minions for the price of 6 mana + a Spell Damage minion is definitely worth it. Bloodmage Thalnos is still a regular in decks year-round, and there's similarly costly options available that cost even less dust to craft.

Sorcerous Substitute is a prime example of a card with a simple design, but enough straightforward power level to be playable in almost any situation. It reminds me of powerful Deathrattle cards like Mechanical Whelp, but instead of waiting and risking a Silence or transformation effect for the other shoe to drop, Sorcerous Substitute trades all that for immediate reward at the low cost of just having some Spell Damage. I'm certain it will see play in Standard, and will probably be even more powerful in Arena, especially for Mage runs.

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Plagued Protodrake Card Image

So that's how Skeletal Dragons are made!

Quote From linkblade91

Another in a long line of "too slow if you do play it 'the right way', busted if you cheat it out" minions. Think Anubisath Warbringer, or Silver Vanguard: these minions found a home in decks that could bring them (or at least their Deathrattle) out without devoting an entire late-game turn's worth of resources to do it. But, thankfully, Plagued Protodrake comes at a time where some of those decks are seeing renewed support: Duel! Paladin, for example, or Big Warrior; both of which just received Commencement for their Recruiting summoning-from-deck needs. There's also Vectus for replicating the Deathrattle. Necrium Apothecary is still in Standard, as are cards like Dimensional Ripper and The Boom Reaver. It's a Dragon, as well, so you could always generate it via Dragonqueen Alexstrasza or Draconic Studies. The Protodrake might be fated to become pack-filler material, but the attempt was made to find a home for it during the design process.