Nearly vanilla stats and a powerful temp effect that reflects Kel'Thuzad's future necromancy. Seems like a great card across the board

Ooo! The flavor and effect are on point.
Neutral and (5) mana open a lot of doors - interesting

Seems really good Highlander Mage and Control Shaman or Priest.  Priest has access to very cheap removal and Shaman can get discounts on their damage removal spells.  Also adore the flavor of him using the academies signature mechanic while also referring to his necromancy.

Really cool synergy with cards like Shadowflame because you resurrect the Shadowflame'd minion and get everything it kills as well. Also, I have a feeling I'm gonna see someone use Coin before playing a 6 Mana spell like Blizzard only to realize the Coin activated the Spellburst.

It's only a one-time effect, so you better pick your spell wisely, but it's certainly interesting to see a bit of priest-style resurrection going out to all classes under a tight condition. 

I think this will be the nearly auto include neutral legendary for the next while. Nearly every deck runs some removal spells that can combo with this card.

I wonder if when you AoE this card is resummoned and if so if the spellburst is active again.

In certain decks this is just better than Sylvanas Windrunner. Its basically Mind Control, with the caveat that you need to use a spell to kill the minion you want, which isn't really that hard to imagine.

Aside from that its also a 4/6 for 5, which is already good enough to see inclusion.

Its just going to be in nearly every deck bar the most aggro of aggro.

AH HECK YEAH this is a really strong card.

all the classes have good spell removal available, it'll be hard to NOT see a class besides tempo DH use this guy

I think this will do the best in Priest with their cheap destruction in the shadow word cards. (i.e Shadow Word: Ruin) but this also has interesting effects with cards like Conjurer's Calling or even Sacrificial Pact.

Really fun card. Will definitely be a craft for me.

Now to fight the temptation to craft a golden copy!

I can already tell I will end up hating this card.

Quote From FenrirWulf

Really cool synergy with cards like Shadowflame because you resurrect the Shadowflame'd minion and get everything it kills as well. Also, I have a feeling I'm gonna see someone use Coin before playing a 6 Mana spell like Blizzard only to realize the Coin activated the Spellburst.

does that work though? Doesn't Shadowflame kill Kel before the Spellburst activates?

Yeah this is going to be huge for control decks, especially ones with cheap big removal. Can see this being used in Mage, Warrior, Warlock Priest and Shaman (maybe even Rogue)

Seems like. Pretty decent card, though there’s not really that many easy ways to play a big board clear with him, so the swing turn shouldn’t be that big

It says nothing about enemy minions-meaning he works well with symmetric effects. Which is also creepyly flavorful. 

Design is perfectly on point.

However, am I the only one feeling it is a bit dull for a main character?

Anyway, he feels like a Priest Card, mostly, due to Shadow Word spells. I'm sure we'll see him in Priest decks.

Other classes have either spells that can hardly be played in the same turn, or spells that tend to kill KT as well.

He isn't defensive enough or too slow for Big Shaman Reincarnate or Conjurer's Calling or other shenanigans with other friendly minions and self-killing spells.

He can act as soft taunt tho, similarly to Archmage Vargoth.

Aspiring necromancer flavor on point!

Cool combo card, very scary with AoE spells. Priest and mage could have very fun with this. Maybe even Demon Hunter with that 5-mana spell we never see

If spellburst worked differently, I could imagine this being super strong with plague of flames, where it  would be 6 mana: steal your opponent's board and get another kel'thuzad.

If I'm correct, though, kel'thuzad has to survive the spell for spellburst to happen, so this will probably be fine, not great.

Unless this enables some sort of combo, I can't imagine many decks running this card, just because it enters play too late against aggro, and is not always game-winning against slower decks.

Seems like a really strong card... in a SLOW meta. This will certainly be more of a control tool that can turn the game around in a single turn. Strong synergies that (to me) immediately come to mind are:

- Priest: #1: Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Shadow Word: Ruin. (well R.I.P. [Hearthstone Card (Strenght in Numbers) Not Found] Druid)

- Priest #2: Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Breath of the Infinite (Bye aggro.)

- Mage: Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Conjurer's Calling. (Also you can just play this on turn 5, and then turn 6 Khadgar + Conjurer's Calling.)

- Paladin Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Libram of Justice. (weaker synergy, but seem good in paladin decks that don't run pure package.)

- Shaman Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Lightning Breath. (or Lightning Storm.)

I really like the priest synergy. after all, playing those combo's ruin their ress pool, meaning that these combo's won't see play in ress priest. (generally)

But Headmaster Kel'Thuzad has one BIG weakness: It's slow (Only good in control decks/SLOW META) and it's effect only count AFTER casting a spell, meaning that if Headmaster Kel'Thuzad dies while your casting the spell, the Spellburst effet won't go off. (Confirmed by devs.) This also means that the shown Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Brawl combo is HORRIBLE, like seriously, if Headmaster Kel'Thuzad is your only minion, and your opponent has 3 (like in the reveal video), this means you have a 1/4 chance of getting the effect off... WHY NOT PLAY A WEAK MINION/LACKY INSTEAD? Headmaster Kel'Thuzad + Plague of Wrath is a WAY BETTER combo, as your Headmaster Kel'Thuzad doesn't die to it! (if you play the two on the same turn + it's undamaged)

Wow, very strong card! This will defenitely see play. Lots of classes can play him and a good removal for a good swing turn.

It will find its place in priest and highlander mage, highlander in general actually, but I think it's a little over-hyped.

This can either be good or just flop. Playing this on curve does allow to stof taunt your opponent, but it reduces the potential consistency of the Spellburst effect. And not many classes can wipe a lot of boards on turn 10 alongside Kel AND benefit from him. The only that come to my mind are him + Soul Mirror or - surprisingly - Starfall in Quest Druid. Sometimes Rolling Fireball. Playing him on curve is a mild play and you could've done better, but the Cost makes it hard to use the effect in one turn.

However, I assume he summons plain copies of them, so if you finish off high-health minions, you can summon big lads.

I wonder how Kel would work with Puzzle Box.

Also, maybe in Wild with Deathspeaker to actually ensure Kel sticks when the spell ends? Obviously harder to find fitting spells to have the ensurance policy effect work, but Wild is used to stuff like Emperor Thaurissan.

Oh, and a fun interaction with BEEEES!!!! Kill one unit, summon it and all the dead bees.

Overall, a good card, but extremely niche. He's handcuffed by his Cost and how Spellburst works. He can definitely screw up stuff like DH and Spell Druid later on, though.

3.5/5

The flavour and art of this card are on point. Part of me wished for an even darker Kel'Thuzad, but this'll do nicely. Practically speaking, his effect is powerful in the right hands. The fact that he costs (5) means he'll have to be used in a combo, as I doubt any opponent worth their salt would let him live to use the Spellburst later.

Quote From JackJimson

Quote From YourPrivateNightmare

Quote From FenrirWulf

Really cool synergy with cards like Shadowflame because you resurrect the Shadowflame'd minion and get everything it kills as well. Also, I have a feeling I'm gonna see someone use Coin before playing a 6 Mana spell like Blizzard only to realize the Coin activated the Spellburst.

does that work though? Doesn't Shadowflame kill Kel before the Spellburst activates?

I think he means another minion besides Kel. So drop kel, shadowflame another minion on board. Clear enemy board as well as resurrect all enemy minions, plus the Shadowflamed minion. 

oh okay. that would seem like a relatively difficult combo though because you rely on having a board (or have Kel stick for a turn which doesn't seem plausible either)

Seems too expensive as a combo component it's mostly not gonna survive a turn (has high HP but has HYPER taunt (Except when enemy has lethal)).

most board wipes are more expensive than 5, so comboing is gonna be hard also this need to survive the spell to activate, so the aoe can't be hagatha's scheme if it's more than 5. oe earthquake..

probably mostly good with mage or priest, he is a good res target but he also pollutes your res pool.

Dunno too slow for the current meta but it might change.

This will probably see a good amount of play. It provides a massive tempo swing for control decks.

I don't think this card will be all too spectacular when used on opponents minions. 5 mana + a kill spell to steal something is neat, but it feels kind of clunky. I don't think this card will see too much play for 2 reasons. 1) You don't know what you are going to steal, which reduces consistency which reduces your ability to make use of the ability. 2) It requires 2 cards. At this point you could just play Faceless Manipulator + kill spell to get basically the same effect.

However, this may be useful in Cubelock where you have things like Plague of Flames, Dark Pact, or maybe even Shadowflame where you can kill and copy your own minoins.

Quote From KANSAS

I don't think this card will be all too spectacular when used on opponents minions. 5 mana + a kill spell to steal something is neat, but it feels kind of clunky. I don't think this card will see too much play for 2 reasons. 1) You don't know what you are going to steal, which reduces consistency which reduces your ability to make use of the ability. 2) It requires 2 cards. At this point you could just play Faceless Manipulator + kill spell to get basically the same effect.

However, this may be useful in Cubelock where you have things like Plague of Flames, Dark Pact, or maybe even Shadowflame where you can kill and copy your own minoins.

You know what you're going to steal if you use single target removal (SW:D, Shield Slam, etc.)
Faceless + Removal doesn't come with an extra 4/6 body.

Quote From RandomGuy

Quote From KANSAS

I don't think this card will be all too spectacular when used on opponents minions. 5 mana + a kill spell to steal something is neat, but it feels kind of clunky. I don't think this card will see too much play for 2 reasons. 1) You don't know what you are going to steal, which reduces consistency which reduces your ability to make use of the ability. 2) It requires 2 cards. At this point you could just play Faceless Manipulator + kill spell to get basically the same effect.

However, this may be useful in Cubelock where you have things like Plague of Flames, Dark Pact, or maybe even Shadowflame where you can kill and copy your own minoins.

You know what you're going to steal if you use single target removal (SW:D, Shield Slam, etc.)
Faceless + Removal doesn't come with an extra 4/6 body.

When I said you don't know what you are going to steal I mean when you put it in your deck. Your opponent probably isn't playing the same deck as you, which means the card you steal probably won't have synergy with your strategy, which makes this card feel awkward to play. True, you do get an extra 4/6, so if you care about getting a bunch of stats then this card is fine. But I think most of the time you would rather play another big impact card that has better synergy with your strategy. 

I may be wrong, I am not entirely sure, but right now I feel like this card is just too difficult to use.

Going to get nerfed, must craft for anyone who wants to play any deck with removal spells. 

Headmaster Kel'Thuzad is a strong card. Can synergize with all aoe card and some specific spell card that cost 5 or less (like Conjurer's Calling).

In the majority of the value deck that we will see in the future Headmaster Kel'Thuzad are going to be played for sure.
Just remember that Headmaster Kel'Thuzad must survive to the magic if you want activate the spellburst effect

As a side note: Both kel'thuzads are good with reincarnate.

With this one it can be 7 mana: copy a minion and trigger its deathrattle. That's probably bad, but in a word where lightning bloom exists, could this mean something for combos?

Quote From Neoguli

... The only that come to my mind are him + Soul Mirror ...

... Oh, and a fun interaction with BEEEES!!!! Kill one unit, summon it and all the dead bees.

Nevertheless, I think those card has no interaction with it, as well as cards what changes heath + give you a weapon like Libram of Justice etc...

Because the kill is actually not done by spell but by the minion(s) summoned by the spell or weapon and it doesn't count. That's what I expect from the logic previously shown up. 

Looks fun and crazy with board clears and some single removals depending on what the board looks like when you play him. I wonder though if you play puzzle box and it casts a spell that kills something does that count as a kill for Kel or Nah since the box "cast" it?

Instant craft for sure

This being neutral means that at some point it will have some insanly busted interaction. Maybe Shadowflame?

Hello headmaster, good stats, reasonable cost, lovely effect, yup i'm sold

I want to play him against himself to see what's the voiceline

Save Coin for some nasty, nasty plays. :D

Neutrals just feel so good this expansion

Not every deck will like this, but some decks will REALLY like this.

Really good, anything you can cast with it basically is a cheap mind control.

Amazing card

You won't play him on curve unless you really must put boots on the ground against aggro. You don't want to steal a 1/1 or 2/2, so no cheap removal either. It's a 8-9 cost card that mind controls a minion and burns one of your removals. Good thing he's neutral, but apart from being big daddy KT, too many conditions to be met for a Sylvannas inpersonation.

I’m in two minds about this one. 
On the one hand, this can lead to many swing turns with the right spell/aoe. 
On the other, it doesn’t seem to be that powerful enough to earn a slot in every single deck. Sometimes it just won’t do enough. 

I think it will find a home in the right decks, just perhaps not many.

The effect is super strong, but harder to utilise than most players think. Yes you can combo it with an flamestrike or another aoe, but how often does a minion stick an the board these days? The best combo I came up with is a by 4 mana discounted libram of justice + this + Consecration, but it's hard to tell if you would cut the pure synergy for this combo. I guess you can also combo it with single target removel like fireball, but I don't think that would be good enough

I like the card. The effect is powerful, but specific enough that Kel'thuzad won't become an auto-include.

Can be amazing, imagine mage with it or the warlock 1 cost destroy your minions and the same number of enemy minions

with this on Turn 7 to resummon a big minion. I love Puppet Priest making a comeback.

Does Spellburst work with Secrets activating? Mage and Hunter revive any minions killed.

Control decks are going to love him!

I'm not sure if any class outside of Priest will be able to regularly make his effect very strong, but I'm not going to be surprised if they can.

I expect this to be a staple in Highlander decks and control decks for quite some time.

You don't have to target Kel'Thuzad. ;)

Love the flavor text. On a lore side, he is an accomplished necromancer now, it's trivial for him to do it now

Nice card, really. 

Good stats and neutral priesty effect. Nice.

This is a nice card with a pretty cool effect. I can see lots of classes making use of this one.

Obey the call, of your homeroom teacher when they are taking roll call!"

But really, I love this card!  Great effect, great flavor!

The tricky thing with spellburst is that it's most efficient when the effect is consistently powerful so you can always trigger it with a cheap spell. Headmaster Kel'Thuzad presents some challenges to this notion, as you don't want to trigger his effect with a cheap spell most of the time. It's also worth noting that decks that run removal spells may not care as much about having board presence. Still, I think Kel'Thuzad finds a spot in Galakrond Priest as a counter to its worst matchup: Highlander Hunter. Being able to threaten your opponent's Dinotamer Brann on turn 7 by stealing King Krush with Shadow Word: Death can be game-losing for the Hunter. Otherwise, I can't really find a sport for Ke'Thuzad, even in Highlander Mage.

Can't wait for the Kel'thuzad > Coin > Concede plays we're going to see! I love this effect, it's so flavourful and feels like the perfect card for KT.

Great flavour and amazing art. Kel'thuzad in the flesh (literally)!

I watched some videos with him and discovered funny things:

- works with Nagrand Slam, also ressurects killed Clefthoofs.

- after playing him and 6 cats (Alleycat, Lynx etc.), he adds Mr. Bigglesworth to your hand ;)

Great card, and the easter egg is superb :D

I got a golden Kel'thuzad and I wish I had a deck list to play with him in.