Four new cards have been revealed for Galakrond's Awakening on the official Hearthstone Instagram.
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ShadowsOfSense - Shadows for short - has been playing Hearthstone since it released, and actively creating and curating fan content for it for almost as long. An avid fan of the mighty Tortollan tribe, he also passes the time playing MTGA, Breath of the Wild and Final Fantasy XIII, to name but a few games.
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For Eye of the Storm, I'm beginning to have second thoughts about this card, somewhat anyway. Galakrond Shaman tends to keep up the tempo very well but I always thought a control deck can easily keep it in line. Adding one copy of this into the deck for control matchups isn't really that bad. But I still think its a discover pick rather than deliberate add into the deck.
On your Branching Paths comment, I think you have a good point but I also think we can acknowledge that the card is so powerful, there's plenty of room for Rising Winds to be a weaker version of Branching Paths and still good enough for standard. Particularly since this card have the potential to basically replaces Nourish in non-quest decks as a card draw engine.
It's very true that a card can be worse than Branching Paths and still be playable. But the cards have very different strengths: Branching Paths was over-costed but more than made up for it in versatility. Rising Winds' summon option has a fair cost, but situations in which a 3/2 Beast can really turn a game around are pretty rare.
In terms of card draw, it effectively only draws you one card, since it also has to replace itself. Unless you combine it with Keeper Stalladris or Gadgetzan Auctioneer perhaps, but no current deck runs those; decks that want to draw lots can just use Overflow.
Maybe it's playable in a deck with Elise the Enlightened, so you can avoid running two copies of Nourish and activate your highlander cards earlier. Also when you don't want to draw anymore, this card is easier to get out of your hand than Nourish, since you can spend the mana split over two turns.
Another option would be Token Druid, but I think that for slower variations Treants are probably the way to go (with Aeroponics to draw), while for an aggressive variant there are more mana-efficient options, such as Cult Master or Crystal Merchant.
So, are we not getting hero cards for all the good classes? They mentioned 4 new legendaries, and we are sitting at 3 revealed, with only 1 hero card. I will honestly be sorely disappointed if the good classes don't get hero cards of their own to counter Galakrond.
Other than that, the cards in this set are pretty solid so far. Sky Gen'ral Kragg makes me want to try and make Hack the System Pirate Warrior work. I'm also seeing some Hunter potential... deckbuilder, here I come!
It's been confirmed that the "good" classes are getting an extra three cards in the first wing. Considering the Reno hero is a mage card while the other two legendaries have been neutral, I imagine these three "bonus cards" for the good classes are going to be the hero cards, and the four legendaries they mentioned are all going to be neutral.
This isn't correct. You get an additional three bonus cards when you purchase the first wing, sure, but we know for a fact that The Amazing Reno isn't one of them - in the initial reveal we were told he was the reward for completing the 4th Explorers Chapter.
We also know that the cards aren't split into the wings by class in any obvious way - Paladin, for example, has Shotbot in the 4th EVIL Chapter.
Technically they could still not have been counting the Hero Cards in that Legendary count, I guess, but your reasoning for it doesn't track unfortunately.
maybe they meant 4 new class legendaries + the other 2(?)
Either way, we're getting 35 cards and we need the class cards evenly distributed, meaning at most we're getting 27 regular class cards.
Out of the remaining 8 we could get 4 Hero card + 2 neutral legendaries + 2 more randoms.
Or maybe the Hero cards count towards the class cards, which still leaves us with enough space for neutrals.
There'S no way they just make a single hero card (or at least legendary) for one class and leave the rest neutral, that would be absurd.
Maybe the final Legendary will be Raffan Hero Card.
Sky Gen'ral Kragg is the best of the four revealed today. Rogue is thrilled, hunter is interested.
Eye of the Storm is very strong but slow. If rogue can blow out damage (it can and will), this will be better as a discovered spell than part of your initial build.
Arcane Amplifier seems... late? Maybe an effort to bring back Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk? Probably better in wild, as part of an odd combo deck or a Jaina DK grinder control deck.
Rising Winds seems just ok, but I don't know druid well enough to say for sure if it's worth running.
Happy to see Sky Gen'ral Kragg climbing the ranks and being rewarded for his years of Pirate Military Service. Unfortunate acronym for their military though.
Parrots can be evil. Just ask the one that broke up some dudes marriage... 😅
Still waiting for Sindragosa.. She's gonna be the last revealed legendary from the adventure, right (?)
With the reveal of Sky Gen'ral Kragg I don't think we should expect other Hero cards for the Explorers anymore, so yeah I'm looking forward to that.
Summon a 4/2 Parrrrrrrrrot with Rrrrrrrrrrrrush.
Not just a parrrot, but Sharrrkbait.
Oh no! Sharkbait lost a foot?! I hadn't noticed his WoW model had a hook too. He was fine during TGT and I know I was looking after him.
My humble two cents on these sweet sweet cards
Rising Winds - the one I'm the least impressed about, but I guess it is just because it isn't flashy. 4 mana summon 2 3/2 beasts (Mark of the Loa or Power of the Wild), draw 2 or 1 and 1. Quite flexible, I don't think it will be played in Untapped Potential Druid but it could revamp the Token archetype or give more options to the already existing and not-insanely-well performing Treant Druid. Solid card, the more I look at it the more I'm convinced it will see some sort of play.
Arcane Amplifier - more love for my boy Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk: in Wild, we'll be able to have a 2 mana deal 4 Hero Power, which should be quite good. On the Standard side, I don't know if it will see play. Sure, turn 1 Elemental Evocation into Arcane Amplifier will be the nuts, and it could give enough reasons to include Jan'alai; but the point is: is there a deck in which is worth including the Hero Power package (let's include Pyromaniac as well)? At the moment the only viable Mage deck is Highlander Mage, which doesn't seem to require more removal or burst. Maybe a new Elemental Midrange (burn?) Mage with stuff like Magic Trick, Ray of Frost, Chenvaala, Mana Cyclone and Mana Giant can pop up, but it has to be build from scratch. Really cool card: I'm looking forward to experiment with it.
Eye of the Storm - Rain of Toads and Dragon's Pack's forgotten son. I can see synergy with King Phaoris (together with other high costed spells like Earthquake, Hagatha's Scheme and such), but with that cost I think it could come in play a bit too late. We'll see, but I'm not really hot on this one, especially in a meta where Flik Skyshiv is pretty common. On a side note, this spell shows how busted pre-nerf Dragon's Pack was.
Sky Gen'ral Kragg - Since it has the same text of Questing Explorer, I guess it should work with Sidequests too. Now, this card is good, but which classes could make use of it? If we focus on the Pirate tag, Rogue can build a Bazaar Burglary Burgle Pirate deck, whereas Warrior can go Hack the System for a less aggressive but more value-oriented path. Will those archetypes be viable? Judge by yourselves, but remind: with Pirates the faster the better. Final note: I should probably keep it for myself and play the shit out of it before someone else notices it, but this card might be the hidden gem that makes Beast Pirate Hunter viable (the 4/2 Parrot is a Beast and counts towards Clear the Way's completion). It's by far the card I'm the most interested in between all the four.
Yarrrr! Reinforcements be here!
... Also, cool Quest-Synergy. Taunt and Rush for 4 Mana on 2 Bodies seems pretty swingy.
Ah, there Kragg is. After seeing him in the DoD key art and not in the expansion I assumed he would turn up here. I certainly didn't expect him to be quest support though.
For those who don't know what he's referring to.
I like how its an epic battle of dragons, good versus evil, while the whole world looks on with baited breath and clenched teeth as two sides clash to decide the fate of the world as we know it.
here's a giant parrot with an orc sitting on it.