BATTLECRY: Fill your board with random dinosaur minions that are part of Bran's hunting pack of trained dinosaurs (non-collectible minions)
HERO POWER: Mark prey, 2 mana mark an enemy minion. Your minions do 1 extra damage to it. Whichever minion kills it can't die as a result (left with 1 health).
Actually, Mage has tons of really good cards: it's just that since post-patch Uldum it hasn't been its meta.
Just look at one Highlander Mage list: the only big cards that it will lose with the rotation are Zilliax (pretty tragic loss, but we can say the same about every other deck), Luna's Pocket Galaxy (despite not being game-breaking like it was at 5 mana, it's still pretty good) and... I guess nothing else?
I'm kind of triggered because I don't fully understand how The Amazing Reno works (we don't even know the hero power: I immediately went to HS official deckbuilder hoping to get more informations, but sadly nothing...), but I'm fine with these new cards.
I've just seen it, but I already love Shotbot's art and flavor. Playable in Standard Mech Paladin, I'm not sure about Wild cause I think [Hearthstone Card (Minibot) Not Found] is still better. Sweet sticky 2-drop.
Chaos Gazer looks really cool: you can't choose your target but it soft forces your opponent to change his game plan. Nice disruption effect that perfectly fits Warlock's class identity (Demonic Project, Void Contract, Gnomeferatu,...).
Dark Prophecy doesn't feel that great: yeah, if you highroll you can get a 2/9 Injured Tol'vir on turn 3, but most of the times it will be a vanilla-ish 2/4-5, which is not bad, but I'm not sure it is enough to cut through the competition. I may as well wait on this one and see the other stuff Priest will get.
Warlock - on which basis are you saying that Warlock won't be viable after Fiendish Rites' nerf? This is more of a preventive change than a deserved one, but I hardly believe that Gul'Dan will not be among the best classes next week.
Apothecary - it's not just a 1 mana bump, but it's a 1 mana bump on a combo card, which is a huge deal: being it so expensive now, you'll be less incentivized to run 0 and 1 cost spells in order to trigger its effect. Moreover, now that Necrium Apothecary is a 5 mana minion, you'll be less likely to play it before turn 6 right? Then why running him together with Mechanical Whelp, a 6 mana unit with not summoning conditions (you just play it: no need to play a card before)? Do you see it now? Apothecary is much slower, and you can't curve Necrium Blade into it anymore.
I'll give you the same answer I wrote to a guy above you:
"[Galakrond ZooLock] is the 4th best deck in the meta based on today's Vicious Syndicate meta report. Moreover, the three archetypes above it (Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue) will be nerfed."
The deck is strong right now, but they probably predicted it could have become too oppressive in the post nerfs meta, thus the change to Fiendish Rites.
On a side note, if you really think Necrium Apothecary won't be hurt that much from its nerf, I'm afraid you're dramatically wrong.
4th best deck in the meta based on today's Vicious Syndicate meta report. Moreover, the three archetypes above it (Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue) will be nerfed.
Now Shamans can only summon 4 4-5 Taunts for 8 Mana and play Shudderwock afterwards! WOOO!
-1/-1 is a much bigger deal than you think: first of all, now you can expect your minions to survive the trade (you'll be surprised to notice how big is the difference between 4 and 5 attack); secondly Kronx Dragonhoof's Annihilation will clear the buffed Spirit Wolfs (since Galakrond decks are and will be popular it's a HUGE upside); finally, the new version of the card is more toward the "defend my face" than the "defend my face and kill the opponent".
A bigger nerf would have made the card not that good and, despite hating Dragon's Pack a lot, I feel it would have been undeserved.
I remember seeing it for the first time in the final stream at the beginning of December and saying "oh God this will be nerfed for sure, they can't be serious". In the end I was right.
Now that the nerfs are announced, I'd like to express my opinion on the upcoming balance changes.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza - when I first saw the article, I got really scared by seeing Alex in the thumbnail. Fortunately for us, this is technically a nerf, but actually no: Dragonqueen into Dragonqueen shouldn't have been possible from the beginning. Since the chance to highroll is so little, we can say that this change won't make her worse. We're gonna miss (or not) some insane highlights, but that's it: that's the capacity of this nerf. Still insane, still metadefining. Won't disenchant her.
Necrium Apothecary - deserved, nothing to discuss here (and I'm saying it as someone who's played like 350ish games with Rogue since DoD). I don't actually know if this nerf will kill the card but at least now you won't always keep it in your mulligan. And that's a start.
Dragon's Pack - Still very good, but not as clearly broken as before; I completely agree with this change. Indirect buff to Kronx Dragonhoof: now Annihilation will clear the board.
Invocation of Frost - fifth nerf (sixth if we consider Faceless Corruptor, but that card was run in every deck, so...) to Galakrond Shaman: will it be enough this time? God I really hope so. 1 mana was not enough, but maybe 2 will be too much. We'll see. I'm just glad that my face won't be frozen on turn 1 anymore and that I'll be able to make my 1 drops live for more than 1 turn.
Scion of Ruin: another deserved nerf. I'm confident that this card will still see play (4 mana 9/6 is still pretty damn good right?).
Ancharrr - reasonable nerf. This change will leave behind a more playable card than an hypothetical bump to 4 mana (consider that it's played in an aggro deck, and you can't afford spending 4 mana in such archetypes for just 2 damage and a couple draws).
Fiendish Rites - The one I'm feeling the less comfortable with, but I guess they playtested (OMEGALUL) the future meta and saw Galakrond Warlock being too dominant.
In the end, a good round of changes, which will solve most (if not all) the problems on ladder. It's just sad that all the seven cards (and two out of four in the December patch) are from the latest expansion. How haven't they seen it coming?
Finally some good Oondasta support for my Beast Druid.
Aeon Reaver really looks like the Priest version of Warlock's Riftcleaver, being both minions well suited for the classes they belong to.
I'm looking forward to play it in my Highlander Priest.
Care to elaborate? Unfortunately I can't grasp the synergy you're talking about
Taunt, Reborn and... what? I'm sorry but it looks like I'm confused by what you're trying to deliver through your words.
Secret Mage is a joke. Even more when you get Aluneth on 6. It's not the most over-the-top deck in Wild, but ffs it feels so bad to play against.
This.
Battletag: beppe946#2807
Region: EU
Trade Only?: Yes
done
Yo this is sick: now I want it.
Actually, Mage has tons of really good cards: it's just that since post-patch Uldum it hasn't been its meta.
Just look at one Highlander Mage list: the only big cards that it will lose with the rotation are Zilliax (pretty tragic loss, but we can say the same about every other deck), Luna's Pocket Galaxy (despite not being game-breaking like it was at 5 mana, it's still pretty good) and... I guess nothing else?
Kalecgos, Zephrys the Great, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, Tortollan Pilgrim, Power of Creation, Malygos, Aspect of Magic, Dragoncaster, Conjurer's Calling and such still still be in Standard and will make a really solid Control deck.
Wow the art in the thumbnail is really stunning! Is there a way to get the full version?
I'm kind of triggered because I don't fully understand how The Amazing Reno works (we don't even know the hero power: I immediately went to HS official deckbuilder hoping to get more informations, but sadly nothing...), but I'm fine with these new cards.
I've just seen it, but I already love Shotbot's art and flavor. Playable in Standard Mech Paladin, I'm not sure about Wild cause I think [Hearthstone Card (Minibot) Not Found] is still better. Sweet sticky 2-drop.
Chaos Gazer looks really cool: you can't choose your target but it soft forces your opponent to change his game plan. Nice disruption effect that perfectly fits Warlock's class identity (Demonic Project, Void Contract, Gnomeferatu,...).
Dark Prophecy doesn't feel that great: yeah, if you highroll you can get a 2/9 Injured Tol'vir on turn 3, but most of the times it will be a vanilla-ish 2/4-5, which is not bad, but I'm not sure it is enough to cut through the competition. I may as well wait on this one and see the other stuff Priest will get.
Warlock - on which basis are you saying that Warlock won't be viable after Fiendish Rites' nerf? This is more of a preventive change than a deserved one, but I hardly believe that Gul'Dan will not be among the best classes next week.
Apothecary - it's not just a 1 mana bump, but it's a 1 mana bump on a combo card, which is a huge deal: being it so expensive now, you'll be less incentivized to run 0 and 1 cost spells in order to trigger its effect. Moreover, now that Necrium Apothecary is a 5 mana minion, you'll be less likely to play it before turn 6 right? Then why running him together with Mechanical Whelp, a 6 mana unit with not summoning conditions (you just play it: no need to play a card before)? Do you see it now? Apothecary is much slower, and you can't curve Necrium Blade into it anymore.
I think I made my point.
I'll give you the same answer I wrote to a guy above you:
"[Galakrond ZooLock] is the 4th best deck in the meta based on today's Vicious Syndicate meta report.
Moreover, the three archetypes above it (Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue) will be nerfed."
The deck is strong right now, but they probably predicted it could have become too oppressive in the post nerfs meta, thus the change to Fiendish Rites.
On a side note, if you really think Necrium Apothecary won't be hurt that much from its nerf, I'm afraid you're dramatically wrong.
4th best deck in the meta based on today's Vicious Syndicate meta report.
Moreover, the three archetypes above it (Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior and Deathrattle Rogue) will be nerfed.
But yeah: devs bad, nerf Priest.
-1/-1 is a much bigger deal than you think: first of all, now you can expect your minions to survive the trade (you'll be surprised to notice how big is the difference between 4 and 5 attack); secondly Kronx Dragonhoof's Annihilation will clear the buffed Spirit Wolfs (since Galakrond decks are and will be popular it's a HUGE upside); finally, the new version of the card is more toward the "defend my face" than the "defend my face and kill the opponent".
A bigger nerf would have made the card not that good and, despite hating Dragon's Pack a lot, I feel it would have been undeserved.
Well if you care about the aesthetics then you're absolutely right. Enjoy your golden randomly generated Dragons!
I understand that feeling: I unpacked him one year ago and until now I haven't really been able to use it efficiently.
It's a shame since it's such a cool card, but we can do nothing about it.
Zentimo was kind of a rushed craft, don't you think? In the end, it would have stayed in Standard for just 3 months and it's a meme in Wild.
But yeah, it's easy talking afterwards.
One of the most broken cards of the whole set.
I remember seeing it for the first time in the final stream at the beginning of December and saying "oh God this will be nerfed for sure, they can't be serious". In the end I was right.
Now that the nerfs are announced, I'd like to express my opinion on the upcoming balance changes.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza - when I first saw the article, I got really scared by seeing Alex in the thumbnail. Fortunately for us, this is technically a nerf, but actually no: Dragonqueen into Dragonqueen shouldn't have been possible from the beginning.
Since the chance to highroll is so little, we can say that this change won't make her worse. We're gonna miss (or not) some insane highlights, but that's it: that's the capacity of this nerf. Still insane, still metadefining. Won't disenchant her.
Necrium Apothecary - deserved, nothing to discuss here (and I'm saying it as someone who's played like 350ish games with Rogue since DoD). I don't actually know if this nerf will kill the card but at least now you won't always keep it in your mulligan. And that's a start.
Dragon's Pack - Still very good, but not as clearly broken as before; I completely agree with this change. Indirect buff to Kronx Dragonhoof: now Annihilation will clear the board.
Invocation of Frost - fifth nerf (sixth if we consider Faceless Corruptor, but that card was run in every deck, so...) to Galakrond Shaman: will it be enough this time? God I really hope so. 1 mana was not enough, but maybe 2 will be too much. We'll see. I'm just glad that my face won't be frozen on turn 1 anymore and that I'll be able to make my 1 drops live for more than 1 turn.
Scion of Ruin: another deserved nerf. I'm confident that this card will still see play (4 mana 9/6 is still pretty damn good right?).
Ancharrr - reasonable nerf. This change will leave behind a more playable card than an hypothetical bump to 4 mana (consider that it's played in an aggro deck, and you can't afford spending 4 mana in such archetypes for just 2 damage and a couple draws).
Fiendish Rites - The one I'm feeling the less comfortable with, but I guess they playtested (OMEGALUL) the future meta and saw Galakrond Warlock being too dominant.
In the end, a good round of changes, which will solve most (if not all) the problems on ladder. It's just sad that all the seven cards (and two out of four in the December patch) are from the latest expansion. How haven't they seen it coming?