This one does not do it for me at all. Cards like this are entirely dependent on the player having a hand full of minions which, as the game goes on, is harder and harder for Warrior as a class with little draw power. Honestly, this is probably the least useful of all the ranked spells when it hits rank 3 as you might not even have targets for it. Even if it had 1 target in hand, I don't think that would be worth running this card that gives an underwhelming buff when it has the most targets and likely even feels starved for hits at rank 2.
Now this is a good zoo push. It's always good to see this archetype being supported as it fights a pretty honest battle compared to many other powerful strategies we've seen in the last several years, even in Warlock. Getting some high velocity on each of the buffs by way of putting that on minions that can attack immediately really helps leverage this advantage.
I have my doubts on this one. It's obviously a ridiculous effect, but it's important to note that in addition to racing the fatigue damage, which given the imps take a full turn each time they are spawned to get a crack at doing for you, you are also not getting anymore cards. I worry the portal, without the support of a fresh card every turn to leverage the advantage, will fall short as a means to end the game.
This feels like a very clear push for Murlocs to not be a gimmick but a genuine force for Shaman this expansion. Definitely a good payoff for the tribe. Keep in mind that Murlocs has had some ridiculous pay-offs in the past that still did not produce a successful deck but those have mostly been about card advantage or board stickiness. This pushes tempo and face damage, which are undoubtedly the most valuable resources for an aggressive build.
Some dang fine removal. I am sure the only determining factor in if this card sees play is if there is a shell for it. Definitely one that will be good if it can prove itself.
It has been remarked by some streamers in their reviews that this card is worse than many other cards that did see play such as Maelstrom Portal and around the same power level as cards that do not see play such as Arcane Explosion. I think what is missed here is that this is a Priest card and Priest likes this effect more.
This will likely be a fine playable in standard. I doubt it will ever feel too strong but I think it will feel just around the right power level for the game.
It does take a while for this to be much better than twinslice and I think that makes twinslice better as a tool all around. Not the least of which reasons is that it can be split up. Not to mention other niche benefits such as that casting 2 spells can have it's benefits for things like Altruis (moot point post rotation) or Auctioneer.
Given Hunter's proclivity to ending games quickly, I don't think a bad 2 drop that gets better to be just above average in their end-game is going to be good enough to make the cut. I don't think there was a very good way to balance this mechanic for Hunter because conventional wisdom says if a card scales, it should go from below average to above average as it does so, giving risk to the reward. Since Hunter is not interested in that the card would have to be very barely below power level rank 1 or just average so that it could be worth running as the latest it will be cast in a winnable game for most hunters is rank 2.
So either you have to just undermine the integrity of the mechanic to make the increment little, but have a better baseline or you have to make it bonkers at the last rank as it scales similarly to the other classes' ranked spells in order to make it worth running in Hunter's required aggressive playstyle.
It's a shame but in the name of pattern completion as a good design aesthetic, I don't think cutting their losses on including a ranked spell for this class was worth it and the best outcome is to just make this a pack filler card that someone casual can be excited about than to break the design or the metagame.
How good this will be is definitely dependent on how good of a Frost Nova impression this does. If the meta shapes out that this is just 0 mana frost nova at any point in the game reliably, then I think this has a very good chance of being great. Otherwise I have serious doubts.
This one does not do it for me at all. Cards like this are entirely dependent on the player having a hand full of minions which, as the game goes on, is harder and harder for Warrior as a class with little draw power. Honestly, this is probably the least useful of all the ranked spells when it hits rank 3 as you might not even have targets for it. Even if it had 1 target in hand, I don't think that would be worth running this card that gives an underwhelming buff when it has the most targets and likely even feels starved for hits at rank 2.
Now this is a good zoo push. It's always good to see this archetype being supported as it fights a pretty honest battle compared to many other powerful strategies we've seen in the last several years, even in Warlock. Getting some high velocity on each of the buffs by way of putting that on minions that can attack immediately really helps leverage this advantage.
I have my doubts on this one. It's obviously a ridiculous effect, but it's important to note that in addition to racing the fatigue damage, which given the imps take a full turn each time they are spawned to get a crack at doing for you, you are also not getting anymore cards. I worry the portal, without the support of a fresh card every turn to leverage the advantage, will fall short as a means to end the game.
This feels like a very clear push for Murlocs to not be a gimmick but a genuine force for Shaman this expansion. Definitely a good payoff for the tribe. Keep in mind that Murlocs has had some ridiculous pay-offs in the past that still did not produce a successful deck but those have mostly been about card advantage or board stickiness. This pushes tempo and face damage, which are undoubtedly the most valuable resources for an aggressive build.
Some dang fine removal. I am sure the only determining factor in if this card sees play is if there is a shell for it. Definitely one that will be good if it can prove itself.
It has been remarked by some streamers in their reviews that this card is worse than many other cards that did see play such as Maelstrom Portal and around the same power level as cards that do not see play such as Arcane Explosion. I think what is missed here is that this is a Priest card and Priest likes this effect more.
This will likely be a fine playable in standard. I doubt it will ever feel too strong but I think it will feel just around the right power level for the game.
It does take a while for this to be much better than twinslice and I think that makes twinslice better as a tool all around. Not the least of which reasons is that it can be split up. Not to mention other niche benefits such as that casting 2 spells can have it's benefits for things like Altruis (moot point post rotation) or Auctioneer.
Given Hunter's proclivity to ending games quickly, I don't think a bad 2 drop that gets better to be just above average in their end-game is going to be good enough to make the cut. I don't think there was a very good way to balance this mechanic for Hunter because conventional wisdom says if a card scales, it should go from below average to above average as it does so, giving risk to the reward. Since Hunter is not interested in that the card would have to be very barely below power level rank 1 or just average so that it could be worth running as the latest it will be cast in a winnable game for most hunters is rank 2.
So either you have to just undermine the integrity of the mechanic to make the increment little, but have a better baseline or you have to make it bonkers at the last rank as it scales similarly to the other classes' ranked spells in order to make it worth running in Hunter's required aggressive playstyle.
It's a shame but in the name of pattern completion as a good design aesthetic, I don't think cutting their losses on including a ranked spell for this class was worth it and the best outcome is to just make this a pack filler card that someone casual can be excited about than to break the design or the metagame.
How good this will be is definitely dependent on how good of a Frost Nova impression this does. If the meta shapes out that this is just 0 mana frost nova at any point in the game reliably, then I think this has a very good chance of being great. Otherwise I have serious doubts.
Mostly because it is rotating