Alright heres the thing. I rate this card 4 stars, but then that nasty little frost rune gone and ruin everything and my final rating would be a 3. And that's being generous.
There's really nothing wrong with the card. Its balanced enough, that I feel it'll get to around 5 mana consistently in most matches. And its base high attack of 6 ensures that it'll usually take two enemy minions out.
In my opinion, a card like this should not even have a rune restriction. It properly fits into every archetype, each with their own way of cheapening it. At present, I can only see one deck playing it and that's rainbow DK, an archetype that has repeatedly failed with team5 stubbornly doubling down on the rune system.
Such a shame. It'll suffer the same fate as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a good card thats capped at the knee through no fault of its own.
Will it work this time? BUU plague DK might make something, but thus far from what Im seeing its not looking good. They need an AoE option. Pray that they do get something of that sort.
Was there even a control priest back then that played benedictus at all? All priest post KotFT was pretty much raza priest, the only time Ive ever seen it in competitive is literally as a meme.
Maybe Im misremembering but there wasnt even a pure attrition control deck during that era, all the way until witchwood after all the DKs rotated. Only one that I remember, and that deck was crap as well, was controlock, before the kobolds set started.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
One of the problems with Overheal as an archetype (and strategy in general) is a serious lack of payoff cards.
I dont think its lacking payoffs. Heartbreaker Hedanis and Heartthrob are actually pretty good, the latter especially. The main problem is that there isnt really a load of cheap heals to trigger them consistently and quickly enough.
And thats exactly what I think this card suffers from.
Its a card you'll hate and hate alot to see when facing priest.
Bad enough that control priest is a pain in the arse to deal with, now youre giving them flexible healing options that heal for a ton, for very little mana.
One point of commentary. I dont think this card actually triggers overheal because the description clearly writes 'damaged character' which implies that it only fully heals something, not overheal it. The excess however is a different story. But it does quite demand that you heal something first, and if theres nothing to heal this card does nothing.
Then I think to myself, how many times have anyone actually seen Heartbreaker Hedanis in the past 6 months. The answer being very, very few. I personally never seen this played against me, though I have played it myself.
The problem is that its actually pretty difficult to overheal past 4, which is what this card starts out with. Not to mention that its unlikely to ever do more than two AoEs at a time. And lastly, for each healing option you play on this card you're actually not healing your face, which can be big.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
On one hand it'll more consistently give you what you need off your opponent and they will always need to be on their toes as to what they give you.
On the other hand, its cost more than Identity Theft and its more likely to overdraw you while giving you something like two cards. Good players will know how to play around this card to avoid giving you their very best cards.
Its so matchup dependent that I cant really say its gonna see much play because Id rather just play Identity Theft 9/10 times.
Its not good, in fact for 4 mana its actually gonna do less than most priest removal options. If you think about it, why indeed would you play this over The Light! It Burns!, or just Holy Smite, which are cheaper and more efficient.
You can remove two minions for the price of one card, for 5 mana. You know what else you can do? Just play an actual AoE card that priest has, like Clean the Scene.
The only true niche it has is the fact that its a shadow card, so you can play this into shadow priest, no problem. That's really it. Its gonna see play only out of discovers because I cant see anyone legitimately put this card in their deck.
To me, this card is trash. But Ive stated before that you can never disrespect lifesteal, so Im forced to concede that it might actually see play.
So you create a bunch of tokens on board, and your opponent scratches their head thinking what are you gonna do with these tokens. And there isnt really an answer, because priest has no wide board buffs so they can indeed just ignore the bugs and go directly to your face. The fact that this card costs 5 mana is added insult to injury, because it neither reliefs tempo nor does it add much to it.
But again, the fact that it has lifesteal means unless there's an AoE you're gonna heal for 7 one way or another. So as usual its highly unlikely that your opponent can afford to disrespect the board. That said, this card is unlikely to win you games and will be a good card straight out of discovers rather than inclusion.
Whether intentional or not, this card is an instant pick for aggro decks like shadow priest, who already plays plenty of 1 drops.
It does have synergy with pip the potent, but its usage will be largely in tempo oriented decks. Unless there's something that takes full advantage of 0 mana cards, like copy effects etc., this card is unlikely to see play outside of tempo decks.
I can see this being a problem at some point. You can never disrespect anything that can get to 0 mana.
Unless Im very much mistaken, the quickdraw effect allows you to steal your opponent's spells from their deck.
Either way, Im not that optimistic about this card's chances because the better card already exist in the form of Identity Theft, which although does not steal cards, allows you to pick two cards of your opponent's hand/deck. In the grand scheme of things, its unlikely that one spell stolen from your opponent will win you the game anyway.
Might see play in control priest but I still feel its gonna miss out. Its best chance is actually highlander, because there's 30 cards that need filling and this one is a card option thats not too bad in of itself.
Unless youre very specifically going against an OTK deck or a big deck this card is completely worthless.
I dont think it'll ever see actual inclusion into decks but really out of discovers is the only chance it has. There's just no reason whatsoever to play this card over the many other cards available. It neither wins games nor get you out of unwinnable games.
I dont know how to assess this card because its certainly a powerful reloader and I always feel cards that copy specific cards in your hand must be respected because it'll always end up becoming some sort of OTK at some point. The fact that Funnel Cake is in priest as well means there's always a chance.
But at present moment, Im not seeing where this card fit. Its certainly never gonna be seen in control because it does nothing in that deck other than giving you a few more single kill removal options. Its not likely a fit for undead priest. Overheal priest is the most likely but that deck isnt really much worth shouting about.
Still, as mentioned you can never write off a card like this.
I kinda forgot about Prison of Yogg-Saron because that card hasnt been seen again ever since Yogg-Saron, Unleashed was introduced. Ironically its because prison of yogg is superceded in its usage by yogg himself.
Now, with the nerfs, Im even less optimistic about new yogg's chances because Id just play prison of yogg instead. 9 mana mind-control or board clear is terrible in 2023. Unless there's a way to cheat him out I dont think hes ever gonna see any more play outside of meme potential.
I dont play much wild admitably. But I feel you can easily tech Skulking Geist and/or Archivist Elysiana for that, aside from just killing them faster which is entirely possible in wild. But more to the point, its never a good thing to play a card that will have only one good matchup. You cant even just play it for tempo because it ruins your deck (and is poorly stated for cost), unless that's entirely the plan.
Also, there's no reason why a card like that is 7 mana. Team5 pre-emptively set his mana cost high so the chances of mischief is a lot less likely. Its unlikely to do anything now other than being filler.
Guess the funding for team5 must have been severely stretched, because these harken us back to the brode days when nerfs more or less remove cards from the game.
Because the nerf to jailer, yogg and tony is about as unimaginative as it can get. Jailer now gains immune as opposed to giving it out, not even a stat buff. Tony is practically warsong-ed, being now completely worthless. And yogg got neutered to such an extent as to render it unusable to all but meme. Is it really that much to ask for yogg to either have a limit to the mana reduction, or just replacing the Mass Hysteria ability.
Oh well, I guess that's an easy 3200 dust, more if there are still some that havent dusted tony from before.
Other nerfs are fine. Embrace of Nature definitely needs nerfing because it'll be relevant throughout its lifespan, its still relevant even post nerf to me. Rake and Prison Breaker have been responsible for patching over weaknesses of both druid and rogue so it had to be done as well. I still think rake will see play, but probably prison breaker would be confined to rogue.
I think the main problem here is beyond simple explanations like monetization, staleness, both of which are valid points. But the main issue to me is simply burnout. There's just no reason why I would want to play twist more than I would standard or wild. Certainly not both, unless youre a particularly obsessive player of hearthstone. Many times I'd boot up hearthstone, play like 5 games then turn it off. Sometimes when there's interesting decks or events Id go beyond that, but very rarely so.
Take a look at duels, which is pretty much just twist except with progressive deck building elements. People still play that format, but substantially less than both standard or wild. Even at its heyday it'll take about 2-4 minutes to find an opponent, and that's putting it mildly. Lose two games and the wait extends further. I dont expect twist to do substantially better than that.
But of course, another big reason to be pissed off over that game mode is simply monetization. New players would be easily 6 sets off, and some old players would have dusted those cards ages ago. Re-crafting them, or worse still, buying those packs, is a slap in the face. You cant even justify buying the pre-made decks because its blatantly obvious that these decks arent the optimized versions of the decks being played. Even the bundles are a joke, because the CoT packs are being bundled along with expansion packs you may not want, not to mention the sheer number of legendaries available, making each pack worth a hell lot less, yet charged at a ridiculous sum of real life cash.
Its just my opinion that hearthstone is no longer in that state where there's throngs of players rushing in, that a new mode can even be justified. But if team5 really wants to milk that format, I would recommend simply making a different reward system for it. For example, winning 3 games a week nets you a pack for each of the sets available. These packs are old, very old, some would even say very nearly worthless; giving it away improves interest in the game, while really having little to no impact to the monetization for standard or wild.
At this point, interest in the game is worth way more than any amount of money in real life.
There's nothing specifically wrong about it. You get a removal option when this dies, and this is a mere 1 drop, which can be plunked down on 1, always a good thing.
Will it see play outside of highlander, well that's a bit harder to judge. Id say that some aggro decks will play it, but otherwise its just going to be a highlander card. Most decks tend to be synergistic, and this card doesnt really do much of that aside from being discard fodder for one class.
This card will easily see play because its effect is persistent until triggered, and getting one extra spell is always good (except plagues, bombs etc.)
Its easier to list down decks that wouldn't at least consider this a card for inclusion, because its viability is near universal. The only point of contention being that this card is weak on tempo and the effect doesnt trigger until a card is drawn, i.e. a bit slow.
Its a decent card that'll replace itself with a useful taunt. But its real usefulness is in receiving dragons so its instantly a good card to consider in a dragon deck.
But its so vanilla, doing very little. You cant even play that taunt in the same turn just to fill your mana cost because for some reason this card only gives you one at the end of the turn, as opposed to being a battlecry. Why? Its not like its game breaking to just dish out two 1/2 taunts to your hand for 2 mana. it'll just a decent, if sometimes annoying card in competitive.
It'll see play because highlander. I doubt it'll appear in any other deck.
Alright heres the thing. I rate this card 4 stars, but then that nasty little frost rune gone and ruin everything and my final rating would be a 3. And that's being generous.
There's really nothing wrong with the card. Its balanced enough, that I feel it'll get to around 5 mana consistently in most matches. And its base high attack of 6 ensures that it'll usually take two enemy minions out.
In my opinion, a card like this should not even have a rune restriction. It properly fits into every archetype, each with their own way of cheapening it. At present, I can only see one deck playing it and that's rainbow DK, an archetype that has repeatedly failed with team5 stubbornly doubling down on the rune system.
Such a shame. It'll suffer the same fate as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a good card thats capped at the knee through no fault of its own.
Oh dear, DK is going multi rune again.
Will it work this time? BUU plague DK might make something, but thus far from what Im seeing its not looking good. They need an AoE option. Pray that they do get something of that sort.
Was there even a control priest back then that played benedictus at all? All priest post KotFT was pretty much raza priest, the only time Ive ever seen it in competitive is literally as a meme.
Maybe Im misremembering but there wasnt even a pure attrition control deck during that era, all the way until witchwood after all the DKs rotated. Only one that I remember, and that deck was crap as well, was controlock, before the kobolds set started.
I dont think its lacking payoffs. Heartbreaker Hedanis and Heartthrob are actually pretty good, the latter especially. The main problem is that there isnt really a load of cheap heals to trigger them consistently and quickly enough.
And thats exactly what I think this card suffers from.
Its a card you'll hate and hate alot to see when facing priest.
Bad enough that control priest is a pain in the arse to deal with, now youre giving them flexible healing options that heal for a ton, for very little mana.
One point of commentary. I dont think this card actually triggers overheal because the description clearly writes 'damaged character' which implies that it only fully heals something, not overheal it. The excess however is a different story. But it does quite demand that you heal something first, and if theres nothing to heal this card does nothing.
At first I thought this card is overpowered.
Then I think to myself, how many times have anyone actually seen Heartbreaker Hedanis in the past 6 months. The answer being very, very few. I personally never seen this played against me, though I have played it myself.
The problem is that its actually pretty difficult to overheal past 4, which is what this card starts out with. Not to mention that its unlikely to ever do more than two AoEs at a time. And lastly, for each healing option you play on this card you're actually not healing your face, which can be big.
Fact is, if you could do this effectively and consistently, wouldn't you rather just be playing Heartbreaker Hedanis instead?
I really dont know how to judge this card.
On one hand it'll more consistently give you what you need off your opponent and they will always need to be on their toes as to what they give you.
On the other hand, its cost more than Identity Theft and its more likely to overdraw you while giving you something like two cards. Good players will know how to play around this card to avoid giving you their very best cards.
Its so matchup dependent that I cant really say its gonna see much play because Id rather just play Identity Theft 9/10 times.
Its not good, in fact for 4 mana its actually gonna do less than most priest removal options. If you think about it, why indeed would you play this over The Light! It Burns!, or just Holy Smite, which are cheaper and more efficient.
You can remove two minions for the price of one card, for 5 mana. You know what else you can do? Just play an actual AoE card that priest has, like Clean the Scene.
The only true niche it has is the fact that its a shadow card, so you can play this into shadow priest, no problem. That's really it. Its gonna see play only out of discovers because I cant see anyone legitimately put this card in their deck.
To me, this card is trash. But Ive stated before that you can never disrespect lifesteal, so Im forced to concede that it might actually see play.
So you create a bunch of tokens on board, and your opponent scratches their head thinking what are you gonna do with these tokens. And there isnt really an answer, because priest has no wide board buffs so they can indeed just ignore the bugs and go directly to your face. The fact that this card costs 5 mana is added insult to injury, because it neither reliefs tempo nor does it add much to it.
But again, the fact that it has lifesteal means unless there's an AoE you're gonna heal for 7 one way or another. So as usual its highly unlikely that your opponent can afford to disrespect the board. That said, this card is unlikely to win you games and will be a good card straight out of discovers rather than inclusion.
Whether intentional or not, this card is an instant pick for aggro decks like shadow priest, who already plays plenty of 1 drops.
It does have synergy with pip the potent, but its usage will be largely in tempo oriented decks. Unless there's something that takes full advantage of 0 mana cards, like copy effects etc., this card is unlikely to see play outside of tempo decks.
I can see this being a problem at some point. You can never disrespect anything that can get to 0 mana.
Unless Im very much mistaken, the quickdraw effect allows you to steal your opponent's spells from their deck.
Either way, Im not that optimistic about this card's chances because the better card already exist in the form of Identity Theft, which although does not steal cards, allows you to pick two cards of your opponent's hand/deck. In the grand scheme of things, its unlikely that one spell stolen from your opponent will win you the game anyway.
Might see play in control priest but I still feel its gonna miss out. Its best chance is actually highlander, because there's 30 cards that need filling and this one is a card option thats not too bad in of itself.
Unless youre very specifically going against an OTK deck or a big deck this card is completely worthless.
I dont think it'll ever see actual inclusion into decks but really out of discovers is the only chance it has. There's just no reason whatsoever to play this card over the many other cards available. It neither wins games nor get you out of unwinnable games.
I dont know how to assess this card because its certainly a powerful reloader and I always feel cards that copy specific cards in your hand must be respected because it'll always end up becoming some sort of OTK at some point. The fact that Funnel Cake is in priest as well means there's always a chance.
But at present moment, Im not seeing where this card fit. Its certainly never gonna be seen in control because it does nothing in that deck other than giving you a few more single kill removal options. Its not likely a fit for undead priest. Overheal priest is the most likely but that deck isnt really much worth shouting about.
Still, as mentioned you can never write off a card like this.
I kinda forgot about Prison of Yogg-Saron because that card hasnt been seen again ever since Yogg-Saron, Unleashed was introduced. Ironically its because prison of yogg is superceded in its usage by yogg himself.
Now, with the nerfs, Im even less optimistic about new yogg's chances because Id just play prison of yogg instead. 9 mana mind-control or board clear is terrible in 2023. Unless there's a way to cheat him out I dont think hes ever gonna see any more play outside of meme potential.
I dont play much wild admitably. But I feel you can easily tech Skulking Geist and/or Archivist Elysiana for that, aside from just killing them faster which is entirely possible in wild. But more to the point, its never a good thing to play a card that will have only one good matchup. You cant even just play it for tempo because it ruins your deck (and is poorly stated for cost), unless that's entirely the plan.
Also, there's no reason why a card like that is 7 mana. Team5 pre-emptively set his mana cost high so the chances of mischief is a lot less likely. Its unlikely to do anything now other than being filler.
Guess the funding for team5 must have been severely stretched, because these harken us back to the brode days when nerfs more or less remove cards from the game.
Because the nerf to jailer, yogg and tony is about as unimaginative as it can get. Jailer now gains immune as opposed to giving it out, not even a stat buff. Tony is practically warsong-ed, being now completely worthless. And yogg got neutered to such an extent as to render it unusable to all but meme. Is it really that much to ask for yogg to either have a limit to the mana reduction, or just replacing the Mass Hysteria ability.
Oh well, I guess that's an easy 3200 dust, more if there are still some that havent dusted tony from before.
Other nerfs are fine. Embrace of Nature definitely needs nerfing because it'll be relevant throughout its lifespan, its still relevant even post nerf to me. Rake and Prison Breaker have been responsible for patching over weaknesses of both druid and rogue so it had to be done as well. I still think rake will see play, but probably prison breaker would be confined to rogue.
I think the main problem here is beyond simple explanations like monetization, staleness, both of which are valid points. But the main issue to me is simply burnout. There's just no reason why I would want to play twist more than I would standard or wild. Certainly not both, unless youre a particularly obsessive player of hearthstone. Many times I'd boot up hearthstone, play like 5 games then turn it off. Sometimes when there's interesting decks or events Id go beyond that, but very rarely so.
Take a look at duels, which is pretty much just twist except with progressive deck building elements. People still play that format, but substantially less than both standard or wild. Even at its heyday it'll take about 2-4 minutes to find an opponent, and that's putting it mildly. Lose two games and the wait extends further. I dont expect twist to do substantially better than that.
But of course, another big reason to be pissed off over that game mode is simply monetization. New players would be easily 6 sets off, and some old players would have dusted those cards ages ago. Re-crafting them, or worse still, buying those packs, is a slap in the face. You cant even justify buying the pre-made decks because its blatantly obvious that these decks arent the optimized versions of the decks being played. Even the bundles are a joke, because the CoT packs are being bundled along with expansion packs you may not want, not to mention the sheer number of legendaries available, making each pack worth a hell lot less, yet charged at a ridiculous sum of real life cash.
Its just my opinion that hearthstone is no longer in that state where there's throngs of players rushing in, that a new mode can even be justified. But if team5 really wants to milk that format, I would recommend simply making a different reward system for it. For example, winning 3 games a week nets you a pack for each of the sets available. These packs are old, very old, some would even say very nearly worthless; giving it away improves interest in the game, while really having little to no impact to the monetization for standard or wild.
At this point, interest in the game is worth way more than any amount of money in real life.
Its actually a well design card to be fair.
There's nothing specifically wrong about it. You get a removal option when this dies, and this is a mere 1 drop, which can be plunked down on 1, always a good thing.
Will it see play outside of highlander, well that's a bit harder to judge. Id say that some aggro decks will play it, but otherwise its just going to be a highlander card. Most decks tend to be synergistic, and this card doesnt really do much of that aside from being discard fodder for one class.
This card will easily see play because its effect is persistent until triggered, and getting one extra spell is always good (except plagues, bombs etc.)
Its easier to list down decks that wouldn't at least consider this a card for inclusion, because its viability is near universal. The only point of contention being that this card is weak on tempo and the effect doesnt trigger until a card is drawn, i.e. a bit slow.
Its a decent card that'll replace itself with a useful taunt. But its real usefulness is in receiving dragons so its instantly a good card to consider in a dragon deck.
But its so vanilla, doing very little. You cant even play that taunt in the same turn just to fill your mana cost because for some reason this card only gives you one at the end of the turn, as opposed to being a battlecry. Why? Its not like its game breaking to just dish out two 1/2 taunts to your hand for 2 mana. it'll just a decent, if sometimes annoying card in competitive.
It'll see play because highlander. I doubt it'll appear in any other deck.