But also, does this go in quest mage? It probably doesn't make the cut just because it isn't a spell like the other 1-drops, but it is something to think about.
Another stat-stick. Do I smell the return of recruit warrior? This card is probably worse than ragnaros in any deck that wants a big minion that throws out damage, just because rag does more face damage if the board is clear, but the 3/3s are good.
0 mana spells should always be looked at carefully, but this one just seems mediocre.
The comparison to fire fly is probably correct, except that this card cannot fit into odd decks, so maybe this goes into some sort of spell-based paladin?
I can't imagine running this in an aggressive deck.
Almost certain to see no play, just because you have no idea what the board will be.
I assume they have decided to stop giving out powerful neutral legendaries after kael'thas, and have decided to do more marin the fox style promo cards, which is a shame.
To add to the list:
AoO gives Dormant for two turns and When this awakens, deal 3 to two random enemies
A nice 3-drop, but doesn't slot into any paladin archetype right now.
The divine shield granting ability is good, but I think it will rarely matter, especially as paladin does not have a real midrange strategy for this minion to go in where the ability could enable 3-for-1's.
If one emerges, I wouldn't be surprised if this is just too slow to compete with aggro decks.
A very valid card for spell druid because of Kael'thas, but spell druid is not great at time of writing. If this expansion proceeds to make spell druid the best deck ever, please tar-and-feather me.
Has an interesting interaction with thaurissan, but reducing the cost of biology project is probably better.
I would lean on this not seeing play, just because druid isn't a class that really benefits from this kind of card generation.
Baby loatheb is probably a lot worse, just because it doesn't deny spells in the early game in the same way. Because turn 5 is the turn on which aggro decks often win or lose based on board wipes, loatheb is usually not at a bad place in terms of cost, even though it is a 5 mana 5/5.
This is a bloodfen raptor in most cases, but interesting enough that I could very well be very wrong.
A new neutral AoE. Maybe better than it looks, but probably worse than wild pyro anywhere that it could slot in.
May see play if demon hunters continue to dominate because of that 2 damage breakpoint, but most classes with viable slower decks have better boardwipe tools.
As in dual-classing state socialism and state enterprise, or what?
EDIT: If anybody didn't get it, this was a joking criticism of socialism "with Chinese characteristics" It may surprise you to learn that I am, in fact, not a CCP plant.
Res priest is not a good deck right now, so a nerf would be completely uncalled for.
Why do people hate this deck so much? It's slow, clunky and does nothing but summon proactive threats.
If they print more ways for priests to accelerate out the minions, rather than just replaying cards they have already played, then the deck would probably occupy the same niche as big shaman, but with better lategame. That could be a problem, but it just isn't right now, and I can't imagine them ever printing that kind of card at a pushed cost.
The word 'Jihad' being considered offensive is a strange lean into recognising american anti-islamism and preventing offense by not taking a stance. The art is actually very nice for it's attention to detail in the armour and headdressing on the horses.
White started out as the colour of fantasy crypto-abrahamists, which were standard for fantasy of the time. King solomon is also in the arabian nights set, and plenty of cards have quotes from the Qur'an for flavour text.
Not sure about the crusade ban, but it's probably a run-off of the general desire to steer clear of the 'deus vult'-posting crowd.
Harold McNiell's art is obviously suggestive of the klan, and I understand why that would be removed.
The problem with pirates in battlegrounds, as far as I see it, is that most of the cards would have to be specific to battlegrounds, and the classic pirate design space of weapons cannot be done in battlegrounds.
Maybe something with a BG variant of ship's cannon or something to do with coins could be interesting.
The biggest problem with EDHearthstone, assuming playerbase dilution doesn't matter, would probably be that some legendaries like vargoth or hemet, jungle hunter would be too strong to have "in your hand" at the start of every game. Combos are innately a bigger problem in hearthstone than MtG because of the lack of instant speed interaction, so combo legendaries could suppress experimentation with stranger commanders.
If you had a ban on those cards, then the format could be interesting, but I'm not sure that some archetypes have enough viable cards to fill a 50-card decklist.
Value commanders would probably not be a problem, just because combo commanders would be so prevalent. Mecha'thun decks can just be full of cheap removal, their combo and have hemet as the commander to probably win as soon as they have the mana without any variance.
The Predatory Instinct's flavour text is, I am fairly sure, a reference to the 'someone's had their weetabix' ad campaign. They do sell weetabix in the US, but I wouldn't have thought it was popular enough for that to not seem like a very british cultural reference.
I've had a lot of fun trying to get libram paladin working, and I can safely say that this is my favourite version. The deck does remarkably well against aggro thanks to the power of the libram package with wild pyro, and the four horsemen can win games that should be unwinnable for a midrange-y deck like this.
The highroll turn 2 coin thekal into molten giant is also fun when it happens.
Obligatory burgle rogue support.
But also, does this go in quest mage? It probably doesn't make the cut just because it isn't a spell like the other 1-drops, but it is something to think about.
Very nice card, devolve at 1 mana, and in mage.
Almost certain to go somewhere, and will likely be played for a long time.
Randomness is negligible, and the missile-ness of the spell is an upside if they have less than 3 minions in play.
Another stat-stick. Do I smell the return of recruit warrior? This card is probably worse than ragnaros in any deck that wants a big minion that throws out damage, just because rag does more face damage if the board is clear, but the 3/3s are good.
Sees play only in big warrior, if that exists.
0 mana spells should always be looked at carefully, but this one just seems mediocre.
The comparison to fire fly is probably correct, except that this card cannot fit into odd decks, so maybe this goes into some sort of spell-based paladin?
I can't imagine running this in an aggressive deck.
What a strange choice of day 1 reveal card.
Maybe goes in some sort of inner fire deck?
I can't imagine it going anywhere else when northshire cleric exists.
Almost certain to see no play, just because you have no idea what the board will be.
I assume they have decided to stop giving out powerful neutral legendaries after kael'thas, and have decided to do more marin the fox style promo cards, which is a shame.
To add to the list:
AoO gives Dormant for two turns and When this awakens, deal 3 to two random enemies
SoU gives Reborn
A nice 3-drop, but doesn't slot into any paladin archetype right now.
The divine shield granting ability is good, but I think it will rarely matter, especially as paladin does not have a real midrange strategy for this minion to go in where the ability could enable 3-for-1's.
If one emerges, I wouldn't be surprised if this is just too slow to compete with aggro decks.
Nine mana really hurts this card. I would have loved to be able to DMH + this in one turn, and then n'zoth a full board of them a few turns later.
As with all big dumb stat-sticks, watch out if a "big" deck ever becomes viable, but otherwise this card will do too little, too late.
A very valid card for spell druid because of Kael'thas, but spell druid is not great at time of writing. If this expansion proceeds to make spell druid the best deck ever, please tar-and-feather me.
Has an interesting interaction with thaurissan, but reducing the cost of biology project is probably better.
I would lean on this not seeing play, just because druid isn't a class that really benefits from this kind of card generation.
Baby loatheb is probably a lot worse, just because it doesn't deny spells in the early game in the same way. Because turn 5 is the turn on which aggro decks often win or lose based on board wipes, loatheb is usually not at a bad place in terms of cost, even though it is a 5 mana 5/5.
This is a bloodfen raptor in most cases, but interesting enough that I could very well be very wrong.
A new neutral AoE. Maybe better than it looks, but probably worse than wild pyro anywhere that it could slot in.
May see play if demon hunters continue to dominate because of that 2 damage breakpoint, but most classes with viable slower decks have better boardwipe tools.
Interesting card. Obvious use is with a big boardwipe, but maybe could be interesting with the new innervate to enable something, especially in wild.
EDIT: less good than it looks. If it is killed by the spell, you don't get the spell burst, so this might not be so good with board wipes.
I don't get it.
As in dual-classing state socialism and state enterprise, or what?
EDIT: If anybody didn't get it, this was a joking criticism of socialism "with Chinese characteristics" It may surprise you to learn that I am, in fact, not a CCP plant.
Res priest is not a good deck right now, so a nerf would be completely uncalled for.
Why do people hate this deck so much? It's slow, clunky and does nothing but summon proactive threats.
If they print more ways for priests to accelerate out the minions, rather than just replaying cards they have already played, then the deck would probably occupy the same niche as big shaman, but with better lategame. That could be a problem, but it just isn't right now, and I can't imagine them ever printing that kind of card at a pushed cost.
I was always a fan of the arabian nights set.
The word 'Jihad' being considered offensive is a strange lean into recognising american anti-islamism and preventing offense by not taking a stance. The art is actually very nice for it's attention to detail in the armour and headdressing on the horses.
White started out as the colour of fantasy crypto-abrahamists, which were standard for fantasy of the time. King solomon is also in the arabian nights set, and plenty of cards have quotes from the Qur'an for flavour text.
Not sure about the crusade ban, but it's probably a run-off of the general desire to steer clear of the 'deus vult'-posting crowd.
Harold McNiell's art is obviously suggestive of the klan, and I understand why that would be removed.
The problem with pirates in battlegrounds, as far as I see it, is that most of the cards would have to be specific to battlegrounds, and the classic pirate design space of weapons cannot be done in battlegrounds.
Maybe something with a BG variant of ship's cannon or something to do with coins could be interesting.
The biggest problem with EDHearthstone, assuming playerbase dilution doesn't matter, would probably be that some legendaries like vargoth or hemet, jungle hunter would be too strong to have "in your hand" at the start of every game. Combos are innately a bigger problem in hearthstone than MtG because of the lack of instant speed interaction, so combo legendaries could suppress experimentation with stranger commanders.
If you had a ban on those cards, then the format could be interesting, but I'm not sure that some archetypes have enough viable cards to fill a 50-card decklist.
Value commanders would probably not be a problem, just because combo commanders would be so prevalent. Mecha'thun decks can just be full of cheap removal, their combo and have hemet as the commander to probably win as soon as they have the mana without any variance.
The Predatory Instinct's flavour text is, I am fairly sure, a reference to the 'someone's had their weetabix' ad campaign. They do sell weetabix in the US, but I wouldn't have thought it was popular enough for that to not seem like a very british cultural reference.
I've had a lot of fun trying to get libram paladin working, and I can safely say that this is my favourite version. The deck does remarkably well against aggro thanks to the power of the libram package with wild pyro, and the four horsemen can win games that should be unwinnable for a midrange-y deck like this.
The highroll turn 2 coin thekal into molten giant is also fun when it happens.
I run Nat Pagle in togwaggle priest, which is probably the worst card I own.
Maybe treachery warlock with unlicensed apothecary into treachery into mad summoner comes close.
The only bad cards are ones that you don't enjoy using.