It takes a lot of support to make Totem Shaman even remotely playable. I guess they have to throw Wild the occasional bone, but for Standard it gets 1 star.
As is the case every time it resurfaces, Evolve Shaman is going to be one of the strongest archetypes in the meta. As one of its best enablers, this card gets 5 stars.
This is a textbook 3-star legendary. It lets you create a fun deck that is probably not very consistent because you have to draw your only copy of the legendary to make it work, and there's really no tutor for Rafaam.
If you give them Dragged Below, the target will be random, so it's not ideal. If you give them Abyssal Wave, your opponent may get to decide when to clear the board, so it's not ideal. Still, it's an easy way to pack two or four more curses into the deck, so it's bound to help. Will it move Curselock from "annoying" status into "oppressive"? Nah, but I give it 4 stars because there are lots of other ways to use the battlecry.
It's fine, but you have to put smaller imps in your deck to infuse this consistently, and that will make Rafaam less consistent. So while I think this is a decent card on its own, I'm only giving it 3 stars because the imp archetype seems sketchy.
Because it's a location and takes up a minion slot on the board, it has anti-synergy with itself. What a wretched design flaw!
Still, the ability to buff your guy for no additional mana after you've summoned a bunch of imps ... well, that's pretty potent. About 4 stars potent, but I'm deducting a star for the weird design (also because imps don't seem that strong to me), so 3 stars with the potential to be 4 stars with more fel support later on.
Comparisons to Demonic Assault (a Fel spell) are way off target. Voidwalkers require nothing more than a stiff breeze to remove, while these take a bit of effort. This gets discounted by Shadowborn, copied by Tamsin, and copied by Lady Darkvein (hey, maybe you need it). You are simply never going to put Demonic Assault in a deck that wants Shadow synergy.
All that, plus the fact that it provides two bodies for infuse, means I give it 3 stars. (It's not as bad as people are saying, but I'm not super in love with it either.)
I dislike neutral win conditions that can be played in literally every class, but here we are. Five stars.
"Only works in Druid" isn't exactly a downside. It does work, and it works extremely well. You don't need fancy tricks like Brann, and you don't even really need to ramp. You just need to get him in hand with Capture Coldtooth Mine (the most powerful tutor card of all time), play a bunch of otters and whelps (which nearly all Druid decks do anyway), and you will inevitably get Denathrius big enough to murder any opponent.
This toxic monstrosity needs to be removed from the set before launch, IMO.
Big-minon Druid is getting several insanely good minions. As I've mentioned elsewhere, it's an epic, so you cannot expect it to be a good general-purpose card. It is strong when you can exploit it, and Druid can definitely exploit it. It's almost a better Gigafin when used properly, and Druid has all the tools to use it properly, so I give it 4 stars.
As an epic, this cannot be expected to be strong as a general-purpose card. Big minion decks with mana cheat will certainly exploit it to great effect. It gets 4 stars because it will be a major headache in decks that use it correctly.
Does everything Rogue wants to do right now, so 4 stars.
Just think -- if it had come out last year, it would have required an honorable kill, which means it would have been totally meh.
It takes a lot of support to make Totem Shaman even remotely playable. I guess they have to throw Wild the occasional bone, but for Standard it gets 1 star.
Wow, so if I infuse it, I can board-lock myself twice as fast? Incredible! No, wait, I mean 1 star!
As is the case every time it resurfaces, Evolve Shaman is going to be one of the strongest archetypes in the meta. As one of its best enablers, this card gets 5 stars.
This is a textbook 3-star legendary. It lets you create a fun deck that is probably not very consistent because you have to draw your only copy of the legendary to make it work, and there's really no tutor for Rafaam.
If you give them Dragged Below, the target will be random, so it's not ideal. If you give them Abyssal Wave, your opponent may get to decide when to clear the board, so it's not ideal. Still, it's an easy way to pack two or four more curses into the deck, so it's bound to help. Will it move Curselock from "annoying" status into "oppressive"? Nah, but I give it 4 stars because there are lots of other ways to use the battlecry.
This is the kind of card that isn't even fun when you manage to make it work. Toxic if you do, boring if you don't. One star, hate it.
If this were a fel spell, I'd give it 4 stars. As a shadow spell, I hate it -- 1 star, even though I fully admit it's probably better than that.
Also why is Rafaam's right nipple spewing red smoke?
It's fine, but you have to put smaller imps in your deck to infuse this consistently, and that will make Rafaam less consistent. So while I think this is a decent card on its own, I'm only giving it 3 stars because the imp archetype seems sketchy.
Because it's a location and takes up a minion slot on the board, it has anti-synergy with itself. What a wretched design flaw!
Still, the ability to buff your guy for no additional mana after you've summoned a bunch of imps ... well, that's pretty potent. About 4 stars potent, but I'm deducting a star for the weird design (also because imps don't seem that strong to me), so 3 stars with the potential to be 4 stars with more fel support later on.
Comparisons to Demonic Assault (a Fel spell) are way off target. Voidwalkers require nothing more than a stiff breeze to remove, while these take a bit of effort. This gets discounted by Shadowborn, copied by Tamsin, and copied by Lady Darkvein (hey, maybe you need it). You are simply never going to put Demonic Assault in a deck that wants Shadow synergy.
All that, plus the fact that it provides two bodies for infuse, means I give it 3 stars. (It's not as bad as people are saying, but I'm not super in love with it either.)
Useful in nearly every Warlock deck because mana cheat always breaks everything, so 4 stars.
The base stats are good, but don't expect it to live very long. I give it 3 stars.
There are so many ways to exploit this card, it can't help but break the game. I give it 5 stars.
A very strong three-in-one for infuse decks. Sire Denathrius will be pleased. He gives it 4 stars.
I dislike neutral win conditions that can be played in literally every class, but here we are. Five stars.
"Only works in Druid" isn't exactly a downside. It does work, and it works extremely well. You don't need fancy tricks like Brann, and you don't even really need to ramp. You just need to get him in hand with Capture Coldtooth Mine (the most powerful tutor card of all time), play a bunch of otters and whelps (which nearly all Druid decks do anyway), and you will inevitably get Denathrius big enough to murder any opponent.
This toxic monstrosity needs to be removed from the set before launch, IMO.
Five stars, will definitely break the game and be one of the first nerfs.
Big-minon Druid is getting several insanely good minions. As I've mentioned elsewhere, it's an epic, so you cannot expect it to be a good general-purpose card. It is strong when you can exploit it, and Druid can definitely exploit it. It's almost a better Gigafin when used properly, and Druid has all the tools to use it properly, so I give it 4 stars.
It's already meta-defining, so I have no choice but to give it 5 stars.
As an epic, this cannot be expected to be strong as a general-purpose card. Big minion decks with mana cheat will certainly exploit it to great effect. It gets 4 stars because it will be a major headache in decks that use it correctly.