Skorpionex, that's a misreading of Valdris Felgorge. He impacts your "maximum hand size," whereas Abyssal Summoner's battlecry is impacted by "hand size," much the way that "hand size" in Astromancer's text uses number of cards in hand to determine the cost of the summoned minion.
Repost from the news thread, as I meant to post here for the giveaway...
Abyssal Summoner is kind of meh. To be worth it, you'd probably need at least five cards in hand, and you're probably not really excited about this card until you've got 7 or 8 other cards in hand. That's probably only happening once you get all your "Giant Handlock" win conditions lined up, so this feels like a very late game 6-drop that's hard to be super excited about.
Repost from the news thread, as I meant to post here for the giveaway...
Valdris Felgorge is awesome, regardless of whether or not it's good. Increasing max hand size is a phenomenal effect, and drawing 4 cards is certainly worth 7 mana (Sprint), so the extra 4/4 body is just a nice bonus. Not immediately obvious to me what you do with a 12 card hand, but with the various discard tools that generate extra copies of cards (e.g. Expired Merchant, High Priestess Jeklik, and Soulwarden), the space could be very useful.
Valdris Felgorge is awesome, regardless of whether or not it's good. Increasing max hand size is a phenomenal effect, and drawing 4 cards is certainly worth 7 mana (Sprint), so the extra 4/4 body is just a nice bonus. Not immediately obvious to me what you do with a 12 card hand, but with the various discard tools that generate extra copies of cards (e.g. Expired Merchant, High Priestess Jeklik, and Soulwarden), the space could be very useful.
Abyssal Summoner, on the other hand, is kind of meh. To be worth it, you'd probably need at least five cards in hand, and you're probably not really excited about this card until you've got 7 or 8 cards in hand. That's probably only happening once you get all your "Giant Handlock" win conditions lined up, so this feels like a very late game 6-drop that's hard to be super excited about.
At a very basic level, Flik Skyshiv seems like a pretty nice card. Comparing to Vilespine Slayer (admittedly not a perfect comparison), for the low cost of one more mana, the combo becomes a battlecry and can now destroy multiple minions, including at least one currently play. Clearly there's a lot of tempo value in just the basic use case.
In addition to just being a perfectly good basic removal/tempo advantage tool, this could have a lot of value against any deck that wants to use Baleful Banker or Sathrovarr (e.g. Shirvallah Paladin).
To me, the most interesting thing about Sanctuary is that it's a 2 mana quest (whereas all the previous quests and side quests have been 1 mana). The most obvious synergy here is with Time Out! in a Shirvallah Paladin deck as a way to decrease the cost of Shirvallah, the Tiger while stalling your opponent for more than the one turn Time Out! gets you.
It may also be relevant in a more aggressive Paladin deck that's hoping to get this down on turn 2 in order to get a big, early taunt wall between the enemy and smaller minions, but I'm not totally convinced by that. Playing this on turn 2 means you're not immediately developing the board - in that scenario, your turn one minion can attack, but any subsequent minions (including this taunt) won't be able to attack until turn 4 due to summoning sickness. That's a lot of turns to spend not attacking in a style of deck that typically wants to get early value trades to snowball to a victory on turns 5 and 6.
If you can avoid the battlecry, or buff the hell out of it, Zul'Drak Ritualist is insane. It's also good as a counter to Priest resurrection strategies. Not sure it has a home in standard, though.
I like Veranus a lot. From a theme standpoint this works very well - the Hunter dragons are poisonous, and I imagine the goal here is to produce a version of "give all your minions poisonous" that isn't way too powerful. Your minions all become able to one-shot your opponents minions, but the effect won't linger if you have high health minions.
The card I think best compares to Veranus is King Mosh. On its own, it sets you up for some very good trades (King Mosh after attacking, Veranus before), and if you've got enough mana to combo this with another card (i.e. Unleash the Hounds, or Dreadscale in Wild), it's an expensive (but effective) board wipe. Like King Mosh I don't think this is an auto-include for Hunter, and maybe not even auto-include in Dragon Hunter, but it's a cool card with an effect that swings tempo enough to make it good.
EDIT: I also think this could be an interesting tech choice for an aggro hunter. Where Spellbreaker is typically used to clear one taunt and push damage, Veranus has the potential to push damage through multiple taunts (at the cost of some weaker minions). That's all a bit dependent on meta, but it could be an interesting application.
Camouflaged Dirigible has hysterical art, a nearly vanilla statline, and an effect that helps aggro mech decks finish off their opponents a la Conceal back in the old days. I could easily imagine this as a one-of in such a deck - probably not a two-of since there are other finishers like Leeroy Jenkins that would do the job just fine.
I think Hot Air Balloon could be something of a sleeper...the health boost is small, but it's consistent and free. If that one extra health lets you value trade more than once in the early turns to maintain control of the board, this could be a game winning snowball effect.
Kronx Dragonhoof feels like an obvious 5 star card. It's almost vanilla stats, it draws your win condition in a Galakrond deck, and its devastation effects are all great. The only way this card isn't spectacular is if every Galakrond deck is bad, but given how many classes get Galakrond, it's highly likely that at least one Galakrond archetype will be competitive.
Amber Watcher looks like a phenomenal tool for a Hand Buff Dragon Paladin who wants to win the late game with huge dragons. There's probably still some risk that a Control Paladin archetype gets outclassed by other late game decks with powerful board clears (e.g. Warriors with Brawl) but being able to reliably activate Zandalari Templar and/or get value out of High Priest Thekal while playing for tempo (i.e. not spending all your mana on healing + card draw) could make this a reliable archetype.
Necrium Apothecary looks like it could be a really powerful tool in Deathrattle Rogue. It comes down shortly after Necrium Blade and does more than enough to account for the two stats below vanilla.
All of the "breath" cards are designed to be below the power curve without dragons, and above with, but the base effect here seems unusually weak compared to the other "breath" cards revealed so far. This card probably needs a very dedicated Dragon Warlock deck to be good (as opposed to a deck with a few dragons/synergies), but it would be very good in such a deck. We'll just have to see what other Neutral and Warlock dragons come out in this set.
Hellfire with a 1 mana 5/5 attached seems ridiculously strong. Despite the conditional battlecry, I like this a lot better than Abyssal Enforcer, as it comes down at a point where it's far more relevant (not unlike Duskbreaker in Priest).
A 1 mana 4/4 rush is obviously great, and there's no shortage of good ways to summon rush minions in Hunter (e.g. Springpaw, Unleash the Beast). This accelerating Quest Hunter while helping with board control might make that deck strong enough to see competitive play.
This is really solid in a Gonk Druid deck, but it's hard for me to see that being a thing right now. Quest Druid is just so powerful, and you'd never run a card like this in Quest Druid because of how quickly you'd lose the base hero power.
FWIW, I'm glad they're providing support for an archetype that sees no play, and that doesn't just slot into the best current archetype for the class. All too often these support tools either see no play or find their way into the best archetype and leave the "supported" one on the shelf. Maybe this will be enough to make Gonk a real fighter.
I really like this card. The hero power granting +3 attack really forces a change in game plan at the point that he comes into play, from defensive/stalling with armor up and removal into an offensive finisher with big guys. One of the biggest problems with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is the way it let you play even more controlling after dropping him, with massive armor boosts and improved removal options.
Skorpionex, that's a misreading of Valdris Felgorge. He impacts your "maximum hand size," whereas Abyssal Summoner's battlecry is impacted by "hand size," much the way that "hand size" in Astromancer's text uses number of cards in hand to determine the cost of the summoned minion.
Repost from the news thread, as I meant to post here for the giveaway...
Abyssal Summoner is kind of meh. To be worth it, you'd probably need at least five cards in hand, and you're probably not really excited about this card until you've got 7 or 8 other cards in hand. That's probably only happening once you get all your "Giant Handlock" win conditions lined up, so this feels like a very late game 6-drop that's hard to be super excited about.
Repost from the news thread, as I meant to post here for the giveaway...
Valdris Felgorge is awesome, regardless of whether or not it's good. Increasing max hand size is a phenomenal effect, and drawing 4 cards is certainly worth 7 mana (Sprint), so the extra 4/4 body is just a nice bonus. Not immediately obvious to me what you do with a 12 card hand, but with the various discard tools that generate extra copies of cards (e.g. Expired Merchant, High Priestess Jeklik, and Soulwarden), the space could be very useful.
Valdris Felgorge is awesome, regardless of whether or not it's good. Increasing max hand size is a phenomenal effect, and drawing 4 cards is certainly worth 7 mana (Sprint), so the extra 4/4 body is just a nice bonus. Not immediately obvious to me what you do with a 12 card hand, but with the various discard tools that generate extra copies of cards (e.g. Expired Merchant, High Priestess Jeklik, and Soulwarden), the space could be very useful.
Abyssal Summoner, on the other hand, is kind of meh. To be worth it, you'd probably need at least five cards in hand, and you're probably not really excited about this card until you've got 7 or 8 cards in hand. That's probably only happening once you get all your "Giant Handlock" win conditions lined up, so this feels like a very late game 6-drop that's hard to be super excited about.
At a very basic level, Flik Skyshiv seems like a pretty nice card. Comparing to Vilespine Slayer (admittedly not a perfect comparison), for the low cost of one more mana, the combo becomes a battlecry and can now destroy multiple minions, including at least one currently play. Clearly there's a lot of tempo value in just the basic use case.
In addition to just being a perfectly good basic removal/tempo advantage tool, this could have a lot of value against any deck that wants to use Baleful Banker or Sathrovarr (e.g. Shirvallah Paladin).
To me, the most interesting thing about Sanctuary is that it's a 2 mana quest (whereas all the previous quests and side quests have been 1 mana). The most obvious synergy here is with Time Out! in a Shirvallah Paladin deck as a way to decrease the cost of Shirvallah, the Tiger while stalling your opponent for more than the one turn Time Out! gets you.
It may also be relevant in a more aggressive Paladin deck that's hoping to get this down on turn 2 in order to get a big, early taunt wall between the enemy and smaller minions, but I'm not totally convinced by that. Playing this on turn 2 means you're not immediately developing the board - in that scenario, your turn one minion can attack, but any subsequent minions (including this taunt) won't be able to attack until turn 4 due to summoning sickness. That's a lot of turns to spend not attacking in a style of deck that typically wants to get early value trades to snowball to a victory on turns 5 and 6.
If you can avoid the battlecry, or buff the hell out of it, Zul'Drak Ritualist is insane. It's also good as a counter to Priest resurrection strategies. Not sure it has a home in standard, though.
I like Veranus a lot. From a theme standpoint this works very well - the Hunter dragons are poisonous, and I imagine the goal here is to produce a version of "give all your minions poisonous" that isn't way too powerful. Your minions all become able to one-shot your opponents minions, but the effect won't linger if you have high health minions.
The card I think best compares to Veranus is King Mosh. On its own, it sets you up for some very good trades (King Mosh after attacking, Veranus before), and if you've got enough mana to combo this with another card (i.e. Unleash the Hounds, or Dreadscale in Wild), it's an expensive (but effective) board wipe. Like King Mosh I don't think this is an auto-include for Hunter, and maybe not even auto-include in Dragon Hunter, but it's a cool card with an effect that swings tempo enough to make it good.
EDIT: I also think this could be an interesting tech choice for an aggro hunter. Where Spellbreaker is typically used to clear one taunt and push damage, Veranus has the potential to push damage through multiple taunts (at the cost of some weaker minions). That's all a bit dependent on meta, but it could be an interesting application.
Camouflaged Dirigible has hysterical art, a nearly vanilla statline, and an effect that helps aggro mech decks finish off their opponents a la Conceal back in the old days. I could easily imagine this as a one-of in such a deck - probably not a two-of since there are other finishers like Leeroy Jenkins that would do the job just fine.
I think Hot Air Balloon could be something of a sleeper...the health boost is small, but it's consistent and free. If that one extra health lets you value trade more than once in the early turns to maintain control of the board, this could be a game winning snowball effect.
Kronx Dragonhoof feels like an obvious 5 star card. It's almost vanilla stats, it draws your win condition in a Galakrond deck, and its devastation effects are all great. The only way this card isn't spectacular is if every Galakrond deck is bad, but given how many classes get Galakrond, it's highly likely that at least one Galakrond archetype will be competitive.
Amber Watcher looks like a phenomenal tool for a Hand Buff Dragon Paladin who wants to win the late game with huge dragons. There's probably still some risk that a Control Paladin archetype gets outclassed by other late game decks with powerful board clears (e.g. Warriors with Brawl) but being able to reliably activate Zandalari Templar and/or get value out of High Priest Thekal while playing for tempo (i.e. not spending all your mana on healing + card draw) could make this a reliable archetype.
Necrium Apothecary looks like it could be a really powerful tool in Deathrattle Rogue. It comes down shortly after Necrium Blade and does more than enough to account for the two stats below vanilla.
All of the "breath" cards are designed to be below the power curve without dragons, and above with, but the base effect here seems unusually weak compared to the other "breath" cards revealed so far. This card probably needs a very dedicated Dragon Warlock deck to be good (as opposed to a deck with a few dragons/synergies), but it would be very good in such a deck. We'll just have to see what other Neutral and Warlock dragons come out in this set.
Hellfire with a 1 mana 5/5 attached seems ridiculously strong. Despite the conditional battlecry, I like this a lot better than Abyssal Enforcer, as it comes down at a point where it's far more relevant (not unlike Duskbreaker in Priest).
A 1 mana 4/4 rush is obviously great, and there's no shortage of good ways to summon rush minions in Hunter (e.g. Springpaw, Unleash the Beast). This accelerating Quest Hunter while helping with board control might make that deck strong enough to see competitive play.
This is really solid in a Gonk Druid deck, but it's hard for me to see that being a thing right now. Quest Druid is just so powerful, and you'd never run a card like this in Quest Druid because of how quickly you'd lose the base hero power.
FWIW, I'm glad they're providing support for an archetype that sees no play, and that doesn't just slot into the best current archetype for the class. All too often these support tools either see no play or find their way into the best archetype and leave the "supported" one on the shelf. Maybe this will be enough to make Gonk a real fighter.
I really like this card. The hero power granting +3 attack really forces a change in game plan at the point that he comes into play, from defensive/stalling with armor up and removal into an offensive finisher with big guys. One of the biggest problems with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius is the way it let you play even more controlling after dropping him, with massive armor boosts and improved removal options.
Val'anyr was really good at 6, and this comes down right before Nozdormu the Timeless...4 mana 11/11 with a great deathrattle seems pretty sweet...
Curious Glimmerroot but it comes down earlier and also gives you intel on their hand - seems ridiculously good.