Historically, cheap cards that make cheap minions see play in constructed in one form or another.
Firefly was a staple in most decks that were either tempo, aggro or had elemental requirements until they rotated into Wild. Similarly Acorn Bearer and SpringPaw Lynx would see play in their respective classes decks as well.
So a buff spell that gives a minion +1/+1 in stats, makes a 1/1 token and adds a 1/1 token I believe will absolutely see play in constructed.
Druid loves using their buff spells on their tokens, and while they usually prefer AOE buff spells AoO gave Druid Ironbark, a 2 mana spell that gives +1/+3 and taunt and is free at 7 mana or more which has seen constructed play in nearly all Druid decks since that expansion launched, so it's not too hard to believe that Druid will find a use for this spell as well. Druids may also use their new spell Survival of the Fittest to make the tokens on the field and in hand 5/5 but that's a very slow option for aggressive Token decks.
Hunter's buffing tools are not quite as extensive as Druids, but AoO gave Hunter Hellboar, Scavengers Ingenuity and Scrap shot to make their beasts more powerful. And while Hunter would prefer to buff say King Krush, Zixor Prime or Augmented Porcupine, having Scrap Shot hit the beast token isn't terrible, as it makes a 1 mana 4/4 with a tribal tag relevant to Hunters for use of Kill Command, Houndmaster or even Starving Vulture if they need to.
At this time we've seen NONE of Hunter's specific class cards, I can only imagine they'll have another minion that benefits from being buffed or possibly from beasts that are summoned, I'm only speculating this synergy due to the cards ability.
Paladin can give a minion divine shield for 1 mana with Hand of Protection.
Priests can make copies of their minions for as little as 3 mana with Vivid Nightmares (in wild) that has the same attack but with (1) health.
So a 3 mana spell, that gives a minion divine shield and then makes a 1/1 copy of it doesn't sound mana efficient, until you consider what Paladins and Priests have to copy.
Paladin's Libram spells, particularly Libram of Wisdom is very popular in constructed, and the deathrattles copied would double the value of spells received. Where as Priests have several minions who would benefit from having duplicated, such as High Priest Amet, Convincing Infiltrator, Sandhoof Waterbearer, Dragonmaw overseer and skeletal dragon.
minions with taunt, deathrattle, and even reborn become very powerful candidates for this spell. Other minions with after turn effects are also strong candidates, if they can live long enough to receive the buff
So Dalaran Mage is a 3 mana minion with spell damage +1, with 1/4 in stats that only sees play when players are learning the game playing mage.
for 1 health less, but for 2 mana cheaper, this minion will absolutely see play in mage decks. No even necessarily as a tempo play, but it's flexibility will allow for extra damage for single target removal or an AOE board clear that mages love to cast.
In this set alone Mage has received Combustion which is a cheap 3 mana removal that deals 4 to a target and deals the excess damage to the neighboring minions, along with Ras Frostwhisperer, whose 1 damage AOE is improved with spell damage.
It has a soft taunt, however. Once he lands on the board you'll want to protect him like you would your sorcerer's apprentices or the Mana Wyrms. Aggressive decks have taken to using Beaming Sidekick and Guardian Augmerchant to protect their high value targets from cheap removal, so the aggressive mage might comeback with this minion and Ras Frostwhisperer.
This minion is probably one of the more powerful rush minions printed.
Rush minions, on a whole generally have low health for their cost since they're meant to remove enemy minions. Turalyon's 12 health is massive compared to other collectible rush minions, and his effect when he attacks guarantees he will kill whatever he attacks, save any poisonous minions.
Other players have made the connection of using Turalyon with DUEL! to try and remove a high target threat from their opponents deck.
with Paladin's access to good healing it's also possible to keep Turalyon alive to use him as removal for the rest of the game.
His power also makes him a high priority draft in the Arena, as minions it will be hard to draft removal against him for your opponents, assuming you get to 8 mana and draw him on curve.
Chillwind Yeti sets the gold standard for 4 drop stats and Sen'jin Shieldmasta sets the standard for taunts at that cost, as well. This minion being well statted with taunt with no increase in mana cost is a solid minion to play on curve.
It's battlecry of restoring 5 health is also better and faster than Rotten Applebaum's deathrattle of 4 health for a 5 mana minion. Restoring 5 health to your hero and then protecting your hero for 5 damage is essentially gaining 10 life.
In druid this minion can help activate Lucentbark, an infamous 8 mana minion that would come back to life if you restored 5 health, along with Crystal Stag. And the battlecry is not to your hero, specifically, meaning you can restore the health of a high value minion instead. However the healing package in Druid wasn't particularly strong, so this minion will probably be used by them to mitigate health loss for your hero.
I'm not certain what Shaman will use this minion for besides restoring health to their hero, they don't have a healing package or synergy that Druid ever received. The spells Shaman has that can
In standard Druid has twice as many spells that cost (5) or more than Shaman. Druids have 10, Shaman with 5 (as of this review, Shaman may receive more high cost spells in this set).
That said even if a player can't activate this minion's effect it's still a very solid turn 4 play in constructed or arena. I believe it will see play regardless.
Off the bat everyone compares it to a Despicable Dreadlord with more potential, and it's easy to see why:
Despicable Dreadlord had the same cost with about the same stat line (slightly more aggressive and slightly less health at 4/5 instead of 3/6). But whereas DD only did 1 damage at the end of your turn to all enemy minions Ras deals 1 damage to all enemies and is improved by spell damage, which both classes have received a legendary with spell damage in AoO.
Unfortunately it's difficult to always fit in spell damage minions into a deck do to their deck building requirements. Mage has used, historically, spell damage minions if their tribal tag was part of a strong meta game - Celestial Emissary and Cosmic Anomaly saw play because Mage had access to Elemental Invocation to greatly discount their cost for a powerful board clear or single target removal. They're currently using Azure Explorer at the moment because of it's synergy with Maylgos and Arcane Breath in Highlander Mage.Mage will also be getting Mozaki, Master duelist who will gain spell damage per spell you play, it's clear these two have synergy with each other and their high health pool might even allow them to become a potent dynamic duo for Mage.
Shamans currently have Squalhunter and Lady Vashj as collectible minions with spell damage, but neither have seen much play since Shaman's evolution tool kit is much stronger than their spell casting value toolkit. They are able to summon the wrath of air totm, but that has a 3/4 chance of being another totem, and it is usually removed once summoned to avoid a shaman from high-rolling with lightning storm. Although in the past Shamans did have spell damage minions in their decks when they were using spirit claws as an aggro/control tool.
Most neutral spell damage minions do not see play aside from Malygos, who is a finishing piece in combo decks, or Bloodmage Thalnos, who is used for card draw.
We haven't seen the full Mage and Shaman list yet, but knowing how the card reveals works this is a sure sign that both classes will be receiving some spell damage minions. Whether they'll be strong enough to make this minion viable remains to be seen.
Off the bat, 6/6 of stats for 5 mana is good. However, because of his effect, he may or may not be a minion that can be dropped on turn 5 depending on your deck.
The whelps deathrattles are accumulative, the more minions you have die, the more deathrattles the whelps get. So in a deck with mid to expensive deathrattles such as say, Cairne BloodHoof, Convincing Infiltrator and Khartut Defender you probably won't be playing him until turn 7 or 8. Heck, let's look in wild with Jade Rogue - if Aya Blackpaw is played on curve, you wouldn't want to play Vectus until turn 7 so his whelps can get her deathrattle AND the Jade Swarmer's Deathrattle for an additional 2-3 jade golems on their death.
Now, a faster deathrattle deck such as say, face hunter with Toxic Reinforcements, if they were able to get some Leper gnomes and Kobold Sandtroopers to die could stack the deathrattles on the whelps to deal massive damage that would be difficult to work around. Let's say a Hunter is able to get toxic reinforcements off by turn 4, and has killed off all three leper gnomes on turn 5, when Vectus lands on the board his whelps (if I'm correct and they stack deathrattles) will each deal 6 damage to the enemy hero upon death for a total of 12 damage - nearly half of your opponents life points.
There's a lot of potential for this card with any class with access to strong death rattles, it'll be interesting to see where this card goes in constructed and wild.
in a game about drawing cards knowing what you may draw should always be good.
and while this card and effect is powerful you should not forget that putting the card on the bottom of your deck means you may not see it for the rest of the game unless you are a very draw heavy class.
It should also be noted that this card does not offer its ability when drawing extra cards, so Plot Twist will not give you a chance to choose what you draw with this weapon.
It will still be very powerful with control decks, I believe, as they will have an extra chance to look for board clear and life sustain to keep the match going while their opponent runs out of steam, combo decks may also see this weapon in order to get crucial components for their win condition.
The only question is what do you substitute in your deck slot for this item?
So from the trailer this card does not make duplicates of your deck, but helps you draw a substitute hand for a turn.
it's not as powerful as Myra's Unstable element since it doesn't thin your entire deck, but it could be used to find a quick solution for a problem on your opponents side of the board or possibly add additional threat on your side.
Galakrond decks may see some use for this card since it will help increase the chances of drawing the cards needed to invoke Galakrond, especially if it means you can go off with a fully invoked Galakron on turn 7.
Highlander MAY see this since it might be used to fish Zephyrs, Miracle can absolutely use this to find that clutch tool they need
It's cheap and flexible, I would be surprised if it doesn't find a home in a ladder deck
It's stats are pretty good, Chillwind Yeti's set the bar for 4 drop stats since classic- his battlecry is very unique and interesting.
playing this minion can guarantee you draw your powerful combo and control pieces in the late game to finish the match, but you can't play this minion on curve or your draws will be too expensive for the rest of the game and you'll lose.
So I believe even though control and combo decks will want to use him they won't use him until very late in the game when they can afford to play those pieces
I loved Cobalt Spellkin when it was released and I try to find room for that minion in any deck that I want to play cheap spells in.
Being able to generate a 1 mana spell for 2 mana isn't terrible, in fact depending on the class it's really good -
Paladins have their secrets, Mages have the side quests and cheap removal, Rogues have various tools that generate cards, Demon Hunters have Twin Slice and Mana Burn, etc.
But when placing this minion in your deck you'll also need to look at the library of 1 mana spells available to your class and see if there's anything you'd have to be given - like a sidequest that doesn't have synergy with your deck, or a spell that removes all minions from your side of the board.
In a lot of cases it will probably be better to just slot in those 1 drop spells instead of this guy, but if you're looking for spell generation and RNG then he'll be a shoe in for sure
The cost and stat line of Professor Putricide, with an effect that's more powerful than Madame Lazul's with the outcast requirement.
having knowledge of your opponents hand is always valuable, and being able to remove a strong card against a control or combo matchup is HUGE.
That said despite her powerful ability I do not see this minion in the current Tempo DH lists that have been used to climb legend. this effect, cost and statline seems more in tune with a mid-range DH deck than the aggressive tempo deck.
What's more this legendary minion is not a win condition such as Altruis or Kayne Sunfury, but will help you win more by planning around your opponents cards in hand.
A dual tribal card? wow, the things you can do with these is immense
Historically, cheap cards that make cheap minions see play in constructed in one form or another.
Firefly was a staple in most decks that were either tempo, aggro or had elemental requirements until they rotated into Wild. Similarly Acorn Bearer and SpringPaw Lynx would see play in their respective classes decks as well.
So a buff spell that gives a minion +1/+1 in stats, makes a 1/1 token and adds a 1/1 token I believe will absolutely see play in constructed.
Druid loves using their buff spells on their tokens, and while they usually prefer AOE buff spells AoO gave Druid Ironbark, a 2 mana spell that gives +1/+3 and taunt and is free at 7 mana or more which has seen constructed play in nearly all Druid decks since that expansion launched, so it's not too hard to believe that Druid will find a use for this spell as well. Druids may also use their new spell Survival of the Fittest to make the tokens on the field and in hand 5/5 but that's a very slow option for aggressive Token decks.
Hunter's buffing tools are not quite as extensive as Druids, but AoO gave Hunter Hellboar, Scavengers Ingenuity and Scrap shot to make their beasts more powerful. And while Hunter would prefer to buff say King Krush, Zixor Prime or Augmented Porcupine, having Scrap Shot hit the beast token isn't terrible, as it makes a 1 mana 4/4 with a tribal tag relevant to Hunters for use of Kill Command, Houndmaster or even Starving Vulture if they need to.
At this time we've seen NONE of Hunter's specific class cards, I can only imagine they'll have another minion that benefits from being buffed or possibly from beasts that are summoned, I'm only speculating this synergy due to the cards ability.
Paladin can give a minion divine shield for 1 mana with Hand of Protection.
Priests can make copies of their minions for as little as 3 mana with Vivid Nightmares (in wild) that has the same attack but with (1) health.
So a 3 mana spell, that gives a minion divine shield and then makes a 1/1 copy of it doesn't sound mana efficient, until you consider what Paladins and Priests have to copy.
Paladin's Libram spells, particularly Libram of Wisdom is very popular in constructed, and the deathrattles copied would double the value of spells received. Where as Priests have several minions who would benefit from having duplicated, such as High Priest Amet, Convincing Infiltrator, Sandhoof Waterbearer, Dragonmaw overseer and skeletal dragon.
minions with taunt, deathrattle, and even reborn become very powerful candidates for this spell. Other minions with after turn effects are also strong candidates, if they can live long enough to receive the buff
So Dalaran Mage is a 3 mana minion with spell damage +1, with 1/4 in stats that only sees play when players are learning the game playing mage.
for 1 health less, but for 2 mana cheaper, this minion will absolutely see play in mage decks. No even necessarily as a tempo play, but it's flexibility will allow for extra damage for single target removal or an AOE board clear that mages love to cast.
In this set alone Mage has received Combustion which is a cheap 3 mana removal that deals 4 to a target and deals the excess damage to the neighboring minions, along with Ras Frostwhisperer, whose 1 damage AOE is improved with spell damage.
It has a soft taunt, however. Once he lands on the board you'll want to protect him like you would your sorcerer's apprentices or the Mana Wyrms. Aggressive decks have taken to using Beaming Sidekick and Guardian Augmerchant to protect their high value targets from cheap removal, so the aggressive mage might comeback with this minion and Ras Frostwhisperer.
Powercreep of Dalaran Mage, finally a cheap spell damage minion that doesn't die to other 1 drops
Does this mean we can tick off the Barov square on the Scholomance Bingo?
Oh sure it thins your deck by 5 but not like the entire deck, that's what I'm saying
okay but what's Turalyon doing teaching at scholomance?
Also will he have any interactions if played against Alleria?
This minion is probably one of the more powerful rush minions printed.
Rush minions, on a whole generally have low health for their cost since they're meant to remove enemy minions. Turalyon's 12 health is massive compared to other collectible rush minions, and his effect when he attacks guarantees he will kill whatever he attacks, save any poisonous minions.
Other players have made the connection of using Turalyon with DUEL! to try and remove a high target threat from their opponents deck.
with Paladin's access to good healing it's also possible to keep Turalyon alive to use him as removal for the rest of the game.
His power also makes him a high priority draft in the Arena, as minions it will be hard to draft removal against him for your opponents, assuming you get to 8 mana and draw him on curve.
Chillwind Yeti sets the gold standard for 4 drop stats and Sen'jin Shieldmasta sets the standard for taunts at that cost, as well. This minion being well statted with taunt with no increase in mana cost is a solid minion to play on curve.
It's battlecry of restoring 5 health is also better and faster than Rotten Applebaum's deathrattle of 4 health for a 5 mana minion. Restoring 5 health to your hero and then protecting your hero for 5 damage is essentially gaining 10 life.
In druid this minion can help activate Lucentbark, an infamous 8 mana minion that would come back to life if you restored 5 health, along with Crystal Stag. And the battlecry is not to your hero, specifically, meaning you can restore the health of a high value minion instead. However the healing package in Druid wasn't particularly strong, so this minion will probably be used by them to mitigate health loss for your hero.
I'm not certain what Shaman will use this minion for besides restoring health to their hero, they don't have a healing package or synergy that Druid ever received. The spells Shaman has that can
In standard Druid has twice as many spells that cost (5) or more than Shaman. Druids have 10, Shaman with 5 (as of this review, Shaman may receive more high cost spells in this set).
That said even if a player can't activate this minion's effect it's still a very solid turn 4 play in constructed or arena. I believe it will see play regardless.
Off the bat everyone compares it to a Despicable Dreadlord with more potential, and it's easy to see why:
Despicable Dreadlord had the same cost with about the same stat line (slightly more aggressive and slightly less health at 4/5 instead of 3/6). But whereas DD only did 1 damage at the end of your turn to all enemy minions Ras deals 1 damage to all enemies and is improved by spell damage, which both classes have received a legendary with spell damage in AoO.
Unfortunately it's difficult to always fit in spell damage minions into a deck do to their deck building requirements. Mage has used, historically, spell damage minions if their tribal tag was part of a strong meta game - Celestial Emissary and Cosmic Anomaly saw play because Mage had access to Elemental Invocation to greatly discount their cost for a powerful board clear or single target removal. They're currently using Azure Explorer at the moment because of it's synergy with Maylgos and Arcane Breath in Highlander Mage.Mage will also be getting Mozaki, Master duelist who will gain spell damage per spell you play, it's clear these two have synergy with each other and their high health pool might even allow them to become a potent dynamic duo for Mage.
Shamans currently have Squalhunter and Lady Vashj as collectible minions with spell damage, but neither have seen much play since Shaman's evolution tool kit is much stronger than their spell casting value toolkit. They are able to summon the wrath of air totm, but that has a 3/4 chance of being another totem, and it is usually removed once summoned to avoid a shaman from high-rolling with lightning storm. Although in the past Shamans did have spell damage minions in their decks when they were using spirit claws as an aggro/control tool.
Most neutral spell damage minions do not see play aside from Malygos, who is a finishing piece in combo decks, or Bloodmage Thalnos, who is used for card draw.
We haven't seen the full Mage and Shaman list yet, but knowing how the card reveals works this is a sure sign that both classes will be receiving some spell damage minions. Whether they'll be strong enough to make this minion viable remains to be seen.
Off the bat, 6/6 of stats for 5 mana is good. However, because of his effect, he may or may not be a minion that can be dropped on turn 5 depending on your deck.
The whelps deathrattles are accumulative, the more minions you have die, the more deathrattles the whelps get. So in a deck with mid to expensive deathrattles such as say, Cairne BloodHoof, Convincing Infiltrator and Khartut Defender you probably won't be playing him until turn 7 or 8. Heck, let's look in wild with Jade Rogue - if Aya Blackpaw is played on curve, you wouldn't want to play Vectus until turn 7 so his whelps can get her deathrattle AND the Jade Swarmer's Deathrattle for an additional 2-3 jade golems on their death.
Now, a faster deathrattle deck such as say, face hunter with Toxic Reinforcements, if they were able to get some Leper gnomes and Kobold Sandtroopers to die could stack the deathrattles on the whelps to deal massive damage that would be difficult to work around. Let's say a Hunter is able to get toxic reinforcements off by turn 4, and has killed off all three leper gnomes on turn 5, when Vectus lands on the board his whelps (if I'm correct and they stack deathrattles) will each deal 6 damage to the enemy hero upon death for a total of 12 damage - nearly half of your opponents life points.
There's a lot of potential for this card with any class with access to strong death rattles, it'll be interesting to see where this card goes in constructed and wild.
return of Deathrattle Rogue?
in a game about drawing cards knowing what you may draw should always be good.
and while this card and effect is powerful you should not forget that putting the card on the bottom of your deck means you may not see it for the rest of the game unless you are a very draw heavy class.
It should also be noted that this card does not offer its ability when drawing extra cards, so Plot Twist will not give you a chance to choose what you draw with this weapon.
It will still be very powerful with control decks, I believe, as they will have an extra chance to look for board clear and life sustain to keep the match going while their opponent runs out of steam, combo decks may also see this weapon in order to get crucial components for their win condition.
The only question is what do you substitute in your deck slot for this item?
So from the trailer this card does not make duplicates of your deck, but helps you draw a substitute hand for a turn.
it's not as powerful as Myra's Unstable element since it doesn't thin your entire deck, but it could be used to find a quick solution for a problem on your opponents side of the board or possibly add additional threat on your side.
Galakrond decks may see some use for this card since it will help increase the chances of drawing the cards needed to invoke Galakrond, especially if it means you can go off with a fully invoked Galakron on turn 7.
Highlander MAY see this since it might be used to fish Zephyrs, Miracle can absolutely use this to find that clutch tool they need
It's cheap and flexible, I would be surprised if it doesn't find a home in a ladder deck
Where do you start with this minion ?
It's stats are pretty good, Chillwind Yeti's set the bar for 4 drop stats since classic- his battlecry is very unique and interesting.
playing this minion can guarantee you draw your powerful combo and control pieces in the late game to finish the match, but you can't play this minion on curve or your draws will be too expensive for the rest of the game and you'll lose.
So I believe even though control and combo decks will want to use him they won't use him until very late in the game when they can afford to play those pieces
I loved Cobalt Spellkin when it was released and I try to find room for that minion in any deck that I want to play cheap spells in.
Being able to generate a 1 mana spell for 2 mana isn't terrible, in fact depending on the class it's really good -
Paladins have their secrets, Mages have the side quests and cheap removal, Rogues have various tools that generate cards, Demon Hunters have Twin Slice and Mana Burn, etc.
But when placing this minion in your deck you'll also need to look at the library of 1 mana spells available to your class and see if there's anything you'd have to be given - like a sidequest that doesn't have synergy with your deck, or a spell that removes all minions from your side of the board.
In a lot of cases it will probably be better to just slot in those 1 drop spells instead of this guy, but if you're looking for spell generation and RNG then he'll be a shoe in for sure
poor stats that's made up for with a cheap spell generation.
the classes with the fewer 1 drop spells might get some use out of this minion for consistency
hee hee hee
The cost and stat line of Professor Putricide, with an effect that's more powerful than Madame Lazul's with the outcast requirement.
having knowledge of your opponents hand is always valuable, and being able to remove a strong card against a control or combo matchup is HUGE.
That said despite her powerful ability I do not see this minion in the current Tempo DH lists that have been used to climb legend. this effect, cost and statline seems more in tune with a mid-range DH deck than the aggressive tempo deck.
What's more this legendary minion is not a win condition such as Altruis or Kayne Sunfury, but will help you win more by planning around your opponents cards in hand.