Hearthstone 23: The Evil League of EVIL

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Earthquake looks absurd. 7 damage AoE that can nuke a Soul of the Forest board? I'm sold. Honestly, the fact that it hard counters Soul alone is a selling point.

Impbalming is interesting. Wacky downside, I don't think Plot Twist Warlock wants it. Potential Zoo deck? 4 mana hard removal is great in Zoo.

[otakuryoga]

i got the cards for being speedy and winning
is there a reward for beating it with all 4?
cause whats her name the priest frikkin absolutely blows chunks

[Resileaf]

i got the cards for being speedy and winning
is there a reward for beating it with all 4?
cause whats her name the priest frikkin absolutely blows chunks

No reward for beating it with all 4, sadly. I tried.

[The Glyphstone]

Boom is definitely the best for a speedrun, especially if you score the Hand of Rafaam treasure.

[Zevox]

More new cards.

Bees!: Druid spell, 3 mana. Choose a minion. Summon four 1/1 bees that attack it.
- Didn't look like much at first, but the more you think about how it works, the better it looks. At worst, it's Shadow Bolt, but it can often be better. Use it on something with less than 4 health, and presumably the bees after the one that kills it will survive, making it extremely flexible, efficient removal for small minions. Plus it could combine with other effects for even more value - Cult Master or Raid Leader for instance, though I don't think either of them will be pushed into seeing play just because of this, so more likely we'll be waiting to see if similar but better cards get printed this expansion. Would be insane in Hunter, for instance, with Timber Wolf and Scavenging Hyena. Seems like something that almost any Druid deck would at least consider, if not an auto-include for the class.

Raid the Sky Temple: Mage Quest, 1 mana (duh). Quest: Cast 10 spells. Reward: Ascendant Scroll (Hero power, 2 mana, add a random Mage spell to your hand, it costs 2 less.)
- Can anyone say infinite value? This could definitely be scary for a Control Mage, and with Cyclone around it probably isn't even that hard to complete the quest. The question I think is just whether such a thing is wanted in current, Conjurer's Calling-based Mage decks, or do they just tend to win before it matters? And if that's the case, does such a Control Mage become a viable alternate deck, or is it just pushed out of the meta by Cyclone/Conjurer Mage? Not totally clear to me, honestly.

Weaponised Wasp: Shaman minion, 3 mana 3/3. Battlecry: If you control a Lackey, deal 3 damage.
- It's Flanking Strike at a one mana discount that requires a Lackey to activate. In a class that is fairly happy to use Lackeys. Also, goes great with the Shaman Quest. Yeah, I think we'll be seeing this one around, to say the least.

[Spore]

Even though I am kinda over Hearthstone (I log in occasionally after whaling the game since its beta) I am debating buying the solo adventure. Is it fun? I enjoyed the trial with the Fire elemental Mage for an hour but I would probably not be arsed to play every wing with every class and every hero power.

I just want to incentivize them putting actual content in for money more than slapping another alternate hero on a 80 €/$ preorder pack (even though it hurts my SOUL I don't have every available hero skin).

[The Glyphstone]

The Bees! Not the Bees!

[Rynjin]

The Bees! Not the Bees!

I think this is more apropo to the theme of this expansion:

[ranagrande]

i got the cards for being speedy and winning
is there a reward for beating it with all 4?
cause whats her name the priest frikkin absolutely blows chunks

She is the worst one, but I was able to beat it fairly easily with a C'thun priest.

[Joran]

More new cards.

Bees!: Druid spell, 3 mana. Choose a minion. Summon four 1/1 bees that attack it.
- Didn't look like much at first, but the more you think about how it works, the better it looks. At worst, it's Shadow Bolt, but it can often be better. Use it on something with less than 4 health, and presumably the bees after the one that kills it will survive, making it extremely flexible, efficient removal for small minions. Plus it could combine with other effects for even more value - Cult Master or Raid Leader for instance, though I don't think either of them will be pushed into seeing play just because of this, so more likely we'll be waiting to see if similar but better cards get printed this expansion. Would be insane in Hunter, for instance, with Timber Wolf and Scavenging Hyena. Seems like something that almost any Druid deck would at least consider, if not an auto-include for the class.

The sub-reddit's already memeing about things like Gurubashi Berserker and Linebreaker. If you BEEEES!!! your own overkill minion during your turn, it'll trigger the overkill.

[Rodin]

The sub-reddit's already memeing about things like Gurubashi Berserker and Linebreaker. If you BEEEES!!! your own overkill minion during your turn, it'll trigger the overkill.

Damn, that's insane. So either you kill a 10 health minion on turn 7, or you take 80 damage to the face. Not quite as crazy as the infinite Snip-Snap combo, but sufficient that I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see Overkill changed to only work on enemy minions.

Gurubashi Berserker is a lot less crazy at "only" 15 damage, but still impressive. The downside being that you have to run Gurubashi Berserker.

[Zevox]

The sub-reddit's already memeing about things like Gurubashi Berserker and Linebreaker. If you BEEEES!!! your own overkill minion during your turn, it'll trigger the overkill.

Will it? Overkill doesn't trigger when enemy minions attack your overkill minion. I would expect that means it only triggers when the overkill minion is the attacker.

Obviously Gurubashi would still work, but that's a lot saner.

[The Glyphstone]

Meme combo: Tortallan Forager into Gahzrilla into Bees! into Bees!.

[Tvtyrant]

Even though I am kinda over Hearthstone (I log in occasionally after whaling the game since its beta) I am debating buying the solo adventure. Is it fun? I enjoyed the trial with the Fire elemental Mage for an hour but I would probably not be arsed to play every wing with every class and every hero power.

I just want to incentivize them putting actual content in for money more than slapping another alternate hero on a 80 €/$ preorder pack (even though it hurts my SOUL I don't have every available hero skin).

It's a bunch of dungeon runs. I really enjoy those (except witchwood) but it is not particularly unique like Night as Kazhkastan or some of the others.

[Mando Knight]

Will it? Overkill doesn't trigger when enemy minions attack your overkill minion. I would expect that means it only triggers when the overkill minion is the attacker.

Obviously Gurubashi would still work, but that's a lot saner.

Overkill triggers when the minion deals overkill damage on the owner's turn, even if the damage is due to triggered combat effects like Mass Hysteria or Swamp King Dred.

[Zevox]

Overkill triggers when the minion deals overkill damage on the owner's turn, even if the damage is due to triggered combat effects like Mass Hysteria or Swamp King Dred.

If that's true, then yeah, they will probably have to change something. Because "have an immediate answer to a 10 health minion or take 80 damage" is certainly not a reasonable situation to be putting people in so easily.

Either making it so that it only activates when the overkill minion is the attacker or making it so that Bees! can't target friendly minions seem like they would handle the issue. The latter would mean you can't use Bees! to activate eggs or the like while also getting four 1/1s anymore, but eh, no major loss I think.

[Hamste]

With luck boom is the best for speed run but Hagatha is probably the most consistent if you can get a good minion from your first pick and it is easier to restart for it if you are inclined to speed run. Most enemies will lose if you have a lot of grimmer patrons.

[ranagrande]

I think Togwaggle might actually be the fastest. In the last run I did, I was able to get 20/20 (or better) Edwins on turn 1 in three of the games.

[Bucky]

You could play Ticket Scalper into BEEEES!!! It's like Sprint but with an extra free bee.

[Spore]

I think Togwaggle might actually be the fastest. In the last run I did, I was able to get 20/20 (or better) Edwins on turn 1 in three of the games.

Agreed. I assume the priest is the slowest (pardon, forgot the name).

[Hamste]

If linecracker survives, BEES! Could do a lot of damage. The hard part of making it actually survive a turn.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Will it? Overkill doesn't trigger when enemy minions attack your overkill minion. I would expect that means it only triggers when the overkill minion is the attacker.

Obviously Gurubashi would still work, but that's a lot saner.

There's a similar combo in effect right now, actually, using Mad Summoner and Mass Hysteria.

Rage Orc video link

[Zevox]

Five new cards added to the gallery today, mostly Paladin:

Brazen Zealot: Paladin 1 mana 2/1. Whenever you summon a minion, gain +1 attack.
- Solid aggro 1-drop, generally speaking - but if aggro Paladin were possible these days, wouldn't Secret Paladin be a real deck already? I suspect that the loss of Divine Favor is still going to make the deck this wants to be in a non-starter, if they don't get help with their fuel issues.
Sandwasp Queen: Paladin 2 mana 3/1. Battlecry: add two 2/1 Sandwasps to your hand [which cost 1].
- It's Acornbearer, but +1 mana to get you +1 attack on each body. Is that good? I don't know, Paladin lacks Druid's mass board buff cards, and there's the general issue of lack of card draw for an aggro/token deck. If this were in Druid I'd expect it to just automatically slot into Token Druid, but I'm not sure how much Paladin wants it.
Sahlet's Pride: Paladin 3 mana 3/1. Deathrattle: draw two one-health minions from your deck.
- Well, it's card draw. Is it the kind of card draw that could help save aggro paladin decks? Eh... I don't know. Draw two plus a body for three is great in theory, but needing to run a ton of 1-health minions without Druid's mass board buffs might just kill it. When any and all AoE kills your stuff, even just a Shooting Star, you look awfully frail. Plus of course there's always the classic issue of many hero powers killing these things. Feels like this might see more use in a deck like OTK Paladin that just uses it to draw Novice Engineers or the like to thin their deck faster, honestly.
Psychopomp: Priest 4 mana 3/1. Battlecry: summon a random friendly minion that died this game. Give it Reborn.
- Huh. Godawful stats for the cost, but pretty solid effect. I'm not sure if this is what Resurrect Priest needs to become a more serious contender in the meta, but it'll definitely get experimented with.
Plague of Madness: Rogue 1 mana spell. Both players equip a 2/2 knife with Poisonous.
- Eh... I'm not expecting to see this much, I think. I guess in theory something like Tempo Rogue may be less upset handing their opponent a weapon like that than other decks because they don't run particularly big minions aside from Edwin, but that does not seem like the kind of effect they can use well enough for constructed play. Just thinking about how Weapons Project works, it's mostly good in Warrior because they can so often just not have things on the board and play from behind, giving the opponent no good target to use the weapon on. When the opponent does get to use the weapon to good effect, the card can look a lot more questionable. And Rogue cannot play from behind like Warrior can, so the opponent will definitely get use out of this weapon, unless the Rogue has Oozes or Harrison to remove it immediately, and I doubt they'll start packing those just to use this.

[Rodin]

Brazen Zealot: Paladin 1 mana 2/1. Whenever you summon a minion, gain +1 attack.
- Solid aggro 1-drop, generally speaking - but if aggro Paladin were possible these days, wouldn't Secret Paladin be a real deck already? I suspect that the loss of Divine Favor is still going to make the deck this wants to be in a non-starter, if they don't get help with their fuel issues.

I wasn't really around for Secret Paladin much (I started the game halfway through that expansion), but wasn't Avenge and Mysterious Challenger the only reason that deck was good? They've never made a Paladin secret as good as Avenge and the cards used to pull secrets out now are rather slow.

Anyway, all three cards have 1 health and two of them get cards that have 1 health into your hand. I think we know what the Paladin Quest condition is going to be. Whether Paladin lives or dies will likely depend on what the effect of the quest is.

[Gandariel]

I wasn't really around for Secret Paladin much (I started the game halfway through that expansion), but wasn't Avenge and Mysterious Challenger the only reason that deck was good? They've never made a Paladin secret as good as Avenge and the cards used to pull secrets out now are rather slow.

Bellringer Sentry and Never surrender are the new versions of the above. Both weaker, but still reasonably strong. I tried the deck, and it's... OK.
Frankly strong enough, but it just has no finishing power. Needs card draw or value generators, it looks like we'll get them this exp

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Psychopomp seems pretty good for a tempo/zoo-esque Priest. You get a 3/1 body, and let's say the worst-statted minion you run is a 2/3 (not unreasonable that you don't run 1-drops, I'd think). That's a 3/1 into a 2/3 into a 2/1. Or, it's a 3/1 that spawns a Harvest Golem. So basically a 1-mana 3/1 that draws you a Harvest Golem. That seems pretty good to me! And it only goes up from there. Imagine an Injured Blademaster into a 3/1 that spawns a 4/7 that spawns a 4/1, now that's a doozy of a highroll.

Plague of Madness is weird, but you could potentially use it to deal with, say, a Mountain Giant early on.

[Anarion]

Plague of madness is 1 mana to remove a minion the turn you play it. It’s a dangerous card, but I expect it to see play in tempo and miracle.

[Resileaf]

Plague of madness seems like it would be at its best against a class that doesn't have easy access to healing or armor. If you yourself play an aggro deck, you're spending most of your time hitting face and keeping board control, and while a poisonous knife in your enemy's hands seems counter-productive, it is removal that they need to damage themselves to use, and it only costs 1 mana, which is very cheap for a removal (even if blocked by taunt, taunts are cards you often need removal to deal with).
It seems like a high risk, medium reward kind of card, probably not something you'd use often.

[Rynjin]

Whether I drop money on this expansion (which I haven't for the past 2) pretty much relies on how good of a Paladin deck I can make, so things aren't looking good for me on that front.

[Zevox]

I see another card has been added to the gallery:

Plague of Murlocs: Shaman 3 mana spell. Transform all minions into random Murlocs.
- Huh, now that's a tough one to call. Trying to think it through, there's two situations where this effect seems good: first, if you have a board that's mostly or entirely tokens, like totems and Lackeys, and the opponent has either nothing or just one or two big things. Then on average your board is getting upgraded and theirs is getting downgraded. Second, it could be used as a quasi-Equality, to set up a board wipe, since most Murlocs don't have a lot of health, and Warleader no longer buffs health. That might be a bit tricky though, since your options there are Lightning Storm (might be rolling 50/50s against some Murlocs, especially Warleader, which is important to kill), Earthquake (which is overkill and a 10 mana combo), or Hagatha's Scheme (probably the most practical of the bunch, but still needs to have been in your hand for a couple of turns, and it's an 8 mana combo - and the combo becomes unnecessary if it's been in your hand long enough to wipe the board anyway). So the latter seems dicey, but the former might be practical for some kind of aggro or midrange Shaman deck. Not sure if an actual Murloc deck wants this or not, though, seems like a weird one for that, since they're already playing Murlocs. One limitation compared to other transform effects though is that it won't get you lethal past taunt unless you luck out and pull a Bluegill Warrior when they're low enough for it to kill though, since transformed minions can't attack. I don't know, hard to say how good this spell is at this point.

I wasn't really around for Secret Paladin much (I started the game halfway through that expansion), but wasn't Avenge and Mysterious Challenger the only reason that deck was good? They've never made a Paladin secret as good as Avenge and the cards used to pull secrets out now are rather slow.

Anyway, all three cards have 1 health and two of them get cards that have 1 health into your hand. I think we know what the Paladin Quest condition is going to be. Whether Paladin lives or dies will likely depend on what the effect of the quest is.

Those were two of the most powerful and defining cards of the original Secret Paladin, yes, though at the time it also had a very strong midrange shell to build around (the good old Mini-Bot, Muster, and Shredder curve). Current Secret Paladin cards though are quite strong too after Rise of Shadows. All reports from experimentation on it early on were that it gets off to explosive starts, it just peters out due to running out of gas before it can close the game too often. Had Divine Favor not rotated, it would likely be a meta deck right now.

And yeah, I want to hope you're wrong, but those three cards do make it look like 1-health minions will be a Paladin theme this expansion, especially Sahlet's Pride, so it's a distinct possibility that the quest will relate to that. I'd much rather see them support the Dragon Paladin package they put out a few cards for in Rise of Shadows, personally, but I won't be surprised if that's not the way the quest winds up going.

Psychopomp seems pretty good for a tempo/zoo-esque Priest.

I suppose - but such a deck has never been good enough to be a real part of any meta in Hearthstone history, at least to my recollection. Priest has always been either Control or Combo decks, with maybe some of the Dragon decks leaning a bit midrangey.

Whether I drop money on this expansion (which I haven't for the past 2) pretty much relies on how good of a Paladin deck I can make, so things aren't looking good for me on that front.

Well, we're only at 3 cards out of ten for the class, so there's definitely time for them to turn that around. It definitely feels pretty bleak for them ever since the Equality nerf and Divine Favor rotation though.