Hearthstone 24: Don't tell the others, but I'm rooting for you!

[Hamste]

I think I just saw the most insane lobby ever, we had a Reno with 2 golden deathweavers by turn 4 (They stayed on one), two people went demons, a shudderwock had 3 golden murloc tokens turn 6, I had a goldric turn 6 while I was still on 2 and at least 2 other people decided they didn't need to level on turn 2 not including me (I was Millhouse, I couldn't). Alexstaza was on 5 while Reno was still on 2. I came third so don't know how it ended but I think Murloc Alex was going to win vs murloc nozdormu.

[Geno9999]

Looks like Blizzard isn't done balancing Ashes of Outland, because we're getting another round of Buffs and Nerfs on the 18th:

Buffs:
Aldor Attendant:
Old: [Cost 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Cost 1] 1 Attack, 3 Health.

Torrent:
Old: [Cost 5] → New: [Cost 4].

Shattered Rumbler:
Old: 4 Attack, 6 Health → New: 5 Attack, 6 Health.

The Lurker Below:
Old: 6 Attack, 3 Health → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health.

Nerfs:
Priestess of Fury:
Old: 6 Attack, 7 Health → New: 6 Attack, 5 Health.

Crimson Sigil Runner:
Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 1 Health.

Scavenger's Ingenuity:
Old: Draw a Beast. Give it +3/+3. → New: Draw a Beast. Give it +2/+2.

Shadowjeweler Hanar:
Old: 1 Attack, 5 Health → New: 1 Attack, 4 Health.

Blackjack Stunner:
Old: Battlecry: If you control a Secret, return a minion to its owner’s hand. It costs (2) more. → New: Battlecry: If you control a Secret, return a minion to its owner’s hand. It costs (1) more.

Imprisoned Scrap Imp:
Old: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, give all minions in your hand +2/+2. → New: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, give all minions in your hand +2/+1.

Bloodboil Brute:
Old: 6 Attack, 8 Health → New: 5 Attack, 8 Health.

Bloodsworn Mercenary:
Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health.

Spoiler: Third time's the charm

Show

Buffs:
Aldor Attendant really became a dang good card, especially for Pure Paladin which has little access to 1 drops to curve into a turn 2 buff. Also makes it easier to fetch with Call to Adventure to further reduce Libram costs.

Though if Paladin is happy with the buff to Attendant, Shaman should be ecstatic: Torrent is straight-up better than Flame Lance without needing the cost reduction effect, but when that effect IS active, it's a Crushing Hand without the Overload! Lurker Below is looking good, though I might worry about Even Shaman in Wild now. Shattered Rumbler... Eh? Doesn't do much, I think it's problem was that Spell Shaman wasn't a thing.

Nerfs:
Finally, I will get a free legendary from dusting my two gold copies of Priestess of Fury! Easier to deal with, now it's a question of if it will stick around in Tempo Demon Hunter, since there have been decks already swapping it out for Beaming Sidekick for the Mirror Match.

Sigil Runner probably gets cut, though it might still pop up here and there because the cycle is too good to pass up.

Scavenger's Ingenuity didn't look like it needed the nerf, until I saw a post on Reddit pointing out that it's better than Call to Adventure, both in Mana Cost and Buff given. In light of that, one of those should give, and the stats was probably the way to do it.

Hanar and Blackjack Stunner: still good, though Hanar on Turn 2 is risky now, but given how he can snowball with value and making the board nearly impossible to deal with, I'm fine with that. Blackjack Stunner is still good by virtue of being Sap in a body, it does make hitting stuff like Dragonqueen Alexstrasza bad.

Scrap Imp: Seems like a pre-emptive nerf, so that Zoolock doesn't quite blow over the post-nerf meta with Demon Hunter weakened.

Bloodboil Brute and Bloodsworn Mercenary: Does absolutely nothing, Luigi wins! The only thing I can think of that really changes for Bloodboil Brute is versus a Giant Edwin or a Dragonqueen Alexstrasza board, but those are usually already weakened by Risky Skipper. Bloodsworn Mercenary is also more of a combo piece than a tempo tool, so I don't think this affects the card at all.

[Joran]

Cashed in quite a bit of dust from the nerfs. I had a few of the cards in golden.

Finally got a few games of Battlegrounds in, a couple of 4-5 finishes and then a first.

Vashj is interesting, leads to a lot of choices about when to level up. I level uped turn 2 as normal and got an absolute pu-pu platter of junk. Was tempted to freeze, sell a token, and level up again turn 3 to have my choice of 4 tier-3 choices (sort of like a power-leveling AFK), but ended up trying the conventional line, let the tavern roll and hope to get 2 high quality tier-2 units. (I wonder if it's correct if you get none of the good tier 2 units to freeze and level again to guarantee the 3 tier minions.)

I got another 2 junk tier-2 minions and 2 tier-1 minions, so I leveled again with a worse tavern than if I had locked and the tier 3 tavern was pretty bad as well (Imp Boss/Infested Wolf/Scavenging Hyena) were my best choices. Tier 4 level up was much better and picked up high quality cards, but hero power seems really hit or miss. I think I ended up dying with a weird mech comp because I had put my Foe Reaper 3rd and my first two mechs (A Golden Egg + Sneed's) didn't die, my Foe Reaper did and the 1/1 mech was my second mech resurrected by Kangor's)

I ended up winning with Pyramad. I decided to try a Rabid Saurolisk build; streamers I watch seem to be playing Pyramad by buying a scaling minion tier 1, then trying to hit the heropower early on that minion, by buying on early turns instead of tiering up. I think I botched it by playing the minions I was buying (which means I have to sell them to guarantee heropower on the Saurolisk). I also didn't stay on tier 1, where you can golden a Saurolisk, Selfless Hero, Wrath Weaver, which gives you a strong scaling early comp for a strong midgame and probably guaranteed top 4 finish. Saurolisk ended up being a better minion than I expected, but maybe I should have compared it to Wrath Weaver before Floating Watcher.

I ended up doing neither and was instead slowly building up my Saurolisk by buying deathrattles and selling them and ended up with a pretty weak board on tier 5, 2 spawns, 2 selfless heroes. I managed to luck into a golden Spawn, which gave me a Mama Bear, which gave me direction. I bought a bunch of beasts, got a Goldrin the Wolf, then hit the Golden Selfless right before I was going to sell it and a Baron Rivendare. My final boss was a Millhouse which did the tier 1 strat and had stupidly big Saurolisk and Wrath Weaver. Unfortunately for him, I had other big units and his 50/50 Wrath Weaver ended up faceslamming straight into a Divine Shield Maxenna and I cleaned up the rest.

I'm about 9250 MMR, with a pretty long term goal of getting to 10K for a nice round number. I'm not a great player, but have good discipline to try to maximize my comp's power in the midgame which leads to a lot of decent finishes and very few bottom 2 finishes, which makes me still climb.

[Rynjin]

So Firebat started playing that Highlander Murloc Dragon Paladin deck I was talking about way back when Descent of Dragons came out, with only a few adjustments (the addition of the Librams and Hand of Adal). It even has the Baron Geddon/Lightforged Blessing combo I came up with to roll over Token Druids with, this time aimed at Demon Hunters.

And they called me maaaaad!

[The Glyphstone]

Looks like Pirates have joined the Battlegrounds tribal roster:

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/news/23440114

[Joran]

Weird scenario with the ranked reset. I got to Diamond 5, didn't really try to climb further. Ranked reset came and I got the 11 star bonus, which I thought was confined to high legend. So, I should be able to bonus star my way to legend if I push for it this month.

Big changes coming to Battlegrounds. 1 minion type won't be available each game of Battlegrounds (like one game there won't be murlocs, next game it might be mechs) and they'll also remove the Commanders who go with that Tribe. Also, good bye Holy Mackarel, you were too good. Not sure how good Pirates will be, but they don't seem grossly OP stats or synergy wise. Instead, a lot of it seems like interesting gold manipulation.

Still floating around 9.2K MMR and plateauing. I was pretty tilted that I got the standard 5 murlocs with divine shield/poisonous and ran into double poisonous Mackarel + Unstable Ghoul, which knocked me out at 4/5th place for -1 MMR =P I think I'm about where they start cutting into MMR gains.

[Seerow]

Weird scenario with the ranked reset. I got to Diamond 5, didn't really try to climb further. Ranked reset came and I got the 11 star bonus, which I thought was confined to high legend. So, I should be able to bonus star my way to legend if I push for it this month.

The star bonus is based on your internal MMR rather than your end of season ranking. If you got 11 stars that means your climb to Diamond 5 was probably really good, so the MMR was reading you as a legend quality player, you just didn't spend as much time playing as some others.

Big changes coming to Battlegrounds. 1 minion type won't be available each game of Battlegrounds (like one game there won't be murlocs, next game it might be mechs) and they'll also remove the Commanders who go with that Tribe. Also, good bye Holy Mackarel, you were too good. Not sure how good Pirates will be, but they don't seem grossly OP stats or synergy wise. Instead, a lot of it seems like interesting gold manipulation.

Definitely looking forward to the BG changes. 1 tribe being missing each game will make the meta last a lot longer without feeling like we need constant updates.

Pirates look really interesting. The synergies are definitely a different type from anything we've seen before, so it's really hard to judge how good or bad it will be until we have some time with it. But they have a lot of focus on on getting bonus gold, and cycling pirates which seems to hit a good flavor point and seems at least potentially good.

[Joran]

Pirates look really interesting. The synergies are definitely a different type from anything we've seen before, so it's really hard to judge how good or bad it will be until we have some time with it. But they have a lot of focus on on getting bonus gold, and cycling pirates which seems to hit a good flavor point and seems at least potentially good.

The one issue with bonus gold is if you get a scenario where you have to do a bunch of actions quickly. Cora, one of the developers, was mentioning how if you get a Golden version of the Pirate that gives you 1 gold per Pirate you buy + another non-golden copy, you generate Gold for each Pirate you buy (2 gold from the golden, 1 gold from the copy, 1 gold from selling).

I can imagine someone getting into this scenario and then running into major issues with animations taking up chunks of turns. I already see streamers who land the Brann + Khadgar combo which lets you golden a ton of tokens running out of time.

I'm really not sure what the solution is because then there are the turns where you level + buy and then sit for a minute.

[Xihirli]

Aw, Pirates before elementals? I just want to rain the elements upon the game!

[Zevox]

Looks like Pirates have joined the Battlegrounds tribal roster:

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/news/23440114

Haven't even played Battlegrounds in a couple of months now, so I don't know how much my analysis is worth at the moment, but my thoughts on this anyway:

- New Heroes: Eudora looks fun, but probably inconsistent. Might be decent to good, might be bad, probably not one of the best. Kragg could be very good - just wait for the turn you want to level to 5, use his hero power for a lot of gold, and suddenly it's so much easier to make that jump. Or maybe that just won't work out well enough since he lacks an early game benefit. Hooktusk doesn't look that great. You basically only use her power on minions you bought for their battlecry late in the game, or on bad minions you had no better option than to take early on, and hope you get lucky with it. Patches... depends heavily on how good Pirates turn out to be. Aranna Starseeker is odd and I'm really just not sure how good that ability would be. It looks pretty bad to me at first glance, but maybe I'm underestimating it?
- Rat King: Oh, goody, just what he needed; being more random... ugh.
- Removals: Putricide has been one of the worst heroes for as long as the game has existed, no loss there. Mackarel I'm iffy on. Sure, getting two bouncing shields between each other was potentially nutty and OP, but it was a flexible, strong tier-6 minion that helped incentivize actually going to tier 6, rather than just sitting on 5 forever and only getting 6s through triples.
- Pirates: I'm skeptical of their viability as a strategy in their own right, honestly. They're different, so maybe they're just hard to evaluate, but their only Battlecry buff is Southsea Strongarm, and the numerous in-battle buffs are often situational (overkill on the one, don't happen until they attack on another) and going to be prone to getting sniped. Salty Looter is a smaller Crowd Favorite, so probably not that good. Bloodsail Canoneer is a Pirate version of Murloc Warleader that is, for some reason, in a higher tavern tier than Murloc Warleader. Tide Razor has no creature type and is therefore probably bad until they bring back Tirion Fordring (unless you get it off Zerus early anyway, in which case it'll carry you for a while, but so will many other tier 6 minions that are better).

The more interesting parts of the Pirates are their gold mechanics. Freedealing Gambler selling at cost will make it a highly-picked early and mid-game filler minion for sure. Deck Swabbie making tavern tiering faster is interesting and might make him very good. Cap'n Hogarr does require you to be running Pirates, but might be the way that they manage to pull off some crazy things in the right situations - assuming your execution is up to doing a lot of things in a single turn, anyway. And Goldgrubber might just be a generally good card - he's reminiscent of Razorgore, except he triggers off gold minions instead of a specific minion type, and you get him on tavern 4 instead of 5. If you've gotten a few early triples and see him, he'll be great no matter what build you're playing.

On the non-Pirate front, Arcane Canon is interesting, but will probably be strong in the very early game and drop off pretty quickly into the mid-game. Compare it to Kaboom Bot: both are 2/2 tier 2 minions; one has a minion type and a deathrattle that guarantees bonus damage, while the other has no minion type and only does bonus damage when minions adjacent to it attack, and needs two attacks to equal the damage that Kaboom Bot does. It's probably slightly better than Kaboom Bot if it gets those two attacks, and has some potential to be even better if it gets more shots off (which I think would mostly require that new taunt pirate who auto-attacks when it survives a hit), but in most cases it's probably usually worse. And it's definitely worse in the long term, since Kaboom Bot having a deathrattle and the mech type gives it synergies that Arcane Canon lacks.

And Monstrous Macaw... eh, it could be good early-game filler if you've grabbed Kaboom Bots or similarly potent deathrattles, and maybe you can finangle a Gol'drin beast build to abuse it in the latte game, but I'm not super enthusiastic about its potential overall.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

Haven't even played Battlegrounds in a couple of months now, so I don't know how much my analysis is worth at the moment, but my thoughts on this anyway:

Mostly same (the battle pass split really killed all my interest and I'm just idly playing now and then). I've played one game in the new Patches with patch and can attest pirates can at the very least high roll (though I don't know if my 7800ish mmr is any good anymore).

Two pirates on T1 and two more on T2 with one having a solid battlecry means you can come out the gate strong, and getting a gold swabber let me build up to TT3 with a big board. You actually get pretty fierce with salty looters stacking up, captains (which are better 2/2 deathrattle +1/1 to boards in a pirate-only layout), and zoomie death rattles that also get the +2/2 running at enemies.

By endgame I had a board state that improved by +12/12 between each time my enemy attacked (though dropping to +4/4 once I got past my two windfury guys, but at that point +24/24 board-wide is degenerate). And yes, the +1 gold per buy helped tremendously in mid-game and I could see a different route where I kept it to end-game to take edge on the golden "your pirates all cost 0 gold cause you get 2 and sell for 1". Even the first one selectively turns you into Millhouse, and we remember how degenerate *that* was.

Sure it auto-loses to DS-Poison Murlocs, but what doesn't?

[Joran]

I've played 3 games on the patch so far. Haven't gone Pirates yet.

2nd game was a AFK where I picked two Shifter Zeruses for fun. First one got me a Foe Reaper, second one gave me the Razorgore a turn after and I leveled up to 6 where I picked up Nadina and 2 Drakonid Enforcers and outstated the Pirate person.

3rd game was a Millhouse game where I somehow goldened a Goldrinn, picked up a Rivendare, and finally goldened a Monstrous Macaw (I feel like I shouldn't be goldening minions this easily as Millhouse...)

Goldrin was taunted, so if I attacked first, I'd easily outstat anything. If I didn't, I'd still have a pretty good shot. I ended up putting in a Ghastcoiler, which I'm not sure was the right move, but I got the 25% where the Macaw attacked first and it hit the Goldrinn.

I'm guessing the Giant Parrot is going to get some complaints.

Edit: Played 2 more games. Hooktusk is absolutely absurd with a token minion. I got a triple Alley Cat on turn 2... Unfortunately, I decided to try Pirates and ended up getting dumped on, ended 7th.

Next game went Demons quickly with SkyCap'tn Kragg and ended up getting 9 gold on tavern tier 5 and rolled for the Soul Jugglers. Ended up winning easily.

Edit 2: Just went past 9500 with the dumb Golden Macaw + Golden Goldrin comp. This time didn't taunt Goldrin and put a large taunt in the way to ensure that the Macaw would land on the Goldrin.

[Zevox]

Mostly same (the battle pass split really killed all my interest and I'm just idly playing now and then).

Oh, the Battle pass wasn't the issue for me - I easily had the gold to afford that, and since I'm not using it for anything else anymore, that was fine. I just found that... well, it's not so much that I lost interest as that I'm less interested in Battlegrounds right now than in other games that I have to play, so I just haven't been spending any time on it.

[Epinephrine_Syn]

Oh, the Battle pass wasn't the issue for me - I easily had the gold to afford that, and since I'm not using it for anything else anymore, that was fine. I just found that... well, it's not so much that I lost interest as that I'm less interested in Battlegrounds right now than in other games that I have to play, so I just haven't been spending any time on it.

Oh I could afford it too. It was just a matter of that I wasn't as invested as I was earlier and not into hearthstone as much anymore, and them really saying "oh you need to pay 2500 to keep playing tavern without being utterly kneecapped" combined with "I don't even know how much I'll play this season" and "I still kinda wanna save gold for solo stuff" made the decision clear-cut for me.

[Joran]

Hey, they nerfed Demon Hunter one last time. Twin Slice + Second Slice are 1 mana, add +2 damage. Huge nerf to Demon Hunter since they only have one reliable activator for on curve Satyr Overseer and Glaivebound Adept in Umberwing and Demon Hunter loses a bit of their early dumb board control. Altrius also can't do as many Altrius things.

I'm Diamond 2, with a 2 star bonus, so only 3 wins away from hitting Legend for the first time in the new ranking system. I'm waiting for the meta to settle out and figure out what deck to play, since they nerfed the dumb deck I was playing before ;)

Edit: I also got gigatilted from Battlegrounds. I hit a high of 9800 something and then dropped almost 500 points; hard to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Feels like I'm low-rolling a lot for some reason. Two tilting moments:
1) Nailed a Macaw + super-early Goldrinn. Sold off all my other deathrattles, got two hydras, bought 2 Sarolisk guys to buff, hit tier 5 and got the early Baron. I think "Oh this is an easy street win". Picked up another Baron and then rolled 10 gold down, missing another Parrot, Goldrinn, Baron, Sarolisk, or Hydra to die.

2) Another game, I was going to at least tie with an enemy Imp Mama, and spawned it Voidlord (I had a giant minion with 3 or so hp), which was just enough to kill me.

Although there were a few games where I was refreshing the tavern at 4 going "I have no idea what I'm looking for".

Games seem to be going super fast and people seem to be highrolling more. Not sure if it's the addition of the new champions.

On the plus side, I for some reason hovered over a Daryl on my game and saw it was named "Krippers". No way, I check the stream and it's him, Kripparian. He ended up 8th in my game and I finished I think 6th with my failed beast build.

I faced someone named Kibler twice (once in constructed, once in Battlegrounds), but he wasn't streaming at the time, so I have no way to know.

Edit: I ended up playing Demon Hunter to Legend. Won 3 straight against another Demon Hunter, Highlander Hunter, and Pirate?! Warrior up.

[Eurus]

I'm getting back into Battlegrounds a bit after a long break. Pirates seem... strong. Swingy, but strong. They can't compete with the Murloc Divine Shield+Poisonous absurdity, but I'm not sure there's any tribe that could. Other than that, their late game seems pretty solid. Their buffs aren't 100% reliable, but they can stack a whole lot of them. I've had one of those windfury guys in my team completely unbuffed, but getting +6/+6 on each attack. My MMR isn't very high, so maybe they're just pubstompy, but I've been having good results with them. Then again, I also think Goldgrubber is just a crazy card -- pulling one as Reno and making it golden, even if you only have one other golden minion in your line, gets it to very silly numbers very fast.

[Joran]

I'm getting back into Battlegrounds a bit after a long break. Pirates seem... strong. Swingy, but strong. They can't compete with the Murloc Divine Shield+Poisonous absurdity, but I'm not sure there's any tribe that could. Other than that, their late game seems pretty solid. Their buffs aren't 100% reliable, but they can stack a whole lot of them. I've had one of those windfury guys in my team completely unbuffed, but getting +6/+6 on each attack. My MMR isn't very high, so maybe they're just pubstompy, but I've been having good results with them. Then again, I also think Goldgrubber is just a crazy card -- pulling one as Reno and making it golden, even if you only have one other golden minion in your line, gets it to very silly numbers very fast.

Murlocs, as long as they aren't 80+ hp monstrocities, can be countered with smart play. Unstable Ghoul to remove the shields, then your own divine shield (Nadina, Selfless Hero) and then your own super tank/big attack guys (big cleave helps). Or deathrattle comp with enough deathrattle value to tank through their hp. However, yeah, Murlocs are the end-game tribe and one skill in high MMR players is being able to survive and then make a transition to Murlocs quickly.

I managed to pull it off once successfully with a Brann + Khadgar and then finding Murloc tokens to get a ton of tier 6 minions. Sadly, my computer isn't as fast as the streamer computers and I refuse to disconnect and reconnect (which skips the battle and adds another 30 seconds to your turn), so turns that require a lot of time, like a Murloc Pivot or Pirate Printing Money are more difficult... never mind people trying to play on a phone.

I've yet to hit a massive Goldgrubber, but I've seen it hit 150+.

Pirates seem good and in the mid-game, if you hit an early Ripsnarl or Sea Breaker Goliath, your pirates can get big enough to do a ton of damage to people. But if you don't go first or your pirates that need to kill a minion don't (like Sea Breaker Goliath or Nat Pagle) it feels terrible.

[Techwarrior]

Tried out the brawl for this week and had a ton of fun with a pretty simple mid-range/control paladin. I lost very few games. It seemed like I only lost very close games where if I'd drawn my tech card (that was in the deck) anywhere in the first 5-6 turns it goes from being close to being a landslide in my favor. The Decklist could be polished, but it was serviceable enough.

Spoiler: Decklist

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2x Argent Squire
2x Blessing of Wisdom

2x Acidic Slime
2x Argent Defender
2x Loot Hoarder

2x Aldor Peacekeeper
2x Harvest Golem
1x Ironbeak Owl

2x Blessing of Kings
2x Consecration
1x Equality
2x Hammer of Wrath
2x Truesilver Champion

2x Abomination

2x Sunwalker

2x Guardian of Kings

[Stevesciguy]

So, card reveals! A bit late on this one but better late than never.

We're getting dual class cards! Each class will be paired with two others, for a total of ten pairings. Each pairing will get four cards, one from each rarity. The space for these dual class cards has been taken from the classes, so each class will get 6 'pure' cards, then 4 from each of their pairings for a total of 14 available cards.

The pairings are:

• Druid/Hunter
• Hunter/Demon Hunter
• Demon Hunter/Warlock
• Warlock/Priest
• Priest/Paladin
• Paladin/Warrior
• Warrior/Rogue
• Rogue/Mage
• Mage/Shaman
• Shaman/Druid

We also have a new keyword, as usual: Spellburst! Spellburst is a minion keyword that is a one time effect that triggers the next time you cast a spell after playing the minion.

Spoiler: Cards

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Cult Neophyte
Rare Neutral Minion
2/3/2
Battlecry: Your opponent's spells cost (1) more next turn.

Devolving Missiles
Epic Mage/Shaman Spell
1 mana
Shoot three missiles at random enemy minions that transform them into ones that cost (1) less.

Clarification: the same minion can be hit 3 times and be devolved to a minion that costs 3 less.

Diligent Notetaker
Rare Shaman Minion
2/2/3
Spellburst: Return the spell to your hand.

First Day of School
Common Paladin Spell
0 mana
Add 2 random 1-cost minions to your hand.

Frazzled Freshman
Common Priest Minion
1/1/4
No card text.

Goody Two-Shields
Rare Paladin Minion
3/4/2
Divine Shield
Spellburst: Gain Divine Shield.

Lightning Bloom
Common Druid/Shaman Spell
0 mana
Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only.
Overload: (2)

Nature Studies
Common Druid Spell
1 mana
Discover a spell. Your next one costs (1) less.

Onyx Magescribe
Common Neutral Dragon
6/4/9
Spellburst: Add 2 random spells from your class to your hand.

Rattlegore
Legendary Warrior Minion
9/9/9
Deathrattle: Resummon this minion with -1/-1.

Clarification: the 8/8, 7/7, etc. are tokens. If you buff the 9/9 to a 10/10, it will still summon the 8/8 token when it dies.

Shan'do Wildclaw
Legendary Druid/Hunter Minion
3/3/3
Choose One - Give Beasts in your deck +1/+1; or Transform into a copy of a friendly beast.

Transfer Student
Epic Neutral Minion
2/2/2
This has different effects based on which game board you're on.

Troublemaker
Rare Warrior Minion
8/6/8
At the end of your turn, summon two 3/3 Ruffians that attack random enemies.

Wand Thief
Common Mage/Rogue Minion
1/1/2
Combo: Discover a Mage spell.

Wretched Tutor
Common Neutral Minion
4/2/5
Spellburst: Deal 2 damage to all other minions.

Spoiler: Transfer Student Effects

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Horde: Battlecry: Deal 2 damage.

Stranglethorn: Stealth, Poisonous

Stormwind: Divine Shield

Pandaria: Battlecry: Give a friendly minion +1/+2.

Naxxramas: Deathrattle: Add a random Deathrattle minion to your hand.

GvG: Battlecry and Deathrattle: Add a Spare Part to your hand.

Blackrock: At the end of your turn, reduce the Cost of a random card in your hand by (2).

TGT: Inspire: Draw a Card.

LoE(Excavation): Battlecry: Add a random weapon to your hand.

LoE(Museum): Battlecry: Discover a new Basic Hero Power.

Old Gods: Battlecry: Spend all your mana, summon a minion of that cost.

Karazhan: Battlecry: Add a Karazhan portal spell to your hand.

Mean Streets: Battlecry: Give a random minion in your hand +2/+2.

Un’Goro: Battlecry: Adapt.

Frozen Throne: Deathrattle: Add a random Death Knight card to your hand.

Kobolds: Battlecry: Recruit a minion that costs (2) or less.

Witchwood: Echo, Rush.

Boomsday: Taunt. If you have 10 Mana Crystals, gain +5/+5.

Rastakhan: Rush, Overkill: Draw a card.

Rise of Shadows: Battlecry: Add a Lackey to your hand.

Uldum(Feet): Reborn.

Uldum(Windmill): Battlecry: Add an Uldum plague spell to your hand.

Descent: Battlecry: Discover a Dragon.

Outland: Dormant for 2 turns. When this awakens, deal 3 damage to two random enemy minions.

Scholomance(Not released yet): Battlecry: Add a Dual Class card to your hand.

Spoiler: Additional Information

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According to an interview, the Demon Hunter/Warlock pairing will get its own mechanic, to represent their soul magic.

For Transfer Student, the current plan by the dev team is to update it with unique effects for each board while it's in Standard, then to give it a generic "Discover a card from x expansion" thereafter. This is not set in stone, just the current plan.

There are two more cards that have been leaked but are unconfirmed. We don't even have names for them:

A 10 mana epic Druid spell that gives all minions in hand, deck, and field +4/+4.

A 1 mana 1/1 epic neutral minion with rush and battlecry: give all friendly minions rush.

And my thoughts, for anyone who cares I haven't touched Standard since AoO released, so these are Wild-only opinions.

Spoiler: Ramblings of a madman

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Cult Neophyte: me likey. Nice tech card, like a mini Loatheb. I bet this will see a lot of play at first, since everyone hates quest mage, before it sees normal tech card level play.

Devolving Missiles: whyyyyyy. Shaman already has devolve and probably won't want this, but I'm not looking forward to Mages generating 87 of these.

Diligent Notetaker: interesting card, not sure what would want it. Maybe Even Shaman plays it to dupe crackles? Idk

First Day of School: yeah, no idea about this one. Paladin isn't in a great place right now and what decks do exist don't want it. Maybe a value generator for Pure Pally? Doubt this sees play

Frazzled Freshman: overstatted one drop! The only Priest archetype that would ever consider this is Divine Spirit/Inner Fire Priest, and that deck is non-existent in wild. Doubt we'll see much of this any time soon

Goody Two-Shields: interesting concept, but kinda hard to pull off because of the 2 health. I think your best bet is to give this rush somehow, then restore the divine shield. Pure Pally might like this, but idk

Lightning Bloom: ...ahem...
BLIZZARD WHAT THE ****
Ok, I'm a Druid main, I'm excited to have more broken cards for my combo decks, but there was a reason innervate got nerfed. The overload doesn't mean jack because the Druid will probably win the turn they play this, whether it's part of a combo or because they played Spreading Plague on turn four against Pirate Warrior. Big Shaman will love this because now they can do their big minion cheating even earlier, we're talking turn 2 or even turn 1 Ancestor's Calls.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it is now possible for us druids to win on turn 1. Before the opponent ever gets to play anything. It's a hell of a highroll to be sure, but it is entirely possible.

I'd recommend not dusting a single copy of this, cuz it's gotta get nerfed. If it doesn't, I'll eat the hat that I don't own. This card is gonna make Wild cry, and I'm sure it'll wreak havoc on Standard, too.

Nature Studies: Primordial Glyph 2: Electric Boogaloo. Card is cheaper, and the discount applies to any spell, not just the one you discover. Wild lists are tight, but the possibility of finding another Spreading Plague against aggro or more card draw against other decks means this card might find it's way into lists.

Onyx Magescribe: ...eh? In Wild, this card is too expensive for what it does really, especially since it requires the additional spell activation. Most decks that'd want something like this would just run Cobalt Spellkin instead

Rattlegore: this card will not see play in Wild. Aggro decks will just ignore it while punching you in the face(if you even live long enough to play it in the first place), and combo decks will be comboing by the time you play this. If it had taunt, it might be meaningful, but since Warrior doesn't have many way to cheat stuff out early like Shaman does, it still wouldn't be great.

Shan'do Wildclaw: meh a lot of people want beast decks to work, but they just... don't. Beast Hunter is kind of a thing, so maybe they'll want this, but it also interferes with Master's Call, so... this card's best bet is probably just for the copying option, maybe in Reno Hunter with Dinotamer Brann, or some kind of Druid combo with a beast minion. Maybe the other Druid/Hunter cards will be more beast synergies that will give this card a bit more hope.

Transfer Student: a wildcard. Reno decks who want more 2 drops might run this, since even its worst options are still decent, but it might just be too inconsistent. Other decks likely won't want this

Troublemaker: it's big, it's mean, and it's got nowhere it fits. Warrior just isn't a slow class in Wild and 8 drops aren't fast enough. Though, seeing stuff like this and Rattlegore makes me wonder if we're going to start seeing some big warrior support soon.

Wand Thief: 'created by' quest mage will probably like this card. Easy for it to activate the combo, and it generates more stuff for them to do quest mage things with. Rogue is kinda ded in Wild, though. I guess burgle rogue might like this?

Wretched Tutor: don't think it'll see too much play, but it's not bad. Betting this will see play in Libram Exodia Paladin as a combo with Libram of Justice. Doubt it'll fit much of anywhere else.

[The Glyphstone]

Does Spellburst only trigger if the minion is still alive when you cast, or does the effect hang around for stuff like Diligent Notetaker?

[Stevesciguy]

Does Spellburst only trigger if the minion is still alive when you cast, or does the effect hang around for stuff like Diligent Notetaker?

The minion has to still be alive.

[Geno9999]

Heck yeah, Mean Streets of Naxxramas 2: It's out too!

Does Spellburst only trigger if the minion is still alive when you cast, or does the effect hang around for stuff like Diligent Notetaker?

It has to be alive and it's a one-time effect, something that Trump and Regis have emphasized during their reviews. So Goody Two Shields only gets one extra Divine Shield, Wretched Tutor only does the AoE once, etc. Which, with the exception of Goody Two Shields or Diligent Notetaker, sounds like Battlecry but with extra steps, so I'm not super sure a lot of them will see play.

Goody Two Shields at least is a +1/+1 Scarlet Crusader even without considering Spellburst, so I'm fully expecting to see it as a two-of in every Paladin except some bizarre Duel or King Phaoris meme deck.

Maybe Wretched Tutor pops up in Control decks like Highlander Mage or any Priest deck, especially since it doesn't need multiple small spells like Wild Pyromancer, and the 2 damage is pretty good against Demon Hunter or Druid's Glowfly turns.

Diligent Notetaker is pretty good, getting an extra copy of any spell isn't something to sneeze at, but Shaman is kind of in a dumpster in standard (Totem Shaman had a resurgence recently post-17.6 nerfs, any deck that can match it's early game like Tempo Demon Hunter or Galakrond Rogue will just eat it for breakfast.) Good for any Midrange or Control Shaman, but otherwise not good enough on it's own to pull Shaman into revancy.

Frazzled Freshman suddenly makes Divine Spirit HoF make a ton of sense. Would be scary if we had Savior's of Uldum era Tempo/Combo Priest, but with Priest's card draw getting absolutely gutted so that Blizzard can say that no card draw is Priest's identity, I don't think Tempo Priest will pop up even with this card. Now this is just a low-ball roll for Galakrond Priest hero power.

Cult Neophyte might see some play in standard IF ONLY to target Spell Druid, disrupting Mountseller turns. Even then though, I can only see Tempo/Aggressive decks running this card, Like DH or Highlander Hunter, maybe some Rogue decks.

Lightning Bloom, making Spell Druid even scarier, pulling out even more dumb Mountseller turns. Shaman can possibly make a Malygos deck on the back of this, even make a weird Big Overload deck that cheats out large minions and plays low-cost spells like Torrent to control the board on the Overloaded turns.

Devolving Missiles... Yesss... First, I play Sorcerer's Apprentice and Chenvaala! I play both copies of Devolving Missiles! Now I play Magic Trick! I play another Magic Trick! I play yet another Devolving Missiles! With your board nothing but pathetic wisps, I play Arcane Missiles! And again! And another Magic Trick! And Learn Draconic!

Troublemaker and Rattlegore seems to want to be in the Enrage/Egg/Pick a Name Warrior deck as top end, but only then I think only Troublemaker will see play. Rattlegore is just too low impact to justify putting in a deck, even when it does see play it'll warrant Control Decks to run Silence/Transform effects again and you've wasted 9 mana.

[Zevox]

Does Spellburst only trigger if the minion is still alive when you cast, or does the effect hang around for stuff like Diligent Notetaker?

The minion has to still be alive.

So basically, it's the "when you cast a spell" mechanic that we've had since Classic (Antonidas, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, etc), except it only happens once.

[Seerow]

So basically, it's the "when you cast a spell" mechanic that we've had since Classic (Antonidas, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, etc), except it only happens once.

I hope some of these effects are things that would give a massive payoff for not using the spellburst immediately. Otherwise it feels like just a weaker battlecry that has a conditional.

[Rynjin]

So basically, it's the "when you cast a spell" mechanic that we've had since Classic (Antonidas, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, etc), except it only happens once.

The one effect we've seen so far does dwarf the effects of a single use of either of those, so if they retain that level of value then it should be fine.

[Divayth Fyr]

The one effect we've seen so far does dwarf the effects of a single use of either of those, so if they retain that level of value then it should be fine.

One effect? We saw 4 so far

• Deal 2 damage to all other minions. On a neutral 4 mana 2/5
• Gain Divine Shield. On a Paladin 3 mana 4/2 Divine Shield
• Return the spell to your hand. On a Shaman 2 mana 2/3
• Add 2 random spells from your class to your hand. On a neutral 6 mana 4/9

[Stevesciguy]

Two more cards revealed!

Spoiler: Caaards

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Headmaster Kel'Thuzad
Legendary Neutral Minion
5/4/6
Spellburst: If the spell destroys any minions, summon them.

Combustion
Epic Mage Spell
3 Mana
Deal 4 damage to a minion. Any excess damages both neighbours.

[Rynjin]

One effect? We saw 4 so far

• Deal 2 damage to all other minions. On a neutral 4 mana 2/5
• Gain Divine Shield. On a Paladin 3 mana 4/2 Divine Shield
• Return the spell to your hand. On a Shaman 2 mana 2/3
• Add 2 random spells from your class to your hand. On a neutral 6 mana 4/9

I only remembered that last one.

Still, all of those effects are better than a single activation of Gadgetzan by a wide margin. Not all are better than Antonidas, but he's a Legendary, so it makes sense most non-Legendaries won't be as good.

[Rodin]

I just experienced the rare "reverse rage quit". My Druid opponent cast Fungal Fortunes and discarded both Exotic Mountsellers and Ysera Unleashed.

I felt so bad for him that I quit playing for the day. 3 minions in the deck and he discards all 3? That's just harsh.

[Stevesciguy]

First day of proper card reveals! We got a lot of warlock/priest today.

Spoiler: I like cards

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Flesh Giant
Epic Priest/Warlock Minion
8/8/8
Costs (1) less for each time your hero's Health changed during your turn.

Disciplinarian Gandling
Legendary Priest/Warlock Minion
4/3/6
After you play a minion, destroy it and summon a 4/4 Failed Student.

Boneweb Egg
Rare Warlock Minion
2/0/2
Deathrattle: Summon two 2/1 spiders. If you discard this, trigger its Deathrattle.

Brittlebone Destroyer
Rare Priest/Warlock Minion
4/3/3
Battlecry: If your hero's Health changed this turn, destroy a minion.

Infiltrator Lilian
Legendary Rogue Minion
4/4/2
Stealth
Deathrattle: Summon a 4/2 Forsaken Lilian that attacks a random enemy.

Cycle of Hatred
Rare Demon Hunter Spell
7 Mana
Deal 3 damage to all minions. Summon a 3/3 Spirit for every minion killed.

Steeldancer
Epic Rogue/Warrior Minion
4/4/4
Battlecry: Summon a random minion with Cost equal to your weapon's attack.