League of Explorers Card Review: Wing Four - Page 2

On December 11 2015 12:54 NewSunshine wrote:
A control Mage could theoretically use Animated Armor, and play it behind a taunt, to keep yourself alive against burn spells.

On December 11 2015 11:15 Cricketer12 wrote:

Cursed Blade vs Zoo/Hybrid/Face = Turn 3 Dead

On December 11 2015 16:24 Noidberg wrote:
How can Elise be rated so poorly and yet Rafaam is an 8?? Rafaam is a dead card against aggro, its win moreish as you need board for the +10/10 buff and thats after you spent 9 mana playing him. I would rather skip using Rafaam and play Icehowl and i do if i want to deal 10 damage to something. The random 10 damage is still just a worse Avenging Wrath. The only good spell is the mirror and again you're skipping 2 initiative turns by playing him into mummies which is weak to AoE espiecally at those stages of the game.

I can argue that Elise is a superior win condition to Rafaam especially in control vs control matchups. Elise is relevant mid game as a 3/5 which is still fine late game. Getting the monkey is a decent body for cost as essentially a 6/6 for 6 with taunt and the effect of transforming your useless cards in hand to legendary cards is insane. The trick to using the monkey is at fatigue with your hand consisting of cards you wouldnt want to play like acolytes of pain, zombie chows and other combo cards that are no longer useful.

PS. Rafaam is a worse Ysera as well. Weak to Big Game/ Bad body at 8 health to fight against aggro and the 10 mana spells wont save you while awakening can.

On December 11 2015 20:19 heisnotaxel wrote:
Another problem with Elise is that her battlecry thickens your deck, so that can potentially make your aggro matchup way worse when your chance of drawing heal or AOE becomes lower.

On December 12 2015 00:42 Firenza wrote:
Cards reviewed in this wing with a rating less than 6 ("Playable") that will absolutely see some degree of competitive play:

Animated Armor: The effect is too powerful not to include in some form of fatigue or Reno mage. It's potentially another Ice Block, preventing the opponent from killing you the next turn because this has to be dealt with first.

Raven Idol: If Jeweled Scarab is good enough for competitive play, then so is this. The flexibility of the Discover cards is proving to be too good to pass up. Play it early, and pick a good card for the early and mid-game. Play it late, and grab a spell or minion that helps shut out the game. Unlike Ethereal Conjurer or Tomb Spider, this isn't a replacement for card draw. Honestly, if this card isn't played because there isn't room for it in double-combo Druid then it's finally time for Blizzard to nerf Force of Nature because it's choking the design space.

Museum Curator: Same deal as above, except even more consistent. In the case of fatigue Priest, it's an advantage that it gives you a new card, rather than draws from the deck. It might not be an auto-include, but again, I'm pointing out cards that certainly deserve a rating of "playable."

Curse of Rafaam: This card will see play for two reasons. First, Reno-lock is a thing now, and running one of these can be justified. Second, it's a hard counter to Ice Block. Generally, it's the right kind of win-more. Let's say you're running zoo and have a decent board by the start of turn 4. Playing this and a 2-drop can be seen as a better play than over-flooding the board with an additional 2-drop or playing a higher cost minion. Your opponent has to keep up with your tempo and eat damage or waste an critical turn.

On December 11 2015 12:17 BlacKcuD wrote:
Curse of Rafaam can be used by Zoo decks to counter one of their weakest matchups: Freeze Mage. The damage triggers on their turn, so Iceblock is neglected and boom mage ded.

On December 11 2015 16:54 Karis Vas Ryaar wrote:


I pretty much agree with this Elise should be at least like a 4 or 5 possibly higher. It's certainly playable although I feel that its a bit too early to say how good it actually is. I know these are pre rankings But a 2 seems insanely low. I remember Reynad talking about it on stream about how excited he was to use it in priest. I like the idea of Rafaam but I think its just not that great. even in a control matchup I don't think it gives you enough value for 2 full turns worth of doing nothing else.

I think you can play elise before super late game if your playing another slow control deck because it just seems to give you so many threats that they can't deal with. just have an established board when you play the golden monkey.

On December 12 2015 01:43 Seuss wrote:


I actually think this week's assessments were mostly on the mark. Raven Idol might have been a bit low, but we'll get to that in a second.

I think you're overvaluing Animated Armor. When compared against an actual Taunt it's only better in a few very specific situations:

• Fatigue, provided you have board control and can guarantee it will stay alive.
  
• Prior to your opponent playing Alexstraza or a big combo, again provided they don't have board control.
  
• As a play prior to triggering damage (e.g. Leper Gnomes, Boombots) that might hit your face.

Otherwise it's a weak taunt that doesn't protect your board (and, in some cases, won't even protect you). If this was a Warrior or Warlock card it would be absolutely incredible, but as Mage has neither weapons nor significant self-damage it's ultimately relegated to "something that occasionally comes out of Piloted Sky Golems and ruins your opponent's day".

On December 12 2015 03:11 Wuster wrote:


I think this is really a new toy for mill decks to help fill up their hand with junk, but I don't play those so I'm probably wrong.



At first I didn't possibly see how Elise could be anything other than a joke/fun card. But then Reno happened. Seems like they'd combo well together and with Justicar some classes are basically immortal so being 'slow' doesn't really matter.