Whispers of the Old Gods Card Review: Part Three
Hello everyone and welcome to the first part of the Whispers of the Old Gods card reviews. This will follow a similar format to the TGT and LOE card review where I host a call with some other high-level players to discuss the new cards. We will be using the same rating scale as we used in LOE.
- 1=Unplayable
- 2=Almost certainly unplayable
- 3=Bad
- 4=Meh
- 5=Decent
- 6=Playable
- 7=Good
- 8=Very Good
- 9=Extremely Good
- 10=Overpowered
While this scale is far from ideal it allows us to differentiate more between low-quality cards than the previous scale and it makes it more clear just what a certain rating means.
Today’s guests are:
- Deathstar v3, creator of the Midrange Hunter with Deathlord
- Ersee, Dreamhack Winter 2015 Runner-Up and player for eSports Hero
- Boarcontrol, online circuit player and multiple time Top 100 finisher on ladder
- Cursed, professional player with eSports Hero
- Old_Guardian, a new writer for us here at Liquidhearth.
Card Rankings
Playable In
Taunt DruidRating: 9
Dark Arakkoa
Like we said in the first review: we generally don’t rate C’Thun cards because they are very hard to judge in a vacuum. That said, Dark Arakkoa is really good outside of C’thun as well. It is in most scenarios a superior version of Sunwalker. It also curves really well between Druid of the Claw and Ancient of War, making up for a rather weak slot in most taunt Druid decks. Besides that it will be absolutely insane in C’Thun decks because not only does it buff him very much but it also allows you to stall into your C’Thun more easily against midrange and aggro decks. Besides that this card curves out really well from Mire Keeper, the new Druid ramping tool.
Playable In
Rating: 2
Wisps of the Old Gods
This card is the replacement for Dark Wispers which is being rotated out. Dropping so many whisps on the board is just very bad for your board control and the other effect pays five more mana to double the effect of Power of the Wild.
Playable In
Midrange HunterDeathrattle Hunter
Hybrid Hunter
Rating: 8
Princess Huhuran
The strange thing about this card is that the effect won’t be seeing much use because there are many Deathrattles being rotated out, so unless another Hunter Deathrattle is being released, the only real thing you can do with it is activate Highmane -- or any Leper Gnomes who've made it to turn five -- making this card somewhat awkward to play. Having said that, the stat point of this card is really good, completely making up for its relatively poor effect. Besides that, midrange Hunter’s current 5-drops -- Belcher and Loatheb -- are currently being rotated out, making a very nice opening for a card like this.
Playable In
Rating: 3
Forlorn Stalker
This card essentially needs to provide two buffs to the cards in your hand to make it worth the cost; otherwise, this card is just a worse version of Shattered Sun Cleric. With standard coming in there will be many Hunter cards with Deathrattles being removed so the Stalker's fate is unknown.
Playable In
Reno MageTempo Mage
Rating: 7
Faceless Summoner
This card has the potential to be the new Shredder for Tempo Mage because of how much attack/health it puts on the board. The worst case scenario you get is a 2/2 and there are no horrible outcomes like Doomsayer. Having said that, this card is already at the high-end of the mana spectrum for Tempo Mage. Tempo Mage is also a deck with many good cards rotating both in spells (Flamecanon-Unstable Portal) and minions (Shredder-Loatheb) and just the overall synergy with secrets which will likely not see play without Mad Scientist. It remains to be seen if Tempo Mage will see any play post rotation.
Playable In
Rating: 4
Demented Frostcaster
This card has very poor stats for its mana, making it quite unattractive for tempo. Besides that, Tempo Mage already has a card to fill this role with Flamewaker. Couple that overlap with Mage losing some cheap spells and it becomes hard to see where Frostcaster will fit. Furthermore, the effect says ‘’character’’ meaning it can also hit the face which makes it unreliable unless you are able to play multiple spells with it: it won’t target the same target multiple times on the same turn). Besides that it has a fairly similar effect to Water Elemental, a card that only occasionally sees play but is the favorite to take Shredder's four slot in Tempo Mage.
Playable In
Rating: 4
Twilight Flamecaller
This card is essentially an Ironforge Rifleman that hits multiple minions. Unfortunately, this being a straight-up upgrade over Ironforge Rifleman, this card still is very poor and won’t see play anywhere because of the terrible stats. This is especially true with so many tokens -- Muster, Imp-losion, and Haunted Creeper -- being rotated out.
Playable In
Rating: 4
Embrace the Shadow
Generally, spells that set up spells, such as Confuse and Lock and Load have been bad. Another reason why this card is mediocre is the fact that Auchenai does the same thing just for two mana more and you also get a decent body. The only situation in which this card would be a better option than Auchenai is if you combo it with Velen and then you will often have a four or five card combo.
Check here for our official reveal featuring the Liquid Pros.
Playable In
Deathrattle PriestRating: 7
Shifting Shade
With this now being the only Deathrattle Priest minion, it will be very easy to get from Curator. Copying a card from someone’s deck as a Deathrattle is comparable to drawing a card making this card a better version of the recently announced Polluted Hoarder. In comparison with Thoughtsteal, Shifting Shade trades some value for Tempo. As it stands, however, Priests are losing two solid three-drops so we may start seeing these two played together. Besides that, non-dragon Priests already have very few tempo plays that they would want to play on turn four so this card fits there very well.
Playable In
Tempo RogueDeathrattle Rogue
Rating: 6
Shadowcaster
This card is good with Battlecries and Deathrattles -- things you see quite frequently in most existing Rogue decks -- because it copies those and provides the effect really cheaply. Having said that, this card suffers from the same downside of many other minions that target friends: it requires you to already have a board for them to work. Deathrattles are particularly good with this card because quite often the most common strategy against these kinds of minions is to ignore them if you can’t silence them. They often stay on the board, therefore, for more than one turn so you can easily use them to activate this card. Another upside of this card is that it works very well to activate Combo effects.
Playable In
Mill RogueRating: 4
Thistle Tea
This card is one mana and one card less than Sprint which is not a good trade. The only deck who may run this is Mill Rogue since it can better control the cards in your deck with Gang Up. It is also worth noting that three copies of the same card is often worse than three different cards because of how it limits your options.
Playable In
RenolockCombolock
Handlock
Rating: 8
Cho'Gall
This card is extremely good in Renolock because of the many one-of spells. Even in Handlock there are four spells you can play with this card: Doom, Siphon Soul, Hellfire and Shadowflame. Of those cards, only Siphon Soul and Shadowflame are ideal candidates unless you can drop yourself into Molten range safely with Doom or Hellfire.
Playable In
ZoolockRating: 7
Possessed Villager
This card is better than Argent Squire in every single situation in Zoo except for some Defender of Arguses. If that wasn't enough, Possessed Villager's great synergy with Power Overwhelming should be enough to lock him into Zoolock. Having said that, Zoo looks much weaker without Eggs/Shredder/Creeper/Loatheb so we will probably see this card in a faster version of the zoo than we are currently seeing.
Playable In
RenolockRating: 4
Spreading Madness
While this card looks pretty good on paper, it is a more inconsistent version of Hellfire on two minions and for over three minions Demonwrath is better. It might see some play in Renolock, however, because they more need to diversify.
Playable In
C’Thun DecksRating: 4
Ancient Harbinger
I personally really like the design of this card because it makes sure that you draw into your C’thun -- or other assigned win-con -- when you need it. This will seriously increase consistency in these kinds of decks. The obvious downside of this card is the fact that it has fairly poor stats for a six-drop and the trigger at the start of your turn makes it relatively easy to remove the card. Another issue is that this card has very severe diminishing returns as likely only the first draw will be relevant and after that it is just a poorly statted six-drop.
Playable In
Rating: 2
Blood of The Ancient One
While I am sure that Trolden will feature this card a few times in the next few episodes but this combo is way too hard to get off. Blood of the Ancient One is very unlikely to see play even if BGH is nerfed. (Editor Note: The prophecy is fulfilled. )
Playable In
Rating: 4
Deathwing, Dragonlord
This card is basically a worse version of Varian which is currently seeing no play even in the most greedy deck. Besides that, the effect is a Deathrattle which is weak to Silence/Polymorph/Hex etc. Deathwing will also negate any powerful Battlecries you may be saving. Having said that, this card only needs one dragon being summoned to make the effect rather valuable.
Playable In
HandlockZoolock
Rating: 7
Faceless Shambler
This card is fairly interesting because -- unlike its bigger and more costly brother -- Faceless Shambler doesn’t copy status effects. As a result, it works extremely well with Power Overwhelming. On the other hand, due to its innate Taunt ability, it works really well in Handlock when you don’t have a Sunfury or Argus to buff up your giants. Outside of those situations the card is a bit too much win-more because it requires you to keep at minimum a four mana creature on the board for more than one turn. He is also less likely to make a comeback because, unlike his more expensive brother, he can only copy friendly minions.
Playable In
Rating: 4
Mukla, Tyrant of the Vale
This card is essentially a worse version of Toshley with spells that are slightly better. The only kind of deck where a card like this would be playable would be Tempo Mage but even at its peak Toshley was rarely seeing play there because it was so slow. With Tempo Mage taking some severe hits, this most likely won't find a home there.
Playable In
Deathrattle PriestRating: 5
N'Zoth, the Corruptor
While this card looks good on paper, the fact that so many Deathrattles are being rotated out this season really cuts down on the targets. The best neutral Deathrattles are currently Cairne and Sylvanas. Without the announcement of more Deathrattle minions you will be forced to fill your deck with sub-optimal cards to get a combo off that you might not even draw.
Playable In
Rating: 4
Scaled Nightmare
This card looks cool on paper but in reality it is just too slow to work. Dragon decks don’t really need more greedy late-game dragons. Dragon decks need tools to get to that lategame. Scaled Nightmare requires you to have it survive at the bare minimum for one turn where it is still below curve. Once this card gets buffed twice it has become really good but it will likely not be worth the investment.
Playable In
Reno MageRating: 6
Servant of Yogg-Saron
Assuming that this card works in the same way as Yogg-Saron itself, there are plenty of good outcomes. When Trump reviewed this card he made an overview of the different possibilities and most of them are actually pretty decent. Having said that, Conjurer and Azure Drake are most likely going to be better than this card in Tempo Mage so the spot is pretty stuffed.
Playable In
C'Thun DecksRating: TBD
Skeram Cultist
Another C’Thun synergy card with a very reasonable statline. The downside of this card, however, is the fact that it has seven attack
Playable In
Taunt DruidRating: 5
Soggoth The Slitherer
This card was very difficult to rate because it is unlike many things we have seen before. On the one hand, it is too slow to protect you against aggro decks because you are already dead or super far behind on turn nine. This card is, therefore, made to protect a lategame deck against a midrange deck. The effect on this minion is only weak to Keeper of Uldaman or Aldor Peacekeeper and Silences; but with so many good Deathrattles rotating, out there might just be fewer silences in the game. In general, Taunt minions want higher health than damage and this effect scales very will with high Health.
Playable In
Rating: 2
The Boogeymonster
Cards like these which require kills to get rolling aren't great, especially because this card only activates if he is the one that does the actual attacking. There is no way that you can get this creature to be useful unless you are extremely far ahead on the board in which case there are plenty of eight-drops that better fill the slot.
Playable In
Deathrattle ShamanDeathrattle Hunter
Rating: 6
Twilight Summoner
This card is follows the same concept as Nerubian Egg without the huge upside. A 5/5 on turn five is less exciting than a 4/4 on turn two or three. Due to the higher cost, this card is also way weaker to Silence. This card might be playable in Shaman to activate with Flametongue and Argus, thus making the 1/1 body actually usable and forcing your opponent to deal with it. This card could also have some synergy in Priest and in Hunter with Herald Volazj and Princess Huhuran.
Playable In
Rating: 4
Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound
This card is another worse version of Varian Wrynn. Y’Shaarj needs at least to stay alive for a turn in order to be a slightly worse Varian -- the stat increase really doesn’t make up for the extra potential minion -- which is just expecting too much in a meta which will most likely have lots of hard removal to counteract this exact scenario.
Playable In
Control WarriorRating: 5
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End
Someone on reddit made this awesome simulator to show how this card will work out. While the effect is super random, and has the potential to instantly kill you, the high number of rolls will level out the outcomes. One of the big downsides on this card is that you have a very small time window to play it. You will want to wait until you've played a bunch of spells but still play it before fatiguing yourself off all the cards you may potentially draw. It's also worth noting that Yogg-Saron will likely not fit in Freeze Mage because Ice Block will not save you on your turn.
Writer: Daisyx
Panelists: Boarcontrol Cursed Deathstarv3 Ersee Old_Guardian
Graphics: Hayl
Editors: Hayl
Panelists: Boarcontrol Cursed Deathstarv3 Ersee Old_Guardian
Graphics: Hayl
Editors: Hayl