Hearthstone

So I finally got to try out Renolock today (with Sir Finley and Justicar!) and it's a pretty fun deck. I'm still scrubbin it up at rank 13 this season, but man people have a tendency of conceding when you drop Reno at less than 10 health.

This Thursday we get the final wing of LoE, so here's my last review... and since I didn't mention any of these in my "First Impressions" review a while ago, it'll be a bit shorter han my last reviews:

Fossilized Devilsaur:Neutral, 8/8 for 8, gain taunt if you control a beast.

It's an Ironbark for beast classes. Since Ironbark never gets played, I see this treated similarly. However, Hunters lack good taunt minions and maybe this guy does see play in a new Control Hunter deck or Reno Hunter deck. This card will never see play in Druid when they can easily take Ironbark but for Hunter maybe it finds a home somewhere.



Wobbling Runts:Neutral 2/6 for 6, Deathrattle summon three 2/2/ Runts.

Savannah Highmane is 10/9 worth of stats if Deathrattle procs, this minion is 8/12 worth of stats. Downside is a 2/6 is really slow on 6 mana and can't trade with anything. I can't see it making many lists, although Token Druid and maybe Raptor Rogue could make a case for it. Probably too slow, though. In Arena it seems better than Kodo Rider which is 6/10 worth of stats on 8 mana.



Eerie Statue:Neutral 7/7 for 4, Can't attack unless it's the only minion on the battlefield.

It's twice as slow as Ancient Watcher but it's also much stronger. If you can taunt this guy up your opponent has to kill it. It's a BGH target which isn't so bad since it's only a 4 mana minion as opposed to the 7+ mana BGH targets. I can see this replacing Watcher in Handlocks, and also see it in Renolock. It's a nice Shadowflame target too. Obviously we might see some Silence decks built with this, but they always seem too inconsistent so I don't expect there to be any major meta-deck built around this. The bonus with Eerie Statue over Ancient Watcher is if you get board control you might actually be able to attack enemy face with it once in a while too. I like this card and I believe it will see play in a few decks.



Museum Curator:Priest, 1/2 for 2, Discover a Deathrattle card.

There's a really good chance you discover Dark Cultist, which is a 3 drop and would be on curve if you play this on 2 mana. Otherwise, any other Deathrattle card would be Neutral. Discover is a strong mechanic and I can see this in many Priest decks. Dragon Priest is unlikely to run this card simply because Wyrmwrest & Welps are already flooding their early drops, and are stronger. If you've been using Scarab in your priest deck, this card can easily replace it with the upside of getting Shredder/Sylvanas/etc instead of just a 3 cost card. A 1/2 isn't very strong, but Priest are normally passive until turn 3 or 4, so being able to grab a 3 or 4 drop from this would be excellent.



Raven Idol:Druid, 1 Mana spell, Choose one: Discover a Minion or Spell.

I see 2 of this run in almost all Druid decks. IMO it's one of the strongest cards in this set for Druid. Aggro & Control each should love this card. Discover allows you to get immediate answers to whatever you're facing. Aggro Druid might prefer to discover another Savage Roar or Force. Any Druid deck would love a 3rd Swipe/DotC/Keeper of the Grove/Ancient of Lore & War/etc. It's cheap which means past turn 5 you should be able to play most cards you've Discovered. The flexibility to get answers to problems is huge. I can't imagine not playing 2 of this in any Druid deck.



Desert Camel:Hunter, 2/4 for 3, Battlecry: put a 1 cost minion from each deck into the battlefield.

This is a strong minion. I don't see this in Face Hunter though. It's a card that's unable to do face damage the turn it's played, and it could waste your Abusive's battlecry. This card should be in mid-range & control hunter. 1 drop minions are not often played, except in Priest and Aggro decks, you could use this to take out a Priest's Cleric before they have a chance to use it for card draw, or pull out Zoo's Reliquary Seeker before they can use it to become a 5/5, or pull out some Abusive's before they can use them to make big trades. Dragon Priest Whelps would not obtain the Battlecry either. A 2/4 is 1 less attack than ideal, but you are also putting a 1 drop into play yourself, which makes up for it imo.



Cursed Blade:Warrior, Weapon, 2/3 for 1, Double all damage dealt to your hero.

It's strong but 3 durability is 3 turns minimum of you taking double damage - ouch! And not only do you take double damage from the minions you attack, but also you are taking double damage when it's the opponent's turn. I can't see this being viable. Face decks would roll over you in 3 turns.



Curse of Rafaam:Warlock, 2 Mana Spell, Give your opponent a cursed card, they take 2 damage on their turn if they hold it.

Zoo might play this, but I doubt it. Your opponent either spends 2 mana to get rid of the curse, which gives you tempo, or they hold on to it and take 2 damage per turn as they try to build board presence. Zoo needs board presence which this spell doesn't help with, so in many ways it's not optimal. It will probably be tried, but I can't see it being optimal in any deck atm.



Animated Armor:Mage, 4/4 for 4, your hero can only take 1 damage at a time.

Seems bad. Water Elemental is a 3/6 for 4 and freezes targets. This card is better vs aggro but Mage are already good against Aggro decks. Grinder Mage/Freeze Mage/Tempo Mage all have really good tools to prevent taking damage already. This card could see a lot of play in other classes, but for Mage it doesn't seem optimal.



Tomb Pillager:Rogue, 5/4 for 4, Deathrattle: add a coin to your hand.

With the Deathrattle this is a 5/4 for 3. It's ahead of the curve and is yet another big minion for Rogues. Should make it into the Raptor Rogue arsenal, and perhaps other decks too. Rogue have so many big minions already which never see play, but they are all around 5 mana. This card trades with most 5 drops and is played on turn 3/4. This card should be good.



Elise Starseeker:Neutral, 3/5 for 4. Shuffle the Map into your deck. Map is 2 mana: Shuffle the Golden Monkey into your deck. Golden monkey is 6/6 for 4 mana: Replace your hand and deck with Legendary Minions.

Super slow card, super fun card. Shouldn't see much play and will probably never see competitive play. The downside with replacing all your cards with Legendaries is that you remove all of your spells, which are often key for board control. If there was such as thing as Legendary Spells then this card would be tons better. Of course you could always hope for Nef/Ysera/Rafaam but that wouldn't be consistent. Maybe this card squeezes into a Reno list. Against Control matchups this card might be viable, but in most cases it's going to be bad.



Arch-Thief Rafaam:Neutral, 7/8 for 9, Discover a Powerful Artifact.

Some people expect this to be auto-include in control decks. I do not think it'll be auto-include, but it will be strong. Most control decks can only afford one or two 9-drops. This card loses against any 8/8 and trades even against any 4/12 minion that you would play at 9 mana. The Artifacts are 10 mana which is super-slow, but they are strong. The upside is you get to choose between having up to seven 3/3 minions on board, dealing 10 random damage, or buffing a minion with +10/+10. The downside is you spend 2 complete turns for something that may not give you board control. This card is comparable to Ysera and Nef, except it's not a Dragon, so it wouldn't see play in any Dragon themed deck. Next viable candidates are Control Warrior or Priest. It's unlikely to see much play outside those extreme Control decks imo.

Anyfin is Awesome works on non-murlocs, so you only need a few murlocs to get the cost low to be able to buff your entire board. It's actually not bad.