The magi of Hearthstone may retain their arena dominance with (at least one) of these two new mid-game additions.
The latest cards to be revealed from the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion are two exclusive minions for the Mage. Unlike most of the spell-damage-centric class’s previous entourage however, these tentacled drops add an instant dose of randomness to the field, and have brought polarized responses from players due to their imbalanced and unpredictable outcomes.
Noxious revealed the first card for today: a 6 mana, 5/5 drop that brings along a 3-cost minion with it to the board. Essentially a pricier but more rewarding [card]Piloted Shredder[/card] without the wait, Faceless Summoner has been on the receiving end of a fair bit of criticism for Blizzard’s perceived lack of forethought regarding arena play. Despite being a common card, the massive tempo swinging options available from the available 3 mana minion pool (think [card]Injured Blademaster[/card], [card]King Mukla[/card] or [card]Arcane Golem[/card]) means even in a post-Standard world this is arguably one of the best and most divisive Old Gods cards yet.
The other new minion, which was brought to us by the Mayor of Valuetown, Trump, isn’t so much bad as it is…wacky. Very much modeled after his master, the Servant of Yogg-Saron is a 5-cost minion with 5/4 stats who will unleash a random spell as long as it’s below the five mana mark. This means that in the better case scenarios it will either, say, summon a pair of 2/3 taunts ([card]Feral Spirit[/card]) or a Huffer/Leokk ([card]Animal Companion[/card]). At worst it will kill itself and let your opponent draw two cards ([card]Naturalize[/card]). Not exactly a card to build a strategy around, but it least it’s a much less infuriating application of RNG.
