One night in Karazhan has been revealed!! We are going way back, to a time no one remembers, when Medivh was young and organized the greatest discos known in Azeroth. Everyone was invited. Lords, Murlocs, Trolls… Taurens, Draenei and Blood Elves… Wait what? How? Okay that is enough trying to decipher the lore of this adventure. We've got some cards to analyze.
Right off the bat we go with a simplistic card that may hold a lot of potential. Like most class 1-mana minions released these days, this raven got 4 points worth of stats for 1 mana, but this is the first time we get to see the 2/2 statline. It cannot be pinged off and trades favorably with 3/2 2 mana minions.
On top of this it is a beast, which is hugely relevant since [card]mark of y'shaarj[/card] curves into this minion. This allows for a massive 4/4 minion on turn 2 with no downside in card advantage.
It still begs the question if this is going to be good enough. Druids have never seen any in?entive to run [card]Hungry crab[/card], even with the same synergies and the occasional chance to eat a Finley. The one extra baseline attack will be massively relevant here and it will have to be. No matter what, this card still won't make [card]Knight of the Wild[/card] happen though. I am sorry.
Remember [card]Haunted Creeper[/card] ? The ridiculously versatile 1/2 beast spawning 2 1/1s when it died? Well here is a standard replacement for Hunters only (thank god!). Well, sort of. At only a 1/1 initial body it is more susceptible to hero power pings and having the deathrattle as single minion is also slightly weaker but it packs more of a punch. Overall, Kindly Grandmother produces the same number of stats.
On top of this both parts of this minion are beasts. This was very much NOT the case with Haunted Creeper and this part is huge. I think it extremely likely that this card will see constructed play for this reason and it might even push in some more beast support like [card]Tundra Rhino [/card] .
It is irrelevant to ask whether any Mage spell will see use. Ethereal Conjurer and Cabalist's Tome will answer that question any time. The relevant question is whether Firelands Portal is good enough to be added voluntarily.
I have my doubts about that. Initially, this might seem like a bargain. Dealing 5 points of damage (3,5 mana) + a 5 mana minion = 8,5 mana for 7. Well for one, let me remind you that this spawns a 5 mana minion, and until recently there weren't any 5/6 5-mana minions. The majority of the 5-mana minions still only got 4 health which wouldn't even be sufficient for a 4 mana minion.
Second, this card will be very awkward to use. By turn 7 you are going to want to deal more than 5 damage to handle your opponents board. A lot of stuff will need to change for this card to be able to compete in the same manaslot as [card]flamestrike[/card].
While one can be unsure about the usability of previous cards, this one is easy to evaluate. It plain sucks. Let me lay out the math for you. 17 of the currently 28 known paladin spells costs 3 or less. Meaning you have about a 20% chance to only be offered those and receive the most pathetic heal ever, without the spell being worth it at all. Not that Paladin ever needed the heal.
Just run [card]Guardian of ?ings[/card] for the consistency and added stats if you for some reason need more healing. Even better: Run a card that is actually good.
Here is your broker ready to handle the stolen goods. You do run the cards allowing you to “steal” stuff right? Like [card]burgle[/card] and [card]Undercity Huckster[/card]? Well this card might make it worth it. A massive and instantaneous tempo boost on all the goods you have acquired placed on top of the most stats a 5 mana minion can have. This card is nothing to scoff at and it could be REALLY strong, especially if Rogue sees more cards that allow them access stolen goods.
It is going to suck in the mirror and vs Miracle though, keep that in mind.
Alright here comes the interesting stuff. How does a 1/1 [card]Cairne Bloodhoof[/card] copy that still spawns a full Bain sound? No? How about a 1/1 [card]Sylvanas Windrunner[/card] that still grabs an enemy minion on deathrattle? A 1/1 [card]Tirion Fordring[/card] that still has Divine Shield and Taunt and gives you Imbabringer on death?
Okay what if I told you said copy will also be revived at full force by N'zoth later even if you also played the original? You can have two Tirions to block the hopes and dreams of any aggressive deck hoping to finish you off the turn you go all in on N'Zoth.
By now you should understand that this card will see play in most N'zoth decks, especially Paladin ones.
This is another cool card. A short quiz: Which control decks run [card]Sir finley mrrgglton[/card], [card]Stampeding Kodo[/card] and [card]Azure Drake[/card] ? If you answered “a lot of them” then you are correct which is why there is a lot of potential to be found in this card. He has a taunt himself with alright-ish stats is also massively important. Especially Anyfin Paladin is likely to see use of this card.
These are all the cards we have to analyze so far. The adventure is only 2 weeks away though so we are likely to see more cards from the set arriving soon. Be sure to check up on our One night in Karazham page for all new cards.
