The first Warlock, Shaman and Druid class cards have been revealed in addition to an interesting neutral legendary
Earlier in the week, Blizzard released a 7 new cards that will be included in the new Goblins vs Gnomes expansion pack. Now that the dust has settled, lets take a look and see how they might stack up in a competitive deck!
Ancestor's Call is a sweet card, and players will immediately want to do sweet things with it. It has all of the casual allure of a [card]Alarm-o-bot[/card] but a little bit more finese. This card is immediately more powerful than the loveable bot because you can immediately put your huge minion from your hand into play: you don't need to wait until the next turn and hope a flimsy minion survives.
That said, with this power increase comes a cost; your opponent also gets a free minion. Cards like this are more powerful when a deck seeks to imbalance the inherent fairness of the effect, so when your deck is filled with 10 mana legendaries and your opponent's isn't, you are likely to see some value. Also important to note is that this card bypasses negative battle cries.
I am pleased that Druid decks will be seeing more cute bears, and by the looks of it, this card gets a solid pass in any druid deck longing for two drops. The easiest comparison to make is [card]Power of the Wild[/card], as it is also a druid two drop and it also comes with versatility. Choosing what flavor of two drop is a tad weaker than giving minions +1/+1, but the power of this card comes from the almost guarantee that it will trade evenly with an opponents minion, as you have the choice on whether to make it a 2/3 or a 3/2. I almost forgot that this card is a Mech, which only makes it better (or worse, depending on the rest of the cards still to be release)
If [card]Chillwind Yeti[/card] is the gold standard of 4 drops, than Fel Cannon is already looking to be quite good. Because the ability is at the end of your turn, it is possible to clear the board in such a way that the 2 damage is under your control, making this more of a 5/5 for 4 in a perfect scenario. The problem is there will certainly be times where this sits dead in your hand because you don't want to attack your own minions. For Fel Cannon to see play, Warlocks will need to go all in on the Mech Deck, which as it stands now, doesn't seem that hard to do.
I think this card looks a lot better than it actually is. Let's get the awesome stuff out of the way. Windfury + this = awesome. This can kill stealthed minions and it is one of the few ways a minion can kill another minion with Poison via attacking and still survive! If you notice though, all of these awesome situations are, well, situational. Paying 8 mana should get you something, but Foe Reaper 4000 only shines on the next turn after you have played it.
What get's even more problematic is that your opponent will have time to react to the Foe Reaper 4000 (as clearly letting it attack is suicide) by throwing the very minions you intended to kill for free directly at it. Sure, you probably 2-1'ed your opponent, but any big legendary would of not only done that, but also came with a powerful battlecry or deathrattle. In reality, this card is more like [card]War Golem[/card] than anything else.
This card looks very powerful for a number of reasons. For one, it's stats are impressive for 4 mana and 5 hp is as good as it gets. On top of that, there are a lot of powerful mechs out their and Warriors now have a very straightforward way to make them into sincere threats. Annoy-o-tron get's a lot more annoying as a 3/4 taunt with divine shield and it doesn't seem very hard to have a mech like that survive until turn 4.
The easiest comparison is [card]Houndmaster[/card] and that card already sees a lot of play. Screwjank Clunker is much better than Houndmaster in one regard, as a ScrewJank Clunker can buff another Screwjank Clunker, on account of them both being Mechs. I personally think this card will see a lot of play.
Jeeves is another new neutral card that tests a players ability to break symmetry. In the ideal scenario, due to deck design and slight alteration of how you would normally play, Jeeves would draw you three cards at the end of the turn you played it, and on your opponent subsequent turn, draw them 0. Less optimal would be that you both draw cards, but you possibly draw more. This can sometimes be better than [card]Gnomish Inventor[/card] and sometimes be strictly worse, especially if it only draws you 1 card.
So before players start putting Jeeves in their deck, it is important to figure out how you plan on making only the first scenario happen. I imagine rushdown style decks that use Jeeves like they would [card]Divine Favor[/card] or possibly a powerful card might be revealed that causes you to sacrifice a mech (great value if you manage to draw with Jeeves already). Neutral cards with card draw have always seen a fair bit of play, so it's a little up in the air on this one.
Shieldmaiden may not be the Shieldmasta, but if we have learned anything about top Warrior control decks is that they love Armor. Compare this card to [card]Guardian of Kings[/card], but imagine that Guardian of Kings activated a crucial removal spell, and cost less mana. I predict that Warrior control decks will play this as a 1 of in the same vein that Control Paladin decks play Guardian of Kings. A nice balanced creature that allows control decks a way to stablize against aggresive strategies.
What cards are you most excited to play with? Let us know in the comments section!
