New Cards Discussion for Whispers

[PsyBomb 7]

I'm slightly surprised this topic isn't already up and going other than the News announcement, so let's get started. I'm going to go card by card my thoughts on the newly revealed content from Whispers of the Old Gods, and try to get some discussion going.

C'thun: The first Old God revealed among four promised, a 6/6 for 10 that has a scaling Blastmage effect. Mediocre finisher on his own, but two of the other revealed cards (along with FOURTEEN MORE not yet revealed) scale his stats and with it the blast value. My own thoughts? This guy will make an awesome finisher to any mid or late-game focused deck that can afford five to seven cards of deck space to make it come with a serious boom. Look for mages to hold Mirror Entity until turn nine if the see the ritual boosters. It won't soak the Blast, but at the very worst it'll keep the original Old God from swinging. Obvious synergies with cost reductions and mana acceleration, so I expect C'thun Freeze Mage to be a thing. Remember as well that nearly everyone will have this guy and a decent chunk of support in their collections, so stand ready to defend agains the ritual tactics.

Beckoner of Evil: 2/3 for 2 is solid, with a battle cry to scale C'thun. Even if you only get to play two of these, the big guy is coming down for 10 (makes it a worthy cast IMHO). Obvious combination with Brann Bronzebeard as well as cards like Shadowstep or the Brewmasters, which will allow you to get more setup. Flip side is if it's worth spending extra effort getting ticks here, when the same trick can be used to generate more C'thun blasts.

Twilight Elder: 3/4 for 3 is, again, solid. This one has to stick around to do its job, and isn't likely to get much chance unless you give the enemy no way to do so. 4 health will resist the AoEs other than Flamestrike, though, so there's that.

Corrupted Healbot: if the first words to cross your mind after seeing this card weren't Auchenai Soulpriest, I'm not sure we're playing the same game. Other than that, the stats are great for the cost, and can probably be useful in control-style decks, since it is very likely to trade for two enemy cards if played on curve... but on the flip side at 5 cost 6/6 is just above normal, not dominating. Other possibilities include Silence decks or similar, though those are losing mainstays in Standard.

Polluted Hoarder: 4/2 for 4 trades very unfavorably unless you have board control, but if you do it will often be able to trade up or present decent pressure. Replacing itself, much like it's little brother Loot Hoarder, is nice to have and helps keep tempo.

Validated Doomsayer: 0/7 for 5, but becomes 7 attack every turn. Will usually just be a tempo bump on five, but if it survives the turn it becomes a serious threat and resistant to debuffs other than silence and polymorph. The problem is that it's also resistant to attack buffs, as well.

I'll review other cards as they pop up, as they are expected to this weekend.

[positiv2 953]

The problem behind C'Thun is that you put subpar cards n your deck to rotate around one card being your win condition. I feel like traditional freeze mage does a similar thing, but doesn't "requires" you to draw one of two cards (Tony or Alex) to win. However, I don't know the other cards that synergise(?) with him, so I can't say whether he's going to be played or not. C'Thun as a late-game threat is in my opinion not as strong as Deathwing or Ysera.

 

2/3 is actually sort of bad stat proportion, but it will be probably better once Shredder is gone. He's basically 2/3 and *possibly* split 2 damage, which isn't really that good and Flame Juggler might be even better than this fella thanks to his tempo-creating power. What you get from Beckoner of Power when you play him is a worse Crocolisk, which is already really bad. Also, there are many cards that are said to be good when comboed with Brewmasters and Shadowsteps, but it never really works out, does it?

 

Twilight Elder might see play around rank 20 simply because of his stats. Also, there is the dream of "T3 Twilight Elder, T4 Master of Disguise". I am pretty sure he will see play in "noob decks", and maybe even pro decks, but again, we shall see.

 

Timing something with Auchenai is not easy. Although you can play it on curve before Auchenai+Hero Power or after Auchenai herself, there won't be big enough minion you will be able to trade into to trigger deathrattle right that turn. That's actually the reason it won't be played that much (if played at all): its stats doesn't really matter that much against aggro. They do matter against control, but then the 5 HP heal will probably heal up your opponent.

 

Loot Hoarder trades exactly into Polluted Hoarder, which is one of the reasons it is bad. The second is Azure Drake. Why would you pick something that has 4/2 and card draw as deathrattle, when you can for one extra mana get better stat distribution and spell power for free?

 

Validated Doomsayer's buff will "hit" less often than Doomsayer's ability does, and let's be honest- it's not that often. So, that's a trash card right there.

[Chapron 8]

The problem behind C'Thun is that you put subpar cards n your deck to rotate around one card being your win condition. I feel like traditional freeze mage does a similar thing, but doesn't "requires" you to draw one of two cards (Tony or Alex) to win. However, I don't know the other cards that synergise(?) with him, so I can't say whether he's going to be played or not. C'Thun as a late-game threat is in my opinion not as strong as Deathwing or Ysera.

Agree, not only do you actually need to draw it (I won several freezemage games without drawing alextrasza for example), you also need to make room for all the buff cards which IMO is very difficult. The only reason Freeze Mage works is because it only consists of Stall, Draw and Burn. If you cut the Stall, you'll get overrun, if you cut the draw, you'll end up with a couple dead cards and nothing to play, if you cut the burn, you can't win. The only thing you could do is fill the 2 drop spot (mad scientist cause of standard and loot hoarder) with the 2/3's and maybe a card with taunt/heal to replace healbots if they reveal a good one (?).

However, from my experience, you usually win with freezemage when you have 1hp and the enemy has a full board you stalled for several turns. Even a 20/20 battlecry "fire 20 missiles" won't be good in that position since you'd only deal 4-5dmg to face on average.

I expect to see him in some normal control decks, maybe warrior (?), but you shouldn't focus to much on C'Thun as a win condition, there'll be a lot of BGH's around and as I said, you can't count on the battlecry killing the opponent.

--> fun, depending on the cards to be revealed mediocre to pretty good, but I don't think he's that insane.

 

2/3 is actually sort of bad stat proportion, but it will be probably better once Shredder is gone. He's basically 2/3 and *possibly* split 2 damage, which isn't really that good and Flame Juggler might be even better than this fella thanks to his tempo-creating power. What you get from Beckoner of Power when you play him is a worse Crocolisk, which is already really bad. Also, there are many cards that are said to be good when comboed with Brewmasters and Shadowsteps, but it never really works out, does it?

I think you'll probably include it in most of the C'Thun decks (if they even are that good) but meh, it's decent if you don't have any good 2-drops; if the meta doesn't somehow slow down, it'll just be a river crocolisk half of the time. And let's be serious: with sludge belcher AND healbot removed, they've gotta reveal some really good anti-aggro to slow it down that much.

In arena, it's worse than river croc since it's no beast and you'll never actually have C'Thun.

Twilight Elder might see play around rank 20 simply because of his stats. Also, there is the dream of "T3 Twilight Elder, T4 Master of Disguise". I am pretty sure he will see play in "noob decks", and maybe even pro decks, but again, we shall see.

I think you'll see that in every single C'Thun deck. Every Mech-deck runs spider tank, a 3/4 for 3 is solid plus, if your opponent can't remove Twilight Elder, it starts building serious pressure. You could almost include it in a deck without C'Thun since some of the classes lose their 3 mana 3/4 (though you yould just take the legendary twins darkbane/lighbane then, but hey, budget decks are a thing)

Long story short: auto-include in any C'Thun deck, really good stats and serious threat if not dealt with in slower matchups, in arena it's gonna be pretty good

Timing something with Auchenai is not easy. Although you can play it on curve before Auchenai+Hero Power or after Auchenai herself, there won't be big enough minion you will be able to trade into to trigger deathrattle right that turn. That's actually the reason it won't be played that much (if played at all): its stats doesn't really matter that much against aggro. They do matter against control, but then the 5 HP heal will probably heal up your opponent.

Kinda like Zombie Chow, but mid-lategame. Can't put it into aggro, in control you'd want some effect for that cost, if you want somkething to sunfury/argus, you take some giants that fit your deck. Basically, I can't see any deck for this to work other than some really tightly budgeted midrange decks.

In arena, It'll be insane though.

Loot Hoarder trades exactly into Polluted Hoarder, which is one of the reasons it is bad. The second is Azure Drake. Why would you pick something that has 4/2 and card draw as deathrattle, when you can for one extra mana get better stat distribution and spell power for free?

Agree. Also, loot hoarder is usually only a cycle card that allows you to get some early board presence in decks like ramp druid and freeze mage. Paying 4 mana to "cycle" a card is terrible, you probably wouldn't even run it in any deck if it was a battlecry.

In arena, it'll be mediocre at most, loses a trade with basically any 4-drop that isn't a 5/4 or has some better effect, an d then you draw a card but the enemy has a 3/2, a 4/1 or a random 2-drop (from shredder). I'd pick it over ogre magi, but not over a vanilla 3/5 to be more specific.

 

Validated Doomsayer's buff will "hit" less often than Doomsayer's ability does, and let's be honest- it's not that often. So, that's a trash card right there.

Not much to add there. To expensive to combo, I'd rather run a doomsayer-silence-inner fire priest than that that card. Absolutely useless unless you're already winning (or at least owning the board) in which case you might just play frostwolf warlord instead. Same goes for arena, obviously.

 

 

Really hoping they add something more exciting and something to be creative with in deckbuilding. C'Thun is really straightforward in terms of playstyle, you'll just add the same 6-8 cards into a fitting control-ish deck that lost that amount due to standard; I'm speaking of stuff like Finley/Reno that made some unique decks possible and made even more experimentation happen

[PsyBomb 7]

New card has been revealed, new thoughts.

Stand Against Darkness: dropping 5 Recruits for 5 mana isn't going to be worth the card, not without significant other help. Quartermaster is rotating out, and I don't see Paladin Hobgoblin decks being a thing. It just seems like an inferior Muster, or a Dark Whispers without the versatility.

[positiv2 953]

New card has been revealed, new thoughts.

Stand Against Darkness: dropping 5 Recruits for 5 mana isn't going to be worth the card, not without significant other help. Quartermaster is rotating out, and I don't see Paladin Hobgoblin decks being a thing. It just seems like an inferior Muster, or a Dark Whispers without the versatility.

I pretty much agree. However, that note about Hobgoblin is weird, because Hobgoblin is rotating out and even if he didn't, he wouldn't buff those recruits because they get spawned rather than played.

[benangel27 0]

These cards kinda awful, im looking forward to try out C'thun, but really hope they gone release some more creative cards to refresh constructed. Mainly i play arena,  these cards not gonna change anything, im sad.

[PsyBomb 7]

New card has been revealed, new thoughts.

Stand Against Darkness: dropping 5 Recruits for 5 mana isn't going to be worth the card, not without significant other help. Quartermaster is rotating out, and I don't see Paladin Hobgoblin decks being a thing. It just seems like an inferior Muster, or a Dark Whispers without the versatility.

I pretty much agree. However, that note about Hobgoblin is weird, because Hobgoblin is rotating out and even if he didn't, he wouldn't buff those recruits because they get spawned rather than played.

Shows how much I use Hobgoblin, legitimately missed the fact it was rotating out.

[Valkyr 55]

New hunter card out. 8 mana 8/8. When this minion attacks and kills a minion, it can attack again. So theoretically it can kill several small attack minions in a single turn, but currently hunters cant play control well enough. If they release enough tools for hunters to be more controllish? I'd rather play king crush cuz of immediate affect or yolo Rag.  Also turn 8, your oppeonent wont be playinng tiny minions anyways. Most he will do if he survives BGH is kill one minion and hit face once. What do you guys think?

 

New Legendary: 7 mana 6/6. Hogger Doom of Elwynn. Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 2/2 gnoll with taunt.

 

Any 7 mana minion has some big shoes to fit in and this one falls a bit short. with 6 health he probably wont spawn that many gnolls. Your opponent wont be able to trade two minions into him same turn since he will spawn a taunt after the first hit, but spell minion combo will still get him. I don't see him making more than 2 gnolls at most unless he gets buffed by priest or pally.. More value with priest tbh. too bad warsong commander is gone otherwise warriors would get value out of him. (They still might). Warriors can combo him with whirl wind and what not, but I don't know if it would be worth it.

[PsyBomb 7]

New hunter card out. 8 mana 8/8. When this minion attacks and kills a minion, it can attack again. So theoretically it can kill several small attack minions in a single turn, but currently hunters cant play control well enough. If they release enough tools for hunters to be more controllish? I'd rather play king crush cuz of immediate affect or yolo Rag.  Also turn 8, your oppeonent wont be playinng tiny minions anyways. Most he will do if he survives BGH is kill one minion and hit face once. What do you guys think?

 

New Legendary: 7 mana 6/6. Hogger Doom of Elwynn. Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 2/2 gnoll with taunt.

 

Any 7 mana minion has some big shoes to fit in and this one falls a bit short. with 6 health he probably wont spawn that many gnolls. Your opponent wont be able to trade two minions into him same turn since he will spawn a taunt after the first hit, but spell minion combo will still get him. I don't see him making more than 2 gnolls at most unless he gets buffed by priest or pally.. More value with priest tbh. too bad warsong commander is gone otherwise warriors would get value out of him. (They still might). Warriors can combo him with whirl wind and what not, but I don't know if it would be worth it.

Link? I recognize both from prior homebrew, but Blizzard outright said they did so. If the first one is a beast there are a couple of board-clear combos with it (kills everything with 8 or less health, then swings 8 to face)

[Valkyr 55]

 

New hunter card out. 8 mana 8/8. When this minion attacks and kills a minion, it can attack again. So theoretically it can kill several small attack minions in a single turn, but currently hunters cant play control well enough. If they release enough tools for hunters to be more controllish? I'd rather play king crush cuz of immediate affect or yolo Rag.  Also turn 8, your oppeonent wont be playinng tiny minions anyways. Most he will do if he survives BGH is kill one minion and hit face once. What do you guys think?

 

New Legendary: 7 mana 6/6. Hogger Doom of Elwynn. Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 2/2 gnoll with taunt.

 

Any 7 mana minion has some big shoes to fit in and this one falls a bit short. with 6 health he probably wont spawn that many gnolls. Your opponent wont be able to trade two minions into him same turn since he will spawn a taunt after the first hit, but spell minion combo will still get him. I don't see him making more than 2 gnolls at most unless he gets buffed by priest or pally.. More value with priest tbh. too bad warsong commander is gone otherwise warriors would get value out of him. (They still might). Warriors can combo him with whirl wind and what not, but I don't know if it would be worth it.

Link? I recognize both from prior homebrew, but Blizzard outright said they did so. If the first one is a beast there are a couple of board-clear combos with it (kills everything with 8 or less health, then swings 8 to face)

 

 

http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/1223-new-card-reveal-hogger-doom-of-elwynn-hunter-card

[SithLordOfSnark 78]

I am just excited for this new expansion. I already plan on preordering 50 packs tomorrow.

[Valkyr 55]

Never pre-ordered a pack before. Normally I like to wait a month and see the viability of expansion. But for some reason this time around i feel the Old gods calling out to me. In any case there is time to see the new cards as they release to mount a defense (or not) against the compelling whispers.

[Chapron 8]

I usually just save up dust and gold before it comes out, then continue to buy packs every second day with the gold from quests and eventually craft the legendaries that turn out to be good/the ones I want for my decks

[PsyBomb 7]

I usually just save up dust and gold before it comes out, then continue to buy packs every second day with the gold from quests and eventually craft the legendaries that turn out to be good/the ones I want for my decks

That's roughly what I plan to do as well, once I finish buying the adventures (going to be a while...). Thus far I'm not too terribly excited, but just knowing how this set is organized is getting me intrigued. That said, more cards:

Hogger, Scourge of Elwynn: not really impressed. Stats are mediocre for the cost, and it's pretty ignorable on the field unless you give it taunt or other such. Maybe is some strange Patron variant? Eh, doubt it. Priests will love it in Arena, maybe Mage and Druid as well.

Giant Sandworm: Hunters have a couple of cards that can give Immune to this guy to clear an enemy field, but at 8 mana no aggressive deck and few midrange will want to run it. Maybe if they get cards to go Control? Unsure, and I'm sad because it's an awesome concept and also one they grabbed from fan submissions.

Eater of Secrets: Kezan Mystic is good still decent if the enemy has no secrets. This one has the advantage of eating ALL secrets, which makes Mysterious Challenger cry in its sleep, but if you don't see question marks up he is not going to do anything. Running Eater is going to be a meta call, pure and simple, but with Scientist and Avenge leaving standard I don't know if it's going to be worthwhile

[AmontilladoWolf 1]

C'Thun can work if you force your opponent to use their removal on other big threats... I guess that's basically how Blizz figured it would work? Which I guess isn't much different from normal legendaries, unless they have deathrattle.

[PsyBomb 7]

New card, new thoughts.

Klaxxi Amber-Weaver: First class-specific card revealed, and rather than BUFFING C'thun it SYNERGIZES with it. 4/5 for 4 is again decent stats, but it is an amazing 4/10 if your C'thun is to 10 attack or better. It is possible to drop that on-curve in a couple of ways so far (mostly involving Brann and/or Innervate), and there are 13 more cards not yet revealed. No taunt natively, but that's an easy fix. Basically guarantee trading for two enemy cards minimum if it comes down buffed. Few decks run general-purpose hard removal (dodges both Pain and Death, too low for BGH, etc)

[Valkyr 55]

I usually just save up dust and gold before it comes out, then continue to buy packs every second day with the gold from quests and eventually craft the legendaries that turn out to be good/the ones I want for my decks

 

 

I've read a strategy this one guy uses in order to avoid crafting a card only to have it come out in the next pack you open.Personally I find that scenario to be one of the reasons I hoard dust and get hesitant about spending it.  

The strategy has its cons and pros, but it goes like this:

 

[Collect gold before an expansion hits. Use all that gold to buy as many packs as you can once expansion comes out. Once you have opened enough packs disenchant any extras. Craft any cards which are good/you need for a particular deck, then stop buying that expansion and start collecting gold for the next one. When next expansion comes, spend all your saved gold on the next expansion and repeat process.] 

 

For me it feels like you need to be ahead or on curve with your collection to expansion ratio to preemptively collect gold like this. Otherwise you will miss out on current cards by noting buying packs and just saving gold for next xpac. Secondly I feel I would go crazy without the excitement of opening a new pack and holding my breath for the golden glow.

[PsyBomb 7]

So, the MATHEMATICALLY best strategy for collecting is to craft what you need for decks, then just be a beast at arenas and ladder. Spend NO other gold or dust until you have enough to get everything in one fell swoop, and especially do not disenchant anything until Blizzard nerfs something so that you can get full value. I find that boring for the same reasons as stated above (plus, well, F2P account, so I'm still trying to assemble even the budget versions of my decks)

 

Anywho, two more cards have been revealed.

 

Ancient Shieldbearer: 6/6 for 7 isn't that good, but gaining TEN ARMOR if your C'thun is primed to 10/10 or better is really nice. Warrior-only, and this replaces Shieldmaiden which is rotating out. Will it be good enough to use? Not really sure, but it's definitely possible. Control-ish Warriors are the type to have it buffed up sky-high by the time the big plays come, anyway, and this could really put a damper on an enemy Alextraza play setting you up for the next turn.

 

C'thun's Chosen: 4/2 Neutral minion with Divine Shield for 4 might have seen play as-is. It Battlecries, though, another +2/+2 for C'thun. Probably going to be a must-take in C'thun decks almost no matter your general strategy for it.

 

So, some other thoughts. We have seen enough, now, to actually start getting a feel for how a couple of these decks might end up looking overall. I know that if I get lucky with my packs, I'll be assembling C'thun Control Druid (all the neutral C'thun minions, Klaxxi, Brann, and Thaurisan woven with removal and buffs, plus a couple of the smaller Brewmaster and some ramp) to see how it runs. Probably not the best, but might be good.

[positiv2 953]

So, the MATHEMATICALLY best strategy for collecting is to craft what you need for decks, then just be a beast at arenas and ladder. Spend NO other gold or dust until you have enough to get everything in one fell swoop, and especially do not disenchant anything until Blizzard nerfs something so that you can get full value. I find that boring for the same reasons as stated above (plus, well, F2P account, so I'm still trying to assemble even the budget versions of my decks)

 

Anywho, two more cards have been revealed.

 

Ancient Shieldbearer: 6/6 for 7 isn't that good, but gaining TEN ARMOR if your C'thun is primed to 10/10 or better is really nice. Warrior-only, and this replaces Shieldmaiden which is rotating out. Will it be good enough to use? Not really sure, but it's definitely possible. Control-ish Warriors are the type to have it buffed up sky-high by the time the big plays come, anyway, and this could really put a damper on an enemy Alextraza play setting you up for the next turn.

 

C'thun's Chosen: 4/2 Neutral minion with Divine Shield for 4 might have seen play as-is. It Battlecries, though, another +2/+2 for C'thun. Probably going to be a must-take in C'thun decks almost no matter your general strategy for it.

 

So, some other thoughts. We have seen enough, now, to actually start getting a feel for how a couple of these decks might end up looking overall. I know that if I get lucky with my packs, I'll be assembling C'thun Control Druid (all the neutral C'thun minions, Klaxxi, Brann, and Thaurisan woven with removal and buffs, plus a couple of the smaller Brewmaster and some ramp) to see how it runs. Probably not the best, but might be good.

Ancient Shieldbearer will often sit in hand without being able to give you the 10 armor. Let's just hope that they add more cards that buff C'Thun.

If Silvermoon Guardian or Silent Knight don't see play, I doubt that C'Thun's Servant has that great value on his own. It seems okay in C'Thun deck, but not outside of it.

 

Also, there have been released forbidden cards- Forbidden Flame, 0 mana epic mage spell, spend all your remaining mana and deal that as damage to a minion. It seems that it could fit into Freeze Mage and it's at least average in arena and I think that it will see some play. The other forbidden card is Forbidden Shaping, 0 mana epic priest spell, spend all your remaining mana and spawn a random minion with that cost. I doubt it will see much play in constructed, even though it's pretty cool. I think it will be very good in arena and will see play there.

[PsyBomb 7]

@positiv2: I have to disagree with your thoughts on Shieldbearer staying useless in hand. If you're running C'thun and haven't given at least +4/+4 by turn 7-8, something is already very wrong.

So, three more cards have been revealed, epics from a series of class cards:

Forbidden Flame: Mage class, dumps your remaining mana to do that much to a minion. Overall inefficient and can't hit players, plus you won't have any mana left for follow-ups if the sequence demands it. Plus side is that it's always live, and you can cast it after using other mana as desired.

Forbidden Shaping: Priest class, dumps remaining mana to summon a random minion with that cost. Key numbers are going to be 8 and 10, you'll want to avoid 9 if you can due to Domo. I agree that this probably won't see use in Constructed, but it might. Always a tempo play, after all. I'll have to wait for the rest of the set to be revealed before I can pass further judgement.

Forbidden Healing: Paladin class, dumps remaining mana to heal any target for twice what got spent. Again, it'll always spend everything you can, but if you're scared of dying from the enemy hand while you're in control of the board, this one is amazing. Not really that much of a fan, though, since it will only very rarely advance your board state. Might see one-of use, but no more.

[positiv2 953]

@positiv2: I have to disagree with your thoughts on Shieldbearer staying useless in hand. If you're running C'thun and haven't given at least +4/+4 by turn 7-8, something is already very wrong.

So, three more cards have been revealed, epics from a series of class cards:

Forbidden Flame: Mage class, dumps your remaining mana to do that much to a minion. Overall inefficient and can't hit players, plus you won't have any mana left for follow-ups if the sequence demands it. Plus side is that it's always live, and you can cast it after using other mana as desired.

Forbidden Shaping: Priest class, dumps remaining mana to summon a random minion with that cost. Key numbers are going to be 8 and 10, you'll want to avoid 9 if you can due to Domo. I agree that this probably won't see use in Constructed, but it might. Always a tempo play, after all. I'll have to wait for the rest of the set to be revealed before I can pass further judgement.

Forbidden Healing: Paladin class, dumps remaining mana to heal any target for twice what got spent. Again, it'll always spend everything you can, but if you're scared of dying from the enemy hand while you're in control of the board, this one is amazing. Not really that much of a fan, though, since it will only very rarely advance your board state. Might see one-of use, but no more.

Not having at least 10 attack C'Thun is pretty much like not having Alexstrasza on turn 9 and double Fireball + Frostbolt on 10 to kill your opponent. Sometimes, you just don't get those combo wombo pieces, and therefore you simply cannot perform the combo. It's all about the draw: you get bad draw - you won't be able to play Shieldbearer with its battlecry being triggered.

 

I pretty much agree with you on the Forbidden cards. 

[PsyBomb 7]

Thing is, it is definitely not a wombo combo. You don't have to carefully weigh saving versus playing things, you don't have to sacrifice board state or wait to assemble everything to play it out. The boosts happen more or less automatically as you go, with the only cost being that your minions are merely decent. By turn 7, assuming you went first and played no card draw, you've seen 13 cards. Let's make it 15 to make the math simple, assuming you play only the Chosen and Beconer at two each you have a 50% chance of being live. This doesn't count mulligans, Brann, brewmasters, or other such (or other boosters).

Eh, I'll get off my soapbox. This is just something we'll have to see.

[positiv2 953]

Thing is, it is definitely not a wombo combo. You don't have to carefully weigh saving versus playing things, you don't have to sacrifice board state or wait to assemble everything to play it out. The boosts happen more or less automatically as you go, with the only cost being that your minions are merely decent. By turn 7, assuming you went first and played no card draw, you've seen 13 cards. Let's make it 15 to make the math simple, assuming you play only the Chosen and Beconer at two each you have a 50% chance of being live. This doesn't count mulligans, Brann, brewmasters, or other such (or other boosters).

Eh, I'll get off my soapbox. This is just something we'll have to see.

You will probably draw those cards, but if you draw them off-curve, then sometimes you won't be able to play them without losing tempo or doing a worse play than you can. 

Brewmasters never worked with cards that were thought to be broken with them. I really wouldn't count on them being able to help you that much.

[Chapron 8]

 

I usually just save up dust and gold before it comes out, then continue to buy packs every second day with the gold from quests and eventually craft the legendaries that turn out to be good/the ones I want for my decks

 

 

I've read a strategy this one guy uses in order to avoid crafting a card only to have it come out in the next pack you open.Personally I find that scenario to be one of the reasons I hoard dust and get hesitant about spending it.  

The strategy has its cons and pros, but it goes like this:

 

[Collect gold before an expansion hits. Use all that gold to buy as many packs as you can once expansion comes out. Once you have opened enough packs disenchant any extras. Craft any cards which are good/you need for a particular deck, then stop buying that expansion and start collecting gold for the next one. When next expansion comes, spend all your saved gold on the next expansion and repeat process.] 

 

For me it feels like you need to be ahead or on curve with your collection to expansion ratio to preemptively collect gold like this. Otherwise you will miss out on current cards by noting buying packs and just saving gold for next xpac. Secondly I feel I would go crazy without the excitement of opening a new pack and holding my breath for the golden glow.

 

I personally don't consider the chance of pulling a legendary from a pack even though you just crafted it that big a deal. Of course, you would be annoyed but the chance of getting a legendary is about 1/20, right? If there's ~20 legendaries in an expansion (9 class-specific plus some neutral ones), that would be a rough chance of 1 in 400 to get the one you just crafted. To me that looks like only working part-time instead of full-time because you might win the lottery and then you would have wasted your time. 

You also should consider the time you can't play the deck you want if you're just saving up dust, especially if you don't own all the important cards in an expansion when the next one comes out. As you said, you need to own all the cards first and then start saving up, but there's no real need to buy packs when you have everything anyway, so you'll end up saving just becausae you can't do anything else with it

 

 

So, the MATHEMATICALLY best strategy for collecting is to craft what you need for decks, then just be a beast at arenas and ladder. Spend NO other gold or dust until you have enough to get everything in one fell swoop, and especially do not disenchant anything until Blizzard nerfs something so that you can get full value. I find that boring for the same reasons as stated above (plus, well, F2P account, so I'm still trying to assemble even the budget versions of my decks)

 

Anywho, two more cards have been revealed.

 

Ancient Shieldbearer: 6/6 for 7 isn't that good, but gaining TEN ARMOR if your C'thun is primed to 10/10 or better is really nice. Warrior-only, and this replaces Shieldmaiden which is rotating out. Will it be good enough to use? Not really sure, but it's definitely possible. Control-ish Warriors are the type to have it buffed up sky-high by the time the big plays come, anyway, and this could really put a damper on an enemy Alextraza play setting you up for the next turn.

 

C'thun's Chosen: 4/2 Neutral minion with Divine Shield for 4 might have seen play as-is. It Battlecries, though, another +2/+2 for C'thun. Probably going to be a must-take in C'thun decks almost no matter your general strategy for it.

 

So, some other thoughts. We have seen enough, now, to actually start getting a feel for how a couple of these decks might end up looking overall. I know that if I get lucky with my packs, I'll be assembling C'thun Control Druid (all the neutral C'thun minions, Klaxxi, Brann, and Thaurisan woven with removal and buffs, plus a couple of the smaller Brewmaster and some ramp) to see how it runs. Probably not the best, but might be good.

Ancient Shieldbearer will often sit in hand without being able to give you the 10 armor. Let's just hope that they add more cards that buff C'Thun.

If Silvermoon Guardian or Silent Knight don't see play, I doubt that C'Thun's Servant has that great value on his own. It seems okay in C'Thun deck, but not outside of it.

 

Also, there have been released forbidden cards- Forbidden Flame, 0 mana epic mage spell, spend all your remaining mana and deal that as damage to a minion. It seems that it could fit into Freeze Mage and it's at least average in arena and I think that it will see some play. The other forbidden card is Forbidden Shaping, 0 mana epic priest spell, spend all your remaining mana and spawn a random minion with that cost. I doubt it will see much play in constructed, even though it's pretty cool. I think it will be very good in arena and will see play there.

 

 

Shieldbearer should be pretty nice in C'Thun Warrior, you'll usually have played 2+ buff cards by turn 7. Arena it's obviously trash

 

Chosen seems okay to me, with Shredder rotating out, it might fill that spot for C'Thun-decks as it trades similarly into anything with 3+ attack (and getting a hypothetical vanilla 4/2 out of your shredder would be above average) 

 

As for the spells, i think the pala one won't ever see play unless healadin becomes a thing. compare it to holy light: 2 mana heal 6, never sees play; the druid 3 mana heal 8 also basically never sees play. You'd get 3 mana heal 6 or 4 mana heal 8, and even if you're paying 10 mana to heal for 20, you could just run reno jackson since you'd only use that on your hero anyway and reno is 6 mana and puts out board presence. In arena, never pick this card, it's worse than hungry crab

 

The mage one also seems kinda bad to me... it only targets minions so no use in freezemage and in other decks... why should you run it over frostbolt/fireball/pyroblast? even flamelance is a lot better (5 mana 8 damage to minions) and never sees play... also pretty bad in arena for the same reasons (inefficiency). I would probably still call this terrible if it could target players

 

The priest card looks kinda funny but will never see play in constructed. Why? You don't get battlecries, it is inconsistent, and just because there's so many bad minions, you'll usually end up getting a minon much worse than what you would include in your deck. If you like the randomness, play mindgames instead.

Probably also not that good in arena, but we'll see.

 

Of course, all of these cards have a lot more flexibility than the counterparts I've mentioned so you can fit them into your curve a lot better (play them with any combination of cards you like and not be 1 mana short), but that doesn't make up for their inefficiency and you'd probably end up needing to spend 5 mana on the mage spell for example to kill a yeti, but you only have a 2 mana and a 6 mana-minion to play with it (turn 10) so you'll end up horribly overkilling it and play a weak minon or not being able to clear at all.

[positiv2 953]

The power of the priest card in arena is that you get to play it on curve anytime. If you get bad draw in the early game, you can play this card. If you topdeck it in the late-game, you get a big minion. This is the main reason (and probably the only one) why I think it will be a good card in arena. Also, random minion in arena isn't that bad in arena.