hearthstone Card Reveals, Spoilers and Discussion for Goblins vs Gnomes!

[Sottle 221]

Check out Sottle's thoughts on the announced set so far, plus reveals for upcoming cards.

 

Update: Nearly all the cards have now been released on Blizzard's Facebook page, with 61 new cards being added today. You can check out the full album Here

 

Greetings travellers!

I thought it would be appropriate to start a discussion on the new Hearthstone expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes. Since there was a whole slew of cards announced in the original spoilers, dissecting each one of them one by one would take forever, plus some cards may become better or worse as the rest of the set is revealed.

However, I thought I'd take a stab at posting my thoughts on what I think are some of the most important reveals so far.
 
As more cards are revealed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I will keep this topic up to date with all the new information and try to post my thoughts on each. If there are any already revealed cards that you have an opinion on, or would like to hear my thoughts on, let us know below!
 
You can see the full list of all revealed cards so far here: http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Goblins_vs_Gnomes
 

Annoy-o-Tron

 
 
Potentially a strong Anti-Aggro card, and a natural counter to turn 1 Leper Gnome, However, it does not have enough power to challenge an Undertaker. Time will tell whether this is actually useful or just a slightly upgraded Frostwolf Grunt. There is also the possibility of playing this IN Aggro, since the Divine Shield makes it a strong target for buffs like Cold Blood.
 

Piloted Shredder

 
 

 
 
Potentially a strong value card. Getting an "average" value vanilla 3/2 minion from the Deathrattle effect leads to an effective 4 mana 7/5. With the strength of many of the 2 drops being added to the set in GvG, this seems like a solid card. Not to mention the extra buff potential for Undertaker in a mana slot where there are not many options available currently.
 

Spider Tank

 
 

 
 
Not much to say on this one, the Neutral Vanilla 3/4 minion is finally here. Solid card.
 

Clockwork Giant

 
 

 
 
A fairly obvious attempt to curb the strength of Handlock in Control matchups. Blizzard have commented before that they want to provide players with organic solutions to losing to certain decks. This now fits in right aside Big Game Hunter as an anti-Handlock tech card. I'll be interested to see whether the addition of more cards like this cause online tournaments such as Zotac to finally outlaw sideboarding (changing cards in a deck inbetween games).
 

Enhance-o Mechano

 
 

 
 
A card I'm very torn on. The natural synergy that comes to mind with this card is in Zoo. But the question becomes what do you cut to make room for it? Is it better than Defender of Argus? The stats compare unfavourably, you'd almost always rather have a 2/3 than a 3/2 in Zoo. However, the potential benefit of giving 3-4 minions Windfury or Divine Shield are enormous. Definitely a card i'm excited to get my hands on and test fully.
 

Piloted Sky Golem

 
 

 
 
Similar thoughts to Piloted Shredder, the potential value on an average 4-drop being summoned from this card is extremely high. However, the 6 mana slot is extremely competitive already, and this card will have to fight through the likes of Cairne, Sylvanas, Black Knight etc to find a slot in people's decks. It stacks up directly against Cairne with reasonable results, but the consistency of Cairne may end up being a deciding factor.
 

Blingtron 3000

 
 

 
 
Seems to fit best as an aggro card. Similar to Coldlight Oracle in the sense that you're valuing your card draw higher than your opponents, you don't care what cards they draw, you just need the cards to kill them. Blingtron works in a similar way in that you don't care what weapon they get, as long as you give yourself additional damage. With the average weapon damage in the game being above 8, 5 mana for a 3/4 and 8 damage seems like good value.
 

Shrinkmeister

 
 

 
 
Strong card. Ignoring the obviously powerful Battlecry effect that can activate cards like Shadow Word Pain, and more importantly, Shadow Madness and Cabal Shadow Priest, it's simply a 3/2. The problem with the already situationally good cards in Priest such as Crazed Alchemist is that it's just a weak card to play out on turn 2 if you need a minion vs something like Hunter or Zoo. At a perfectly acceptable 3/2, this card solves that problem.
 

Goblin Auto-Barber

 
 

 
 
An interesting card. On the face of it, my thoughts should be similar to that of Shrinkmeister. It has a nice effect for Rogue and it's a fine standalone card at 3/2 for 2 mana. However, the only Rogue deck you'd look to play this in is a Tempo focused Rogue. Unfortunately, Tempo Rogue is just not that good right now, so it remains to be seen whether GvG will make a Mech focused Tempo build a viable archetype.
 

Shieldmaiden

 
 

 
 
Another card I am very torn on. On the face of it, it draws comparisons to Priestess of Elune, which is an extremely poor card. However, there are several ways to look at this card that make it sound a lot better. Firstly, the 7 mana swing turn that is created by Shieldmaiden + Shield Slam is pretty huge. Secondly, you can think of it as a Shield Block that always draws you a 3 mana 5/5, that sounds pretty good right? And finally, having this in your deck later to activate late game Shield Slams gives you more freedom to use your Shield Blocks for cycle purposes. However, as mentioned earlier the 6 mana slot is extremely competitive, particularly in Control Warrior.
 

Reveal for 17/11/2014

 

 

Seems pretty subpar, even in comparison to an already weak card in Mindgames. On the positive side, Shaman does play the best hard removal card in the game in the form of Hex, but for the 7 mana it costs to play this card and a Hex, you can play most major minions you'd want to anyway, and keep the Hex.
 
Struggling to see how this card can ever be good. If anyone has any ideas for possible synergies and benefits, then let us know!

[Sottle 221]

Additional Reveal for 17/11/2014

 

 

Looks like we got treated to a 2-for-1 reveal today. This card is interesting, it sits on the slow side when compared to a card like Ragnaros which has an immediate effect. However, the list of positives is pretty big. It dodges Big Game Hunter and the huge health pool leaves it only vulnerable to hard removal cards such as Polymorph and Hex, and if it does survive one turn it becomes an absolute wrecking ball.

 

It's a much better checkmate card against Aggro than Rag, if you can stabilise and get this guy down, you should be able to clear their board comfortably for several turns afterwards. It should also help a class like Warrior to deal with a flood of midrange threats from Druid, since one attack can theoretically take down a Yeti, a Spectral Knight and a Druid of the Claw. I can see this being good in a Control heavy meta, and a top tier arena pick, but it probably falls short of being a common constructed card. 

[holyshmokez 0]

Reaper looking like my replacement for rag

[Sottle 221]

Reveals for 18/11/2014

 

 

 

Anodized Robo-Teddy

 

 

At first glance, there's not a whole lot wrong with this card. The standard average value 2 drop is either a 2/3 or a 3/2, this gets to choose which of those to be, and has Taunt. However, you have to consider the Druid gameplan. Your powerful cards are Innervate and Wild Growth, so the aim for a Druid deck is often to skip playing a 2 drop entirely and use that turn either to Wild Growth or to Innervate out a more powerful creature. This means you're weighing this card up directly against the cards that are already played in Druid such as Haunted Creeper or Sunfury Protector. As with many of these cards it comes down to whether or not the Mech synergy ends up being powerful enough to justify their inclusion

 

 

 

Fel Cannon

 

 

Just as Robo-Teddy follows a recurring theme on "Is Mech synergy good enough to make this card worth it?" This card follows another recurring theme in "Is consistency more important than random, but potentially beneficial effects?" Comparing this card to Sen'jin Shieldmasta, would you rather have the consistency, or a potentially strong, but also potentially detrimental effect? Close attention to the card text reveals the damage can be dealt to any non-Mech minion, including your own. The choice to make this a Warlock card also begs questions as it doesn't fit into any established Warlock archetypes. Time will tell again whether "Mech Zoo" or something similar becomes a worthwhile option. It's also worth pointing out that this card is significantly better than Demolisher due to it activating at end of turn, rather than the start. Cautiously optimistic on this one.

 

 

 

Screwjank Clunker

 

 

Initial impression? Weak. Comparing directly to two similar cards, Houndmaster's 4/3 stat distribution is probably preferred over 2/5, although Screwjank has the benefit of being a Mech itself, unlike Houndmaster and Beasts. Stormwind Knight also has a similar effect in that its stats are identical and it does 2 points of Charge damage (buffing an in play minion by 2 attack is essentially 2 points of Charge). Houndmaster also features in a class that can enforce Tempo a lot better using their Hero Power, Screwjank, while seeming to function as a Tempo card has been given to a Class in Warrior that will seemingly always be a poor choice to use it, since the Hero Power is so defensive.

[Deafwolf 1]

Ancestors Call is an acceleration card. Particularly with control. A turn 4 card at a hard cost of 8 can launch your board development ahead. A druid deck can totally abuse this with the right draw.

[Sottle 221]

Shame it's a Shaman card huh? 

 

The problem with the acceleration here is that it's symmetrical. Say you cast Ancestor's Call to cheat out an 8 mana card, you've spent a card to accelerate 4 mana. Now imagine your opponent gets a Senjin or Spectral Knight out of the deal, they've spent 0 cards to accelerate 4-5 mana, and their creature gets to attack first.

[Peelyon 416]

Shaman only no?

 

EDIT: beat me to it :P

[Sottle 221]

Reveal for 19/11/2014

 

 

A card that represents strong value. Essentially you get a Light's Justice and 3 Hero Powers, 7 mana worth of value for 3 mana. It will go some way to addressing one of Paladin's worst matchups in Zoo, since 3 1/1s and a low damage, high durability weapon are strong tools against small minions. However, the strength of the Paladin Hero Power is that it summons a 1/1 without using a card. Spending a card to activate a similar effect lessens the strength of that benefit. Making this card worth it will also require an increased number of buff cards in Paladin, and may increase the value of cards like Blessing of Might and Blessing of Kings. Seemingly solid, but will require some work to fit into Paladin's gameplan.

 

*Additional: The interaction with Sword of Justice could be interesting. Based on the deliberate way the card is worded, it seems like the 1/1s will summon first, followed by the Weapon, which will allow SoJ to make 3 2/2s before it gets overwritten. That sounds potentially pretty strong.

[Sottle 221]

Additional Reveal for 19/11/2014

 

 

Just seems straight up bad. Not enough Health. Comparing this to a Sludge Belcher or Sunwalker does not come out favourably, even if you allow for Divine Shield combo to be activated. Not a whole lot more to say here, probably one of the weakest cards revealed so far.

[Deafwolf 1]

Are there any potential card combos that can blow this up? There is definitely a theme deck represented here, like hunters with beasts or Murlocks.

Is there a hearthstone version of MTG's white weenie deck?

[Sottle 221]

Yeah Mech Synergy will definitely play a big part on whether some of these cards end up good or not, we'll have to evaluate the strength of the Mech set as a whole to know for sure.

 

I'm not the greatest authority on Magic, but i've been reliably informed that White Weenie is most similar to Zoo or Aggro Paladin.

 

Reveals for 20/11/2014

 

 

 

Call Pet

 

Difficult. The obvious comparisons come to mind with Far Sight. This is seemingly just as bad, if not worse than Far Sight due to the possibility of bricking completely and not drawing a Beast. However, if full Beast synergy/midrange Hunter becomes powerful again, perhaps due to more high cost Beast cards in the GvG set, then maybe this can see play. Comparing the card to Shiv, a card that is a staple in Rogue due to a very specific job it does, this matches up somewhat favourably. 2 Mana draw a card, and the potential benefits far outweigh that of the 1 damage from Shiv. However, as of right now, based on the information we have, this card is bad.

 

 

Mech-Bear-Cat

 

 

For information on Spare Parts, see: http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards?filter-set=101&filter-token=1&filter-unreleased=1&filter-type=5&&display=3

 

Seemingly a strong card. 7/6 is a solid body to have and the potential for at least one Spare Part is a nice pay off. However as mentioned with previous 6 drop reveals, the 6 mana slot is extremely competitive. For this card to see play it's fighting against Cairne, Sylvanas, Black Knight etc and it remains to be seen whether people will find room. Also worth noting this card would be stronger as a 6/7 due to it being a BGH target in its current form. Both this card and Toshley seem like they will be excellent "fuel" cards for Gadgetzan, Violet Teacher etc. Due to them providing you with 1 mana spells.

 

 

Toshley

 

 

 

For information on Spare Parts, see: http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards?filter-set=101&filter-token=1&filter-unreleased=1&filter-type=5&&display=3

 

You can more or less echo my thoughs on Mech-Bear-Cat for this one. The body is solid, in fact, even more so than Mech-Bear-Cat. 5 Attack is the magic number in terms of being able to deal with the majority of minions in the game, and 7 Health is enormous. Add to this the guarantee of one immediate Spare Part from the Battlecry and you have a very solid looking card. Time will tell though if it has enough impact to justify itself as a one-off Legendary inclusion. If this card and Mech-Bear-Cat are to be run it will be in a new deck type built to take full advantage of Spare Parts, if such a deck does exist, these two cards will probably be amongst the first on the list.

[Sottle 221]

Reveals for 21/11/2014

 

 

Coghammer

 

A good card in a vacuum. Sheer value wise, this card does fine. It costs the same amount of mana, Overload included, as Stormforged Axe and has a nice upside. However, you have to consider that this comes down the turn before Truesilver Champion and takes 3 turns to be exhausted. That conflict might be enough to make you think twice. However, if you take a metagame similar to the one we had last week, where Hunter and Zoo take up the majority of games, perhaps you'd even choose to run this instead of Truesilver. Hard to evaluate in isolation from the full set through.

[Sottle 221]

Looks like I missed a couple yesterday, sorry guys!

 

Antique Healbot

 

 

Simply a bad card. Against the decks where you are really desperate for healing, such as Hunter and Zoo, the Tempo loss you will get from having your 5 mana card die to one of their low drops will be worth more than 8 damage to them over the course of the game. The inability for this card to heal minions makes it compare unfavourably to Earthen Ring Farseer as well. Time will tell whether there is some incredible healing archetype that enters the meta after the release of GvG, but otherwise this seems like a weak card in isolation.

 

Iron Sensei

 

 

It looks like Blizzard are really trying to push Mech Tempo Rogue as an alternative to Miracle in the new expansion. When you combine this with Goblin Auto-Barber and the other Mech synergy cards, that deck seems to be shaping up quite nicely. However, this card could end up suffering from Raid Leader syndrome, where the extremely poor natural stats just end up being too much of a drawback to see play. It'll be interesting to see whether the Miracle Rogue archetype receives further nerfs and Blizzard are trying to compensate by buffing Tempo Rogue.

[Sottle 221]

Reveals for 24/11/2014

 

 

Gahz'rilla

 

 

 

Oh my! Initial reaction this card is that it's under-costed. You could easily look at this card and assign it an 8 Mana cost and not think twice about it. It remains to be seen though whether this will fit in with Hunter's gameplan. We may see the return of the true Midrange "Sunshine" Hunter from several seasons ago, playing Wild Pyromancer, a card that already has great synergy with Hunter's Mark to set off combos with this card. However, the deck will still need something to replace the card draw that the old 2 Mana Starving Buzzard provided in that deck. This doesn't fit well in any existing Hunter deck that is strong right now, but the card is undeniably powerful.

 

 

Snowchugger

 

 

 

Seems relatively uninspiring. It seems the set is providing almost every class with a decent 2-drop Mech that can provide a decent starting point for a Mech Midrange or Tempo deck. The Freeze effect on Snowchugger seems less powerful than on Water Elemental since the early minions it will come up against are better dealt with completely than stalled. Water Ele lets you hold up the game for a turn or 2 approaching the 6 and 7 mana turns where the big Mage board clears come into play. I would say this is one of the weaker cards we've seen revealed recently.

 

Whirling Zap-O-matic

 

 

 

Fine card. At first glance, you would be forgiven for thinking "where's the Overload?" 2 Mana 3/2 is perfectly acceptable, add a nice bonus on top of that and you have a recipe for a solid card from a pure value standpoint. However, as decks have got more refined, the 2-drops that people choose to play tend to not be 3/2s and 2/3s, but rather cards that start to develop a gameplan. For example, Shaman right now plays Haunted Creeper to start developing an annoying board presence. Shaman wants cards to stick to the board to create targets for Flametongue Totem, Rockbiter, or even Bloodlust. Perhaps this fits in Burst Shaman alongside Lava Burst and such cards as an additional win condition, or to just get damage rolling early if it sticks to the board on Turn 2. Very torn on this one, highly dependant, as with many cards on the strength of Mech synergy.

[Sottle 221]

Reveals for 25/11/2014

 

 

 

May as well do these two together. Fun looking cards, but probably not much more than that. At least with Ragnaros you're trading off the chance that it wont do what you want it to, for the fact that it does something immediately. These cards just combine the ability to screw you completely with being generally quite slow. There's some nice potential benefits with being able to bypass Taunt, or potentially hit Stealthed minions, but these niche situations aren't enough to see the past the catastrophe of uncontrollable attacks.

[Sottle 221]

Reveal for 26/11/2014

 

 

So what we're looking at here is Deadly Shot with a Combo bonus. First thing that needs to be addressed is that Deadly Shot would be significantly better in Rogue than it is in Hunter, due to the extra removal that Rogues have at their disposal. You could use Backstab, Eviscerate or Dagger charges to clear up small minions and leave the lone one that you wanted to Deadly Shot. So, what you're left with is Deadly Shot with a nice, but situational bonus, in a class far better equipped to make use of it than Hunter. However, it's worth noting a trend that the high mana cost Combo cards tend not to see play as of right now. My prediction is that this remains a tech card, something that floats in and out of the meta along the same lines as Harrison Jones, dependant on the amount of Weapon classes currently being played.

[Sottle 221]

Reveals for 27/11/2014

 

Felheart

 

 

Seems relatively poor. It's a perfect scaling card from Demonfire, a card that is never seen in constructed play currently. It costs too much as a straight up removal spell, and is too situational to depend on using as a buff. Unless the Demon pool expands hugely in GvG and you can play a Demon synergy deck with the same depth as Mech or Beast synergy decks, then I see no reason to run this card.

 

 

Scarlet Purifier

 

 

I fail to see the purpose of this card. If this is Blizzard's attempt at an anti-Deathrattle card, I can only respond with "must try harder". What relevant Deathrattle minions is this card actually effective against? Using it against a Nerubian Egg or Haunted Creeper actually improves their immediate board, it's completely unplayable on a board that has Sylvannas on it, and using it on a Leper Gnome, or Loot Hoarder is simply "Battlecry: Deal 1 damage", which would be a fine card if you could target anything, but not to counter one or two specific cards. I see this having next to no effect for Paladin.

 

Lil' Exorcist

 

 

Also seems weak as an anti-Deathrattle card, although perhaps less so than Scarlet Purifier. While this is a strong card against a board with even one Leper Gnome on it, it's absolutely unplayable against a board that has none. This will take its place amongst the tech cards such as Big Game Hunter, Clockwork Giant and The Black Knight, seeing play only when the meta dictates it. However, the strength of this card isn't really even comparable to those cards, since the swing provided when the previously mentioned cards "hit" is significantly more powerful than being able to play one under-costed Taunt.

 

Feign Death

 

 

Oh boy. Card seems potentially powerful. There's many different decks that come to mind where this could be put to good use, but i'd predict it would see play in a "smooth curve" Hunter, that tries to curve all the way from Undertaker through to Belchers, Cairne, Sylvannas etc. More akin to Deathrattle Priest than current Hunter builds. The card compares extremely favourably to Reincarnate, since activating Deathrattles is usually the only time Reincarnate is used. The only question mark is the situational nature of the card. Is potentially holding a dead card during key turns in the game worth the risk? Would you choose to included it as 1 card in 30 over other potential cards that are just always strong. If the power of Zoo has taught us anything it's that consistency, making every card you draw do something, is extremely powerful in this game.

[Supajee 3]

Scarlet Purifier could make a nice combo. Turn 2 Nerubian Egg, followed by turn 3 Scarlet Purifier. But you're right, seems very weak to be anti-deathrattle card, and quite situational in my opinion.

But Feign Dwath might mean that hunter starts using Nerubian Eggs too, we'll see. :D

[Sottle 221]

Yeah the Egg combo is nice, but i'm not sure it gives Paladin enough to start running Eggs yet.

[Sottle 221]

Reveals for 28/11/2014

 

Steamwheedle Sniper

 

 

So it seems like Hunter is getting a good deal out of these GvG cards. This is another powerful looking card to add to the Hunter arsenal. If I had to take a guess at Blizzard's strategy here, it's trying to address the power of Undertaker Deathrattle decks, but give the classes that will be heavily affected by those nerfs other options so they don't just get buried completely. Cards such as this, Gahz'rilla, Feign Death and Call Pet all lend themselves to slower Hunter midrange/control decks. Sunshine Hunter showed us that archetype is potentially powerful if built correctly, so possibly exciting times for Hunter ahead. Meanwhile, Shadowform sits in a corner and cries.

 

Crackle

 

 

So, a lot of maths and hypothetical evaluation needs to go into this card. I don't think you run this and Lightning Bolt in the same deck, so you pick just one or the other. From there, you have to evaluate how often this card is going to do more than Lightning Bolt, vs how often you try to use it on a 4-6 health minion and it backfires by rolling low. Then, how much it hurts you when it misses, vs how much of a benefit you gain over Lightning Bolt when it hits. That's a lot of theorycrafting! Really, we will have to wait and see what minions you are commonly playing against in the GvG meta to make the educated call between this and Lightning Bolt, but initial guess, Lightning Bolt wins.

 

Druid of the Fang

 

 

(Sorry for large image, only one available right now)

 

This one came as a surprise. Unless i'm missing something, and please let me know below if I am, the only Druid exclusive Beast card is the Panther token from Power of the Wild. Unless the Druid of the Claw forms are to become Beasts, then Druid is left picking from an uninspiring pool of Neutral beasts that aren't even run much in Hunter. Not to mention that this card is just potentially really bad. Frostwolf Warlord is a card that never sees play in constructed and is in many respects a very similar card, natural 4/4 for 5, and with a usually slightly weaker, but much easier to activate plus side. Unless Beast synergy Druid is pushed really hard through the rest of the GvG set, this card seems below average.

[Sottle 221]

Bolvar Fordragon

 

 

An interesting effect to say the least. First thing worth mentioning is that Paladin has an inexhaustable pool of minions in the form of their Hero Power than can be used to create a gradual buff for Bolvar. Second thing is that Bolvar is costed quite nicely at 5, which is low enough to play a slow card like this. You don't want an 8 Mana card hitting the board and not doing anything for a turn, where as a 5 Mana card is easier to get away with. It's also low enough for you not to be too distraught if your opponent is forced to use hard removal on it, which the 7 health will probably lead to. With all that said though, I just don't think the effect is all that powerful. Even more so, by definition this will be a "dead card" for some period of the game. It is almost required to sit in your hand for several turns before play. Paladin is a class that often carries these sorts of cards anyway, but the effect of holding Equality for multiple turns is devastating, the effect of this? Not so much.

[Sottle 221]

Nearly all the cards have now been released on Blizzard's Facebook page, with 61 new cards being added today. You can check out the full album Here

[symbiojoe 0]

Sooo, Shaman is now the new designated Murloc class and Iron Juggernaut is the big F-You card for the warrior. I would've prefered a deathrattle instead of a battlecry. Let the cries for nerf commence.

[Sottle 221]

Yeah I can't say I quite understand the Shaman Murloc synergy, but we'll see how that pans out. Iron Juggernaut I initially though was super OP, but it turns out the "Mine" you draw actually says "Draw a card" on it, so you "just" take 10 damage, you don't actually lose your draw for that turn, which would have been disgusting.