by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

Disclaimer: You will find the rating used at the end of the article. The Evaluations made are for Standard play mode only. All evaluations are subjective.

Important Links:
All card evaluation articles
Karazhan Power Rankings by OtakuMZ
Spoiler Card List by Eldorian

Introduction

Before we start, I am very happy that our new guy DannyDonuts joins the evaluation and we will do as much of the following post together.We hope do give you a more diverse look into the cards this way. As always we appreciate comments below or a tweet @OtakuMZ1978 and @DannyDonuts_HS

Card Evaluation (8-9/45)

Malchezaar’s Imp

Danny: I believe that Malchezaar’s Imp will allow for a different type of hyper-aggressive zoo list to be formed. It will allow for more discard cards to be played, which are normally over-powered for their cost. This card will allow for their negative effects to be mitigated. This list will potentially incorporate low mana discard cards such as Darkshire Librarian, Tiny Knight of Evil, and Succubus, as well as continuing to use Doomguard as a finisher. I think that this deck may be more powerful than the current list, but only time will let us know how this turns out.
Another interesting interaction in which this card could see is if this card fills up your hand if Deathwing is played.This would be such a powerful interaction that if this is the case, I could see a midrange version of this discard-lock deck being made. There are a few interesting cards that could be played in this deck such as Dark Bargain, or maybe Fist of Jaraxxus.
Overall, I believe that this effect is exactly what discard cards needed in order to be playable, but if it doesn’t work out it will be a relatively unused card, possibly only used when pulled off of dark peddler.
Rating: 2-3 (B)

OtakuMZ: I like the demon tribe A LOT. I am on the same train aas Danny here, the card looks good and is cheap enough to be played in conjunctions with one or even two “discard cards”. Regarding the archetype I see also a new midrange demon decks possible which relies on the Imp of Malchezaar / Dark Bargain combo or the above mentioned combo with Deathwing – crazy.  Despite all my love for such a deck, I am hesitant to believe that will be consistant enough. Discard decks might run into the same problems like priest, being too inconsistant. If it works I give my kudos to Team5 for great card design! Therefore, I still cannot decide whether this card is great or poor which results in my final dichotomous rating.
Rating: 1 or 4 (B)

Babbling Book

Danny: When looking at the mage spells, they are some of the best spells in the game, and getting a random mage spell is probably a good investment. If you compare this card to Cabalist’s Tome, it has a third of the results and a 1/1 minion. There will be more variance than that card, as you only get one spell, which can be a bust if you get a card like Shatter, or amazing if you pull a Pyroblast. I feel that the spell can conditionally be good, but it also has the ability to be a poor choice.
I think that this card is in a very interesting position. The one mana spot in tempo mage is already really full with better cards IMO, so in my opinion Ravaging Grimoire will have to stick to the slower mage decks. I can see it fitting in as another early game card in reno mage, or possibly a new grinder mage type of deck.
Rating: 2-3

OtakuMZ: More casino, yay – that was my first thought. Anyway, this card may proof to be better than it looks at first glance. What does a grinder or control mage do the first turn? Nothing! Why not play a body and generate a new card and atop this fella looks so cute. 😆 On the other hand, it is a lot more inconsistant as Gnomish Engineer or Loot Hoarder, which can draaw your win conditions and answers more reliable. In the end, depsite being a decent card, I think it will remain a niche pick for grinding mage decks and not a staple.
Rating: 3

Rating Used

(1) Excellent: Cards that are top-notch or potentially overpowered. Most decks would like to run them, e.g. Dr. Boom.
(2) Good / Competitively Playable: Superior cards that will very likely see frequent play, e.g. Mire Keeper.
(3) Decent / No Competitive Staple: Cards that normally do not make the cut for competitive play but are overall well-designed and might fit into specific decks. These cards can be powerful in Arena though or really viable for newer players but you would not likely see them in tournaments.  Also vanilla cards such as Chillwind Yeti fall into this category.
(4) Poor / Too Situational: Underwhelming and/or overcosted cards. These cards have inferior stats and/or underwhelming effects and will not see competitive play, e.g. Voodoo Doctor. Grouped in this category are also cards that seem to be good at first glace, but their effect are so highly situational that most of the times you will not be able to pull them off, e.g. Ghaz’rilla. The latter can arguably be fun and even powerful IF their effect goes of, of course. In any case, these cards I like to call “what-if cards” are so unreliable that they render themselves unusable in competitive play. Feel free to raise these cards to a “build-around” card or just have fun with!
(5) Unplayable: Straight out bad stats, poor card design or simply useless cards that are even too bad for casual play? You have them in your deck? Delete Hearthstone! ? These cards you would not and should never put in your deck, e.g. Magma Rager. Okay, one exception here: you want to troll your opponent so that he thinks you are the worst Hearthstone player alive! ?
(A/B) Archetype Defining / Build-Around: Cards that are only viable if you build your deck around them, e.g. Grim Patron.
(C) Counter / Tech Choice: Cards that mostly have underwhelming stats but are highly useful to counter specific cards or to play against a very uniform meta, e.g. Eater of Secrets.