by OtakuMZ - 8 years ago     show comments

Introduction

Welcome to our seventh and last installment of the Karazhan Card Evaluation, a series in which we review each and every card spoiled before the release of the whole adventure on August 11th. As always we appreciate comments below or via twitter @OtakuMZ1978 and/or @DannyDonuts_HS.

We encourage you to browse all previous card evaluation articles, the Spoiler Card List as well as the Karazhan Power Rankings to be fully informed about the set. Alos, following we will give you are all direct links to the previous articles for quicker access: Karazhan Card Evaluation #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6

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.

Update August 9th: Menagerie Warden and Violet illusionist slipped our attention and are now in. Some typos correctes, sorry for that.

Card Evaluation (22-45/45)

Neutral

Violet Illusionist 

OtakuMZ: Great idea design-wise but I am hesitant to believe, that the Violet Illusionist is able to survive long enough to make a difference. There are just too many ways to deal 3 damage. You can give the cards credits for having vanilla stats but it would have been way better as a 3/4. It could turn out a live saver in certain circumstances when a lot of trading has to be done (Fool’s Bane?), but I think it is overall too situational. Weopon classes might want to try it though. Great card for arena.
Rating: 3

Danny: This card adds another level to gameplay. Having the ability to take damage on your turn allows you to attack with weapons, and not care about which minion you hit, which is rather beneficial. This makes Fool’s Bane better in warrior. Additionally it prevents a player from taking fatigue damage at the end of the game. This is rather interesting, and may find its way as a one of into a late game fatigue deck. I feel that at the moment this card is a bit too niche, but it has alot of potential.
Rating: 3

Arcane Anomaly

Danny: This card seems to be a worse version of Mana Wyrm. Mana Wyrm is a really good one drop because of it’s three health keeping it alive after playing it on turn 1, and being able to combo it up to do a lot of damage on turns 2+. Playing Arcane Anomaly on turn 1 will end up with it most likely being pinged down, and if not, you need to play two spells in order for it to become a 2/3, which is much less powerful than a 3/2. Overall I feel this card is not going to be a good one.
Rating: 4

OtakuMZ: The card could be good in a late game scenario in a Lock and Load Hunter or another spell heavy deck. Also Druid would be able to abuse this in a Yogg version, but again there is a huge “but”, which card would it replace that is worse. No one, right. I am on the same boat as Danny, it is just a worse version of Mana Wyrm and problably will not make the cut.
Rating: 4

Arcane Giant

Danny: It seems that it is going to be really hard to play as many spells as this card will need in order to be played. Playing a Yogg tempo mage, you will typically get 8ish spells out by turn 10, which is when you are trying to play Yogg to combat an aggressive board, in which a low costing 8/8 with no effect is too late, and not powerful enough. Against control this can make the spell decks a bit more powerful, but I dont see this card taking off.
Rating: 3

OtakuMZ: A niche pick for sure but it might give some spell strategies the edge they need. Of course Arcane Giant will be a great addition to any Yogg deck where you control the board early- to mid-game with spells and follow up late game with a 2- to 5-mana 8/8;  who said a 4 mana 7/7 was good – ok, this one is later to the party than Flamewreathed Faceless normally is. Lock and Load Hunters or Secret Hunter with Cloaked Hunter can make this crazy. I even see it in Tempo Mage making it a good card because it may be viable in a lot of spell strategies – and the Karazhan expansion seems to encourage spell decks a lot.
Rating: 2-3

Avian Watcher

Danny: This is a really interesting card for decks that will be playing secrets that may not proc immediately. A 5-mana 4/7 taunt is really powerful, and I believe that this will be the card to make a grinder mage successful. It seems that mage will be the class that gets the most use out of this card, as your secret normally goes off the turn after it was played a good portion of the time for all hunter and Paladin secrets, while Mage has Iceblock, which will stay up indefinitely. I am really excited to build a mage deck that includes this card.
Rating: 2

OtakuMZ: Control style mage decks with Ice Block  will run this. Control Hunter, besides Yogg and Load are not a thing and even this deck will not likely run it. It has to be seen if it is consistent enough which I believe it is not. It is not terreble either but still I think it will see little play.
Rating: 4

Menagerie Magician

Danny: This card looks pretty good. I am not sure how these combo tribe decks will be, but if a midrange version comes up, this will be overpowered. If it hits one minion it’s a 5 mana 6/6, and with 2 creatures hit, it is insane.
Rating: 2-3

OtakuMZ: I was hesitent about Zoobot and I am with this one. It is really difficult to see a slow enough meta where it would be worth running this and being able to hit two or more minions. It’s cute though.
Rating: 4

Pantry Spider

Danny: This is a 3 mana 2/6, but it has a pretty poor stats. It trades 1 for 1 with most 2 drops, as 3/2’s are commonly being run. The beast tag is interesting, but I dont feel that it will have enough impact to see play.
Rating: 4

OtakuMZ: Danny said almost all of it. It could be a pick in a deck that relies heavily on having a beast on board, e.g. for Mark of Y’Shaarj. Therefore I value it a little higher…
Rating: 3-4

Moat Lurker

Danny: This is an interesting card. It can be used as removal on a minion that your opponents played, and is especially good in the situation where the minion is buffed. It can also be really powerful if you kill one of your minions that has a powerful deathrattle such as sylvanus. I see this card being tried out in control decks, but its power level will be on the cusp of being playable.
Rating: 2-3

OtakuMZ: I love the mechanic even before I have seen it in action. There are a lot of pros and cons to this card. The con are poor stats and being situational. The pro is a vast range of possibilities and that you can either target your minions as well as your opponent’s. You can use this card to bypass a taunt, to remove a precious minion of your before a board clear. It is also a pseudo-silence, either removing a buff from your opponent’s creatures or canceling out a debuff like Humility from one of your minions. The fact that silence effects see little to no play at all leaves it reliable enough. I hope this card works! It will not be a staple but I think it can be powerful enough for midrange or control decks to be played frequently.
Rating: 2

Arcanosmith

Danny: This is a very interesting card. It essentially allows for your deck to stall out on turn 4, which will be very useful if you can clear your opponent’s board using some removal spells. I feel that control decks may run this card in order to slow down aggressive decks. With the release of this card and Avian Watcher I feel that the meta may stay slowed down after the adventure slowdown dissipates.
Rating: 2

OtakuMZ: Meh. I don’t like the card. Turn 4 is so important and wasting it for a Bloodfen Raptor and a Shieldbearer – no, I don’t see it. The worth is 3-mana and even at that cost it would not see play I believe
Rating: 5

Runic Egg

Danny: This card will fit into a buff deck, most likely a new paladin deck based off of their new portal spell. I feel that this card will be played, but as one of the last cards in that deck.
Rating: 2-3

OtakuMZ: I do not see a home in any deck at all. Loot Hoarder is straight out better. I do not even think it will help any N’Zoth strategy at all. I go far out and call it a bad card.
Rating: 5

Druid

Menagerie Warden

Danny:  After this expansion, I feel that beast druid will be a successful deck. This card will be the reason that it will be successful as a midrange deck. Being able to copy a beast that is already on the board is much better than Herald Volazj, as the minion that you copy does not have to have sufficient effects, a plain body will be fine. The dream will be to play Stranglethorn Tiger on turn 5 then play this and getting a 10/10 worth of stats the next turn. This card will find itself in all beast druid decks, unless it ends up going hyper aggro, which I feel will not happen.
Rating: 1-2

OtakuMZ: Yeah, add a random inenrvate and Mark of Y’Shaarj in the mix of Stranglethorn plus the Warden and we got double 7/7 on turn 6 for effectively just 3 cards – and you thought Flamewreathed Faceless was powerful, haha! Even in not so ideal circumstances, getting value from the Warden seems totally doable. his was the kind of powerhouse card we would have expected priest to get.
Rating: 1

Mage

Medivh’s Valet

Danny: This card is bonkers. If you can get a mage spell to stick, which I believe is going to be pretty easy, this card is going to be able to remove almost any 2-drop, and contest the board early game for mage. It essentially is a mini Blackwing Corrupter, but one that can be played earlier, has a vanilla body, and deals the full three damage. The condition may be a bit harder to accomplish, but the value is insane. This card will be played in every mage deck that runs secrets, and I think it may bring secrets back into tempo mage.
Rating: 1

OtakuMZ: Medivh’s Valet will be a powerhouse in Freeze Mage. This card could lead that archetype back to being playable in tournaments. Even though, I will not be happy to follow 20-minute long games in tournaments I have to give Kudos to Team5 for the card design. I can also see this card being played in other slow mages like Reno Mage and Grinder Mage. I also love to see more secret focused cards in the expansion in general and this is an exciting one on top.
Rating: 1

Warrior

Ironforge Portal

Danny: I have heard some people say that this card is going to be weak, and I disagree with them completely. I think this is going to be a staple in control warrior without C’Thun, and will make the archetype viable again over C’Thun Warrior. It is essentially Shieldmaiden’s younger brother in spell form. For 5 mana you get 4 mana, and a 4-drop, which typically have good stats. This is what warrior needs in a control deck, and, the 5 mana spot is rather empty in control warrior nowadays, with the common cards being run only being 2x brawl and possibly Harrison Jones.
Rating: 1-2

OtakuMZ: I see this card being played a lot equal to Danny. All Armor cards for warrior turned out quite well and even really good in the past. So will this one. Also the 5-mana slot is quite empty in actual warrior lists (despite Brawl), which might play into the value of this card especially in more tempo oriented lists.
Rating: 2

Rogue

Swashburglar

Danny: I feel that this is may finally push out a tempo pirate deck. Rogue was so close to having a pirate deck, and the inclusion of this may push it over the edge. Otherwise, it has synergy with Ethereal Peddler, and there are now more than a few ways to get class cards from another class than Rogue. I feel that this is not powerful enough yet, but I will definitely be experimenting around with a similar archetype, because it seems like alot of fun.
Rating: 2,3

OtakuMZ: Here it is, the card for Ethereal Peddler to be viable. Even without him, I think it is far from terrible. Undercity Hucksler saved me a lot of games and I am thinking this one will to even outside of a Ethereal Peddler Rogue deck as Danny already pointed out.
Rating: 1-2

Deadly fork

Danny: This card curves rather well with Deadly Poison, as the weapon is 3 mana. If it turns out to be powerful in the meta, this card might fit into an aggressive rogue deck, but otherwise I dont feel that it will see play.
Rating: 4

OtakuMZ: I do not see a place for an anti-tempo card with mediocre value in any rogue deck. In fact, I do not see that card played in any deck or class. It is simply overcosted. If the weapon at least would be 2 mana or the body were costed 2 and the weapon 3 it might be worth taking a look at. But as it is, it will only worth the dust it provides disenchanting and the short moment we admire the artwork.
Rating: 5

Shaman

Spirit Claw

Danny: This seems like a pretty good card. A 1/3 weapon isn’t that good, but a 3/3 weapon is. The main issue is getting it active on turn two, which relies on a 25% chance of getting a spellpower totem. Running low 2 mana spellpower minions improve these chances, but then your deck has to be centered around spellpower. The viability of this type of deck will only be seen by how the spell shaman archetype works out

Rating: 2-3

OtakuMZ: My first reaction to this card was rather disappointing but the longer I think about it spellpower shaman does not seem too far fetched. There is also Wrath of Air Totem which can act as an (unreliable) activator. I see this card in control style shaman decks in place of other early game removal like Lightning Bolt or Stormcrack. The just have to run some minions like Bloodmage Thalnos and Azure Drake instead of the usual card draw (Ancestral Knowledge or Mana Tide Totem) and the deck is ready to crush the opponents.
Rating: 1-2

Maelstrom Portal

Danny: This is a really good card when the meta has zoo and other token decks being played. However, it does not look like they will be too powerful, based off of what is powerful now. This card also has some interesting synergies with spellpower as well, and would be an inclusion in a new spellpower shaman.
Rating: 3

OtakuMZ: Read above, great analysis by Danny. A solid card with a good desing and not overpowered but still worth considering if the meta shifts towards flood decks.
Rating: 3, C

Wicked Witchdoctor

Danny: This is essentially a Violet Teacher that has one less health, but summons totems instead of 1/1 tokens. If it acts like Violet Teacher does, the totem should spawn before the spell is cast, which makes it better when looking at shaman buffing spells such as Everyfin is Awesome, Evolve, and Primal Fusion. It should be interesting to see this in the spellpower deck, as you will be playing a lot of low costing spells, which make this minion work well. I don’t feel that this card will be good in other shaman decks.
Rating: 2-3

OtakuMZ: I see little merit in running this card now. Violet Teacher is better in almost every other aspect and the stats are poor especially if you consider that it is a class card. Good arena card though if there would be more spells. All in all this card is near the bottom of the tier list.
Rating: 4

Hunter

Cloaked Huntress

Danny: This card looks absurd. Being able to sneak out a secret on turn 3 with a 3/4 body is crazy enough as is, but if you are able to put multiple secrets out at the same time, that is huge value. Combine that with Lock and Load, and you have a new secret hunter archetype that I am really interested in trying out.
Rating: 1

OtakuMZ: Just think of this on the board in a secret Hunter deck with Lock and Load generating even more secrets. WOW! Ok, best case scenario aside this card has a good body and an amazing effect. I really see this card making me play hunter (which is my least played class) just by itself. I love secrets hunter but it was not viable. I hope it will be with this disguised toast cloaked huntress. I am optimistic and rate it top notch!
Rating: 1

Cat Trick

Danny: This is a very interesting card. Essentially it is the spell analog of Bear Trap. I think it will see some play, especially if there is a new secret hunter deck. However, I think that it is not as good as Bear Trap, as typically the taunt of the Ironfur Grizzly is really helpful in disrupting your opponent from going face, or making good trades. The stealth of the panther does allow for the panther to attack the next turn but your opponent will have probably already dictated how the trades will occur.
Rating: 3

OtakuMZ: This secret looks tasty at first glance and I think it is decent. Compared to Freezing Trap and Explosive Trap or even Bear Trap I think it is a bit weaker. I still think it will see play, even though it is not optimal tempo-wise for faster hunters. The mere fact it is around makes it worthwhile though because your opponent has to play around another possible secret. I like the design and the artwork is again cuteness impersonated.
Rating: 3

Paladin

Nightbane Templar

Danny: This is a pretty good card and in my opinion that with Book Wyrm there may be enough dragon synergy to run a pretty good paladin dragon deck. The real question, is if it is going to be a tempo oriented dragon deck, or is it going to be a value based one. If this card is included, then the deck will most likely be tempo based.
Rating:3

OtakuMZ: This card seems interesting at first, but if you look at it closer, it is a Razorfen Hunter with another 1/1 but being conditional. I think there are games, where it can be of good value but in general I see not enough worth in the card to see competitive play. I might be wrong on that, I have to admit and something in my gut  wants to like the card.
Rating: 3-4

Silvermoon Portal

Danny: After viewing the entire set, I feel that this may be a pretty fair card. However, the Paladin 4-mana spot is normally very heavily contested. This may make an appearence in an aggressive paladin buff deck. There is not much variance with this card, as there is not much of a difference in a random two drop, but you could always pull Doomsayer.
Rating: 3

OtakuMZ: The poorest of all portals. Mark of the Wild and a random 2-drop seems sub-par. Especially with such high value cards like Truesilver Champion, Keeper of Uldaman and Blessing of Kings being available to our holy knights. All in all, I do not think it will see play despite being a good arena card.
Rating: 4

Priest

Onyx Bishop

Danny: This card is simply the combination of a 3/4 for 3 and Resurrect, which actually makes it really good, as you normally would need to play two cards in order to get this value, so seeing them tied up together makes it rather valuable. Having an additional Resurect effect may make Injured Kvoldir good enough to play in a priest deck. That deck would probably run Injured Blademaster as well. I belive if Priest is to see a new deck, this card will be the reason to play it.
Rating:2

OtakuMZ: Cool card for priest but maybe too slow. Anyway, I see it played because Resurrect already was boarderline playable. Getting a decent body on the board (I would have like a 3/5 or 4/4 more though) might render this card good. With some more good cards coming in a future expansion (not yet :feelsbadman:) I see it rise in value. It won’t help Priest out of its acutal demise though.
Rating: 2-3, B

Priest of the Feast

Danny: I am not so sure about how I feel about this card. I understand that Blizzard probably wants this card to be a stabilizing card, but there currently isn’t any good way for priest to get the board back. Priest seems to have a bunch of strong 4+ minions, but they don’t have any instant board impact, and this card is going to end up allowing an opponent who is winning board against you to choose favorable trades. Overall I am not impressed with this card.
Rating:4

OtakuMZ: A boring card that might turn out better than it sees at first glance. It is at least a heal for 6 and probably destroy one or two enemy minions for 4 mana with the potential of being more. It even might help you in later stages of the game when used directly with one or two spells on the same turn, getting you out of leathal range. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the crazy card we would have hoped for but I see it becoming a staple in control priests after a while.
Rating: 2

Purify

Danny: This card is utter garbage. It might have seen some play if it had cost 1 mana, which would have been the buff that priest needs, but it is too slow. You can only silence friendly minions, and you need to pay 2 mana to draw a card. A really bad card.
Rating: 5

OtakuMZ: As the community has already ranted, this card is noting but an insult to all hopes priest players had. Make it 0-mana and it still would see little play. Make it target enemy minions too and we might talk, but this. NO!
Rating: 5

Conclusion

This concludes our reviews. We hope you enjoyed reading them, if you missed one or the other, you can get quick access to every one of them by hitting the link in the link section below. Don’t forget to check out the other links and the rest of the content of our site. Most importantly we wish you good luck in trying out each and every card as soon as they get released, starting August 11th (NA) / 12th (EU).

Yours,

DannyDonuts and OtakuMZ

Other Important Links

All card evaluation articles

Karazhan Power Rankings by OtakuMZ

Spoiler Card List by Eldorian