by OtakuMZ - 7 years ago     show comments

Note: This article will be updated as soon as new details arise. Bookmark it for your convenience.

Overview: Who is Kazakus?

Kazakus is the first Tri-Class Legendary that was spoiled from the new Hearthstone Expansion Mean Streets of Gadgetzan (MSoG) and he is a real interesting one. First, lets take a look at his card text and stats:

Mana Cost: 4
Attack: 3
Health: 3
Type: Minion
Rarity: Legendary
Class: Mage/Priest/Warlock

Text: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, create a custom spell.

Custom spell? That’s the way we want it! In fact, the community was asking for this exact thing quite a long time. Ok, but what is this custom spell thing? You obviously cannot just write a custom text down in your time limit and then fire it off. The process of putting together a spell is a sequence of three discover mechanics, discovering a potion/ingredient each which then result in the final spell:

Step 1: choose the mana cost of your custom spell to be either 1-, 5- or 10-mana.

Step 2: discover 1 ingredient out of the 3 that are presented to you. The potions offered are randomly chosen out of a total 10 available (except in the 1-mana department, see below).

Step 3: Repeat step 2 with the only difference that the selection offered to you is now randomly chosen out of the remaining 9 ingredients available (10 minus the one you chose during step 2).

Bing! Your Kazkus Potion is ready.

TLDR: You first say how much the spell should cost, then you discover two effects (out of possible 10).

Kazakus Potion Ingredients

Now that you know how the magic works let’s take a look at what we already know about the ingredients. Reddit user madiele has put together a nice table and all the facts that we already know in his reddit post:

Update: remaining ingredients are confirmed and added

Everything you see in the table that is written in parenthesis () is just an assumption. I added my own speculation which I have marked in square brackets []. He assumes that ”the 5-mana option is like the 1-mana but doubled and the 10-mana is very close to the sum of the 1- and 5-mana potions”. There will be probably some effects left out in the 1-mana department and “the only confirmed one at the moment is the polymorph effect”. He also found out, that the order in which the effects trigger will always be the more beneficial way around for the you (e.g. first polymorph enemy minions, then AoE). Although shown during the BlizzCon events (and seen in the screenshot below), the Thoghtsteal-like effect has not made it in the final version of Kazakus which hurts his potential a bit in the late-game / control match-up.

Expectations for Kazakus

I suspect Kazakus to be a powerhouse as long as Reno Jackson is still in the game. After that, we have to see if it is still good enough. True, the effect is insane, but the drawback of having to build a “Highlander” deck is significant. Either way, the card is destined to bring fun to wild for a looooong time!

Back to the actual setting, we can say that the RNG involved is at a tolerable level and the discover effect is a perfect tool to narrow down RNG even more. The best thing about the discover mechanic is that it involves a high amount of skill and knowledge of the matchups in choosing the right ingredients and mana cost for any given situation. Atop, the card gives you a ton of flexibility which helps in a variety of matchups. The body is nothing great but totally in line with other draw or discover cards (e.g. Tomb Spider, Polluted Hoarder) but the effect is way cooler and fitting for a Legendary. I suspect we will see a lot of experimentation with him and he will find a place even in competitively played decks.

Verdict

All in all I like this card a lot. It is a competitively playable card overall. It is skill intensive and despite RNG involved it is under control and controllable. Even more important Kazakus seems to be a come-back card, not a win-more card which makes him highly relevant. The drawback is very well in line with its powerful effect but he may be still overpowered as long as Reno Jackson is still in Standard.

Well done Blizzard / Team 5 devs!