The Happy Hearthstone Podcast

Blackrock Mountain Review (Neutral) - Episode 47

Hello!

• Scott is on the show this week
• Topic: Blackrock Mountain Neutral Cards Review
• Reasons to be happy this week
• News: Blackrock Mountain wings open

The Review Scale

What we’re reviewing:

• Arena Score = The value of this card while drafting in Arena.
• Constructed = The value of this card when crafting the type of constructed deck that most wants this card.

How the score works:

• 0 = awful, unplayable (Example: Sacrificial Pact, Poison Seeds)
• 1 = Underpowered, but it could work out (Example: Naturalize, Divine Spirit, Corruption)
• 2 = Acceptable backup plan or niche filler (Example: Crazed Alchemist, Emperor Cobra)
• 3 = Solid value (Example: Chillwind Yeti)
• 4 = Great, with lots of upside (Example: Animal Companion, Knife Juggler)
• 5 = So good you always have to play it (Example: Dr. Boom)

Neutral Card Reviews

Dragon Egg

• Josh says: Rare?! The payoff is so weak. A 2/1 is super easy to deal with and you have to put in a ton of effort to get more than 1.
• Scott says: Like Nerubian Egg, this does nothing on its own. Unlike Nerubian Egg, this doesn’t seem worth arranging combos around. Even if you had a whirlwind-style Warrior deck, it would just kill the 2/1 Whelps.
• Arena Score: 0
• Constructed Score: 1

Blackwing Technician

• Scott says: If you’re not playing a dragon deck, forget about it. If you are playing tons of dragons, can be worth it.
• Josh says: The stats aren’t awful if you don’t get the battlecry, but you should really only play it in a Dragon deck — where you’re getting a 3/5 for 3. Great value.
• Arena Score: 2
• Constructed Score: 3

Dragonkin Sorcerer

• Josh says: Shield Masta stats by itself. Tons of fun combo potential, especially in buff classes like priests. But it really makes a juicy silence target.
• Scott says: Only needs one activation to be profitable — not hard to make happen. Compares to Violet Teacher, but gets +1/+1 instead of a 1/1 and is a Dragon. I think I like this one better, especially in a dragon deck.
• Arena Score: 3
• Constructed Score: 4

Hungry Dragon

• Scott says: You get +1/+1 (and a Dragon) in exchange for giving your opponent a 1-cost minion. Their minion will pretty much always be better than a 1/1, but sometimes having a single big body can be good. Can combo well with Mind Control Tech or Sea Giant. These kinds of cards are generally only good in tailored decks.
• Josh says: There are a lot of really, really good 1-cost minions in Hearthstone. It’s one of the things that differentiates Hearthstone from other card games, in my experience. I’ll usually pass.
• Arena Score: 2
• Constructed Score: 4

Grim Patron

• Josh says: It’s so expensive! Wombo combo wet dreams, but usually a trap in any deck that can’t reliably proc this for “free”
• Scott says: A surprisingly versatile card. Can’t actually be killed fully unless they hit every surviving Patron for at least 3 damage. Mage and Warrior especially will like this card. Need to split him at least once to be worth it.
• Arena Score: 1
• Constructed Score: 4

Blackwing Corruptor

• Scott says: Not worth using if you’re not in a dragon deck, very worth using if you are.
• Josh says: I love this card. It’s a cheap Fire Elemental — one of the best minions in the game — with an extra requirement. Every dragon deck must run this.
• Arena Score: 1
• Constructed Score: 5

Drakonid Crusher

• Josh says: Okay finisher for aggro decks, but I don’t know why I wouldn’t take a charge or immediate-impact minion instead.
• Scott says: Should be a strong addition in aggro decks. Watch out for enemy healing and warriors. Works well with Alexstrasza. I feel like I might like this guy more than I should.
• Arena Score: 3
• Constructed Score: 4

Emperor Thaurissan

• Scott says: Good for expensive decks with lots of cards in hand. Also, enables combos not otherwise possible.
• Josh says: Some cards are very fun but not good. Some cards are very good but not fun. This is one of the rare cards that are absolutely both. Love it!
• Arena Score: 5
• Constructed Score: 5

Volcanic Drake

• Josh says: Make one trade and you’ve got a good card. It’s not hard to see this working insanely well for AoE removal classes like Mage.
• Scott says: Need 2 things to die on your turn in order for it to be profitable, but then you still need to deal with a suboptimal stat configuration. But if you can protect it or if more than 3 things die on your turn, can be a powerhouse.
• Arena Score: 3
• Constructed Score:4

Rend Blackhand

• Scott says: This one’s tough. It’s very inefficient from a stats perspective, and requires a lot to get additional value (enemy has a legendary; you have a dragon in hand; you have 7 mana). Killing an enemy legendary and having an 8/4 Legendary left over is awesome, but it asks an awful lot.
• Josh says: Yeah, I agree. When it works, it can absolutely win you the game. But, like you said, it’s hard to make it work.
• Arena Score: 0
• Constructed Score: 2

Chromaggus

• Josh says: So good. This is one of those cards that I think I’m overvaluing just because I love the playstyle — control and card draw. All it takes is one proc and you get value — if you have card draw minions on the table (or are warlock), you can get value on the turn you drop it.
• Scott says: Same cost and stats as Kel’Thuzad, but clones the cards you draw instead of cloning dying minions. I think I like KT better, but Chromaggus is certainly better for spells. This has to survive a full turn to get value from its ability, unlike KT. You also have to pay to cast the extra cards which may not help much if they’re expensive. I feel like this might be best in a deck with a lot of cheaper or mid-cost cards, especially direct damage spells.
• Arena Score: 4
• Constructed Score: 4

Majordomo Executus

• Scott says: Very interesting card. Biggest issue is once he dies, you go down to 8 life when you become Ragnaros. Your hero power is great, but the life reset seems like too much of a liability.
• Josh says: Yeah, this will almost always be a health drop. But on the right board state, that hero power can be a huge swing the turn he drops if you have Coin still. And he’s still a 9/7 for 9.
• Arena Score: 2
• Constructed Score: 2

Nefarian

• Josh says: 2 cards and an 8/8 for 9 mana? Heck yes, I don’t really care too strongly what those spells are. I’m totally in.
• Scott says: Interesting wording of its effect. It prevents seeing what your opponent has, and perhaps more importantly, will work even if your opponent isn’t running spells or is at fatigue. Most class-specific spells are pretty good, though there are some stinkers.
• Arena Score: 4
• Constructed Score: 3

Community

• No question
• iTunes Reviews

Card of the Week

It’s a surprise during the show!

Farewell

• Follow Scott on Twitter and Twitch and Hearthpwn
• What you want to see in future episodes
• What hosts you want to visit the show

Goblins vs Gnomes Review - Episode 43

Hello!

• Scott is on the show this week
• Topic: Goblin vs. Gnomes Expansion Review
• Reasons to be happy this week
• News: Upcoming reveals at PAX East!

What Kind of Review Is This?!

It’s not a complete review.

There are 123 cards in this expansion, and we took 3 hours to review 30 cards in Naxxramas! Instead, we picked a sampling of cards to talk about — the ones we think you should really care about.

For each quality level, we each picked 3 cards to talk about:

• 1 card that you must craft
• 1 card that you must draft in Arena
• 1 card that you must avoid in both cases

If people want to hear us review more cards, we might do a similar feature for each set of class cards in the new expansion too. Just let us know in the comments below! in the future: Class cards, we pick 2 cards total:

Neutral Cards – Common

There are a lot of very strong common-quality cards in the expansion, which is great for Arena and makes it easy to craft cards for constructed! Look here before you invest dust into the more expensive cards, that aren’t always as good as these commons.

Best to Craft: Piloted Shredder

• Josh says: Always passes the vanilla test. Lots of fun surprises too!
• Scott says: Solid value. Lots of fun.

Best to Craft: Antique Healbot

• Scott says: That much life can make a real difference in some decks. It’s expensive, but leaves a body of substance behind. Helps most when you’re behind on life, but not necessarily on board.
• Josh says: This has caused me to win and lose many games. Best healing many classes have access to.

Best to Draft: Annoy-o-Tron

• Josh says: Always useful. It’ll hold off a rush early, trade with 2-health minions easily, and absorb two big hits in late game.
• Scott says: I remember saying I loved the look of this guy before we could even play with him. And sure enough, he performs just as I’d hoped.

Best to Draft: Micro Machine

• Scott says: Deceptively strong. Starts as a 2/2 for 2 by the time stats matter. By your turn, he’s a 3/2. Anything above that is awesome. He’s great w/ coin.
• Josh says: Tremendous potential for a tiny investment (2 mana). If you can land some sturdy taunt around it, or some extra health on it, it can win games.

Best to Dust: Lost Tallstrider

• Josh says: A dumb card for a dumb bird. Will rarely kill more than one creature. Take Chillwind Yeti instead. Also, why is it wearing goggles and a bullet bandolier?
• Scott says: Pure vanilla in a sub-optimal stat configuration. At least he’s a beast.

Best to Dust: Flying Machine

• Scott says: Add haste and we’d be talking. Instead, it’s just too slow and vulnerable to be worth playing with.
• Josh says: Have to avoid dreaming best-case scenarios here. I’ve seen one person combo it with Blessing of Kings, and every other play has been lackluster.

Neutral Cards – Rare

There was a surprising lack of desirable cards at the rare quality level. I think you’ll be dusting a lot of these in order to make more commons or epics.

Best to Craft: Arcane Nullifier X-21

• Josh says: Another good variant in the line of taunt defenders. With Senjin Shieldmasta, Sludge Belcher, and this you’ll have a mid-game taunt creature for any type of deck you’re building against.
• Scott says: Seems okay, but would probably rather have Tazdingo most of the time.

Best to Craft: Jeeves

• Scott says: Jeeves has been overlooked IMO. In cheap mech decks, he’s quite strong. After all, how much would you usually pay to draw just 1 extra card?
• Josh says: This guy has sit in my hand so many games, because it’d benefit my opponent just as much or more than me. Fine card, but not my cup of tea.

Best to Draft: Bomb Lobber

• Josh says: Awesome effect on a decent body. In Arena, it’s not hard to play this when there’s only one enemy out.
• Scott says: Yup. This guy is the real deal.

Best to Draft: Lil’ Exorcist

• Scott says: Best of fairly bad choices. Everyone tends to have some Deathrattle in Arena.
• Josh says: Pretty bad card after the Undertaker nerf. I see this drop as a 2/3 more than anything else. Susceptible to silence.

Best to Dust: Gnomish Experimenter

• Josh says: Stats are woefully underpowered — and a 1/1 card is barely a card. Would rather have a Raptor for 2 mana. You can craft Commons better than this with the dust.
• Scott says: Ignore any thoughts about ‘turning a minion into a 1/1’ unless you planned on drawing and playing every card in your deck.

Best to Dust: Target Dummy

• Scott says: Proves Wisp isn’t the only worthless 0-cost card Blizzard can make.
• Josh says: Just in case Shieldbearer was just a little too useful for you.

Neutral Cards – Epic

Now this is where it gets interesting! There are a lot of interesting mechanics at the epic quality level, and not all of them are traps! Have fun with these ones.

Best to Craft: Enhance-o Mechano

• Josh says:It’s fun! And it’s actually quite solid. If you can hit this onto 2 minions, I say you hit value. And sometimes you’ll get even more.
• Scott says: A bit of a win-more card, but can help at parity.

Best to Craft: Hobgoblin

• Scott says: For fun!
• Josh says: Some cool possibilities for sure. Plus, very funny!

Best to Draft: Piloted Sky Golem

• Josh says: A nice body that can trade and replace itself? that’s exactly what you want in Arena! This is the Harvest Golem 2.0
• Scott says: Like Piloted Shredder, but an even better value.

Best to Draft: Recombobulator

• Scott says: Arena card quality is often lower, and there isn’t much synergy. Think of it as getting a free re-roll (and heal) on any crappy minion you own.
• Josh says: Surprisingly useful, and often just a raptor — which is just fine by me. Even good late game — kill something and then swap it to “heal”

Best to Dust: Mini-Mage

• Josh says: Such a weird creature. There are much better options for stealth damage minions and MUCH better options for cheap spell damage minions. This is actually more vulnerable than non-stealth spell power options.
• Scott says: He’s a hard sell over Jungle Panther.

Best to Dust: Junkbot

• Scott says: Well-named. Needs 2 activations before he’s profitable. Good luck with that.
• Josh says: This card is pure dumb. The 5 cost is just insane.

Neutral Cards – Legendary

These are the cards we dream about — the coolest of the cool. And Goblins vs Gnomes doesn’t disappoint! There are tons of great Legendaries to add to your decks.

Best to Craft: Sneed’s Old Shredder

• Josh says: It’s not a perfect card, but it’s the best way to play with all those fancy Legendary cards I can’t afford. Buy one Legendary, get them all for free!
• Scott says: So much fun! Usually a pretty good value.

Best to Craft: Troggzor the Earthinator

• Scott says: Such incredible value if your opponent has any spells at all, really.
• Josh says: We talk about “hyper-scaling” champions in League of Legends — and I think it’s time to use it for Hearthstone. This champion scales out of control crazy fast against a spell-heavy deck. I’m happy to help it burninate all of the peoples.

Best to Draft: Dr Boom

• Josh says: Even generalist gaming sites like PC Gamer are having public debates over whether or not this card should be nerfed. It gives you a big body that must be dealt with, and a couple small bodies that have a big impact even if they’re removed. Brutal board control swing in Arena.
• Scott says: Debatably overpowered right now. Biggest weakness is BGH, and even then you keep the Boom Bots.

Best to Draft: Foe Reaper 4000

• Scott says: In arena, where there tend to be less hard removal, this guy is king.
• Josh says: Yeah, notice that he damages them, but doesn’t take combat damage back from those extra minions. Brutal board bully.

Best to Dust: Hemet Nesingwary

• Josh says: There are much cheaper, much more universal ways to kill almost any beast in the game. Especially with Hunter losing popularity.
• Scott says: Effect is highly conditional, and stats balance is bad. Might be good in the new world championship tourney format though.

Best to Dust: Mimiron’s Head

• Scott says: It’s a trap! He’s a novelty for sure, but not actually good.
• Josh says: I desperately want this card to be good, because it’s just so darn cool. But, alas, Blizzard has done everything it can to make sure you have to align 500 stars to make this happen. So cool when it does, though.

Community

• Alex: How to catch up after not playing for awhile?
• iTunes Reviews

Card of the Week

Farewell

• Follow Scott on Twitter and Twitch and Hearthpwn
• What you want to see in future episodes
• What hosts you want to visit the show