Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old Gods will change the way the game is played. The last set, The Grand Tournament , didn’t affect Hearthstone that much, except giving us Mysterious Challenger – thanks for that. Most of the cards were bland and the Inspire mechanic relied way too much on RNG to shape the meta game in any real way. WOTOG is entirely different, giving us slower cards with more punch to fill the hole that the format change is going to leave behind.
Master of Evolution was revealed by Savj on April Fools, though it wasn’t a joke. It’s a four mana 4/5 Shaman minion that has a Battlecry: “Transform a friendly minion into one that costs (1) more.” This card is good, but still has that good old random Hearthstone generator problem. If you use this effect on a two-mana minion like Mad Scientist , there’s a chance you can get something amazing like Brann Bronzebeard or something awful like an Unbound Elemental.
Reddit user benzedrine created a chart that shows what the average stat increase is for Master of Evolution’s effect and the likelihood of getting a minion with Taunt, Charge or Spell Damage. For a minion that costs two mana, you will on average get a minion with one health and one attack more. This card doesn’t fit in with Face Shaman; it needs more control to be useful. Unfortunately, Shamans tend do pretty poorly with control decks, but this set might change that.
Control Shaman might become a thing, especially if Thing From Below has anything to say about it. It’s a six mana 5/5 Shaman minion with Taunt, and costs one less for each Totem you’ve summoned this game. That means any Totems summoned count, not just ones summoned with the Shaman hero power. That means Tuskarr Totemic, Totem Golem and Mana Tide Totem all lower Thing From Below’s cost. If you can get this bug anywhere near four mana, his value would be on par with Piloted Shredder . Combine these two cards with the Shaman Legendary Hallazeal the Ascended and we have ourselves the start of a powerful Shaman Control deck.
The last card I’m covering today is the cutest of the set, Vilefin Inquisitor . It’s a one mana Paladin 1/3 Murloc with a Battlecry that changes your Hero Power into “summon a 1/1 Murloc.” So instead of 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits you get 1/1 Murlocs, what’s the big deal? Murloc Paladin struggles when you don’t draw any Murlocs, making cards like Anyfin Can Happen useless.
Now, you can buff Murloc Tidecaller and if you are playing Wild, Old-Murk Eye.
Your new Hero Power shines when combined with Murloc Knight . If you summon a Murloc Warleader, that 1/1 Murloc turns into a 3/2, not too shabby eh. You can even give your new Murloc Divine Shield with Steward of Darkshire , turning the big eyed fish monster into an even bigger threat. Murlocs thrive in numbers; they are the rats of our beloved card game.
