Tidepool Pupil
One of the best neutrals of the set. Tidepool Pupil allows us to discover a spell that we’ve played while it was in our hand. It might take a bit of time to activate, but a 1 mana 2/1 that discovers a spell from our deck is a powerful minion. It works particularly well with drinks since it becomes easy to activate. Combine that with Concierge and we have the potential to execute big swings.
It’s also a very good minion in decks that try to scale up an effect by replaying it. Good examples are Encroaching Insanity and Crescendo in Warlock, or Lightshow in Mage. It’s an incredible card for Naga Demon Hunter. There are so many potential applications that it’s likely going to become ubiquitous.
Score: 4
Classes: Almost all of them.
Bloodsail Recruiter
On paper, this is not a bad minion for an aggressive Pirate deck. The stats are threatening, and it gives us an additional threat. The issue we have is that it doesn’t fit particularly well in the pirate decks that are being promoted in the set. Those may not need a high number of them, instead focusing on their board flooding capabilities.
If Pirate Rogue was real, Recruiter might be good enough to be included in it, but we have no expectations it will compete.
Score: 1
Coconut Cannoneer
Another early game pirate, this time with a snowballing ability and health total that makes it hard to remove on curve. But the ability may not contribute that much damage. If we have a wide board of token pirates and can repeatedly trade them into minions, then Cannoneer isn’t bad. But it’s far less effective if we’re going face, in which case Hozen Roughhouser is a much better fit for the Demon Hunter set. Competition is fierce so we don’t think this makes the cut.
Score: 1
Drink Server
This is a value 2-drop that provides us with one of the six drinks in the set. Generation from a narrow pool of cards tends to be stronger, as it makes it more likely that a deck can leverage it into an established synergy. Three of the drinks cost 1-mana, so the generation pool is cheap.
Good candidates to utilize Drink Server are Concierge-centered decks that want to generate more drinks. The other class most suitable to utilize the 2-drop is probably Rogue, as it synergizes with both Snatch and Grab as well as Spectral Cutlass.
Score: 3
Classes: Mage, Rogue, Hunter
XB-931 Housekeeper
Since locations in this set can be triggered multiple times in the same turn, Housekeeper can potentially provide us with a burst of armor in a deck that can easily chain location triggers. The most dramatic synergy comes with Hiking Trail, as it can continuously chain triggers with Housekeeper, without the investment of any additional resources. This could be a strong pairing in a deck centered around locations and Seaside Giants.
Score: 2
Classes: Druid
Concierge
An incredible enabler of Tourist decks. Concierge works particularly well in classes that have access to 1-mana spells through a Tourist, as it can discount them to 0-mana and allows us to chain cast multiple spells in a single turn. Strong candidates here are Mage (Lifesaving Aura, Divine Brew) and Hunter (Cup o’ Muscle), both of which also have access to Mantle Shaper, which can be easily discounted to 0 mana within the miracle Concierge turn. These mid game blowouts can generate a crazy number of stats at an early stage of the game.
This might also be a powerful enabler of an OTK in Druid, thanks to Seabreeze Chalice and Go with the Flow. If we can stack spell damage and generate multiple copies of Chalice, we can kill the opponent without even playing Owlonius.
Finally, Concierge could be a decent card in Rogue decks with a Thief package. It can discount spells generated by Scorpion to 0-mana, or legendary minions generated by Wishing Well. However, the timing of these plays might be a bit too late to have enough impact in the average game.
Watch out for this one. We think this is one of the very best cards in the set.
Score: 4
Classes: Mage, Hunter, Druid
Cryopractor
Cryopractor does give a sizeable buff to a minion for its cost, being worth 6/6 in stats for 3 mana, but denying the minion’s ability to attack somewhat defeats the purpose of exerting pressure and dealing damage. We could attack with the target minion before freezing it, but then the buff isn’t doing anything for two turns. We could buff the minion before attacking, which will release it to attack the next turn, but then we’re counting on our opponent not being able to deal with it and losing immediate damage in the process.
The one deck where you would consider Cryopactor is Frost DK running Slippery Slope, but we have no faith that this archetype can compete.
Score: 1
Hozen Roughhouser
An ideal follow up to Sigil of Skydiving, as well as generally being a great fit for the charging pirate package available to Demon Hunter and Shaman. What’s important to note is that Roughhouser buffs a pirate “whenever” it attacks, which means the buff triggers before the attack occurs.
If you play Sigil of Skydiving and play Roughhouser on turn 3, the minions will get buffed to 2/2’s before they complete their attack, so you’re developing three 2/2’s and dealing 6 damage to the opponent. You also have a 2/4 on the board that the opponent must remove, or risk your pirates being buffed to 3/3’s on the next turn while dealing 9 damage.
This is a very dangerous card that enhances the snowballing capabilities of pirate decks.
Score: 3
Classes: Shaman, Demon Hunter
Lamplighter
A damage dealing 3-drop which infinitely scales? We’re getting some serious Shockspitter vibes here. Lamplighter’s condition does seem to be harsher than Shockspitter, as it requires us to run a full-blown elemental deck to work. However, it does scale very reliably in a tribal elemental deck that is built to chain elementals consistently.
Though Mage and Shaman do have elemental shells that may support such a card, we think Lamplighter’s highest ceiling comes in the Rogue class. Breakdance and Shadowstep allow us to replay Lamplighter multiple times in a single turn, which can represent a huge amount of burst damage. By turn 7, Lamplighter becomes a reliable game ending nuke that slower strategies may struggle to outlast, unless they can gain a sizeable amount of armor.
The main obstacle is that the elemental shell available to Rogue is garbage, relying entirely on neutrals to work. It’s possible that this deck simply gets run over before it’s able to execute its Lamplighter turns.
But if it does manage to survive the early game, Lamplighter Rogue might become truly oppressive. It’s either bad and forgotten, or it’s broken and gets nerfed. A short life, either way.
Score: 4
Classes: Mage, Rogue, Shaman
Overplanner
This minion’s ability does not provide any sort of card advantage, so if there isn’t a very good reason to leverage the ability, this 3 mana 3/3 is a bad card. Deck ordering is overrated, as it might only slightly improve the consistency of your deck. Often, it will do nothing at all.
We do have one good example of where Overplanner might be valuable, which is a Priest deck running Twilight Medium. We can set up our deck to take advantage of a Twilight Medium being played at the right time, resulting in the discount of one of our best cards to 1 mana. It’s still not completely reliable, but this is the card’s best chance of seeing play.
Score: 2
Classes: Priest
Sailboat Captain
Some players think this card will be added to Handbuff Paladin to give Windfury to our Southsea Deckhand. We very much doubt it will be a good card in the archetype. The issue with Sailboat Captain is that we can’t afford to run a dead card that only works with one minion in our deck. Current Handbuff Paladin doesn’t even want to hold on to Deckhand most of the time.
Even if we try to add some sort of pirate package, pirate minions do not synergize well with hand buffs, and Captain will still be a dead card a large percentage of the time. Outfit Tailor outclasses it as a 3-drop that benefits from buffs itself, while still being able to translate to charge damage through Deckhand or Leeroy.
What made Shroomscavate strong is that it could buff every single minion in our deck. It could simply be played on a threat we’ve naturally developed to deal a punishing amount of damage. It was not solely saved with the purpose of buffing Leeroy or Deckhand. It was not a dead card. We find it hard to believe that holding Deckhand and Captain throughout the game, while withholding Painter’s Virtue’s last charge, will become an optimal game plan.
This card is also not a good fit for Pirate Shaman and Demon Hunter decks since they don’t play big pirates. Giving Windfury to a token pirate doesn’t seem like a wise use of resources. Its best chance of seeing play is in an Amalgam Rogue deck that tries to abuse it with stealth.
Score: 2
Classes: Rogue
Terrible Chef
Terrible Chef is essentially a 3 mana 2/1 that summons a 4/4 on its deathrattle. That is not a great constructed card, unless we’re all-in on deathrattle synergies.
In a deathrattle deck, it becomes more interesting, as we’re developing a Nerubian Egg that is very easy to pop. Simply run the 2/1 into something, add some deathrattle enhancing effects and we could be cooking.
Where we like Terrible Chef the most is in Warlock, as we can curve it into Summoner Darkmarrow and activate Nerubian Egg’s deathrattle twice. Our opponent will be wary of giving us a trading opportunity on our turn, but popping the deathrattle on their turn also spends a lot of their actions and resources.
This minion is also worth three corpses for Corpsicle.
Score: 2
Classes: Warlock
Resort Valet
We’re not sure why we would ever play this card at its current cost and stats. We would probably not touch this card even if it were a 3 mana 2/4. A card from the newest expansion is a bit of fun flavor. You can discover cards from other classes too. There was some potential in this effect if the cost was reasonable. It is not.
Score: 1
Sleepy Resident
It seems like every expansion some taunt with a unique effect gets released and never sees play. We don’t mind the effort. Sleepy Resident can theoretically stall a wide board, but the opponent can also just trade into it and then play new minions. The worst part is that it’s a symmetrical effect, so it’s awkward to develop next to our other minions and potentially deny their attacks.
Score: 1
Wave Pool Thrasher
This minion’s effect is not a very good way to stall an opponent’s aggression, even against a wide board. The opponent can also remove it while developing new minions to take advantage of the deathrattle, backfiring on our efforts and getting more value in the process. Useless on an empty board. Bad if we have minions in play. Wholly unreliable.
Score: 1
Bayfin Bodybuilder
A very narrow and fringe ability that is tied to an expensive body. Bodybuilder’s most obvious synergy is with Dirty Rat, but unless we have multiple ways of taking advantage of the ability, we struggle to see it not being a dead card for a large portion of the game. Dirty Rat is situational enough.
Another card that theoretically works with Bodybuilder is Rest in Peace, but Priest is perfectly positioned to leverage Rest in Peace without needing a 5-mana undersized minion, while Demon Hunter is unlikely to go near this card either.
Alternatively, its general use could be to pop a board of deathrattle minions, but once again, that requires us to spend mana on an AOE effect on the same turn. Bodybuilder’s cost is too restrictive for that to happen early enough in the game.
Score: 1
Scrapbooking Student
Student summons an exact copy of a location, so if we’ve spent charges on the copy target, we will not get a fully stocked location.
This is a conceivable option for a location deck trying to leverage Seaside Giant, but we’re probably not desperate enough to commit to a 5 mana 5/5 that relies on us drawing the card type in the first place. Travel Agent looks like a significantly better choice if we’re going in this direction.
A bit revolting with Puppet Theatre.
Score: 1
Weapons Attendant
A 6-drop that is board-dependent is already a bad start. Weapons Attendant can potentially help us cheat out a high value weapon from our deck, such as Horn of the Windlord. However, we would need to play many pirates to be able to consistently activate it. If we need to find a weapon that badly, we could also just run Instrument Tech as a more stable and reliable option.
This card works best with Climbing Hook, as it both pulls the weapon and activates it for a free durability charge, but Climbing Hook is probably a terrible weapon.
Score: 1
Beached Whale
This is a very big taunt with a massive health total that becomes obscenely strong if we can circumvent its negative battlecry. This is possible by pulling it from our deck, cheating it out from our hand, or resurrecting it.
There are multiple ways of accomplishing this in several classes. The most obvious candidate from this set is Warrior, thanks to Food Fight, The Ryecleaver, and Hydration Station. Its beast tag means we can draw it with All You Can Eat after equipping the 7-mana weapon. We should also mention that Thunderbringer is a neutral legendary that may have found the best beast target for its deathrattle.
If a class contains or receives a “big” supportive shell in the future, Beached Whale will become a candidate for inclusion.
A 4/20 and a 6/9 minion in the same set? Team 5, we can smell what you’re cooking.
Score: 2
Classes: Paladin, Hunter, Warrior
Snoozin’ Zookeeper
This is a pseudo-AOE card that relies on the opponent’s minions to be in play to be useful. We also need those minions to have a combined attack value of at least 8, so that the 8/8 Beast will die in the process. Otherwise, we’re summoning an 8-attack minion for our opponent, which isn’t a great move.
There are some board states where Zookeeper can effectively clear the board, leading to a huge swing for us. However, a single minion in play makes Zookeeper unusable (unless that minion is a giant), while some boards are beyond Zookeeper’s abilities.
For 7-mana, this effect is expensive, when there are plenty of strong AOE effects in multiple classes that cost a similar amount and perform their duties more reliably. The only way Zookeeper sees play is in a deck that has little to no AOE capabilities, while being desperate for them. We’re not convinced this deck exists.
Score: 1
Travel Agent
A 2 mana 2/2 that can discover value is a reasonable constructed card. There are two main directions where we can see Travel Agent seeing play. One is a Thief-style deck, which values finding cards from other classes. The other is a location-focused deck, one that likely runs Seaside Giants and wants to increase the consistency in which we can discount it. This is a fringe playable 2-drop.
Score: 2
Classes: Rogue, Druid
Bumbling Bellhop
A couple of 3/3 taunts on turn 3 are strong, but Bellhop’s condition is restrictive on where we can play this card. We need a deck with a fair number of expensive spells, which isn’t a common trait to have in constructed decks.
The best candidates from this set are Mage and Druid, which are getting significant support for big-spell archetypes. However, we have little faith that Big-Spell Mage can be competitive, while Druid is stacked at the 3-mana slot and will look to ramp on this turn as a top priority. We’re not sure there is space for this card, as good as it is.
Score: 2
Classes: Mage, Druid
Customs Enforcer
A fringe tech card for players who have gotten sick of losing to Excavate Rogue but will continue to lose to the deck even after running it, because it sucks.
Score: 1
Octo-masseuse
This minion deals 1 damage to the enemy hero when it attacks. It does nothing when it enters play. It’s just a little funny. How about a 4 mana 8/8 that can only deal 1 damage to minions?
Score: 1
Package Dealer
This minion’s draw effect is persistent and triggers itself. What we mean is that if you draw a card while Package Dealer is in play, you have a 50% chance of drawing an extra card. If you do draw the extra card, you now have a 50% chance to draw another. At some point, it loses a coin flip and stops drawing, but there’s a chance it draws a boatload of cards just with a couple of draw triggers.
There’s also a chance it draws nothing. Package Dealer is completely unreliable, as an Ogre tends to be, on top of being very expensive. It’s not so easy to spend mana on it and start drawing on the same turn.
It’s another funny card that probably won’t see play.
Score: 1
Adaptive Amalgam
One of the most hyped cards in the set. The main idea behind its strength is that we can continuously buff it throughout the game, while tutoring it aggressively. Since it has all tribal tags, it can be the target of multiple tutor effects such as Pit Stop or All You Can Eat. It also means it can get magnetized, or receive any other buffs intended for a specific tribe.
In contrast to many, we don’t think Amalgam is that strong of a card. Shuffling strategies have historically been wildly overrated, with little thought put into an average game’s length and the effort and resources needed to invest into a single minion. Furthermore, the strategy of going all-in to buff a single minion can be countered in brutal fashion, through silence, transformation, erasure or mind control effects.
Ironically, we think Amalgam’s best utilization could end up being in Naga Demon Hunter, simply because it’s a 1-mana Naga. It might be weaker than Mistake, but Naga DH is a different beast. It does not care.
The classes best equipped to leverage its shuffling ability are Rogue and Hunter. Rogue might try to stick an Ourobos deathrattle on it. Hunter has a lot of ways to draw it, buff it, or pull it from the deck (Trusty Fishing Rod).
Score: 3
Classes: Rogue, Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Hunter
Mixologist
A mini-Kazakus for 3-mana, which can only discover 1-mana potions. We think this is a reasonable value card for a defensive deck but suspect that nostalgia might be overvaluing its impact. A 3 mana 2/3 that draws a card is not good enough. A 3 mana 2/3 that generates a high-quality card might be good enough. Are the 1-mana potions guaranteed to be high quality when they’re mixed? Judging by the pool available, not really. Not in 2024.
Where Mixologist could excel and become a truly powerful card is in classes that can specifically replay or copy its product. The best examples are Paladin and Priest, thanks to Lynessa, Pet Parrot and Pip. If we can use Mixologist to discover a 3-damage potion, that’s 6 more damage to our spell-based OTK combo with Lynessa.
Score: 3
Classes: Paladin, Priest.
Carry-On Grub
We can break down Grub like this. We play a 5/4 for 4 mana. We draw 2 cards for an additional 1 mana. In total, and for most of the game, this is a 5 mana 5/4 that draws 2 cards.
The only important exception is turn 4, where we can play Grub a turn earlier and draw the 2 cards on a delay. This makes it better than a 5 mana 5/4 that draws 2 cards.
Is a 5 mana 5/4 that draws 2 cards good enough in 2024? Not in any deck in the game. A draw effect tied to an expensive body usually doesn’t make the card, since most classes have stronger draw effects that are more synergistic with their decks. So, the fact that Grub is marginally better than the hypothetical card does not bode well for it.
There is an idea to copy the suitcase with Pip or replay it with Pet Parrot in Priest. This play is only as good as the random cards we ended up drawing. We don’t think this is a real strategy.
This is certainly one of the neutrals that’s borderline strong enough, but ultimately isn’t for most, if not all, constructed decks.
Score: 1
Dread Deserter
A minion we never want to run in our deck but aim to discover it through other means. Since we never want to put it in our decks, there is only one way to score it. Some might suggest we run it in ETC. We have a better suggestion. Let’s run Leeroy instead.
Score: 1
Seaside Giant
A new expansion brings another interesting Giant to the fray. We’ve mentioned Seaside Giant multiple times throughout this article as a potential build-around card for decks centered around locations. Generally, we want to use it in classes that have access to two playable locations, while having one of them be easy to activate multiple times in a single turn, while having a high number of charges. Travel Agent is also a neutral 2-drop that can help us get there.
The best class to utilize Seaside Giant might be Druid. It’s got Ramp. It’s got two locations that can trigger multiple times in a single turn with relative ease (Hiking Trail, Tide Pools). It even has a cornerstone legendary that summons locations in Lora.
Another class could be Death Knight (or Warlock), with Horizon’s Edge having 5 charges on a relatively easy trigger to unlock, so it can discount Seaside Giant all by itself. Or Rogue, which can run both Knickknack Shack (a very strong multiple trigger location) and Crystal Cove.
If Seaside can come down on the board for free by turn 6 on a relatively consistent basis, which is usually the sweet spot for giants to be competitively viable, it can be a very strong card. It should find a way to get there.
Score: 3
Classes: Rogue, Warlock, Death Knight, Druid
Gorgonzormu
This card is incredible for any board flooding strategy, as Gorgonzormu provides it with a valuable 2-mana cheese that can summon 3 bodies and upgrades every turn. If we play this dragon on turn 3, by the time we get to turn 4, the Cheese will summon three random 2-drops. That’s a scuffed Call to Arms. There’s a cost to this though, as we did have to play a 3 mana 3/3 to get there, but the potential mid-game blowout is there.
Cheese has great synergy in board flooding decks, not just because of their ability to leverage wide boards, but also because of Ticking Zilliax. Gorgonzormu makes it easier for us to cheat out Zilliax and buff our whole board, especially when we’re facing an aggressive mirror.
Some players may go even further and suggest this card should be played in almost every deck, regardless of its playstyle, with the Cheese providing a “clock” that upgrades every turn and allows a defensive deck to turn the corner with it. We’re less convinced about that, because Gorgonzormu is not a good card to draw at the later stages of the game. In fact, it’s probably a bad card to draw at any point after turn 3 if we don’t have a way to leverage tokens. Aggressive decks have shorter games, so drawing this card on turn 10 doesn’t matter to them.
One of the standout neutrals of the set and should become a staple in a wide variety of aggressive decks. Incredible synergy in Zarimi Priest and Showdown Paladin, for example.
Score: 4
Classes: Ticking Zilliax
Griftah, Trusted Vendor
A Chillwind Yeti better do something incredible for us. Griftah discovers from a pool of 7 Amulets with various effects. Whatever we discover, the opponent gets an inferior, “scuffed” version of the Amulet. Obviously, it gives us some resource edge, but we think for Griftah to be truly strong, we need to find a way to leverage Amulets further.
Thankfully, there are some powerful ways to abuse Amulets in the format. Paladin can double the Amulet in a Lynessa turn. Amulet of Warding or Amulet of Strides are particularly incredible rolls that can enable us to OTK the opponent, or at least blow them out in a way they can’t come back from. Priest can repeat Amulet with Pet Parrot or copy it with Pip. Warrior and Shaman can double, or triple our Amulet generation, potentially filling our opponent’s hand with junk. Rogue can bounce the card, though this is probably too expensive of a line.
We can also see Griftah being played as a filler value card in some control decks, or Reno decks. It’s reasonable enough to be popular, though not overly powerful. We also expect it to be overplayed bait in some decks.
Score: 3
Classes (best two): Paladin, Priest
A.F. Kay
A bizarre legendary that might have achieved perfect flavor but looks unacceptable in terms of power level. The strangest story we’ve heard is that this card got nerfed in development. Its buff used to be worth +3/+3 to all minions, which got reduced to +2/+2.
A.F.K is a 5 mana 0/5 minion that only buffs friendly minions that did not attack on the turn. We can summon minions on the same turn we play A.F.K, a difficult undertaking, to trigger the buff. Alternatively, we have a wide early board, play A.F.K, while choosing not to attack our opponent to get the buff.
Not attacking with minions? Skipping damage to buff our board and hope our opponent doesn’t draw an answer to it? On a 5-mana minion that is utterly useless by itself?
We’re a bit confused why this card costs so much mana. The only strong use for it is when we play it alongside other minions, so we get to buff them while they have summoning sickness and can’t attack. But A.F.K’s cost is so prohibitive that it’s such a tough task for a board flooding deck at a relevant stage of the game. We’re amazed this card got nerfed in development.
We won’t be tentative about this. If this card ends up an important piece of a competitive deck, we’ll welcome it. Let this be the Wheel of Death of the expansion.
For us to win with A.F.K, our opponent needs to be AFK.
Score: 1
Incindius
A very cool (or hot) design for a potential win condition, but one that needs to be leveraged through synergies to become a real clock on opponents. If we drop down Incindius on turn 6, we shuffle 10 damage from 5 Eruptions into our deck. That’s not too bad over a drawn-out game, with Incindius acting as a threat that needs to be removed, but it doesn’t have enough impact in late game matchups.
Defensive decks don’t develop a lot of minions that get cleared by Eruptions, while possessing sustain to heal through the chip damage. In faster matchups, Incindius comes in too late. Aggressive decks will simply ignore the 2/10 and go face, and it will usually net them an advantage unless we get lucky with a quickly drawn Eruption.
Where Incindius could become strong is in decks that can multiply its battlecry, so we can shuffle more eruptions, and/or buff them multiple times.
In Shaman, we can triple the battlecry of Incindius, then Gaslight Gatekeeper with spell damage minions to potentially OTK our opponent with 15 Eruptions. Note that spell damage does buff the damage of Eruptions!
In Warrior, we can double Incindius’ battlecry post-Brann, perhaps even copying the minion with Zola when we’re in a comfortable mana advantage thanks to New Heights. The inevitability provided here represents a clock on the opponent that could be superior to Boomboss.
In Mage, we can tutor Incindius with Mes’Adune, which gives us two copies of a 3 mana 1/5 Incindius, resulting in 10 Eruptions that deal 3 damage each. The issue here is that we must give up other elementals in the deck, such as Sleet Skater, while also losing the combo whenever we draw Incindius before Mes’Adune.
We think Shaman might be able to establish a competitive Incindius deck, with one clear bottleneck that could hurt its chances: playing Shudderblock, into Incindius, into Gatekeeper/Zappers, is a slow line of play that can lead to us getting punched in the face before we can complete it.
Score: 3
Classes: Mage, Shaman, Warrior
Marin the Manager
We know all about Marin. The card has already established itself as a meta defining win condition in Druid, thanks to the class’ ability to play it earlier through ramp, while having a relatively high curve, which makes the Wondrous Wand turn even more backbreaking to the opponent. The legendary has also been able to establish itself in other decks, though not to the same success and power level, with some decks where it’s been genuinely weak. Marin’s reputation is even stronger than his deeds.
With Warrior gaining access to ramp, we suspect that Marin’s performance will shoot up in the class. Other classes may attempt to leverage him better through some synergies, such as Twilight Medium in Priest. If we can turn Marin into a decent card in a class, it benefits its late game tremendously.
Score: 4
Classes: Rogue, Death Knight, Priest, Warrior, Druid
