Busy Peon
A 2-drop that pays for itself through its deathrattle by discounting the next location we play by 2 mana. We’re not sure there is a desire in any class to cheat out a location. Location-focused strategies have completely flopped this expansion, and Busy Peon isn’t the kind of card that suddenly turns them competitive. The discount is not bad, but it does carry a delay, and most locations are cheap enough to play at an early stage of the game. We don’t think “timing” is what these decks are missing.
Score: 1
Clumsy Steward
This card guarantees that your opponent’s next draw becomes temporary. This means they must play the card, or have it discarded from their hand at the end of their turn. Clumsy Steward offers a form of disruption that can be effective against a late game strategy with key win condition pieces, or an expensive curve in general. If the card drawn is expensive following a turn 3 Steward, there’s not much that the opponent can do to preserve it.
Against faster decks, this card is far weaker, as they should have less problems expending it, invalidating the Steward play. As a 3 mana 2/4, we’re set behind if we don’t get to disrupt our opponent’s play. Note that Clumsy Steward also impacts our own drawn cards, so we can’t draw cards while it’s in play.
May see play in a deck that values disruption, such as Control Priest, or a “mill” deck.
Score: 2
Classes: Priest
Carnivorous Cubicle
A callback to Carnivorous Cube. Same stats, battlecry and cost. However, this is not a reprint as it has no deathrattle. Instead, Cubicle summons a copy of the destroyed minion at the end of our turn, making it a persistent effect.
We think Cubicle is far worse than Cube for several reasons. First, it doesn’t have a deathrattle, so deathrattle activators can’t leverage its ability. Second, it’s only going to summon a single copy of the minion realistically, as the opponent is never going to ignore Cubicle. It’s a priority target to remove from the board. Thirdly, we have no control over the timing of the summoned minion, as we can’t sack the Cubicle for its benefit.
In the case it only summons that single copy, Cubicle is basically a deathrattle activator akin to Princess Huhuran. It’s better as it can’t be ignored, while also serving some utility in “healing” a minion, but in terms of realistic impact, they’re similar cards.
We’re not big on the effect, but there’s a realistic chance that Mystery Egg Hunter will want to play Cubicle, as it’s a decent follow-up to a turn four Egg.
Score: 2
Classes: Hunter
Dreamplanner Zephrys
Zephrys is a flashy card, but we can simplify its effect for the purpose of evaluating it. It’s a 3-mana 3/2 that generates two cards, from three known pools that we can choose from, which we can best describe as: removal, damage and value.
The card quality of the pool isn’t sky high. These are 2014 era classic cards, but some of them are clearly powerful as generated cards. The fact we can choose the type of cards we want to generate makes it flexible through the course of a game, or different matchups.
Compared to other value generators at a similar cost, Zephrys seems strong. We can see it being played as a filler card in Reno decks. Druid may value it higher than other classes due to its ability to ramp and the absence of removal in its toolkit. Burn decks may opt for Zephrys as a pseudo finisher. It’s an elemental, so Lamplighter decks could use it to find more damage. Rogue may view it as a Thief enabler for a deck such as Cutlass Rogue.
We can think of a long list of decks that could find Zephrys useful, so it’s very likely to see competitive play. We don’t consider it to be a powerhouse card, however. It’s more of a utility tool than a performance booster.
Score: 3
Classes: Many of them.
Travelmaster Dungar
Dungar brings back memories of Master Oakheart, but instead of the minion’s characteristics, it looks at its expansion. Through deckbuilding manipulations, we could theoretically have Dungar summon a massive board of threats that can swing the game dramatically.
Our issue is that Dungar costs 9 mana, which realistically puts the card as a candidate for the Druid class and not much else. When we compare it to Pipsi, for example, which is a good modern comparison, we believe the Paladin legendary is easier to build around and faster to develop.
We don’t think a turn 9 Dungar, in a format with Reno, is a game winning play often enough, so unless we have ramp, we’re not interested.
Score: 2
Classes: Druid
