The Comprehensive United in Stormwind Preview

Investment Opportunity

This card has some narrow usage as either a tutor or just an accelerator for a Quest Shaman deck. Spells that draw 1 card for 1 mana tend to be niche, and this doesn’t have a Nature tag so it clashes with Shaman’s most powerful card draw engine. Serviceable, nothing amazing.

Score: 2

Canal Slogger

This is an overloaded card in more ways than one and fills several holes in Shaman’s toolkit. Elemental Shaman now has a way to heal, and it’s tied into a versatile card that affects the board. Slower Shaman decks are now even more encouraged to run Primal Dungeoneer, as Slogger can form a small package with Cagematch Custodian that these decks would appreciate running. Many of the other Elemental minions don’t fit well in slower decks. Finally, it’s an Overload card, so it gives Quest Shaman an early and powerful way to recover. This is basically a non-legendary Zilliax that comes down one turn earlier and heals for twice the amount immediately. Unity. Precision. Perfection.

Score: 4

Spirit Alpha

This card is interesting. Shaman’s ability to leverage a wide board is non-existent and this feels like a weaker Thunderhead at first glance. But what Spirit Alpha has going for it is that it protects itself, and there is potential in completely locking down matchups against aggressive decks with a single Alpha chain producing multiple taunts. There is something here that we can’t write off, even though the initial body is so underwhelming.

Score: 2

Auctionhouse Gavel

Gavel is an amazing weapon because its mana investment pays for itself, and it allows you to cheat out minions earlier. Add Cagematch Custodian, and this is going to happen quite consistently in the early game, where this effect should be most powerful. But the reason we’re even more enthusiastic about it is its context with Shaman’s late game. This is a weapon that heavily synergizes with Bolner and makes it easier for you to combo it with the rest of the pieces in your deck. Just perfect.

Score: 4

Charged Call

This spell is horribly slow. For it to be a worthwhile play, we need to charge it up to summon a 5-mana minion at the very least (anything less than that, and you might as well play a Chillwind Yeti). This requires us to play 4 overload cards, which is quite a tall task and one that doesn’t even bring us closer to winning a game of Hearthstone. It’s very unlikely that Charged Call will give us the kind of strong development that we need for success before it’s very late in the game.

Score: 1

Granite Forgeborn

The only thing that prevents Forgeborn from being utterly busted is the fact it’s a 4-mana play. Discount cards get worse the later the game goes on. If this were a 2 mana 2/3, we’d probably lose our minds, but as a 4 mana 4/5 this is “just” a strong card that will be auto included in any Elemental Shaman deck. The fact it discounts your hand as well gives it that extra push to be competitively viable.

Score: 3

Overdraft

This card makes Lava Shock look like a joke, but how strong is Overdraft? Is it truly as busted as it looks? We think there will be moments when Overdraft will do literally nothing. Since it doesn’t have any base usage, or any “floor” of damage, it’s extremely reliant on the existence of other cards to be useful, and it needs their intensive usage to really get to the point where it feels “nuts”. Add the fact that it’s not a Nature spell, and things get a little muddy. Overdraft is the kind of card that can get stronger over time, and the tradeable tag helps it quite a bit (it might be the reason why it eventually sees play), but we don’t feel it’s an automatic inclusion in any way. Nuts off Wandmaker. Not so much in our original deck.

Score: 2

Tiny Toys

This card terrifies us and emits some Jandice Barov vibes. The strongest application for it has got to be Boggspine Knuckeles, which could be the play that brings the Evolve Shaman nightmares back. You’re also quite likely to spawn a minion or two that are worth more than their 2/2 stats, so it might be a serviceable play on its own. We’re still reserved about the possibility of Evolve Shaman since it has not been able to succeed from the moment it had to play Boggspine on 5, hold the weapon and do nothing for a full turn. We will wait to see whether Jambre breaks the meta with this card.

Who are we kidding? Of course he will.

Score: 4

Command the Elements

Command the Elements is one of the quests we’re more optimistic about. Its requirement doesn’t heavily limit deckbuilding. Its reward doesn’t heavily limit deckbuilding either. We can see it leveraging a burst-focused style of play, or a value-focused one where the Shaman can hoard resources forever and heal through tons of damage. There is the kind of flexibility we don’t see from other quests, as Overload cards can be quite broad in their usage. The question, as always, is whether the quest will truly make a difference on a certain style. If Shaman ends up finding faster and more effective ways to burst down the opponent, it will rather drop the quest requirement. The same goes for an attrition plan.

If there’s one weakness that bothers us about Command of the Elements, it’s Shaman’s ability to keep a respectable hand size. It will have to make tough choices, such as the utilization of Primal Dungeoneer, as well as the amount of generation it is capable of running. This could be where the quest falls flat, as it doesn’t provide you with fuel along the way.

Score: 2

Bolner Hammerbeak

We think Bolner is the very best card in the set. It is a 2-mana Brann Bronzebeard level card, but one that can be abused even harder since we can continuously repeat our most prized battlecry. We just can’t believe how cheap it is considering the kinds of things it is able to do. Just a single combo with Primal Dungeoneer will draw us 4 cards, and further cards if we follow it up with other battlecry minions. It can enable Risky Skipper-esque board clears. It can enable infinite damage combos. It can enable near-infinite value combos. It is the kind of card you build a whole deck around, or just slot it into an existing deck and watch the fireworks. There is almost no chance this card doesn’t become a defining force of the meta. Unreal.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

United in Stormwind Set Rank: 2^nd

Overall Power Ranking: 1^st

Shaman looks completely ridiculous from top to bottom. The quality of cards it got is unreal. We still can’t get over Bolner Hammerbeak, and don’t understand how it is released at 2 mana and 4 health. We think this legendary could be playable at 3 mana, or alternatively, as a 1/1. It’s going into every single Shaman deck without question.

And then you start thinking about Shaman decks, and everything seems broken. You could feasibly name 4 different Shaman archetypes being Tier 1 next week and we would believe you. Elemental Shaman seems absurd. It now gets insane mana cheating with Gavel and Forgeborn, and healing from Slogger. Canal Slogger is a stronger Zilliax and is going to be in every Shaman deck and is going to be felt almost every game because of Primal Dungeoneer. Custodian/Slogger + a weapon of your choice seems like a recipe for success.

Control Shaman can OTK now and has the potential to generate resources forever and remove everything in play regardless of whether you play the quest or not. The boost in healing from Slogger will be felt.

And then there’s Evolve Shaman. If Tiny Toys is as good as we suspect it is, we’re all in trouble. Surely, Team 5 wouldn’t do this to us and print a stronger Jandice Barov you can run 2 copies of, right?

Right?

And whatever other deck you may think of, it doesn’t matter. It’s Shaman. Even the “lesser” cards in this set could make a surprising amount of impact. We think Spirit Alpha might be a sleeper card that everyone is ignoring, too.

To conclude, if you want to destroy bad decks on ladder during day 1 of the expansion, you know who to call to guide you: the elements!