Some of Hearthstone’s newest additions are as useless as they are ugly.
The Whispers of the Old Gods expansion adds 134 cards to the free-to-play game when it launches on April 26. Hearthstone is the leader in the $1.2 billion digital card games market and makes over $20 million a month. This expansion will help keep users engaged (and buying more cards). It will also bring in new players who are behind on their collections — or avoided the game because they feared they could never catch up on cards.
Of course, not all of your new cards will actually be useful. Some will downright stink. GamesBeat gathered five cards from Whispers of the Old that you’ll probably just want to turn into Arcane Dust (you can also check out our list of the most promising cards here).
I feel like I’m missing something here. A neutral minion with 2/4 stats for 2 mana is decent, but it’s not nearly worth the downside of give your opponent a chance to draw extra cards. I get that this is a play on the Nat Pagle card, and — you know — ha ha and everything. But why would any sane person play this? I would be furious if I opened a pack with a Legendary card and got this.
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I don’t like this epic weapon at all. First off, Shamans already an incredible 5 mana weapon, Doomhammer. Summoning a 4/2 minion isn’t all that great a bonus, since so many cards can easily deal with such a small amount of health. I’m also skeptical of using any weapon that late in the game with only 2 durability. Just stick with Doomhammer.
I hate spells that only target minions, especially Mages spells. Polymorph will always remain the best way for that class to remove a big threat. Heck, you can even use a Fireball to take out strong minions if you need to. Why waste a deck slot on a spell that’s so limiting? This will become the new Flame Lance — a card no one played in Constructed. I can’t believe this is an epic card.
This common card is just boring: 3 mana for 1/5 stats. That’s awful. You’re wasting your time if you spend your entire third turn playing a minion with just 1 attack. I don’t care how much health he has. Sure, you can use other spells to make him more powerful or give him Taunt, but you have so many other better options (including the new, unremarkable Squirming Tentacle that looks like Ysera next to this guy).
My editor will probably hate me for this one, since he thought this card looks like fun. I think it’s a nightmare. Since those spells choose targets randomly, the Legendary Yogg-Saron has a decent chance of actually killing you instead of your opponent. It’s a complete wild card that’s only good as a last chance if you’re really behind. However, if you’re really losing that badly, you probably won’t get to the tenth turn of a match anyway. So far, we haven’t seen 10 mana minions become major players in Hearthstone. C’Thun might buck that trend, but I don’t have any hope for Yogg-Saron.
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