Quote (Hepzibah @ Jul 24 2015 03:36pm)
I think you're over-estimating this card a bit.. At best it can get instant value with a coin on turn 7? unless you have some really suspicious deck list in mind to make this combo happen sooner..
Its cute for sure.. Just not sure how useful..
Would be better if he was just the warlock hero portrait.. lol
Quote (Hepzibah @ Jul 24 2015 10:33pm)
in that case its like a bad turn 8 emperor thaurisan?
Yes, turn 8 is the turn this card is likely to be played and of course I probably am overestimating it, but I can't help it as I see this card as having possibly the greatest potential of any card we've ever seen in Hearthstone. The biggest unknown determinant I see for whether or not this card will be good or bad is whether or not you can consistently live to turn 8, basically whether control as a whole dies out or not. I see that as pretty much a certainty for Hearthstone the way it is going eventually, but it's hard for me to imagine it would happen so soon as by the 3rd expansion.
But first, lets look near the bottom end of what can happen, the times he is is far less effective than what he can be. Lets use the example Exemplary picked, lets say he drew Defender of Argus. That's only 4 mana off, not even half a full bar of mana crystals and probably not as many as Emperor Thaurissan will average. Does that make Wilfred less effective than Thaurissan if that happens? Not necessarily because you have to take into consideration what we can all agree is one of the most important things in Hearthstone, tempo. You get to throw down that Argus immediately which could be huge. We all know Emperor Thaurissan is a great card, but even if Emperor Thaurissan is giving you one mana off 9 different cards, his dream play, one thing that is guaranteed is that you will not be able to cash in a single one of those discounted mana crystals the turn he is played. While it's true Emperor comes out 2 turns earlier, between the two of them that completely free Argus could be the difference between life and death. And then lets consider what Thaurissan gave you next turn. Are you playing 4 cards that all give you extra protection next turn? Or are you more likely putting up, say, a big taunt and heal. So 1 turn later, Thaurissan gave you 2 mana off. Has it really paid off more at that point? Maybe you could make an argument for it, but in my opinion by sheer numbers it hasn't, 1 turn later and you're STILL worse off than you would have been 1 turn ago with Wilfred by 2 mana. That's a really good play from Emperor Thaurissan compared to a relatively bad play from Wilfred.
What is a really good play from Wilfred then? Without thinking too creatively, think of throwing down a free Ragnaros, Emperor Thaurissan, Sludge Belcher, Alexstrasza, Lord Jaraxxus or one of the giants that turn. Just one, just get that value once and you're immediately throwing down much more mana value than you paid for. On top of that, those cards range from cards your opponent really wants to deal with that turn or cards your opponent has no choice except to deal with that turn. This is on top of the fact your opponent will surely realize that he really, really wants to deal with Wilfred before his effect starts compounding next turn. It will take an extremely good play or a previously held huge advantage for your opponent to be able to deal with everything you're using. But even so, you still hero powered, played a 4/4 and got a big card out for the price of 8 mana, something that would normally cost between 12 and 15. And that's still not the best case scenario! The best case scenario is after throwing down a big taunt or something similar with his effect, you get to use his effect again next turn and you get a decent card again. People feel so good about themselves when they can throw out a Dr. Boom for 4 mana from unstable portal. Playing a Wilfred, 2 hero powers, a sludge Belcher and a Ragnaros immediately for a total of 10 mana along with all the other cards and 7 or 8 remaining mana you can use is still far less than perfect yet undeniably, incomparably better and will be like nothing we've ever seen before.
That's still not the best of the best you can get from a Wilfred! You could throw down a Ragnaros for free and then follow that up with a free Alexstrasza and then 7 or 8 mana worth of your regular play. But ok, lets look at the worst of the worst of what can happen with Wilfred to be fair. Maybe he gets you a mortal coil and dies as soon as possible. Before you think this is the end of the world, consider this. People don't play mortal coil just because they need some cheap cards in the early game even if it's crappy. People play Mortal Coil because Mortal Coil is really good and often gets you a free draw! It's really easy to get an opponent's creature to 1 health and draw a card. And maybe that card is a free molten giant or just a really good card, who knows. 8 mana for a 4/4, a finishing kill and 2 draws is pretty much as bad as you can possibly do, highly unlikely and really actually is at least pretty close to the value you paid for it anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily saying this card will be the god of Hearthstone, it just seems really, really, really good to me.
This post was edited by jspBryan on Jul 25 2015 01:46am