#however I cannot draw varian consistently

[mushr00ms-are-nice]

Freckled siblings sketch.

[hypexion]

Boomsday Project: θ Reveals

In mathematics, θ is generally used to represent angles of some form. You’ll find it trigonometry, polar co-ordinate functions, and in cylindrical and spherical co-ordinate functions. But what’s the angle on all these new Hearthstone cards? Can we truly solve for θ?

Goblin Bomb is a bomb shaped like a goblin. Like bombs (and goblins) it’s an explosive package that needs encouragement. This looks like it might be an okay target for Magnetic minions, since your opponent will probably not want to kill it. But beyond that, it’s not great, since without further investment, Goblin Bomb will just take up space on your side of the board.

Eternium Rover is another attempt to give Warrior a 1/3 minion for one mana. I guess this is okay at that job, since it provides a little bit of Armor, which is always nice. However, it’s probably more valuable as something to combine Magnetic minions with, since it’s effect is better on higher health minions. I guess Eternium Rover is entirely okay, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be making big waves once the expansion arrives.

Mechanical Whelp is a bigger Twilight Summoner, with a bigger payoff. Yeah. Of course, if you’ve played the Doctor Boom hero card, this is actually pretty good, since you can easily kill off the 2/2 and immediately benefit from a 7/7 with Rush. Outside of that content, however, Mechanic Whelp is a bad tempo hit, so I don’t think people will be adding it directly to their decks.

Missile Launcher feels like a much worse Despicable Dreadlord. It costs more, has less stats and it hurts you. In this case, being Magnetic isn’t that great, since the effect can still mess with your stuff as well as you opponent’s. I mean, if you’re going all-in on a Mega-Mech, Missile Launch might not be the worse addition, but it’s probably not the best. Unless we get a Poisonous Mech, maybe.

Fireworks Tech is your generic Mech support minion, but also as a Deathrattle support minion. If Mech Hunter takes off, this could be an okay card to slot in, depending on how many Deathrattle Mechs you have. Obviously, Spider Bomb is the best target for Fireworks Tech, since it will kill a minion, but a card like this suggests Hunter will be getting more Deathrattle Mechs, so a better option could appear. And if Wild Mech Hunter becomes a thing, maybe you can use this to activate your Shredders.

Crystology is a minion tutoring card for Paladin that’s reminiscent of Small-Time Recruits. But this crystal-themed card pulls out one-attack minions, which is probably better. Paladin has some interesting one-attack Legendary minion that you might want, and this also pulls some nice utility minions. Now you can have your Stonehill Defenders or Tar Creepers right now, instead of maybe later. Decks based on flooding the board might also like this card, since drawing two things for two mana is a pretty sweet deal.

Eureka copies a card from your hand. You might think that this would be a Priest cloning effect, but it’s actually weather! Probably the best use of this is getting out big minions ahead of schedule, which will certainly have no negative consequences on the overall Hearthstone meta. This isn’t that great for weird combos, however, since Ancestor’s Call can serve the same role for just four mana. This gives you two extra mana for burn spells, which could be the difference between winning and losing.

Academic Espionage is a crime, and also this expansions Thief Rogue card. It’s actually a pretty interesting twist on the theme - you get 10 cards, but not right away. And they all cost just one mana to play. Surely Rogue cannot abuse such a thing, in away way. Given how many cards this gives you, you’ll probably get something good, especially since a large chunk of cards suddenly become playable when they only cost one mana. The main issue I see with this card is that it absolutely ruins your deck consistency, unless you wait until you’ve decked yourself to play it. Of course, Rogue has multiple ways to run out of cards, and sometimes they bring their opponent along for the ride.

Boommaster Flark clogs up your board with Goblin Bombs. Wait, that’s a bad thing. This looks really, really dependent on cards we haven’t seen yet. Ideally, they’d include some kind of mass Mech-buffer for Hunter, allowing you to turn your pile of duds into an explosive threat. Otherwise, Flark is just another entry in a long line of  Legendary Hunter cards that just don’t work.

Well, now we know how Doctor Boom will be delivering his Boomsday: via The Boomship. Which is Varian Wrynn as a spell. Although unlike Varian, you get much more control over what The Boomship summons. It also gives the summoned minions Rush, allowing them to immediately impact the board. This might be cool in a Recruit Warrior deck, since it reduces the problems caused by drawing your expensive minions before you can Recruit them. Alternately, you could use it with Dead Man’s Hand to ensure a continual supply drop of quick acting minions.

It’s also worth noting that Rush doesn’t override Charge, so pulling Chargers with The Boomship means they can immediately go for the face, which could be pretty brutal if you pull enough of them. And since you can control what minions stay in your hand, you can make sure you pull those two 8/8 Charge minions.