#minon prime

[volcanicnettle]

SHIT THYSELF

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers Cyberverse: Megatron is My Hero Review (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy autobots. If you've been missing my look at more than meets the eye, don't worry as we're back with some robots in disguise. Transformers ONE is here and it is incredible and while i'll gladly review it next week for now we're looking at something related, another look at Megatron as he broke bad, the Transformers Cyberverse episode, Megatron is My Hero.

Transformers Cyberverse is a series I tried but could not get into. I loved animated, tried prime but fell behind on it, and fresh off getting into MTMTE I very much wanted more Transformers. I tried the first ep.. but it's just bumblbee using the radio gimmick and Windblade being the straight man.

Cyberse's problems, as I expected and tv tropes helpfully confirmed come from executive mandates: exceutive swanted Bumblbeee to have his car gimmick from the movies, which dosen't work nearly as well when you can't lisence songs or car commericals for it, the heavy flashbacks. These were ditched with season 2 and apparently the show picke dup from there so i'm more than happy to give it a full look at some point, as it does seem to get genuinely better and has an arc focusing on my boy hot rod. That alone is enough.

For now we're looking at an early episode under the cut as Bumblbee makes friends, gets throat crushed and otherwise is kind of an accesory in his own memories

We begein with Bumblebee is in his mind palace , which I suspect was a way to let bee talk normally before doing away with the voice box gimmick the second they could in season 2. He's reliving his past memories of Megatron and opens with Bee in the past chilling with Shockwave of all bots as they watch Megatron easily win as a gladiator.

Megatron as a gladiator happens in way more continuties than I realized which I found out thanks to reddit, starting wtih the UK G1 comics and continuing into both IDW continuties , the alligned continuity and more. I mostly associate it with IDW where he went from miner to gladiator hero. It's a backstory I like, that he was a hero of the people.. but in a way that still kept him down as like gladiators of old he has little choice

Here it's santized slightly being more like pro wrestling, though Megatron still beats the crap out of his opponent, gladly working the crowd. Bumblbee also high fives Shockwave, an image I will never forget and will treasure forever.

So Bumblebee declares Megaton is his Hero and this annoys his mind palace roomate Windblade. Windblade is a recent addition to the franchise, being added in the idw comics but quickly appearing in cyberverse and elsewhere. She's a cityspeaker, who can talk to city sized transformers and is generally pretty goo din the comics. In this season she's more an overprotective big sister and gets mad at an amnesiac for not remembering his greatest foe sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms. So she gestures him to a ... memory of Megatron holding a rally.

Rather than talking about his good friend hanniballectertron, Megatron is a good politican with an actual point: that cybertron needs to be better and optimus and co are all behind him.. literally and figuratively.

So to help the next memory... abrubtly skips to Megatron being awful.

Yeah this is what happen when you DEMAND the writers make every episode self contained yet also part of a larger story.. in 11 minutes. Hasbro.. thought none of this through and as such the crew kinda had to speed run his origin, which means the key pieces that make Megatrons origins in IDW and One so intresting.. are missing. We don't know WHY he went from a beloved politican to having his minons torture people and a tense conversation with optimus. Marc Thompson does a good job as Megs, easily.. but he dosen't really get filled out. He just goes from seeming genuine and helpful to

He COULD have been faking, true.. but we never get that. Or any sense at least in this episode WHY he's like this. I get it's from Bee's perspective, but we know Bee looked up to him, genuinely idolzied him and we could've gotten some insight into who megs is and why he became the monster he did thorugh how he handled bumblbee's disllusionment. Instead by the time we catch up Bee's already mildly scared of the guy. We miss a whole chapter of Megs life that explains why shit is this bad for him just in his villian later chilling and vaugely threatning optimus and bee.

That said the crew still did their best and the final scene.. is genuinely chilling. It's also one Windblade is TRYING to keep from Bee, wanting him to stop digging as she apparently just realized "Shit he'll probably relive the worst moment of his life" as it involves megatron.. and thus Bee directly looks for it.l

Bee was on a mission for the autobots early in the war when , despite his best efforts he was captured and taken directly to Megatron. Megatron is at his best all episode here: he offers bee a choice, making a case for how the strong must rule and all that jazz. Well okay maybe not that Jazz he's on the Autobots but Megatron is working on him. Bee refuses.. and Megatron shifts, revealing his evil plan and i'ts chilling: to make EVERY cybertronian a decepticon wether they want it or not. Peace through Tyranny. It works well.. and it makes what he does next chilling.. so Bee dosen't tell anyone.. he crushes his throat. And while we don't SEE most of it, we hear it and it.. is chilling

Bee takes it in stride, restored in who megatron was.. and okay with it. He can talk in his brain at least.. and talk and talk and.. maybe shut up now please?

Megatron is my hero is .. okay. That last scene does most of the lifting, but i'ts a hint at what the show COULD be and apparently is after this point. It's very much a one sccene an done high five episode but at 11 minutes it wasn't painful either. It was just kinda there. Still it does have me curious about the rest of the series at least so that's.. something. Thanks for reading

[keyenuta]

TW Prologue: So enters The Wizard

(this is the first part of this fanfic i’m making, I hope y’all like what I write and enjoy the characters, if anyone is OOC I’m sorry, I’ll try and do better next chapter!) Pt2, pt3

     In the Ramshackle dorm there’s only two people sitting in its time worn walls, Grim, the self proclaimed to be greatest Magician, purrs and mumbles in his sleep, muttering of his greatness and power, while his partner, or as he calls them, “minon” is shuffling in their sleep, turning and motioning in their sleep as like many nights before, all that’s on their mind is that mirror that stays perched atop their dusty fire place, Leaning atop its white base as it’s faded gold frame encapsulates its foggy glass. 

      But ever curious, and having a hard time falling back to sleep, after blinking the early dust from their eyes, the prefect lowly mumbles as their feet rake across the groaning wood beneath them, and as they approached the glass, memories popped into their sleep deprived mind. The queen of hearts, riddle, and as well, ghost pains from days ago, the feeling of thorns and magic arcing across their body, as with a deep sigh, the prefect found themselves in front of the glass once more.

“Ugh, wonder what the dream will be this time, if its something with the queen again, hopefully no more queens for month” They droned, peering into the glass once again.

Soon enough, a brilliant light fills their vision, forcing them to squint while the light spirals into a black and white image.

     Four strange looking people were walking-no, rather skipping arm in arm down a brick tiled road, approaching a citadel of towering green spires that glistened while they rakes the sky above. The first of the group seemed normal enough, she was a little girl with long pigtails and a checkered dress, skipping in ruby slippers that also gifted a dash of color to the picture. But to her right, things got stranger. A man made entirely of rusted metal and bolts bounced and hopped alongside the girl, smiling a metallic grin as to her left, things got strange once again. Since there was now a whole lion standing there, hopping and bouncing on his hind legs, lightly shuddering with each step as a worried smile creaked across his face. As on his right, there was a whole scarecrow, filled with hay and everything, skipping along side everyone with the brightest grin out of the bunch, but no matter what, it seemed everyone was singing the same thing as they skipped.

    “We’re off to see The Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!” 

     But as the dream progressed, soon enough the group stood before two giant double doors, each one intricate in its designs, showing off an explosive array of magic and status before they strode through, only to receive  “I AM OZ!” rattling everything around them, vibrating every which way as the wizard continued to bellow in the echoing room.

“The great and powerful! WHO, ARE YOU!” He bellowed, asking over and over “Who, are you!” Yuu listened as the wizard thundered, but all they could think was, If you stopped asking for a second they would tell you, but for Yuu, they couldn’t focus on this for long, as second after second, a low sound increased around them getting louder and louder, until a massive

“Nyaaaaargh” woke them up, groaning awake, the prefect once more blinked the sleep from their yes as they found the culprit of the roar right there on their stomach.  Sleep talking again

Chuckling at their partner, Yuu  petted the flaming cat as he purred on their stomach, “heh, The only thing great and powerful  is that roar of yours” they smirked, running their fingers through Grim’s soft fur.

“prrrr…Nragh! How’s that?!  The great and mighty grim Showed that tyrant Riddle who’s boss!~” Grim purred

“Oh, did you now?” said an off sounding stern voice, only to be instantly followed up by a cracking “OfF wItH yOuR hEad!” jolting grim awake with a large yelp  as he scrambled to his paws, whirling his head from side to side

“Ffnaah?! Get this collar off m-wait, what?” Grim’s surprise lessened as he touched around his neck, there was no collar to be seen, but what was there was a bunch of laughing from the other red head they knew, Ace Trappola

“Pfft, Ace, that was not funny, you scared Grim half to death” Deuce snickered

“Ahahahaha, come on don’t lie Deuce, you laughed too, just look at his face hehehe”  he laughed, clutching his robbed stomach, peering through the blinds of their hair, Yuu began to think, those robes, I saw those before Yuu thought, memories of a dark room, coffins and a lot of blue fire bubbled up to the surface.Raising their hair covered face up at the two suits, Yuu asked

“morning, what’re the robes for?” they yawned, slicking back one of their blinds of hair to at least see them.Now with one working eye, she took in the clothes they wore, a large intricate black and purple robe with gold designs glittered about them, and not to mention Ace had way too much eyeliner on.

Ace paused and lit back up as he answered the prefect

“Oh right, the headmaster didn’t tell you earlier huh?” Yuu shook their head from side to side as Grim grumbled up to his feet growling at the suits

“Hey! Apologize for waking me up like that!” the heart suit ignored the black cat and continued on, earning even more angry sounds from the monster

“Well, there’s an emergency ceremony happening soon, something about late arrivals or something.” Ace droned rubbing his hooded neck, “geez, Dorm head didn’t have to wake us up so early though” he groaned

“I agree, but you know how he is, oh, right, the headmaster also gave us these for you” Deuce said, in his hand he gave the two a large box, peering into the the package, just like the two suits, Yuu found a pair of matching robes for them, and a small cloak for grim.

“Alright, we’ll be on our way, give us a second to change” Yuu said

                                          In the ceremony room~

     A room doused in colors of purple and black stands a group of cloaked in the same colors, as ribbons and beads hang over head while coffins and black gates surround the group within already. Some look at attention, while others look as if they would rather be anywhere else but here. And while they stood, coffins floated around them, hovering in the air as they waited to open. And for the latter, Leona, the dorm leader of Savanaclaw was a prime example, standing upon a circle of runes, arms crossed with a bowed head. Lightly snoring before  breathy yawn rapidly turned into a sharp grunt, “Ngh” as Ruggie, his vice dorm head jerked him awake, sighing at his friend.

“Oi, wake up Leona, you can sleep later. If anyone has an excuse to sleep it’s Rosehearts over there” Ruggie nagged to a now groaning Leona.

“tsk” riddle clicked, “I can assure you I have more than enough energy to attend a ceremony” Riddle stated pointedly, it had only been a few days after his overblot, but still, he wasn’t going to sit in bed while new dorm members could potentially be coming, he had to lead by example.

“Shishishi, well if you say so, but don’t start crying if it gets too hard” the hyena teased.

“tsk, what was that?: Riddle seethed, his silver eyes leered over to the hyena as he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder,

“Riddle, its fine, please calm down” Trey whispered to hear a sigh escape the dorm head’s mouth before his eyes returned to the coffins.

 All the while, Leona muttered holding his head, while his green eyes lazily blinked open, “Do we really have to be here?  It’s just a handful of students after all” the lion groaned

“Ozlandia’s standards for time are very different Mr. Kingscholar, for what is late for us, they view themselves as on time, and their students deserve the full Night raven college experience, for I am gracious” Crowley hummed

.yawn “Then they can come on time then, mmm, save us the trouble”

“Speaking of being on time, has anyone see Mr. Draconia around?” Crowley pondered

Each Dorm leader looked around the room for moment and then realized, once again, they had forgotten the third year, 

“Hmph, it seems we have forgotten Malleus again.” Riddle spoke

“Oh, what a tragedy, it is quite unfortunate I must say” Azul bemoaned to a wave of eye-rolls at his tone.  But soon enough a rush of thumping feet echoed in the room, as Yuu, Grim, Ace, and Deuce had finally arrived.

“Ah Prefect, welcome to the ceremoney, I apologize for not giving you an earlier warning, but, seeing as now we have everyone gathered, It is time to begin” When Crowley said that, the coffins around the students began to fall to the ground, stomping to an echoing thump as clicks and creaks sounded from the boxes.  

    And from the middle coffin, it’s door creaked open as it showed a boy with brown skin resting atop a coffin of grey roses.  His hood’s shadow covered most of his face but soon enough, a pair of brilliant gold eyes peered from the darkness as the future student slowly raised himself from the box, grunting as he pried himself up, cracking his neck, he took down his hood to reveal a nappy black-silver fro, parted on it’s sides by two sharp ears.  Much in resemblance to Malleus and Lillia from Diasomnia. And now standing on solid ground, the only thing most of the dorm leaders thought of was,

     He’s wearing the robes wrong. By this they mean that the boy didn’t even close the cloak above, like it was just some regular jacket.  And most upset of all was Vil Schoenheight, the dorm leader of Pomefiore glared daggers at the boy. His lavender eyes seemed to look angered and shocked at how he wore his formal robes.  He would definitely have a word with this boy soon.And to his glare, all the dorm head got was a playful grin. The dorm head began thinking if the boy was mocking him, did he wear it like that on purpose, inconceivable. And for the majority of the leaders no one really piped up but Ridddle, always quick to preserve the rules spoke up first.

“You, fix your robes, if you are going to be in this ceremony, you should wear your clothes properly!” he commanded, silently hoping this would not be one of his dorm students. But cutting through that, the boy have his answer, resting his hand on his waist, the boy chuckled 

“Pfft, nah I’m not going to change” he stated, shrugging his shoulders

“Tsk, excuse me?!” riddle edged out.

“Said I wasn’t gonna do it, do I need to crouch for you to hear me or something?” he teased, Riddle’s hands clenched into fists as he could already feel his anger rising, meanwhile, the younger teen still gave him a playful grin, as he motioned the short dorm leader to come at him, his lips pointing into corners as he watched the dorm leader rise in anger.

“did, you just call me short?!” Riddle seethed

Though before the back and forth could continue, each of the other tombs began creaking alongside each other. The first of the 6 remaining to open revealed a baby faced boy with green skin, and curly raven black locks that broke through his hood. He gazed around at everyone and everything in the room with many oohs and aahs while he stood besides the taller boy, offering a wave as the others soon followed behind.

       After him, a boy who’s arms and legs clinked and clanked stiffly walked free of his tomb, as his metallic appendages glistened in the room as he stood besides his fellow students. And next up was a boy with straw coming out of his robes?  And after him, a student with pronounced lion ears and tail soon followed. But when the boy went to step out of his coffin, he shuddered and shook relentlessly, he scampered forward only to instantly move back from the group, holding up his tail as he tried and failed to glare at the students besides him. And for Leona, he looked dumbfounded, groaning in annoyance at the sorry state of the lion in front of him. What kind of lion was that, he looked like a herbivore just by looks, not to mention scent.

And second to last, there was a big hufff as soon, a gruff sounding boy kicked open his coffin door and strides towards to group, his body was barrel chested and even through the sleeves he had massive arms bulging from the darkness as Peach fuzz raked across his jaw.

 Crowley saw each of the teens clump together as he gave a brief ahem to continue the ceremony.

“ahem, welcome to Night raven academy, I am Headmaster Crowley, I am sorry  but it seems you have all came late into the school year, but believe me we will be sure to catch you up as soon as possible. mhm, we are truly grascious, but for now let’s get you all sorted.”

The headmaster walked towards the mirror, whispering into the glass as word after word the mirror filled with green energy, illuminating the area in its hue as a detailed face or mask coalesced from the magic.

“The mirror of darkness guides you, please step forward and give me your name”  The mirror called. The brown boy from earlier stepped forward as said

“My name’s Zoroaster Ozma” he said, resting a hand against his chest, but as he listened to the mirror, in the background Grim groaned under his breath about how boring this was. But one word seemed to change the whole air of the room.

“Your soul’s shape is...Ramshackle”

[hypexion]

Hearthstone: Ashes of Outland

Once upon a time, there was a planet called Draenor. Everything was okay, until a bunch of Orcs made deals with demons. This started a series of events that blew up the planet. Warcraft lore: it’s totally mad.

Now, in Ashes of Outland, things are somehow even worse. A mysterious new army of cyborgs called the Rusted Legion is wrecking everything that’s left, making the whole place even more post-apocalyptic. I’m sure this has absolutely nothing to do with the evil science laboratory located in the Netherstorm. Not one bit. Doctor Boom only practices entirely safe mad science.

Obviously, the big thing about Ashes of Outland is Demon Hunters. A new class, with new mechanics. It’s an exciting new step for Hearthstone, or a transparently obvious marketing move. Or both! Demon Hunters will be getting extra cards in this set to make up for not existing previously, along with a free adventure in which Illidan Stormrage tells how he did nothing wrong.

The first big mechanical cycle for Ashes of Outland are the Primes. When these mid-sized Legendary minions die, they shuffle a powerful minon into your deck. The ones shown so far look pretty potent, so decks looking to play the long game will probably be happy to try them out.

The other mechanic cycle for this set is imprisoned minions. When you play them, they go dormant for two turns. Then, when they wake up, they do something. It’s a bit like Suspend from Magic, except simplified. A lot. I’m not sure how well this mechanic is actually going to play out, since these cards literally involve you paying mana to do nothing until two turns later. Trading tempo for value often doesn’t work out in Hearthstone, so these imprisoned minions will have their work cut out for them.

With that all out of the way, it’s finally time to actually look at some cards. Without pictures, because there’s just too many cards to talk about.

[hypexion]

Ashes of Outland: Aluminium Reveals

With the arrival of the Rusted Legion, it’s best to keep your metals locked away. Unless you need them. In that case, you should probably take them out.

Spectral Sight is one of those Outcast cards. Not a bad top deck, since it replaces itself with two cards, but otherwise it’s not that amazing. Being a card you might not play for a while is to this card’s advantage, as it should slowly move to the left of your hand as the game goes on. Of course, holding onto cards you aren’t using can cause problems, so Spectral Sight isn’t the best option for card draw.

Imprisoned Satyr is the first of the imprisoned minions. It doesn’t look that great, since while you do get a discount on a minion, it takes a while, and the main body is only a 3/3. Probably what might save this is that paying three mana to do nothing might not sink you, and being able to drop a big minion ahead of schedule could work out for you if it’s the right one.

Tutor for Beasts with Scavenger’s Ingenuity. Probably worth testing out, since giving a minion +3/+3 can be pretty helpful. And Hunter tends to have a lot of Beasts that work better with more attack, so this could be pretty helpful.

Furious Felfin is stupid, but also probably good. Even if you use your Hero Power to activate it, a 4/2 with Rush is pretty good for three mana. Activated without having to pay mana for your attack it’s a really good deal. It’s probably something that will be pretty popular, since every deck likes a way to deal with minions in the early game.

Skull of Gul’dan is a pretty macabre topic for a card, but it’s here anyway. Absorb it’s dark energies to draw three cards at a fair price. The Outcast effect is another that’s pretty excessive, making all the cards drawn cost three less. It’s probably worth running anyway, even if you only get the discount occationally, because having more cards is generally a good thing.

Imprisoned Antaen is another minion that takes a while to do something. This is a problem, since your opponent gets two turns to make sure they aren’t taking ten to the face when this wakes up. Doing nothing on turn five is also a questionable move, since by this point, the big guns are starting to come out. Mix that with a somewhat lopsided statline, and you’ve got a minion that looks scarier than it actually is.

Soul Split copies a demon, an activity I wouldn’t expect a Demon Hunter to approve of. Has copying minions ever actually worked out? Usually you want to copy the big ones, but that’s often a an issue because you can’t play a big demon and copy it on the same turn. That leaves you only able to copy smaller demons, and at that point, you might as well just put in a card that works by itself. But hey, this card is free, so you can at mess about with it before replacing it will something more impactful.

Fungal Fortunes is like Book of Specters, but it removes minions rather than spells. This could work well in a token deck, since they generate most of their mnions via spells. And when your greatest problem is running out of steam, drawing three cards for two mana is a pretty tempting idea.

Imprisoned Observer is a new way to discourage your opponent from playing minions. When it awakens, it zaps all enemy minions for two damage, making it pointless to summon any with less than two health the turn before. With the added bonus of having more stats than the mana cost usually allows, Imprisoned Observer is a surprisingly proactive card for something that does nothing the turn you play it. Probably worth trying out, at least.

Dragonmaw Overseer is Shadow Ascendant, but more. It looks good enough, and as three mana minions go, it’s pretty useful. With Priest being shifted to a more board-focused class, this is the kind of minion that could help make that work.

What if Sap was better? Then it would be Blackjack Stunner, which costs one mana, and makes the returned minion cost more. The catch is that you need a Secret out to return a minion, but it shouldn’t be too hard to arrange that. Since this increases the cost of bounced minions, it’s a pretty strong tempo play, and can permantly deal with the most expensive ones. I’d expect to see a lot of this once Ashes of Outland drops.

Secret synergy needs Secrets, so Rogue is getting Ambush. Which is effectly just a 2/3 with Poisonous, since your opponent is probably going to be playing minions. Probably decent, especially since if your opponent spends all their on a creature, you can immediately kill it, and they’ll have little recourse.

Bogstrok Clacker is another evolver card. I have run out of words for this archetype. Reroll exhausted minons, hope for good replacements. Probably will be annoying.

Torrent is Flame Lance, except if you played a spell the turn before, it only costs two. Seems kind of awkward really, since you might not have cast a spell the turn before you need this. Plus, Hex is cheaper than an undiscounted Torrent, and deals with Deathrattles as well. Which probably means Torrent won’t see that much play.

The Dark Portal is a weird Handlock card. If you have lots of cards, you can pre-pay for the card you draw. Given that it’s not hard to have lots of cards as Warlock, this might see some experimental play.

Make spells hurt more with Mo’arg Artificer. For some reason, the effect counts as a downside. I guess because your opponent might get to respond first. Not really sure about this one, since although it provides good opportunities for board cleaning, it does apply both ways. And as an Epic, you can’t even test it out.

Warglaives of Azzinoth is just Fool’s Bane again. Sure, it scales well with extra attack, but sometimes you can’t afford to wack your face into four minons. Works well with Blur, at least, but even then you probably need to invest more cards into it to make it work. And at that point, you might as well play Chaos Nova.

Pit Commander is like Dragon Tamer except turned up to eleven. It has Taunt. It’s almost got a full statline. Shove it into a deck with only high-cost demons, and you can laugh all the wall to the bank. Or victory screen. Seriously though. This is super pushed. Did Team Five realise that nine mana minions show maybe be playable?

More evolve with Boggspine Knuckles. Big problem? When Evolve the card was in Standard, there were problems. Attacking is free, so things could be worse? How do developer learn from mistake?

Shadow Council is another one of those weird maximum random cards. Except now the new cards get +2/+2, so if you low roll you at least get some advantage from it. Honestly not sure what to think about this one, since Demon quality is still all over the place, but many of them are a lot better with +2/+2.

Teron Gorefiend is egg card of this set. The egg Legend. Sure, he isn’t actually an egg. But he can hatch all your eggs. Then when he dies, you get them all back, in a form capable of self-hatching. Outside of funky Deathrattle stuff, Teron probably isn’t as useful, but that’s okay. He’s a card with a stupid fun niche, and sometimes, that’s what you want.

Spend five mana to upgrade your Hero Power with Metamorphosis. Then after two uses it turns back. While doing five damage for one mana is pretty good, the overall mana economy on this card is less so. If you need something to close out a game, it’s probably not the worse choice, but it still doesn’t seem great.

The first of the Primes is Archspore Msshi’fn. The starting form is nothing to write home about - it’s just a simple Taunt, hardly even worth Silencing. But the second form is much more impressive. As well as a 9/9 with Taunt, you also get a second 9/9, with your choice of Rush or Taunt. That’s quite a lot of stats, and should hopefully stop a lot of decks from beating you to death. Then, hopefully, you can beat them to death with your giant minions.

The second Prime is Lady Vashj. The first form is completely generic, and will probably die immediately. The second form is... also pretty generic. All the value is front loaded in the Battlecry, which grabs some spells and makes them cheaper. Which is quite nice, I’ll admit. Depending on what spells Shaman gets in the coming sets, Vashj could be a decent choice for spell-heavy decks that want to do more during their turn. Plus, with the Quest reward, you can draw six spells, which is a little crazy.

Kargath Bladefist has a blade where his fist should be. Hence the name, I assume. He’s also the third Prime. Regular Kargath is pretty decent, as a 4/4 with Rush, for four mana. Since he has Rush, there’s a good chance you can kill him off the same turn you play him, to avoid any Silence or transform effects. Which you’ll want to, because Kargath Prime is fucking amazing. A 10/10 with Rush is pretty much able to delete any other minion on the battlefield, and at eight mana, he’s obscenely efficent. Oh, and as a small bonus, you get ten armor when he attacks and kills a minion. Which he will, because he has ten attack. Honestly, the only downside here is that Kargath Prime is so utterly threatening that your opponent will want to kill him immediately.

Oh yeah, and since Kargath Prime is a minion, Galakrond’s Battlecry can draw him. At that point, is there anything he can’t kill?

Finally, from the /r/customhearthstone pile is Bulwark of Azzinoth. It completely blocks four attacks. That’s it. That’s the weapon. Then you can bring it back with Hoard Pillager to block four more. Of course, it’s not actually that good against swarm-style decks, given that they only lose small amounts of damage. But plonk this down in front of a board of big hitters, and laugh as they can only chip away at your Bulwark. Definitely a strong choice for Control Warriors everywhere. It even stops (most) Combo kills.

Well, that was a lot of cards. But now I've caught up, just in time for a bunch more to be revealed overnight. Or at least, that's usually what happens. For now, it seems like there won't be anymore until tomorrow.

[hypexion]

Ashes of Outland: Demon Hunter Initiate

Once you’ve signed up to be a Demon Hunter, and assuming your survive the process, you’ll be able to claim a whole pile of cards that theoretically came out in The Year of the Dragon. These cards should help Demon Hunter keep up with the rest of the classes, who have both Classic cards and a year’s worth of expansion cards to play with.

Blur is a simple ultility card. It lets you mash your face into a huge enemy minion, and live to tell the tale. While a useful effect, I’m not quite sure if it’s worth a card. Even at zero mana, it doesn’t do much to advance your game plan. It’s a zero mana spell, for what that’s worth, but Demon Hunter doesn’t look like a class that will get much from that.

Twin Slice lets you get your attack triggers for free. Twice, in fact. It’s a flexible card, and might actually be useful when combined with the various Demon Hunter weapons in order to get over health thresholds and remove pesky minons. Plus, Twin Slice gives two zero mana spells, in case anything comes along to make that exploiotable.

Ur’zul Horror is an incredibly generic minion. It could probably be neutral, really. While it does replace itself once, it’s still only a small minion, so it’s only going to be good if Demon Hunter wants a way to swarm the board with minions. Very much filler.

Battlefiend is a one mana 2/2 - with an upside. An unlimited growth potential as well! Since it triggers on hero attacks, it probably can’t get out of control two quickly, and with only two health, it’s not two hard to kill off. It still looks like a decent pick if you want a more aggressive one mana minion, however.

Consume Magic is a Silence spell. But if you play it from the side of your hand, it replaces itself. Which seems kind of awkward, honestly. Even at one mana, getting into a position where you can cycle this could be difficult. The main effect could be worthwhile, however, since with stuff like the Primes running around, cheap Silence is always useful.

Mana Burn is a weird new thing - mana hate. This could a useful way to hold off an opponent’s combo long enough to kill the. Or you can use it to delay an important minion, or just screw up their next turn. This card has many potential uses, although it could actually be pretty annoy to play against, especially if it’s popular.

Umberwing is a weapon for swarm decks. It’s probably entirely okay, although there might be better choices. Currently, it doesn’t look Demon Hunter has any mass-buff options, which could be an issue when it comes to making use of your swarm of minoins.

Command the Illidari is pretty much Swarm of Locusts. It’s probably going to be pretty good, especially while Demon Hunter lacks other options for removal. While not quite as mana efficent as Fireball, Command the Illidari makes up for that by letting you split the damage between minions. Of course, Fireball can get around Taunt, while Illidari will have break throught it.

Blade Dance is a sort of mass damage spell. It’s a Savagery mixed with Cleave, which is certainly a design choice. Even at two mana, I don’t think this works out well unless you cast it will a weapon equipped. That doesn’t seem like a terrible idea, honestly, since it will get you more mileage from your weapon, which is always good. The one snag is that since all the targets are random, you might not always kill what needs to be killed. That definitely makes Blade Dance more situational than it could be.

Feast of Souls is mass card draw for Demon Hunter. Except cards that trigger on friendly minons dying in a turn tend to be a little hit or miss. Decent access to Rush tokens will probably help this card work, since without them, a well timed board clear from your opponent could lock you out from vital draw. This has the potenial to be a very effective way to draw cards, so I think it will see play.

Illidari Felblade is a generic Rush minion, except sometimes it survives it’s first attack. But even with the Outcast effect, it doesn’t seem likely to able to attack again, due to it’s low health. Might be worth taking, but the unreliability of the Immunity effect doesn’t fill me with confidence.

Raging Felscreamer is another discounter minion. Note that it is neither a demon, nor does its effect disappear at the end of your turn. This means it could lead to some surprising moments, and could be pretty decent at getting out big threats early. There’s no reason not to play about with this card, especially since it’s free.

Hulking Overfiend is a board clear that walks like a minon. Slighly annoyingly, this means it falls over if it encounters a Taunt it can’t kill. Or a Poisonous minion. But those problems aside, it’s a very chunky minion, and can easily shread boards of smaller minons. Probably great in Arena, but I think it’ll be less effective in Constructed.

Wrathscale Naga deals out punishment whenever a friendly minion dies. conveniently, Demon Hunter has several cards to make disposable minions. However, issues start to appear when you realise that Wrathscale only has one health. A stiff breeze can knock it over, and every class can access that pitiful level of damage. The downside here might just be too much for an otherwise useful minion.

Eye Beam is a rehash of Penance. But more expensive. Unless you get the Outcast effect, which makes it free. Not really feeling this one, since the Outcast effect seems like too much of a swing. But that aside, the spell is useful, and might be playable if there’s a lack of other options.

Wrathspike Brute looks like a pretty good defensive minion, especially against boards that can’t kill it in one hit. If you’re building a deck that’s looking to last into the lategame, this could be a good pick - especially when there are lots of swarm decks running around.

Flamereaper is a Warrior weapon, except for Demon Hunter. With all the ways Demon Hunter has to boost attack, it’s almost a board clear in a can. This is probably one of the better Demon Hunter weapons, since it can easily end up crushing a lot of minions, and the wide damage effect means you can avoid getting hit by the strongest minions, while still getting rid of them. Very worth a try.