Quote:
Originally Posted by Searix
AoO Mage Card Review:
Solarian: 4.5/5 Basically assume Astromancer will play Arcane explosion, Arcane Intellect, Mirror Entity, Fireball, and Ancient Mysteries for +1 damage and targeting enemies. In other words 2 damage to all enemies, 2 cards, ~3-5 damage to an enemy, a secret, 1 enemy frozen, and a 7/7 body for {7}, and sometimes extra minions from Power of Creation or Deep Freeze (and rarely Apexis Blast). That's pretty dang strong. The problem again is what phases of the game is the card useful? Early game it's a vanilla {2} 3/2 with +1 spell damage which is only mediocre. In fatigue it's only value if you can hit power of creation/deep freeze/apexis (13.40% for each). Then there's times you save it for something and it misses whatever you're looking for (though not having negative side effects like box is a MASSIVE difference - if you don't hit your Good+ aoe spells, you probably hit 2-3 secrets, and drew 2-3 cards). By far this card's biggest problem will be the amount of aggro this meta is looking to have.
Evocation: 5/5 There's no reason not to run this in every mage deck. Look at my possible spells link for possible mage spells this can draw and think what drawing a hand full of them would look like - if you have less than 5 cards in your hand there's almost no way you don't find a card you'll want to play from Evocation which again only costs {1}. Even if you don't find exactly what you want (a board clear for example) you'll find a psuedo in either something like a freeze, a secret, Power of Creation etc.
Apexis Smuggler: 1.5/5 I'm trying really hard to think about how you can fit this in a deck. Ancient Mysteries making a spell cost 0 then delaying until you draw this and all of that lets you... discover a spell? Discover a spell is decently strong, we've seen it a lot on Kalecgos and a lot of the bad troll mage spells are rotating out. Just no.
Apexis Blast: 1.5/5 First of two in a row 'no minion' deck-archetypes cards introduced. This is Fireball for {5} for 1 less damage, that can summon a random 5. If Albatross weren't a thing i'd rate this 3.5 - a random {5} is worth about a {3.5} considering you don't get the battlecry, and a 5 damage targeted spell is worth around {3}, but when you consider how harshly albatross hurts this card and deck archetype, i fear for the viability of this deck.
Font of Power: 2/5 Mage minions are decently useful, the problem is the same as Apexis Blast - as soon as there's an albatross you have to draw both copies of the bird in your deck to get the no-minion effect. Another problem is there's a few duds - Malygos and Dragoncaster are duds unless you get another dragon, Ethereal Arcanist/Kirin Tor Mage/Apexis Smuggler secrets, Mana giant spells that didn't start in your deck, and Animated Avalanche another elemental. If you're doing no minion decks you have to play 2 copies of this, but again im just worried about how competitively viable these decks will be in 2 months.
Imprisoned Observer: 4/5 This would be even higher if it didn't look weak to Demon Hunter decks im predicting will be played. {3} 4/5 body crushes the vanilla test. 2 to all enemy minions will be holding the enemy hostage - they know they have to play minions that will eat the 2 damage or rush you down before it awakens. Great card if again demon hunter weren't a thing, but with it being a thing this card may be slightly too weak to be in every mage deck.
Deep Freeze: 4.5/5 Astromancer and Puzzle Box, welcome to one of your new highrolls. I think this makes it into every mage deck, especially with the prevalence of weapon classes (namely Dragon Hunter and Demon Hunter). This stops their weapon shenanigans that turn, and will continue to unless they can deal with 12! health worth of water elementals. Or you target something like an alexstrasza and stall for a better board clear. I think all mage decks run at least 1 copy of this.
Incanter's Flow: 4/5 Great anti-aggro card, and can be played in most normal decks too i think. Though useless drawn late game, consider the possibilities this card has with Kael, or Archmage. If kael is to work in mage, and i think there's a real chance it does - this card will be why.
Starscryer: 4/5 Loot Hoarder was played in mage until recently, and this has +1 attack. The deathrattle says SPELLS ONLY which can be tutored. I don't think people see the true potential in this card - one of secret mage's biggest problems was not drawing secrets, and this solves that problem if your only spells are secrets/Ancient Mysteries. Even if not playing secret mage, this card can arguably be played.
Netherwind Portal: 2.5/5 Not much to say here, if secret mage is a thing then this is a thing, as they generally play tempo
3 month update!
Looks like i was generally very close. Biggest misses were Evocation, Incanter's Flow, and Starscryer. Evocation still feels really strong, just a little too weak with all the mages playing control limiting the number of cards it generates. Starscryer also feels like it's ok, just not amazing, and the tutor aspect of the card has at least not found a real use yet. Same with Incanter's Flow - it's always played in spell mage but hasn't really found a use outside of it yet.
Think I was one of the very few who saw Imprisoned Observer as a very strong card.
Rest of cards generally within 1 point of where I predicted, overall think it was pretty close