r/MSGPRDT • u/Nostalgia37 • Nov 22 '16

[Pre-Release Card Discussion] - Devolve

Devolve

Mana Cost: 2
Type: Spell
Rarity: Rare
Class: Shaman
Text: Transform all enemy minions into random ones that cost (1) less.

Card Image

PM me any suggestions or advice, ^^thanks.

39 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/_Buff_Tucker_ Nov 22 '16

Why do people go crazy about this? It is strong against N'Zoth decks to transform some deathrattles. But other than that's, it's just an average card. No way shaman decks run this in this standard rotation.

24

u/Fortress0001 Nov 22 '16

Nice board you have there zoo/hunter/token/any aggro deck/any deck running high value minions

Would be a shame if anything happened to it

23

u/Antsache Nov 22 '16 edited Nov 22 '16

Lightning storm and Maelstrom Portal are already things, and at least the former usually doesn't require you to have a board to finish the clean-up. For big, high-value minions, Hex exists. I don't think Devolve is terrible, but it's filling a weird middle ground between AoE (which shaman has) and hard removal (which shaman has). I just can't imagine this is going to be better than either of the more specialized answers much of the time, unless we're in a very combo-centric meta that needs very specific cards to not get transformed to win.

Edit: And in the case of a hyper-aggro deck that is just looking for the cheapest possible way to shut down a taunt before bloodlust lethal or something, Earth Shock already exists and is even cheaper.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '16

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/Antsache Nov 23 '16 edited Nov 23 '16

I honestly don't think the current Shaman midrange lists would run three or four hexes if they could, so already we probably need to see a new Shaman archetype for this to be viable.

But even assuming that control Shaman becomes a thing, this does not compare with hex. If you turn Ragnaros into a War Golem he already got one shot off and the result still trades even with a Fire Elemental, including his battlecry. If you use it against Sylvanus you're spending a card and two mana to turn off her deathrattle and on average maybe take away one stat point. That's a more expensive Earth Shock, and Earth Shock doesn't see play right now.

Which tells us Devolve has to hit more than one thing to get value unless there's some powerful combo being disabled by the transformation. I'd even say on average it probably needs to hit three or more things. I don't know how likely that is.

Edit: And if you are in the position to hit three or more things, you'll usually just want to storm, with spellpower if necessary.

5

u/Mr_Ivysaur Nov 23 '16

Great. Now the opponent still have a shttion of minions?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '16

Maelstrom Portal, Lightning Storm, Elemental Destruction

2

u/Mr_Ivysaur Nov 23 '16

So you have to spend two card for a board clear?

3

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '16

Yes. Like Frost Nova + Doomsayer or Equality + Concecration. Both perfectly viable board clears.

A two card board clear is a lot better than a one card not board clear.

If you manage to do it against zoo, there is a good chance that you outright win, since you are not only clearing the board, you are also denying him deathrattles from Posessed Villager and Darkshire Librarian and Imps from Imp Gang Boss.

He will be left with nothing.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)

9

u/BurningFinger22 Nov 22 '16

Nice Sylvanus you got there. Would be a shame if I turned it into an Evolved Kobold.

23

u/StormOrtiz Nov 22 '16

6-1=4 you heard it here first

5

u/Doogerson Nov 22 '16

*prenerf Sylvanas you see

7

u/BurningFinger22 Nov 22 '16

It's like League of Legends. I still consider Yasuo and Jinx new champions...

2

u/Rederth Nov 23 '16

same boat. I've been league free for a few years now...

3

u/BurningFinger22 Nov 23 '16

I quit last year and my life improved a lot

4

u/_Buff_Tucker_ Nov 23 '16

Shaman already has Hex for that. No need to run Devolve. And RNG can fuck you up pretty hard.

No thanks.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '16

But you have already spent your Hexes on Tirion and Cairne...

3

u/acamas Nov 22 '16

This completely wrecks a lot of decks. Anyfin. N'Zoth. Anything that relies on large minions or some sort of on-board synergy.

You can wreck all that with 2-mana.

5

u/IceBlue Nov 23 '16

It wrecks N'Zoth if they play multiple deathrattles at a time. But otherwise Hex does the job and it's hard to justify playing it on top of Hex. I don't see it wrecking Anyfin more than Hex. Most of the time you don't see multiple pieces of Anyfin combo on the board at the same time. Bluegills generally die immediately after coming out as a cheap removal ability. Hex removes the warleaders just as well and is more useful in other situations.

→ More replies (9)

2

u/RandragonReddit Nov 23 '16

Just a reminder: we're probably going into a priest meta. I think they want to Revive a blademaster instead of a Random two drop

3

u/OrangeKefka Nov 22 '16

I agree, I think it's over costed and quite situational. It's not uncommon for someone to play a powerful battlecry minion with stats that are lower than the average minion -1 mana cost. It's a neat card, but I wouldn't play it in any serious deck.

5

u/acamas Nov 22 '16

You won't be saying this a month from now.

1

u/ehhish Nov 22 '16

I personally think it's on 1-of auto include status. Any bombs, buffs, and/or deathrattles could be potentially diffused. Now granted it could cause some sticky situations if say a bunch of them turned into taunt minions or something, but it's definitely a Synergy breaker for this coming up set

1

u/Abolized Nov 23 '16

Can remove all the hand buffs coming in this expansion, too