Hello everyone, Yangzera back with another day of card reviews and after yesterday’s Nilah champion reveal we had variety day! With a few cards coming out of nowhere and others feeling like they’re out of place let’s get into the reviews!
Lonely Chimeslime
There’s absolutely no reason for this card to be in Shadow Isles, and it could honestly be in any other region and it wouldn’t really matter. I guess it just fits the thematics of the region but it’s exclusively a Bard
card for now. I don’t see any existing SI decks using this card, and it’s not really a great one outside of Bandle City Bard. As a Bard card it’s okay, but it pains me that one of the SI slots got wasted in a Bard card since now the region is going at least 3 more months without a champion – its last champion was Gwen back in July 2022, more than a year ago. 2/5 card for me.
Watery Grave
If there’s one thing I learned being a content creator is how much people love to play mill decks and the idea of them existing despite how bad they are. Watery Grave certainly tries to help Maokai
or even Lissandra
strategies focused on Watcher
but fails to do so because once it finally gets played, the game is already in probably such a winning state that it doesn’t really affect its outcome. 1/5, really bad card.
Capsize
This is my bingo card for “broken” Ionia card that never sees play. I really dislike Capsize because of the way the game is played out. As a slow speed card, it should be a punish for development, but if you’re using it to respond to an opposing development, your opponent most likely already used their unit mana that round, therefore the cost increase is irrelevant. This dynamic turns the card into a much worse version of Will of Ionia
, since it’s just slow speed, when used defensively. You can use the card offensively at the start of your token round to go aggressive on your opponent and put them off curve that round, but it’s still just a one for one in terms of tempo, and you can do much better in Ionia that has access to Concussive Palm
. Very cool idea, but it lacks the effect on the unit cost increase to carry over for future rounds. Solid 1/5 card.
Gentlemen's Duel
I like this card as Formidable’s version of Single Combat
. It really reminds me of Strafing Strike
in a way, being one more mana with an additional effect that might benefit the archetype it plays into. We need to see if you have the option to only buff the unit’s health by targetting the button. If you can just give your unit health, then I think the card is super versatile, being able to work as a combat trick if you really need one. Pretty decent 3/5 card for me.
Bursting Backpack
I really fail to see how this one is good, since you shuffle the Backpack into your deck after placing the Chimes, not only making your deck bigger, but adding a non-Chime hit to it. In puffcap decks this card is much, much worse then other 1 cost spells like Poison Dart
or Pie Toss
, and I don’t see the reason to add this card to your deck. I’d love to be wrong and maybe this card is pretty good in other formats like Free Build, but it’s not it for standard. 1/5.
Skip, “King of the Reef”
I’ve seen people talk super highly about this card, and while I don’t think it’s a bad card, I also don’t think it’s good either. It’s pretty difficult, especially in standard, for a non-champion card to be the main win condition of a deck, and I feel like you want to play this card to make your opponent “miss timing” on their key card. The only real win condition that this card can greatly affect is Champions' Strength
, and this alone won’t make Skip a staple. I see this card as the mediocre cards you add to your deck when you’re 35~37 cards in just to fill the spaces and start testing, and eventually cut it down or remove it entirely. I give it a 3/5 now only because Bandle City as a region really is lacking.
General of the Dunes
I could see Leona
paying a visit to Shurima in the current card pool, and maybe this 4 drop alongside the 2 drop is enough to make it happen. I can’t see this card being played outside of the Leona package though, which is a bummer. Being forced into a region combination to play a certain archetype is something I really dislike, and this Daybreak package really does give the vibe. Honorary mention to triple Warden of the Tribes
lineups which could go to shurima for the Elite tag and other decent cards. Maybe Elites could go to shurima now that Vanguard Bannerman
was rotated, but I still don’t see the deck being very good. Still, this is a 3/5 standalone card.
Defenders of the Sun Disc
I think this card is the real reason why Leona can go to Shurima. The Daybreak archetype REALLY lacks a playable 2-drop on curve with the attack token. Solari Shieldbearer
is infinitely better to use on defensive rounds and Twilit Protector
on round 2 feels like an absolute waste of an effect just for a Daybreak trigger. Not even going to mention Solari Sunhawk
because it’s a card to be used either defensively against a big threat or offensively with a leveled up Leona. Defenders of the Sun Disc comes in as a playable 2 drop that will help you level up Leona very fast without feeling bad for wasting precious Daybreak effects just for a level up trigger. 3/5 card.
Headmistress Telsi
Undoubtedly the best card today and the one with the most potential and highest ceiling. Sadly all the cool Support cards are locked behind the Eternal wall, but there are tons of interesting attack triggers around. Between Ashe
, Jhin
, Annie
, Jax
, Gwen
, Zed
and a lot of really strong followers with attack triggers, this card helps a ton of different archetypes without even meaning to. Really great addition to the game and I can’t wait to try different builds out. Solid 4/5 card.