The hype train for Hearthstone’s Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion is fuelled by daily card reveals, and today I’m delighted to say it’s our turn to show you something from the set. The card we’ve been given is a spell for the sadly underpowered and in need of love Shaman class. Hopefully this spell will finally mean Thrall sees some play on ladder. As those of you with eyes will have noticed, it’s called Call in the Finishers and costs the princely sum of 4 Mana. For that you are rewarded with four small fishmen to call your own.
It’s one of THOSE cards isn’t it? At first glance you really have to reach to find a world where this sees play. Historically, Blizzard has tried to leverage weak cards with new additions rather than buffs, and this appears to be help for the long forgotten Everyfin is Awesome. That combo on 7 Mana makes for a sweet board state, but Shaman doesn’t need help creating oppressive boards. Maybe it’s good enough to push Murlocs alongside some of the other cards we’ve seen revealed.
Murloc decks absolutely cannot lose the board, and this is a great tool to retain some sort of annoying presence, similar to how Zoo fell back on Forbidden Ritual when most of their sticky minions went away in Standard. Frankly though, with the state of the Shaman right now, a card would have to be pretty spectacular to be able to confidently give it the “will see play” stamp.
Yes, this card is another attempt to push Murloc synergy in Shaman. You can think of it as Muster for Murlocs, only more expensive and without the free Light’s Justice weapon. Or maybe Unleash the Murlocs, but without charge.
So why play it? Well, the Murloc tag is actually worth quite a bit in a deck dedicated to activating tribal effects. Imagine you manage to play this on curve after dropping a Murloc Warleader. Those 1/1s are now 3/2s and your opponent’s finger is either hovering over an AoE spell or the concede button.
Speaking of AoE, Call in the Finishers provides a handy single-card refill after your board gets wiped—something which Murloc decks have struggled with in the past. Obviously it’s less flexible than Warlock’s Forbidden ritual, but serves a similar purpose, and can also be combo’d with Knife Juggler to pretty powerful effect.
Also note the potential combo with the 7-Mana spell Everyfin is Awesome. Play Call in the Finishers first and Everyfin’s cost is reduced to 3, or potentially less if you already have some Murlocs on the board.
How good will a Murloc deck be in the Mean Streets meta? Tough to say, but with other new cards like Blowgill Sniper and Finja, The Flying Star helping to push the Murloc theme, it’s definitely going to be something that fish-fancying players experiment with.
The kind of deck I can see Call in the Finishers getting played in is some sort of equivalent to the old midrange Double Combo Druid. Obviously these Murlocs don’t have Charge, so the plan will be building a board and then combo’ing it with Everyfin, Bluegills and Warleaders.
I have precisely no idea whether that will be viable, but it’ll be a laugh to find out. And lest you’ve already written our card off, remember that the last one we revealed was Argent Horserider. Which turned out to be pretty good, despite what some of Reddit’s experts thought at the time.
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan arrives in early December, and contains 132 new cards. You can pre-order a 50 pack bundle at a discount here.
