The card reveal season for Hearthstone’s Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion has entered its final day. And the latest card unveiled today continues on the previously teased cycle of artifacts that pays homage to the original form of the Old Gods.
Idol of Y’Shaarj is an eight-mana Epic Priest spell that summons a random 10/10 copy of a minion in your deck.
The newest Old God artifact is similar to Priest’s Shadow Essence from Knights of the Frozen Throne, which was a vital piece to the Big Priest archetype back in the day. The major strength of Shadow Essence, when compared to this card, was that it came down two turns earlier, costing only six mana. This allowed you to use the powerful effects of expensive minions in your deck sooner.
While a more expensive version of a different card doesn’t bode well for the Idol of Y’Shaarj at first glance, the Idol does provide an extra +5/+5 worth of stats, which can be more threatening to an opponent if their health total is low enough. While you usually want to combine an effect like this with minions that have powerful keywords and effects, Priest doesn’t have many minions like that in Standard, or any revealed cards in Madness at the Darkmoon Faire so far, that would appreciate being made into a 10/10 version of itself.
There is, however, synergy with the dual-class Priest/Paladin Legendary minion from Scholomance Academy, High Abbess Alura, which can cast this card from your deck as soon as turn four if you can achieve her Spellburst. While there may not be a powerful minion to cheat out early in Standard, summoning 10/10 worth of stats as soon as turn four or five can usually end a game.
Despite the limited pool of powerful minions to summon with this effect, there are still potent high rolls. If you manage to summon Archmage Vargoth with the first Idol of Y’Shaarj, Vargoth will cast it again at the end of the turn, granting you another free 10/10. There are also five more Priest minions to be revealed that could find synergy with the Idol of Y’shaarj.
Similar to Jewel of N’zoth, which was revealed yesterday, this artifact paying homage to the original Old God also costs eight mana, which could point toward the potential cost of the remaining two artifacts of Yogg’Saron and C’thun.
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire will be released on Nov. 17. Players can pre-purchase the expansion in one of two different bundles from Blizzard’s online store or in the Hearthstone client.
