by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Deck slots are precious, and several cards in Hearthstone are somewhat similar. So which one do you choose? Every Saturday, we take a look at two somewhat similar cards, and two of our writers will duke it out and make their best case to convince you that their card should be the one deserving of one of your precious deck slots.

Bluegill Warrior vs. Murloc Tidehunter

Rongar: I am more than a fish. I am more than a man. I am Murloc Tidehunter.

This week, we opted to go “back to basics”, and not talk about legendaries for once. Leviathan proposed Bluegill Warrior versus the Murloc Tidehunter, which I initially opposed, only to reverse course a mere two minutes later. Why you ask? Because the Murloc Tidehunter is awesome. Murloc cards are a standard ingredient of many hated aggro decks, and the reason is simple: they are cheap, they have tremendous synergy, and they allow you to flood the board with hard-hitting minions very, very quickly. A number of decks have potent removal cards that will take care of those pesky minions for you, unfortunately by the time you have enough resources built-up to play said removal cards, it’s often too late.

The beauty of the Murloc deck is the way these minions feed off of each other. A key component is the presence of other minions, and here the Murloc Tidehunter delivers in spades. You get the same attack values the Bluegill Warrior offers AND you get another 1/1 Murloc on top of it. While that may not seem like much, other Murloc minions like the Murloc Tidecrawler, the Murloc Warleader, and even Old Murk-Eye will gladly soak up the extra boost they gain from having the additional presence of yet another Murloc on the board. Sure, Bluegill can attack right away – you you don’t get nearly the bang for the buck that the Tidehunter potentially delivers for your other minions.

In addition, Murlocs like the Grimscale Oracle will take that ho-hum Murloc Scout, and make it beefier. Yes, the Scout won’t be able to attack right away, but when your opponent targets him, he’ll take him right down with him.

In aggro decks, speed matters. Bluegill Warrior gives you that. But true overpowering of your opponent comes from flooding the board with creatures. Of course if you build an aggro deck, you will likely want BOTH cards – but if you are playing for board control, getting two minions out on turn two is just exceptional value.

Leviathan: I hate murlocs. Let me just be upfront about that. I can’t stand their creepy little faces or their cheap mana cost or their ability to infuriate my Priest whenever I come across them. Yet, I can tolerate Bluegill Warrior. Why? Because that card is so good for what it does that it gains value BEYOND its simple Murloc tag. The Tidehunter that Rongar has now seemingly fallen in love with is fine; it’s actually one of the first cards you tend to get introduced to in the basic decks when you boot up Hearthstone for the first time.

However, the Bluegill Warrior is a card you’re likely to come across for the first time in an Arena draft and when you throw it in there and see how it helps to swing the board into your favor after your opponent has thrown down a Knife Juggler with some grand plan of destroying everything you have ever loved, well, you have taken the initiative and destroyed everything your opponent could ever dream of loving. Devastating.

That same scenario is actually one that you often see in Constructed, where this whole murloc synergy thing truly flourishes. The reason why I like defending Bluegill Warrior in this landscape is because he can do exactly as I presented in that Arena scenario – help to shut down the early aggro. That’s essentially saying he is the most traitorous of all murlocs, so that’s really probably why I gravitate towards him.

Rongar: I will tell you why the Tidehunter is better: it has the flavor text Death will rise, from the tides!, which is a reference to the Elite Tauren Chieftain song “I am Murloc”, their first “hit single”. Regular visitors to our site will of course note that Elite Tauren Chieftain was the card lore feature this week. My Murloc has an awesome metal theme song, Leviathan. Does your Murloc have an awesome metal theme song? I rest my case.

Leviathan: The only reason Bluegill Warrior doesn’t have an awesome metal theme song is because he’s TOO metal for that. He’s busy destroying your chances of ever getting any cool synergy going, bro. He’s the guy who cleans up your hotel room before the media gets a chance to see it and wonder, “Wow, why does Murloc Tidehunter party so hard?” He’s ruining your street cred. That’s pretty badass, no? No? Okay, well, then back to card strategy!

I like to think of Bluegill Warrior, simply, as a spell minion. What does this mean? That means that instead of a veritable two drop, of which there are probably tons better (I mean, we KNOW this to be the case when things like Mad Bomber exist – a little luck and that shuts down a Tidecaller before it ever gets a chance to get going.), I would almost be inclined to keep Bluegill in my hand and use him when a 2 health threat gets thrown down and I want it instantly removed. The Tidecaller doesn’t really have many other roles that it can play besides waiting for buffs from other minions and hoping that it makes it to the next turn with its buddy in order to dole out full value.

I think we’ve come to another one of those situations where it’s expected value versus actual value. The Bluegill Warrior pays you up front, since you GUARANTEE the two damage every time. The Tidecaller is a little iffier. However, I think my case is made for me when I see Bluegill Warrior transcending his murloc brethren and appearing in other variations of aggro decks because of his Charge ability. Can you handle that?

What do you think? Did one of our writers make a compelling enough case for you to pick one card over the other? Share your thoughts in the comments below.