Firemancer Flurgl

Class: Shaman

Rarity: Legend

Type: Minion (Murloc)

Mana: 2

Stats: 2/3

After you play a Murloc, deal 1 damage to all enemies.

Developer’s comment

Before Flurgl joined Bob’s Tavern in the Battlegrounds, he invented fire. Or at least, that’s what he tells the other Murlocs — but they don’t know any better. They flocked from around the Barrens to see the mystical Firemancer’s fantastic display. As the crowd of Murlocs grew, so too did his abilities.

Inven’s exclusive card reveal for Hearthstone: Forged in the Barrens is “Firemancer Flurgl”.

Firemancer Flurgl is a new legendary minion that’s based on Fungalmancer Flurgl from the Battlegrounds. If you play a Murloc when this minion is on the field, it deals 1 damage to all enemies.

The way that it deals AOE damage under certain conditions makes it similar to “Wild Pyromancer”, “Arcane Flakmage”, or “Risky Skipper”. The way it deals damage to the hero as well makes it the most similar to the legendary Demon Hunter card, “Altruis the Outcast”.

■ Strengths

The biggest strength of Firemancer Flurgl would be that the effect could be activated with a low cost and a simple condition.

In the case of Altruis the Outcast, you need 4 mana just to put him on the field and you need to use the left or right-most card to give AOE damage so it relies on how the cards are arranged in your hand. With Arcane Flakmage, its cost is 2, but you have to use additional Secrets — it’s actually giving 2 AOE damage with 5 mana since Sorcerer Secrets cost 3 mana.

However, Firemancer Flurgl costs 2 mana and since most Murloc cards are low-cost, it’s rather easy to activate its effect. Most of Shaman’s AOE spells attack damage, has random targets, or has Overload, but the fact that Firemancer Flurgl doesn’t harm the user and that it could also hit the opponent hero is a big strength.

Also, the fact that Firemancer Flurgl is also a Murloc is another strength when you form a Murloc tec. If you use cards like Coldlight Seer which buffs Murlocs, you can deal AOE damage as well as strengthen the card itself. It could give you the upper hand when you need to gain priority over the field.

■ Weaknesses

As mentioned above, Firemancer Flurgl is cost-efficient and is easy to utilize, but there’s a critical weakness as well. The weakness is that it’s hard to be effective unless you form your deck Murloc-centric.

In the year of the Gryphon, many useful cards used in Murloc decks will disappear as “Rise of Shadows”, “Saviors of Uldum”, “Descent of Dragons”, and “Galakrond’s Awakening” cards are to go to wild.

Especially, it’s easy to run out of cards in your hand as Murloc decks use low-cost cards. To help with that, cards like “Underbelly Angler”, “Fishflinger”, or “Sludge Slurper” were used, but as these cards went wild, it’s quite difficult to form a Murloc deck with the cards revealed up to now.

It’s rather easier to draw cards with Warlocks or Demonhunters who often use aggro decks, but it’s a different story with Shamans, so if there aren’t any additional cards that can compromise with that, it’ll be difficult to use.

With the same reason, the condition that the AOE effect is activated isn’t when a Murloc is “summoned”, but that it’s when you “play” a Murloc could also be a weakness. The Murlocs summoned through Battlecry or Deathrattle doesn’t activate Firemancer Flurgl’s effect — it’ll be hard to deal damage past the player’s hand. The player has to use many cards in their hand so if the priority on the field gets blown away from the opponent’s AOE spell, it gets very difficult to come back.

■ Overall

As many Murloc support cards go wild, Firemancer Flurgl has a clear weakness. It could be said that the significance of this card could disappear unless a Murloc Shaman meta comes.

However, there could be additional cards that could help with the Murloc decks, and even it isn’t in this expansion — if a Murloc Shaman meta comes within 2 years, this card would take up an important role in those decks. One of the new cards in this expansion, "Nofin can stop us", is a big help to the Murloc Shaman decks. Will the Murloc Shaman meta come someday?