Blowtorch Saboteur

Class: Common
Rarity: Epic
Type: Minion
Mana: 3
Stats: 3/4

Battlecry: Your opponent’s next Hero Power costs (3)

This time, Inven’s exclusive card reveal for Hearthstone: Descent of Dragons is the “Blowtorch Saboteur”.

The vanilla stats of this card is average, at 3 mana cost and 3/4 stats. Usually, the 3-mana minions with these stats have a Battlecry that has effect on both sides or has potential but is hard to last one turn. They’re often not better than 3-mana 3/3 minions.

The Blowtorch Saboteur is also not that good. It is similar to Saboteur or Mindbreaker considering that it interferes with the opponent’s Hero Power, but the difference is that rather than increasing the cost or limiting the usage, it fixes the mana cost of the Hero Power to a specific value.

The problem is with this cost that it’s fixed to. Hero Powers usually cost 2 mana. The Blowtorch Saboteur fixes the next Hero Power to 3 mana, so it means the next Hero Ability would cost +1 mana than usual. It seems that the Battlecry is significantly worse than the Saboteur which practically prevents the opponent from using the Hero Power by making it +5 mana.

There still is an advantage that the Blowtorch Saboteur has. The Saboteur’s Battlecry is effective for only one turn and the Mindbreaker’s ability is gone when killed, but the Blowtorch Saboteur’s effect is maintained until the opponent actually uses their Hero Power.

If the Blowtorch Saboteur is used in the early game, the opponent is forced to use +1 mana once until the end of the game. Of course, this isn’t an effect that’s game-changing, but against Quest Shamans or Sorcerers who have to benefit by using their Hero Power every turn, it would become an annoying factor. It can also interfere with Galakrond’s ability, which will also be added in Descent of Dragons.

Compared to the “Fencing Coach” which had a similar trigger but was completely neglected due to its low vanilla stats, the Blowtorch Saboteur has decent stats and doesn’t have any penalties, so there would be a possibility for it to be used. However, we would have to wait and see if there is a slot available within all the card inflation happening in Hearthstone.