Boxengasse » werent alone in their drama last year in the Chase.

We continue our review of the Hearthstone cards from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan with new cards from the Grimy Goons and the Jade Lotus, the names given for the factions that utilize the tri-class cards debuting in this expansion set. Several Mage and Warlock cards have been revealed since our last installment, so we now have a better picture of what these classes will look like after the card set drops next month.We start out with three cards that go along with the Grimy Goons mechanic of buffing in-hand minions in order to make less linear styles of gameplay more practical, something thats necessary to keep games of Hearthstone from being tempo fights.The initial comparison of Grimy Gadgeteer may be the Screwjank Clunker from Goblins vs. Gnomes, a four-mana 2/5 that had a Battlecry of giving a friendly Mech +2/+2. But this card is better. Screwjank Clunker, while providing reach, required you to have something on board while the Gadgeteer only requires you to have something in your hand, a much easier condition to fulfill. So from the start, youre likely to get 6/5 worth of stats for your four mana and the card has quasi-Taunt, in that the effect triggers at the end of every turn, meaning this card must be removed quickly. Even without constructed buff decks, Arena is minion-based enough that this will see play.Brass Knuckles on the other hand, Im not so sure about. Getting the +1/+1 random buff has value, but its such a slow weapon and theres a danger in having too many weapons in Warrior. Youre obviously not cutting Fiery War Axe and Id prefer Fools Bane to this (you have to survive to get to your slow buffed cards after all). Is there room for yet another weapon, one that isnt directly dangerous to the board? I dont think there is.The 5/6 stat line for seven mana of Don HanCho is underwhelming on its face and demands sexy card text. And while the effect isnt too wacky or unusual, its strong enough to make the card at least interesting in slower buff decks. Five-mana 5/6 cards are playable and a two-mana spell with that effect would be also; additionally, having a two-card combo in one card -- at least when the two things arent that odd -- is quite valuable. I dont think this will be a must-include, but there are ways to exploit an effect this stat-heavy. This is a tri-class card (Hunter/Paladin/Warrior) and while this is probably too slow for the Hunters kit, Paladin and Warrior have the tools to survive into late game.The Kabal Chemist represents pseudo card draw, something that can be quite powerful even without it being a Discover card. This card draws a random Potion, a much more powerful group of cards than the spare parts that many Goblins vs. Gnomes cards added to your hand. There have been seven Potions released, consisting of three AOE potions, a minion buff potion, an enemy minion-weakening potion, a Secret, and the mini-Shadow Madness one. Most of these potions have some utility to a Priest, Warlock, or Mage, the three classes that can play this card. Discovering a Potion would be even more powerful, but then youd probably need a weaker minion than 3/3 for four mana to compensate.Two of the potions, for Mage, are the Volcanic Potion and the Potion of Polymorph.The effect of the Volcanic Potion is good enough, but the all minions disclaimer means that Mage decks that do rely on minions cant make much use of this card, so Tempo Mage is probably out. What this card does empower is the more control style of Mage. Not sure if it makes the Freeze Mage cut, but the conditions are there. I think where this card will see the most play is in a Grinder Mage that tries to get to fatigue and win there.For Potion of Polymorph, youll need a control-heavy meta for this to see play at all in tournament play. Most midrange and aggro decks will be able to play around this fairly easily, the same way Mirror Image can be played around. Actual Polymorph is only one mana more and you can actually choose when to play it - this card is only obviously better in situations where your opponent is playing a quick-impact card like Grommash Hellscream or Ragnaros. But if this becomes anything more than occasional surprise card, what are the odds your opponent will give you cards like that?Kabal Lackeys viability requires Secret Mage to be an actual played deck. While it looks good in isolation -- playing a three-mana secret for free is a lot of value -- theres already a card in the Kirin Tor Mage that also does this and that never sees high-level play. Secrets are weak enough that just being able to play a secret in hand for free just isnt enough of an effect, you really need to be able to play all of them, like Cloaked Huntress in Hunter, or be able to draw and play one like Mad Scientist enables for the card to be that great.While Lackey may see play in Arena formats that encourage you to have a few one-drops, Kabal Crystal Runner really needs a Secret-heavy deck to see play. I dont think this deck will happen, so I expect this card to be one of the least-played from this expansion. Menagerie Warden in Druid has the same stat line, a better effect, and in a deck that is actually viable, and even that card is sometimes just an overcosted 5/5. That will happen more often with this card.With multiple cards this expansion that activate if you have no duplicates in your deck and Reno Jackson rotating out sometime this spring, were going to have to find a new name for Reno decks. Chogall in Warlock hasnt worked so far because Warlock doesnt have a lot of big spells that you actually want to play. Thats not true for Mage, that has Pyroblast, Flamestrike, Blizzard, Firelands Portal, Cabalists Tome, etc. Reno Mage ... err ... Singleton Mage has been on the edge of playability and I think this could be the tipping point for it, which will enable all sorts of cards like Medivh that arent seeing a lot of play right now.For those more familiar with seeing Murloc cards in Paladin and Shaman, Warlock was actually the original Murloc-stacked deck, Warlocks hero power preventing your hand from running dry after you play a bazillion small-mana Murloc cards. Will Seadevil Stinger revive the Murlock archetype? Im not so sure about that, there arent high-mana Murlocs apart from Finja, the Flying Star and many of the times you get around to playing this card, youll be running out of cards, not mana. I think this may be a one-off if we see Murlock come back, but I dont think its that amazing without a few more large Murloc cards.Its hard not to wonder if Bloodfury Potion doesnt exist to make Kabal Chemist weaker. The least powerful potion released, even in the best case scenario, three-mana for a +3/+3 buff for a Warlock is decent, not amazing, and there will be many times you cant pull this off. And if you get this as Priest or Mage playing the Kabal Chemist, you might cry.A much better potion is the Felfire Potion and Control Priests and Mages will absolutely not weep in a corner after drawing this one off Kabal Chemist. Much of the time, youll be able to clear the board and even if you dont, you ought to be able to weaken it enough to ping off or remove remaining minions using other methods. A good, straightforward spell.This article is part of a series analyzing the cards in the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Hearthstone expansion. 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DEARBORN, Mich. -- Joey Logano couldnt have had a bigger smile on his face Wednesday as he drove a restored 1914 Model T around the Ford Motor Company grounds.He joked about racing the train that transported visitors. He took the turns carefully to prevent a rollover. He seemed like a guy without a care in the world, cracking up with every push of the pedal even if max speed was 30 miles an hour.But come Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, he will fire up for a ride much more bumpy and one that could generate much fewer smiles at close to 200 miles an hour. He enters the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which for the third consecutive year will feature an elimination-style format.If anyone knows just how crazy and out of control the Chase can get, its the 26-year-old Logano. Last year, Logano wrecked Matt Kenseth while going for the win at Kansas Speedway even though Logano already had won a week earlier and was guaranteed a spot in the semifinal round.A few weeks later with Kenseth not having advanced, a nine-laps-down Kenseth -- angry at Logano teammate Brad Keselowski -- pile-drove Logano into the Martinsville Speedway wall. Kenseth was suspended for two races. Logano didnt advance to the final round.NASCAR chairman Brian France created the rules for the Chase, in some ways, to have those types of moments, stirring emotions. The first two years of the elimination style formats have seen fights outside the car (Kenseth-Keselowski, Jeff Gordon-Keselowski to name a couple) as well as that on-track drama.Hopefully Im done with that [drama], Kenseth said last month when talking about the Chase. Hopefully it will be just nice and calm. Everybody is happy.Yeah, right. The rules werent designed for Kenseths happiness.Logano was happy Wednesday. Whether that happiness stays or not, he cant predict. But he knows in a format in which four drivers are eliminated every three races -- race-winners of each round and those best in points advance -- that the formula heightens emotions and intensity.Some people have a pretty uneventful 10 races, Logano said. Some people have an over-eventful 10 races. Ive been on both sides of that.If I look at two years ago when we got to Homestead [Florida], it was very uneventful, we won one race throughout the Chase, we kind of did our thing, we were under the radar and we found ourselves racing for a championship. Last year, we won three races and found ourselves in the middle of everything and we didnt get to Homestead.While he said he learns something every day from his experiences and hopes to put that into use, Logano is more focused on this year than thinking about what went right or wrong a year ago.ddddddddddddhen a driver puts on a race helmet, the idea is to win the trophy.You have to do what you have to do for your team and then you worry about the repercussions later, 2014 Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick said. Obviously with Joey and Matt last year and the repercussions, probably Joey having the best car and ending up not winning the championship, there is a lot of things to balance.But when youre in the car and in competition and kind of in that mode of really going after it, its hard to think about those things.Logano has long been on record that he has no regrets. His job remains to win races.Its a race, Logano said. Its not just one race. Its 10 races. A lot of times, you dont have time to think about repercussions or anything. You go out there knowing the job at hand and you just get the job done.We all sign up for a job. Its my job to make it happen.Did Logano think he got the job done last year?I think so, Logano said. Hey, we raced hard. We won races. We were fast. We learned a lot. Thats success. We learned about a lot of things -- we learned a lot about our race team and [are] proud of that.I feel like were stronger this year because of it.Kenseth and Logano werent alone in their drama last year in the Chase. Harvick shoved Jimmie Johnson with a closed fist after the Chicagoland race opened the 2015 Chase.Its designed for chaos, Johnson said. This format creates that. ... Honestly, just the way we race has changed so much over the years from the Mark Martin ways of pointing somebody by and it will come back to you later in the race.You never do that now. You race the fire out of the guy next [to] you. It just is how it is. The culture is changing. The mindset is changing.That culture, Kenseth said, doesnt necessarily come with the Chase. He said he sees it during the regular season.I dont feel like anybody is going to dump you and wreck you on purpose for a win necessarily because it is going to advance them to the next round if theres still a couple of rounds left unless its the same guy who would do it [in August] at Bristol, Kenseth said.I dont know that it is any different. Maybe it is. Maybe Im na?ve.So what happens over the next 10 weeks? Any chance of it being calm?Anything is possible, Keselowski said. Id have to see it first. I dont think its made to be calm. ' ' '