Trump was doing some amazing stuff with him in Malygos Miracle Rogue:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5EiqCCFFgM
I'm trying Barnes in a Midrange Shaman deck. He definitely has potential. I've had him pull Ragnaros or Flametongue Totem, for example. In the right deck, he has a big impact right on the turn he's played, and that can be as early as turn 3 or 4.
Any deck with no battlecry minions or only negative battlecry minions will like Barnes. Zoo lock will also welcome him.
As for the card as a whole, pretty good. You don't need to build the deck around him entirely, but it's good to keep his ability in mind. Have been trying him in some admittedly more casual N'Zoth decks, and when you get one of the better deathrattles it certainly makes you happy.
Also synergises with since if you manage to bring the 1/1 back it will have full stats and any Barnes deck is going to be full of non-battlecry stuff that resurrecting would be good with anyway.
Pretty sure he was intended for Silence Priest
still won't save ... there is no saving that
I have played 2 games against Hunters with on their deck list as Shaman and on both occasion their Barns have summoned the , 100% until now, I guess is just a very very bad luck.
I only wish the card wasnt so ugly.
is a neutral card. Each expansion, all of the classes only get so many class specific cards. In general, it is much more acceptable for a neutral card to be worthless (i.e. ), than a class card. Priest is largely seen as being underpowered, and one of the few ways to fix solely them, is to offer better Priest class cards. While is potentially a "bad" card, it doesn't take away from the available options for any one class. takes away a slot needed for Priest class improvement, and gives a fun/niche card instead.
It's interesting that people continue to talk about the randomness of Barnes but really his issue is more how consistent he is than anything. I think the point on the card being comparable to Chillwind Yeti (on two bodies) is apt if only because it shows that at worst, Barnes wins at the Vanilla Test. Beyond that, the player could build a solid deck around Barnes by only slightly modifying existing deck lists (to increase the chance of a good result from ~70-90% to 100%) and while there is variance to consider, the result is ultimately a 2-body Yeti with bonus effects that show that Barnes as a whole is far stronger than a card like Dragonling Mechanic.The drawback to consider is a player can only run one Barnes though, which greatly limits the power of the card as a win condition. It could mean that to get greater value out of Barnes a player may need to run certain cards. Furthermore, while there is game-winning potential from Barnes, there's also other unfair crap players can push out by turn 4 even in the Standard format of today that could also greatly swing the chances to win a game or otherwise define the meta (Handlock Mountain Giant and 4 Mana 7/7, for instance).Ultimately I do think Barnes is very strong and has some advantages and disadvantages compared to a card like Piloted Shredder. One trait the two cards definitively share is they are both pretty well above the so-called "power curve" though. With that said, there's other cards in Standard with this problem.On Yogg (since it was brought up as a comparison): I think there's an issue of the card being generally too consistent here as well, ironically through its randomness. When Yogg is usually used, it's a last resort that at worst, loses the player a game they would've lost anyways. This means that such a play utilizes an optimistic outcome to turn or straight up win the game. It's also worth mentioning that if the enemy has board control (which is often when Yogg is used), offensive spells are more likely to affect the enemy and their board, among other factors. What this means is the player does have some control over the random elements that allow for a greater chance of a favorable outcome.It's also worth noting that casting a lot of spells tends to be the best way to utilize Yogg since it greatly alters the random variance, meaning players in a sense have control over the card's randomness there too.To put it another way, the strength of Yogg-Saron more comes from utilizing its randomness in a clever way that does involve some player skill. That doesn't necessarily justify the card's existence in a competitive format and ultimately its game-swinging potential in an otherwise unwinnable situation may deem it worthy of potential bans from the competitive scene.