Lets start with the best designed cards this expansion, cards i love playing AND playing against.
1. Kazakus Kazakus is, imho the best designed card of this expansion. Blizzard really outdid themselves on this one. The reason I love playing him is because he is essentially three discover effects in one card. The potion you get is determined by three micro-decisions, and the fact that you can semi-reliably get the effect you want makes it even better. When your opponent plays him, you can try to predict what cost he chose, and to some extent what effects he got.
2. Dirty Rat This may be a strange number two, but the fact that this card is the very soul of precise timing makes it almost top my list. Playing this card can both lose you the game and win it, sometimes decided at random, but against control, mostly decided by timing. When your opponent has played their small minions, but not the combo pieces, this card is insane, but pulling out a doomsayer at the wrong time is fatal. You can also play around this card by keeping your other minions in addition to your combo pieces, so it's usually your own fault if the rat pulls your leeroy or faceless (unless that bastard hit the 1/6 chance)
3. Raza the Chained The card itself is not super fun, interesting or interactive, but the fact that it made reno priest viable without breaking the game makes it on the list for me. Reno priest is one of the most enjoyable decks to play/play against for me. Also, it enables some crazy combos with Auctionmaster Beardo and similiar cards.
4. Second-Rate Bruiser A good tech card against aggro has been missing since we lost Zombie Chow, but i think blizz did it this time. The fact that it's a normal 4/5 with taunt makes it decent against control, but super good against aggro. This card promotes good deckbuilding and teching according to the meta, which is why i like it.
5. Kun the Forgotten King This card is what's left of fun druid stuff. Imo, jades get boring really fast, as there's almost never any decisions to make. Kun makes for an epic combo with Aviana and opens up for user creativity when you pull it off. I've seen Brann C'thun, Brann Alextraza double North Sea Kraken, just a hand dump with Soggoth the Slitherer and facelesses in the lead... The feeling of playing this deck is almost like freeze mage, but even more behind early, with one huge swing turn. Of course, this deck is rightfully not that good, because it punishes control decks super hard while being really weak to aggro. Any deck that has matchups that are almost 90% winrate (or almost 10%) don't fit in the meta, but are still good as fun decks.
And so on to the negatives... Thanks Blizzard...
1. Jade Idol Yes. This is number one. Not Patches. This. This card single handedly destroyed control warrior, all fatigue decks(mill rogue, fat warrior, fat druid, for those who still played it), and has a way too high winrate against reno decks and a low winrate against aggro. While i like the Jade mechanic, i dislike the infinite value aspect of the idol. The fact that so many decks are straight up unplayable because of one card is just bad for the game, I think. Better version: 1 mana spell: Choose one: Summon a Jade Golem; or; Shuffle two Jade Shards into your deck. Jade Shards are cards that, when drawn, summons a Jade golem and draws another card(like Beneath the Grounds)
2. Small-Time Buccaneer This card is either a 1 mana 1/2 or a 1 mana 3/2 and there's nothing you can do to affect it. Either the pirate player has a weapon or he does not. I thought Blizzard learned from how OP flame imp was, but i guess they didn't. Also, if not for Patches, this wouldn't be on the list, but also without this, Patches wouldn't be here (ok maybe he would). The two cards together is what's making pirates broken, and takes us back to the good old days of aggro curvestone. Better version: Dunno. Just remove it imo. Maybe: 1 mana 1/1, Has +2/+1 when you have a weapon.
3. Patches the Pirate Imagine a world in which all aggro players gets to start the game with a 1/1 on board, their opponent at 29 hp and with only 29 cards in their deck. That world is the one we're living in. Patches is by far the most essential aggro tool right now, as he only has one drawback, drawing him turn 1, which maybe happens 1 in 10 games at most. This means any aggro deck that doesn't play Patches is automatically at a disadvantage, rendering other aggro decks unplayable(ok maybe im overreacting but this card is bad for the game ok?) Also, the best counter to Patches is Patches. Yea... Better version: Same effect, but stats are 0/2. Makes you wanna play southsea captain or buffs, and a free 0/2 is way less broken than a free 1/1
4. Dragonfire Potion This card is good for the game, but had so much more potential. If this was just straight up damage to all minions, I would love it, but as it is, the card is dependant on your opponent not playing dragons. Azure Drake and Twilight Drake are both dragons that regularly get played even in non-dragon decks, making the potion an unreliable board clear. The worst feeling is when you've got this card to clear the board, but your opponents Azure Drakes will survive because of a mechanic that was supposed to spare your own minions. Better version: Only spares friendly dragons. (Need to nerf Drakonid Operative to make up for this buff tho, he can be a 5/5
5. Jade Swarmer Uninteractivity at it's best. This card isn't broken or super frustrating, but the synergy with Unearthed Raptor makes it a curvestone card, where you just hope your opponent doesn't have the raptor, as very few meta decks can answer a 1/1 stealth turn 2. Making it tougher, but removing stealth would add some counterplay, as you could play around the raptor (like killing nerubian eggs in against old raptor rogue) Better version: Stats to 1/2 or 1/3 non-stealth. I'm not a balancing expert. I think 1/2 is better though, as it would probably still see play, but not be super broken.
Please do tell if you agree or don't, feel free to criticize me if you disagree, and tell me if I forgot any cards. Thanks.
Dirty Rat - Risky, but can disrupt combo decks. Cool design and the first disruptive card since Loatheb (not counting secrets)
Bottom 5
Krul the Unshackled - It hurts me to say it because Warlock is my favorite class, but this card just isn't good. You have to play sub-par demons just to get his effect off, he's slow, has anti-synergy with Jaraxxus, and goes all-in against AOE. Could have been something greater. Has potential in the future, depending on demons that are printed.
Jade Idol - I agree with the OP. Single-handedly making non-combo control decks obsolete is ridiculous. The rock-paper-scissors effect that this card has on the meta is not something I enjoy. The only time I beat a Jade Druid as classic control warrior was when I got a turn 9 Golden Monkey into Varian Wrynn. THAT is what it takes to win without a combo.
Drakonid Operative - Just a blatantly overpowered way to push Priest into viability. I hate it when Blizzard does this (see Thing from Below). Don't get me wrong, Discovering from your opponent's deck is really cool, I just wish the card's stats were balanced.
Patches the Pirate - Cool design so I don't really want to hate on it, but it made aggro just a liiiittle bit too good. I welcome aggro's existence, just not when it's so strong and so popular.
Virmen Sensei- Could have been something great for Beast Druid, but just ended up being a worse Houndmaster.
- Kazakus - it's so creative and innovate. Very unique and in actual game it almost always gives you something really good. So must have card for Reno decks in my opinion
- Raza the Chained - second best legendary in the set (in my opinion) and definitely best Kabal legendary. At first I felt like 'why is it good? Free hero power? Useless...' but it's extremely powerful.
- Dirty Rat - I liked the card from the beginning. It's great against aggro - 2/6 body and brings out often only 1/1... can you tell me why is it bad again? Against anything else - breaks combo or enables Mind Control Tech. I love this card.
- Second-Rate Bruiser - at first I felt like this card is going to be pretty good but not special. It turns out that it works way better than I expected.
My worst 5 cards:
- Patches the Pirate - this card is just sick. 1/1 charge for 0 mana and your deck is one card slimmer... So Blizzard, if you do sick one mana drops I recommend 7 mana 4/10 taunt with elusive, that comes into play from your deck, when opponent plays second minion on the board... That kind of card would be exactly as sick for control decks as Patches is sick for aggro.
- Small-Time Buccaneer - just stop making one mana aggro cards, especially as great and agressive as this one. Maybe if pirate warrior wasn't a thing this wouldn't be so annoying. But it is, so this one is just way too good.
- Grimestreet Outfitter - maybe weird choise, because paladin with buffs is not that common, but when you run into it... omg. Idea is pretty cool, but I feel like it can go way too fast.
- Kabal Chemist - if it had better stats or discover a potion... this way it's just disappointing a bit. Not really bad (at least for arena, it's quite nice there actually), but disappointing.
- Krul the Unshackled - I must say that I kind of like this card, it's not that bad, idea is pretty cool and you don't have to rely on Leeroy Jenkins combo with this dude. But... what demons would you like to put on the board? I feel like taunt and those that have Ysera-like effect (by the end/start of turn), but we don't have those and we have only one taunt. So in my opinion it's not that this card itself is bad, it's just bad that it was introduced now, when we can't see Krul's full potential. Maybe cooler it would be gaining abilities from all friendly minions that died this game? Or just more good demons to work with this one ;)
Drakonid Operative - Just a blatantly overpowered way to push Priest into viability. I hate it when Blizzard does this (see Thing from Below). Don't get me wrong, Discovering from your opponent's deck is really cool, I just wish the card's stats were balanced.
Dragon Priest is still not even tier 1. With Drakonid Operative Dragon Priest got pushed into being an actual viable and good deck, it isn't overpowered, it isn't underpowered, it's just a good deck.
You hope that Blizzard learned from how OP... Flame Imp was? The one-drop that most Zoo decks only played one of?
The pro-control bias is strong here. I'd argue Raza, although a good card, is boring design, and Kazakus, although definitely fun and interesting, offers way too much value - even the 1-mana spells are usually insane. Although I guess highlander decks need those insane value cards to compensate for their deckbuilding restriction, it makes for very swingy games, much like Reno himself - either you draw it in time and crush the opppnent, or you don't, and you're stuck with a subpar deck fishing for those payoff cards.
Patches is interesting design, powerful but not game-ending - it forces greedy control decks to respect early aggression and tech for it. Making it a 0/2 wouldn't fix it, it would make it borderline unplayable.
Now I do agree on many of your picks. Dirty Rat is strategically interesting and opens up design space, and Second-Rate Bruiser is elegant and effective as a tech card. Dragonfire Potion I'd call poor design, but for very different reasons. Jade Idol is interesting but way too effective at countering slow control. The real problem card when played with it, though, and it always comes down to this, is Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Free, repeatable card draw that your opponent cannot respond to will always break the game. The original nerf did nothing to the Goblin, it only slowed it down.
My personal tops :
Dirty Rat, for its skill-intensive design.
Small-Time Recruits, for granting card draw designed specifically for a struggling archetype.
Abyssal Enforcer, for bringing a simple, powerful and flavourful demon both to Arena and Ranked play.
Patches the Pirate, for giving decks an actual reason to play early-game aggression.
My worst...
Dragonfire Potion and Drakonid Operative for being blatant attempts to push Priest, while encouraging a simple curve deck when the design team had explicitly stated that they understood that what Priest fans liked was the trickiness of the class.
Don Han'cho, for being slow, and incredibly boring, especially compared to the other gang leaders.
Mayor Noggenfogger, for being the second coming of Nozdormu - fun, interesting effect stapled on an uninteresting body that comes way, way, way too late.
Counterfeit Coin, because it's the single most boring card in the game, and yet ends up playable.
I really don't understand the hate Counterfeit Coin is recieving. It is a great card that fits perfectly in Miracle and it also fits Rogue's identity of cheating, thieving, sneaking well. It is also the first card they have printed since League of Explorers that supports the archetype. Rogue has a burgle deck now, jade deck, and pirate tempo. Acting like they haven't been pushing those to death is flat out stupid. We get a coin and people act like it is bad design or too boring? Give me a break. Bad design is patches the pirate, small time buccaneer, don hancho, madam goya, mayor nogginfogger, krul, etc. All these cards have a 2 problems in common. They are either very bad and provide no synergy in a deck, or they are auto include in most decks even if they have little synergy. That is bad. Coin isn't an autoinclude in every deck, in fact it is usually only a one of in the decks that run it. Good card, we deserve it too because we got shadow rager.
Patches the Pirate has one of the best entrance animations of the game. By itself it's not too bad but how it helps Pirate decks with the other tools available to it is what makes it over the top. Perhaps taking away Charge will make this minion more palatable.
Kazakus Just love this card and so glad I got a golden one. Just enough RNG that you can't always craft the spell you want but more often than not helps you out a great deal. Combo with Brann but watch out for your time during the turn.
Raza the Chained Example of a great, well-balanced card. The ability rocks; but the Reno deck restriction nicely reduces its effectiveness.
Small-Time Buccaneer Even a drop to just +1 Attack would be a welcome change to this mistake of a card.
Dirty Rat I still haven't played this myself but I've seen it used against me to great effect. Screws battlecries and other strategies. Also combos with stuff like Mind Control Tech and most forms of mass removal. Smaller but better than Deathlord because it's cheaper, you choose when the minion enters the battlefield, and comes from your opponent's hand so it's not a variation of a free card draw.
Dragonfire Potion is fine simply because it is in Priest, and one of the very few good cards Priest has to work with, it is strong but not broken and the design isn't bad.
Jade Swarmer is fine in my opinion. The Jade archetype as a whole is poorly designed and Cancerous, but Jade Swarmer as an individual card is fine.
A free 1 mana charger is equal to a free Soggoth? Really?
I'm exaggerating to show Patches power level. And of course it's not equal per se, it's just to show how drastically aggressive and fast decks are emphasised by Blizzard.
Soggoth should shit on small minions like that, but you won't live long enough to play him. So why not give control deck a real chance to stop an aggro in early game? People would complain that 'Oh, he has huge taunt on the board on turn 4', well boo hoo, pirate warrior can be SO agressive, that he could actually go through Soggoth on turn 4-5. Sure, he would lost the board, but come on, you won't always have that card on turn 4-5, that's one. Two pirate warrior is almost always on the winning spot by that turn against control.
So well, I just think that there should be a real option to counter such an aggressive play. And no, I don't exactly mean free Soggoth on turn 4 ;) Just real, consistent counter play, since pirate warrior is really fast, really consistent. I have a positive win ratio against this deck, but still, I just feel like every single win was just pure luck, because I managed to draw aoe and Reno, so 2-3 very specific cards from my deck, while for pirate warrior almost every draw is good.
I feel in the mood of writing a little wall of text so I'll join too....
Best Designed
Kazakus:I think we can all agree that this card is one if not the best designed cards Team 5 ever thought of.... The possibilities are just endless.... You can end up transforming into 1/1s a full board of Jade Golems while summoning back your minions or you can simply cast a 1 mana spell against Aggro to survive.... I just love this card,hopefully they won't let highlander Decks die when Reno rotates out....
Dirty Rat:Did I mention that I love screwing up my opponent's plans? This card is just amazing.... It's a decent body against Aggro (that might even end up negating a good battlecry like Finley) and it opens up a lot of combos against Control.....
Second-Rate Bruiser:At first I thought "Ok it looks nice but nothing that gamebreaking" it turns out this card is better than I thought it was.... It's really good against Pirates and still a decent body in other MUs.... It's not Sludge Belcher but well I'll deal with it....
Unlicensed Apothecary:I really liked this card since the first time I saw it and crafted one for Renolock,as of today I've never been able to make use of it cause Aggro Decks are just too fast and too swarming for this card to work, but when more Midrange Decks will be played I think this card is gonna be really good... I can safely tap to make my Drake huge while this lone minion trades favorably for me.... Also it's cheap target for a big Shadowflame...
Devolve:I find it cool cause it somehow gives you the chance to interact with Stealthed minions (I know I'd be very pissed if my concealed Auctioneer got turned into a 5 drop) and do something while your board is Frozen....
Worst Designed
Jade Idol:Well I don't think there's much to say here.... If a card singlehandedly destroys an entire category of Decks and forces you to either face race or run some sort of combo to a chance of winning it should be changed....
Patches the Pirate: I see this card as Mad Scientist little's brother,not as broken as him but not that much better..... Let's leave aside whether I like the kind of Decks his played in, this card is just stupid.... It basically reads "Draw a 1/1 with Charge that costs 0 mana and put it on the board"... Unless you draw it on turn 1 it's as if your Deck had 29 cards,it might sound trivial but it makes a pretty big difference especially when you can't afford to draw dead cards....
Small-Time Buccaneer:You think they learned from their mistakes and stopped releasing potentially snowballing 1 drops but no they had to do it again,as if Tunnel Trogg and Mana Wyrm weren't annoying enough they made this thing and it's Neutral.... Was it too difficult to make it "has plus 2 attack while you have a Weapon and Pirate on the board"!? Or it could've just been a 2/2 with a weapon equipped.....
Backstreet Leper/Toxic Sewer Ooze:Why would you ever make a card that you know for sure it's not ever gonna see play cause a better version of it exists already?
Drakonid Operative:Ok I get it's a class card. I get that it's a Priest class card so I'll get over the fact it's a 5/6 for 5 mana with a pretty good battlecry but why on earth did this thing need to have Dragon tag? I already think that having the chance of looking at your opponent's Deck while putting a body on the board isn't really that fair,let alone getting a copy of one of their cards,but half the time you get more copies of it and it activates the other synergies.... I think that's a little too much for just one card.....
1. Dirty Rat. Very obvious. Before the MSG release i didn't believe in practical strength of this card, and he is truly amazing. Nuff said.
2. Manic Soulcaster . Art is truly fantastic, and card mechanic is also pretty strong not only in Reno Mage, but in Control Mage too. You can shuffle your Ethereal Conjurers and Kabal Couriers again and again. Despite some other card, that i don't like in design, this deck size increase tool is fair and interesting.
3.Finders Keepers . Yeah, you can say, come on, it is worse Raven Idol. And you're not right. This card discovers a specific card, which is by default synergized with shaman overload mechanic. As a Druid, you can discover Soul of the Forest, when playing Malygos Deck. Or Moonfire, when playing Token Druid. If you are playing Malygos Shaman especially in Wild, every single overload card that you will find from Finders Keepers is insanely synergized. And it costs 1, which enables Gadgetzan Auctioneer synergy too.
4. Unlicensed Apothecary . Interesting card in Control Warlock, which trades 2 for 1, and it's better than Pit Lord in infinity times. Nice drawback for insane stats. Really good card.
5. Finja, the Flying Star . It is really good that Finja is awesome in Murloc Paladin deck and in Anyfin Paladin too. Great card, which adds draw to all murloc decks, not only shamans. And synergy with Murloc Warleader may be broken, but it's nuts.
The worst designed cards:
1. Mayor Noggenfogger. Another RNG-related lose-more card, pray to RNJesus, our lord and saviour, and so on. BrokeBack.
2. Jade Idol. Infinite value for 1 mana. N-n-nice. Exactly what Druid needed (no). By itself this card destroyed another fatigue decks.
3. Hobart Grapplehammer. Too slow for face decks, too weak for midrange decks. Even if the effect is insane, card is in near of unplayablity.
4. Rat Pack Infested Wolf v2.0. Hunter got enough sticky minions. Really. This is enough. It was enough even in Karazhan with Kindly Grandmother. Now it is Infested Wolf for 3 mana with upside. And Infested Wolf was playable in every midrange hunter. Reprint with 0 fantasy.
5. Kabal Lackey . Mage doesn't need discount on secrets to play them from their hand. Mage just need better secrets than existing. Kirin Tor Mage is much, much better than this only because that fact, that Counterspell and Mirror Entity are much better on turn 3 than on turn 1. Another reprint with 0 fantasy. And this is worse than original.
Patches is interesting design, powerful but not game-ending - it forces greedy control decks to respect early aggression and tech for it. Making it a 0/2 wouldn't fix it, it would make it borderline unplayable.
Patches has absolutely no downsides at all unless he's the first pirate you draw, so he will never be unplayable. However, if he was more based on synergy instead of just being a totally unfair advantage just based on whether you draw him or not, he'd not be as bad for the game.
1. Dragonfire Potion: some people complain that this card sparing enemy dragons is a bad thing, and i say it's completely the opposite, it's a perfectly good thing, this AoE is already stronger than flamestrike, if it spared all your minions it'd be broken as hell, the fact that you can effectively play around this card is what allows it to be so damaging, if it nly spared friendly dragons it'd probably have to be a 3 damage AoE, so it does what it has to do, it heavily punishes aggo and aggresive mid-range decks while not being that effective against control decks , this is by far the best thought card of the set
2.Krul the Unshackled: enables some interesting deck building in both standard and wild witohut breaking anything while still having the potential to be game winning if you worked for it during the game, like Anyfin Can Happen.
3. Small-Time Buccaneer: this might be surprising to many people but he's not a 1 mana 3/2 he is a 1 mana 1/2 period, he reaches 3/2 wih either Rusty Hook, Fiery War Axe or rogue's hero power so he's effectively a 3/2 with an expenditure of 2 or 3 mana, he makes a previously long forgotten tribe viable and if patches didn't exist we would have nothing to complain about this guy., and did you see the Dragon warriors in last weekend's esport superstar tournaments, they were Dragon/murloc/beast/ Pirate warriors, this is what i was talking about about archetypes being able to be combined to create greater and whackier things, even without patches this card would probably make it into those lists.
4. Auctionmaster Beardo: Spikes will disagree with me a lot in this one, but spikes are super unfun people and many of them are super self-entitled though, Beardo as Krul allows for interesting deck building possibilities that were previously not possible, our fellow priest players have already shown this guy's potential in a Raza deck but it doesn't stop there, miracle mage with Freezing Potion, the 1 mana spells and Maiden of the Lake, anyone?, maybe add in Justicar Trueheart and Fallen Hero to the mix, it may not enable the next broken thing but it surely has fun possibilities.
5.Small-Time Recruits: tutor effect that allows you to search for either combo pieces or a particular card or cards you want to get from your deck, i mean weasel paladin might not be a deck ever but this card will eventually be cool,
i wanted to add so many cards in here, weasel tunneler, Kun the forgotten king, kazakus, raza, shaku, lotus assassin, seadevil stinger, red mana wyrm, dopplegangster, grook fu master, this expansion has so many amazing cards so i'll leave them as honorable mentions .
Badly designed cards
Patches the Pirate i'll be the first to admit that i was one of the most excited people when this card was first revealed, as a former yugoh player i actually know how powerful it's to bring stuff from your deck to the battlefield (btw rescue cat will leave the forbidden list and become limited next january), but to be honest a card that is being able to be played from your deck for free without any effects associated to bringing him from your deck other than his own, during the early game is fairly broken, even yugioh devs (so far the most power creeped card game in history) would laugh their butts off at the idea of releasing such a card and keep in mind most of yugioh decks do play stuff from their decks right now, but effects must be used to play them from the deck, instead of them coming from the deck for free when a monster from X type is played and that's not the only exception if you show this card to any veteran tcg player that has never played hearthstone but has his experience in whatever other tcg he'd immediately deem the card as broken.
Toxic Sewer Ooze: there are way too many things wrong with this card , but i'll state the main reason for me to not like this card: weapon hate isn't exaclty a fun deck to build because it won't work against non-weapon classes, stacking effects is fun if your deck has a chance to work regardless of if your opponent is playing a type of card or not (see grimy goons or my previous example of sniper rogue)
White Eyes: he's basically another boring curvestone card, you could maybe play him in concede shamman with ancestral spirit and faceless manipulator to copy either him or the stone guardian but he's really just another curvestone card most of the time...
List of Worst Designed Cards (in no particular order):
1. Mayor Noggenfogger. Seriously, who the hell thought of this card. Just when I thought Yogg-Saron would go down in history as the most annoying RNG card, this guy comes out and the second he gets played the game just goes to such an unfun stalemate. He's as detrimental to the person who played him as the person trying to kill them, which is why he doesn't see much play, but he's still terribly designed.
2. Knuckles. I mean, Knuckles is a great card and all, don't get me wrong. I celebrated the moment I got him off a lucky pack and started climbing at lightning speed with my Midrange Hunter. But I can't help but feel bad for everyone I fight when I play him, because they have to just sit back knowing that a buffed Knuckles means their Taunts will be completely useless against my damage, and even if he didn't get any buffs he's still a threat that forces the enemy to use hard removal and not have an answer to my Highmanes. That is, unless it's a Priest who just Entombs the damn things. Still, being able to board clear and SMorc at the same time was not a good design idea.
3. Greater Arcane Missiles. I mean, the only case where this card is marginally good is just getting 9 damage face for 7 mana. Otherwise, if there's even one enemy minion on the board, Flamestrike just does this card's job for it. It's not even that powerful in Arena as far as I've seen.
4. Toxic Sewer Ooze. I thought WoG was going to be the expansion of filler cards, as a lot of them were just reversed versions of cards that already existed in game, but this piece of crap just takes the cake as an unplayable filler card. The stat line makes it easy to remove, and nobody is going to bother teching this thing against Pirate Warrior when Acidic Swamp Ooze is a superior card in every way, shape and form. Maybe except that Shaman deck someone made specifically as a counter to Pirate Warrior.
5. Brass Knuckles. I thought Blizzard would have learned their lesson from Tentacles for Arms last expansion-the only thing we care about on weapons are stats, not effects. Only real exception being Death's Bite because it triggers Enrages and Grim Patron. Then, we get this piece of crap with an attack value that's not gonna be useful against any minion your opponent plays on turn 4 most of the time, and an effect completely sub-par in comparison to all the other buff cards Warrior has. Another Warrior epic gone straight down the drain.
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Lets start with the best designed cards this expansion, cards i love playing AND playing against.
1. Kazakus
Kazakus is, imho the best designed card of this expansion. Blizzard really outdid themselves on this one. The reason I love playing him is because he is essentially three discover effects in one card. The potion you get is determined by three micro-decisions, and the fact that you can semi-reliably get the effect you want makes it even better. When your opponent plays him, you can try to predict what cost he chose, and to some extent what effects he got.
2. Dirty Rat
This may be a strange number two, but the fact that this card is the very soul of precise timing makes it almost top my list. Playing this card can both lose you the game and win it, sometimes decided at random, but against control, mostly decided by timing. When your opponent has played their small minions, but not the combo pieces, this card is insane, but pulling out a doomsayer at the wrong time is fatal. You can also play around this card by keeping your other minions in addition to your combo pieces, so it's usually your own fault if the rat pulls your leeroy or faceless (unless that bastard hit the 1/6 chance)
3. Raza the Chained
The card itself is not super fun, interesting or interactive, but the fact that it made reno priest viable without breaking the game makes it on the list for me. Reno priest is one of the most enjoyable decks to play/play against for me. Also, it enables some crazy combos with Auctionmaster Beardo and similiar cards.
4. Second-Rate Bruiser
A good tech card against aggro has been missing since we lost Zombie Chow, but i think blizz did it this time. The fact that it's a normal 4/5 with taunt makes it decent against control, but super good against aggro. This card promotes good deckbuilding and teching according to the meta, which is why i like it.
5. Kun the Forgotten King
This card is what's left of fun druid stuff. Imo, jades get boring really fast, as there's almost never any decisions to make. Kun makes for an epic combo with Aviana and opens up for user creativity when you pull it off. I've seen Brann C'thun, Brann Alextraza double North Sea Kraken, just a hand dump with Soggoth the Slitherer and facelesses in the lead... The feeling of playing this deck is almost like freeze mage, but even more behind early, with one huge swing turn. Of course, this deck is rightfully not that good, because it punishes control decks super hard while being really weak to aggro. Any deck that has matchups that are almost 90% winrate (or almost 10%) don't fit in the meta, but are still good as fun decks.
And so on to the negatives... Thanks Blizzard...
1. Jade Idol
Yes. This is number one. Not Patches. This. This card single handedly destroyed control warrior, all fatigue decks(mill rogue, fat warrior, fat druid, for those who still played it), and has a way too high winrate against reno decks and a low winrate against aggro. While i like the Jade mechanic, i dislike the infinite value aspect of the idol. The fact that so many decks are straight up unplayable because of one card is just bad for the game, I think.
Better version: 1 mana spell: Choose one: Summon a Jade Golem; or; Shuffle two Jade Shards into your deck. Jade Shards are cards that, when drawn, summons a Jade golem and draws another card(like Beneath the Grounds)
2. Small-Time Buccaneer
This card is either a 1 mana 1/2 or a 1 mana 3/2 and there's nothing you can do to affect it. Either the pirate player has a weapon or he does not. I thought Blizzard learned from how OP flame imp was, but i guess they didn't. Also, if not for Patches, this wouldn't be on the list, but also without this, Patches wouldn't be here (ok maybe he would). The two cards together is what's making pirates broken, and takes us back to the good old days of aggro curvestone.
Better version: Dunno. Just remove it imo. Maybe: 1 mana 1/1, Has +2/+1 when you have a weapon.
3. Patches the Pirate
Imagine a world in which all aggro players gets to start the game with a 1/1 on board, their opponent at 29 hp and with only 29 cards in their deck. That world is the one we're living in. Patches is by far the most essential aggro tool right now, as he only has one drawback, drawing him turn 1, which maybe happens 1 in 10 games at most. This means any aggro deck that doesn't play Patches is automatically at a disadvantage, rendering other aggro decks unplayable(ok maybe im overreacting but this card is bad for the game ok?)
Also, the best counter to Patches is Patches. Yea...
Better version: Same effect, but stats are 0/2. Makes you wanna play southsea captain or buffs, and a free 0/2 is way less broken than a free 1/1
4. Dragonfire Potion
This card is good for the game, but had so much more potential. If this was just straight up damage to all minions, I would love it, but as it is, the card is dependant on your opponent not playing dragons. Azure Drake and Twilight Drake are both dragons that regularly get played even in non-dragon decks, making the potion an unreliable board clear. The worst feeling is when you've got this card to clear the board, but your opponents Azure Drakes will survive because of a mechanic that was supposed to spare your own minions.
Better version: Only spares friendly dragons. (Need to nerf Drakonid Operative to make up for this buff tho, he can be a 5/5
5. Jade Swarmer
Uninteractivity at it's best. This card isn't broken or super frustrating, but the synergy with Unearthed Raptor makes it a curvestone card, where you just hope your opponent doesn't have the raptor, as very few meta decks can answer a 1/1 stealth turn 2. Making it tougher, but removing stealth would add some counterplay, as you could play around the raptor (like killing nerubian eggs in against old raptor rogue)
Better version: Stats to 1/2 or 1/3 non-stealth. I'm not a balancing expert. I think 1/2 is better though, as it would probably still see play, but not be super broken.
Please do tell if you agree or don't, feel free to criticize me if you disagree, and tell me if I forgot any cards. Thanks.
Just because you don't like Aggro doesn't mean patches is badly designed
Jade swarmer is completely fine IMO
and small time buccaneer is fine too Aggro cards doesn't equal poorly designed
Top 5 (or 7)
Bottom 5
Best designed cards, after Dirty Rat, are Drakonid Operative, Doppelgangster, and Wrathion. Honorable mention to Devolve.
I sort of like OP's list, but I think Drakonid Operative needs to be in the "ill-designed" list, instead of Jade Swarmer
I haven't tested Wrathion, but he seems to have some potential foir a "good design" card
My best 5:
- Kazakus - it's so creative and innovate. Very unique and in actual game it almost always gives you something really good. So must have card for Reno decks in my opinion
- Raza the Chained - second best legendary in the set (in my opinion) and definitely best Kabal legendary. At first I felt like 'why is it good? Free hero power? Useless...' but it's extremely powerful.
- Dirty Rat - I liked the card from the beginning. It's great against aggro - 2/6 body and brings out often only 1/1... can you tell me why is it bad again? Against anything else - breaks combo or enables Mind Control Tech. I love this card.
- Dragonfire Potion - finally good aoe removal for Priest
- Second-Rate Bruiser - at first I felt like this card is going to be pretty good but not special. It turns out that it works way better than I expected.
My worst 5 cards:
- Patches the Pirate - this card is just sick. 1/1 charge for 0 mana and your deck is one card slimmer... So Blizzard, if you do sick one mana drops I recommend 7 mana 4/10 taunt with elusive, that comes into play from your deck, when opponent plays second minion on the board... That kind of card would be exactly as sick for control decks as Patches is sick for aggro.
- Small-Time Buccaneer - just stop making one mana aggro cards, especially as great and agressive as this one. Maybe if pirate warrior wasn't a thing this wouldn't be so annoying. But it is, so this one is just way too good.
- Grimestreet Outfitter - maybe weird choise, because paladin with buffs is not that common, but when you run into it... omg. Idea is pretty cool, but I feel like it can go way too fast.
- Kabal Chemist - if it had better stats or discover a potion... this way it's just disappointing a bit. Not really bad (at least for arena, it's quite nice there actually), but disappointing.
- Krul the Unshackled - I must say that I kind of like this card, it's not that bad, idea is pretty cool and you don't have to rely on Leeroy Jenkins combo with this dude. But... what demons would you like to put on the board? I feel like taunt and those that have Ysera-like effect (by the end/start of turn), but we don't have those and we have only one taunt. So in my opinion it's not that this card itself is bad, it's just bad that it was introduced now, when we can't see Krul's full potential. Maybe cooler it would be gaining abilities from all friendly minions that died this game? Or just more good demons to work with this one ;)
You hope that Blizzard learned from how OP... Flame Imp was? The one-drop that most Zoo decks only played one of?
The pro-control bias is strong here. I'd argue Raza, although a good card, is boring design, and Kazakus, although definitely fun and interesting, offers way too much value - even the 1-mana spells are usually insane. Although I guess highlander decks need those insane value cards to compensate for their deckbuilding restriction, it makes for very swingy games, much like Reno himself - either you draw it in time and crush the opppnent, or you don't, and you're stuck with a subpar deck fishing for those payoff cards.
Patches is interesting design, powerful but not game-ending - it forces greedy control decks to respect early aggression and tech for it. Making it a 0/2 wouldn't fix it, it would make it borderline unplayable.
Now I do agree on many of your picks. Dirty Rat is strategically interesting and opens up design space, and Second-Rate Bruiser is elegant and effective as a tech card. Dragonfire Potion I'd call poor design, but for very different reasons. Jade Idol is interesting but way too effective at countering slow control. The real problem card when played with it, though, and it always comes down to this, is Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Free, repeatable card draw that your opponent cannot respond to will always break the game. The original nerf did nothing to the Goblin, it only slowed it down.
My personal tops :
Dirty Rat, for its skill-intensive design.
Small-Time Recruits, for granting card draw designed specifically for a struggling archetype.
Abyssal Enforcer, for bringing a simple, powerful and flavourful demon both to Arena and Ranked play.
Patches the Pirate, for giving decks an actual reason to play early-game aggression.
My worst...
Dragonfire Potion and Drakonid Operative for being blatant attempts to push Priest, while encouraging a simple curve deck when the design team had explicitly stated that they understood that what Priest fans liked was the trickiness of the class.
Don Han'cho, for being slow, and incredibly boring, especially compared to the other gang leaders.
Mayor Noggenfogger, for being the second coming of Nozdormu - fun, interesting effect stapled on an uninteresting body that comes way, way, way too late.
Counterfeit Coin, because it's the single most boring card in the game, and yet ends up playable.
Kind of, yeah. But also cards i hate playing myself, because of the lack of meaningful interaction.
I really don't understand the hate Counterfeit Coin is recieving. It is a great card that fits perfectly in Miracle and it also fits Rogue's identity of cheating, thieving, sneaking well. It is also the first card they have printed since League of Explorers that supports the archetype. Rogue has a burgle deck now, jade deck, and pirate tempo. Acting like they haven't been pushing those to death is flat out stupid. We get a coin and people act like it is bad design or too boring? Give me a break. Bad design is patches the pirate, small time buccaneer, don hancho, madam goya, mayor nogginfogger, krul, etc. All these cards have a 2 problems in common. They are either very bad and provide no synergy in a deck, or they are auto include in most decks even if they have little synergy. That is bad. Coin isn't an autoinclude in every deck, in fact it is usually only a one of in the decks that run it. Good card, we deserve it too because we got shadow rager.
Comments on cards already listed:
Krul the Unshackled works better in Wild with a better variety of demons.
Patches the Pirate has one of the best entrance animations of the game. By itself it's not too bad but how it helps Pirate decks with the other tools available to it is what makes it over the top. Perhaps taking away Charge will make this minion more palatable.
Kazakus Just love this card and so glad I got a golden one. Just enough RNG that you can't always craft the spell you want but more often than not helps you out a great deal. Combo with Brann but watch out for your time during the turn.
Raza the Chained Example of a great, well-balanced card. The ability rocks; but the Reno deck restriction nicely reduces its effectiveness.
Small-Time Buccaneer Even a drop to just +1 Attack would be a welcome change to this mistake of a card.
Dirty Rat I still haven't played this myself but I've seen it used against me to great effect. Screws battlecries and other strategies. Also combos with stuff like Mind Control Tech and most forms of mass removal. Smaller but better than Deathlord because it's cheaper, you choose when the minion enters the battlefield, and comes from your opponent's hand so it's not a variation of a free card draw.
Dependable loan sharks since 1960. We sink our teeth into every deal we make.
Jade Swarmer is the worst card in the game, because it has 2 swords and only 1 dmg. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!
I've no clue what I'm doing...
Dragonfire Potion is fine simply because it is in Priest, and one of the very few good cards Priest has to work with, it is strong but not broken and the design isn't bad.
Jade Swarmer is fine in my opinion. The Jade archetype as a whole is poorly designed and Cancerous, but Jade Swarmer as an individual card is fine.
Good: kazakus,patches,dirty rat
Bad: jade golems
I feel in the mood of writing a little wall of text so I'll join too....
Best Designed
Worst Designed
"この 先は 暗い 夜道 だけが も 知らない それでも信じて 進むんだ 星が その道 を 少し でも 照らしてくをるのを"
well, here is my list.
1. Dirty Rat. Very obvious. Before the MSG release i didn't believe in practical strength of this card, and he is truly amazing. Nuff said.
2. Manic Soulcaster . Art is truly fantastic, and card mechanic is also pretty strong not only in Reno Mage, but in Control Mage too. You can shuffle your Ethereal Conjurers and Kabal Couriers again and again. Despite some other card, that i don't like in design, this deck size increase tool is fair and interesting.
3.Finders Keepers . Yeah, you can say, come on, it is worse Raven Idol. And you're not right. This card discovers a specific card, which is by default synergized with shaman overload mechanic. As a Druid, you can discover Soul of the Forest, when playing Malygos Deck. Or Moonfire, when playing Token Druid. If you are playing Malygos Shaman especially in Wild, every single overload card that you will find from Finders Keepers is insanely synergized. And it costs 1, which enables Gadgetzan Auctioneer synergy too.
4. Unlicensed Apothecary . Interesting card in Control Warlock, which trades 2 for 1, and it's better than Pit Lord in infinity times. Nice drawback for insane stats. Really good card.
5. Finja, the Flying Star . It is really good that Finja is awesome in Murloc Paladin deck and in Anyfin Paladin too. Great card, which adds draw to all murloc decks, not only shamans. And synergy with Murloc Warleader may be broken, but it's nuts.
The worst designed cards:
1. Mayor Noggenfogger. Another RNG-related lose-more card, pray to RNJesus, our lord and saviour, and so on. BrokeBack.
2. Jade Idol. Infinite value for 1 mana. N-n-nice. Exactly what Druid needed (no). By itself this card destroyed another fatigue decks.
3. Hobart Grapplehammer. Too slow for face decks, too weak for midrange decks. Even if the effect is insane, card is in near of unplayablity.
4. Rat Pack Infested Wolf v2.0. Hunter got enough sticky minions. Really. This is enough. It was enough even in Karazhan with Kindly Grandmother. Now it is Infested Wolf for 3 mana with upside. And Infested Wolf was playable in every midrange hunter. Reprint with 0 fantasy.
5. Kabal Lackey . Mage doesn't need discount on secrets to play them from their hand. Mage just need better secrets than existing. Kirin Tor Mage is much, much better than this only because that fact, that Counterspell and Mirror Entity are much better on turn 3 than on turn 1. Another reprint with 0 fantasy. And this is worse than original.
Legend x1: 27th season - N'Zoth Rogue only.
my list is super different
Best designed
1. Dragonfire Potion: some people complain that this card sparing enemy dragons is a bad thing, and i say it's completely the opposite, it's a perfectly good thing, this AoE is already stronger than flamestrike, if it spared all your minions it'd be broken as hell, the fact that you can effectively play around this card is what allows it to be so damaging, if it nly spared friendly dragons it'd probably have to be a 3 damage AoE, so it does what it has to do, it heavily punishes aggo and aggresive mid-range decks while not being that effective against control decks , this is by far the best thought card of the set
2.Krul the Unshackled: enables some interesting deck building in both standard and wild witohut breaking anything while still having the potential to be game winning if you worked for it during the game, like Anyfin Can Happen.
3. Small-Time Buccaneer: this might be surprising to many people but he's not a 1 mana 3/2 he is a 1 mana 1/2 period, he reaches 3/2 wih either Rusty Hook, Fiery War Axe or rogue's hero power so he's effectively a 3/2 with an expenditure of 2 or 3 mana, he makes a previously long forgotten tribe viable and if patches didn't exist we would have nothing to complain about this guy., and did you see the Dragon warriors in last weekend's esport superstar tournaments, they were Dragon/murloc/beast/ Pirate warriors, this is what i was talking about about archetypes being able to be combined to create greater and whackier things, even without patches this card would probably make it into those lists.
4. Auctionmaster Beardo: Spikes will disagree with me a lot in this one, but spikes are super unfun people and many of them are super self-entitled though, Beardo as Krul allows for interesting deck building possibilities that were previously not possible, our fellow priest players have already shown this guy's potential in a Raza deck but it doesn't stop there, miracle mage with Freezing Potion, the 1 mana spells and Maiden of the Lake, anyone?, maybe add in Justicar Trueheart and Fallen Hero to the mix, it may not enable the next broken thing but it surely has fun possibilities.
5.Small-Time Recruits: tutor effect that allows you to search for either combo pieces or a particular card or cards you want to get from your deck, i mean weasel paladin might not be a deck ever but this card will eventually be cool,
i wanted to add so many cards in here, weasel tunneler, Kun the forgotten king, kazakus, raza, shaku, lotus assassin, seadevil stinger, red mana wyrm, dopplegangster, grook fu master, this expansion has so many amazing cards so i'll leave them as honorable mentions .
Badly designed cards
Patches the Pirate i'll be the first to admit that i was one of the most excited people when this card was first revealed, as a former yugoh player i actually know how powerful it's to bring stuff from your deck to the battlefield (btw rescue cat will leave the forbidden list and become limited next january), but to be honest a card that is being able to be played from your deck for free without any effects associated to bringing him from your deck other than his own, during the early game is fairly broken, even yugioh devs (so far the most power creeped card game in history) would laugh their butts off at the idea of releasing such a card and keep in mind most of yugioh decks do play stuff from their decks right now, but effects must be used to play them from the deck, instead of them coming from the deck for free when a monster from X type is played and that's not the only exception if you show this card to any veteran tcg player that has never played hearthstone but has his experience in whatever other tcg he'd immediately deem the card as broken.
Greater Arcane Missiles: i can't actually find an use for this card,none, nothing, nada, Summoning Stone shenanigans?? Maybe if it was 6 mana, but at 7 mana i'd rather use Firelands Portal or Flamestrike with the stone,
Wind-up Burglebot having a mech tag makes it somewhat interesting but tbh, this is not an effect that's unheard off nor a card you can build a deck around, hell at least Gadgetzan Ferryman allowed me to build a janky sniper rogue using, Elven Archer, Ironforge Rifleman, Blowgill Sniper, Disciple of C'Thun, Shadowcaster, Stormpike Commando,Brann Bronzebeard and Nightblade to use and recycle ping effects), burglebot in the other hand doesn't exactly add anything to any kind of deck,
Toxic Sewer Ooze: there are way too many things wrong with this card , but i'll state the main reason for me to not like this card: weapon hate isn't exaclty a fun deck to build because it won't work against non-weapon classes, stacking effects is fun if your deck has a chance to work regardless of if your opponent is playing a type of card or not (see grimy goons or my previous example of sniper rogue)
White Eyes: he's basically another boring curvestone card, you could maybe play him in concede shamman with ancestral spirit and faceless manipulator to copy either him or the stone guardian but he's really just another curvestone card most of the time...
List of Worst Designed Cards (in no particular order):
1. Mayor Noggenfogger. Seriously, who the hell thought of this card. Just when I thought Yogg-Saron would go down in history as the most annoying RNG card, this guy comes out and the second he gets played the game just goes to such an unfun stalemate. He's as detrimental to the person who played him as the person trying to kill them, which is why he doesn't see much play, but he's still terribly designed.
2. Knuckles. I mean, Knuckles is a great card and all, don't get me wrong. I celebrated the moment I got him off a lucky pack and started climbing at lightning speed with my Midrange Hunter. But I can't help but feel bad for everyone I fight when I play him, because they have to just sit back knowing that a buffed Knuckles means their Taunts will be completely useless against my damage, and even if he didn't get any buffs he's still a threat that forces the enemy to use hard removal and not have an answer to my Highmanes. That is, unless it's a Priest who just Entombs the damn things. Still, being able to board clear and SMorc at the same time was not a good design idea.
3. Greater Arcane Missiles. I mean, the only case where this card is marginally good is just getting 9 damage face for 7 mana. Otherwise, if there's even one enemy minion on the board, Flamestrike just does this card's job for it. It's not even that powerful in Arena as far as I've seen.
4. Toxic Sewer Ooze. I thought WoG was going to be the expansion of filler cards, as a lot of them were just reversed versions of cards that already existed in game, but this piece of crap just takes the cake as an unplayable filler card. The stat line makes it easy to remove, and nobody is going to bother teching this thing against Pirate Warrior when Acidic Swamp Ooze is a superior card in every way, shape and form. Maybe except that Shaman deck someone made specifically as a counter to Pirate Warrior.
5. Brass Knuckles. I thought Blizzard would have learned their lesson from Tentacles for Arms last expansion-the only thing we care about on weapons are stats, not effects. Only real exception being Death's Bite because it triggers Enrages and Grim Patron. Then, we get this piece of crap with an attack value that's not gonna be useful against any minion your opponent plays on turn 4 most of the time, and an effect completely sub-par in comparison to all the other buff cards Warrior has. Another Warrior epic gone straight down the drain.