We gave the community five options: 'Meta defining', 'Very good', 'Playable', 'Bad' and 'Dust it!'. We then gave those options a value of 100, 75, 50, 25 and 0 and divided the result by the total amount of votes resulting in the following
Doomcaller is a genius move for a C'Thun deck, because you can even play it, get it killed, and then resurrected for more C'Thuns... or if your opponent is priest, sue it as a buff, because Entomb.
Master of Evolution because at the very worst is a Chillwind Yeti, but most of the times also gives a massive advantage with the minion upgrade.
Just as I felt Boom and Elise were being underrated at the time, I have this huge feeling that both the new Hogger and the simple and straightforward Bog Creeper are both being extremely underrated in this expansion. Can't wait to get my hands on the new cards to try them myself.
I agree that Bog Creeper looks very strong. It loses no stat points compared to War Golem, it has a better stat distribution, it can't be BGH'd, and it has taunt. I wouldn't be surprised if it made some constructed lists.
EDIT: I didn't realize that HearthPwn was making a compendium of all the Old Gods cards because I made a spreadsheet with all the legendaries a couple days ago.
I think Y'Shaarj is VERY underrated. For 10 mana you are guaranteed a 10/10 and another minion. Even without triggering the end of the turn effects, getting a ragnaros is still preeeeetty goood.
I'll say Renounce Darkness. This card is either insane or terrible, but there are a lot of ways to make it work in theory. I've been theorycrafting with the card a bit lately and I'm actually really intrigued by it's potential to replace your early game with higher value cards.
Edit: Whoops, meant to post on a different thread haha. Point still stands, I think Renounce Darkness was underrated by the community at large.
I get your point, but if a combo requires more than 10 mana (so it can't be played in one turn), it is not great. Yes you can always play Innervate but then, it requires 3 cards which is also bad.
Many of the safe cards I agree with here. I do however diagree with Call of the Wild being so low, it's a card so over stated, has great synergy and good by itself it will be the sole card that defines if slow hunter decks even exist. 67 is an insult rating as it belongs in the 80s categories easily imo.
Doomcaller has a place vs mill and in some control mirrors, but he seams useless if C'Thun is transformed or entombed. Maybe if he had taunt he'd be insane but he's just situational and perhaps rated highly solely for his C'Thun mirror match advantage. I'd prefer to see him more in the lower 70s which is still very good.
Another card i find being hyped way to much for my taste is Fandral Staghelm. He doesn't do anythign on his own being worse than a yeti, is very easy to remove from the board, he requires specfic druid cards to combo (many not particularly good) and cannot combo without 3+ card assistance with nerfed Ancient of Lore nor Ancient of War (and if anyone ran it, Wisps of the Old Gods). I see some value plays with Raven Idol, Druid of the Flame 5/5 for 3 and Druid of the Saber as a 3 attack charge but his very late game interaction with merge cards such as a 4/6 charge Druid of the Claw or clunky Starfall as both an aoe and single target for 5 on 9 requiring specific conditions to be met feels underwhelming. I imagine Fandral will be thrown aside or teched in C'Thun druid as it'll probably be the popular archtype deck for druids.
Bog Creeper should be among the top neutral non-C'Thun commons higher in the playable bracket. at 51 he deserves to be tied with or above the Psych-O-Tron at 60.
For the old gods, my opinion is that aside from the obvious power house that is C'Thun who rightfully deserves his spot at number 1, the rest aren't really taken into careful consideration.N'Zoth, the Corruptor as far as constructed goes is gravely over estimated as his best synergy cards rotate out with Naxx and GvG. Sylvanas Windrunner, Tirion Fordring and Savannah Highmane are really the only value cards worth returning on turn 10. Not having a taunt effect doesn't count as board impact. He's not awful but the cards to support the card aren't really up to snuff against C'Thun so I'd prefer to see him drop about 10 points out of lack of synergy to just solid card you can build a deck around. I'm hard pressed to think he's meta defining.
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is also under valued; while I wouldn't put him in the particularly good category he is actually quite amazing statistically but requiring a deck to be built around him makes him quite average and playable but not great. 47 is low for Yogg, maybe 55 to 60 would be a comfortable spot for him but he'll require testing to prove as he's so complicated and varing he's hard to throughly understand without extensive play testing.
Finally Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound ... There isn't much to say, he isn't stellar but after the community hype for Varian Wrynn eroding to disappointment I feel this card much like Hogger, Doom of Elwynn is under valued because of his similar feeling to the disappointment to Troggzor the Earthinator they are both evaluated in a negative light. Varian was a 7/7 who didn't guarantee minion presence, was put in a class that likes to fatigue and over commit the board to AoE. Varian was unanimously predicted to be the best Legend of TGT. Y'Shaarj is neutral meaning any suitable class can run it to pull big minions out, he's a 10/10 instead of a 7/7 which is great, always pulls a minion unlike Varian who might just draw you 3 cards, only puts 2 bodies on the board to set up pressure but resist AoE and is a recurring threat. He's not amazing similar to how slow we discovered Varian was, but with some large taunt minions, Y'Shaarj is a force to be reckoned with, perhaps working as a nightmare in druid decks. Both Hogger and Y'Shaarj have more player control involved and offer better conditions to be meet for their advantage to their weaker previous counter parts. A slight increase to both of their values to the average level of around 50 would be more realistic.
Many of the safe cards I agree with here. I do however diagree with Call of the Wild being so low, it's a card so over stated, has great synergy and good by itself it will be the sole card that defines if slow hunter decks even exist. 67 is an insult rating as it belongs in the 80s categories easily imo.
Doomcaller has a place vs mill and in some control mirrors, but he seams useless if C'Thun is transformed or entombed. Maybe if he had taunt he'd be insane but he's just situational and perhaps rated highly solely for his C'Thun mirror match advantage. I'd prefer to see him more in the lower 70s which is still very good.
Another card i find being hyped way to much for my taste is Fandral Staghelm. He doesn't do anythign on his own being worse than a yeti, is very easy to remove from the board, he requires specfic druid cards to combo (many not particularly good) and cannot combo without 3+ card assistance with nerfed Ancient of Lore nor Ancient of War (and if anyone ran it, Wisps of the Old Gods). I see some value plays with Raven Idol, Druid of the Flame 5/5 for 3 and Druid of the Saber as a 3 attack charge but his very late game interaction with merge cards such as a 4/6 charge Druid of the Claw or clunky Starfall as both an aoe and single target for 5 on 9 requiring specific conditions to be met feels underwhelming. I imagine Fandral will be thrown aside or teched in C'Thun druid as it'll probably be the popular archtype deck for druids.
Bog Creeper should be among the top neutral non-C'Thun commons higher in the playable bracket. at 51 he deserves to be tied with or above the Psych-O-Tron at 60.
For the old gods, my opinion is that aside from the obvious power house that is C'Thun who rightfully deserves his spot at number 1, the rest aren't really taken into careful consideration.N'Zoth, the Corruptor as far as constructed goes is gravely over estimated as his best synergy cards rotate out with Naxx and GvG. Sylvanas Windrunner, Tirion Fordring and Savannah Highmane are really the only value cards worth returning on turn 10. Not having a taunt effect doesn't count as board impact. He's not awful but the cards to support the card aren't really up to snuff against C'Thun so I'd prefer to see him drop about 10 points out of lack of synergy to just solid card you can build a deck around. I'm hard pressed to think he's meta defining.
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is also under valued; while I wouldn't put him in the particularly good category he is actually quite amazing statistically but requiring a deck to be built around him makes him quite average and playable but not great. 47 is low for Yogg, maybe 55 to 60 would be a comfortable spot for him but he'll require testing to prove as he's so complicated and varing he's hard to throughly understand without extensive play testing.
Finally Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound ... There isn't much to say, he isn't stellar but after the community hype for Varian Wrynn eroding to disappointment I feel this card much like Hogger, Doom of Elwynn is under valued because of his similar feeling to the disappointment to Troggzor the Earthinator they are both evaluated in a negative light. Varian was a 7/7 who didn't guarantee minion presence, was put in a class that likes to fatigue and over commit the board to AoE. Varian was unanimously predicted to be the best Legend of TGT. Y'Shaarj is neutral meaning any suitable class can run it to pull big minions out, he's a 10/10 instead of a 7/7 which is great, always pulls a minion unlike Varian who might just draw you 3 cards, only puts 2 bodies on the board to set up pressure but resist AoE and is a recurring threat. He's not amazing similar to how slow we discovered Varian was, but with some large taunt minions, Y'Shaarj is a force to be reckoned with, perhaps working as a nightmare in druid decks. Both Hogger and Y'Shaarj have more player control involved and offer better conditions to be meet for their advantage to their weaker previous counter parts. A slight increase to both of their values to the average level of around 50 would be more realistic.
You, sir, make very good points. I agree that Call of the Wild is a haymaker (come on, Reckless Rocketeer, Evil Heckler and a random 2/4 beast threatens life totals, can be used to clear one threat and fight for board control, and is just pure value in grindy matchups - it's not great against aggro because it's too little too late, but it's definitely a great card otherwise, which slots in a proven strategy, Midrange Hunter) and should be in a higher bracket, and that Bog Creeper is very valuable as a neutral Ancient of War. I am also a huge fan of Yogg-Saron, Hope's End and I think he has a very definite shot at constructed viability.
Fandral Staghelm, however, is a card that is obviously going to see play (as long as Druid is actually played) and clearly belongs in the higher bracket. People dream of comboing it with big stupid minions, and there are so many who say that you have to build around it, which is simply not that true - all Druid lists already play 2 Wrath, 2 Living Roots, 2 Druid of the Claw, 2 Keeper of the Grove (and I expect they'll still run 1 even post-nerf), and I imagine Mire Keeper will be played as well, which already provides solid value and incremental advantage. It is not hard to think of at the very least slightly tweaking lists to include a few nice underplayed cards - Starfall, Ancient of War and Cenarius, for example, that would punish players who can't or won't remove it instantly from play. If you want to go deep, it becomes extremely valuable in a token / Violet Teacher list, where it turns Raven Idol in the most efficient card draw in the game and grants value to Power of the Wild, two key cards in those.
All in all, it amounts to a not-so-easily dealt with statline (there's a reason Sen'jin Shieldmasta sees on-and-off constructed play), on a somewhat cheap card that you have to remove instantly or suffer the consequences. The relatively low cost makes it possible to combo it with one or even multiple low-cost spells for a big swing turn, but it's not even necessary to make it threatening. It may not be the flashiest legendary, but it's a value engine, much like Mechwarper, Violet Teacher or Gadgetzan Auctioneer, that requires very little deck-building concessions, which, in my book, is the very essence of meta-defining.
Other than some C'Thun synergy cards (which probably won't all see play - at some point, there is next to no difference between a 16/16 or 18/18 or 22/22 C'Thun), I'd argue the most overrated card by the community is the Faceless Summoner. Sure, it's great value, and it's a very good arena pick, but I don't think it will make the cut in many mage lists, let alone become a meta-defining staple. Freeze combo lists will not play it, Tempo spellslinging lists will not play it - only some kind of midrange / board control Mage would want it, if there is ever such a deck.
Against aggro decks, a six-drop that costs you an entire turn has to help you survive, which this can't reliably do. A big pile of stats on two bodies without taunt won't help against swarms of charging small minions or Doomhammer. Against control decks, the card has no resilience - both bodies will be swept up in a board wipe, or get eaten by bigger threats, and leave nothing behind. It can, as such, only work against midrange decks.
Which means it's an okay card, that only works in one archetype (which currently is very uncommon for Mage), against one other archetype, sometimes, and competes with other cards that provide resilience, card advantage or threaten to take over the game, in a mana slot where you won't be packing much more than 2 or 3 cards. Outside arena, I really don't think this will see much play (and I am prepared to get humiliated publicly if it does become a meta-defining staple and spawns a new board control and value grinding Mage deck).
Demented Frostcaller, on the other hand, functions much better than its evaluation suggests. It helps against aggro by adding value on your removal spells, can slow down big threats or weapon-based classes, and could slot in very well in an already well-established archetype. It's not criminally underrated (I don't think it's meta-defining), but deserves better than falling below Spreading Madness, Midnight Drake or Spawn of N'Zoth.
Evolved Kobold as bottom 5? This is the most underrated card in the set. It belongs in the middle somewhere.
People rated this card so lowly because you're paying 4 mana for a 2/2. However, can you think of a deck that cares more about getting a OTK from spell damage than the state of the board? Perhaps a deck with a lot of cheap damage spells?
This could be a 1 of in freeze mage. If Hallazeal makes control shaman a thing, then this would help that deck greatly. Maybe even in rogue, since Rogue AOE is so weak.
I'm not saying its an auto-include in any deck, but DEFINITELY not bottom 5.
Evolved Kobold as bottom 5? This is the most underrated card in the set. It belongs in the middle somewhere.
People rated this card so lowly because you're paying 4 mana for a 2/2. However, can you think of a deck that cares more about getting a OTK from spell damage than the state of the board? Perhaps a deck with a lot of cheap damage spells?
This could be a 1 of in freeze mage. If Hallazeal makes control shaman a thing, then this would help that deck greatly. Maybe even in rogue, since Rogue AOE is so weak.
I'm not saying its an auto-include in any deck, but DEFINITELY not bottom 5.
I mean, the community missed on a lot of things, but we will have to just wait for the set to come out first.
I believe Y'Shaarj and Yogg-Saron are undervalued and can be bright spots in some interesting decks. I will definitely try out Astral Druid with Y'Shaarj and miracle rogue with Yogg tomorrow
I think C'Thun is pretty overrated, so far I've quickly dispatched any C'thun deck i have come across before he could even see play and I'm not that good :P
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Whispers of the Old Gods Compendium - The Expansion as Rated by the Community
How are the scores calculated?
We gave the community five options: 'Meta defining', 'Very good', 'Playable', 'Bad' and 'Dust it!'. We then gave those options a value of 100, 75, 50, 25 and 0 and divided the result by the total amount of votes resulting in the following
doomcaller over emperor? LUL
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Doomcaller is bizarrely overrated. It's a cool card, but with a very niche use.
Interesting read, thank you.
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I think Y'Shaarj is VERY underrated. For 10 mana you are guaranteed a 10/10 and another minion. Even without triggering the end of the turn effects, getting a ragnaros is still preeeeetty goood.
I'll say Renounce Darkness. This card is either insane or terrible, but there are a lot of ways to make it work in theory. I've been theorycrafting with the card a bit lately and I'm actually really intrigued by it's potential to replace your early game with higher value cards.
Edit: Whoops, meant to post on a different thread haha. Point still stands, I think Renounce Darkness was underrated by the community at large.
My custom Expansion: Wrath of The Lich King
Darkshire Librarian at #29?
I'm telling you right here, that card will be good.
doomcaller is the most overrated card on this list
Many of the safe cards I agree with here. I do however diagree with Call of the Wild being so low, it's a card so over stated, has great synergy and good by itself it will be the sole card that defines if slow hunter decks even exist. 67 is an insult rating as it belongs in the 80s categories easily imo.
Doomcaller has a place vs mill and in some control mirrors, but he seams useless if C'Thun is transformed or entombed. Maybe if he had taunt he'd be insane but he's just situational and perhaps rated highly solely for his C'Thun mirror match advantage. I'd prefer to see him more in the lower 70s which is still very good.
Another card i find being hyped way to much for my taste is Fandral Staghelm. He doesn't do anythign on his own being worse than a yeti, is very easy to remove from the board, he requires specfic druid cards to combo (many not particularly good) and cannot combo without 3+ card assistance with nerfed Ancient of Lore nor Ancient of War (and if anyone ran it, Wisps of the Old Gods). I see some value plays with Raven Idol, Druid of the Flame 5/5 for 3 and Druid of the Saber as a 3 attack charge but his very late game interaction with merge cards such as a 4/6 charge Druid of the Claw or clunky Starfall as both an aoe and single target for 5 on 9 requiring specific conditions to be met feels underwhelming. I imagine Fandral will be thrown aside or teched in C'Thun druid as it'll probably be the popular archtype deck for druids.
Bog Creeper should be among the top neutral non-C'Thun commons higher in the playable bracket. at 51 he deserves to be tied with or above the Psych-O-Tron at 60.
For the old gods, my opinion is that aside from the obvious power house that is C'Thun who rightfully deserves his spot at number 1, the rest aren't really taken into careful consideration.N'Zoth, the Corruptor as far as constructed goes is gravely over estimated as his best synergy cards rotate out with Naxx and GvG. Sylvanas Windrunner, Tirion Fordring and Savannah Highmane are really the only value cards worth returning on turn 10. Not having a taunt effect doesn't count as board impact. He's not awful but the cards to support the card aren't really up to snuff against C'Thun so I'd prefer to see him drop about 10 points out of lack of synergy to just solid card you can build a deck around. I'm hard pressed to think he's meta defining.
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is also under valued; while I wouldn't put him in the particularly good category he is actually quite amazing statistically but requiring a deck to be built around him makes him quite average and playable but not great. 47 is low for Yogg, maybe 55 to 60 would be a comfortable spot for him but he'll require testing to prove as he's so complicated and varing he's hard to throughly understand without extensive play testing.
Finally Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound ... There isn't much to say, he isn't stellar but after the community hype for Varian Wrynn eroding to disappointment I feel this card much like Hogger, Doom of Elwynn is under valued because of his similar feeling to the disappointment to Troggzor the Earthinator they are both evaluated in a negative light. Varian was a 7/7 who didn't guarantee minion presence, was put in a class that likes to fatigue and over commit the board to AoE. Varian was unanimously predicted to be the best Legend of TGT. Y'Shaarj is neutral meaning any suitable class can run it to pull big minions out, he's a 10/10 instead of a 7/7 which is great, always pulls a minion unlike Varian who might just draw you 3 cards, only puts 2 bodies on the board to set up pressure but resist AoE and is a recurring threat. He's not amazing similar to how slow we discovered Varian was, but with some large taunt minions, Y'Shaarj is a force to be reckoned with, perhaps working as a nightmare in druid decks. Both Hogger and Y'Shaarj have more player control involved and offer better conditions to be meet for their advantage to their weaker previous counter parts. A slight increase to both of their values to the average level of around 50 would be more realistic.
VS
Fandral Staghelm, however, is a card that is obviously going to see play (as long as Druid is actually played) and clearly belongs in the higher bracket. People dream of comboing it with big stupid minions, and there are so many who say that you have to build around it, which is simply not that true - all Druid lists already play 2 Wrath, 2 Living Roots, 2 Druid of the Claw, 2 Keeper of the Grove (and I expect they'll still run 1 even post-nerf), and I imagine Mire Keeper will be played as well, which already provides solid value and incremental advantage. It is not hard to think of at the very least slightly tweaking lists to include a few nice underplayed cards - Starfall, Ancient of War and Cenarius, for example, that would punish players who can't or won't remove it instantly from play. If you want to go deep, it becomes extremely valuable in a token / Violet Teacher list, where it turns Raven Idol in the most efficient card draw in the game and grants value to Power of the Wild, two key cards in those.
All in all, it amounts to a not-so-easily dealt with statline (there's a reason Sen'jin Shieldmasta sees on-and-off constructed play), on a somewhat cheap card that you have to remove instantly or suffer the consequences. The relatively low cost makes it possible to combo it with one or even multiple low-cost spells for a big swing turn, but it's not even necessary to make it threatening. It may not be the flashiest legendary, but it's a value engine, much like Mechwarper, Violet Teacher or Gadgetzan Auctioneer, that requires very little deck-building concessions, which, in my book, is the very essence of meta-defining.
Other than some C'Thun synergy cards (which probably won't all see play - at some point, there is next to no difference between a 16/16 or 18/18 or 22/22 C'Thun), I'd argue the most overrated card by the community is the Faceless Summoner. Sure, it's great value, and it's a very good arena pick, but I don't think it will make the cut in many mage lists, let alone become a meta-defining staple. Freeze combo lists will not play it, Tempo spellslinging lists will not play it - only some kind of midrange / board control Mage would want it, if there is ever such a deck.
Against aggro decks, a six-drop that costs you an entire turn has to help you survive, which this can't reliably do. A big pile of stats on two bodies without taunt won't help against swarms of charging small minions or Doomhammer. Against control decks, the card has no resilience - both bodies will be swept up in a board wipe, or get eaten by bigger threats, and leave nothing behind. It can, as such, only work against midrange decks.
Which means it's an okay card, that only works in one archetype (which currently is very uncommon for Mage), against one other archetype, sometimes, and competes with other cards that provide resilience, card advantage or threaten to take over the game, in a mana slot where you won't be packing much more than 2 or 3 cards. Outside arena, I really don't think this will see much play (and I am prepared to get humiliated publicly if it does become a meta-defining staple and spawns a new board control and value grinding Mage deck).
Demented Frostcaller, on the other hand, functions much better than its evaluation suggests. It helps against aggro by adding value on your removal spells, can slow down big threats or weapon-based classes, and could slot in very well in an already well-established archetype. It's not criminally underrated (I don't think it's meta-defining), but deserves better than falling below Spreading Madness, Midnight Drake or Spawn of N'Zoth.
Evolved Kobold as bottom 5? This is the most underrated card in the set. It belongs in the middle somewhere.
People rated this card so lowly because you're paying 4 mana for a 2/2. However, can you think of a deck that cares more about getting a OTK from spell damage than the state of the board? Perhaps a deck with a lot of cheap damage spells?
This could be a 1 of in freeze mage. If Hallazeal makes control shaman a thing, then this would help that deck greatly. Maybe even in rogue, since Rogue AOE is so weak.
I'm not saying its an auto-include in any deck, but DEFINITELY not bottom 5.
C'Thun
I believe Y'Shaarj and Yogg-Saron are undervalued and can be bright spots in some interesting decks. I will definitely try out Astral Druid with Y'Shaarj and miracle rogue with Yogg tomorrow
Rank 4 Tempo Mage
I think C'Thun is pretty overrated, so far I've quickly dispatched any C'thun deck i have come across before he could even see play and I'm not that good :P
hmmmm :/
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