So, we have had GvG for almost a month. I think now is a good time to reflect on which cards that were greeted with a "meh" have turned out to be surprisingly good, and conversely which cards have failed to live up to their hype.
I'll start. I think the new Hunter cards have largely not lived up to expectations. Cards like Gahz'rilla, Feign Death and Steamwheedle Sniper were all greeted with much excitement (especially Feign Death, which many people thought would be OP), but decks incorporating these cards have turned out to be underwhelming and inferior to vanilla face Hunter decks. Very disappointing. A lot more work needs to be done to make control Hunter viable.
I think Unstable Portal has wildly exceeded expectations. It was seen as a gimmicky trash card when first announced (proof), but now it is a staple in every Mage deck, with some people calling for it to be nerfed.
Shieldmaiden is another card that was underrated before release, but there is a whole thread for that so I won't go into it.
Bolvar. That card was thought to be one of the worst cards in GvG among the majority. However people have shown it to be a much better card than originally thought. I at least think it was the most underrated cards Pre-GvG
People before GvG thought that it was good, but i dont really think people knew HOW good it would be, as there are people that are calling for a nerf. Similar to Undertaker, exept maybe the warper may not be as good as the Undertaker. :)
I disagree on that. Even before GvG dropped, people were predicting it to be the first card to be nerfed. I think Mech Warper has lived up to expectations.
I'd have to say Unstable Portal has exceeded expectations.
Troggzor and Dr. Boom fight over the 7 mana spot, with the edge going to Dr. Boom. Don't think either has really exceeded or failed to reach expectations.
I've only faced Bolvar a few times, but he has never been a problem haha. I'd say he is exactly what was expected of him.
I don't know if it defied expectations the most, but the Tinker's Sharpmaster Oil or whatever it's called has given rogues an insane burst combo. Rogues aren't played ever though haha, but I just figured it was worth an honorable mention.
I think Muster for Battle has exceeded expectations too. Everyone kinda thought it was just going to be a solid card, nothing too flashy or anything, but it gives control paladin a very good early-midgame strong play.
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Twitch name: Anatak15 NA Legend Season 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 74
Antique Healbot is probably my favorite. I have a mech mage deck I really like and that card saves me from some losses. I run it in almost every one of my decks though.
Feign death and Steamwheedle Sniper are pretty good in the spark's control hunter, this is way better for a control hunter than what existed before, you can not like it but it's still a viable deck to be legend.
The problem is that vanilla face Hunter still has a higher win rate than Spark's control Hunter. I've tried both; face Hunter wins more consistently for me. And even if you want to play control, other classes still do it way better (see: Priest and Warrior).
Sure, the cards might have made control Hunter more "viable", but it remains an inferior choice to other possible options, and that is what makes the cards disappointing.
Priest in general was over hyped like crazy. A lot of it has to do with the meta right now but priest does simply not perform well.
Shield Maiden exceeded expectations, so did Dr. Boom. Troggzor is not what people thought it would be.
While there were people crying that there would be a murloc rush and everything would be horrible, it simply didn't happen, just like Hobgoblin didn't happen.
While Murloc isn't a thing, Neptulon is and for good reason while a lot of people claimed it would be shit.
I have found Toshley to be a way better card than I imagined. For 6 mana, a 5/7 is nice, and those spare parts have really made a difference in a lot of matches (I play shaman).
Also, Dr Boom seems to be much more useful than people though. They didn't see him as a bad card, but not many saw the tempo swing that can be gained being so great.
I have seen a few Pallie Cobalt Guardian paired with Targetting dummy...lol! That actually makes it playable, though being a combo with both cards needed still keeps it mediocre.
As i wanted to point out, it may be disappointing for you, i did not expected more from those cards. In fact i did not expected most of the thing posters here said people were expecting.
This thread is about what the majority view was when the cards were first announced, though, not your own personal expectations. The point is to consider the ways in which the prevailing wisdom turned out to be wrong. If you look at the announcement threads for the Hunter cards, you will find that they were received with great fanfare.
I'll second Toshley. He has never failed to perform, even though I don't run him in many decks any more. He was my first GvG legendary, got him from the 3 free packs. :)
Anodized Robo Cub has surprised me, and is just behind Annoy-o-Tron in terms of forcing 2-for-1 trades in my experience.
Mech Priest itself may not be viable but I've also been pleasantly surprised by Shadowboxer and Upgraded Repair Bot. Both have served me well, especially the latter.
Annoy-o-tron. I feel it is in the same place as Sludge Belcher was when Naxx dropped - it's not quite in every deck, but I rarely go long without seeing the little guy.
Antique Healbot - when this card was spoiled, people cried that it was a very overpriced and underwhelming Earthren Ring Shaman. So far, it's been working fairly nice in handmage, handlock and other late game decks.
Shieldmaiden - same here. 5/5 body with a similar ability as the healbot with a twist (armor instead of life). It's working wonderfully in Control Warrior decks, allowing for some abuse of Shield Slam and also eating big removals that would menace end game drops.
Velen's Chosen - before the release, it was an overpriced minion enchant that would do a lot of stuff excelling at none of them. Now it transforms cheap minions into big ones and also allow for some nasty healing combos.
Seal of Light - before the release, it was the cheap removal spell that paladins needed for the early game. But, so far, very few consistent decks use this card.
quatermaster is one that i thought wasn't that good, though in my defense, i thought it made recruits 2/2's, not give them +2/2 stats. so brainfart on my part for a while.
Antique Healbot this was a big surprise to a lot of people. granted i played paladin so i was used to minions that healed. healbot just seemed like a weaker version of Guardian of Kings but i dare say healbot is a stronger guardian purely because it it costs 2 less and at 7 mana, you'd rather have other cards like Dr. Boom in that slot then him. at this point, id actually love to see guardian buffed to be a 6 cost, specially with Shieldmaiden being a 6 5/5 that gives armor. we all know how much stronger armor is then health in this game anyway.
Druid of the Fang this one surprised me. i thought we would see a lot of variety out of the druid class, with it having a beast varient but in the end, GVG didn't add many beasts to the game to make it worth it. Now granted, down the line I see beast druid having a lot of potential cause blizzard isn't gonna leave druid beast support at just this.
Echo of Medivh I still think this card is stupid broke, just that because of mage mech, no one really want to experiment with it, which is a shame in some ways.
Hobgoblin i thought this was gonna spawn hundreds of amazing low attack swarm decks. i still think its good but it is by now means an undertaker. granted, i still feel the card how huge potential, just not as a 1 card win condition so much as a way for decks with high value minions with 1 attack to have a way to make said 1 attack minions have more value in the mid-late game. ive been teching hobgoblin at one in some varients of warrior and it seems to work times, turning Armorsmith's, Unstable Ghoul's, and Acolyte of Pain's into Sen'jin Shieldmasta stats
Bolvar Fordragon There was even a much signed petition on this very site asking to change this card. Now, he isn;t exactly "the" bomb, but he is much better than given credit for at start.
Dr. Boom The biggest surprise to me. I wasn't happy when this was the only legendary in my initial 40 packs, but boy was i wrong. Best legendary of the set, with quite some distance too!
Neptulon Not by much, but it turns out that 4 murlocs give enough synergy without having to play a dedicated murloc deck. Still, his overload is quite large.
Shieldmaiden I thought the card to be quite mediocre but happily run two in my control warrior deck.
Velen's Chosen Just thought with all the good priest cards that exist this would never make the cut, but it is quite good. I currently run 2 but sometimes lack minions to target it with, so i guess having 1 in the deck is the sweet spot.
Now for the cards that are underperforming / are not so good as thought:
Feign Death The hate was strong with this one. For me prove that the masses who damned (and still damn) face hunter for being "OMG OP!" are generally the people who have very shallow knowledge of the game. It is always hard to recognize "win more" cards, but this one wasn't tbh.
One Velen's Chosen is indeed the sweet spot. If the minion with this buff sticks, it's generally gg/wp.
The funny thing is that ok, Dr. Boom is a reaaally good legendary, but the most "every-time-I-drop-it-they-give-up" card for me is Troggzor the Earthinator; rogue, mages, priests and even some warrior's can not deal with him without trading some good things or giving me something good in return ... I really like how he does in my control warrior with Dr. Boom
Mal'Ganis - I don't see Handlock running it anymore, and it just doesn't have the impact of Jaraxxus.
Sneed's Old Shredder - Others might still disagree, but Sneed's just hasn't had enough impact to compete with other 8-drop legendaries, except maybe in Control on Control MU's. Rag and Alex are still what you want to do with 8 mana.
Enhance-o Mechano - Obviously win-more to most at first glance, some were raging about it though, and of course it turns out to be win-more.
Hobgoblin - Who would have thought that filling your deck with 1-power minions is actually bad.
Lil' Exorcist and Scarlet Purifier - It turns out that the actual problem is Undertaker, not Webspinner. Wouldn't you know.
Jeeves - Aggro now plays this card, fills up, then finds out that the reason the Control deck was holding cards was because it was way further ahead than Aggro thought. And then gets even more ahead.
Recombobulator - Healing a Giant would be what Earthen Farseer does, except wait, Earthen Farseer's heal is used on the player 80% of the time in the first place.
Steamwheedle Sniper - Not sure if the card is bad or if it's just Hunters being used to running everything out immediately as they get the mana. Probably the second.
Cogmaster - People need to keep learning the same lessons in this game. Health is better than attack, each player's board usually trades down every turn, and so forth. And trading with a 2 drop is not hard for most 1-drops to do, see any card ever played at 1 mana.
Lightbomb - I think it was underestimated how much the bad Handlock matchup was holding back Control Priest, and now Handlocks everywhere are playing into this card.
Toshley - A 5/7 and a spare part for 6 mana is really good for some reason, and I'm not sure why.
Velen's Chosen - Was not expected to be the Arena powerhouse that it is. I think something less than Blessing of Kings was expected, but it ends up being an all-important card for Priest.
Iron Sensei - Probably ended up being the best Mech-matters card other than Mechwarper.
Unstable Portal - It turns out that when the upside of randomness far outweighs the downside, you end up with a really strong card.
Annoy-o-Tron - Taunt and Divine Shield, that's what you call keyword synergy, and the smaller body the better, evidently.
Shrinkmeister - Was expected to be a valuable card, and then wildly oversold even those expectations.
Dr. Boom - I'm not sure if it's because Boom is good or the existing 7 slot was very bad, but it turned out being the defining Legendary of the set.
Lil' Exorcist and Scarlet Purifier - It turns out that the actual problem is Undertaker, not Webspinner. Wouldn't you know.
I give you +1 for review. Some kind of funny for read, and mostly accurate.
Just about Scarlet Purifier . It's not bad card. It is not played because now paladin have big competition for 3 mana slot.Muster for Battle , Aldor Peacekeeper and Coghammer [/card] . You must kick one of those 3 fantastic cards to make a room for [card]Scarlet Purifier .
Now about card, i really, really like it. Sometime it kills all deathratle and trade with buffed Undertaker. Sometime it helps you finish Dark Cultist . And sometime.
Last game i have Sylvanas Windrunner opponent have buffed Lord Jaraxxus on board (5/17) and plays Antique Healbot to make my chances only 50% for steal. I hit Antique Healbot and kill my Sylvanas with Scarlet Purifier for game win.
Beside all that it is 4/3 for 3 mana, really good card. Too bad those days Big Game Hunter is must for paladin, and you can't have all those great 3 mana cards in deck.
Antique Healbot - no one expected it to be that good, basically every mid-range, control, tempo deck runs it. I've even seen it played in zoo/aggro decks.
I did. I advocated Antique Healbot over 5+ pages while other people kept telling me how awful it was, as it turns out it's an awesome 1 of that sees alot of play :)
I also predicted that Lil' Exorcist was gonna suck when everyone was like OMG BEST ANTI UNDERTAKER CARD EVAH!... but what do i know =P
So, we have had GvG for almost a month. I think now is a good time to reflect on which cards that were greeted with a "meh" have turned out to be surprisingly good, and conversely which cards have failed to live up to their hype.
I'll start. I think the new Hunter cards have largely not lived up to expectations. Cards like Gahz'rilla, Feign Death and Steamwheedle Sniper were all greeted with much excitement (especially Feign Death, which many people thought would be OP), but decks incorporating these cards have turned out to be underwhelming and inferior to vanilla face Hunter decks. Very disappointing. A lot more work needs to be done to make control Hunter viable.
I think Unstable Portal has wildly exceeded expectations. It was seen as a gimmicky trash card when first announced (proof), but now it is a staple in every Mage deck, with some people calling for it to be nerfed.
Shieldmaiden is another card that was underrated before release, but there is a whole thread for that so I won't go into it.
What do you guys think?
Bolvar. That card was thought to be one of the worst cards in GvG among the majority. However people have shown it to be a much better card than originally thought. I at least think it was the most underrated cards Pre-GvG
I disagree on that. Even before GvG dropped, people were predicting it to be the first card to be nerfed. I think Mech Warper has lived up to expectations.
I'd have to say Unstable Portal has exceeded expectations.
Troggzor and Dr. Boom fight over the 7 mana spot, with the edge going to Dr. Boom. Don't think either has really exceeded or failed to reach expectations.
I've only faced Bolvar a few times, but he has never been a problem haha. I'd say he is exactly what was expected of him.
I don't know if it defied expectations the most, but the Tinker's Sharpmaster Oil or whatever it's called has given rogues an insane burst combo. Rogues aren't played ever though haha, but I just figured it was worth an honorable mention.
I think Muster for Battle has exceeded expectations too. Everyone kinda thought it was just going to be a solid card, nothing too flashy or anything, but it gives control paladin a very good early-midgame strong play.
Twitch name: Anatak15
NA Legend Season 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 74
Antique Healbot is probably my favorite. I have a mech mage deck I really like and that card saves me from some losses. I run it in almost every one of my decks though.
Before every game I pray to little baby RNGesus
The problem is that vanilla face Hunter still has a higher win rate than Spark's control Hunter. I've tried both; face Hunter wins more consistently for me. And even if you want to play control, other classes still do it way better (see: Priest and Warrior).
Sure, the cards might have made control Hunter more "viable", but it remains an inferior choice to other possible options, and that is what makes the cards disappointing.
Priest in general was over hyped like crazy. A lot of it has to do with the meta right now but priest does simply not perform well.
Shield Maiden exceeded expectations, so did Dr. Boom. Troggzor is not what people thought it would be.
While there were people crying that there would be a murloc rush and everything would be horrible, it simply didn't happen, just like Hobgoblin didn't happen.
While Murloc isn't a thing, Neptulon is and for good reason while a lot of people claimed it would be shit.
I have found Toshley to be a way better card than I imagined. For 6 mana, a 5/7 is nice, and those spare parts have really made a difference in a lot of matches (I play shaman).
Also, Dr Boom seems to be much more useful than people though. They didn't see him as a bad card, but not many saw the tempo swing that can be gained being so great.
I have seen a few Pallie Cobalt Guardian paired with Targetting dummy...lol! That actually makes it playable, though being a combo with both cards needed still keeps it mediocre.
This thread is about what the majority view was when the cards were first announced, though, not your own personal expectations. The point is to consider the ways in which the prevailing wisdom turned out to be wrong. If you look at the announcement threads for the Hunter cards, you will find that they were received with great fanfare.
I'll second Toshley. He has never failed to perform, even though I don't run him in many decks any more. He was my first GvG legendary, got him from the 3 free packs. :)
Anodized Robo Cub has surprised me, and is just behind Annoy-o-Tron in terms of forcing 2-for-1 trades in my experience.
Mech Priest itself may not be viable but I've also been pleasantly surprised by Shadowboxer and Upgraded Repair Bot. Both have served me well, especially the latter.
Annoy-o-tron. I feel it is in the same place as Sludge Belcher was when Naxx dropped - it's not quite in every deck, but I rarely go long without seeing the little guy.
I'll let him speak for himself, though.
HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Antique Healbot - when this card was spoiled, people cried that it was a very overpriced and underwhelming Earthren Ring Shaman. So far, it's been working fairly nice in handmage, handlock and other late game decks.
Shieldmaiden - same here. 5/5 body with a similar ability as the healbot with a twist (armor instead of life). It's working wonderfully in Control Warrior decks, allowing for some abuse of Shield Slam and also eating big removals that would menace end game drops.
Velen's Chosen - before the release, it was an overpriced minion enchant that would do a lot of stuff excelling at none of them. Now it transforms cheap minions into big ones and also allow for some nasty healing combos.
Seal of Light - before the release, it was the cheap removal spell that paladins needed for the early game. But, so far, very few consistent decks use this card.
Velen's chosen has lived up to the expectations for it's use in Arena though.
quatermaster is one that i thought wasn't that good, though in my defense, i thought it made recruits 2/2's, not give them +2/2 stats. so brainfart on my part for a while.
Antique Healbot
this was a big surprise to a lot of people. granted i played paladin so i was used to minions that healed. healbot just seemed like a weaker version of Guardian of Kings but i dare say healbot is a stronger guardian purely because it it costs 2 less and at 7 mana, you'd rather have other cards like Dr. Boom in that slot then him. at this point, id actually love to see guardian buffed to be a 6 cost, specially with Shieldmaiden being a 6 5/5 that gives armor. we all know how much stronger armor is then health in this game anyway.
Druid of the Fang
this one surprised me. i thought we would see a lot of variety out of the druid class, with it having a beast varient but in the end, GVG didn't add many beasts to the game to make it worth it. Now granted, down the line I see beast druid having a lot of potential cause blizzard isn't gonna leave druid beast support at just this.
Echo of Medivh
I still think this card is stupid broke, just that because of mage mech, no one really want to experiment with it, which is a shame in some ways.
Hobgoblin
i thought this was gonna spawn hundreds of amazing low attack swarm decks. i still think its good but it is by now means an undertaker. granted, i still feel the card how huge potential, just not as a 1 card win condition so much as a way for decks with high value minions with 1 attack to have a way to make said 1 attack minions have more value in the mid-late game. ive been teching hobgoblin at one in some varients of warrior and it seems to work times, turning Armorsmith's, Unstable Ghoul's, and Acolyte of Pain's into Sen'jin Shieldmasta stats
One Velen's Chosen is indeed the sweet spot. If the minion with this buff sticks, it's generally gg/wp.
The funny thing is that ok, Dr. Boom is a reaaally good legendary, but the most "every-time-I-drop-it-they-give-up" card for me is Troggzor the Earthinator; rogue, mages, priests and even some warrior's can not deal with him without trading some good things or giving me something good in return ... I really like how he does in my control warrior with Dr. Boom
Do or do not. There is no try.
I would list :
Cards that disappointed:
Mal'Ganis - I don't see Handlock running it anymore, and it just doesn't have the impact of Jaraxxus.
Sneed's Old Shredder - Others might still disagree, but Sneed's just hasn't had enough impact to compete with other 8-drop legendaries, except maybe in Control on Control MU's. Rag and Alex are still what you want to do with 8 mana.
Enhance-o Mechano - Obviously win-more to most at first glance, some were raging about it though, and of course it turns out to be win-more.
Hobgoblin - Who would have thought that filling your deck with 1-power minions is actually bad.
Lil' Exorcist and Scarlet Purifier - It turns out that the actual problem is Undertaker, not Webspinner. Wouldn't you know.
Jeeves - Aggro now plays this card, fills up, then finds out that the reason the Control deck was holding cards was because it was way further ahead than Aggro thought. And then gets even more ahead.
Recombobulator - Healing a Giant would be what Earthen Farseer does, except wait, Earthen Farseer's heal is used on the player 80% of the time in the first place.
Steamwheedle Sniper - Not sure if the card is bad or if it's just Hunters being used to running everything out immediately as they get the mana. Probably the second.
Cogmaster - People need to keep learning the same lessons in this game. Health is better than attack, each player's board usually trades down every turn, and so forth. And trading with a 2 drop is not hard for most 1-drops to do, see any card ever played at 1 mana.
Cards that overperformed expectations:
Neptulon - It turns out 4 cards is a lot.
Lightbomb - I think it was underestimated how much the bad Handlock matchup was holding back Control Priest, and now Handlocks everywhere are playing into this card.
Toshley - A 5/7 and a spare part for 6 mana is really good for some reason, and I'm not sure why.
Tinker's Sharpsword Oil - Somehow way, way better than Cold Blood.
Velen's Chosen - Was not expected to be the Arena powerhouse that it is. I think something less than Blessing of Kings was expected, but it ends up being an all-important card for Priest.
Iron Sensei - Probably ended up being the best Mech-matters card other than Mechwarper.
Unstable Portal - It turns out that when the upside of randomness far outweighs the downside, you end up with a really strong card.
Annoy-o-Tron - Taunt and Divine Shield, that's what you call keyword synergy, and the smaller body the better, evidently.
Shrinkmeister - Was expected to be a valuable card, and then wildly oversold even those expectations.
Dr. Boom - I'm not sure if it's because Boom is good or the existing 7 slot was very bad, but it turned out being the defining Legendary of the set.
I give you +1 for review. Some kind of funny for read, and mostly accurate.
Just about Scarlet Purifier . It's not bad card. It is not played because now paladin have big competition for 3 mana slot.Muster for Battle , Aldor Peacekeeper and Coghammer [/card] . You must kick one of those 3 fantastic cards to make a room for [card]Scarlet Purifier .
Now about card, i really, really like it. Sometime it kills all deathratle and trade with buffed Undertaker. Sometime it helps you finish Dark Cultist . And sometime.
Last game i have Sylvanas Windrunner opponent have buffed Lord Jaraxxus on board (5/17) and plays Antique Healbot to make my chances only 50% for steal. I hit Antique Healbot and kill my Sylvanas with Scarlet Purifier for game win.
Beside all that it is 4/3 for 3 mana, really good card. Too bad those days Big Game Hunter is must for paladin, and you can't have all those great 3 mana cards in deck.
I did. I advocated Antique Healbot over 5+ pages while other people kept telling me how awful it was, as it turns out it's an awesome 1 of that sees alot of play :)
I also predicted that Lil' Exorcist was gonna suck when everyone was like OMG BEST ANTI UNDERTAKER CARD EVAH!... but what do i know =P
I also thought that Troggzor the Earthinator was gonna see more play then Dr. Boom and man, was i wrong there.
My comments refer mostly to the wild format.