Hearthpwn

Grand Lackey Erkh - While he is neutral and sort-of useful in singleton decks, his main purpose is to crank out lots of 4/4s after Dark Pharaoh Tekahn has been played. This means that his tier will likely never exceed Tekahn's. I'd put him at tier 4 currently and can't really see him going above tier 3 unless something miraculous happens.

Sky Gen'ral Kragg - Auto include in quest hunter and for that he merits tier 1 status. Use in other decks is nebulous though as quest druid and quest warlock don't need it, quest priest doesn't want it to pollute the rez pool, and quest shaman and quest rogue got power crept out of the meta. For those Galakrond rogues who are still running the quest, stop as it's not worth it and you're making everyone look bad. :P

The Amazing Reno - Auto include in any viable non-aggro mage deck, which at the moment is only singleton mage; a tier 3 deck. Reno is tier 2 by being a staple of a lesser deck. If mage goes up or down, his tier will follow.

The Fist of Ra-den - Shaman is in a bad bad state and Ra-den isn't helping much. It's not a bad card, it's just that it's in a bad class. It's tier 4 at the moment and will be until the meta gets turned upside-down and shaken again.

Quote from Sillyraptor >>

Is Myra's Unstable Element viable in any decks right now? I accidentally crafted it instead of a different card with the recent nerfs and d/eing Luna's and don't wanna be out 1600 dust.

 Myra's is an amazing card. It's probably the very best rogue legendary and that's in a class that contains Edwin VanCleef.

By the way, for future reference you can undo a card craft as long as you don't click off of it.

Quote from SnoderFaner >>

I have a few suggestions to improve the guide further:

• Firstly, Countess Ashmore should be dropped to T4; she sees little niche play in mech paladin, otherwise she's cut from most other decks due to being too slow, she also has low winrate.
• Is there any particular reason why Flobbidinous Floop is in T3 while other quest druid staples are in T2? His winrate is on par with other legendaries in T2, and also sees play in some token variants.
• Myra Rotspring should be T5: deathrattle rogue is not currently viable, but even when it was semi-viable pre-rotation she didn't see play much play; she also has very bad winrate currently.
• Lady in White should be T5 too, she has very bad winrate and silence priest is almost non-existent as a deck.

Countess Ashmore? She's still a perfectly playable card. In fact, Zephrys the Great might give her a chance to shine. I wouldn't move her lower than tier 3 right now.

Flobbidinous Floop should probably be the very same tier as Elise the Enlightened as they are usually part of the same win condition. Keeper Stalladris and Wardruid Loti are the more proactive of the bunch. That being said, I don't expect Untapped Potential to make a comeback post nerfs. Sure, people will play it but it's going to be a tier 3 deck at best as it collapses to highlander hunter which isn't being nerfed.

If it were my call, both Myra Rotspring and Lady in White would be tier 5'd long ago. Myra wasn't even relevant when deathrattle rogue was still being played and the existence of Sahket Sapper only makes her worse. Lady in White has always been a problematic card to get value from, where you have to build your deck around her with no guarantee that you'll ever draw her. So absolutely send Myra to the trash; no card printed in the final Year of the Dragon expansion will likely make her viable. As for Lady in White? There already exists an archetype that she can be easily slotted into and that is wall priest. Wall priest is a tier 4 deck, but it is still being refined and as it stands now, Lady is a great choice as she is a game swing when played but the deck still has a win condition without her. When people give up on wall priest, she can be moved to tier 5 but for now she's a niche tier 4 card.

We've now had over a complete week of Saviors of Uldum meta and while it is in no way settled, it's to the point where we can talk tier lists for legendaries, both SoA's and what it has done with the existing ones.

I'd also like to point out that while Zephrys the Great may soon be a candidate for the elite 'recommended craft' group that Leeroy Jenkins and Zilliax occupy, SN1P-SN4P is definitely a candidate for the coveted unicorn icon. Condolences to everyone who missed out on the Rise of the Mech golden copy; not only do you have to deal with only having a regular version but you have to spend dust crafting it too. :(

Vicious Syndicate has put out their first data reaper report of the meta. This tier list is derived from that report as well as the usual suspects including horseplay hsreplay.net and the CompetitiveHS subreddit.

Tier 1

• Armagedillo - Staple in taunt control warrior.
• Dinotamer Brann - Highlander hunter is tier 1 and Brann provides amazing tempo swing (as well as lethal).
• High Priest Amet - Staple in combo priest.
• Reno the Relicologist - Highlander mage is tier 1 and Reno provides amazing tempo swing.
• Siamat - Great in highlander decks. All around useful and versatile. While good, he is not the new Zilliax due to no lifesteal.
• Zephrys the Great - Must have in highlander decks. Great even in regular decks that draw out the duplicates.

Tier 2

• King Phaoris - Great finisher for decks that use large amount of spells.
• Vessina - Staple in aggro overload shaman.

Tier 3

• Corrupt the Waters - Quest shaman is playable if you lean more aggro.
• Dark Pharaoh Tekahn - Good in zoolock but replaceable.
• Elise the Enlightened - Required for druid late game against powerful control decks.
• Making Mummies - The best performing quest because it eats control warrior.
• Sir Finley of the Sands - Useful in Tip the Scales paladin but highlander paladin is performing poorly.
• Untapped Potential - Quest druid has difficulty but is workable.

Tier 4

• Activate the Obelisk - Quest priest is having difficulty in the meta.
• Bazaar Burglary - Quest rogue is having difficulty in the meta.
• Colossus of the Moon - "Big" decks are performing very poorly at the moment.
• Unseal the Vault - Quest hunter is having difficulty in the meta.

Tier 5

• Anka the Buried - Combo rogue isn't working out.
• Hack the System - Aggro warrior is doing a lot better once they cut the quest.
• Octosari - Decks with it are even worse if they actually play it.
• Raid the Sky Temple - Mage quest isn't even performing well in highlander mage.
• Supreme Archaeology - Warlock quest is terrible. Fun, but terrible.

Other movers and shakers:

• Luna's Pocket Galaxy - Up to Tier 1 from Tier 2. Luna's is used in every mage deck and provides enormous value.
• Chef Nomi - Up to Tier 2 from Tier 3. Nomi is a fallback win condition for TTS paladin as well as a late game plan for druid.
• Harrison Jones - Down to Tier 2 from Tier 3. Weapon removal isn't as big of a priority as it used to be.
• Arch-Villain Rafaam - Down to Tier 3 from Tier 2. Zoolock is focusing on more aggro.
• Darius Crowley - Down to Tier 3 from Tier 1. With the meta being either extreme control or extreme aggro, tempo Crowley doesn't have a place to fit.
• Hagatha the Witch - Down to Tier 3 from Tier 2. Shaman is not winning the control game
• Heistbaron Togwaggle - Down to Tier 3 from Tier 2. Rogue is focusing on more aggro.
• Hex Lord Malacrass - Up to Tier 3 from Tier 4. Malacrass is providing excellent value in highlander mage.
• Madame Lazul - Up to Tier 4 from Tier 5. Lazul is finding some successful experimentation in combo priest.

In general, Zephrys is a safe craft. Siamat is also likely to be a safe craft albeit less flashy. The other Tier 1 SoU cards are required if you're going to be playing tier 1 decks. I would not recommend crafting any quest though as they are evenly divided between 'Playable', 'Almost Playable', and 'Bad'. If there is a nerf that allows tempo decks to shine, the non-bad quests (everything except warrior, mage, and warlock) might be worth it.

A note about Sir Finley. (AKA: Please don't hate me SlydE) Tip the Scales pally is a Tier 1 deck, and Sir Finley can provide extra reach toward lethal in that deck. If you are playing TTS pally, by all means add Sir Finley. However, Finley's value in other decks gets worse the longer the game goes on, unlike the other singleton cards (especially Zephris and Elise). Unless someone can come up with a working highlander deck, Finley's success will be tied to TTS.

A note about nerfs. With the meta dominated by extreme control decks and extreme aggro decks trying to confront them, there is little room for tempo decks. If value kings Dr. Boom, Mad Genius or Luna's Pocket Galaxy are nerfed, the meta should open wide. So don't go dusting those tempo cards just yet.

Terrorsquid66, To be fair, Boomsday's legendaries did get a post launch buff from the Rise of the Mech patch though (buffing Luna's Pocket Galaxy, The Storm Bringer, Flark's Boom-Zooka, and Dr. Morrigan as well as adding the amazing SN1P-SN4P) which even if you exclude the buffs, SN1P-SN4P alone raises the power level.

Anyway, we've had almost 3 days of Saviors of Uldum, and while the meta is by no means settled, we can look at some trends and at least see how wrong I was. It's still pretty early; craft at your own risk.

Quests are a fun thing as unlike other cards they always start in your hand unless you mulligan them away. This means that horseplay's hsreplay's played win rate may be pretty close to what the card's actual win rate is.

1. 52.2% - Making Mummies
2. 49.9% - Untapped Potential
3. 48.7% - Corrupt the Waters
4. 47.6% - Bazaar Burglary
5. 47.0% - Activate the Obelisk
6. 46.9% - Unseal the Vault
7. 42.5% - Raid the Sky Temple
8. 42.2% - Hack the System
9. 37.4% - Supreme Archaeology

The winner of the "Worst quest in the set" goes to the warlock quest! Congratulations! While I personally didn't think it was good, I am a little disappointed that it's doing worse than the warrior quest... the one that I rated on par with the druid quest (yes Highwayman37, you were right there. I was still right with Reno though). The big winner here is the paladin quest with people early on realizing that the best way of making mummies use of it was to grit your teeth, play a bunch of bad reborn minions, and by turn 7 put down Mechano-Egg and start Making Mechies. This doesn't mean that the other quests are not worth playing, it just means that they have a lot of refinement to do. Shameless link.

So grats to all who got good quests. I got the warlock quest... just like I did in Un Goro... :P

So let's look at the Zephrey and the League of Singleton Explorers. I'm including the deck win rate here as well as just the played WR is decieving.

1. DeckWR: 59.0% - PlayWR: 69.7% - Dinotamer Brann
2. DeckWR: 57.6% - PlayWR: 61.6% - Reno the Relicologist
3. DeckWR: 56.3% - PlayWR: 55.7% - Zephrys the Great
4. DeckWR: 48.2% - PlayWR: 50.9% - Elise the Enlightened
5. DeckWR: 57.5% - PlayWR: 48.7% - Sir Finley of the Sands

Highlander hunter and mage are doing pretty well. Druid is doing less so. What's going on with highlander paladin though? Highlander paladin isn't a thing, instead people are playing highroll paladin. Highroll paladin uses Prismatic Lens to pull out Tip the Scales and swap the costs with a minion (most likely a murloc) and flood the board early for a hopeful win. If that doesn't work, they fall back on using Zephry and Sir Finley and lastly Chef Nomi to try to pull out a win. This explains Sir Finley's low played win rate without having to think that he's just a terrible draw from Underbelly Angler.

So what are some other winners and losers? Armagedillo is the best performing card, but control warrior already had a great shell (hehe). King Phaoris and Siamat are the neutral legendaries to keep an eye on (performing roughly as well as Zephrey) and Vessina and Dark Pharaoh Tekahn are rounding out the top 5 of the rest. High Priest Amet is the last to have a positive deck and play WR. Colossus of the Moon has a high play WR but a low deck WR which is very odd as the most popular deck that runs it tries to cheat it to the board with Duel!. This may be an outlier.

Anka, the Buried is doing abysmal, which is not surprising in early experimental decks of this type. Octosari is also doing pretty badly which is probably explainable as no one knows what to do with it.

Recommended crafts? NONE! But... Zephrey if you want to play singleton decks, King Phaoris and Siamat if you want collection flexibility, any one of the top 5 quests (they are fun and are performing OK), Tekahn if you want to climb the ladder, and Armagedillo if you hate fun.

Time for a quick pre-release tier guess. This expansion marks the return of Quests, Highlander mechanics, and really questionable legendaries, but it does have some stand-outs.

Tier 1

• Zephrys the Great - Like Reno Jackson and Kazakus before him, Zeph is the reason to exclude dupes from your deck. His effect will do everything from board clears to tempo plays and will even give you Sacrificial Pact if your opponent is Lord Jaraxxus! Sadly he is the real reason that cards like Naturalize and Vanish had to be banished to the Hall of Fame.

Tier 2

• Bazaar Burglary - Decent reward and not that hard to complete, this quest is probably going to see some play in multiple rogue archetypes, not just thief rogue.
• Corrupt the Waters - Double battlecries is an interesting ability to have on a hero power. Fortunately the quest is almost an auto-complete with all of those Lackeys running around.
• Dark Pharaoh Tekahn - This kind of "For the rest of the game" effect is pretty powerful and turning 1/1s into 4/4s isn't to be taken lightly. The problem is though that you're only getting a total of 8 Lackeys from your deck. Is it enough? In fact, it is, even if you can only make use of a single upgraded Lackey. He'll shine in Magic Carpet zoo and may see play in other archetypes.
• High Priest Amet - I am probably wrong to put him this high up but I believe this is the sleeper of the set. His effect is on summon which means that you can do crazy Reborn trades when he comes into play and end up with an obscenely healthy board. At the very least he will give us some memes.
• Reno the Relicologist - People are complaining that he isn't as strong as old Reno Jackson and that's true, but they aren't focusing on the fact that his effect only affects the opponent's board. Look at how powerful Dyn-o-matic is currently and imagine that you don't have to care if your opponent has mechs or if you have friendly non-mechs. Dare I say that if you are against aggro you'll want to keep a 6 cost card in your mulligan.
• Siamat - Nice and versatile without being too overpowering. Good all around but especially useful for highlander decks and Shudderwock fans.

Tier 3

• Anka, the Buried - Will she be the Mecha'thun combo enabler? People will defeinitely be trying to figure that out.
• Armagedillo - I think this will slide easily into the meta. Imagine a 6 mana 4/7 minion that said "If Zilliax is in your hand, give it +2/+2". Would you play it? You would certainly consider it. In wild with Fire Plume's Heart this is even better.
• Dinotamer Brann - If you are trying to make use of Zephry, you may as well include new Brann. 7 mana for 10/12 worth of stats with 8/8 of it having charge isn't bad.
• Elise the Enlightened - Probably the weakest Elise card but she is still viable. She isn't going to be a combo enabler but she can shore up part of a highlander deck's weakness.
• Raid the Sky Temple - This actually has negative synergy with hand mage as they are trying to play an early Mountain Giant to hit it with Conjurer's Calling. So why the tier 3 placement? You can always mulligan the quest away, and it's not like you won't still have a chance to complete it later in the game even if you do.
• Vessina - Good, but not as good as people think due to her not activating her own ability and probably not sticking on the board long enough to get use.

Tier 4

• Activate the Obelisk - 15 health is a huge amount and it's almost positive that some of that healing will be a tempo loss which you may not be able to make up later after you get the admittedly decent reward. To make this quest work you will likely have to rely on AoE healing effects. On the plus side, Holy Nova could become part of the meta again.
• King Phaoris - If you're playing the new mage quest in your Mana Cyclone deck, you can fill your board with random minions. Um, OK I guess.
• Making Mummies - Yes the reward is great but to complete the quest you're going to have to draw and play several mediocre cards. Is it worth trying? Sure. You may even have fun with it. I mean Kibler enjoyed his Plot Twist warlock deck.
• Sir Finley of the Sands - Baku the Mooneater has shown us that the best part of upgraded hero powers is at the beginning of the game. Instead of 3 of 8 choices, you'll get 3 of 9 choices now so it'll be even harder to get your preferred hero power for the situation. He's not bad, but he is too unreliable to be an auto-include in a Zephry deck.
• Supreme Archaeology - This card isn't going to set the meta aflame. The reward is acceptable and the quest is able to be  completed early enough if, and it's a big if, you are able to abuse Plot Twist. This could mark a return of handlock to the meta as long as they can reliably deal with both aggro and Conjurer's Calling.
• Unseal the Vault - Remember how hyped people were over The Marsh Queen? Remember how it didn't succeed?  This time won't be much different. Some insane genius will design a deck that will complete the quest by playing Zul'jin and create the next Pogo-rogue archetype for people to show disappointing results on ladder.

Tier 5

• Colossus of the Moon - A 10 mana do nothing card. This will see lots of play when Conjurer's Calling is cast on Sea Giant but you'll never ever want to actually put it in a deck.
• Hack the System - This card is just good enough for people to try it in wild pirate warrior and be subsequently disappointed.
• Octosari - Drawing on Deathrattle has always been a potential liability and this will almost certainly overdraw you. Bad for control, too slow for aggro, can't even Treachery it in wild. This is a sari excuse for a card. Sari not sari.
• Untapped Potential - With ramp nerfed to the ground, this is just a gradual tempo destruction for a dubious reward. Fandral Staghelm was viable back in the day but he isn't even being run in modern jade druid.

All in all not bad. Better than Rastakahn's Rumble but not as good as Boomsday Project. I look forward to playing with some of these cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote from beppe946 >>

Hi everyone,

a few weeks ago I managed to hit rank 5 with Midrange Hunter despite having Zul'jin in my deck. Since then I've played very little in ranked due to university exams and a couple of days ago (after the Balance Patch) I started climbing again, but I haven't been able to go beyond Rank 4. Because of that, I'm now considering to craft Zul'jin in order to get that nice late game push and to justify most of the spells I'm running.

Now, some questions: considering that I'm playing a regular Midrange Hunter list (more or less this one), is it a deck worth the craft? Cause I'm feeling like I'm being annihilated by this new meta: maybe it's not that good anymore (or maybe it's just some bad luck of mine). Moreover, I think that there will soon be another balance patch, as the Devs left intended a week ago. Considering this case scenario, would this craft lose some of its value?

Thanks!

I'm going to assume that you did not have Zul'jin in your Midrange Hunter deck since you are considering crafting him. Also, there is going to be a balance patch (18 card buffs and 1 card nerf) on June 3rd which will likely affect the meta in some way. If you are on the fence on crafting, please hold on for a few weeks.

However, since I would still very recommend crafting Zul'jin, lets look at his strengths, status post the rogue nerf, and speculate about usage post the Boomsday Buff patch.

Zul'jin's power comes from being able a single card to "reload" your board, and in some cases, your hand. He is most useful with secrets, summoning spells (with one exception), and and enemy-targeted spells like Deadly Shot. He is somewhat less useful with neutral-targeted spells like Kill Command as it can (and will!) hit your side of the board, or spells like Tracking where you don't get to discover what card you pull. Well worth the 10 mana to play, plus as a nice bonus you get 5 armor and permanent Steamwheedle Sniper effect for the rest of the game.

Of the five hunter archetypes (Secret Hunter, Midrange Beast Hunter, Bomb Mech Hunter, Deathrattle Mech Hunter, and Spell Hunter), Zul'jin was in use in all but Bomb Hunter which tried to close games before turn 10. Midrange Hunter also tried to close games before 10 but if you did have to go longer, he was invaluable.

Tempo rogue was one of hunter's boogeymen being able to kill much faster. Tempo rogue is dead now, however, all hunter archetypes still struggle against Token Druid, Murloc Shaman, and Zoo Warlock; decks that can flood the board so that hunter can't keep up. If hunter can survive into late game, they will often win simply due to value from Zul'jin. Bomb Hunter suffered at the hands of Tempo Rogue like all of the other archetypes, but it preyed upon Tempo Rogue's counter deck Control Warrior. With Control Warrior not having their favorite prey anymore their numbers dwindle so Bomb Hunter's advantage dwindles too. Terribly sorry for those who crafted Boommaster Flark but Zul'jin is by far the superior late game card.

With the Boomsday Buffs approaching, we have to look at if the two buffed hunter cards (Necromechanic and Flark's Boom-Zooka) and SN1P-SN4P will help, and we have to see if there are any distinct problems that other buffed classes will impose.

SN1P-SN4P will be a moderate boost to Bomb Hunter and a very minor boost to Deathrattle Hunter. Will it make Bomb Hunter want to use Zul'jin? No. Will it make Zul'jin better in Deathrattle Hunter? Not really as it makes Nine Lives slightly worse filling up precious Zul'jin board space with 1/1s.

Will the Flark's Boom-Zooka buff make a difference? Ha ha ha no, not in standard at least. Wild Big Charge Beast Hunter may climb up to being a tier 4 deck, so at least there's that.

How about Necromechanic? This one is very interesting. Houndmaster Shaw has shown us that even playing a minion like this on curve is viable as it can be difficult to clear. Deathrattle Hunter will definitely use this and Bomb Hunter may think about it over SN1P-SN4P. Having Nine Lives trigger twice off of Zul'Jin is not bad but it's certainly no game changer.

About the other classes? Warrior and Paladin may improve slightly. I don't think that they will give hunter too many problems. Shaman and Mage are getting a slight buff that will make them better against hunter. That's about it though.

I consider Lorewalker Cho to be a Tier 4 card. It has uses. They aren't great, but they are there.

Harbinger Celestia on the other hand is just a bad card.

Quote from Highwayman37 >>

Hey Slyde just a few questions about Mech Hunter which appears to be a Tier 1 deck right now...the vast majority of decks I've seen are running Flark and not running Shaw, and even less Oblivitron (who was a staple previously but is nowhere to be seen these days), what are you thoughts on Flark being Tier 1, Shaw Tier 2 and Oblivitron Tier 3?

There are essentially 2 different Mech Hunter archetypes in the current meta. There is the old and busted Deathrattle Hunter and there is the new hotness Bomb Hunter. They have a bunch of overlap as there are decent exclusive mechs like Venomizer, Ursatron, and Spider Bomb.

Deathrattle Hunter uses Oblivitron to cheat out Mechanical Whelp and make a powerful board that is Brawl resistant. The problem was though that it wasn't Sap resistant at all, and to fix that required a huge overhaul into

Bomb Hunter which instead of going tall, focuses on making a wide board with many little mechs, mech support minions, and Goblin Bombs (note: don't actually use the Goblin Bomb card) and many many magnetic cards. Where deathrattle mech hunter was similar to handlock, bomb mech hunter is similar to zoolock. Boommaster Flark shines here due to him being a wide board in a single card, however, he certainly isn't the backbone legendary of the deck (that honor goes to Ziliax).

This brings us to the hunter legendaries and where they fit into the meta.

 

Boommaster Flark - Just because bomb hunter is good you shouldn't go out of your way to craft Flark yet. Being a zoo deck, the longer you're playing, the likelihood of a win gets lower and lower and playing a 7 mana minion that doesn't change the board state doesn't win you games. Tier 2 as he is helpful but don't go expecting miracles. Craft the rest of the deck, play a bit, and if you really enjoy it, then craft Flark.

Zul'jin - Still quite the solid Tier 2 late game legendary. He works best in decks that play lots of secrets, summoning spells, and Deadly Shot. Unfortunately hunter damage spells (with the exception of Multi-Shot) don't differentiate between friendlies and enemies so plan your deck accordingly.

Houndmaster Shaw - Alas poor Shaw. He doesn't fit into midrange beast hunter as Master's Call requires only beast minions in order to be viable. He isn't needed in bomb hunter due to magnetic minions having soft charge. He isn't that useful in secret hunter as your big plays often happen on your opponent's turn. In a vacuum he's still amazing, but in this meta he's a solid Tier 3.

Oblivitron - Rogues are rampant right now which means that this thing sits at Tier 3. Even if you removed Sap, there is zoolock and token druid that prey upon Obliv's greed.

Vereesa Windrunner - Spell damage hunter is a failing archetype and Vereesa's best use seems to be as support in other archetypes. That doesn't mean that she's trash, just that she's Tier 4.

King Krush - Now that insane mana cheating Kathrena Winterwisp has rotated, the King slides back into the Tier 4. He still has synergy with Master's Call and he can be useful as a replacement for Flark or even Zul'jin while you consider crafting them. Don't craft him of course, but if you have him simply because you've been playing a while, don't go out of your way to dust him.

Halazzi, the Lynx - He can be used to over inflate Scavenging Hyena but that's about it. Unfortunately, even though he is a beast, to get actual value from him you need Spirit of the Lynx which negates Master's Call. He's a Tier 4 loa so he's still better than Jani, the Saurid, loa of trash... or Hir'eek, the Bat, loa of actual trash hearthstone legendary cards.

Emeriss - He was never really any good even in the days of Dire Frenzy Stonetusk Boar decks where he tried to rise above the Tier 5 trash that he is. He does often get played in this meta, but it's only by warlocks.

Flark's Boom-Zooka - Even paired with good deathrattle minions and Nine Lives this card can't rise out of the Tier 5 shadows. Oh well, at least there are memes.

Quote from mars123 >>

Archmage Vargoth should be at wild tier 1 special mentions

he is insane in big priest and jade druid

 Just being in tier 1 in standard isn't good enough?  You want him promoted to Tier 0? :P

Quote from tekkenpro >>

Why in the name of the seven kingdoms is Millhouse Manastorm Tier 4, and not Tier 5? What "Niche" are you referring to?! :D

It may have been a hold over from when paladin was using Call to Arms to pull him. I wouldn't play him for that but some people do and that's why he was tier 4.

As for now? No clue. I mean I can see uses for Lorewalker Cho but Millhouse is just plain bad.

So even though we're still very early, there is some settling occurring. Here are my suggestions based off of playing, watching, and studying. As always, thanks SlydE for your work on this list!

Tier 1

Archmage Vargoth - Yea, he's still performing really well even though it's not in gallery priest. Currently insane in token druid and hunter with some experimentation with value warrior, mage, and priest.

Blastmaster Boom - While I still believe that he will drop tiers when the meta settles, I can't deny that he's an excellent closer in warrior. I can count the number of times I've still won after my opponent played him on a single hand.

Tier 2

Archivist Elysiana - Performing very well as a control anti-fatigue mechanic as well as having some use against opponents who try to corrupt your deck with Dr. Boom's bombs or Hakkar's blood.

Keeper Stalladris - Great in token druid and will probably get better over time (as well as in wild with Jade Idol). Why not tier 1 right now because token druid is a tier 1 deck? He's not really adding much to that deck beyond a mid-game Power of the Wild buff.

Khadgar - Surprisingly performing better than expected. Most people are combining him with Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk and that's why they are having problems. Without Baku the Mooneater, Jan'alai is horribly under-performing.

Oblivitron - In a vacuum this card is terrible, but when combined with Zilliax, Mechanical Whelp, and Nine Lives, it's performing pretty well... much better than people originally thought.

Tier 3

Catrina Muerte - A good card which is unfortunately stuck in one of the worst performing class at the moment. She is doing fine in wild where they have access to all of the (playable) resurrection cards. If you play priest, she is recommended, but it's not really recommended to play priest. ;)

Heistbaron Togwaggle - Sure the treasures can be powerful but not as much as you might think and he's a major tempo loss unless you are playing on turn 10 with lackey, him, then the treasure. The games where he's winning are due to rogue being strong; he's just along for the ride.

Kalecgos - A very powerful card if you can manage to stay alive long enough to play him.

Tier 4

Arch-Villain Rafaam - Zoolock is a tier 1 deck right now, but Rafaam is probably only helping win every 20th game or so. If you get to the point where you *have* to play him, it's a crap-shoot. He is certainly not on the same tier as Deathstalker Rexxar was in midrange hunter. At least he has taunt.

Barista Lynchen - There has been some experimentation with her but she comes off as a win-more card at best. Zola the Gorgon worked better because you could often play both her and the card that you wanted to copy in the same turn.

Chef Nomi - It looks like Rise of Shadows gave us a lot of the "last ditch legendary" archetype. You only run him if you are planning on fatiguing and his played winrate is mediocre. I want to put him in trash tier but pros have been winning with him so what do I know.

Commander Rhyssa - The loss of Divine Favor isn't the only thing hurting secret paladin, it's the fact that many of the paladin secrets (at least in standard anyway) aren't that much better when they trigger twice.

Jepetto Joybuzz - I think he'd be doing better if it weren't for the loss of all of Year of the Mammoth's infinite survival mechanics. Being a well performing lynch pin in tier 3-4 decks is the perfect definition of niche.

Scargil - Murloc shaman is a decent deck but it's not because of him but because of Underbelly Angler. Murlocs are already pretty cheap so making them cost 1 isn't really going to change things too much. He may actually end up going into trash when people cut him to improve their winrates.

Swampqueen Hagatha - A decent tempo loss for a decent value gain but not on the same turn. She isn't performing terribly but not great enough to warrant inclusion in most decks. Note, her Horror's battlecry is currently not being copied with Shudderwock. Blizzard has not confirmed if this is a bug or not.

Vereesa Windrunner - Spell damage hunter is probably a tier 2 deck at best; most likely being tier 3. She is a staple in that deck though, so if you're going to try it you need her.

Tier 5

Fel Lord Betrug - Plot Twist warlock is really really bad. It seems his best use is meme charge decks in wild and even then, you're better off playing the degenerate Darkest Hour deck.

Lucentbark - Whether heal druid will become the next freeze shaman or the next discard warlock remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: it sucks now and it will still probably suck later whether it gets more support cards or not.

Madame Lazul - So instead of being a worse version of Drakonid Operative, it seems she really is just a worse version of Chameleos. While there is merit to knowing 3 cards in your opponent's hand, she still requires you to play her to get that info. Priest scrying minion heirarchy: big lizard > small lizard > Lazul

Nozari - I guess that she would be alright if you could play her immediately following High Priest Thekal. She is probably the worst 4/12 stat line dragon ever printed, and that includes the nameless Sleepy Dragon and the uncollectable Razorgore. Probably the only reason she is a paladin legendary instead of a class legendary isn't because of use in control decks, but to cut back on priest mutually assured destruction memes.

Tak Nozwhisker - Ouch. If you enjoy thief rogue, by all means play Tak for the memes. Just don't expect to win that many games.

The Boom Reaver - It takes a lot of effort to make big warrior a tier 4 deck. So much effort that this thing would probably still be bad at 8 or 9 mana.

Quote from SlydE >>

Quote from EthanLawlis89 >>

Hey SlydE,

Really appreciate the guide! Looks like it’s missing Oblivitron from new RoS list?

 Fixed. Also rolled out a ton of updates, especially placing all the rotated cards in the Wild section and removing some references to rotated decks. There are still stuff to polish, though, feedback is appreciated!

Oblivitron was so poorly received that SlydE forgot to include it. /s

It's funny that it was rated below stinkers like Lucentbark or Nozari.

Mojomaster Zihi, and High Priestess Jeklik are NOT performing well, be careful!

When in doubt, listen to SlydE. :)

Quote from alan1231005 >>

anyone?

 So you're looking for crafting advice on the second day of the expansion. Well, there's nothing certain yet.

So let me present you with my worthless legendary tier review based on one day of playing.

Tier 1: Nothing! Never craft things right away. ;)

Tier 2: Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk, Zul'jin, Oondasta, Mojomaster Zihi, and High Priestess Jeklik

These have been performing pretty well. Jan'alai and Zul'jin are probably top contenders for a tier 1 slot. Oondasta and Zihi are higher up than normal due to being neutrals.

Tier 3: Da Undatakah, Captain Hooktusk, Krag'wa, the Frog, High Priest Thekal, Zentimo, War Master Voone, Bwonsamdi, the Dead, Wardruid Loti, Halazzi, the Lynx, and Shirvallah, the Tiger

Many of these will move around in the next few days. Undatakah isn't performing as well as people had hoped (outside of troll Shudderwock memes) but should find decent decks to live in. Hooktusk is doing well with Cannon Barrage but that will probably not last and she may move down tiers soon. Krag'wa will probably join her in moving down. Voone and Bwonsamdi probably have the best chance at moving up a tier.

Tier 4: Gonk, the Raptor, Griftah, Gral, the Shark, Hex Lord Malacrass, Princess Talanji, Akali, the Rhino, and Hakkar, the Soulflayer

Ignore the memes. Gonk is bad and should not be crafted but is fun to play around with. Griftah and Hakkar should really be tier 5 but they have the tiniest bit of utility and they are neutral so they can underperform in any deck you would like. Akali has the best chance of moving up a tier, someone just needs to prove it.

Tier 5: Hir'eek, the Bat

Did you get Hir'eek as your loa? I'm sorry. Even in handbuff decks he's still pretty bad. Perhaps one day when warlock gets their own Tundra Rhino he might be of use. Until then it's sacrifice lots of tempo for a potential huge board that has no immediate impact.