Hearthpwn

Quote from Inconspicuosaurus >>

Quote from mk572 >>

 

Keeper of Uldaman:... It's good, but why is this tier 1 when Anubisath Sentinel is tier 4?

 This sentence highlights one of the big things that causes people to over/underestimate the value of cards, and which has come up repeatedly in this thread. In Hearthstone, immediate board effect is king. This is why Deathrattles generally sound more powerful in terms of raw text than Battlecries. A 5 mana 4/4 "Battlecry: give a random friendly minion 3/3" would be broken, but Anubisath is much less value than it initially looks because, like Dark Cultist, if you play smart it has no effect at all. The difference is, Dark Cultist has good stats for its mana cost anyway, but with Anubisath you're sacrificing at least 1/1 of stats for an effect that might do nothing.

In contrast, a card like Keeper of Uldaman has an immediate effect that you know will trigger when you want it to, and so you can use it in combination to your immediate advantage. As OP said, you don't play Keeper and then leave a 3/3 Antonidas on the field. You play Keeper when you have 3 damage on the board, but not 7, or when reducing Ant's attack by 2 is the difference between the minion that takes it out living and dying. And that's not even considering the potential on your own minions. Turning a recruit into a 3/3 (2/2 buff for 1 mana difference in Keeper's stats vs cost) can be the difference between great trades and a waste of a space on your board.

This is also the key difference between Huge Toad and Flame Juggler. You may not be able to direct either of them, but you choose when Flame Juggler activates. Your opponent is going to get whatever value he can out of a 1-health minion before he kills Huge Toad, or allows you to trade it, but with Flame Juggler the opponent does not have that choice, and reducing your opponent's options for counterplay is one of the most powerful things you can do in Hearthstone. I like Huge Toad, but unless you're building specific deathrattle or beast deck and have no better options, Flame Juggler is generally superior.

I think if I had to make a list of the cards that I thought were truly the most value - trying to leave out any bias from cards that I just "like" - I think it would be very similar. The only difference being I think I value the Discover mechanic a bit more highly. The thing with Discover is sometimes you want it to be very restrictive - ie: only giving you 3 drops-from a 2-drop to guarantee good curve - but sometimes you want a wide variety of choices. This is why I like Gorillabot in my mech rogue, because sometimes I want a gnome to round out my curve, or Iron Sensei to buff up my board, but sometimes I want Forcetank-Max or even Gelblin for that late game smash.

As the LoE meta is slowly settling, some poor guy out there is playing Face Hunter is getting Reno’d for 27 hp and happy Fiests of Winterveil are being wished upon him. Some guy just topdecked a Stonetusk Boar to activate his Fossilized Devilsaur battlecry effect to keep him alive in arena. The point is, things are fun, the meta is colorful and new decks are popping out each day. Obviously that is normal when a new expansion/adventure is released, but I have to say, League of Explorers is probably the best adventure Blizz has released so far. So kudos to them.
But anyways, I decided to make a wrap to this amazing adventure with a card review and evaluation in general.
First off, I think every single one of the 45 cards released in LoE is super fun with amazing concepts that could potentially make them even better in the future as more cards get released. Oh except for Pit Snake. Fuck Pit Snake.

Anyways, I decided to split them into 4 categories:

Tier 4: Magma Tier (Something like Magma Rager, but probably better than Magma Rager. I mean, yeah, it’s pretty hard to beat that guy in a trashy card contest)

[TIER 4]

Tier 3: Corsair Tier (Something like Dread Corsair, super bad as just a 4 mana 3/3 taunt, but in a specific deck like patron for example, it turns into a powerful minion. So its basically just cards that are below average in quality, but can potentially be good in specific decks.)

[TIER 3]

Tier 2: Yeti Tier (Just solid strong cards, definitely playable in constructed. Some of them like Anyfin can Happen require a deck to be made around them, but still extremely strong.)

[TIER 2]

Tier 1: Lore Tier (Cards that have performed the best on ladder since LoE came out. Cards that literally changed the meta.)

[TIER 1]

*Note: This card review leans towards a constructed point of view, but I have taken arena into account. It is pretty hard to balance both sides of the spectrum when making an actual card ranking.*

> Alright let’s start with the worst. Tier 4.

Fossilized Devilsaur: I mean yeah. A card with a conditional effect has to be super powerful. Not to mention that this cards conditional effect sucks. Ironbark is bad as it is, and this guy is like: Deal with it.

Huge Toad: Main comparison is Flame Juggler, and Flame Juggler is better since its effect is immediate, therefore better controlled than Toad whose effect can be played around. And Flame Juggler isn’t even an include in any serious constructed decks.

Wobbling Runts: God the thought of this getting Cabal’d gives me shivers. Although the deathrattle effect is pretty powerful, immediate impact on board is really weak with the body it has. Extremely slow vs aggro and control too.

Anubisath Sentinel: Kind of the same as Runts. Powerful effect, but a really slow, expensive card with bad body for the mana cost.

Pit Snake: Fuck you Pit Snake.

Explorers Hat: Tons of people had high expectations of this card, but yeah turns out 2 mana for +1/+1 is preeetty bad.

Animated Armor:  Yeah, bad body, cool effect. If you had to pick which 4drop you want between Tazdingo and this guy, probably 95% you would want Tazdingo. But idk, some guy out there might surprise a freeze mage with a lot of burn in his hand with this or something.

Sacred Trial: Worst paladin secret? Is Eye for an Eye better than this? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter really as both of them are bad. If your opponent already has 3 minions on the board and wants to play a 4th one, chances are, he’s not going to care about your Sacred Trial dream kill. He’s just gonna kill you with his 3 minions that are alive. I mean it’s a silly thing to say, but you get this idea.

Summoning Stone: This card is the best card ever. In a spell only tavern brawl or something. Obviously not constructed nor arena viable. But it’s extremely fun, that counts for something right?

> Tier 3:

Everyfin is Awesome: Super good in murloc shaman?

Murloc Tinyfin: Wisp powercreep. But he’s too cute, how can you be angry at him for powercreeping?

Dart Trap: This trap hasn’t gotten a lot of spotlight in recent hunter decks. Must mean it’s just bad. I’m not a big hunter player, but it does seem not to be on par with something like freezing or explosive trap. But in a trap based Eaglehorn Bow hunter deck, I wouldn’t mind 5 dmg from a mad scientist. As more cards get released this card might see play. It doesn’t look terrible on paper.

Naga Sea Witch: Another card that just needs time. It’s just not good enough to justify playing it in something like ramp druid yet. But again, as more cards get released, this could potentially lead to a Naga deck.

Curse of Rafaam: Definitely an interesting card, unique, incomparable to any other card in Hearthstone right now. It ruins your opponents curve since they have to get rid of it sooner or later right? It’s kind of guaranteed to give you a lot of damage vs most of ladder decks right now, since everybody is going to sacrifice a little bit of life to continue playing their gameplan on curve using mana efficiently.

Eerie Statue: Another fun one! Silence it or put some pants on it. Or just control board well enough to keep it alone on the field. Sounds easy enough? Yeeaah, inconsistent. But time is on Eerie Statue’s side.

Djinni of the Zephyrs: This is no place for mortals! Super slow, feelsbad. When it works, it puts a lot of pressure onto the board, but it’s just not consistent enough.

Ancient Shade: So, basically you want to play this in aggressive decks. So it’s just a 7/4 for 4 mana with no downside pretty much. Is it good enough? Yeeah Shredder is just better.

Rumbling Elemental: Damn, I like this card a lot it’s a pity that the stat distribution is so weak. If it was a 3/5 would it see more play?

Jungle Moonkin: Upside and downside minions. Mana wraith? Sucks. Coldlight? Really good in specific decks, but not consistent enough for any competitive decks. Jungle Moonkin? Probably the same.

Gorillabot A-3: Its such a weird card. Obviously it fits mech decks, but it feels like it doesn’t. Is discovering a mech worth playing a 3/4 for 4 mana? In a mech deck? I’m not really sure, since all mech decks are really tempo oriented and look to swing board or hit face most of the time.

Dessert Camel: So, pre-LoE when I first saw this card I thought it was a slightly better Razorfen Hunter and that it would never see any serious play. But I think I was wrong. Cute things like playing only Injured Kvaldir as a 1-drop can be played and stuff. Also in specific matchups like priest for example, you can play it in time where you can be ready to react to a Northshire. I don’t think its downside is as severe as Hungry Dragon’s, since you can assume what comes out on the other side based upon the deck you are up againts.

Cursed Blade: SMOrc.

Arch-Thief Rafaam: Just too slow. BGHable. But even if it was a 6/8, I’d still jam in a Ysera over him in my deck any day.

Mounted Raptor: Oh the expectations were real for this card. People were hyped. The coming of the next Shredder was preached. But nothing of that happened. In general, I think I like Harvest Golem better still. It trades so poorly into 2 drops and is often overpowered by 4-drops

Elise Starseeker: It’s just not consistent enough. But it’s playable, it’s not a bad card. Its fine.

Tomb Spider: Again I ask the Gorillabot question: Does discovering a beast justify a 3/3 body for 4 mana? Probably not, especially when you keep in mind you are probably playing this in Hunter. Time is on this cards side tho, because Beast Druid is coming, only 2 expansions and 3 adventures to go!

> Tier 2:

Jeweled Scarab: Same Gorillabot/Tomb Spider question. But different answer this time. This card has a really specific discover theme which allows you to create a little Scarab on 2 and the Scarabbed thing on 3 curve. Proven to be super powerful in specific classes as well. Playing a weak body 2 mana creature for a good effect is fine, especially in curve or just control type of decks. Decks that don’t care about creature body quality but value.

Forgotten Torch: More burn, more cheap removal for mage. Already people are teching it in freeze mage, tempo mage, aggro spell mage. It’s weird since 3 mana deal 3 damage is pretty bad, a worse Darkbomb sort-a-speak. But when you are mage and you have a billion cheap removal/burn spells like Arcane Missles, Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Flamecannon, it becomes justifiable to play it in a spell heavy mage, or just a mage with a lot of cycle so there is a high chance you reach the 3 mana deal 6 spell as well.

Unearthed Raptor: The week it came out, it was all over the place, which is understandable for a new card. Now there’s a lot less of it, but not because it’s a bad card. It requires a specific meta to be played in. Also it created a whole new archetype of rogue deck. This card will scale well with future expansions/adventures as new deathrattles get released. I mean just look at Tomb Pillager, already a new potential synergy.

Reliquary Seeker: OK, this was my first hard choice on how to rate this card. It came close between Tier 3 and 2, but I ended up putting it in 2. The reason is that its super powerful in a deck built around it. Either if it was Hobo Zoo or Reynoodle’s Token Zoo, it works well and the requirement is not hard to accomplish in hands of a capable player that is. 5/5 for 1 mana is insane, and it is not a win more card. Because 5 out of 6 other minions are most likely 1/1s.

Anyfin Can Happen: Again hard choice. But again, I placed it in 2. As with the Seeker, super powerful in a deck built around it. A lot of pros believe it can be the next big thing once somebody comes up with a refined list. I think it needs more time. But Blizz should be careful with it, since it smells like patron all over again.

Brann Bronzebeard: Brann is probably the best tech legendary in the game right now. In the right deck he does wonders. I guess Thalnos in Rogue is on par with something like Brann in a double Healbot/Azure Drake deck or something.

Obsidian Destroyer: This is rank 2? Dude, this is like as if Dr. Boom and Hogger had hot steamy sex and 9 months later this guy came out. How can it be bad? Bad genes maybe.

Tomb Pillager: Is the coin worth playing a 5/4 for 4? In Gadget decks yes. Generally I think Teacher and Shredder are better, but its fine. Coin is super valuable to rogue, everyone knows that. But coin isn’t just a combo activator, but a “temporary ramp” as well. So coining Pillager on 3 allows you to play a 5 drop on 4. Essentially ramping you for a turn. But yeah that’s actually getting into too much of Pillager/Rogue gameplay itself.

Raven Idol: Oh time is on this cards side that is for sure. This will only get better as time passes. I would pay 1 mana for such a flexible effect any day.

Excavated Evil: One of the “Mighty Trio” that priest has received in the new influx of cards. Super powerful in specific meta situations. Its basically an overpriced hellfire, but that is still good enough.

Fierce Monkey: Just a super solid creature that opens door for new Warrior deck types and directions it can go for.

> Tier 1:

Sir Finley Mrrgglton: The flexibility of this card Is nuts. It opened so many doors to decks that lacked a little bit of efficiency to work. Something like Aggro Warrior, Shaman etc. received a huge boost with Fin.

Ethereal Conjurer: Back to the old question. Worth playing a 6/3 for 5 to discover a spell? A spell? In mage? Yes, thank you very much. Is this better than Azure Drake tho? Its hard to compare them since their effects are hugely different, so playing them together would make most sense. But, than you get heavy on 5s. Goddamit, deckbuilding is a pain.

Museum Curator: In my opinion, leader of the Mighty Trio priest got from LoE. Blizzard nerfed Novice Engineer from a 1/2 to a 1/1 back in the day. But this is even better than Novice. This card singlehandedly made control priests just drop their lategame and go for more removal. I swear to god, their curve ends on Justicar or something. It’s all the lategame they need. Oh and another card helps with that too:

Entomb: Probably at least 1-of include in every control priest these days.

Keeper of Uldaman: Insanity. It’s Dark Iron Dwarf on crack. It’s like a worse Hunters Mark or a weird Dark Iron Dwarf. I guess that’s the best way to describe it. It’s so flexible.

Well, I hope you liked my view on League of Explorers! And if you don’t agree with it, work on making me wrong! Make that Naga Sea Witch ramp druid and get it to legend! I believe in you!
Anyways I love all of your guy’s/grill’s faces and until next time I’ll see you @

[TWITCH]
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Shamelesspromotionsboys. I'm an infinite arena player and I hit top 100 EU multiple times. So if you like high ranked legend ladder and infinite arena runs, hit me up with that follow, much apprish.

Oh I think I forgot about something, you might have noticed, and maybe making an angry comment about, but stop please, because I present you:

[KINGS OF LEAGUE OF EXPLORERS]

It just couldn’t be decided. There can only be one king. I couldn’t decide, but I guess you guys can.

[VOTE HERE]

Review of the two best LoE cards above coming soon!

2nd Deckhand + 2x Shredder is my guess, but I think you really need Uldaman at least :)

Interesting concept! :)

Yeah I experienced it but I think Blizz hotfixed it :)

Gl man! :D If you are interested in raptor rogue, I have a list been playing it on stream floating around 100-300 ranks EU :) Its not mine so I won't post it here, I just added Sneeds as my personal flavor :)

Could be too many 3 drops. because Scarabs give you 2x additional 3drops as well :) If you want to squeeze in Edwin, cut BGH but its sooo good right now :/ You'll get an Edwin from a Scarab, its fine :)

Thanks man <3 Y for sure, lemme know how it works out :) If I didn't have Thalnos, I'd put Geomancer in there, but its just your playstyle preference, since Loot Hoarder, Kobold Geomancer and Shiv are all good replacements :)

All good man :)

Yeah, that lethal miss vs paladin for rank 2 was awkward haha :D I thought it was chat trolling me cuz they were yelling lethal, but I actually had it >.<

Goodbye to the league of explorers and welcome to the grand tournament . Kappa.

Quote from Chasmchs >>

Pit Snake: Fuck you Pit Snake.

Pretty good post overall.

I do think the toad does have advantages over the juggler though.

For example well, it has Beast synergy, and has a higher chance to trade up. Once in a while it will trade 1:1 with a 4/4 or 5/4 which Juggler cannot do.

Plus, the is more deathrattle synergy than battlecry synergy, so, I think the toad wins!

Scarab is a great card in rogue decks, period. Putting two in my oil deck saved my butt a couple times already today. I was facing a shaman with three 2 health minions, one flametongue, along with a buffed zap-o-matic that was 7/4. I played scarab, drew into Perdition's Blade, hit the zap with the 2 damage from the combo, hit the flametongue with the blade, then blade flurried to clear the board. It was a miracle play that felt so good.

I think this card is a serious contender in most rogue decks, actually. You can draw into a SI:6, Fan of Knives, Burgle, Perdition's Blade, Edwin, not to mention BGH, Arcane Golem, Argent Horserider, Farseer, etc. The fact that you know the cost of the card you're drawing and you have some choice makes it even more powerful, and can pull off amazing situational swings.

now i can finally climb ladder with this roguedeck, what a time to be alive! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

This looks like a great deck m8 *tips fedora*.  I know Thalnos is Technically "irreplaceable" but what would you recommend?  I'm gonna try this out later.  I'll let you know how it goes.

sometimes u missed lethal in the vod though ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

That Scarab seems pretty useful,im thinking on put one copy in my Mech Rogue mainly for tryhard that Cogmaster's Wrench or Iron Sensei will be so good =) but have many others really good choices, In addition to that you cited for example the Big Game Hunter.

OH man this desk is so interesting and funny :)

I just have a good time with this deck and my beer, thank you man:)

Been having quite a lot of fun with this deck. 

Don't have Cpt. Green skeen. Stuck in the old fave Dr Balanced.