Descent of Dragons Review - The Meta Defining Cards So Far
With all the hubbub about Battlegrounds, the Descent of Dragons Card Reveal period has kind of snuck up on us. It seemed like a good idea to start Reveal week with a recap of the cards we have seen so far, to remind you of the most meta defining cards we have seen so far, according to you, the community.
Of note here: This is taken from only a small slice of the available cards, as most of them will be revealed starting this week. We will definitely do more of these articles highlighting the best cards once we have all the cards, most likely after release when there has been time to play with them.
If getting highly rated was a competition then Breath of Dreams would have been the runaway winner. The community thought this was the best card revealed so far, by quite a large margin. It's understandable why. A better Wild Growth? Sign us up!
Come discuss the card here!
Fate Weaver combines a decent body, with a tricky conditional and an effect we know can be very powerful from Emperor Thaurissan. Having 2 of these cards in a deck might lead to some serious shenanigans.
Come discuss the card here!
Lightning Breath is a Breath card, which means it's a powerful card with a bonus if you are holding a Dragon. In this case it means cleaving your opponent's board for 4 damage. Easy to see why the community felt good about this card.
Come discuss the card here!
Candle Breath is another breath card, which sets expectations for the rest of these Breath cards to be revealed. This one is basically a better Sprint, a card that's frequently been used with Preparation to refill after Rogue plays it's hand.
Come discuss the card here!
Nozdormu the Timeless left part of the community in awe. A 4 mana 8/8! But some of the community also saw the downside as a too significant price to pay. Which led to this card being the most voted on and contested card we present to you today.
Come discuss the card here!
Dwarven Sharpshooter is proof that cards don't need to be huge mana cost, Legendary dragons to make an impact. This Hunter card makes that impact in a small package. Literally, cause it's a Dwarf. Jokes aside, this card is a reprint of Steamwheedle Sniper but if has much more support around it in the set now.
Come discuss the card here!
We end with Galakrond, the Nightmare, the most meta defining of the Galakronds we have seen so far, though some of that may have to do with the fact it was the first Galakrond to be revealed. The community seems fairly sure it will define the meta, though much will of course depend on the Invoke cards that fuel Galakrond.
None of those Invoke cards made it into this review, which goes to show that the community isn't quite as sure about their power level as they are about Galakrond. Problem is that the 2 cannot be seperated while playing, so the actual meta defining nature of the Galakrond cards will remain to be seen.
Come discuss the card here!
That's it for this Descent of Dragons card review, check back later this week when the Reveal Season starts up again. See you there!
Descent of Dragons Card List & Guide
Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated expansion guide.
No worries, I've found the other ones.
These are meta defining card, meta warping cards that will decide the future of the meta and are absolute best in the set. This makes the whole thing even funnier.
Rastakhan's Rumble: https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/6311-the-hearthpwn-rastakhans-rumble-community
TOP RATED CARDS:
Revenge of the Wild
High Priest Thekal
Da Undatakah
Mojomaster Zihi
Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk
Spirit of the Rhino
Master's Call
Zentimo
Zul'jin
Soulwarden
These were meta defining cards according to this community. Hell, the only one that was meta defining, Zul'Jin, was 12 points lower than Revenge of the Wild.
How about Boomsday Project?
Flobbidinous Floop
Dreampetal Florist
Juicy Psychmelon
Lab Recruiter
Glow-Tron
Academic Espionage
Luna's Pocket Galaxy pre-nerf omegalul
Electra Stormsurge
Omega Assembly
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
Wow, they got two cards that ended up being meta defining. Great job!
My point stands. Hearthpwn community is a good community but it is absolute shit at judging cards.
Reckless Flurry is incredible in Odd Warrior.
You're right! It only took it a year to become relevant.
All you have proven is that you have a narrower definition of "meta-defining" than most people.
Nice reaching.
My point still stands. The community was completely off with these predictions. Almost none of the cards saw any competitive play (or play at all). If you need further proof I'll gladly dig in deeper and bring you more compendiums but I think that I've proven my point.
Disagree. From Boomsday project Florist and Melon were pain in the ass in early meta. Floop (and sometimes Florist) is used even now in quest druid. Glowtron is staple in mech paladin. Electra was used in OTK spell Shaman. Omega assembly and Dr. Boom are staple in any warrior deck. Academic Espionage was mostly a meme but still there were draw decks with Unstable Element + Espionage combo.
Melon didn't see play in any relevant deck in standard.
Floop became relevant over a year later.
Glowtron is a staple in a deck isn't impactful at all.
Electra was used in a deck that wasn't impactful at all.
Omega Assembly and Dr. Boom were the only meta defining cards.
We're not talking about cards that saw play in a whatever xyz deck. Every card can see play somewhere. We're talking about cards being meta defining, the best cards in the set, which these aren't.
Academic Espionage, the trash meme card, had a 49,5% meta defining vote while Ziliax, the most impactful legendary of the set and still the most used neutral legendary in the damn game (over a year later) had 25,1% vote. That tells you enough how bad this community is at judging cards.
I'm not saying the community is super smart in these matters, but your original claim was that "none" of them are right. That is preposterous, and I'm sure several cards on the list in this article will indeed shape the meta.
Well, meta defining doesn't mean that card is better than "very good". It's means that it can create new archetype, revive old one or upgrade exisitng one in impactful way and that doesn't mean that deck must be good. Ziliax isn't meta defining, it's just very good card which is used in every possible deck. Espionage created Espionage Rogue so it's more meta defining than Ziliax. Melon, Floop and Florist were part of Hadronox Druid (cancer) and Combo Druid with Charged Devilsaur+Cube (cancer too).
You, of course, have recognized all the meta-defining cards every time, right?
Top, Pro, and highly skilled players get their predictions wrong constantly because when the player community is this vast, you can't really expect what would shape the meta, and it changes during the 4 months an expansion runs at least 2-3 times anyway, so calling anything "meta defining" when it's strong for a month and then never run again is warped.
Side note - for a card to be meta defining it needs to be really broken and impossible to play against, which would just make it bad for the game.
If Oko taught us anything, it's that single meta-defining cards are bad and should be banned.
Not every time but my track record isn't half bad, though I must admit that I'm better at knowing which cards will be absolute trash than which cards will be meta-defining. Take the new Nozdormu, for example. It is utter trash yet the community is super hyped about it and calls it ''meta-defining''
I never kept track of your record so I'll take your word for it. Maybe you should start a twitch channel with your great track record, I'd watch it.
Huge, unorthodox effects would always be loved by the community, even if Nozdormu would be run just as much as the old one, the effect is really cool, and all you have to do is find some sort of interaction that would make it great (ramping with holy wrath Paladin, just off the top of my head). So sure, it's overhyped, but that was to be expected when the high-roll potential is this big.
Bwonsamdi, the Dead was trash and saw no play until Hunterace made it a combo priest staple, and there are numerous other examples. I wonder how much sooner your version of combo priest ran it, necause I'm, pretty certain you called it trash (like everyone) when it first came out.
Cards are evaluated when they come out on the basis of the current and upcoming meta. It is impossible to predict if Blizzard will choose to support a certain card several months/years down the line. That is why calling Bwonsamdi, the Dead trash was accurate when the predictions were made.
It is like saying ''Hey guys, Aviana wasn't actually trash because several years later she was a staple in a tier 1 wild deck''
Did I just read correctly and you compared a wideapread world-championship and GM run deck to wild? We really can't have a valuable discussion if that's the case.
Nice job at completely ignoring the point.
fate weaver is the reason they hall of famed mind blast,
understandable have a nice day
velen for 5, 2 mindblasts for 0, 2 smite for0 - that makes 28 damage with 5 mana, more if you add spell damage to the mix
You are so wrong, this combo was possible when Emperor Thaurissan was in standard yet it never saw any play and Fate Weaver is objectively worse than Thaurissan.
Do I smell a Fatality fan?
Nozdormu the Timeless is a perfect addition to Big Paladin.
These predictions are always so accurate.