by OtakuMZ - 8 years ago     show comments

Introduction

While the cards for Whispers of the Old Gods (OldGods) were subsequentially released I made a evolving power ranking with each new announcement. The initial article, which was upated until all cards and the nerfs were revealed, can be found here. At the bottom of the article, I inserted the rating system explanation from the article once more for those who do not remember.

In today’s article, I will present you four topics:

• Winners: cards that performed significantly better or saw unexpected more play than predicted.
• Losers: cards that significantly underperformed compared to the assessment before the release.
• Sleepers: cards that have not been figuered out yet or are underused at the moment, but having the potential to become strong.
• Update: the updated Power Ranking list*

*There are two changes in the list:

• cards rated under (A/B) and (C) are now also listed in (1) to (5)
• three sub-categories were amended into (1) to (5) for a better reader assessment of what changed:
  • UP: cards that rose in their rating
  • DOWN: cards that dropped
  • SAME: those who stayed in their position 

Evaluations are for STANDARD CONSTUCTED play ONLY. Arena and Wild are not coverd. As always, evaluations reflect my subjective opinion. You might disagree and you might be right with your disagreement. Please share your oppinion by leavíng a comment or a tweet @OtakuMZ #OldGodsPR.

Losers

Class-wise: Hunter, Priest
Hunter is still not figuered out and is not played a lot at the moment. Priest is less behind, but still behind the potential that some Control and C’Thun priests list promise.

Card-wise, I had high hopes for Scaled Nightmare which did not hold. It is not seen in any dragon deck list at all being just too slow and to easy to remove when hitting the board. Y’Shaarj the weakest of the old gods or has not been figured out yet. Soggoth is just too slow and has no immediate impact. Anomalus has a cool animation, but apart from that it saw only experimental play. I rated Feral Rage “excellent” before the release, but that did not reflect the actual reality at all 🙁 . The rest were still not played and are most likely not good in general

Winners

Class-wise: Shaman, Rogue
Shaman, as predicted, received a lot of love in the actual expansion and all cards stood up to their estimations. Rogue got a lot to play with and has become a better class overall despite the destruction of Blade Flurry. Rogue still has potential for deck list improvements whereas Shaman is more figuered out.

Card-wise I was most impressed of Twilight Summoner, Forbidden Healing and Rallying Blade. Infested Wolf and Deathwing, Dragonlord performed significantly better than I thought. Especially Deathwing in combination with Forbidden Healing is very playable and let’s you actually survive until the deathrattle effect of Deathwing triggers. Dark Arakhoa and Cult Sorcerer are C’Thun cultist that also perform very good outside of C’Thun decks. Usher of Souls established itself a staple in C’Thun Warlock. Undercity Hucksler does really well as the mostly priorly unnoticed Darkshire Councilman who rocks Zoo lists. Against all odds, Cabalist’s Tome (aka. Casual Tome, credits go to @kickedtripod) and surprisingly Servant of Yogg-Saron (initially rated unplayable) seem to perform much better than anticipated. Bloodhoof Brave is just a solid midrange Warrior Taunt that proofed better than I thought.

Sleepers

Class-wise: Mage
Freeze and Control Mage might become a thing (see below).

Shadowcaster in my oppinion is heavily underused. It is a combo card, that is true, but in the games I played with it I had a blast. She rocked the games most of the times. Either comboing with Sylvanas or even her second self to produce an infinite board. The games had something of Dreadsteed Warlock when Baron Rivendare was still a thing. Blood Warrior is the most interesting card here though. I think it can really shine with the right deck list, which unfortunately is still not figuered out. It is just too good a fit for Warriors in general althoguh Death’s Bite would have helped. Nevertheless there is ravaging Ghould and Blood to Ichor as well as the usual Whirlwind generating cards. Hogger, Doom of Elwynn fits this kind of deck also very well to protect the damaged minions until the can be cloned. Nerubian Prophet is very interesting but has still to find a home as does Shifter Zerus. Anomalus, Cult Apothecary and Demented Frostcaller are cards that have IMHO a huge potential in controlish Mages (Grinder, Control or Freeze Mage) but with a potential of being total bummers. Blackwater Pirate may be a valuable card – maybe.

Power Ranking List

(1) EXCELLENT

SAME

UP

(2) GOOD / COMPETITIVLY PLAYABLE

SAME

UP

DOWN

(3) DECENT / NO COMPETITIVE STAPLE

SAME

UP

DOWN

(4) POOR / TOO SITUATIONAL

SAME

DOWN

(5) UNPLAYABLE

SAME

DOWN

(A/B) ARCHETYPE DEFINING / BUILD-AROUND

(C) COUNTER / TECH  CHOICE

(1) Excellent: Cards that are top-notch or potentially overpowered. Most decks would like to run them, e.g. Dr. Boom.
(2) Good / Competitively Playable: Superior cards that will very likely see frequent play, e.g. Annoy-o-Tron, Harvest Golem.
(3) Decent / No Competitive Staple: Cards that normally do not make the cut for competitive play but are overall well-designed and might fit into specific decks. These cards can be powerful in Arena though or really viable for newer players but you would not likely see them in tournaments.  Also vanilla cards such as Chillwind Yeti fall into this category.
(4) Poor / Too Situational: Underwhelming and/or overcosted cards. These cards have inferior stats and/or underwhelming effects and will not see competitive play, e.g. Voodoo Doctor. Grouped in this category are also cards that seem to be good at first glace, but their effect are so highly situational that most of the times you will not be able to pull them off, e.g. Ghaz’rilla. The latter can arguably be fun and even powerful IF their effect goes of, of course. In any case, these cards I like to call “what-if cards” are so unreliable that they render themselves unusable in competitive play. Feel free to raise these cards to a “build-around” card or just have fun with!
(5) Unplayable: Straight out bad stats, poor card design or simply useless cards that are even too bad for casual play? You have them in your deck? Delete Hearthstone! 😉 These cards you would not and should never put in your deck, e.g. Magma Rager. Okay, one exception here: you want to troll your opponent so that he thinks you are the worst Hearthstone player alive! 😆
(A/B) Archetype Defining / Build-Around: Cards that are only viable if you build your deck around them, e.g. Grim Patron.*
(C) Counter / Tech Choice: Cards that mostly have underwhelming stats but are highly useful to counter specific Cards or to Play against a very uniform meta, e.g. Eater of Secrets.*

*There are two changes:

• cards rated under (A/B) and (C) are now also listed in (1) to (5)
• three sub-categories were amended into (1) to (5) for a better reader assessment of what changed:
  • cards that rose in their rating (UP)
  • cards that dropped (DOWN) and
  • those who stayed in their position (SAME) were inserted