Gadgetzan Epics Crafting Guide

by OtakuMZ - 7 years ago     show comments

 Introduction

Let’s continue the series of crafting guides on Epics and Legendaries with the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan (MSG) expansion. I will give you an overview what Epic card is relevant in the Un’Goro meta as of now (Season 38). I base the evaluations on Standard play mode with competitive/ladder play in mind. I do not focus on Wild as my experience is limited in that play mode. If a particular card is not strong in Standard, but extremely useful in Wild, please leave a comment so that I can add that information to the card description.

There are some Epics that are commonly played as a single copy, which will be marked with a (1). Cards that are usually one-ofs, but sometimes played in a full set, are marked with (1*). The ranking system is categorized as follows.

• Essentials: The best Epics that are either viable in a wide variety of decks (for neutral cards) or top tier lists.
• Nice to Have/Tech: The cards you might want to look at after you’ve crafted the cards from the above tier. The category includes tech cards that might rotate in and out of competitive lists, as well as cards for niche or more fun oriented decks.
• Trash: All of those cards which have not yet found a good home… or are just bad.

This evaluation may change with the inventions of new decks or when existing decks get refined, please keep that in mind. For the already released guides (which provide additional thoughts an disenchanting, etc.) follow these links:

Ok, without further ado, let’s get the best out of the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan without getting mugged!

Card Evaluations

Generally, the MSG epics are underwhelming compared to Un’Goro ones. If you look at it positively, there are very few cards to craft in this expansion. Therefore newer players or the ones with a smaller budget can focus on a few cards and move on.

Essentials (4)

Dirty Rat is your prime card for disrupting the opponent’s gameplan. This devious Epic is played almost exclusively in control decks. It helps snatch a key component out of your opponent’s hand and enables you to deal with it on your terms. Its stats are crazy for the cost btw.

Sleep with the Fishes is a staple in control based Warrior decks, replacing the rotated Revenge. It can be easily combined with one of the following: Whirlwind, Ravaging Ghoul, Wild Pyromancer and Primordial Drake to create huge AoE damage.

Rat Pack. While not irreplaceable, it has become  a key component of Midrange Hunter as the Un’Goro versions all try to abuse Scavenging Hyena. It also has synergy with Houndmaster and Crackling Razormaw both before it dies and after its deathrattle activates. Of the cards in the top tier, this is the least needed but nevertheless valuable. Replacements include Animal Companion, Vicious Fledgeling, Eaglehorn Bow, Kill Command  and Infested Wolf.

Dragonfire Potion (1*) has become the go-to AoE for Priest since Lightbomb rotated out of Standard at the beginning of the Year of the Kraken. It has become even better in the Year of the Mammoth as the previously omnipresent Azure Drake is no longer in the format and Dragons are much less prevalent overall. The only common problem in the current meta is Primordial Drake.

Nice To Have/Tech (5)

Meanstreet Marshal. Despite relying largely on the unimpressive handbuff mechanic, this might be ok to play because of other buff cards like Dire Wolf Alpha, Abusive Sergeants, etc. Paladin is the only class in which the handbuff mechanic is fringe playable. It had hoped that there would be the missing links released in the Un’Goro expansion but there were none. :sadface:

Manic Soulcaster (1) has decent stats and a good effect. IMHO this is a sleeper card that isn’t bad at all, but still needs to find a home.

Small-Time Recruits is reliable card draw for aggressive Paladin decks. With Aggro Murloc Paladin running only six 1-drops, however, it fails to deliver at the moment. Other Aggro decks are worse than Murlocs, so the recruits don’t see much action.

Burgly Bully (1*) sees play in some Miracle Rogue and some variations of different Mage decks, but is not considered a staple. Therefore, despite being potentially very powerful and disruptive against spell heavy decks, it is considered a tech cards rather than an “essential” one.

Lotus Assassin. A very good card for a niche deck – Stealth Rogue.

Bottom Tier (18)

Finders Keepers never took off despite the cards discoverable being exceptionally good. It saw some limited play while Tunnel Trogg was still around, but, of course, Trogg is no longer in the format.  There is no archetype it fits in, the card itself is very slow and there is no reasonable way to abuse casting multiple low cost spells in Shaman.

Weasel Tunneler.  This is a fun card to explore a new mechanic, nothing more, nothing less.

Mana Geode was hyped hard before its release, but it turned out to be not worthwhile. It is easily to kill off and hard to get value from. It’s also very slow.

Blubber Baron is fun, but unreliable and, therefore, not worthwhile. The idea behind the card is great though.

Fel Orc Soulfiend turned out to be just a worse Injured Blademaster. Maintaining its health is too mana extensive and Priest, finally, has better things to do.

Pilfered Power. Ramp and token based strategies just do not fit together with the cards available.

Unlicensed Apothecary. With the main strategy of Warlock still being Zoolock, this card can backfire easily.

Brass Knuckles. Slooooow. Also the handbuff mechanic in general never found its place in the meta. The weapon is on the weak side, and/or weirdly stated, too.

Lotus Illusionist is an interesting cards but turn four is highly contested by other important cards (Flamewreathed Faceless, Jade Lightning, Jade Spirit, etc.). Therefore this one does not make the cut.

Piranha Launcher is a Control Hunter card. Sadly this archetype is still not working out despite the effort Team 5 has put into releasing more and more cards that support a control strategy in Hunter (e.g. Dinomancy). :sadface: IMHO there is something needed that reliably changes your Hero Power into a control HP for less than two mana and/or that is guaranteed to be in your hand early.

Lunar Visions (1*) struggles when compared to Nourish. It saw play in some weird lists but mostly failed to get value because slower Druid decks consist of lots of spells which may, and probably will, result in an overly expensive card draw mechanic.

Defias Cleaner. Its application is too narrow to be viable in constructed

Fight Promoter is unreliable, which is bad for card draw in the first place, but I’ll take free copies all day.

Leathered Hogleader. Again, this card has a very narrow target, which renders it almost useless.

Luckydo Buccaneer. While this is theoretically a good card, it does not fit aggressive Pirate strategies by any means.

Kabal Trafficker. This could be a good card in a Demon Warlock, but, sadly, that archetype is non-existent at the moment. If there were something as broken as Voidcaller in Standard, Kabal Trafficker would likely see play. There would be the need of more playable Demons though because at the moment more than half of the Demons available have drawbacks that make them hard to play in the first place. Alternatively, had the ability involved discovering demons, as opposed to randomly generating them, this would have probably seen a lot of play.

Wind-up Burglebot is again way too slow and unreliable – a real garbage card with an ugly artwork.

Greater Arcane Missiles is ok as a discovered and/or random acquired spell, but too expensive and unreliable to intentionally put into most decks.

Last Thoughts

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Epics continue the trend of having only a small number of viable cards to offer as it was the case with the Legendaries of this set. Therefore, if you plan to buy card packs, it might be reasonable to check your collections first. If you already own all Common and Rare cards that you need from the set, it might be wise to turn to the another expansion in which you lack more cards and craft the few ones you need. The Journey to Un’Goro set is a more attractive to buy card packs from as it consists of more actively-played Epics and Legendaries in the current meta.

In the weeks to come, I will complete this series by taking a similar look at the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion. I can do an evaluation on the cards of the One Night in Karazhan adventure too, if you wish, while the crafting aspect is lackluster when it only involves golden copies of cards. Do you wish me to do this as well? Do you have any other comments or questions? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or tweet @OtakuMZ and @BlizzPro.