Old Gods Epics Crafting Guide

by OtakuMZ - 7 years ago     show comments

Introduction

The last expansion missing for the guides on crafting Epics is the Whispers of Old Gods (WotOG). I will give you once more an overview what Epic cards are 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 with that play mode is limited. 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:

Card Evaluations

There are more playable Old Gods epics than MSG epics, but there is still a huge number of cards that have little to no relevance. So this is another expansion that is comparably light on your wallet.

Essentials (4)

Forbidden Healing (1*) is one of the best healing spell in the game. It is burst healing combined with flexibility. It can be played as a full set or as a singleton in combination with Lay on Hands in Control Paladin. Lately, the trend is towards playing two copies, as there is enough card draw available to support the archetype (The Curator, Stonehill Defender, and Hydrologist) and allow for more control cards.

Vilefin Inquisitor is a staple in Midrange and faster Paladin decks because of the highly beneficial synergy with Gentle Megasaur.

Faceless Shambler was once played mainly by Handlock, but has now become a staple in Silence Priest. Copying a minion after buffing it up with Divine Favor + Inner Fire feels so good!

Hammer of Twilight (1*) is a staple in aggressive Shaman lists, though those have fallen a bit out of favor in the Un’Goro meta. It usually is played as a one-of, but hyper aggressive lists may run two. It is a solid weapon that also fits the token based playstyle of the Shaman decks that are popular right now.

Nice To Have/Tech (5)

Forbidden Shaping (FS) can produce good minions, especially at eight mana, but has fallen a bit out of favor. Free from Amber (FFA) seems the better choice at the moment because of its synergy with Medivh, The Guardian. Also, the RNG involved is a lot higher for FS than for FFA. On the upside, the card is a lot more flexible mana-wise.

Cabalist’s Tome (1) was played frequently at the beginning of the expansion, but has fallen a little bit out  of favor since. It is still a good card, especially for quest based mages. Although Exodia Mage and the likes are fun, these archetypes aren’t top tier after all.

Shadowcaster is one of my favorite cards of the set. It has a cool effect that can get totally crazy in wild (with Brann Bronzebeard) and always has the potential to become really dangerous, but was balanced well to prevent abuse. Well done design team!

Call of the Wild (1) while totally OP at eight mana, it is substantially weaker at nine. It is still good, but no longer an auto-include. The problem this cards has in the actual meta is that is it to slow to compete. Otherwise, it would be fringe tier one.

DOOM! in combination with Bloodbloom has seen some play, but is still on the weaker side. The combination has potential but Control Warlock, as well as Warlock in general, has just about fallen off the face of the Un’Goro meta.

Trash (18)

Forbidden Flame is a flexible card and not totally useless, but the value of its flexibility does not generally merit putting this in a deck over more potent options like Meteor or Fireball. This card saw a significant drop in use after rotation rid us of Flamewaker and Reno Jackson decks. Nevertheless, the spell does see play after it is created randomly by cards like Babbling Book or discovered.

Forbidden Ancient is just a bad card. No one plays pure stat based minions competitively, as stat sticks aren’t worth the card slot.

Embrace the Shadow is a very niche tech card. Overall Auchenai Souldpriest performs better, and few decks run this card outside of experimental lists. The card has potential though and maybe we could see an increase in play due to Lyra and/or Shadow Visions, but still this is not the case.

Eternal Sentinel, though well designed, did not and does not see play. The benefit is just to low to sacrifice a card slot – sad but true.

Renounce Darkness is not a competitive card whatsoever and was never intended to be one. It is a fun, meme card, nothing more, nothing less.

Blood Warriors, in contrast to Spirit Echo, is not seeing much play in Warrior. Warrior’s playstyle tends to be very control oriented with a few big minions (Taunt Warrior) or hyper aggressive (Pirate Warrior), and the card fits neither playstyle. It is a combo card in a meta in which Warrior’s Arcane Giants combo deck was nerfed to death. For most Warrior decks, Battle Rage is strictly better.

Cyclopian Horror is a very situational and badly stated – just an awful taunt minion.

Twilight Summoner is a viable niche pick for N’Zoth based decks. It was ok with copy effect cards like Unearthed Raptor, but since rotation, there is little support for this card and there are better and or non-epic alternatives in Standard and Wild, e.g. Nerubian Egg, Devilsaur Egg.

Crazed Worshipper is one of the worst C’Thun minions. He does not have good stats for five mana and in general will not trigger more than once or twice. Even the best C’Thun minions don’t see much play these days, so this guy is a safe pass.

Darkspear has an interesting and unique effect, but it never found a suitable home. Who knows, it has possible sleeper potential.

Validated Doomsayer is easy to kill before he triggers and is very susceptible to silence. Even though silence cards are not too frequently played right now, he is not worth the slot in any major decks these days.

Tentacles of Arms is way too slow and/or overcosted now that slower Warriors’ end-game is Ragnaros hero powers instead of fatigue.

Ancient Harbinger did not have any impact because it is highly overcosted and by turn six too easy to kill off before triggering.

Scaled Nightmare is too slow to be included in dragon lists. It can be a viable choice through the discover mechanic of Drakonid Operative in slow matchups or against classes like Druid that have problems to remove high health minions, but it’s not worth a slot in your decks (even now that dragon decks have much fewer dragons to choose from).

Wisps of the Old Gods was a thing during the Old Gods meta in J4CKIECHAN’s Token Druid. Today, it does not see play at all because token druid plans to win before it gets to 7 mana and even if it does get that high, it would rather Living Mana you.

Giant Sand Worm is another card that has an interesting mechanic, but is way too slow for the current meta. A similar card at four or five mana or with an effect similar to Charged Devilsaur might be viable.

Blood of The Ancient One is a meme/fun card for all the youtubers, but is straight out bad in competitive lists.

Blade of C’Thun was already bad in Old Gods and has become even worse with the release of Vilespine Slayer, which is much more mana efficient and, therefore, far superior.

Last Thoughts

This was the second-to-last article of this series of crafting guides for Standard. Again, the Old Gods set has a majority of weak Epics, which should be nice on your wallet. This set was interesting as a lot of cards’ values shifted with meta changes over the last year or so. As a side note, you can expect the last part of this series to hit very soon, most likely within the next few days. 🙂

As always, feel free to leave comments in the comment section below or tweet @OtakuMZ1978 and @BlizzPro.