Kobolds & Catacombs Card Reveals, Part #4

 Bunch of new cards!

Hoarding Dragon: It's kinda like Hungry Dragon, a 4-mana 5/6 dragon... but it's arguably a lot worse. Hungry Dragon gives your opponent a 1-mana minion, something you can deal with no problem... and he still doesn't see play. Hoarding Dragon's disadvantage is in the form of a deathrattle, yes, and you get N'Zoth synergy and all that jazz, but it gives your opponent two coins. And practically every deck in the meta currently -- Rogue, Mage and Priest being the big ones -- can get a fuckton of value from coins. So yeah, not the dragon I'm looking for. Great art, though.

Psychic Scream: What a card, man. I've been playing a lot of Priest variants recently -- highlander, big, dragon and the odd token list -- and Psychic Scream feels just so insanely powerful. A 7-mana non-conditional board clear? Sure, you don't actually get rid of the big minions, but shuffling them into the deck buys you a lot of precious turns to actually draw into your own win conditions. So long as you don't give them a valuable minion (so no Big Priest usage here) shuffling cards they can't really synergize with like Northshire Clerics doesn't really hurt you that much. Definitely effective against druids, where instead of Jade Idols they're drawing into single vanilla golems that are far easier to deal with (or, even better, Spreading Plague tokens), effective against aggro where you nullify the buffs they may have had, and particularly effective against shamans and paladins if they have tokens on the field. Because there's nothing worse than drawing into a vanilla 1-mana 1/1. It requires some fiddling to really get a feel as to when to best use this card, but holy shit, man, now against Priest you have TWO big removal spells to look out against. As if Priest didn't need more good cards. Almost makes up for that year where all they got was Purify. Almost.

Voidlord: Ooh, control warlock tools! I certainly like me some control warlock tools. Voidlord's pretty cool. He's a 9-mana 3/9 with taunt, which isn't... isn't super-horrible. He's like a slower Primordial Drake. But he summons three 1/3 tokens with taunt as a deathrattle, making the Voidlord some sort of Sludge Belcher on steroids. Even better if you can cheate him out with Krul, or re-summon him with Gul'dan. I've gone on record on saying how much more awesome Bloodreaver Gul'dan could be if we got better mid/late-game demons than just Doomguard and Dreadlord (and as it turns out, those are enough to make Gul'dan viable) and Voidlord might be that huge late-game bomb that you need. I'm not sure he's an auto-include, but Voidlord's definitely an interesting tool I'm happy to be included in warlock lists.


Fal'dorei Strider: Ah, obligatory Drider D&D reference! Fal'dorei Strider is essentially a better version of Beneath the Grounds from TGT, one of my all-time favourite cards. It's a lot less interesting because you don't shuffle things into your opponent's deck, but it's definitely a better card than Beneath the Grounds (assuming it works the same). A 4/4 body for 4 mana isn't bad in itself, but summoning three 4/4's down the line? It's a 4-mana 16/16. Now it's obviously delayed, and it's not going to work all the time, but at the same time Rogues do draw through their deck at an amazing rate, so it's pretty cool addition to the Rogue arsenal. Whether it's going to see play isn't something I'm particularly sure about.

EDIT: I've seen the uncollectible cards up on Hearthpwn... and apparently the spell that summons you costs 4 mana and is automatically cast? I'm not sure if this is good at all if you actually spend 4 mana to cast the spiders when you draw them. We'll see for confirmation, though. Double EDIT: It's been confirmed that the spells cost 0 if you draw them naturally, so yeah, carry on. Fal'dorei Strider's still decent.

Hungry Ettin: Hungry Ettin is a card that made me go 'whoa, value!' when I saw that he's a 6-mana 4/10 with taunt. That's like Primordial Drake stats, but for 2 extra health and 2 mana less! So what's the catch, here? Well, just like Hungry Dragon, you give your opponent a free minion. But unlike Hungry Dragon, you give a 2-cost minion. And by god, there's a lot of great 2-cost minions that your opponents will be glad to have. Stubborn Gastropod and Patient Assassin will simply murder your Ettin without a fuss, in particular. I dunno, though -- is the gamble of giving your opponent a poisonous minion, or a super-value card like Pyros, enough to justify playing a 4/10 taunt for 6? In comparison, Nesting Roc is a 4/7 conditional taunt for 5, and even that is getting cut out of many Hunter decks now. It's a bit hard to say -- I can potentially see the Ettin being a conditional inclusion because there are easy ways to deal with 2-drops, like setting up a Mind-Control Tech turn or a SW: Pain... but to me it looks more like an arena card than anything.

Cataclysm: By pure luck, I am a player who has opened the entire discard warlock package from Un'Goro and Frozen Throne naturally. That's three legendaries, folks, that are wasted for a near-dead (but fun!) archetype. And Cataclysm is the sort of card that I look at and go 'holy shit, it'd be great in a quest Warlock deck!' It's 4-mana, destroy all minions, discard your hand. And discarding your hand at turn 4 basically means you get your quest complete... which frees up turn 5 to just plop the portal and go from there, somewhat negating the fact that you're missing, y'know, a hand. It gets even better if you get Silverware Golems and Zavas boosts from Cataclysm. And even even better if Malchezaar's Imp triggers before he dies. Ultimately we'll have to see if this card will single-handedly rescue discard warlock. My gut says no, but I really do want this deck to work. I also find it hilarious that Cataclysm is, like, the third Warlock super-massive board clear? Not a good card ultimately, but one that I think is decently designed.

Call to Arms: For 4 mana, you recruit 3 minions that cost 2 or less. It's a paladin card, and essentially a better Small-Time Recruits because you, well, actually recruit the minion onto the board... but I really don't see any good 2-cost minion or less that you really want to desperately spend 4 mana to summon. Like, I guess you can get Shielded Minibot in wild, and in standard you can get... Argent Squire? So many of the 2-drops that Paladin runs are murlocs that have battlecries (Vilespin Inquisitor, Hydrologist) that I'm not sure that you'd want to run this. I suppose the fact that you're fine with summoning those with Finja makes this card somewhat possibly viable? I don't really see it. Great artwork, though.

Lynesa Sunsorrow: A 7-mana 1/1 that casts all buff spells you've casted earlier in the game into the minion. For one, it really makes Evolving to 7 mana scary as hell. And Lynesa is... not a bad card, because every deck's running Spikeridged Stegodon, and honestly a simple Stegodon buff on Lynesa is enough to make her an oversized Sludge Belcher. It certainly looks more appealing than Bolvar Fireblood does... but on the other hand, do you really want to be playing this over Tirion or Ragnaros? I don't really think so. Definitely a good card, but one that I don't really see being played all that much.

Kobold Hermit: We have a trio of shaman cards released at the same time, revolving around the synergy of Windshear Stormcaller below that synergizes with, well, basic totems. And Kobold Hermit... honestly isn't good. He's a 2-mana 1/1 that basically allows you to discover a basic totem. And the tempo loss is just kind of bad since it's an actual card you put into your deck as opposed to just pushing a button that always exists. A 2-mana 1/1 is worse than Tuskarr Totemic's 3-mana 3/2, and the basic totem certainly isn't worth an additional 1 mana. Great art, though, with those candle totems.

Primal Talismans: And Primal Talismans is even worse. You give your minions a Soul of the Forest-style deathrattle, but instead of 2/2 treants you have them summon a basic totem? And it costs 3 mana? The thing about basic totems is that 75% of the time they're 0/2 bodies, and it's so much easier for your opponent to deal with them. Yes, it might buy you an extra turn to play with Windshear Stormcaller, but I don't really see Primal Talismans being particularly playable.

Windshear Stormcaller: A 5-mana 5/5 that, if you have 4 basic totems on board... you summon Al'Akir! It's a great card, unquestionably, if you can get the effect off. Al'Akir is fucking dope, yo. But getting all 4 basic totems survive, and playing Windshear Stormcaller? Yes, you could do some very weird combo with things like Grumble bouncing totems back to your hand, but it's just so impractical of a combo. Not to mention that if you're banking on spamming Kobold Hermits, note that there's only 7 slots on the battlefield, meaning that you can't have too many minions on the battlefield (i.e. 4 totems, Stormcaller and Al'Akir, plus another), making the combo even harder to pull off. And even then, it's not a win-the-game-instantly like Uther of the Ebon Blade's four horsemen, but rather you summon Al'Akir. At which point why not just play the elemental package itself? Not a bad concept, and definitely a fun one, but probably won't be a top-tier meta deck.

Lesser Amethyst Spellstone: Oh man, another good spellstone! The 'lesser' one is still crap, 4-mana deal 3 damage with lifesteal, but the regular amethyst deals 5 lifesteal damage, and the greater one deals 7. It's a powerful tool for control warlocks, and the way to upgrade isn't quite as impractical as, say, the paladin or warrior spellstones. You deal damage to your face with your cards, and lots of existing cards already deal damage. Flame Imp, Abyssal Enforcer, Hellfire... plus a bunch of new cards... And Amethyst Spellstone even heals your hero, which makes ti far more attractive to abuse self-damaging tools. Amethyst Spellstone is a powerful card in my opinion for control warlocks, and I for one am excited to use it.

Kobold Librarian: Poor kobold, he's burning his own books. But the Kobold Librarian is a damn good card, though. Unlike the Kobold Hermit above, which is a poorly-stated minion, Kobold Librarian has basic stats for 1-mana 2/1, meaning you don't even get a tempo loss. And the Librarian basically gives you a free hero power -- drawing a card and dealing 2 damage to your hero. Drawing a card is always good, and you basically summon a cheap 2/1 in addition to getting a free hero power. It's definitely a card that works well with Amethyst Spellstone, with the only caveat being that whether Warlock can actually fit this into their decks simply due to the sheer amount of demons they play. Maybe take out the pirate package?

Vulgar Homonculus: Speaking of demons, we've got this fatso. The Vulgar Homonculus is Felguard done right, a 2-mana 2/4 with taunt, which is definitely decent stats for 2 mana. It's also a demon, mind you, which allows Bloodreaver Gul'dan to summon more taunt demons (alongside Voidlord, if you decide to play him). The problem with Gul'dan is that the only taunt demons you tend to summon are just Voidwalkers, since Felguard's shit and Lakkari Felhound's only good in the sub-par Krul-zakus control list, so Vulgar Homonculus only asks for a meager 2 damage to your hero. I may be somewhat overhyping the Vulgar Homonculus, but I definitely like it a lot.

Kobolds & Catacombs Card Reveals, Part #3

 A bunch of new cards for Kobolds & Catacombs. Not that much for me to talk about for the majority of the cards, though. But I'll talk quickly about my general feelings about these cards.

Lone Champion: Lone Champion's a 3-mana 2/4 that gains the Taunt/Divine Shield Sunwalker combo if your side of the board is empty. It's... not horrible. Obviously, if the battlecry wasn't conditional it'd be absolutely bonkers. 2/4 with divine shield is certainly better than Tar Creeper's 3/5, since the divine shield's going to tank something, but overall I don't really see it replacing Tar Creeper or Stonehill Defender as a defensive 3-drop. More of an arena card than anything, I think.

Silver Vanguard: Great card art, but kind of a shit effect. 8-cost minions are powerful, sure, but... wouldn't you just rather play a good 7-drop instead as opposed to a 3/3? And a deathrattle as opposed to a battlecry? It's definitely way too huge of a tempo loss, in my opinion, to become a card like Barnes or Kathrena. Don't think this is a good card at all.

Raven Familiar: A 2-mana 2/2 that basically acts like a King's Elekk for Mage spells? I'm definitely slightly surprised that they're bringing the Joust mechanic back. Drawing a spell from your deck is definitely good, as Arcanologist can attest, but Arcanologist tutors out a specific subset of a card in your deck, whereas Raven Familiar is a slightly-lower-statted card that draws only high-mana spells. It's definitely an interesting card, and might be a pretty neat alternate tech as opposed to Arcanologist if you're not going to play the secret package. Not a bad card, but I'm not sure if it's good enough to see play without some serious huge-mana spell support.

Unidentified Maul: Our second unidentified card is a 3-mana paladin weapon, with a base 2/2 stat. The possible extra identified effects are divine shield, taunt, +1 attack and summoning two 1/1 dudes. It's... I don't really see the Unidentified cards as being particularly good, although a weapon is definitely a lot better by default compared to the Priest's buff spell. The thing, though, is whether this card will ever be better than Rallying Blade's 3-mana 3/2 stat. I guess the Unidentified Maul's potential to buff the entire board is good enough for it to see play? Definitely not a card I'm pessimistic about, and like Raven Familiar I kind of see this showing up in play every now and then.

Grumble, World-Shaker: God dang, this dude. I really like the design of Grumble. He's an above-statted 6-mana 7/7 that... saps all your minions, but reduces them into 1-cost minions. They could've given Grumble a sub-par statline, the way Mistcaller or Hallazeal or Moorabi were... but they gave Grumble a higher statline, for the arguable disadvantage of reducing your board to nothing. But when all your minions get reduced to 1... I dunno. Grumble's be straight-up broken if he was in Rogues, but Shamans got it. Grumble's also an Elemental, which really makes me think that it could definitely work well in an elemental deck with Fire Elementals, Kalimos, Servants of Kalimoses and Blazecallers. There's a pretty huge amount of elementals with great battlecries, that honestly even bouncing two would be such a huge tempo play. And with Leeroy... hoo! After an expansion where Shaman got a grand total of one good card, it's definitely neat that they're getting a somewhat decent-looking legendary. Time will tell, though, if the elemental package will actually find a place in the meta. I certainly hope so -- the Elemental tribe is one that I really wished was more prevalent.

Benevolent Djinn: A 3-mana 2/4 that restores 3 health to your hero at the end of every turn. She's Paladin-exclusive and kind of a neat control tool the way that Friendly Bartender from Gadgetzan was... but a lot better. I'm not sure if she'll find a place in paladin decks, though. She's an elemental, but unlike Grumble, I don't really think that Paladins are the class that could work well with the elemental package the way mages or shamans can.

Temporus: A fucking crazy legendary, is what this dude is. He's like one of the infinite dragonflight or some boss or other in the Caverns of Time. He's a 7-mana 6/6 dragon... that has one of the crazier effects in Hearthstone ever. He allows your opponent two turns, before giving you two turns. It definitely allows priests to set up a two-turn KO -- the obvious for Priests being a Divine Spirit/Inner Fire combo, but there could easily be others. Of course, you're letting your enemy take two turns, which, even without the huge setup that Quest Mages do... is still two turns that you're spending sitting and allowing your opponent to take the incentive. It's ultimately a pretty crappy card, I think, one that's more meme-y than anything.... but I do like the existence of crazy cards.

Grizzled Guardian: A pretty impractical druid card, I think. An 8-mana 3/5 Taunt is horrible, but with a deathrattle effect? And even then the deathrattle is like recruiting two 4-mana-or-less minions... and I don't really see any really huge combos to muck around with. It's not a 'holy shit, this is impractical, but so awesome if I can pull it off' the way Hadronox's wall of taunts are. Grizzled Guardian's just kinda crap, honestly, unless there's some combo I'm missing or we haven't seen. 

King Togwaggle: Challenging Temporus for the 'craziest legendary ever' is King Togwaggle, the big fat king kobold that's going to be the main villain of our new expansion. Togwaggle pulls a Rafaam and swaps the two decks! And... well, gives your opponent a Ransom spell that costs 5 mana that swaps the cards back. And, of course, Togwaggle is such a low-statted minion at 5/5 for 8 mana... and that's obviously a bad card. But Togwaggle's meme potential is definitely around. Between playing Togwaggle with like Keening Banshee or Fel Reaver and discarding cards from your opponent's deck before they play Ransom, or mill their hand full so they don't even get the Ransom spell... the thing, though, Togwaggle still leaves your enemy's hand intact, which more than likely allows your opponent to deal with Togwaggle even without playing the Ransom card.

Lesser Ruby Spellstone: If there is a card that really excites me to play elemental mage, it's not just Arcane Artificier or Arcane Tyrant. It's this card. It's a 2-mana spell that, as its 'lesser' effect, adds 1 random mage spell to your hand. It goes to 2 and 3 random mage spells, ending at basically a 2-mana Cabalist Tome, and the way you upgrade it is by playing 2 elementals in a turn. It's perhaps somewhat more impractical, but honestly even in the 'lesser' or base spellstone versions, it's just a slightly-worse Babbling Book, and it's really a spell that feels pretty dangerous since playing 2 elementals is pretty easy -- a single Fire Fly will do it.

Explosive Runes: A new mage secret! After your opponent plays a minion, Explosive Runes deals a 6 damage, and basically Tramples the hero with the damage, to use a Magic: The Gathering terminology. Which, well, basically means dealing excess damage to the enemy hero. It's... okay? It's a kind of a more expensive Snipe, and I don't think anyone ever plays Snipe. Plus, I don't see this card being played over Mirror Entity or Counterspell, really.

Lesser Pearl Spellstone: Not sure if this card's a good one or not. It's for Paladins, and also costs 2 mana. It summons a 2/2 Taunt minion, then a 4/4, then a 6/6. Obviously both the regular and the greater pearl spellstones are pretty damn powerful, basically being a 2-mana Thing From Below. Upgrading it isn't super difficult either, just by restoring 3 health. The 'Healadin' archetype hasn't been around a lot in recent metas, but with a simple Benevolent Djinn is enough to upgrade this twice. Maybe? It does seem decent and balanced, but not super-overpowered. Which works for me.

Sonya Shadowdancer: The Rogue legendary. Sonya is a 3-mana 2/2 with a passive effect that basically does the Shadowcaster effect every time a minion dies. It's definitely better than Shadowcaster. A 3-mana card is easier to combo out compared to a 6-mana card, and a 6-mana 4/4 has such a bigger stat penalty than a 3-mana 2/2. And, of course, Sonya's a continuous effect. The thing is that Sonya's effect happens when your minions die, which means it's not as immediate as the Shadowcaster's battlecry. So yeah. It's an interesting card, but I'm not sure if it's going to be good, or if it'll going to be another Lilian Voss.

Arcane Artificier: A 1-mana 1/2 elemental that gives you armour equal to the spell you just casted! It's... an interesting card, for sure. I'm not sure if Mages can slot the Artificier into their decks, and if 1-mana 1/2 elementals are tough enough to really stay on the board to matter worth a damn. I'm not sure if gaining armour is something that Mages want to do, although Arcane Artificier is certainly a pretty balanced and well-designed minion nonetheless. Still on the fence on Artificier, really. He's a decent-looking card, but one that I'm not sure is on the right class.

Grand Archivist: An 8-mana 4/7? It's pretty poop stats, although the effect is... strange. Casting random spells from your deck? It's like a controlled Yogg-Saron effect, and, similar to the Runespear, it does allow you to control what spells within your deck. Not sure if playing an 8-mana 4/7 really is practical at all, though. Interesting effect, but latched onto a pretty bad card. I'm not sure if there are enough spells that I want to cast for free without picking a target that I can put in a deck. I guess Druids with nothing but Ultimate Infestation, Nourish and Spreading Plague, maybe? I dunno.

Arcane Tyrant: A 5-mana 4/4 Elemental that costs 0 if you cast a spell that costs more than 5 this turn. Not reduced like Thing from Below, but straight-up free. And all classes have great expensive spells. Firelands Portal, Cabalist's Tome, Kazakus Potions, Ultimate Infestation, Meteor, Spikeridged Steed, Dragonfire Potion, Volcano... Warrior, Hunter and Rogue are perhaps the only ones that can't properly use Arcane Tyrant. But honestly? In an elemental deck, a random free 4/4 on top of the huge tempo play you'd do with casting a huge spell? It's good without being too much of a swing the way Thing From Below can be. I like this card -- I don't think it's super-good, but I think I'll try to make it work.

Kobolds & Catacombs - Card Reveal Reviews #2

 I'm not going to be super-duper in-depth with my reviews this time around, just quickly going through my main thoughts about the newly-revealed cards, mostly because I kind of think that it's really hard to do ratings and card reviews until the entire set is out.

Also because I'm really busy -- about to watch an entire season of Punisher, and I just got my copy of Pokemon: Ultra Moon, and thus haven't really gotten much in lieu of TV or manga up-to-date-ness. So, without further ado...

Feral Gibberer: Feral Gibberer is definitely not a good card. I keep trying to make Quest Hunter work, and Feral Gibberer is actually a great card in the shitty deck that is Quest Hunter. But other than that? The effect is neat, and the voice acting is hilarious. I guess it could find some niche roles as combo enablers in rogue or Raza priest decks, but without the ability to charge (or to give it charge, since it's not a beast like the Carnassa's Brood raptors) it's honestly pretty much kind of a cute but ultimately m'eh card.

Level Up!: Yay WoW homage! But it's not a particularly good card, especially not in standard. There are some Silver Hand Recruit synergy cards in Standard right now -- Stand Against Darkness, Vinecleaver and Lost in the Jungle; plus the upcoming Drygulch Jailor -- but at 5 mana, giving dudes +2/+2 and Taunt just isn't that good especially when Quartermaster used to do the same thing, minus the Taunts, but adds a 2/5 body onto the field. And a bunch of taunts isn't particularly worth losing the 2/5 body. Overall, unless we see a lot of new Silver Hand Reccruit synergy cards, this doesn't look like a particularly viable archetype. Probably would be fun, though.

Sudden Betrayal: ROGUE SECRETS WHAT? So yeah, rogues are getting secrets, and I may have freaked out a little more than I should when I saw it. It's basically Hunter's Misdirection (remember that card? Neither do I) but instead it always attacks its neighbour, Betrayal-style. Except Betrayal has one minion deal damage to two other minions and it never saw play, and Misdirection also never saw play... so this one probably won't either.

Cheat Death: Oh shit, a Secret that Shadowsteps a minion? This is a better Getaway Kodo for sure, and unless you're playing in Arena, you do know that Rogues get one helluva mileage out of Shadowstep in the current meta. Even if they don't hit huge bombs like Leeroy, Bonemare or Prince Keleseth, even Shadowstepping things like SI:7 Agents and Vilespine Slayers are still pretty dang okay. This is even arguably better than Shadowstep, because the minion gets to basically live throughout its entire life and make trades or whatever, with the trade-off being that you can't choose which minion to Cheat Death. Still, a pretty tricky card, and definitely far more playable than Sudden Betrayal.

The Runespear: Shaman's legendary weapon is the Runespear, Cairne Bloodhoof's weapon in WoW lore... and I think I kind of agree with the gajillion haters of this weapon. It just looks so weak! Yes, a fair amount of Shaman spells aren't targeted (Bloodlust and Evolve targets only your side; Lightning Storm and Devolve targets only the enemy side) but there's enough cards that can target anything like Lava Burst or Jade Lightning around. Oh, and I think you still get overloaded? You can discover the spell, thankfully, which makes it not horrible, and you can get some value in the turn where you spend 8 mana for a crappy 3/3 weapon... but while it's not horrible it feels like such an awkward card that I don't see this card even really working out. So yeah. Likely a dud.

Branching Paths: Our first Choose Two card for druids, and it's confirmed you can choose the option twice. I suppose the price for versatility is something, and the whole concept of Choosing Twice is cool... but I do feel like it's pretty crap overall. If you double up on the effects -- gaining 12 armour is basically just Greater Healing Potion, which is decent. But drawing 2 cards is a shittier Arcane Intellect, and giving my minions +2 attack is a more expensive (albeit permanent) Savage Roar that also doesn't target my hero. It might see some utility as a tech choice due to simple Kazakus potion style versatility, but I dunno -- doesn't seem to really be something I'd want in my druid decks.

Duskbreaker: My reaction to Duskbreaker is identical to everyone else's -- they turned Excavated Evil into a minion? That isn't more expensive despite getting stats, but cheaper? And the body is a very respectable 3/3 for 4 mana? And it doesn't give your enemy anything in return, and it has the dragon tag to activate other cards? God damn. Dragonkin Operative and Netherspite Historian are still in the meta, and people are even using the dragon package within the Razakus archetype, so shit, maybe Dragon Priest's coming back? Even if Duskbreaker doesn't make waves in Standard (which I highly doubt) it's definitely going to be a great addition to Wild, allowing the Dragon Priest to stabilize in the early game before the big Dragonkin Operative and other larger dragons start being dropped. I would stop short from being 'the best card in the expansion' before seeing much, but it certainly is a good card.

Lesser Mithril Spellstone: Not sure about this one. My feeling's basically similar with the Lesser Sapphire Spellstone for shaman in that the 'lesser' version of the card are just honestly a bit too crappy to really run. Sure, 7 mana for two 5/5's is... decent if unspectacular, although three 5/5's super-awesome. But it really isn't versatile the way that the druid's Jasper Spellstone is, and while Mithril Spellstone could find a place in Control Warrior lists or Dead Man's Hand Warrior lists... I really think that they could've stood to use better cards instead.

Kathrena Winterwisp: The first class legendary minion! It's an obscure NPC I recognize, because a week before she's revealed I was actually mucking around with a night elf WoW character in Darkshore. Darkshore? I think that's the zone. The one with the Soggoth questline, anyway. Winterwisp is one of the quest-givers there! And as a card she's... okay? A more situational Aya Blackpaw, where she's an 8-mana 6/6 will recruit a beast as a battlecry and deathrattle. See, if both beasts recruited are like, I dunno, Savannah Highmanes or King Krushes or Swamp King Dreds or Charged Devilsaurs it'd be awesome. The thing is that hunter decks have.... low-cost beasts. Like, I don't think I'd even be happy if Winterwisp recruits like a Bearshark. Of course, though, as part of the recruit mechanic it does mean that you decide what cards to put into the deck with Winterwisp, and you definitely don't want her in a deck with the Alleycat/Firebat into Crackling Razormaw opening. The thing is, really, without seeing the rest of the set, I'm not sure if that theoretical early-beast-less hunter deck is even going to be viable. Cool concept, but could be another Dred.

Twig of the World Tree: Jeez, this card! It's a legendary weapon you don't actually want to break if you see it wielded by the opponent. It's an absolutely shitty 4-mana 1/5, which means your enemy needs to play Medivh or attack 5 times to actually get the deathrattle effect to trigger. But the deathrattle effect? Gain 10 mana crystals? God, that's basically Astral Communion or Kun. Not empty mana crystals, straight-up full Nourish mana crystals. I just am thankful this doesn't fit in jade druid, but it does fit in a variation of big druid... and even if the druid doesn't use the twig to ramp up, the twig definitely can be used to refresh the mana crystals to play Kun, which will refresh the mana crystals to play Deathwing, which when dies will summon the other Deathwing... god, it does sound a bit horrifying, and only the rather convoluted way that the combo is triggered gives me some solace. Pretty cool weapon, though.

Rummaging Kobold: Oh, hey, this card! It's a cool card in design -- you return one of your destroyed weapons into your hand. Another Twig! Another Ashbringer or Jaraxxus's weapon! It's definitely a powerful effect, especially if the other legendary weapons are more on the line of Twig or Aluneth as opposed to Runespear. And Rummaging Kobold at least means that you have to replay your weapon. It's ultimately a 3-mana 1/3, though, and that's kinda shit, so I'm not sure that he'll even find a place in a weapon-heavy deck.

Zola the Gorgon: HAHAHAHA GORGONZOLA oh you Blizzard game designers and your puns, you. Zola is a legendary 3-mana 2/2 that can add a golden copy of a friendly minion into your deck, basically combining the Shadowcaster and Brewmaster effects -- and the first thing that crosses my mind is 'cool, I can Keleseth more than two times in a game'. Zola is 3-mana, so unlike Cheat Death above you can actually slot her into any Keleseth deck. And it's golden, just for the hell of it. I dunno. Probably not the best card out there, but it certainly does seem like a pretty fun card to muck around with.

Spiteful Summoner: Spiteful Summoner is a 6-mana 4/4 that will reveal a spell from your deck, and summon a random minion of the same cost. In other words, kind of like Forbidden Shaping? Sort of? Again, like Kathrena Winterwisp, you have to want to muck around with your deck to make sure all the cards are big ones. Like, using druid as an example, maybe you run a weird list where the only spells are Nourish and Ultimate Infestation? The real thing stopping this from going 'holy shit Imma build a deck out of this right now' is that most classes rely so much on cheaper spells, while classes that can conceivably cut them out (Warlock, Shaman) don't have a lot of expensive spells to trigger. Obviously the dream scenario is for Spiteful Summoner to hit the 10-mana spells like Pyroblast and UI, or 8-mana spells like Twisting Nether... but how practical is it? It does sound like it has got the potential to be pwoerful, but feels more like a card that demands a bit too much from deck-building. We'll see when more cards are revealed -- it's either pretty good but difficult to play, or just plain bad. I'm leaning more towards the former.

Seeping Oozeling: A hunter rare card that's a 6-mana 5/4 that copies a deathrattle from your deck. I guess you can have the Oozeling copy Kathrena Winterwisp? And Sylvanas in Wild? Because nothing else really feels like you'd want the Oozeling to copy -- if you say Savannah Highmane, I'm asking why you're not playing the inarguably better Savannah Highmane itself anyway. So yeah. Doesn't seem to be good, even with all the deathrattle support Hunter had from the Frozen Throne expansion.

That's all from me for today's Hearthstone card reveals. While a fair amount are underwhelming, I am kind of excited to see where we go from here as we head to December. I'm slightly lagging behind on regular reviews, I know, but a combination of watching the Gintama anime, playing Pokemon Ultra Moon and trying to hit legend (rank 6 now, hopefully I can get it in 8 days) and a slight burnout on reviewing manga and TV episodes do mean that I'm taking things somewhat slowly right now -- I'm not stopping at all, things just probably are slightly more delayed.

Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne Post-expansion Review

 So, back when I was reviewing cards for Knights of the Frozen Throne, I did a final review bit with all the cards, rating them from 1 to 5, with 5 being super-OP and 1 being shit. And, of course, while rating cards can be best done when we have seen the entire set, it's a bit hard to really determine what cards are great before we actually play them. There are also some cards that are good, but the decks or the meta just didn't quite support it.

So I'll go through each class and revise my ratings for all the KOTFT cards. Considering we have had a nerf hammer drop in the middle of this expansion, it's going to be slightly wonky about where the cards fall currently. It's only for the current Standard meta, however, so keep in mind that a card like Forge of Souls would be absolutely powerful if the meta was a bit more friendlier to Warrior decks in general, or if they got a couple of greater weapons.

DRUID:

Druid had a really, really good run in this expansion, so much that nearly half of the nerf hammer targeted druids. A combination of the Aggro-Token Druid and Jade Druid dominated (and I do mean dominated) the meta, especially in the pre-nerf decks, and while Aggro Druid has lost much of its bite, it's still a pretty viable deck. Jade Druid is still a powerhouse, it just shares the rank one spot with a bunch of other decks. And currently we even see the rise of other styles of druid like Big Druid. So if I had to rate the cards once more...

• 5: Malfurion the Pestilent (up from 4), Ultimate Infestation (up from 4), Spreading Plague (up from 3)
• 4: Druid of the Swarm (down from 5), Crypt Lord (up from 3)
• 3: Strongshell Scavenger
• 2: N/A
• 1: Gnash, Webweave, Fatespinner (down from 2), Hadronox (down from 2)

I mostly guessed the best cards in the 4-5 rating pretty well, I just under-estimated just how overpowered Malfurion and Ultimate Infestation would be. The fact that such control cards were even legitimate tech cards in some aggro lists boggles my mind. Crypt Lord is just such a great card that's far better than I gave it credit for, and Spreading Plague was the one that I expect to be good... but not super-duper nerfable, when it is. Plague is just so good that it's still even pretty dang good after a huge nerf. Strongshell Scavenger stays at 3 simply because, well, there were some lists that legitimately used it for a while. Meanwhile, the crap cards are... well, still kinda crap. I really guessed Hadronox would at least be a little better, but oh well. Overall... Druids win this expansion. Hands down.

HUNTER:
Hunter's an interesting class right now. It alternates between aggro and midrange at this point, and while it's a bit hard for it to gasp for air early in the expansion, after the nerfs Hunter is a pretty fun deck to play although it never quite got out of the slums of tier 3. It's nowhere as unplayable as it was in Gadgetzan, and is probably the easiest meta deck to make on a free-to-play account... but I, for one, mis-guessed which cards were good in the Hunter list. Hunter's an interesting class this time around because the cards are either pretty damn good... or just straight-up shit.

• 5: Bearshark (up from 4)
• 4: Stitched Tracker (up from 3), Deathstalker Rexxar (up from 2)
• 3: N/A
• 2: Corpse Widow (down from 5)
• 1: Call Pet, Toxic Arrow, Venomstrike Trap, Exploding Bloatbat (down from 2), Abominable Bowman (down from 2), Professor Putricide (down from 3)

So I got most of the shit-cards right, with Call Pet, Venomstrike Trap and Toxic Arrow. I more-or-less got Bearshark's potential right as well,  and it's an auto-include in most hunter decks now. What I didn't expect, however, was just how great Stitched Tracker and Deathstalker Rexxar are. Sure, they aren't auto-includes and more of tech choices, but they're still legitimately playable. Stitched Tracker is slightly on the wane now because it's so much more useful to play the beast synergy game, and Deathstalker Rexxar is more of a meta choice... But I was so surprised how much of the hunter's set didn't work. Corpse Widow being absolutely near-unplayable is a shock to me, and Professor Putricide is straight-up a legendary that never, ever really manages to set off despite being pretty good on paper. So yeah. Hunter didn't quite get a lot of good stuff this time around. 

MAGE:
Mage is interesting too this expansion. Early on, the big dominant Mage deck is the ever-damnable Quest Mage, but after the nerfs a more Secret/Tempo-style list have begun to emerge everywhere. Hell, even Control Mages are starting to pop up here and there, decks that truly rely on Frost Lich Jaina to carry them. The Elemental package didn't work out that well for Frost Lich Jaina decks, and while combos with Anomalus or Baron Geddon is cute Frost Lich Jaina turns out to be honestly powerful enough with the Water Elementals she summons without having to do cute combos. Overall, it's a surprisingly great expansion for mages, even though with the revised ranking they still don't actually get a lot of 5-star cards.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Ghastly Conjurer, Frost Lich Jaina (up from 3), Simulacrum (up from 1)
• 3: Sindragosa
• 2: Coldwraith, Breath of Sindragosa (up from 1)
• 1: Doomed Apprentice, Glacial Mysteries, Ice Walker (down from 3), Frozen Clone (down from 2)

My guesswork for Mages is perhaps the most accurate. I don't think Frost Lich Jaina is a rank-5 card the way that Malfurion or Anduin's death knight cards are, but it's still a lot more powerful than I gave it credit for. The only one that I get horrendously wrong is just how powerful Simulacrum is in Quest Mage decks. Quest mage isn't the most consistent of decks (which is why Ghastly Conjurer and Simulacrum are rated 4 instead of 5) but they definitely work well in the lean mean machine that is KOTFT's Quest Mage listing. I'm not really sure why I rated Ice Walker so high back then -- I guess I just thought the Elemental theme is what Frost Lich Jaina decks will be doing? Sindragosa is still a 3-star in my books. She tends to be cut out from decks, but is still a pretty decent tech choice for some control lists. 

PALADIN:
Paladin is an interesting bit. Early on in the expansion, Murloc aggro-midrange Paladin is probably one of the few decks to be able to stand up to the Jade Druid/Aggro Druid onslaught. There were many different variants of the Murloc list, and later on people start to throw in Corpsetaker synergy because, holy shit, Corpsetaker decks are great. After the nerfs, Paladins are somewhat less powerful with their murlocs with the nerf to Warleader, but a combination of Murloc Paladins and the new rise of Handbuff Paladin (actually the first legit Handbuff Paladin deck, because they were kinda shit even in Gadgetzan) near the tail-end of the expansion makes it one of the stronger decks in the meta currently. There's also the cute DK Uther/Auctionmaster Beardo combo deck that ran around for a while. However, a good chunk of Paladin's success came from older cards or neutral cards, whereas a lot of the Paladin cards this expansion actually didn't quite work out.

• 5: Righteous Protector
• 4: N/A
• 3: Chillblade Champion (down from 4), Uther of the Ebon Blade (down from 4)
• 2: Bolvar Fireblood
• 1: Light's Sorrow, Desperate Stand, Blackguard (down from 4), Howling Commander (down from 3), Dark Conviction (down from 3), Arrogant Crusader (down from 2)

Every single card in this list other than Righteous Protector and Bolvar, Fireblood ends up being cards I over-estimated. Chillblade Champion and Uther of the Ebon Blade are legitimately good cards still, but even they get cut out of the Handbuff and Control Paladin lists respectively every now and then. I overestimated lots of cards as well, with Blackguard perhaps being a card that I thought was way too good than it is. Blackguard's one of my biggest surprises, to be honest, because I really thought that a 9-health card that has the potential to deal damage everywhere would work, but it just didn't quite fit in any other deck archetypes that Paladin has. Definitely doesn't fit in handbuff or murloc lists, and Blackguard also can't work well in Control lists for the simple fact that the Paladin tends to be at full health for a good chunk of the time when you do have Blackguard ready to go. So yeah. Perhaps the class I got the most wrong answers about.

PRIEST:
Priest is currently dominating the meta, and that's due to Shadowreaper Anduin/Raza the Chained/Kazakus decks being immensely powerful. Easily the second-strongest deck during the Jade Druid era, and easily a contender for top dog spot after the nerfs, Highlander Priest is such an amazingly powerful combo deck. The other large presence of Priest in the metagame is caused by the surprising emergence of Big Priest, a deck I didn't see coming at all. Combining Barnes, Y'Shaarj and a bunch of other big minions with the new cards Eternal Servitude (discover a minion that died), Shadow Essence (Barnes-ing a 5/5 copy) and the new Obsidian Statue minion, Big Priest is a surprisingly legit deck in the meta. And you'll see that my Priest review is the exact opposite of the Paladin one above, where I underestimated so many cards so much here.

• 5: Obsidian Statue, Shadowreaper Anduin (up from 4), Eternal Servitude (up from 3)
• 4: Spirit Lash (up from 2), Shadow Essence (up from 2)
• 3: Devour Mind 
• 2: Acolyte of Agony, Shadow Ascendant, Archbishop Benedictus (up from 1)
• 1: Embrace Darkness (down from 2)

So yeah. I knew Anduin was going to be good, I just never expected it to be the new Deck-to-Beat with Raza. Spirit Lash is the biggest card I underestimated, being an amazing AoE/recovery tool against aggro, and otherwise just a cheap card to activate Shadowreaper Anduin or Lyra's ability. Eternal Servitude is probably another card I underestimated a lot on this list, though, because it's not only a card I underestimated in Big Priest, but also pretty great in Highlander Priest as well. Shadow Essence doesn't get to be 5-star because it's only used by Big Priest. Archbishop Benedictus is a hilarious meme card, but it did see some legitimate experimentation in Raza Priest decks for a while. Shadow Ascendant and Acolyte of Agony are legitimate cards that see some fringe play in weird token-aggro Priest decks, and I've seen lists that substitute Acolyte in a Raza list a couple of times, so while hardly defining the powerhouse priest decks in this meta, they're still decent enough to avoid being rated 1.

ROGUE:
Rogue is one of the biggest surprises for  me this expansion, mostly because I didn't expect them to be any good. And to be fair, they weren't really that great until the post-nerf, but Tempo Rogue is pretty much a tier 1 deck right now, and I'm still surprised at how stable the Tempo Rogue list is despite not honestly doing anything particularly special. Miracle Rogue decks are also around, as well as the absolutely disgusting Keleseth-Double-Shadowstep-overvalue deck. So yeah. Rogue didn't show its face a lot in the early parts of the expansion, but has proven to be possibly the third-most-powerful class after druid and priest. The thing is, though, like Paladin, a lot of Rogue's power came from the neutral cards, with the new class cards mostly acting as tech choices.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Valeera the Hollow (up from 3)
• 3: Shadowblade (down from 4), Plague Scientist (up from 2)
• 2: Lilian Voss (down from 3)
• 1: Spectral Pillager, Leeching Poison, Doomerang (down from 2), Roll the Bones (down from 2), Bone Baron (down from 3), Runeforge Haunter (down from 3)

Oh man, I over-esetimated Lilian Voss and the deathrattle archetype so much. Plague Scientist is a card I kind of overlooked, although to be fair it's not in every tempo list either.  Perhaps my biggest surprise is just how many 1-star cards are in the list. Doomerang and Roll the Bones are far more unplayable than I thought they would, and I genuinely thought Bone Baron would be a good card... alas, it isn't. Again, though, a lot of Rogue's strength right now comes from older cards (Leeroy, Cold Blood, Vilespine Slayer, Edwin) or neutral cards (Keleseth, Bonemare) that I'm honestly not sure about even putting Valeera the Hollow as a 4-star card, because she's being teched in and out of decks even now. Note that out of all this, Runeforge Haunter and Lilian Voss are examples of good-on-paper cards that just can't compete in the meta. 

SHAMAN:
Poor, poor Shaman. I've predicted that the freeze Shaman archetype would fail, but I didn't expect Shaman to essentially just be reduced to variations of the Evolve Shaman deck. Evolve Shaman is hella fun to play, and due to the sheer value of a Doppelgangster-Thrall Deathseer turn, Evolve Shaman has a death grip on the tier 2/tier 3 list. But it's literally impossible to play any other types of Shaman right now, and believe me, I've tried Elemental and Midrange lists and they just can't manage to stand up against anything on the ladder.

• 5: Thrall Deathseer
• 4: N/A
• 3: N/A
• 2: Voodoo Hexxer (down from 3), Drakkari Defender (up from 1)
• 1: Ice Breaker, Avalanche, Brrrloc (down from 2), Snowfury Giant (down from 3), Ice Fishing (down from 3), Moorabi (down from 2), Cryostasis (down from 2)

So, yeah. Thrall Deathseer is a great card, but I've literally never seen any of the other new Shaman cards outside of Arena. Be it Overload, Freeze or Murlocs, none of the synergies touted around in the expansion ended up working well, and if they do... you're better off playing any one of the eight other classes in this expansion. Evolve Shaman, like Rogue decks in this expansion, also works off neutral cards like Saronite Chain Gang or older cards like Primalfin Totem more than newer ones, so it's another class who ends up having a place in the ladder but nearly no good new cards. Voodoo Hexxer may be a good card in any other meta, and definitely a great arena card, but everything else just simply doesn't work.

WARLOCK:
Warlock is perhaps the biggest surprise for me, due to how great it is in this meta. Zoo Warlock (with Keleseth's help) is a pretty scary deck near the time of the nerfs, and is a consistent tier 2 decks. There's a lot of flavours with Zoolock too (one where you put in the pirate package, or go all-in with the demon package with Crystalweaver and Bloodfury Potion), with Bloodreaver Gul'dan offering a stable controlling tool at the end. Control Warlocks also do relatively well in the meta, again, due to no small part thanks to Bloodreaver Gul'dan. Discard Warlock is... still shit, but at least it's fun to try and make work. There's enough good stuff in the Warlock card pool that honestly we're maybe 2 or 3 more good cards to make the archetype work. Right now, though? Zoo and Controlare king among the Warlocks.

• 5: Despicable Dreadlord, Bloodreaver Gul'dan (up from 3)
• 4: Defile (up from 3), Drain Soul (up from 2)
• 3: N/A
• 2: Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Gnomeferatu
• 1: Treachery, Howlfiend, Sanguine Reveler (down from 2), Unwilling Sacrifice (down from 2)

I was tempted to move Lana'thel to 1, but Discard Warlock's a somewhat-okay deck that can sometimes get victories... and Lana'thel tends to be one of the more powerful cards in that deck if you can get her to work. Howlfiend is still crap, though. I guessed that Dreadlord would be powerful, but I severely underestimated how great Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Defile and Drain Soul are. Drain Soul's use in Control Warlock is just great, basically filling in the void of Darkbomb back in the day while still giving the Warlock some recovery. Defile's an amazingly powerful card to play around with to clear boards, and Bloodreaver Gul'dan is just easily one of the most powerful Death Knights ever, vying against Anduin and Malfurion for that best-DK spot.

WARRIOR:
Warrior's... struggling. Whereas Hunter and Shaman at least have one good deck, Warrior's kind of all over the place. It used to be relatively safe to play Pirate Warrior in the pre-nerf decks, and many, many variations of Control Warrior are experimented upon... but they're all shot to hell by a combination of the large amount of Golakka Crawlers and Bloodsail Corsairs in the meta, as well as the fact that Fiery War Axe was one of the cards that were nerfed during the mid-expansion nerf. Right now I'm truly struggling to get my Warrior decks to do anything consistent at all. There's a fun little Dead Man's Hand control deck which I admit can actually work really well, but it's so slow and grindy and far less fun, in my opinion, compared to playing controlling Warlock or Druid decks.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Dead Man's Hand (up from 1)
• 3: Scourgelord Garrosh (down from 4), Blood Razor (down from 5), Bring it On (up from 1)
• 2: Rotface, Mountainfire Armor (down from 3)
• 1: Animated Berserker (down from 3),  Val'kyr Soulclaimer (down from 2), Death Revenant (down from 2), Forge of Souls (down from 5)

So yeah. I'm honestly even struggling to justify to myself that Dead Man's Hand is a 4-star instead of a 3-star, but man, Warrior cards just aren't that powerful. Scourgelord Garrosh is the black sheep of the Death Knights this expansion, and while undoubtedly powerful he's not as deck-defining or archetype-defining as, say, Frost Lich Jaina or Thrall Deathseer. Whenever I see my enemy transform into a Death Knight I go 'oh man, I'm fucked, I need to step up my game to beat him before he gains more value' whereas with Garrosh I breath a sigh of relief -- all I have to do is weather the three weapon strikes, and then it's a matter of whether he can survive through it all. Dead Man's Hand is scarier than the Death Knight, honestly. And I severely over-estimated the Enrage mechanic, none of which end up working out. Forge of Souls and Blood Razor are cards I rated 5-star initially, and they're pretty... shit and m'eh respectively. Forge doesn't actually see any play at all, whereas Blood Razor is an okay card, but nowhere as powerful as I thought it'd be.


NEUTRAL:

• 5: The Lich King, Saronite Chain Gang, Bonemare (up from 4), Cobalt Scalebane (up from 4), Prince Keleseth (up from 1), Corpsetaker (up from 3)
• 4: Acherus Veteran (up from 3), Tainted Zealot (up from 3), Skulking Geist (up from 1)
• 3: Bone Drake, Happy Ghoul (up from 2), Snowflipper Penguin (up from 1)
• 2: Fallen Sun Cleric, Skelemancer, Mindbreaker, Nerubian Unraveler, Phantom Freebooter (down from 4), Rattling Rascal (down from 4), Deathspeaker (down from 3), Shallow Gravedigger (down from 3), Prince Valanar (up from 1)
• 1: Deadscale Knight, Wretched Tiller, Prince Taldaram, Deathaxe Punisher, Grave Shambler, Keening Banshee, Meat Wagon, Night Howler, Ticking Abomination, Wicked Skeleton, Venomancer, Spellweaver, Arfus (down from 3), Grim Necromancer (down from 3), Bloodworm (down from 3), Corpse Raiser (down from 3), Vryghoul (down from 2), Tuskarr Fisherman (down from 2), Drakkari Enchanter (down from 2), Hyldnir Frostrider (down from 2), Sunborne Val'kyr (down from 2), Tomb Lurker (down from 2), Furnacefire Colossus (down from 2), Necrotic Geist (down from 2)

So the biggest surprise for me is just how powerful the Neutral cards are. Lich King, Bonemare, Cobalt Scalebane and Saronite Chain Gang are all cards I expected to be powerful (I definitely slightly underestimated Bonemare and Scalebane, though) and amny of the currently powerful decks all use these four cards in one way or another. One of the best cards in the expansion, especially post-nerf, however, has to be the unexpected arrival of Prince Keleseth. Turns out that a Mistwalker effect on turn 2 that doesn't lose as much tempo as the Mistwalker? It's pretty fucking powerful. Keleseth is seen in great amounts in Paladin, Warlock and Rogue decks, and even some Warrior and Hunter lists try to use the Prince as well. He's just pretty fucking powerful. The Lich King also deserves mention as being a very great and balanced card. He's not the 'New Dr. 8' that's a near-auto-include the way Ragnaros was back in the day, but while he's immensely powerful, there's definitely a choice on whether he fits your deck better or, say, a card like Medivh would.

A bunch of notably powerful cards are those I ranked as 3-star cards. Corpsetaker is a powerful card in many Rogue and Paladin decks, Acherus Veteran is a powerful mainstay in zoo Warlock decks, and Tainted Zealot is pretty damn powerful in Control Warlock decks. Bone Drake remains at 3, I think, while Happy Ghoul is a far more interesting tech card in Control Warlock and Highlander Priest lists, although he's since been declining in popularity. Skulking Geist is a control card I didn't expect to work at all, and to see him have so much popularity early on in the expansion (he's since been cut out of many decks, but still a bane to Jade Druids) is amazing. Snowflipper Penguin, cute little bugger that he is, surprisingly is a better card than 1-star, because he's used (perhaps partly to meme) in several lists, notably Razakus Priest and Aggro Druid. He is a 0-mana 1/1 beast, which makes it insanely practical for aggro druid lists.

A notable flop from my part is Phantom Freebooter, who ends up being not good at all, surprisingly, being cut out even from Warrior decks. Skelemancer was popular for a bit in Paladin before being cut, and Nerubian Unraveler was likewise popular to counter Quest Mages and Jade Druids for a while before being cut. Prince Valanar saw far more play in Rogue decks than I thought he would, although he doesn't deserve more than 1 stars. Taldaram is still shit. Rattling Rascal was a card I thought was going to be great, but even in Evolve Shaman decks  he ends up being cut out due to Doppelgangsters and Saronite Chain Gangs being far more stable evolve targets. Deathspeaker, Arfus, Grim Necromancer and Bloodworm are all cards I over-estimated as well, seeing absolutely no play. Otherwise, though, it's just a matter of moving cards from the 1-star and 2-star categories in and out.

One last thing to note is perhaps a 'honourary mentions' list -- cards that weren't actually seen in the meta until Frozen Throne made them viable. Wickerflame Burnbristle of Gadgetzan fame was never bad, but Corpsetaker decks made him shot up into one of the card's best enablers. Corpsetaker also made cards like Stormwatcher and Grook-Fu Master, previously unplayable cards, be cards included in many Corpsetaker decks. Likewise, Barnes from Karazhan was never a bad card, but the existence of the Big Priest archetype made Barnes a keystone. Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound, was known for very long as the Old God who never had his day in the sun, and holy crap he's actually pretty decent and particularly scary now with the existence of Big Priest. Dirty Rat of Gadgetzan also saw a surge in popularity thanks to being one of the counters towards Highlander Priest and Quest Mage.

The entire Doppelgangster/Evolve archetype also went from being a fun meme deck into a serious Tier 2/Tier 3 deck thanks to the existence of Thrall, Deathseer. Auctionmaster Beardo also saw some neat play thanks to the existence of Uther of the Ebon Blade, although that's a rare deck to really come up against it's still better than never seeing him at all back when Gadgetzan was the newest expansion. I guess Prophet Velen, Novice Engineer and Gnomish Inventor, too, considering they were never really seen after Classic, and now they're often teched in to Highlander Priest decks? And, of course, the best card that probably deserves this award is Raza the Chained, a card near and dear to my heart due to being one of the first Gadgetzan legendaries I cracked open and I tried to hard to make a Raza Reno deck work with Shadowform and Inspire minions. The fact that Raza's an actual lynchpin in one of the most powerful decks ever makes me all happy inside.

So yeah. That's about it for the Knights of the Frozen Throne, with the brand-new Kobolds and Catacombs expansion slated to be released in mid-December. It's a neat little look back through what I expected would happen, and just how cards end up proving powerful. I still enjoy KOTFT very much, due to its theme and due to the Death Knights -- Highlander Priest, Big Priest, Evolve Shaman and Deathstalker Rexxar are all amazingly fun to play, and I had a blast piloting and crushing people with Zoolock, Murloc Paladin and Jade Druid. It's the expansion that I probably put the most hours into, with me earning a fair amount of golden heroes during the process. So despite the huge negative press that 'Druidstone' gets, I honestly didn't think it was that terrible, especially post-nerf. It's perhaps not as good as the Old Gods meta, but very few can be as good as that particular expansion.

Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne Post-expansion Review

 So, back when I was reviewing cards for Knights of the Frozen Throne, I did a final review bit with all the cards, rating them from 1 to 5, with 5 being super-OP and 1 being shit. And, of course, while rating cards can be best done when we have seen the entire set, it's a bit hard to really determine what cards are great before we actually play them. There are also some cards that are good, but the decks or the meta just didn't quite support it.

So I'll go through each class and revise my ratings for all the KOTFT cards. Considering we have had a nerf hammer drop in the middle of this expansion, it's going to be slightly wonky about where the cards fall currently. It's only for the current Standard meta, however, so keep in mind that a card like Forge of Souls would be absolutely powerful if the meta was a bit more friendlier to Warrior decks in general, or if they got a couple of greater weapons.

DRUID:

Druid had a really, really good run in this expansion, so much that nearly half of the nerf hammer targeted druids. A combination of the Aggro-Token Druid and Jade Druid dominated (and I do mean dominated) the meta, especially in the pre-nerf decks, and while Aggro Druid has lost much of its bite, it's still a pretty viable deck. Jade Druid is still a powerhouse, it just shares the rank one spot with a bunch of other decks. And currently we even see the rise of other styles of druid like Big Druid. So if I had to rate the cards once more...

• 5: Malfurion the Pestilent (up from 4), Ultimate Infestation (up from 4), Spreading Plague (up from 3)
• 4: Druid of the Swarm (down from 5), Crypt Lord (up from 3)
• 3: Strongshell Scavenger
• 2: N/A
• 1: Gnash, Webweave, Fatespinner (down from 2), Hadronox (down from 2)

I mostly guessed the best cards in the 4-5 rating pretty well, I just under-estimated just how overpowered Malfurion and Ultimate Infestation would be. The fact that such control cards were even legitimate tech cards in some aggro lists boggles my mind. Crypt Lord is just such a great card that's far better than I gave it credit for, and Spreading Plague was the one that I expect to be good... but not super-duper nerfable, when it is. Plague is just so good that it's still even pretty dang good after a huge nerf. Strongshell Scavenger stays at 3 simply because, well, there were some lists that legitimately used it for a while. Meanwhile, the crap cards are... well, still kinda crap. I really guessed Hadronox would at least be a little better, but oh well. Overall... Druids win this expansion. Hands down.

HUNTER:
Hunter's an interesting class right now. It alternates between aggro and midrange at this point, and while it's a bit hard for it to gasp for air early in the expansion, after the nerfs Hunter is a pretty fun deck to play although it never quite got out of the slums of tier 3. It's nowhere as unplayable as it was in Gadgetzan, and is probably the easiest meta deck to make on a free-to-play account... but I, for one, mis-guessed which cards were good in the Hunter list. Hunter's an interesting class this time around because the cards are either pretty damn good... or just straight-up shit.

• 5: Bearshark (up from 4)
• 4: Stitched Tracker (up from 3), Deathstalker Rexxar (up from 2)
• 3: N/A
• 2: Corpse Widow (down from 5)
• 1: Call Pet, Toxic Arrow, Venomstrike Trap, Exploding Bloatbat (down from 2), Abominable Bowman (down from 2), Professor Putricide (down from 3)

So I got most of the shit-cards right, with Call Pet, Venomstrike Trap and Toxic Arrow. I more-or-less got Bearshark's potential right as well,  and it's an auto-include in most hunter decks now. What I didn't expect, however, was just how great Stitched Tracker and Deathstalker Rexxar are. Sure, they aren't auto-includes and more of tech choices, but they're still legitimately playable. Stitched Tracker is slightly on the wane now because it's so much more useful to play the beast synergy game, and Deathstalker Rexxar is more of a meta choice... But I was so surprised how much of the hunter's set didn't work. Corpse Widow being absolutely near-unplayable is a shock to me, and Professor Putricide is straight-up a legendary that never, ever really manages to set off despite being pretty good on paper. So yeah. Hunter didn't quite get a lot of good stuff this time around. 

MAGE:
Mage is interesting too this expansion. Early on, the big dominant Mage deck is the ever-damnable Quest Mage, but after the nerfs a more Secret/Tempo-style list have begun to emerge everywhere. Hell, even Control Mages are starting to pop up here and there, decks that truly rely on Frost Lich Jaina to carry them. The Elemental package didn't work out that well for Frost Lich Jaina decks, and while combos with Anomalus or Baron Geddon is cute Frost Lich Jaina turns out to be honestly powerful enough with the Water Elementals she summons without having to do cute combos. Overall, it's a surprisingly great expansion for mages, even though with the revised ranking they still don't actually get a lot of 5-star cards.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Ghastly Conjurer, Frost Lich Jaina (up from 3), Simulacrum (up from 1)
• 3: Sindragosa
• 2: Coldwraith, Breath of Sindragosa (up from 1)
• 1: Doomed Apprentice, Glacial Mysteries, Ice Walker (down from 3), Frozen Clone (down from 2)

My guesswork for Mages is perhaps the most accurate. I don't think Frost Lich Jaina is a rank-5 card the way that Malfurion or Anduin's death knight cards are, but it's still a lot more powerful than I gave it credit for. The only one that I get horrendously wrong is just how powerful Simulacrum is in Quest Mage decks. Quest mage isn't the most consistent of decks (which is why Ghastly Conjurer and Simulacrum are rated 4 instead of 5) but they definitely work well in the lean mean machine that is KOTFT's Quest Mage listing. I'm not really sure why I rated Ice Walker so high back then -- I guess I just thought the Elemental theme is what Frost Lich Jaina decks will be doing? Sindragosa is still a 3-star in my books. She tends to be cut out from decks, but is still a pretty decent tech choice for some control lists. 

PALADIN:
Paladin is an interesting bit. Early on in the expansion, Murloc aggro-midrange Paladin is probably one of the few decks to be able to stand up to the Jade Druid/Aggro Druid onslaught. There were many different variants of the Murloc list, and later on people start to throw in Corpsetaker synergy because, holy shit, Corpsetaker decks are great. After the nerfs, Paladins are somewhat less powerful with their murlocs with the nerf to Warleader, but a combination of Murloc Paladins and the new rise of Handbuff Paladin (actually the first legit Handbuff Paladin deck, because they were kinda shit even in Gadgetzan) near the tail-end of the expansion makes it one of the stronger decks in the meta currently. There's also the cute DK Uther/Auctionmaster Beardo combo deck that ran around for a while. However, a good chunk of Paladin's success came from older cards or neutral cards, whereas a lot of the Paladin cards this expansion actually didn't quite work out.

• 5: Righteous Protector
• 4: N/A
• 3: Chillblade Champion (down from 4), Uther of the Ebon Blade (down from 4)
• 2: Bolvar Fireblood
• 1: Light's Sorrow, Desperate Stand, Blackguard (down from 4), Howling Commander (down from 3), Dark Conviction (down from 3), Arrogant Crusader (down from 2)

Every single card in this list other than Righteous Protector and Bolvar, Fireblood ends up being cards I over-estimated. Chillblade Champion and Uther of the Ebon Blade are legitimately good cards still, but even they get cut out of the Handbuff and Control Paladin lists respectively every now and then. I overestimated lots of cards as well, with Blackguard perhaps being a card that I thought was way too good than it is. Blackguard's one of my biggest surprises, to be honest, because I really thought that a 9-health card that has the potential to deal damage everywhere would work, but it just didn't quite fit in any other deck archetypes that Paladin has. Definitely doesn't fit in handbuff or murloc lists, and Blackguard also can't work well in Control lists for the simple fact that the Paladin tends to be at full health for a good chunk of the time when you do have Blackguard ready to go. So yeah. Perhaps the class I got the most wrong answers about.

PRIEST:
Priest is currently dominating the meta, and that's due to Shadowreaper Anduin/Raza the Chained/Kazakus decks being immensely powerful. Easily the second-strongest deck during the Jade Druid era, and easily a contender for top dog spot after the nerfs, Highlander Priest is such an amazingly powerful combo deck. The other large presence of Priest in the metagame is caused by the surprising emergence of Big Priest, a deck I didn't see coming at all. Combining Barnes, Y'Shaarj and a bunch of other big minions with the new cards Eternal Servitude (discover a minion that died), Shadow Essence (Barnes-ing a 5/5 copy) and the new Obsidian Statue minion, Big Priest is a surprisingly legit deck in the meta. And you'll see that my Priest review is the exact opposite of the Paladin one above, where I underestimated so many cards so much here.

• 5: Obsidian Statue, Shadowreaper Anduin (up from 4), Eternal Servitude (up from 3)
• 4: Spirit Lash (up from 2), Shadow Essence (up from 2)
• 3: Devour Mind 
• 2: Acolyte of Agony, Shadow Ascendant, Archbishop Benedictus (up from 1)
• 1: Embrace Darkness (down from 2)

So yeah. I knew Anduin was going to be good, I just never expected it to be the new Deck-to-Beat with Raza. Spirit Lash is the biggest card I underestimated, being an amazing AoE/recovery tool against aggro, and otherwise just a cheap card to activate Shadowreaper Anduin or Lyra's ability. Eternal Servitude is probably another card I underestimated a lot on this list, though, because it's not only a card I underestimated in Big Priest, but also pretty great in Highlander Priest as well. Shadow Essence doesn't get to be 5-star because it's only used by Big Priest. Archbishop Benedictus is a hilarious meme card, but it did see some legitimate experimentation in Raza Priest decks for a while. Shadow Ascendant and Acolyte of Agony are legitimate cards that see some fringe play in weird token-aggro Priest decks, and I've seen lists that substitute Acolyte in a Raza list a couple of times, so while hardly defining the powerhouse priest decks in this meta, they're still decent enough to avoid being rated 1.

ROGUE:
Rogue is one of the biggest surprises for  me this expansion, mostly because I didn't expect them to be any good. And to be fair, they weren't really that great until the post-nerf, but Tempo Rogue is pretty much a tier 1 deck right now, and I'm still surprised at how stable the Tempo Rogue list is despite not honestly doing anything particularly special. Miracle Rogue decks are also around, as well as the absolutely disgusting Keleseth-Double-Shadowstep-overvalue deck. So yeah. Rogue didn't show its face a lot in the early parts of the expansion, but has proven to be possibly the third-most-powerful class after druid and priest. The thing is, though, like Paladin, a lot of Rogue's power came from the neutral cards, with the new class cards mostly acting as tech choices.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Valeera the Hollow (up from 3)
• 3: Shadowblade (down from 4), Plague Scientist (up from 2)
• 2: Lilian Voss (down from 3)
• 1: Spectral Pillager, Leeching Poison, Doomerang (down from 2), Roll the Bones (down from 2), Bone Baron (down from 3), Runeforge Haunter (down from 3)

Oh man, I over-esetimated Lilian Voss and the deathrattle archetype so much. Plague Scientist is a card I kind of overlooked, although to be fair it's not in every tempo list either.  Perhaps my biggest surprise is just how many 1-star cards are in the list. Doomerang and Roll the Bones are far more unplayable than I thought they would, and I genuinely thought Bone Baron would be a good card... alas, it isn't. Again, though, a lot of Rogue's strength right now comes from older cards (Leeroy, Cold Blood, Vilespine Slayer, Edwin) or neutral cards (Keleseth, Bonemare) that I'm honestly not sure about even putting Valeera the Hollow as a 4-star card, because she's being teched in and out of decks even now. Note that out of all this, Runeforge Haunter and Lilian Voss are examples of good-on-paper cards that just can't compete in the meta. 

SHAMAN:
Poor, poor Shaman. I've predicted that the freeze Shaman archetype would fail, but I didn't expect Shaman to essentially just be reduced to variations of the Evolve Shaman deck. Evolve Shaman is hella fun to play, and due to the sheer value of a Doppelgangster-Thrall Deathseer turn, Evolve Shaman has a death grip on the tier 2/tier 3 list. But it's literally impossible to play any other types of Shaman right now, and believe me, I've tried Elemental and Midrange lists and they just can't manage to stand up against anything on the ladder.

• 5: Thrall Deathseer
• 4: N/A
• 3: N/A
• 2: Voodoo Hexxer (down from 3), Drakkari Defender (up from 1)
• 1: Ice Breaker, Avalanche, Brrrloc (down from 2), Snowfury Giant (down from 3), Ice Fishing (down from 3), Moorabi (down from 2), Cryostasis (down from 2)

So, yeah. Thrall Deathseer is a great card, but I've literally never seen any of the other new Shaman cards outside of Arena. Be it Overload, Freeze or Murlocs, none of the synergies touted around in the expansion ended up working well, and if they do... you're better off playing any one of the eight other classes in this expansion. Evolve Shaman, like Rogue decks in this expansion, also works off neutral cards like Saronite Chain Gang or older cards like Primalfin Totem more than newer ones, so it's another class who ends up having a place in the ladder but nearly no good new cards. Voodoo Hexxer may be a good card in any other meta, and definitely a great arena card, but everything else just simply doesn't work.

WARLOCK:
Warlock is perhaps the biggest surprise for me, due to how great it is in this meta. Zoo Warlock (with Keleseth's help) is a pretty scary deck near the time of the nerfs, and is a consistent tier 2 decks. There's a lot of flavours with Zoolock too (one where you put in the pirate package, or go all-in with the demon package with Crystalweaver and Bloodfury Potion), with Bloodreaver Gul'dan offering a stable controlling tool at the end. Control Warlocks also do relatively well in the meta, again, due to no small part thanks to Bloodreaver Gul'dan. Discard Warlock is... still shit, but at least it's fun to try and make work. There's enough good stuff in the Warlock card pool that honestly we're maybe 2 or 3 more good cards to make the archetype work. Right now, though? Zoo and Controlare king among the Warlocks.

• 5: Despicable Dreadlord, Bloodreaver Gul'dan (up from 3)
• 4: Defile (up from 3), Drain Soul (up from 2)
• 3: N/A
• 2: Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Gnomeferatu
• 1: Treachery, Howlfiend, Sanguine Reveler (down from 2), Unwilling Sacrifice (down from 2)

I was tempted to move Lana'thel to 1, but Discard Warlock's a somewhat-okay deck that can sometimes get victories... and Lana'thel tends to be one of the more powerful cards in that deck if you can get her to work. Howlfiend is still crap, though. I guessed that Dreadlord would be powerful, but I severely underestimated how great Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Defile and Drain Soul are. Drain Soul's use in Control Warlock is just great, basically filling in the void of Darkbomb back in the day while still giving the Warlock some recovery. Defile's an amazingly powerful card to play around with to clear boards, and Bloodreaver Gul'dan is just easily one of the most powerful Death Knights ever, vying against Anduin and Malfurion for that best-DK spot.

WARRIOR:
Warrior's... struggling. Whereas Hunter and Shaman at least have one good deck, Warrior's kind of all over the place. It used to be relatively safe to play Pirate Warrior in the pre-nerf decks, and many, many variations of Control Warrior are experimented upon... but they're all shot to hell by a combination of the large amount of Golakka Crawlers and Bloodsail Corsairs in the meta, as well as the fact that Fiery War Axe was one of the cards that were nerfed during the mid-expansion nerf. Right now I'm truly struggling to get my Warrior decks to do anything consistent at all. There's a fun little Dead Man's Hand control deck which I admit can actually work really well, but it's so slow and grindy and far less fun, in my opinion, compared to playing controlling Warlock or Druid decks.

• 5: N/A
• 4: Dead Man's Hand (up from 1)
• 3: Scourgelord Garrosh (down from 4), Blood Razor (down from 5), Bring it On (up from 1)
• 2: Rotface, Mountainfire Armor (down from 3)
• 1: Animated Berserker (down from 3),  Val'kyr Soulclaimer (down from 2), Death Revenant (down from 2), Forge of Souls (down from 5)

So yeah. I'm honestly even struggling to justify to myself that Dead Man's Hand is a 4-star instead of a 3-star, but man, Warrior cards just aren't that powerful. Scourgelord Garrosh is the black sheep of the Death Knights this expansion, and while undoubtedly powerful he's not as deck-defining or archetype-defining as, say, Frost Lich Jaina or Thrall Deathseer. Whenever I see my enemy transform into a Death Knight I go 'oh man, I'm fucked, I need to step up my game to beat him before he gains more value' whereas with Garrosh I breath a sigh of relief -- all I have to do is weather the three weapon strikes, and then it's a matter of whether he can survive through it all. Dead Man's Hand is scarier than the Death Knight, honestly. And I severely over-estimated the Enrage mechanic, none of which end up working out. Forge of Souls and Blood Razor are cards I rated 5-star initially, and they're pretty... shit and m'eh respectively. Forge doesn't actually see any play at all, whereas Blood Razor is an okay card, but nowhere as powerful as I thought it'd be.


NEUTRAL:

• 5: The Lich King, Saronite Chain Gang, Bonemare (up from 4), Cobalt Scalebane (up from 4), Prince Keleseth (up from 1), Corpsetaker (up from 3)
• 4: Acherus Veteran (up from 3), Tainted Zealot (up from 3), Skulking Geist (up from 1)
• 3: Bone Drake, Happy Ghoul (up from 2), Snowflipper Penguin (up from 1)
• 2: Fallen Sun Cleric, Skelemancer, Mindbreaker, Nerubian Unraveler, Phantom Freebooter (down from 4), Rattling Rascal (down from 4), Deathspeaker (down from 3), Shallow Gravedigger (down from 3), Prince Valanar (up from 1)
• 1: Deadscale Knight, Wretched Tiller, Prince Taldaram, Deathaxe Punisher, Grave Shambler, Keening Banshee, Meat Wagon, Night Howler, Ticking Abomination, Wicked Skeleton, Venomancer, Spellweaver, Arfus (down from 3), Grim Necromancer (down from 3), Bloodworm (down from 3), Corpse Raiser (down from 3), Vryghoul (down from 2), Tuskarr Fisherman (down from 2), Drakkari Enchanter (down from 2), Hyldnir Frostrider (down from 2), Sunborne Val'kyr (down from 2), Tomb Lurker (down from 2), Furnacefire Colossus (down from 2), Necrotic Geist (down from 2)

So the biggest surprise for me is just how powerful the Neutral cards are. Lich King, Bonemare, Cobalt Scalebane and Saronite Chain Gang are all cards I expected to be powerful (I definitely slightly underestimated Bonemare and Scalebane, though) and amny of the currently powerful decks all use these four cards in one way or another. One of the best cards in the expansion, especially post-nerf, however, has to be the unexpected arrival of Prince Keleseth. Turns out that a Mistwalker effect on turn 2 that doesn't lose as much tempo as the Mistwalker? It's pretty fucking powerful. Keleseth is seen in great amounts in Paladin, Warlock and Rogue decks, and even some Warrior and Hunter lists try to use the Prince as well. He's just pretty fucking powerful. The Lich King also deserves mention as being a very great and balanced card. He's not the 'New Dr. 8' that's a near-auto-include the way Ragnaros was back in the day, but while he's immensely powerful, there's definitely a choice on whether he fits your deck better or, say, a card like Medivh would.

A bunch of notably powerful cards are those I ranked as 3-star cards. Corpsetaker is a powerful card in many Rogue and Paladin decks, Acherus Veteran is a powerful mainstay in zoo Warlock decks, and Tainted Zealot is pretty damn powerful in Control Warlock decks. Bone Drake remains at 3, I think, while Happy Ghoul is a far more interesting tech card in Control Warlock and Highlander Priest lists, although he's since been declining in popularity. Skulking Geist is a control card I didn't expect to work at all, and to see him have so much popularity early on in the expansion (he's since been cut out of many decks, but still a bane to Jade Druids) is amazing. Snowflipper Penguin, cute little bugger that he is, surprisingly is a better card than 1-star, because he's used (perhaps partly to meme) in several lists, notably Razakus Priest and Aggro Druid. He is a 0-mana 1/1 beast, which makes it insanely practical for aggro druid lists.

A notable flop from my part is Phantom Freebooter, who ends up being not good at all, surprisingly, being cut out even from Warrior decks. Skelemancer was popular for a bit in Paladin before being cut, and Nerubian Unraveler was likewise popular to counter Quest Mages and Jade Druids for a while before being cut. Prince Valanar saw far more play in Rogue decks than I thought he would, although he doesn't deserve more than 1 stars. Taldaram is still shit. Rattling Rascal was a card I thought was going to be great, but even in Evolve Shaman decks  he ends up being cut out due to Doppelgangsters and Saronite Chain Gangs being far more stable evolve targets. Deathspeaker, Arfus, Grim Necromancer and Bloodworm are all cards I over-estimated as well, seeing absolutely no play. Otherwise, though, it's just a matter of moving cards from the 1-star and 2-star categories in and out.

One last thing to note is perhaps a 'honourary mentions' list -- cards that weren't actually seen in the meta until Frozen Throne made them viable. Wickerflame Burnbristle of Gadgetzan fame was never bad, but Corpsetaker decks made him shot up into one of the card's best enablers. Corpsetaker also made cards like Stormwatcher and Grook-Fu Master, previously unplayable cards, be cards included in many Corpsetaker decks. Likewise, Barnes from Karazhan was never a bad card, but the existence of the Big Priest archetype made Barnes a keystone. Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound, was known for very long as the Old God who never had his day in the sun, and holy crap he's actually pretty decent and particularly scary now with the existence of Big Priest. Dirty Rat of Gadgetzan also saw a surge in popularity thanks to being one of the counters towards Highlander Priest and Quest Mage.

The entire Doppelgangster/Evolve archetype also went from being a fun meme deck into a serious Tier 2/Tier 3 deck thanks to the existence of Thrall, Deathseer. Auctionmaster Beardo also saw some neat play thanks to the existence of Uther of the Ebon Blade, although that's a rare deck to really come up against it's still better than never seeing him at all back when Gadgetzan was the newest expansion. I guess Prophet Velen, Novice Engineer and Gnomish Inventor, too, considering they were never really seen after Classic, and now they're often teched in to Highlander Priest decks? And, of course, the best card that probably deserves this award is Raza the Chained, a card near and dear to my heart due to being one of the first Gadgetzan legendaries I cracked open and I tried to hard to make a Raza Reno deck work with Shadowform and Inspire minions. The fact that Raza's an actual lynchpin in one of the most powerful decks ever makes me all happy inside.

So yeah. That's about it for the Knights of the Frozen Throne, with the brand-new Kobolds and Catacombs expansion slated to be released in mid-December. It's a neat little look back through what I expected would happen, and just how cards end up proving powerful. I still enjoy KOTFT very much, due to its theme and due to the Death Knights -- Highlander Priest, Big Priest, Evolve Shaman and Deathstalker Rexxar are all amazingly fun to play, and I had a blast piloting and crushing people with Zoolock, Murloc Paladin and Jade Druid. It's the expansion that I probably put the most hours into, with me earning a fair amount of golden heroes during the process. So despite the huge negative press that 'Druidstone' gets, I honestly didn't think it was that terrible, especially post-nerf. It's perhaps not as good as the Old Gods meta, but very few can be as good as that particular expansion.